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Margarita
Cuyler Ten Broeck
Margarita Cuyler was born in 1692. She was the eldest daughter of the ten children born to Albany trader Abraham Cuyler and his wife, Albany native Catharina Bleecker Cuyler.
In
November 1714, she married trader Dirck Ten Broeck.
Between 1715 and 1738, she gave birth to twelve children
who were baptized in the Albany Dutch church where
both parents were members and frequent baptism sponsors.
These
Ten Broecks lived in the third ward in a house near
the northern wall of the Albany stockade. Grandson
of one of the founders of the city, Dirck Ten Broeck
rose to wealth and recognition culminating in his
election to the provincial Assembly and appointment
as mayor of Albany in 1746. His success supported
the marriages of Margarita's children into the best
regional families.
Still
with young children, Margarita was left alone in
January 1751 when Dirck Ten Broeck died at age sixty-four.
She was named co-executor of his substantial estate
and left use of his property during her lifetime.
Also
inheriting property from the Cuylers, Margarita carried
on with some of her late husband's enterprises until
her son, Abraham, came of age later in the decade.
In 1756, she was the matriarch of a large Albany
family. A decade later, she still was taxed as an
active business person.
Now
in her seventies, the widow Margarita Cuyler lived
through the era of the American Revolution - enjoying
the company of her daughters who had returned to
Albany as refugees.
Past
her eightieth birthday, Margarita Cuyler Ten Broeck
died in May 1783 and was buried from the Dutch church.
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Notes: The
life of Margarita Cuyler Ten Broeck is CAP biography
number 591. This profile is derived chiefly from
family and community-based resources.
Margarita's
seven surviving children married members of the Livingston,
Groesbeek, Ten Eyck, Lansing, Van Rensselaer,
and Douw families.
These
business activities included land management, lumbering,
and flour bolting.
By Stefan Bielinski, Colonial Albany Social History Project [http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany]
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