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Johannes
Schuyler
 Johannes
Schuyler was born in Albany in 1668, youngest of the
six sons of Philip Pieterse and Margarita Van Slichtenhorst
Schuyler. Johannes grew up in the new family home on
State Street and on the farm at the Flats. Although
Philip Pieterse died when the boy was just fifteen,
his father was able to establish three of his sons in
advantageous business situations beyond Albany. Eldest
son Pieter Schuyler succeeded in his father's Albany-based
enterprises. Young Johannes was able to follow in the
Albany setting as well. Few New Netherland families
were able to place their children so well.
Residing
with his widowed mother, Johannes Schuyler grew into
adulthood. An accomplished fur trader who often went
into the Indian country, he learned business and the
responsibilities of landholding, and, beginning in 1690,
held militia commissions - where as Captain and Colonel
he served Albany interests long and well.
In
April 1695, he married the widow Elsie Staats Wendell
-- already the mother of eleven children. Marriage to
the daughter and widow of two of early Albany's foremost
families was not surprising. However, Johannes was twenty-seven
and his bride was a decade older. In addition, Elsie
was expecting and would give birth to the first of their
four children just eight months later. This union of
an older women to a much younger man is without parallel
in early Albany history.
Johannes
moved into his wife's home on State Street and was elected
to the city council in 1695. He would hold the first
ward aldermanic seat for much of the next two decades.
His trading experience made him one of the more active
members of the Commissioners of Indian Affairs. As late
as 1737, he was sent into the Onondaga country on a
diplomatic mission.
In
1703, this city father was appointed mayor of Albany.
Re-appointed three more times, he served until 1706.
In 1710, he was elected to represent Albany County in
the provincial Assembly - where served until 1713. During
this time, he retained his seat on the common council.
Assessment
rolls for the early 1700s show Johannes Schuyler to
be one of the wealthiest Albany traders. He was a supporter
and deacon of the Albany Dutch Church and the godfather
of many Albany children. Like many Albany leaders, he
was able to acquire extensive frontier acreage and administered
his mother's lands as well. During the three decades
of peace and development (1713-44), he was able to establish
mills on some of those properties and engage tenants
to begin to tap farm and forest potentials.
Having
outlived all of his siblings, by the 1730s this youngest
son became the patriarch of the Schuyler family - watching
as children, Wendell stepchildren, and grandchildren
succeeded to places of prominence and leadership in
Albany and beyond. His wife died in 1737. He made his
will in 1742. City father, military leader, Indian diplomat
and frontier developer, Johannes Schuyler's long career
spanned Albany's transition from outpost to entrepot.
He died in February 1747 - a year shy of his eighieth
birthday.
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Sources:
This biography of Johannes Schuyler is identified as biography number 100 by the Colonial Albany Social History Project (CAP). At this
date, there is apparently no other narrative biography
of Johannes Schuyler. Basic demographic information
has been compiled in "Christoph's Schuyler Genealogy"
(published as the Schuyler Genealogy: A Compendium
of Sources Pertaining to the Schuyler Families in America
Prior to 1800, compiled by Florence Christoph and
published by the Friends of Schuyler Mansion in 1987.
In 1992, the "Friends" sponsored publication of a second
volume of the Schuyler Genealogy - which brought the
family genealogy up to 1900).
The portrait of Johannes Schuyler at the top
of this page was sewn together with a portrait of his
wife. It has been widely reproduced and is in the collection
of the New York Historical Society. This unusual double
painting was painted prior to Elsie’s death in 1737.
Both portraits probably were done by Scottish-born artist
John Watson. In 1741, the double portrait was noted
in Johannes Schuyler's will. Between 1692 and 1731,
Johannes Schuyler witnessed twenty-seven baptisms in
the Schuyler, Staats, and Wendell families, and of other
Albany children as well.
Colonial
Albany Social History Project [http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany]
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UNDER CONSTRUCTION. THIS IS A PROTOTYPE. ~
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CONSTRUCTION ~
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