|
Elizabeth
Van Rensselaer Ten Broeck
Elizabeth Van Rensselaer was born in July 1734. She was the only daughter of Rensselaerswyck proprietor Stephen Van Rensselaer and his wife, Elizabeth Groesbeck.
In
November 1763, twenty-nine-year-old Elizabeth married
Albany merchant and shipper Abraham Ten Broeck. The
couple settled into a comfortable home on Market
Street where she gave birth to their five children
- the last of whom arrived in 1779 when Elizabeth
was in her mid-forties. She was a pewholder in the
Albany Dutch church and a baptism sponsor.
Following
the untimely death of her younger brother, Stephen,
in 1769, her husband became administrator of the
manor - giving her a more lasting tie to her childhood
home. During the era of the American Revolution,
these Ten Broecks were Market Street mainstays as
Abraham emerged as one of Albany's leading figures
while continuing to engage and supervise new Van
Rensselaer tenants. In 1784, Elizabeth's nephew,
Stephen III, became patroon and the Ten Broecks now
could concentrate on their Albany-based life as Elizabeth
served as the city's first lady and wife of a State
senator.
The
Ten Broeck riverfront home was destroyed in the Albany
fire of 1797. The following year, Abraham built a
grand mansion on Arbor Hill just north of the Albany
city line. Abraham Ten Broeck died in 1810. Elizabeth
lived on Arbor Hill until her death in July 1813
- a few days shy of her seventy-nineth birthday.
~ ~ ~
Notes: The
life of Elizabeth Van Rensselaer Ten Broeck is
CAP biography number 5068. This profile is derived
chiefly from family and community-based resources.
By Stefan Bielinski, Colonial Albany Social History Project [http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany]
|
