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Wessel
Van Schaick
Wessel
Van Schaick was born in February 1712. He was the
son of businessman and landholder Anthony Van Schaick
and his wife, Anna Catharina Ten Broeck Van Schaick.
In
November 1743, he married Albany native Maria Gerritse
at the Albany Dutch church where he was a pewholder
and baptism sponsor.
Known
in the community as a blacksmith, Wessel or "Nessie" seems to have been more of a merchant whose Albany holdings were among the most valuable by the mid 1760s. His preferred trade items were metalware which he also repaired and customized.
Although
he had served in the county militia in colonial times,
he was in his sixties at the outbreak of the Revolution
and appeared to play little role in the conflict
except as a contributor and contactor. However, in
March 1776, he was one of a number of Albany merchants
cited for raising their prices.
"Sick and weak in body," Albany businessman Wessel Van Schaick filed a will in December 1782. It left his entire estate to Maria as long as she remained his widow. Wessel died in 1783 in his seventieth year. His widow and son lived in their first ward home for many years.
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Sources: The life of Wessel Van Schaick is CAP biography number
3990. This profile is derived chiefly from family
and community-based resources.
In
1745, he exchanged negroes with William Johnson -
a long-standing customer for tools, blades, and nails.
Those transactions are detailed across several volumes
of the Johnson Papers.
By Stefan Bielinski, Colonial Albany Social History Project [http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany]
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