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Frans
Winne
Frans Winne was born about 1659. He was the son of New Netherland pioneers Pieter Winne and Tanneke Adams Winne.
Frans
grew up in Rensselaerswyck and Albany - learning
the fur trade and also the duties and potentials
of landholding in support of his father's Bethlehem
enterprises. In December 1674, he was apprenticed
to Rutger Arentsen to learn the shoemaker's trade
for a term of four years - or until he was nineteen.
As
a younger son of a large family, Frans then was left
to pursue his own destiny and joined a group of Albany
merchants who posted a bond to trade in the Indian
country in the Fall of 1686. This adventurous undertaking
helped establish him in the new city of Albany.
In
1689, he married young Elsie Gansevoort. Their eight
children were baptized in the Albany Dutch church
between 1690 and 1707 where both parents were members.
By the mid-1690s, these Winnes had emerged as Albany mainstays. As his older
brothers no longer were in Albany, Frans had
become head of the Albany Winne family - acting as
executor and as guardian for the children of deceased
siblings. His third ward home was an Albany landmark.
In
1702, the now successful merchant was elected assistant
alderman for the third ward. He served until 1706
when he was elected alderman - serving until 1708.
After that, he maintained his ties to city hall as
a contractor and firemaster.
By
1720, Frans Winne had passed on and his son, Pieter,
already had succeeded him.
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Notes: The life of Frans Winne is CAP biography number 2113.
This profile is derived chiefly from family and
community-based resources.
The
terms of his apprenticeship are printed in Early
Records of Albany 3:422-23. That document called
him "Francoys" Pietersen
Winne.
Document
printed in Livingston
Indian Records, 106-7.
Information
on his stewardship is printed in Early
Records of Albany volume 1 or 4:146.
By Stefan Bielinski, Colonial Albany Social History Project [http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany]
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