Abraham Ten Broeck (1734-1810) [Section 14 Lot 1]

Member of Colonial Assembly, Member of the Provincial Congress, Delegate to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, General in the Colonial Militia, 28th Mayor of Albany, State Senator, Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, President of the Bank of Albany, Merchant, built the Ten Broeck Mansion.

Abraham Ten Broeck was born in May 1734 , the eldest surviving son but a younger child of the large family of city father Dirck Ten Broeck and his wife Margarita Cuyler Ten Broeck.

At a young age Abraham was sent to New York City to learn business from his brother-in-law, Philip Livingston. Following the death of his father in 1751, the seventeen-year-old traveled to Europe, learning about international business and absorbing the continents culture. By 1752, he had returned home, residing in the family home at Market and Columbia Streets with his widowed mother.

Capitalized by family assets, he prospered in trade, securing logs from upriver forests and producing lumber for export, all-the-while importing a range of items to be sold from his riverside store. By the mid-1760s, he was one of the city's wealthiest businessmen with his Albany holdings including additional lots and buildings, storehouses, stables, a lumber yard, and the new dock on the north side of the city.

In 1759, Abraham Ten Broeck was elected to the Albany city council from the third ward. He served as assistant and alderman for many years even though he was elected to represent Rensselaerswyck in the provincial Assembly in 1760. He was re-elected and served until the Assembly was dissolved in 1775. During that time, he gained a reputation as a supporter of American rights over British prerogatives.

In 1763 at the age of 29, he married Elizabeth Van Rensselaer. They became a family of five children; all baptized in the Albany Dutch church where Abraham and Elizabeth were prominent members.

Businessman, landlord, and local leader, and provincial representative, Abraham Ten Broeck also was an active leader in the provincial militia, holding commissions since the 1750s. Just forty years old at the outbreak of the American Revolution, he was colonel of the Albany County Militia that became the home-based military agent of the Crusade for American Liberties. He ultimately held the rank of Brigadier General of the New York State Militia. He trained and led the Albany Militia at the battle of Saratoga where his troops were at the point of the attack during the second and decisive day of the battle.

In 1779, he was appointed mayor of Albany on the death of John Barclay. He served until 1783 and again, following the death of Abraham Yates, Jr., from 1796 to 1798. During his first term as Mayor:

  1. Elizabeth, the daughter of Philip Schuyler married Alexander Hamilton at the Schuyler Mansion (George Washington would be the godfather for their first child.)
  2. Aaron Burr opened a law practice on Norton Street near South Pearl
  3. Tories and Indians attempted to kidnap Gen. Schuyler at his home in Albany
  4. Albany was made the capital of New York and whipping posts were abolished in the city.

For thirty years, Abraham Ten Broeck was a prominent resident of Albany's third ward. In 1788, his townhouse was assessed on a par with Schuyler and Yates Mansions, the three highest valued residences in the city. In 1790, that home was attended by twelve servants. Following the destruction of his Market Street home in the fire of 1797, he began building a grand mansion on Arbor Hill - which then was technically out of the city and a part of Watervliet. His family moved there in 1798. In 1800, his household was configured on the Watervliet census and still included ten slaves. For all of that time, he also owned substantial properties both in and out of the city. The historic mansion, 9 Ten Broeck Pl, Albany, NY, still stands in Arbor Hill more than 200 years later.

He filed a will in March 1809. It left his substantial estate to his wife and then to their children and grandchildren.

Albany city father Abraham Ten Broeck died on January 19, 1810 in his seventy-sixth year. He was originally buried in his own private vault behind his house in Arbor Hill. That deteriorated and was torn down so his remains (along with his family and General Schuyler) were transferred to the family vault at the Van Rensselaer Manor. That vault, in turn, was torn down in the aftermath of a grave robbery. All of the remains, Van Rensselaers, Schuylers, and Abraham Ten Broeck, were then moved to the underground vault in the Van Rensselaer lot (Section 14 Lot 1) Albany Rural Cemetery.