Abraham Ten Broeck

Abraham Ten Broeck (* 1734 , † 19th January 1820 ) was an American politician , businessman and brigadier general of the militia. He was twice mayor of Albany ( New York ) and the builder of one of the biggest, yet villas in the area.

Career

Abraham Ten Broeck, of Dutch descent, was the son of Dirck Ten Broeck , a politician and mayor of Albany in early 1746 , and Margarita Cuyler. Furthermore, two of his great-grandfathers, Dirck Wesselse Ten Broeck and Jan Jansen Bleecker , were former mayors of Albany. Abraham was sent to New York City to do a commercial training in the home of his brother-in-law, Philip Livingston . After his father's death in 1751, at the age of seventeen, he went to Europe to learn more about foreign business and culture. He returned to Albany in 1752.

Ten Broeck made his fortune from trading in Albany. He also pursued a military and political career. During the 1750s he served in the provincial militia. Then he was elected to the City Council in 1759 and to the Assembly of the Province of New York in 1760 . In November 1763, he married Elizabeth Van Rensselaer, a sister of the patron Stephen Van Rensselaer II and great-granddaughter of the first native mayor of New York City , Stephanus Van Cortlandt . In the mid-1760s, Ten Broeck was one of the richest men in Albany. After his brother-in-law died in 1769 at the age of 27, Ten Broeck became the co-administrator of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck , a position he held until 1784 when his nephew, Stephen Van Rensselaer III. , came of age.

Ten Broeck continued to serve in the military and was named Colonel in the Albany County Militia in 1775 . On June 25, 1778 he was appointed brigadier general of the Tryon and Albany County militias, but later only from Albany County. On March 26, 1781, he resigned from this post.

He was a member of the New York Provincial Congress from 1775 to 1777 and chaired the Committee of Safety in 1777 . After the deaths of both mayors of Albany, John Barclay and Abraham Yates , Ten Broeck was appointed mayor on both occasions and served in that position from 1779 to 1783 and from 1796 to 1798.

The Ten Broecks lived in a house considered equal to that of the Schuyler and Yates houses in 1788 . In 1797 it burned down in a fire, which destroyed several city blocks. Construction of the new Ten Broeck Mansion began soon after, so that the family could live there in early 1798. The historic villa in Arober Hill still stands today.

Individual notes

1. ^ Abraham Ten Broeck on the New York State Museum website .
2. ↑ Elizabeth Van Rensselaer Ten Broeck on the New York State Museum website.
3. ^ Fire on the New York State Museum website.

Web links

• Abraham Ten Broeck (Eng.)