Gerrit Ryckman
Stefan Bielinski

Gerrit Ryckman was born in January 1739. He was a younger son in the large family of Schenectady residents Wilhelmus and Anna Wyngaert Ryckman.

In December 1769, he was almost thirty-one when he married Elizabeth Van Buren at the Albany Dutch church. By 1791, their eleven children had been christened at the Albany church where he was a regular baptism sponsor.

Like a number of his siblings, this Schenectady native made his home in Albany. Beginning in 1766, his modest first ward property was valued on city assessment rolls. In 1767, he was appointed first ward firemaster.

During the 1760s, he was a member of an Albany militia company. In his mid-thirties at the outbreak of hostilities in 1775, he was the quartermaster of the first regiment of the Albany County militia. Three years later, his name appeared on the roster of those under the Quartermaster General operating out of Albany. At that time, he was identified as "clerk of the check."

In Septembere 1778, he was named city teasurer or chamberlain when the civil government was restored in Albany. He served in that post until 1785. In 1780, he was forced to find another residence when his house was taken by the city for use as a school. In 1788, his home was located next to that of his spinster sisters.

Albany mainstay for several decades, Gerrit Ryckman died in August 1791.

biography in-progress


the people of colonial Albany Sources: The life of Gerrit Ryckman is CAP biography number 1918. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.


first posted 10/30/05; updated 1/20/13