Hon. Johannes Abeel

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Hon. Johannes Abeel

Also Known As: "John"
Birthdate:
Birthplace: Albany, Albany County, Province of New York
Death: January 28, 1711 (43)
Probably Market St. Residence, Albany, Albany County, New York, United States
Place of Burial: formerly between Beaver and Hudson Streets, Albany, New York, United States
Immediate Family:

Son of Christopher Janse Abeel and Neeltje Janse Abeel
Husband of Catalyntje Bleecker
Father of Christoffel Janse Abeel; Cornelia Neeltje Van Shaick; Catalina Janse Matthews; Neeltie (2) Abeel; Jannetje Van Schaick and 2 others
Brother of Magdalena Beekman; Maria Duycking and Elisabeth Bancker

Managed by: Private User
Last Updated:

About Hon. Johannes Abeel

Bio

Johannes Abeel was born in Albany in 1667 - the eldest son of builder/trader Stoffel Janse and Neeltje Croon Abeel. Losing his father at age thirteen, the boy became a man bartering for furs with Native hunters - an ambition that took him into the wilderness but also downriver to New York where three of his sisters had married into prominent business families.

By the mid 1680s, he was administering his father's extensive estate. Young Johannes prospered in the carrying trade to New York while tending to family enterprises in Albany. By the end of the decade, he had settled more in Albany . After the death of his mother, he took over the family home on Market Street - raising a family there following his marriage to Catalina Schuyler in 1694.

By that time, Johannes Abeel already had entered public life. He was elected assistant (1688) and then alderman (1691-93 and again in 1700 ) for Albany's third ward. In 1694, this prominent merchant was appointed mayor of Albany and served for a year. He would hold the mayor's office again from 1709 to 1710. In the meantime, he was elected to represent Albany in the New York General Assembly in 1695, 1701, and 1702; was appointed judge of the Albany county court in 1702; one of the masters of the provincial chancery (equity) court in 1705; and also recorder (deputy mayor) of Albany in 1702.

The nature of his personal and public business made Johannes Abeel a citizen of New York City perhaps as much as of his native Albany. A year after serving as Albany's mayor, he sought and received the distinction of a "freeman" of New York City. From Manhattan, he exported skins to London and received consignments of rum, rice, dry goods, and other supplies - some of which were supplied to garrison soldiers in Albany and on the frontier. By 1699, he was back in Albany but in trouble there for trading without the freedom of that city. But a year later, he was elected to the Albany city council and to other offices until his death early in 1711.

However, his overall status qualified him to take part in a number of land patenting initiatives including the Westenhook Patent (1705).

Like his father, Johannes was a mainstay of the Albany Reformed Church - serving as deacon and witnessing more than two dozen Albany baptisms. In 1704, his friend, Dominie Johannes Lydius, composed a poem on the occasion of Abeel's 37th birthday. In June 1710, he filed a will. It left everything to his wife and then equally to their children.

In 1836, workers making improvements North of the Second Dutch Reformed Church on Beaver Street dug up a number of old gravestones. According to a newspaper report, one marker read: "Here lies the body of John Abeel who departed this life ye 28 day of Jan'y. 1711, and in the 44 year of his age." However, that relic was thrown out and never found. No photos, paintings. or even signatures of Johannes Abeel could be found on documents in the archives at the Albany County Hall of Records, Albany Institute History of Art, NYS Colonial Project, Albany Public Library, Albany Times Union or the Morris Gerber Collction

Bio by: James J. VanApeldorn


Family

Eldest son of Christopher Janse (Croom) Abeel, was born in Albany, March 23, 1667, died Jan. 28, 1711. He was a prosperous merchant, and was elected mayor of Albany, 1694-5. He removed to New Amsterdam and lived there for a time and on his return to Albany was elected a member of the Assembly in 1701; and in 1709 was again elected mayor of Albany.

He married April 10, 1694, Catharine, daughter of David Schuyler, who, with his brother Pieterse, came from Amsterdam in 1650, and settled at Fort Orange. David Schuyler, the younger of the two, married Oct. 13, 1657, Callyntje, daughter of Abraham Isaacsen Ver Planck, the owner of Paulus Hook, now Jersey City.

Johannes Abeel, by his wife Catharine (Schuyler) Abeel, had issue:

Cataline, bap. New York, Oct. 23, 1691

Neiltje, bap. Albany, April 14, 1698

Christoffel, bap. Dec. 16, 1696

David, bap. April 29, 1705

Jannette, bap. at Albany, June 6, 1705

A copy of the inventory of his goods and personal estate includes a painted picture of himself; also one of his wife and daughter.

References

https://exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/criteria.html

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Hon. Johannes Abeel's Timeline

1667
March 23, 1667
Albany, Albany County, Province of New York
1696
December 16, 1696
Market Street, Albany, Albany, New York, British Colonial America
1698
April 14, 1698
Albany, Albany, New York, Dutch Colonial America
October 23, 1698
Columbia County, Province of New York
1701
March 30, 1701
Albany, Albany, New York, British Colonial America
1703
June 6, 1703
Albany, Albany, New York, British Colonial America
1705
April 27, 1705
Albany, Albany County, New York, Colonial America
1708
1708
Albany, Albany County, New York, United States
1711
January 28, 1711
Age 43
Probably Market St. Residence, Albany, Albany County, New York, United States