| Notes |
- http://exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/bios/b/bebradt4335.html
Descendants of Albert Andriessan Person (1274)
Bernardus Bradt
by
Stefan Bielinski
Bernardus Bradt (also Barnardus) was born in September 1704. He was the son of Albany-based trader Daniel and Elizabeth Lansing Bradt. His father died during the 1720s.
In January 1735, Bernardus married eastern Albany native Catharina Van Vechten at the Albany Dutch church. By 1750, seven children had been christened in Albany.
Bernardus Bradt was an overland transporter and contractor who set up his home in the first ward where he was identified as a freeholder as early as 1742. In 1737, he is said to have occupied a property on South Pearl Street at the foot of Gallows hill with Gerrit Bradt.
He also held property in the eastern part of Albany County. In October 1741, Johannes Van Vechten conveyed "all of his lands" in the "Hosick" Patent to Bradt and two other sons-in-law. Bradt's heirs still held claim to that parcel into the nineteenth century. During the 1760s, he held a lease for land at Schaghticoke and another one in Rensselaerswyck. In 1767, he sold three slaves.
He performed some services for the city, was elected assistant alderman - first in 1746, and was the captain of the city's militia company during the 1750s and 60s. In 1751, he acquired a share of the cross-river ferry. He held that franchise for many years before his son, Daniel, joined him in 1758. His daughter, Maria, married future ferryman Thomas Lottridge.
In his seventies at the onset of hostilities, he had relinquished his militia commission. His support of the American cause was nominal and probably only financial. However, his sons were counted among Albany's patriots. After his holdings were assessed on the tax lists for 1779, the name of Bernardus Bradt appears to have dropped from Albany rolls.
According to subsequent litigation, "Barnardus Bradt" had died in 1786.
- From History of Rensselaer County, New York, p. 262
On a map of Hoosick Patent, dated 1754, appear other names; among them Bovie, Vanderrick, Huyck, Brimmer, Kott, and Roberts. Among very early settlers also were Breese, Fonda, and Onderkirk. Here also, at the place where the Harlem Extension Railroad crosses the Troy and Boston line, lived Barnardus Bratt, who on the 17th of January, 1735, married Catharyne Van Vechten, daughter of Johannes Van Vechten, and grand-daughter of Garret Garret Tennisse Van Vechten, one of the original proprietors of the Hoosick Patent; thus acquiring by marriage and by hase from ether heirs a large interest in the lands held under that patent. Mr. Bratt's large landed estate, great wealth, and assumption of manorial rights gave him a distinguished social position, and the title of "Patroon of Hoosick.'' He built the first saw-mill and the first gristmill erected in the district. They were built on a small brook which ran through the lateral valley before mentioned, and emptied into the Hoosick near his own dwelling. These mills were burned, and a large quantity of grain, lumber, and other property destroyed by some of the invading bands of French and Indians. The mills were rebuilt and run for many years. The old mill-stones may still be seen near the premises, interesting relics of that olden time.
In early limes, before the erection of this mill, grain was taken to Albany to be ground, sometimes on foot, sometimes on horseback but always with toil, danger, and suffering, characteristic of heroic limes. The Sons of Barnardus Bratt were Daniel, of Hoosick Corners, John, of Bushkirk's Bridge; Gerrit Tennise, of Hoosick Corners; and Henry, of Albany. The daughters wen Maria, Mrs. Robert Lottridge; and Elizabeth, who married her cousin, John Bratt. In this last-named family were two daughters -- Catharina, who married Nicholas Groesbeck, and Christina, who married Cornelius Van Buskirk. Each of these husbands succeeded to valuable farms in the Hoosick Valley, as heirs of the old Barnardus Bratt
estate. [2]
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1704 - 1786 (82 years)
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