Sybrant G. Van Schaick was born in December 1708. He was the only surviving son of Albany trader and landholder Gosen Van Schaick and his wife, Albany native Catharina Staats Van Schaick.

Losing his father in 1725, young Sybrant was saddled with early responsibility while most Albany boys were able to come of age under a family umbrella. Surviving the stigma of his father's illegal trading with Canada, he was elected assistant alderman for the first ward in 1731. But this Sybrant spent most of his early adulthood following the Indian trade and managing family property north and south of Albany.

At age twenty-seven, he married Alida Roseboom in 1735. Over the next fifteen years, their seven children were baptized at the Albany Dutch church. By the mid-1740s, these Van Schaicks were established in the family home on Market Street. In 1744, Sybrant was elected first ward alderman. In the years that followed, a focus on city-based business identified him as an Albany mainstay. In 1742 and 1763, his name was included on a list of Albany freeholders.

The provincial governor commissioned him recorder of the city in 1750. After five years in that office, in 1756 he was appointed mayor of Albany. He served during the difficult period of the last French and Indian War. He retired from the mayoralty in 1761.

Calling himself a resident of Coxsackie, Sybrant G. Van Schaick filed a will in June 1772. His wife was dead and he left an extensive estate to his four surviving children. Within two years, he had passed also!

first posted: 3/25/02; last revised 1/05/05