John De Peyster Douw

Johannes "John" De Peyster Douw (January 20, 1756 – February 22, 1835) was an American merchant, lawyer, soldier and civic leader.

Early life

Douw was born on January 20, 1756, and grew up in his parents' home in Albany and their country home known as Wolvenhook on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, about a mile below Albany.[1] He was the eighth of nine children born to Anna (née De Peyster) Douw (1723–1794),[2] and Volkert P. Douw, who served as Mayor of Albany and a New York State Senator and was a close friend of General Philip Schuyler.[3]

His father was the only surviving son of Petrus Douw and Anna (née Van Rensselaer) Douw (a daughter of Hendrick van Rensselaer).[4][5] His maternal grandfather was Johannes de Peyster III, who also served as mayor of Albany.[2]

Douw was sent to Yale from where he graduated in 1777.[6]

Career

Douw trained as a merchant by his grandfather until the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. He joined the Continental Army, serving as an ensign in the Rensselaerswyck company of the Albany County militia, and the commissary department. He took part in the Sullivan Expedition against Loyalists and the four Nations of the Haudenosaunee (which had sided with the British) in 1779.[6] He was a close friend of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette.[7]

In 1782, he was appointed Albany County Surrogate. In 1788, he was elected Alderman for the first ward. Following the death of an uncle, he inherited a townhouse on State Street in 1787. Although he trained as a lawyer, he was better known as a merchant and was heavily involved in Albany real estate. His store was located on South Market Street.[6]

Personal life

Douw was married three times. He married his first wife, Deborah Beekman (1763–1791) on December 23, 1787, at the house of Maria (née Sanders) Beekman and Johannes Jacobse Beekman, her parents.[2] Together, they were the parents of:[2]

• Volkert Peter Douw (1790–1869),[8]

After the death of his first wife on July 23, 1791, he married Margaret Livingston (1768–1802) on December 20, 1795, at the Hermitage in the Livingston Manor. Margaret was a daughter of Col. Peter Robert Livingston and a granddaughter of Robert Livingston, 3rd Lord of Livingston Manor.[2] In 1800, their household included seven family members and four slaves. Before his wife died on January 20, 1802, they were the parents of:[2]

• Anna DePeyster Douw (1798–1871), who married Samuel Stringer Lush (1783–1841), a son of Stephen Lush. After his death in 1841, she married William Tremper Cuyler (1802–1864), the widower of Charlotte Hanford and Nancy Bancker Stewart, in 1850.[9]
• Margaret Livingston Douw (1798–1878), who married Alanson Abbe (1795–1864) in 1844.[10]
• Louisa Douw (1801–1802), who died young.[2]

His third marriage was in 1811 to his twenty-nine year old cousin Catherine Douw Gansevoort (1782–1848), when he was fifty-two.[6] Catherine was a daughter of Leonard Gansevoort Jr. and Maria (née Van Rensselaer) Gansevoort, in 1811.[11]

• John DePeyster Douw (1812–1901),[7] who married Marianna Chandler Lanman, daughter of Mayor Charles J. Lanman (son of U.S. Senator James Lanman).[12][13]
• Mary Douw (1815–1815), who died young.[2]
• Catharine Louisa Douw (1817–1891), who married John Fonda Townsend (1809–1874).[14]
• Harriet Maria Douw (1824–1852), who married William Clarkson Johnson (1823–1893) in 1847.[15]

Douw died on February 22, 1835. He was buried at the Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York. His widow died in April 1848.[6]

References

1. Art, Albany Institute of History and (2007). Work and World of an Early Nineteenth-century Albany Potter. SUNY Press. ISBN 9780939072156. Retrieved 9 September 2017.
2. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 51. The Society. 1897. pp. 340–341. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
3. Bielinski, Stefan. "Volkert P. Douw". exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov. New York State Museum. Retrieved 9 September 2017.
4. Library, Robert G. Sullivan, Schenectady County Public. "Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs: Douw". www.schenectadyhistory.org. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. Retrieved 9 September 2017.
5. Reynolds, Cuyler (1911). Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs: A Record of Achievements of the People of the Hudson and Mohawk Valleys in New York State, Included Within the Present Counties of Albany, Rensselaer, Washington, Saratoga, Montgomery, Fulton, Schenectady, Columbia and Greene. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
6. Bielinski, Stefan. "John De Peyster Douw". exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov. New York State Museum. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
7. "DEATH LIST OF A DAY.; John de Peyster Douw". The New York Times. 31 January 1901. Retrieved 9 September 2017.
8. "DIED. -- DOUW". The New York Times. 18 June 1869. Retrieved 9 September 2017.
9. Nicoll, Maud Churchill (1912). The Earliest Cuylers in Holland and America and Some of Their Descendants: Researches Establishing a Line from Tydeman Cuyler of Hasselt, 1456. T.A. Wright, Printer and Publisher. p. 48. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
10. Art, Albany Institute of History and (1 January 1998). Albany Institute of History & Art: 200 Years of Collecting. SUNY Press. p. 150. ISBN 978-1-55595-101-6. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
11. Munsell, Joel (1871). Collections on the History of Albany: From Its Discovery to the Present Time ; with Notices of Its Public Institutions, and Biographical Sketches of Citizens Deceased. J. Munsell. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
12. York, Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New (1916). Genealogical Record. The Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York. p. 19. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
13. Platt, Edmund (1905). The Eagle's History of Poughkeepsie: From the Earliest Settlements 1683 to 1905. Platt & Platt. p. 277. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
14. Albany Chronicles: A History of the City Arranged Chronologically, from the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time; Illustrated with Many Historical Pictures of Rarity and Reproductions of the Robert C. Pruyn Collection of the Mayors of Albany, Owned by the Albany Institute and Historical and Art Society. J. B. Lyon Company, printers. 1906. p. 797. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
15. Genealogical Notes of New York and New England Families. Heritage Books. 2000. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-7884-1956-0. Retrieved 25 October 2021.

External links

• John De Peyster Douw at Find a Grave
• John De Peyster Douw portrait by Ezra Ames at the National Portrait Gallery