Ann Elizabeth “Eliza” Schuyler Bleecker (1752 – 1783) [Section 49 Lot 1]
One of America’s first female poets
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Ann Elizabeth “Eliza” Schuyler was born on November 1, 1752, in the Greenwich district of New York City. She is the youngest child of Brandt Schuyler, a successful merchant, and Margareta Van Wyck. Both families were members of the American Dutch elite, tracing their lineage to back the New Netherland colony. Their family’s eighty acres New York estate encompasses what is today part of Broadway and Greenwich Streets. Before Ann’s birth, her father passed away after a long illness.
Ann Eliza and her contemporary cousins in Albany, Angelica, Eliza, and Margarita “Peggy” Schuyler, known as the “Schuyler Sisters” share the same 4x great-grandfather, Philip Pieterse Schuyler (1628 -1683), the first Schuyler to emigrate to New Netherland, establishing residency in Albany.
In 1760 her mother remarried to Anthony Coenradt Ten Eyck, who was also part of the Dutch aristocracy. His brother, Jacob Coenradt, Ten Eyck, had served as constable, alderman, Albany County Sheriff and Mayor of Albany. Margareta and Jacob had one daughter, Susanna, whom Ann Eliza was close with.
At a young age, she found identity in her writing, composing poems that ranged from sentimental, sophisticated or satirical. She did not write for publication but sent her verses to family and close friends. Her mother was supportive of her passion as she also shared an interest in books and literary endeavors. These types of behaviors were uncommon for Dutch Americans at this time, unlike women in New England.
Ann Eliza was 16 when she married Johannes Jacob Bleecker, a lawyer from New Rochelle on March 21, 1769. Johannes great-grandfather, Jan Jansen Bleecker was the founder of the Bleecker family in the City of Albany, where he once served as mayor.
Ann Eliza and Johannes moved to Poughkeepsie where he established a law practice. After a few years, he abandoned that idea and decided to become a gentleman farmer, settling up a homestead eighteen miles north of Albany in Tomhanick in the Village Schaghticoke located around by Knickerbocker Mansion. They had two daughters, Margaretta and Abella.
In 1777 when the Revolutionary War started rumors spread about a possible attack on the village by the British, Loyalists and Natives. In 1711 the Schaghticoke Massacre by French Indians killed members of the Kittle family, and the Johannes decided not to take any chances left for Albany to arrange the evacuation of the family. However, due to inaccurate reports given to the public, Ann Eliza, along with her daughters and a mulatta servant fled south to Lansingburgh. She met up with her husband and together they fled to Red Hook in Dutchess County to meet up with her month. Unfortunately, their infant daughter, Abella, died of dysentery during the flight and, not long after, Ann Eliza’s mother died.
After the British were defeated at the Battle of Saratoga the same year, the Ann Eliza returned to Tomhanick with Johannes joining the army of General Philip Schuyler. In the winter of 1779, the area became threatened by Loyalists, where Ann Eliza fled in Albany.
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During the summer of 1781, Johannes was abducted by what may have been a Loyalist party. Another abduction took place weeks later at the home of a Schuyler relative, General Philip Schuyler but was less successful. Johannes was rescued and released a week later in Bennington, but Ann Eliza, pregnant and devastated by the recent deaths, suffered a nervous collapse and miscarriage, which she never fully recovered.
Ann Eliza died on November 23, 1783, at the age of 32. She was buried in the Dutch Reformed Church, originally located on Beaver Street, south of Pearl Street. Eventually, her grave was moved to the State Street Burial Grounds and, ultimately, the Church Grounds at Albany Rural Cemetery. Her headstone does not mark her exact gravesite; over the years, the old markers have been moved, stacked and rearranged, so they do not correspond to individual graves.
In 1790 the New-York Magazine began to publish her poems, which her daughter, Margaretta, served as a contributor. Her prose narratives, The History of Maria Kittle and an unfinished work The Story of Henry and Ann were published at as well. In 1793 The Posthumous Works of Ann Eliza Bleecker, in Prose and Verse was published which included these writings as well as writings by Margaretta. In 1797 a The History of Maria Kittle was published in book form. The story based on the 1711 Schaghticoke Massacre and her life events during the Revolution. Ann Eliza’s work, unlike her contemporary writers of the time, vividly account the conditions that a young mother had to endure in the American frontier.