Henry Livingston Bleecker    (bap: 2 Jul 1819, Utica NY)

An interesting story is connected with the land purchased by William Chase in 1792. Early Fulton County history books tell us that Chase was a sea captain and American privateer during the Revolution. He settled in Hoosick, New York where he built a bridge for the State. With money earned building the bridge he purchased 12,000 acres in the Adirondack foothills. Hoping to acquire more acreage in the future he was disappointed when one year after his land patent was approved, Bleecker, Glen and Lansing purchased all the land surrounding his patent. It is reported that he exclaimed, "I would rather have lost my right in heaven than title to that land".

The object of the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company was to improve the navigation, and to open communications, by Canals, to the Seneca Lake, and Lake Ontario. The other company was empowered to open a lock navigation between the Hudson and Lake Champlain. This latter company did something to improve the navigation of the natural water courses to the north, but was dissolved without having made any Canal, and without having effected any thing of great importance.

So Herculean a task did it then appear to construct a Canal, that the Western Company were allowed fifteen years to accomplish their work ; though it was known that the Canalling which they would hate to perform would extend only a few miles.

But the company did not avail themselves of this long indulgence. In the year seventeen hundred and ninety-six, they completed the Canal at the Little Falls, of about two miles and three-fourths in length, with five locks; and a Canal of one mile and a quarter at the German Flats; and in seventeen hundred and ninety-seven, a Canal from the Mohawk to Wood Creek, of one mile and three quarters: in all less than seven miles with nine locks. Some years afterwards they constructed several wooden locks on Wood Creek. All the works which are above enumerated, and which, at the time, were thought very great, and which were so many years completing, might now be done in six weeks. Our great canals with all their locks, aqueducts, culverts, bridges, and every thing that belongs to them, have been executed at the rate of more than a mile in a week.

The Western Company after their principal works had been constructed and once rebuilt, when it was found that they must be again re constructed, obtained the assistance of Mr. Weston, an engineer, from Europe, of eminence in his profession. He built the existing locks of the Western Company. When their improvements were so far completed as that a beat might pass from Schenectady into the Oneida Lake, they had expended more than four hundred thousand dollars. This great expenditure obliged them to charge such heavy tolls, that their Canals were bat little used; land carriage, and the natural rivers, being generally preferred.

The old locks, at the Falls, now form part of a communication front the Erie Canal, into the Mohawk River. When we stand on the lofty and magnificent stone aqueduct which Is thrown over the Folk, or on the terrace which supports the western Canal,-midway the precipitous recto on the south side of the river, we look down on tile old Canal, passing below the new structure, creeping at our feet, through its narrow channel and straightened locks.

Records Arrangement: None.

Records documenting this company's claims for damages include a report of the appraisers on damages; resolution of the company's board of directors authorizing Barent Bleecker to receive award from the State, with his receipt for $91,616; Thomas Eddy's account of expense of appraisement; and a copy of legislative committee report on the company's petition. A law of 1817 (Chapter 262) authorized the Canal Commissioners to appropriate the company's property and to apply to the Supreme Court to appoint appraisers to assess damages to the property. The law authorized reimbursement for the damages to be paid from the Canal Fund.

Names in the 1799 Assessment Roll
Bolton, New York
Barent Bleeker

The Albany Directory, 1814
    Bleecker, Barent
    Address(es): 93, n. Market, Albany, New York
    Store: 72, Quay, Albany, New York
    Occupation(s): merchant, commerce(s)

The Albany Directory, 1815
    Bleecker, Barent
    Director(s): Director of the Bank of Albany
    Societies/Clubs: Albany Humane Society, Trustee
    Treasurer of the Albany & Schenectady Turnpike
    Address(es): 317, n. Market, Albany, New York
    store: 72, Quay, Albany, New York
    Occupation(s): merchant, commerce(s)

The Albany Directory, 1816-1818
    b>Bleecker, Barent
    Address(es): 317, n. Market, Albany, New York
    store: 72, Quay, Albany, New York
    Occupation(s): merchant, commerce(s)

The Albany Directory, 1819
        Bleecker, Barent
Director(s): Director of the Bank of Albany
    Address(es): 317, n. Market, store 72, Quay, Albany, New York
    Occupation(s): merchant, commerce(s)

The Albany Directory, 1820
    Bleecker, Barent
    Address(es): 317, n. Market, store 72, Quay, Albany, New York
    Occupation(s): merchant, commerce(s)

The Albany Directory, 1821-1825
    Bleecker, Barent
    President of the Bank of Albany
    Address(es): 317, n. Market, Albany, New York
    Store: 72, Quay, Albany, New York
    Occupation(s): merchant, commerce(s)

The Albany Directory, 1826
    Bleecker, Barent
    House: 317, n. Market, Albany, New York

Baptism Date: - 1803
    Father: Abraham G. Lansing
    Mother: Susannah Yates
    Item #: 12639
    Child: Sarah
    Sponsor: Barent Bleecker; Sarah Lansing
    Birth Date: 05 Sep 1802
    Albany Reformed

Baptism Date: 01 Jan 1805
    Father: John R. Bleecker
    Mother: Eliza T. E. Bridgen
    Item #: 12788
    Child: Elizabeth
    Sponsor: Barent Bleecker; Elizabeth Bleecker
    Birth Date: 03 Aug 1804
    Albany Reformed

Will of Hendrick Houck, July 25 1778
HOUCK, Hendrick, of Schoharie, Albany Co., yeoman. Children of eldest son Peter dec'd, vizt: Hendrick, Peter, Jacob, Ellizabeth, Catherine and Anna, daughters Catherine Elizabeth, w. of Harme Sidnigh, Maria Elizabeth, Maria Hester, Catherine and Margaret, children of son Hendrick dec'd, vizt: Jurie, Anna and Hendrick, whose mother's name is Catherine. Homefarm, land at Knieskern Town, Schoharie, personal property. Executors son-in-law Harme Sidnigh of Schoharie and Rutger Bleecker of Albany. Witnesses Jno R. Bleecker, Barent Bleecker and Abrm. Verplanck.

Will of Thomas Hun, 13 Dec 1800
HUN, Thomas of Albany City, espquire. Wife Elizabeth, daughter Ann, wife of Rev. John Bossett, son Abraham. Houses and lots on Market Str., Albany, land in Greenbush, Rensselaer Co. and in Montgomery Co., personal property. Executors the wife and two children. Witnesses Barent Bleecker, Jno R. Bleecker jun., Abraham R. ten Eyck and Rensselaer Westerlo. Recorded ut supra, p.71.

Will of Samuel Stringer, 25 Dec 1805
SRINGER, Samuel, of Albany City, physician. Daughters Lydia and Gertrude, wife of ? (not named). Houses and lots in Market Str., on West side of Middle Lane, lot No. 137 Pitts Town, Rensselaer Co., a silver coffeepot,marked on the bottom E.W., a do. oval bowled soup spoon, a do. teapot, a do. milkpot, 12 do. desert spoons, 2 do. salt spoons, 2 do. salt cellars, all marked I.T.E., a pair of do. pint mugs with the letters R.G.T., 6 do. large table spoons, all marked E.W., 3 do. large table spoons, marked S.W.E., one do. chased punch laddle, 2 do. salt spoons, 2 do. salt cellars, all unmarked, a fine library of medical works, about 160 titles, surgical instruments, bankstock, turnpike stock and other personal property. Trustees Honble. John Lansing jun., and Samuel Stringer Lush. Executors Stephen Lush and Barent Bleecker. Witnesses Isaac Truax, J.H. Wendell and John Brinckerhoff. Recorded ut supra, p.123.

The very outset of the career of this excellent magistrate was distinguished by an example of legal acumen that gave flattering presage of a wise and equitable administration. The morning after he had been installed in office, and at the moment that he was making his breakfast from a prodigious earthen dish, filled with milk and Indian pudding, he was interrupted by the appearance of Wandle Schoonhoven, a very important old burgher of New Amsterdam, who complained bitterly of one Barent Bleecker, inasmuch as he refused to come to a settlement of accounts, seeing that there was a heavy balance in favor of the said Wandle. Governor Van Twiller, as I have already observed, was a man of few words; he was likewise a mortal enemy to multiplying writings — or being disturbed at his breakfast. Having listened attentively to the statement of Wandle Schoonhoven, giving an occasional grunt, as he shoveled a spoonful of Indian pudding into his mouth — either as a sign that he relished the dish, or comprehended the story — he called unto him his constable, and pulling out of his breeches pocket a huge jack-knife, despatched it after the defendant as a summons, accompanied by his tobacco-box as a warrant.

This summary process was as effectual in those simple days as was the seal-ring of the great Harun-al-Raschid among the true believers. The two parties being confronted before him, 72 each produced a book of accounts, written in a language and character that would have puzzled any but a High-Dutch commentator or a learned decipherer of Egyptian obelisks. The sage Wouter took them one after the other, and having poised them in his hands and attentively counted over the number of leaves, fell straightway into a very great doubt, and smoked for half an hour without saying a word; at length, laying his finger beside his nose and shutting his eyes for a moment, with the air of a man who has just caught a subtle idea by the tail, he slowly took his pipe from his mouth, puffed forth a column of tobacco-smoke, and with marvelous gravity and solemnity pronounced, that, having carefully counted over the leaves and weighed the books, it was found that one was just as thick and as heavy as the other; therefore, it was the final opinion of the court that the accounts were equally balanced: therefore, Wandle should give Barent a receipt, and Barent should give Wandle a receipt, and the constable should pay the costs. This decision, being straightway made known, diffused general joy throughout New Amsterdam, for the people immediately perceived that they had a very wise and equitable magistrate to rule over them. But its happiest effect was that not another lawsuit took place throughout the whole of his administration; and the office of constable fell into such decay that there was not one of those losel scouts known in the province for many years. I am the more particular in dwelling on this transaction, not only because I deem it one of the most sage and righteous judgments on record, and well worthy the attention of modern magistrates, but because it was a miraculous event in the history of the renowned Wouter — being the only time he was ever known to come to a decision in the whole course of his life.