Rebecca Doherty Memorial Collection

Collection — Carton: MSS Box 20

Identifier: MSS 2020.0006

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The collection comprises one container with folders holding a sampling of various types of family documents ranging from correspondence to legal papers and evidential records of business transactions. When possible, items are processed and identified at the item level. Of note are several bills of sale between the Van Loon and Van Hoesen families for enslaved persons.

Dates

1763 - 1931

Biographical / Historical

The documents which comprise this collection were found in a Doherty family heirloom called the “Holland Chest” by a niece of Rebecca Doherty. Containing a treasure trove of early letters, receipts and other business papers, this collection offers a unique window into the 18th and 19th century relationships of several historically Dutch families living in Loonenburg and Claverack during the colonial period and through the days of the early republic. The Clough, Gay, Doherty, Van Hoesen, and Van Loon/Van Loan families are represented most heavily - the Van Hoesen Family being the original settlers of Claverack, now mosty subsumed by the City of Hudson, and the Van Loon/Van Loan family which settled and remains today in Athens, NY. Of particular note is a vast selection of early receipts of Jacob Van Hoesen dating from the 1760s through 1800, offering a window into the composition of neighbors, merchants, and their commercial network on both sides of the Hudson preceding and following the American Revolution.