Albert Andriessen Bradt

Born 1607 in Fredrikstad, Norway. October 8, 1636: Left Amsterdam headed to Fort Orange, New Netherland with his wife, children, and brother aboard the Rensselaerswyck ship. He married April 11, 1632, on Easter Sunday in Oudekerk, Amsterdam, Holland. He died June 7, 1686, in Albany, New York.

The Norwegian of Rensselaerswyck

Albert Andriessen Bradt was born in 1607 in Fredrikstad, Norway, and orphaned young, raised by an uncle. He went to sea as a sailor before sailing for New Netherland in October 1636 with his wife, children, and brother, settling in the Dutch patroonship of Rensselaerswyck, where the patroon Kiliaen van Rensselaer contracted him to help operate a sawmill on Tawasentha creek while also farming tobacco to help support it. Known to his neighbors as “de Noorman” — the Norwegian — Albert broke his milling contract in 1637 to farm tobacco full-time with his brother Arent, and traded furs on the side, before the brothers gave up tobacco for milling for good in 1646. Albert went on to operate two mills on the creek that still bears his nickname today, Normans Kill.

A Litigious Millwright

Albert was, by his own community's account, an argumentative man, frequently in court pursuing debts he believed he was owed. He also owned a house and warehouse in Manhattan that served as a trading office until he sold it in 1661, after his wife's death, and in his later years helped found and actively support Rensselaerswyck's Lutheran church — a notable choice in a colony dominated by the Dutch Reformed faith. In 1672 he passed the lease of his sawmill to his son Barent, and lived his final years with another son, Dirk. Albert died in Albany on June 7, 1686.