CUYLER Family Photo Album

The CUYLERs were one of the founding families of Albany, New York.
This painting is a view looking down State Street (in Albany) in about 1800.
This painting is by James Eights as he remembered looking down State Street before
the Dutch Reformed Church was demolished in 1806. Many versions of this view exist.
This image copied from a print in the Colonial Albany Project Graphics Archive.

The Albany CUYLER family is descended from Hendrick and Anna (SCHEPMOES) CUYLER who settled in New Amsterdam during the 1650s.

Establishing themselves in Albany, New York by 1664, their sons and daughters had married children of the first settlers thus creating a permanent CUYLER presence in Albany and its environs. By 1697, brothers Abraham and Johannes CUYLER were Albany insiders. In 1712, their sister married Dominie Petrus VAN DRIESSEN.

The third generation spread out in the upriver region but maintained its Albany focus. The CUYLERs were outstanding civic leaders throughout the community's first century. Johannes, his son, Cornelis CUYLER, and his son, Abraham C. CUYLER each served as mayor of colonial Albany.

In 1756, three CUYLER-named households were listed on the Albany census. Two decades later, the family's position was compromised somewhat by the Toryism of royalist mayor Abraham C. CUYLER and some of his kin. At the same time, other CUYLERs were ardent revolutionaries. In 1790, six CUYLER-named households were listed on the city census. In 1816, the city directory listed five CUYLER households in the older parts of the booming new city! Albany's Cuyler Street is named for this prominent, pioneer family. Antiquarian and city historian Cuyler REYNOLDS was their descendant!