James Beekman (1732–1807) was a

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

merchant and a member of the prominent Beekman family.

Early life

James Beekman was born in 1732, the son of William Beekman (1684–1770) and Catharine De Lanoy (1691–1765), niece of Peter Delanoy, the first elected Mayor of New York City after British rule. His paternal grandparents were

Gerardus Beekman Gerardus Willemse Beekman (c. August 1653 – October 10, 1723) was a wealthy physician, land owner, and colonial governor of the Province of New York. Early life He was christened August 17, 1653 at Corlaer's Hook Plantation, New York, the seco ...

(1653–1723), the acting

Governor of the Province of New York The territory which would later become the state of New York was settled by European colonists as part of the New Netherland colony (parts of present-day New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware) under the command of the Dutch West India C ...

in 1710, and Magdalena Abeel (1661–1731), sister of Johannes Abeel (1667–1711), the second mayor of Albany.Henry Whittemore
The Abeel and Allied Families
1899, pages 4 to 6 His great-grandfather was

Wilhelmus Beekman Wilhelmus Hendricksen Beekman (April 28, 1623 – September 21, 1707) — also known as William Beekman and Willem Beekman (or Beeckman) — was a Dutch immigrant to America who came to New Amsterdam (now New York City) from the Netherlands in the ...

(1623–1707), a Dutch immigrant who came to New Amsterdam from the Netherlands on the same vessel as Peter Stuyvesant. Wilhelmus soon became Treasurer of the Dutch West India Company and later became the Mayor of

, Governor of

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

from 1653 to 1664, and Governor of

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

from 1658 to 1663.

Mount Pleasant

He is best remembered for his mansion, known as Mount Pleasant, which he built in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

on the

East River The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Quee ...

in 1763, near the northwest corner of 1st Avenue and East 51st Street. This mansion served as the British military headquarters during the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

, and was the site of the trial of Nathan Hale.

Personal life

In 1752, he was married to Janneke "Jane" Keteltas (1734–1817), daughter of Abraham Keteltas and Jeanne d'Honneur, and sister of Abraham Keteltas (1732–1798). Together, they had: *William Beekman (b. 1754) *Abraham Keteltas Beekman (1756–1816), who married his cousin, Johanna Beekman *James Beekman, Jr. (1758–1837), who married Lydia Watkins Drew *Jane Beekman (b. 1760), who married Stephen Van Cortlandt *Catharine "Caty" Beekman (b. 1762), who married Elisha Boudinot, brother of

Elias Boudinot Elias Boudinot ( ; May 2, 1740 – October 24, 1821) was a lawyer and statesman from Elizabeth, New Jersey who was a delegate to the Continental Congress (more accurately referred to as the Congress of the Confederation) and served as President ...

, in 1805. *Mary Beekman (b. 1765), who married Stephen N. Bayard. *John Beekman (1768–1843), who married Mary Elizabeth Goad Bedlow (1771–1848) *Cornelia Beekman (b. 1770) *Elisabet Beekman (b. 1773) *Gerard Beekman (1774–1833), who married Catharine Saunders (1785-1835)

Legacy

Beekman is known to have commissioned portraits of his children from the painter John Durand, and the entry for payment in his account book, dating to 1766, is the first record of the artist in New York. On his death in 1807, Beekman left inherited the family's country estate and portraits to his son, James Beekman, Jr. Upon his son's death in 1837, the estate was passed to James Beekman Jr.'s nephew, James William Beekman, the son of Gerard Beekman.

Exhibition

In 2004, the

New-York Historical Society The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library in New York City, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum ...

presented an exhibition based around a coach owned by Beekman, one of only three such coaches to survive in its original condition. Beekman had bought the coach in 1771 from Peter Burton, a London sea captain, for £138. Arriving in Style: Treasures of 18th Century New York
, The New-York Historical Society, November 23, 2004 - February 20, 2005.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beekman, James 1732 births 1807 deaths Businesspeople from New York City 18th-century American businesspeople 19th-century American businesspeople American people of Dutch descent Beekman family 19th-century American merchants