"Halfmoon" is a location in old Albany County. The Half Moon is the ship Henry Hudson sailed up the North River in 1609! Both have substantial histories in their own right. The purpose of this exposition is to place references to "Halfmoon" (the place) in their early Albany context.
Initially, the name referred to a cluster of small islands where the Mohawk met the Hudson River. It was called "Half Moon Point" and was a place where Albany people met Native Americans to trade for furs. Located north (beyond the jurisdiction) of the manor of Rensselaerswyck, much of it was encompassed in the Van Schaick Patent granted by the English in 1674. After some pioneering that was curtailed by the intermittant threat of war, substantial settlement occurred mostly after the coming of peace during the first decades of the eighteenth century.
Geurt Hendrickse (patriarch of the Van Schoonhoven family), a pioneer settler, parcelled out his lands there before his death in 1702. In 1715, Jacobus Van Schoonhoven's militia company was composed mostly of men from the Halfmoon area.
In 1720, a list of freeholders for Albany city and county included a separate listing for Halfmoon. Its initial resident settlers were primarily of New Netherland ancestry - also representing overflow members of a number of prominent early Albany families - in particular the Vandenberghs and Van Schoonhovens.
In 1788, the town of Halfmoon was erected within Albany County. In 1790, the first Federal census counted its population as 3,602 residents in 607 households including 128 slaves and seven free persons of color (all in a single household). By that time, New Englanders had outnumbered the descendants of New Netherland. In 1791, the town of Halfmoon became part of newly formed Saratoga County.
Located on fertile land above both the Mohawk and the Hudson and beyond the boundaries of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck, Halfmoon represented a desirable destination for the children of Albany residents and for newcomers as well.
Freeholders in Half Moon in 1720
first posted: 2/5/09; revised 8/14/14