Ann Eliza Bleecker (October 1752 – November 23, 1783) was an American poet and correspondent. Following a New York upbringing, Bleecker married John James Bleecker, a New Rochelle lawyer, in 1769. He encouraged her writings, and helped her publish a periodical containing her works.
The American Revolution saw John join the New York Militia, while Ann fled with their two daughters. She continued to write, and what remained of the family returned to Tomhannock following Burgoyne's surrender. She was saddened and affected by the deaths of numerous family members over the years, and died in 1783.
Bleecker's pastoral poetry is studied by historians to gain perspective of life on the front lines of the revolution, and her novel Maria Kittle, the first known Captivity novel, set the form for subsequent Indian Capture novels which saw great popularity after her death.
Childhood
Ann Eliza Schuyler was born in October 1752, in Albany in the Province of New York. She was the sixth child born to Margareta Van Wyck (1722–1777) and Brandt Schuyler (abt 1716–1752), successful merchants and members of the American Dutch aristocracy. After a long illness, Ann Schuyler's father died just before she was born in 1752. As a child, Ann Schuyler was known for her precocious writing ability, and was often asked to recite her poems, which ranged from sentimental or humorous to sophisticated or satirical. She would often compose impromptu poems at the request of friends. Ann's mother remarried in 1760; she and her new husband Anthony TenEyck (1712–1775) had one daughter, Susanna TenEyck (1762-?). The TenEycks were also part of the Dutch elite, so Ann Schuyler's childhood seemed to be filled with security, abundance and happiness.
Marriage to John James Bleecker
On March 29, 1769, Ann Schuyler married a lawyer from New Rochelle, John James Bleecker (1745–95). The couple moved to Poughkeepsie shortly after their marriage. John gave up the practice of law and took up agriculture in 1771, when they moved to his pastoral country estate in Tomhannock, north of Albany, in the Schaghticoke region which was settled by Dutch families. "The Bleecker home reflected their wealth by its furnishings and its setting." "From the beautiful gardens flourishing with beauty, to the young orchard bounded by a thick forest...to the west, vast cultivated fields and the roaring river of Tomhhanock." Bleecker considered her home a "retreat" and most of her pastoral poetry was written in the first five years of her life in Tomhhanock. She corresponded with friends and relatives, writing about her isolation and the beauty of her surroundings. An example excerpt from her poem An Evening Prospect:
"Cast your eyes beyond this meadow, Painted by a hand divine, And observe the ample shadow of that solemn ridge of pine."
During this time she also had two daughters—Margaretta, born October 11, 1771, and Abeltje (Abella), born June 5, 1776.
On November 11, 1775, her husband was one of several appointed Deputies (or delegates) from Albany County to the Provincial Congress. Her husband encouraged her writing, he called it "her genius". In the winter of 1779, Bleecker published a periodical called the "Albany Gazette". The Gazette was composed entirely of her political essays, poems, and short stories, produced for the sole purpose of sharing entertainment and news with friends and relatives.
Impact of the American Revolution
In 1777, the Bleeckers' pastoral lives were interrupted by the American Revolutionary War. British troops, under the command of General John Burgoyne, invaded Tomhannock from Canada (as part of Burgoyne's Saratoga campaign to capture the Hudson River). In response, John Bleecker joined the New York Militia, and Ann Bleecker fled southward.
Ann Bleecker was forced to flee to Albany on foot with her two daughters, infant Abella and 6-year-old Margaretta. Along the way, Abella died of dysentery. Joined by her mother and sister Caty Swits, Ann Bleecker continued on to Red Hook, but her mother died en route there. An excerpt of a poem she wrote, Written in the retreat from Burgoyne, describing how she felt about her daughters death:
At length her languid eyes clos'd from the day, The idol of my soul was torn away; Her spirit fled and left me ghastly clay! Then — then my soul rejected all relief, Comfort I wish'd not for, I lov'd my grief: 'Hear, my Abella!' cried I, 'hear me mourn,'