# List of people associated with Albany County, New York

This is a list of notable people whose lives were significantly associated with Albany County, New York.

## Chronological list
### 18th century

* Peter Van Brugh Livingston (1710–1792), born in Albany; politician who supported the American Revolution; presiding officer of the first New York provincial congress in 1775
* Philip Livingston (1716–1778), born in Albany; local merchant; delegate to the Continental Congress; signer of the Declaration of Independence
* William Livingston (1723–1790), born in Albany; newspaper publisher; member of the Continental Congress; first Governor of New Jersey
* Henry Bogart (1729–1821), signer of the Sons of Liberty Constitution in 1766; elected representative of the first ward on the Albany Committee of Correspondence
* Abraham Cuyler (1742–1810), born in Albany; former mayor of Albany, merchant, land owner and British loyalist
* John Tayler (1742–1829), businessman and politician; represented Albany County in the New York State Assembly (1777–1779, 1780–1781, and 1785–1787); appointed City Recorder (Deputy Mayor) of Albany in 1793; justice of the Court of Common Pleas in 1797; represented Albany in the New York Senate 1802–1813; Lieutenant Governor (1811-1822); Acting Governor in 1817; died in Albany and is buried in Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands
* Peter W. Yates (1747–1826), lawyer and Continental Congressman; grew up in Albany and developed a prosperous legal practice there; served on the Albany City Council and in the county militia at the start of the American Revolution; represented Albany in the New York State Assembly and the Continental Congress
* Peter Gansevoort (1749–1812); colonel in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War; born and died in Albany
* Isaac Mitchell (1759–1812), born in Albany; journalist, author, and editor of the Poughkeepsie Guardian, Albany Republican Crisis, and Poughkeepsie Republican Herald
* Alexander Boyd (1764–1857), U.S. Congressman; born in Albany
* James Cochran (1769–1848), U.S. Congressman from New York; journalist; born in Albany
* Jacob Cuyler (1773–1854), born in Albany; British officer involved in the settlement of the 1820 Settlers to the Eastern Cape, South Africa
* Harmanus Bleecker (1779–1849), U.S. Congressman; born in Albany
* Herman Knickerbocker (1779–1855), U.S. Congressman; born in Albany
* John Duer (1782–1858), born in Albany; jurist; author; chief judge of New York Superior Court
* Harmanus Peek (1782–1838), born in Albany; U.S. Congressman from New York
* Gerrit Y. Lansing (1783–1862), born in Albany; U.S. Congressman; bank and insurance company president
* John K. Kane (1795–1858), born in Albany; politician, attorney, and jurist
* Joseph Henry (1797–1878), born in Albany; inventor of low- and high-resistance galvanometers; first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
* Robert Sanders (1705–1765), mayor of Albany from 1750 to 1754

### 19th century

* James Montgomery Bailey (1841–1894), journalist and author; founder of newspapers Danbury News and Danbury Evening News; native of Albany
* William Bliss Baker (1856–1886), landscape artist in the Realism movement
* William Barnes Sr., attorney and Republican Party organizer
* Herman Bendell (1843–1932), physician; Civil War surgeon; Superintendent of Indian Affairs Arizona Territory; American Consul Elsinore, Denmark; native of Albany
* James H. Blessing (1837–1910), mayor of Albany from 1900 to 1901
* William Henry Bogart (1810–1888), member of the New York Legislature; author
* Francis Putnam Burns (1811–?), piano maker in Albany
* Joseph Bradford Carr (1828–1895), born in Albany; Union Army general; Secretary of State of New York
* Robert Carter (1819–1879), born in Albany; author and editor; involved in the foundation of the Republican Party
* Nanette Comstock (1866–1942), born in Albany, stage actress
* Roscoe Conkling (1829–1888), United States Congressman and United States Senator from New York; born in Albany
* William Jermyn Florence (1831–1891), born in Albany; actor; comedian; improvisationalist
* Joseph R. Grismer (1849–1922), actor, playwright and theatrical producer; born in Albany
* Abraham Oakey Hall (1826–1898), born in Albany; mayor of New York City; author
* Learned Hand (1872–1961), United States judge and judicial philosopher
* Henry James Sr. (1811–1882), born in Albany; Swedenborgian theologian; father of William James, Henry James, and Alice James
* Lucy Stedman Lamson (1857–1926), businesswoman, educator
* Daniel Manning (1831–1887), born in Albany; journalist and later United States Secretary of the Treasury
* Homer Dodge Martin (1836–1897), born in Albany; painter whose talent was not recognized until his death
* James Campbell Matthews (1844–1930), New York's first African-American law school graduate and judge of Albany's Recorder's Court
* John McKeon (1808–1883), born in Albany; district attorney for New York County and Southern New York; US Congressman from New York
* Henry B. Metcalfe (1805–1881), born in Albany; prosecuting attorney, judge, and US Congressman from New York
* John Pitkin Norton (1822–1852), born in Albany; chemist and educator; helped found the Sheffield Scientific School
* Emily Sullivan Oakey (1829–1883), born in Albany; educator, author, poet, hymnist
* John Rathbone Oliver (1872–1943), born in Albany; psychiatrist, medical historian, author, and priest
* Annie L. Y. Orff (1861–1914), journalist; magazine editor and publisher
* William Page (1811–1885), born in Albany; considered the leading American painter of his time
* Rufus Wheeler Peckham (1809–1873), lawyer, judge, and U.S. congressman; born in Rensselaerville; the county's district attorney, 1838–1841; served on the New York Supreme Court, Third Judicial District (1861–1869) seated in Albany, then on the New York Court of Appeals (1870–1873); was lost at sea; his cenotaph is in Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands
* Rufus Wheeler Peckham (1838–1909), New York state court judge and U.S. Supreme Court justice; son of Rufus Wheeler Peckham (1809–1873)
* Wheeler Hazard Peckham (1833–1905), lawyer and defeated nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court; son of Rufus Wheeler Peckham (1809-1873)
* Cy Seymour (1872–1919), native of Albany, major league baseball player
* Theobald Smith (1859–1934), born in Albany; epidemiologist, bacteriologist, pathologist and professor
* Gilbert R. Spalding (1812–1880), showman and circus owner
* Frances E. Townsley (1850–1909), Baptist minister
* Luther Tucker (1802–1873), Publisher of The Cultivator and Country Gentleman
* Oren Elbridge Wilson (1844–1917), mayor of Albany from 1894 to 1895
* Alice Ames Winter (1865–1944), litterateur, author and clubwoman

### 20th century

* Philip Amelio (1977–2005), actor and teacher; graduated from the University at Albany and received a master's degree in education from The College of Saint Rose in Albany
* Norman C. Armitage (1907, as Norman Cudworth Cohn–1972), Olympic medalist saber fencer
* Rita Chatterton (b.1957), professional wrestling referee
* William Barnes Jr. (1866–1930), Newspaper publisher and Republican Party leader
* Talor Battle (b.1988), basketball player who is currently an assistant coach for Northwestern Wildcats
* Ann Curless (b. 1963), Exposé singer
* Edmund L. Daley (1883–1968), U.S. Army major general
* Kirsten Gillibrand (b. 1966), current U.S. Senator from New York since 2009; born in Albany
* Kevin Huerter (b.1998), National Basketball Association (NBA) player for the Sacramento Kings
* William Kennedy (b. 1928), writer and journalist; wrote several books based in Albany, including Pulitzer Prize-winning Ironweed
* Thomas D. Kinley (b. 1945), US Army major general
* Mary Mellish (1890–1955), soprano at the Metropolitan Opera; born and died in Albany
* Howard C. Nolan Jr. (1932–2023), former member of the New York State Senate
* Martha Quinn (b. 1959), an original video jockey on MTV
* Emanuel Rackman (1910–2008), born in Albany, Modern Orthodox rabbi; President of Bar-Ilan University
* Andy Rooney (1919–2011), radio and television writer; 60 Minutes
* Shoenice, (b. 1969 as Christopher Schewe), American YouTuber and competitive eater
* Elise Stefanik (b. 1984), U.S. representative for New York and nominee for the United States ambassador to the United Nations
* Israel Tsvaygenbaum (b. 1961), Russian-American artist
* Anthony Vinciquerra (b.1954), former CEO of Fox Networks and current CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, born in Albany.
* Franklin W. Ward (1870–1938), Adjutant General of New York
* Edward J. Westcott (1873–1926), Adjutant General of New York

## Alphabetical index

* Philip Amelio (1977–2005)
* James Montgomery Bailey (1841–1894)
* William Bliss Baker (1856–1886)
* William Barnes Jr. (1866–1930)
* William Barnes Sr. (1824–1913)
* Talor Battle, basketball player who last played for Hapoel Tel Aviv of the Israeli League
* Herman Bendell (1843–1932)
* Harmanus Bleecker (1779–1849)
* William Henry Bogart (1810–1888)
* Alexander Boyd (1764–1857)
* Joseph Bradford Carr (1828–1895)
* Robert Carter (1819–1879)
* James Cochran (1769–1848)
* Roscoe Conkling (1829–1888)
* Edmund L. Daley (1883–1968)
* John Duer (1782–1858)
* William Jermyn Florence (1831–1891)
* Peter Gansevoort (1749–1812)
* Abraham Oakey Hall (1826–1898)
* Learned Hand (1872–1961)
* Joseph Henry (1797–1878)
* Henry James Sr. (1811–1882)
* John K. Kane (1795–1858)
* William Kennedy (born 1928)
* Thomas D. Kinley (born 1945)
* Herman Knickerbocker (1779–1855)
* Gerrit Y. Lansing (1783–1862)
* Peter Van Brugh Livingston (1710–1792)
* Philip Livingston (1716–1778)
* William Livingston (1723–1790)
* Daniel Manning (1831–1887)
* Homer Dodge Martin (1836–1897)
* John McKeon (1808–1883)
* Henry B. Metcalfe (1805–1881)
* Isaac Mitchell (1759–1812)
* Howard C. Nolan Jr. (1932–2023)
* John Pitkin Norton (1822–1852)
* William Page (1811–1885)
* Rufus Wheeler Peckham (1809–1873)
* Rufus Wheeler Peckham (1838–1909)
* Wheeler Hazard Peckham (1833–1905)
* Harmanus Peek (1782–1838)
* Cy Seymour (1872–1919)
* John Tayler (1742–1829)
* Franklin W. Ward (1870–1938)
* Edward J. Westcott (1873–1926)
* Peter W. Yates (1747–1826)