Isabella Rachels married Johannes Lydius during the 1690s while
he was domine of the Reformed Church at Antwerp Belgium. With
her young children, she accompanied Lydius to New York in 1700
where he had accepted a call to the Dutch Reformed Church at
Albany. Three more babies were born in America and the family
settled into a comfortable life in their new State Street home.
This minister's wife set down roots in Albany and played a
supportive role in church activities. But the untimely death of
Johannes Lydius in 1710 left Isabella with charge of his Albany
estate and also with responsiblity for administering his
property in Holland for the benefit of their five surviving
children. By January 1711, widow Isabella Lydius had entered
into a marriage contract with widower Jacob Staats, an Albany
physician. With her two European-born daughters, she became a
naturalized British subject in 1716. After raising her family
and Staats’s two daughters as well, she inherited his property
after Jacob Staats's death in 1735