Bleecker was the youngest daughter of Brandt Schuyler, and was born in the city of New York in October, 1752. In 1769 she married Mr. John J. Bleecker, of New Rochelle, and removed with him to Poughkeepsie. After leaving Poughkeepsie, Mr. and Mrs. Bleecker settled at Tomhanick, a beautiful little village about eighteen miles above Albany. She died there November 23, 1783. Her poems were written without a view to publication, but several of them were printed in the earlier numbers of the New York Magazine. A collection of her poems and stories was published in 1793, under the supervision of her daughter, Margaretta, who added a number of verses and essays from her own pen.

Gulian C. Verplanck belongs to the literary characters of Westchester County by right of residence, for many years dividing his time between the city of New York and the Verplanck homestead at Fishkill Landing, on the Hudson, a well-preserved old mansion, in which the Society of the Cincinnati was founded. A graduate of Columbia College, he studied law, was admitted to the bar and after spending several years in Europe returned to New York, and was elected a member of the Legislature. In 1818 he delivered the first of the series of public addresses on which his literary reputation mainly rests. About 1820 he was appointed professor of the Evidences of Christianity in the General Protestant Episcopal Seminary, and in 1824 published a volume of essays on this subject. In 1825 he was elected a member of Congress from New York City and remained in the House eight years. He was especially prominent in advocacy of the bill extending the term of copyright from twenty-eight to forty-two years. For several years he was a member of the New York Senate. In 1827 Verplanck, Sands and Bryant united in the production of an annual called 7'he Talisman.