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Mrs. Anna Brass was a daughter of Dr. John W. Bay and a granddaughter of Dr. William Bay, both prominent Albany physicians. His maternal great-great-grandfather was Dr. Samuel Stringer, also a noted Albany physician, who was held in high repute in the British army and later in the American Revolution. In 1775 Dr. Stringer was a member of the Albany Committee of Safety and was subsequently appointed by Congress director-general of hospitals in the Northern Department, and accompanied the troops to Canada. He was a charter member of Masters Lodge No. 5, F. & A. M., Albany, and its master from 1768 lo 1781, and in 1776 purchased the site upon which the new Masonic Temple now stands, deeding the property eventually to his lodge. He married Rachel Van Der Heyden, of a prominent Albany family.
John Bay, father of Dr. William, was born in Maryland in 1743, became a lawyer and a member of the Albany Committee of Safety in the Revolutionary war, and died in Claverack, N. Y., in 1818. Dr. William married Katherine Van Ness. Their son, Dr. John W. Bay, married Eliza Treat, a lineal descendant of Robert Treat, the loyal defender of the Charter of the Colony of Connecticut when surrender of same was demanded by Governor Edmund Andros by direction of King James, and for nearly thirty years governor of Connecticut. Her father was Judge Richard S. Treat, of Albany, a great-grandson of the colonial governor, and the son of Rev. Joseph Treat, born 1734, died 1797, who was commissioned chaplain of Colonel Malcolm's regiment May 6, 1776, being at that time pastor of the First Presbyterian church of New York city.
Richard W. Brass remained in Binghamton until April, 1882, beginning the study of the law there with M. J. Keeler. Coming to Albany he completed his legal studies with Judge A. B. Voorhees and was admitted at Saratoga in September, 1883. May 1, 1884, he formed a partnership with Judge Voorhees, which continued for four years. Since then he has been associated with E. W. Rankin.
He is a member of the New York State Bar Association, a member of the Albany Camera Club, the Unconditional Club, the Albany Burgesses Corps, and the Washington Continentals, and for five years has been a director and treasurer of the Brandow Printing Co. He was also for several years a trustee of the estate of Catherine W. Van Rensselaer under the will of her mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Bleecker. He is a Republican and at one time was a candidate for justice of the City Court.
June 2, 1886, he married Harriet C, daughter of Jacob Neville, a merchant of Middleburg, N. Y., and they have had four children: Harold Neville, Gertrude Stringer, (deceased), Janet Elizabeth, and Karl Van Ness.
Richard W. Brass, son of Charles W. and Anna (Bay) Brass, was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., January 28, 1861. His father, a native of Bremen, Germany, engaged in mercantile business in New York city and died in Brooklyn in April, 1863, aged forty-six. In 1869 his widow moved with the family to Binghamton, N. Y., where and in Munich, Germany (where they lived from 1863 to 1868), Richard W. received his education.
