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Sunday, August 7, 2011

NEW YORK CITY TIMELINE / 1745-1749

NOTE:

The Manhattan death notices of 1748 and 1749 are taken from a semi-random search of the coroner’s records of John Burnet, published by the New York Genealogical Society:

Minutes of Coroners Proceedings, City and County of New York, John Burnet, Coroner, 1748-1758

Volume XVI of the Collections of The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society (2004)



Edited by Francis J. Sypher, Jr.

http://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/download/catalog/catalog.pdf


1745

Jul 31

John Burnet is licensed as an attorney in New York City.

Aug 19

John Burnet is appointed clerk of the Colonial Court of Chancery in New York City.

City

Archibald Kennedy, eleventh Earl of Cassillis, builds a home overlooking Battery Park, later site of the Washington Building (No. 1 Broadway). ** Lawyer-historian William Smith graduates from Yale, returns to New York, reads law in his father William's office.


1746

Mar 16

The brig King George, Charles Dickinson captain, arrives at New York from Barbados.

Jul 28

Printer-editor John Peter Zenger dies in New York City, in his late forties.

City

Henry De Forest's Evening Post begins publication, puts out a few issues, this year and next.


1747

Jan 19

Early Pittsford settler Josiel Farr is born in Acton, Massachusetts.

City

Edward Holland is appointed mayor for the next ten consecutive one-year terms. ** The Common Council considers passing rules regulating teawater men, commercial providers of drinking water. It does nothing. ** A debate is begun over the possible location of King's College, inside the city or in the countryside. ** Coroner John Van Cortlandt dies, unmarried, in his late twenties. ** New Yorkers own approximately 99 ships.

Literature

William Livingston of New York City, publishes Philosophic Solitude; or The Choice of a Rural Life.


1748

Jan 16

William Smith, Jr. succeeds John Burnet as clerk of the Colonial Court of Chancery.

Jan 28

John Burnet is commissioned Coroner of the City and County of New York, succeeding the late John Van Cortlandt, calls for a panel of 24 jurors to appear before him by at 4 PM, at the home of Hugh Crawford near City Hall. He creates a series of forms to be used in all coroners’ cases. His panel meets and determines that Sarah Fisher has committed suicide yesterday in the Crawford home by strangling herself.

Apr 4

Workman Peter DeWitt is killed while working on a hillside site near the home of James Darcy, in the city's Montgomerie Ward, when a rock falls on him.

Jun 5

John, a thirteen-year-old black belonging to John Pinhorn, drowns in New York City after falling out of a boat.

Jun 11

James Miller, a servant of New York City brewer Robert Benson, attacks Nicholas Stilwell, causing his death by a blow to the head.

Jun 26

A Francis Davis drowns off New York City’s Blackwell’s Island while swimming.

Jul 20

New York City resident Henry Jenkins, kills himself with a musket at the home of widow Deborah Burger, who testifies at the coroner’s inquest that day.

Aug 20

James Dean, missionary to the Oneida Indians, is born in Groton, Connecticut.

Oct 6

New York City coroner John Burnet, reappointed by the Common Council, takes his oath of office.

Oct 25

Piere Olieve falls in the hold of the snow Swallow, while it is moored in the East River at New York; is killed instantly.

Oct 30

Finnish explorer and botanist Peter Kalm arrives in New York City. He makes observations on the local oyster fishermen.

Oct 31

Kalm explores oystering further, provides recipes, and learns the "r" rule for months in which to eat them.

Nov 1

Kalm discusses some of the diseases common to the New York area. He also mentions the clamming industry and the Indians' use of the shells for wampum. He visits the city's synagogue.

Nov 2

Kalm revisits the synagogue.

Nov 3

Kalm leaves New York for Philadelphia.

Nov 11

New York City resident John Marschalk commits suicide, shooting himself in the head with a pistol.

Dec 25

An intoxicated James Wisely falls of a New York City wharf belonging to Stephen Bayard and drowns.

City

When the price of European logwood, a dye source, begins climbing steeply, local merchants begin purchasing it in Central America, the source of the bulk of the trade through 1761.

Bronx

A mansion is built for Frederick Van Cortlandt in what will later become Van Cortlandt Park.

Brooklyn

To protest its control by Manhattan interests, residents burn the Fulton Ferry house.


1749

Jun 27

A coroner’s jury meets in New York City to hold an inquest on a male infant. Midwives Baffie VandeWater and Johanna Gardland are sworn in. The panel is then adjourned until the 30th.

Jun 30

The coroner’s jury reconvenes. It’s determined that an unknown person or persons murdered the male infant by drowning him in the Hudson River.

Aug 8

An intoxicated Cornelius Quick takes a fall in a Manhattan alley and dies.

Aug 20

The free mulatto woman Isabella, servant of Daniell Shatford, strangles a male infant, her illegitimate son, in the garret of Shatford’s home.

Aug 21

Isabella is jailed. Her health begins failing.

Sep 13

John Killmaster of New York City hangs himself from a cellar beam.

Sep 14

Isabella dies in jail.

Sep 24

A drunken Daniell York tumbles from a pier in lower Manhattan and is drowned.

Oct 14

John Burnet takes his oath of office as coroner of the City of New York.

Nov 17

A New York coroner’s jury determines that an infant found dead in the Hudson River was probably stillborn.

Dec 4

A James Holliday attempts to board the ship Mary during a stormy evening in New York City, slips from the gangway and is drowned.

Dec 13

The widowed Mary Nicholls, daughter of New York City’s County Court examiner Richard Nicholls, marries future Trinity Church rector Samuel Auchmuty.

Dec 25

An ill Mary Russell, wife of Nicholas Russell, suffers a fit on New York’s Smith Street around six in the morning and dies instantly.


© 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte

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