1685
Feb 6
The Duke of York is crowned as James II. New York becomes a royal province. James becomes owner of the estate between today’s Fulton Street, Broadway, Duane Street, and the Hudson River, to be known as King’s Farm.
Mar 23
Governor Thomas Dongan reconfirms the Flushing, Long Island, grant.
May 1
Mary, the widow of early New Amsterdam settler Gerrit Remmersen moves with her family from Sapochkanika (Greenwich Village) to Gravesend, Brooklyn.
Sep 13
Manhattan blacksmith Myndert Burger Van Evera marries Saertie (Sarah) Theunic Van Huyse.
Nov 7
The New York General Assembly moves the Kings County (Brooklyn) courts from Gravesend to Flatbush.
Nov 20
Dongan confirms the rights of Brooklyn's New Lots settlement.
Dec 15
Governor Dongan directs Leon Beckwith to make a survey of Wall Street’s North Side.
Dec 16
Beckwith carries out the survey, writes his report.
City
Former Dutch receiver general Nicholas Bayard, a nephew of Peter Stuyvesant and a favorite of Governor Dongan, is appointed mayor for the year.
Scotland
The approximate date New York City provincial counciilman Archibald Kennedy is born in Craigoch And Kilhenzie, Ayrshire, to Alexander and Anne Crawford Kennedy.
1686
Apr 20
James II names Alexander Innes clerk to the garrison at New York.
Apr 27
Dongan grants New York City a new charter, confirming and enlarging the city’s municipal powers. The city is given control over vacant Manhattan shore lands extending to the low water mark.
Nov 1
French Jesuit Father Lamberville writes to Chevalier de Callieres, Governor of Montréal, to inform him that New York's governor Dongan had assembled the Iroquois Nations in New York City and told them to keep the French out of English territory and to break off all relations with them.
City
James II bans the first House of Representatives and prohibits printing presses. ** Businessman Stephanus Van Cortlandt is appointed mayor for this and each of the next two years. ** The first member of the Rhinelander family, future sugar and shipping business owners, arrives from Germany. ** Captain John Manning's son-in-law, Robert Blackwell, becomes owner of Minnahannock Island (afterwards Hog, Manning, then Blackwell, Welfare, and eventually Roosevelt) and gives it his name. ** The Kings County (Brooklyn) court house is built at Flatbush. ** French Huguenot Augustus Jay, grandfather of John Jay, settles here permanently. ** A new seal is granted to the city, bearing a beaver, a windmill, a flour barrel, a cross and two Indians. ** A public well system utilizing up to eight wells is established, with the city agreeing to split the cost with the inhabitants. ** The last wolf in the settlement is killed.
1687
Mar 20
Captain John Palmer is granted the Cassiltown Patent, on the northern part of Staten Island.
Mar 31
The 5,100-acre Palmer Patent, on Staten Island (Richmond County), is granted to Captain John Palmer.
May 6
Bentley Manor on Staten Island is granted to Captain Christopher Billop.
Sep 26
Over a five-day period male Dutch residents of King’s County (Brooklyn), New York, sign an oath of allegiance to James II.
City
Flour trade revenue reaches £5,000. ** Gravesend settler Willem Gerrittsen takes an oath of allegiance to the British government.
1688
City
Politician Leonard Lewis marries Elisabeth Hardebnbergh of Kingston. ** Extensive repairs are made to Fort Amsterdam, with Frederick Wessel among the contractors.
1689
Mar 27
Rebecca Idens Van Huyse, daughter of Theunis, marries master weaver Abraham de la Montagnie in Manhattan’s Reformed Dutch Church.
May 16
New York merchant William Kidd marries twice-widowed property-owner Sarah Bradly Cox Oort.
May 31
Following remarks made yesterday by Francis Nicholson, Andros’ Manhattan lieuten ant governor, to a militia officer - declaring he would rather burn the town than have it commanded by the militia, and fearing an invasion from French Catholic Canada, the New Amsterdam militia assumes control of the city's Fort James and chose Captain Jacob Leisler to command.
June
The Committee for the Preservation of Safety and Peace appoints Jacob Leisler as captain of the settlement’s fort.
Jun 3
Leisler issues a proclamation stating that as soon as the expected ships arrive from England with the designated new governor of the province, he will turn over control.
Jun 4
Leisler writes to the Governor and Committee of Safety at Boston explaining recent events. He reports he’s made a survey of the fort’s guns and ammunition and found them in quite poor shape.
Jun 5
Major Nathan Gold writes Leisler from Fairfield, Connecticut congratulating him on his takeover of New York.
Jun 10
Nicholson - gathering depositions for the past four days - sails for the Jersey shore.
Jun 16
Leisler writes to Major Nathan Gold in Connecticut, enclosing a copy of his Jun 3rd proclamation and requesting the Major’s continued co-operation. He mentions the former admnsitration’s “papist collector” is still in office and refuses to leave.
Jun 19
Leisler writes to the governor of Boston from Fort William (formerly Fort James), to update him on events in Manhattan. Leisler has had Jonathan Davids, a Catholic, arrested at his Staten Island home. He is also busy strengthening the fort’s defensives.
Jun 22
An embassy of officials from Connecticut notify Leisler that William and Mary are now proclaimed King and Queen of England, and he announces the news to the city. Meeting with Governor van Cortlandt, he agrees to give over the city’s government if van Cortlandt will declare allegiance to the new monarchs. The governor stalls, hoping to force Leisler into officially seizing power. Leisler adherents claim three fires have been set in Fort George.
Jun 25
Leisler calls an assembly at the fort to authorize a provincial defense force.
August
New York City's wood-lined well just north of the wall is completed and the well inside the fort repaired.
October
New York election results are confirmed by Leisler.
Dec 11
Leisler seizes the entire colony of New York.
City
Peter Delanoy is appointed mayor, this year and again in 1690. ** A smallpox epidemic strikes the city, lasts into next year.
© 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte
