EASTERN NEW YORK TIMELINE - 1685-1689

1685

Feb 6

The Duke of York is crowned as James II. New York becomes a royal province.

Feb 24

Connecticut governor Robert Treat and New York governor Thomas Dongan ratify the boundary between their colonies.

Mar 23

Governor Dongan reconfirms the Flushing, Long Island, grant.

May 8

Mohawks deed land to Tenunis Slingerland.

Oct 7

Rumbout’s Patent, in Dutchess County, is awarded to Francis Rumbout.

Oct 18

France's Louis XIV revokes the Edict of Nantes, which had granted tolerance towards Huguenots, increasing their migration to America. Among them are John Jay's ancestors. Jay's grandfather Augustus is away on a trading voyage to Africa at the time.

Nov 4

Governor Dongan issues a patent to the van Rensselaer cousins for the Manor of van Renssalaerwyck.

Nov 5

The van Rensselaer patent is confirmed.

State

The approximate date the Old Dutch Church in Tarrytown – the oldest church

in the future state - is completed.

1686

Mar 14

The Kinderhook Patent, in Columbia County, is granted to John Hendrik De Bruyn and others.

Jul 22

Albany City (Beverwick, William Stadt, New Orange) is incorporated by patent. ** Columbia County's Livingston Manor is patented.

Nov 25

Dongan issus a patent for Newtown (Middleburgh), Long Island.

Dec 6

Dongan confirms the incorporation of Southampton, in Long Island’s Suffolk County.

Dec 9

Dongan confirms the incorporation of East Hampton, in Suffolk County.

State

The colony's new Charter of Liberties is disallowed. ** The English, French and Senecas all try diplomacy. ** The municipal corporation of Albany acquires a deed to the Mohawk village of Tiononderogue (Fort Hunter).

England

The Crown establishes the Dominion of New England, covering all lands from New Jersey to Maine.

1687

Oct 25

Pelham Manor is granted to John Pell.

November

The entire Iroquois League allies itself with the English.

Nov 10

James II issues a warrant to Dongan, ordering him to protect the Five Nations as Royal subjects.

State

Johannes Van Rensselaer dies, childless, leaving the patroonship of Rensselaerwyck clear for his nephew Killian.

1688

Feb 8

Dongan tells the Iroquois that the French claim to have purchased land from them in the past.

Feb 13

The Iroquois respond that the French have no claim to their land.

Feb 16

The Iroquois tell Dongan they do not trust the governor of Canada and want the French removed from their beaver hunting grounds.

March

New York (Massachusetts, New Jersey) governor William Burnet is born in The Hague, Netherlands, to Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, and Mary Scott Burnett.

Jun 3

The Hoosick Patent, in Rensselaer and Washington counties, is granted to Maria Van Rensselaer and others.

September

Royal governor Edmund Andros annexes the governments of New York and the Jerseys to the Dominion of New England.

State

Pioneer Bartel Vroman settles in the Saratoga Patent. ** Rhinecliff, in the mid-Hudson Valley, is settled. ** In order to protect the crop, the Brookhaven, Long Island, town meeting forbids gathering berries before September 15^th, under a penalty of a 15 shilling fine.

1689

Aug 1

The Albany Convention is established for protection against a French attack.

September

Meeting with Mohawk chiefs at Albany, New England commissioners form an alliance against the French, with the Five Nations.

Sep 4

Officials at an Albany convention suggest that a fort be built at the property of Bartel Vroman in Sarachtoge (Saratoga).

State

Approximately 2250 Seneca inhabit the colony.

© 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte

EASTERN NEW YORK TIMELINE / 1680-1684

1680

Apr 1

Philipsburgh Manor is granted to Frederick Philipse.

Nov 14

Kirsch’s Comet appears over the northern colonies, causing Boston’s Increase Mather to preach a sermon on Heaven's Alarm to the World, and the Hudson River Dutch to petition for a day of fasting and humiliation. It will have disappeared by March 19th of the following year.

State

Abraham, Jacob and Catherine Schellinger, children of East Hampton settler Jacobus Schellinger, needing land to farm, move three miles east and found Amagansett. ** The approximate date Mohawk spokesman Chief Hendrick (Theyanoquin) is born. ** Dutch missionaries Jaspar Danckaerts and Peter Sluyter visit Albany. ** Daniel Janse Van Antwerp is granted 165 acres of land in Woestina (today's Rotterdam Junction area). ** Over the past decade Hudson Valley travelers have noted that card playing has become increasingly popular among the Munsee Indians.

1681

Feb 8

Trader Evert Wendell is born in Albany to shoemaker and trader Jeronimus (Harmanus) and Ariantie Visscher Wendell.

Nov 30

Albany sheriff Richard Petty is granted a warrant against certain tavern keepers who illegally stay open all night, singling out Ida Barents. She will be in trouble repeatedly over the next two years for similar infractions.

State

Frederick Philipse erects a house on the Nepperhan River, at the future site of Yonkers. ** Southampton farmer Joseph Pierson registers his own cattle earmarks.

1682

Nov 4

Mohawks transfer deeds to Jan Mangelse, Captain Johannes Clute, and Claes VanBoeckhoven. The latter deed reserves the right to the Indians to have free wood and hunting.

State

The Verplanck family buys Hudson Valley land for farming in the future Newburgh area. ** Robert Livingston begins buying land along the Hudson River, the nucleus of the future Livingston Manor.

1683

Jul 26

Mohawk Indians grant deeds to Cornelis Van Dyck and three others, retaining hunting & fishing rights. The Indians confirm the loosely-defined Kyaderosseras or Queensborough Patent, encompassing most of today's Saratoga County, to May Beckley, Johannes Beekman, Ann Bridges, Samson Broughton, Johannes Fisher, Peter Franconneer, Manning Hermanse, Adrian and Jovis Hogelandt, John Stevens, Johm Totham, John Tuder, and Rip Van Dam.

Sep 26

Mohawk Indians deed to Arnold Viele lands covering 16 to 17 morgens (a Dutch measure equal to about 2 acres).

Nov 1

New York's Albany, Kings, Dukes, Westchester, Ulster, Cornwall (islands off the Maine coast), Dutchess, New York, Orange, Queens (including Hempstead and Oyster Bay), counties are chartered by Royal Governor Thomas Dongan. Long Island's East Riding of Yorkshire is organized as Suffolk County. Martin's Vineyard, in Dukes County, later becomes Martha's Vineyard, part of Massachusetts.

Nov 8

The Connecticut-New York boundary dispute is temporarily settled by a new commission sent over from England,

Nov 28

The Connecticut-New York boundary dispute is settled by committee, temporarily.

State

The General Assembly of Freeholders reorganizes the province’s governmental structure into 12 counties.

1684

May

The Connecticut Assembly approves the border with New York.

June 5

Algonquin Indian chief Sepham and others cede lands of the Tuckahoe Hills, later part of Yonkers, to Frederick Philipse.

Jul 30

The Iroquois renew peace treaties with New York's governor Thomas Dongan, at Albany, plant a Tree of Peace.

Aug 1

Iroquois land is deeded to Governor Dongan.

Aug 21

New France (Canada) governor Joseph-Antoine de la Febvre leads a force of 1800 out of Fort Frontenac (Kingston) to the mouth of New York’s Salmon River, for a parley with the Indians. A scarcity of fish leads to the death of a number of his troops.

Nov 1

Dongan grants a patent for Schenectady County.

Nov 4

The village of Schenectady is patented. Control of all the common lands is vested in the original grantees. ** The Saratoga Patent, in Washington and Saratoga counties, is granted to Cornelius Van Dyck, Peter Schuyler, and others.

© 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte

NEW YORK CITY TIMELINE / 1685 - 1689

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