EASTERN NEW YORK TIMELINE - 1695-1699

1695

Nov 1

The Caterskill (Katerskill) Patent, in New York’s Greene County – total acreage unknown - is granted by governor Fletcher, to Jacob Lockerman.

Dec 2

Kingsfield Manor, 24 miles to the north of Schenectady, is created.

State

All remaining Renssalaerwyck grants revert to Killian van Renssalaer, son of Jeremiah. ** The colony’s exports near 200,000 pounds sterling, just about equaling imports. ** British army chaplain John Miller draws a map of Albany.

1696

Jun 25

The Kakiate Patent, part of the future Rockland County, is issued to Daniel Honan and Michael Hawdon.

Aug 20

The English government reports on the importance of a Five Nations (Iroquois) alliance.

State

Canadian governor Louis de Buande Frontenac conducts a foray out of Montréal against New York’s Onondaga Indians, camps at Isle aux Chevreuils (Carleton Island) in the St. Lawrence River. His force of 2,000 kills many Onondaga and Oneida.

Albany

Dutch Reformed Church minister the Reverend Dellius obtains a patent for 537,600 acres of land from Governor Fletcher, including the site of today’s Fort Edward.

1697

May 9

Colonel Lewis Morris is granted Morrisania Manor, in the southern part of the town of Westchester.

May 21

Captain Thomas Chambers registers New York's Fox Hall Manor. It will be annexed to Kingston, New York, in 1787.

May 27

The Great (or Upper) Nine Partners Patent, in Dutchess County, is granted to John/Jan Aarston, William Creed, James Emott/Emmot, Hendrick ten Eyck, Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Filkin, Major Augustin Graham, Colonel Caleb Heathcoate, David Johnstone, and Jarvis Marshall. It includes a small piece of property on the Hudson (just north of the future Poughkeepsie), granted last year.

June

Richard Coote, the Earl of Bellomont is named to succeed Fletcher as Royal Governor of New York. He will not arrive in American until the following April.

Jun 17

Stephanus van Cortlandt is awarded Cortlandt Manor, in northern Westchester County – land he bought from the local Indians in 1683 - by a grant from England’s King William III.

State

Albany's population reaches 714.

Connecticut

A settlement is formed at Bedford, which will eventually becomes a New York State town in Westchester County.

1698

Dec 15

Governor Bellomont, writes to the Board of Trade in London, complaining of the ethics of the legal profession in the colony.

State

Approximately 1230 Senecas remain in the colony, down from nearly twice the number nine year ago, due to war and disease. ** Lord Bellemont is named Royal governor.

1699

State

Kingston settler Johannis Hardenbergh marries Catherine Rutsen, of Ulster County.

©2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte

EASTERN NEW YORK TIMELINE - 1690-1694

1690

January

King William of England appoints Henry Sloughter governor of New York.

Feb 8

French troops set an Indian settlement in Schenectady, New York, on fire. All but two of the 80 houses are destroyed.

Feb 9

French troops and their Indian allies massacre Schenectady settlers. 69 inhabitants are killed and 27 captured. Some escape and are saved from a violent snowstorm by sleighs from Albany. Captain John A. Glen claims many survivors are his relatives to obtain their release. Inhabitant Willem Tietsoort, a blacksmith who had lived among the local Indians for the past 22 years, escapes with his daughter, who will become permanently paralyzed by the cold, to Esopus (Kingston).

Apr 11

Massachusetts calls a special meeting of the United Colonies of New England. Two companies of troops are dispatched to Albany.

May 1

An intercolonial congress meets in New York City to plan attacks on Montréal and Québec. They also discuss the establishment of provincial laws.

August

Fitz-John Winthrop leads a colonial force of 150 to Montréal by way of Lake Champlain but is forced to turn back at Lake George by disease.

State

Acting governor Jacob Leisler appoints Johannis Hardenbergh sheriff of Ulster County. He will lose the position next year with Leisler's arrest. ** Albany’s Dominie Godfridus Dellius complains of the abuse the Dutch clergy undergo under Leisler’s rule. ** Prior to the February, attack Schenectady consists of 60 houses and 300 inhabitants. ** Albany mayor Peter Schuyler builds a blockhouse out in the forest to the north for his military stores and calls the post Saratoga.

Ireland

Charles Clinton, ancestor of New York politicians Gerorge and De Witt Clinton, is born to James and Elizabeth Clinton in County Longford.

1691

May 13

New York's first assembly as a royal colony reenacts 1683's Charter of Liberties. It passes Acts 6 through 10, establishing means for dealing with the poor and vagabonds, enabling the election of representatives, levying monies for the maintenance of a force of fusiliers, enabling the city and county of Albany to repay expenses of the late disturbances by levying local Indian trade groups, and declaring the rights and privileges of colonists.

Oct 1

New York colony’s Albany County is confirmed and its borders delineated.

Oct 7

Massachusetts is given a new charter by William and Mary, restoring the charter of 1629 and making it a royal colony, including Plymouth, Nova Scotia and all territory up through the Maine area. Cornwall County (parts of the Maine coast) and Dukes County (some of the islands off Massachusetts) are taken off New York colony. The charter also makes property the basis of suffrage instead of religion, provides for a governor appointed by the crown, and a Council elected by the General Court, subject to the governor's veto.

State

Dutch immigrant and New Amsterdam settler Jacob Leendertsen Van Der Grift dies in his early sixties at his Newton, Long Island home.

Albany

Mayor Peter Schuyler leads an expedition against Canada, camps at the Great Carrying Place, the portage between the Hudson River and Lake Champlain.

1692

State

Cornwall County is surrendered to Massachusetts. ** Interpreter Arnout Viele leads a party of eleven Europeans and a number of Indians out of Albany, across Pennsylvania, and down the Ohio River to a point near its mouth.

Massachusetts

Dutch settlers from the Hudson Valley begin moving into the Berkshires.

1693

Oct 5

Colonel William Smith is granted St. George Manor, on Long Island.

1694

Aug 15

Colonial delegates meeting in Albany sign a treaty with the Iroquois, to keep the Indians from siding with the French.

© 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte

NEW YORK CITY TIMELINE - 1695-1699

1695

Mar 14

Builder Derex Van Burg(h) petitions royal governor Benjamin Fletcher and his council for back pay due him for erecting the King's Chapel at the foot of Manhattan.

City

William Merritt is appointed mayor, annually through 1698. ** An attempt is made to repeal a 1683 law granting the city a flour monopoly. ** Former military chaplain John Miller draws a detailed plan of lower Manhattan. ** The city has a reported twenty Jewish families. ** Merchant William Kidd travels to London in his brig Antegoa; he happens to meet New Yorker Robert Livingston, who proposes a scheme to suppress piracy for financial gain. Kidd will set out next year on this mission in the Adventure Galley. ** The Little Red Schoolhouse is built, on Staten Island.

1696

February

Captain William Kidd sails his ship Adventure Galley out of London to hunt pirates in Madagascar. He fails to salute the royal yachts as he pull out and his men make insulting gestures. King William orders a hundred of Kidd's men be removed from the captain's forces. Unable to find replacements, Kidd returns to New York.

Mar 19

New York governor Benjamin Fletcher grants a petition by Church of England congregants on Manhattan to build a church (the first, downtown Trinity Church), between the "Kings Garden and the burying Place" at Wall Street..

May

England's King William grants New York City's Collegiate Church a Royal Charter -The Charter of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church - the oldest corporation in the U. S. today.

Jun 26

£3,000 is voted by the corporation of New York City to erect a city hall at the corner of Nassau and Wall Streets.

Jul 23

Governor Fletcher licenses Trinity Church members to solicit contributions for building costs.

Sep 6

Captain Kidd sails from New York to track down pirates.

City

A Quaker meeting house is built on Green Street (Liberty Place). ** Captain Teunis de Kay petitions for permission to construct a cart path from Broad Street to the street where the "pye-woman" lives (Nassau Street), keeping the excavated soil for himself. ** The colony faces a scarcity of bread.

1697

February

Captain William Kidd overtakes a small trader belonging to Moorish merchants off India's Malabar coast. While Captain Thomas Parker is aboard Kidd's ship the privateer's crew boards Parker's vessel and tortures the crew. Kidd will be labeled a pirate from now on.

May 6

Trustees of Trinity Church petition Fletcher to grant them a charter, which will be done.

June

Richard Coote, the Earl of Bellomont is named to succeed Fletcher as Royal Governor of New York. He will not arrive in American until the following April. ** Boston doctor Benjamin Bullivant passes through New York City, comments on the number of wells and the miserable condition of the streets.

Nov 23

The New York City board of aldermen call for all homeowners to hang lights at night in windows that front the street.

Dec 2

New York's board of alderman require every seventh home to hang a lantern out at night, the cost to be borne by all seven households. ** Fletcher orders Trinity Church trustees Stephanus van Cortlandt, Peter Jacobs Mariuss, Dr. John Kerbyle, and Johannes Kipp to report on funds raised under license to redeem captives of the Barbary pirates. One captive, Bartholomew Rouston has been moved into the African interior, one has escaped, the others have died. Remaining funds are to be turned over to Church wardens Thomas Wenham and Robert Lurting for the church's building fund. If Rouston is recovered the church will be responsible for his ransom.

City

Paid appointed firemen are used - the first in the colonies. ** Population: 4,302. ** Church Street is laid out and Trinity Church is built. Governor Fletcher installs the Reverend William Vesey, a Long Island dissenter, as pastor of the new Trinity Church. ** A four-man city watch is created. ** Pro-Leisler members of the Reformed Church consistory now outnumber Anti-Leislerians four to two. ** Dutch traveler Jasper Danckaerts visits Brooklyn, sketches natives and wildlife. ** The State House, at Broad and Pearl streets, is declared unsafe.

1698

Mar 13

The Reverend Mr. Vesey conducts the first services in Trinity Church.

Apr 26

New York Royal governor Benjamin Fletcher, recalled to England, donates his family pew in Trinity Church back to the church, to be used for any person of quality needing a pew at any time.

Oct 20

The disinterred bodies of Jacob Leisler and Jacob Milborne are reburied at Manhattan's Dutch church.

November

Leislerians accuse Dominie Selyns of mishandling consistory meetings and elections. Eleven anti-Leislerians come to his defense.

Nov 9

New York City mayor De Peyster names Enoch Hill the city's first marshal.

City

Johannes De Peyster is appointed mayor. A ritual is inaugurated, and carried on until the Revolution, whereby the mayor-elect and his party proceed from City Hall to Trinity Church (completed this year, the first Episcopal church in the colony) and attend services, call on the governor at Fort William Henry, and return to City Hall for the swearing in. ** An election dispute in the Dutch Reformed Church splits the consistory evenly between pro- and anti-Leisler members. Leislerians claim they are the true Dutch church, point to the anti-Leislerians' cooperation with the English authorities. ** The families of executed rebellion leaders Jacob Leisler and Jacob Milborne ask and receive grudging permission to exhume the bodies and rebury them in the Garden Street Dutch Church yard.

1699

Jul 6

William Kidd, having turned himself in to authorities, is charged with piracy.

Aug 9

New York City begins fining peddlers twenty shillings for selling on the streets, but encourages them to set up a permanent market at Countess's Key (later called Coentes Slip).

Sep 6

New York's mayor is ordered to provide a hospital for the poor. And the village of Harlem is given permission to erect one mill.

Oct 16

A shipyard is established on New York City's East River.

City

Merchant John Rodman purchases the decaying State House at public sale for £920. The English build a new city hall, at Wall and Nassau Streets. The wall along the former is demolished to allow room for expansion. ** David Provost is appointed mayor. ** Population: 6,000. ** The city's monopoly of the flour trade is repealed. ** Pro-Leisler forces in the Dutch Reformed Church consistory now lead the anti-Leisler members six to one. Minister Selyns will be the sole member of the latter for the next two years. ** Nicholas Vechte builds a stone house near Brooklyn's Gowanus Creek. ** The approximate date (birth date also approximate) Dutch-born landowner and merchant Joahannes Pieterse Van Brugh dies, in his mid-seventies.

1690s

Queens' Presbyterians build Old Stone Church near today’s Union Hall Street.

(c) 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte

NEW YORK CITY TIMELINE / 1690-1694

1690

May 1

An intercolonial congress meets in New York City to plan attacks on Montréal and Québec. They also discuss the establishment of provincial laws.

Jun 5

The Council of Virginia decides to send Colonel Cuthbert Potter to New England to report on the aftermath of New York's Leisler uprising.

Jun 6

Close to 50 members of the anti-Leisler faction go to City Hall, refuse to pay further taxes and demand the release of prisoners held in the fort. Some physically attack Leisler and a son in the street, but are driven off by aroused pro-Leisler citizens.

Jun 8

During services, at the Dutch Reformed Church, Dominie Selyns refuses to read an announcement passed up to him from the governor's bench by Leisler, thanking God for deliverance from his enemies. Leisler insists, Selyns then reads it.

Jul 22

Potter arrives in New York City.

Aug 30

Potter reaches Flushing. He hears that governor Jacob Milborne may have him searched and he departs.

City

Population - 3,900. ** The city council creates the position of Inviters to Funerals. Richard Chapman and Cornadus Vandor Beeck are the first to fill the office. Also, hogs are to be kept penned, and poisonous and noxious weeds are to be kept cleared by householders.

1691

Mar 19

English governor Henry Sloughter arrives in New York City aboard the Archangel, has Leisler arrested.

May 6

The New York provincial legislature passes its first six laws, to quiet and settle disorders, establish the English crown as final authority, govern grants and patents, give towns the right to regulate fences and highways, establish courts, and to regulate militias.

May 13

New York's first assembly as a royal colony reenacts 1683's Charter of Liberties. It passes Acts 6 through 10, establishing means for dealing with the poor and vagabonds, enabling the election of representatives, levying monies for the maintenance of a force of fusiliers, enabling the city and county of Albany to repay expenses of the late disturbances by levying local Indian trade groups, and declaring the rights and privileges of colonists.

May 16

On a rainy Saturday 1689 New York rebellion leader Jacob Leisler (in his early fifties, exact birth date unknown) and his son-in-law Jacob Milborne are executed. Before they are hung and beheaded Leisler declares his only objective was to protect the colony against popery. The true issue of contention is economic.

Jul 23

Governor Sloughter drinks himself to death. He will be buried in Peter Stuyvesant's vault in lower Manhattan.

City

Surveyors begin laying out streets and lots. The council votes a four shilling per week allowance to Top-Knot Betty, another woman and two children, as charity cases. It also votes for the construction of a ducking stool to be built on Coentes Slip, in front of the towne-house. ** John Lawrence is appointed mayor for the year. ** The Common Council regulates outfoor markets amd abbatoirs.

Queens

A further addition is made to John Bowne’s 1661 house, a Quaker place of worship.

Staten Island

A house is built at Peterstown (the future Rosebank). It will be enlarged in coming years and in the late 1860s, by then known as Clear Comfort, be home to young photographer Alice Austen.

State

Dutch immigrant and New Amsterdam settler Jacob Leendertsen Van Der Grift dies in his early sixties at his Newton, Long Island home.

1692

Oct 24

New York governor Benjamin Fletcher calls together provincial representatives at New York City, to solicit suggestions for the defense of the colony, with a request for support of religion and the courts. He also recommends cultivating the friendship of the Indians, even to supplying them with arms and ammunition.

City

Abraham De Peyster is appointed mayor, for the first of three consecutive annual terms. ** A bridge is built over Spuyten Duyvil Creek. ** Augustus Jay, grandfather of John Jay, is captured by a French privateer while on a business trip to Europe, and jailed at St Malô for a brief period before being released and returning to New York. ** The city's first newspaper, The New-York Gazette, begins publication. ** The approximate year a house is built for Abraham de Puyster at Smith Street (later 122 William Street). The property will later become Vandercliff’s Orchard, the house will be first the Horse and Cart Tavern (until around 1765), then the Golden Hill Tavern.

1693

Apr 14

William Bradford establishes the first printing press in New York City, on Hanover Square in lower Manhattan.

Jun 8

Governor Fletcher issues a license to Werner Wessels and Antie Christians to solicit funds to redeem the son of the first and husband of the second from Barbary pirates. Funds collected are to be administered by Stephen Cortlandt, Peter Jacobs Marius, John Kerbyll and John Kipp of Trinity Church. Unused funds will be returned to the government for other charitable purposes. Fletcher then adds the names of three other sailors taken at the same time - Bartholomew Rousston, John Crage, and William Green.

Jul 8

The New York City council votes to use necessary revenues from the ferry between Manhattan and Brooklyn to pay off the cost of providing a gold cup, made by Jacob Marius, for presentation to the Governor.

City

English governor Benjamin Fletcher arrives. ** Complaining of the high fees charged him for the ferry franchise, farmer John Arsoon has the fee reduced from £147 to £140. ** New York merchant Frederick Philipse builds a toll bridge - King's Bridge - across Spuyten Duyvil Creek, linking Manhattan to the mainland. It's the city's first bridge. ** Governor Fletcher grants a charter of incorporation to the Dutch Elders and Deacons of the city, encouraging them to build a church. ** Trinity Church receives a royal charter entitling it to any whale that washes up in Manhattan.

1694

City

Charles Lodwik is appointed mayor for this year, and again for next. ** Ships bound for the city begin taking on their pilots at New Jersey's Sandy Hook Bar. ** Wall Street area building lots go on the market at 30 shillings a foot, with those nearest the water going for 24 shillings. ** The market house on lower Broadway is leased to farmer Henry Crosby for one pound a year. ** City recorder James Graham is granted a lot on Queen Street (later Pearl Street) in perpetuity. ** Sixty ships, forty boats and twenty-five sloops are engaged in the flour trade. ** The approximate date the Franquelin Plan (early map of lower Manhattan) is created. ** The city well just north of the wall becomes the first in Manhattan equipped with a pump. ** The Colonial Assembly commissions a group of area sea captains to aid ships entering the harbor. ** The approximate date lawyer William Murray is born. ** The Friends Meeting House of Flushing, Queens, opens, replacing the use of the 1661 Bowne House, for Quaker services since 1662.

(c) 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte