NEW YORK CITY TIMELINE / 1770-1774

1770

Jan 17

British soldiers tear down New York City’s liberty pole. Golden Hill becomes the site of anti-British riots lasting two days.

Jan 19

New York City Sons of Liberty leader Alexander McDougall leads an attack on British troops in a skirmish on Golden Hill.

Feb 8

Alexander McDougall is jailed by the British for publishing an anti-Quartering Act broadside.

Apr 29

Alexander McDougall is released on bail by the British.

Aug 21

A statue of George III is erected in New York’s Bowling Green.

City

King’s College (Columbia) awards the first two doctorates of medicine in the North American colonies. ** The Common Council begins buying alcohol for firefighters at the scene of fires. ** The city has 15 churches serving 10 denominations. ** A smallpox epidemic strikes the city. Several hundred black victims are buried in a site in today's City Hall Park. ** A member of the Common Council proposes the formation of an organization similar to Philadelphia's Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses From Loss by Fire. Nothing comes of the suggestion at this time. ** George Burns, proprietor of Burns’ Coffee House at 115 Broadway (corner of Cedar Street) dies. Former Queen’s Head - later the site of Fraunces Tavern – owner Richard Bolton takes over Burns’.

Staten Island

Cornelius Cruser adds a large section to the stone cottage built in 1720 by Cornelius Van Santvoord, in the still-to-come New Brighton neighborhood.

Law

New York attorney John Wells is born.

1771

City

A fence is erected around the Bowling Green. ** The population reaches 21,869.

1772

September

Sir John Johnson travels to New York City for the social season. He enrolls two nieces, Polly Johnson and Catherine Claus, in boarding school there.

City

Margaret Nicholls, wife of Court of Chancery examiner Richard Nicholls, dies

in Manhattan, is buried in the family plot in Trinity Church graveyard.

1773

Feb 18

New York City seed merchant Grant Thorburn is born in Westhouses, Scotland, to nail maker James Thorburn and his wife Elizabeth Fairlie Thorburn.

September

William and Emily Forsyth move from Québec City to New York City with their family, including Forsyth stepson John MacKinzie (who will later drop the 'Mac' from his name).

Nov 7

Daniel MacLeod leaves New York City to inspect Beekmantown, New York, on the western shore of Lake Champlain.

Dec 7

Governor Tryon's New York City house within Fort George is destroyed by fire.

City

Alexander Hamilton begins his studies at King’s College (Columbia). He will not earn a degree there. ** The city's population is now nearly 22,000; there are 396 licensed taverns plus an uncounted number of extralegal ones. ** The Common Council reimburses tavernkeeper John Simmons for alcohol supplied to coroners' juries. ** The New-York Gazette, or, the Weekly Post-Boy, published by founder James Parker until his death in 1770, ceases publication after 30 years. ** Irish immigrant Christopher Colles, recently-returned from touring British canals, gives a lecture on canal engineering. ** The city has around three dozen Jewish families. ** A house is built for Joseph Rose, captain of the brig Industry, at 273 Water Street – close to the river at the time. It will be the third-oldest building in the city. Rose shares a pier with a neighbor, merchant William Laight. ** Robert Robinson and Michael Price enter into a partnership to open a dry goods shop at Horse and Cart (William) Street, the former named for a popular tavern. ** The approximate date architect Josiah Cleveland Cady is born in Providence, Rhode Island, to Josiah and Lydia Cady.

1774

Apr 16

The Commerce arrives in New York from Edinburgh with 230 passengers aboard.

Apr 19

A broadside posted in New York City announces the arrival of contraband tea off New Jersey's Sandy Hook.

Apr 22

Engineer Christopher Colles, recently arrived from Philadelphia, presents a proposal to the New York City Common Council for building a reservoir and waterworks system. ** The new Committee of Observation boards the British tea ship London as it enters New York City's harbor and escorts it to the pier. In the evening a mob boards the ship and dumps £2,000 worth of tea in the harbor.

Apr 23

The public gathers in New York City to celebrate the tea party.

June

New York's city surveyor Gerard Bancker and Colles take elevation readings from Fresh Water (the Collect) to the liberty pole on upper Broadway (near today's city hall).

Jun 11

Governor William Tryon issues a report on the province of New York.

Jun 12

The Friendship, captained by Thomas Jann, arrives in Philadelphia bringing 106 Scots immigrants, many of them indentured servants.

Jun 30

The Friendship servants are advertised in New York newspapers.

Jul 21

The New York city council votes, 8-2, to proceed with Colles's water plan and, unanimously, to issue £2,500 in promissory notes to pay for the project.

August

The New York council agrees to purchase part of land owned by Augustus and Frederick Van Cortlandt, if good water can be found. Colles sinks a well, finds acceptable water. He's given the go-ahead to enlarge the well and the city soon purchases 1.75 acres of the land. Near the end of the month the council orders £2,500 in bank notes from engraver Elisha Gallaudet, the first currency issued by an American city. ** Captain Lindsay of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, returns from New York City with new arms for town’s Light Artillery company.

Aug 5

Notes are issued by New York City to finance the Colles waterworks.

Aug 6

Shaker (Shaking Quaker) movement founder Mother Ann Lee arrives in New York from Liverpool, England, along with eight disciples.

September

New York City advertises for bids to supply pipes for the new water system.

November

New York City signs a contract for the manufacture of water pipes with the firm owned by Isaac Manns senior and junior, of Stillwater, New York.

City

Local residents force a merchant to remove 16 sheep from his vessel before permitting it to sail to the West Indies, to comply with Article 7 of the Association. ** A group of English Shakers arrive. In two years they will move upstate to Albany County to become the Watervliet Society. ** John Jay is elected to the conservative Committee of Fifty-One, formed to combat the threat of anarchy. ** An estimated 3,000 households get their water from the Tea Water Pump near the eastern outlet of Fresh Water Pond (The Collect). ** Lewis Morris and John Sickles are granted permission by the city and the colonial Assembly to join their Westchester and Manhattan properties by a bridge; the first planned over the lower Harlem River. It is never built.

Education

Loyalist King's College president Myles Cooper publishes the pamphlet A Friendly Address to all Reasonable Americans, anonymously.

New Jersey

The local committee in Newark recommends a boycott of the loyalist New York City newspaper Rivington’s Gazette

© 2012 David Minor / Eagles Byte

EASTERN NEW YORK STATE TIMELINE - 1715-1724

1715

Nov 18

The British Lords of Trade and Plantations write to secretary of state for the southern department James Stanhope, praising the cooperation shown by the Iroquois Nations towards New York colony.

State

St. Peter’s, Albany’s first Protestant Episcopal Church, is completed on a site granted by the governor. ** The approximate date Thomas Davenport settles the Philipstown area of Westchester. ** Scientist Cadwallader Colden's paper on animal secretions is read before England's Royal Society by astronomer Edmund Halley.

Ireland

Future New York Indian agent William Johnson is born in Smithtown.

1716

Mar 16

Naturalist and traveler Peter Kalm is born in Angermanland, Sweden.

Sep 1

The 2,000-acre Van Slyck’s Patent, in Montgomery County, is granted to Harman Van Slyck.

State

Innkeeper A. Delong settles in the Dutchess County town of Beekman, soon opens an inn.

1717

May 27

Livingston Manor is annexed to Dutchess County.

State

A courthouse opens in Poughkeepsie, the first of five on the site.

1720

Apr 19

King George I appoints William Burnet as Royal governor of New York, replacing Robert Hunter.

State

The approximate date pioneer Jacobus Stoughtenburgh arrives in the future Dutchess County, settles what will become Hyde Park. Area settlers begin paying Wappinger and other Indians bounties on wolves.

1722

Mar 18

The 12,000-acre Harrison’s Patent, in Montgomery County, is granted to Francis Harrison and others.

Oct 23

The 6,000-acre Morris’s Patent, in Montgomery County, is granted to Lewis Morris and others.

State

The Iroquois sign a treaty in Albany, with Virginia governor Spotswood, agreeing to stay beyond the Potomac and the Blue Ridge Mountains. ** The approximate date Nehemiah Partridge paints a portrait of Albany socialite Ariaantje Coeymans. ** The approximate date the first settlement in the future Herkimer County is made, above Little Falls, by Palatine Germans. ** Wappinger Indians begin meeting with Dutchess County officials at Poughkeepsie, continue to do so periodically until 1743. Presents are distributed.

1723

Jun 30

The 6,000-acre Morris’s Patent, in Montgomery County, is granted to Lewis Morris and others – their second.

Oct 19

A land patent is issued to Palatine Germans John Christopher Garlock, John Jost Petri and Conrad Rickert for a 12,7000-acre area now named Stone Arabia, in Montgomery and Fulton counties.

State

The Palatines' Great Lot No. 2 is created in the Mohawk Valley and assigned to Anne Feltelandt. ** Palatine settlers build a log octagon-shaped church in Herkimer.

1724

Feb 19

Former Albany mayor (the first) Peter Schuyler dies there at the age of 66.

State

Long Island's Suffolk County passes its first laws regulating public roads.

© 2012 David Minor / Eagles Byte

2011 SEASON'S WISHES

Season’s Greetings

From Joann and David Minor

Rochester City Hall - 2011

PASSING THE TORCH

(Continued from November 23, 2011)

Every incoming New York City mayor takes the reins of a different beast than that of his predecessor. As state legislator and canal supporter Walter Bowne prepared to take over from William Paulding at the end of 1829 the city was in its usual state of flux. Street names were changing, usually piecemeal - part of Herring Street became Bleecker, part of Arden became Morton, part of Reason Street (named for Thomas Paine's ”The Age of Reason”) became Barrow.

Structures were springing up on streets old and new. On the north side of the new Washington Square, construction began on architect Martin Thompson's row of Greek Revival townhouses. Thompson, by the way, along with Ithiel Town and Andrew J. Davis, all with offices in the Merchants Exchange building, constituted the entire architectural profession in the city. Over on Macdougal Street, between West 3rd and 4th streets, a row of townhouses in the older Federal style was being built for a real estate investor, a man in his early seventies who'd had few other careers before this - vice-president of the United States for one - man named Aaron Burr. It was a healthy market. Buildings on the better, older streets brought good prices. A two-story house and lot at 17 Broadway, sold for $19,000. The Bowling Green Post Office sits on the site in our own time. But, begin looking over on nearby Hanover Square today and you could find a 625 square foot two-room apartment for a mere $299,000. Plus a $900 per month maintenance fee. Adaptive reuse is not a new concept in our own time. Over near City Hall, the New Gaol building, built in 1755, was converted in 1829 into a hall of records.

All the changes were not architectural and geographical. Among the new institutions springing up were two banks - the National Bank in the City of New York, and the Seamen's Bank for Savings in the City of New York (they didn't believe in short, punchy names back then). The New York City Temperance Society was founded as was the Workingmen's Party of New York. The latter would only last two years, replaced two years later by the General Trades Union, a confederation of the city's smaller labor organizations, which by 1836 would conduct nearly 40 work stoppages. Fire was always a major concern in this city with only a primitive water system. Since 1816 firefighters had been exempted from military and jury duty after serving in their departments for ten years. 1829 saw the required term lowered to seven years; in 1847 it would be reduced to five.

Two newspapers were founded to help New Yorkers keep track of all these changes. Mordecai M Noah, who we met in 1827 founding the Niagara frontier Jewish state of Ararat, was here now, and founded the Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer, which would later merge with the New York World. He signed on editor James Gordon Bennett. Senior, that is. Junior would make an even bigger name for himself here, in the business later on. The Morning Herald and the Evening Journal also joined the city's media mix. (Make that medium mix).

Many foreign sections of the city's papers probably carried the recent news of a fellow countryman of James Stuart's by the name of William Hare and his friend William Burke. We'll check out their connection with 1829 New York next time.

© 2005 David Minor / Eagles Byte

NEW YORK CITY TIMELINE / 1765-1769

1765

Apr 10

New York City lawyer, corporate counselor, alderman and State Supreme Court justice John Chambers dies in his mid-fifties. Fellow lawyer Augustus Van Cortlandt inherits half his library, the other half is inherited by John Jay.

Jun 8

The Massachusetts General Court invites delegates from other colonies to an October congress in New York City.

August

New York attorney general John Tabor Kempe informs Indian agent William Johnson that English law does not recognize aboriginal land rights. Johnson will reply that the Indians are a sovereign nation and do not fall under English jurisdiction.

Oct 7

The Stamp Act Congress meets at City Hall to organize resistance. Delegates from nine colonies attend.

Oct 19

The Stamp Act Congress adopts “A declaration of rights and grievances of the colonists of America”.

Oct 22

The congress adopts petitions to the king and to the House of Lords.

Oct 23

The congress adopts petitions to the House of Commons.

Oct 31

New York City merchants sign a non-importation agreement. A committee of correspondence is formed.

Nov 1

A mob demonstrates in New York City, the date the Stamp Act was to have gone into effect.

Nov 27

Peter De Lancey, returned to New York City from London aboard the Hope as a new Stamp Act commissioner, learning of the measure's unpopularity, publicly resigns his office.

City

A local Sons of Liberty is formed to protest the Stamp Act. ** The former Nassau Street Theatre, a German Lutheran church since 1758, is demolished by English impresario Lewis Hallam, who erects a new theater on the site. ** The Morris-Jumel mansion is built in upper Manhattan. ** Brannan’s Garden (a roadhouse/tavern) is opened at Spring and Hudson streets.

Staten Island

A further addition is made to Richmondtown’s first building, the 1671 Britton Cottage.

1766

Mar 10

Botanist Jane Colden Farquhar dies in childbirth at the age of 41 in New York City. She had catalogued and described 352 specimens.

City

Dry goods importer John Wetherhead meets William Johnson, soon becomes his commercial agent. ** Whitehead Hicks is appointed mayor for each of the next ten years. ** A group of Irish immigrants form the first Methodist society in North America. ** Construction is completed on Trinity Church’s St. Paul’s Chapel, designed by Thomas McBean.

1767

Jun 15

Parliament suspends the New York assembly for refusing to obey the Quartering Act.

City

King's College opens. ** The John Street Theatre, designed for the presentation of ballad operas, opens. ** British paymaster Abraham Mortier acquires a 99-year lease from Trinity Church on the former King’s Farm property at Richmond Hill, for $269 a year. ** The city's imported Madeira supply is of exceptional quality this year. ** Metalworkers Peter Curtenius and Richard Sharpe open their New York Air Furnace foundry on upper Broadway (site of today's Woolworth Building). ** George Burns opens Burns Coffee House, opposite Bowling Green, on Broadway.

1768

Jun 6

New York City lawyer Peter Hawes is born in Dedham, Massachusetts, to Continental Army ensign Joseph Hawes and Hannah Fisher Hawes.

Dec 16

Royal governor Sir Henry Moore suggests to the assembly the importance of improving the stretch of the Mohawk River between Schenectady and Fort Stanwix. Nothing comes of the idea.

City

The New York Chamber of Commerce is founded. ** An east-west lane is approved, to connect Greenwich Village with the Post Road (Bowery). ** A real estate ad for a Pearl Street tavern lists a good tea water pump. ** The city has seventeen distilleries; over 500,000 gallons of rum are produced annually. ** Thomas McBean's Episcopal St. Paul's Chapel on Broadway is completed.

1769

Aug 31

Physician/naturalist David Hosack is born in New York City to Scotch artillery officer Alexander Hosack and his wife.

Nov 23

One of the first burials in the Moore-Jackson Cemetery in Woodside, Queens, is for a resident who died on this date.

City

French engineer John Montrésor drafts a map of lower Manhattan. ** Brooklyn cedes Furman's Island in Newtown Creek (now part of the Queens mainland) to its rival town, and a stone marker (Arbitration Rock) is placed to mark the border, set by surveyor Peter Marschalk. ** Milestones are erected along the road between City Hall and Mamaroneck in Westchester County. ** Charles Ward Apthorp completes construction of his mansion - Elmwood.

© 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte