List of colonial governors of New York

The territory which would later become the state of New York was settled by European colonists as part of the New Netherland colony (parts of present-day New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware) under the command of the Dutch West India Company in the Seventeenth Century. These colonists were largely of Dutch, Flemish, Walloon, and German stock, but the colony soon became a "melting pot." In 1664, at the onset of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, English forces under Richard Nicolls ousted the Dutch from control of New Netherland, and the territory became part of several different English colonies. Despite one brief year when the Dutch retook the colony (1673–1674), New York would remain an English and later British possession until the American colonies declared independence in 1776.

A drawing by Johannes Vingboons of the city of New Amsterdam in 1664—the year the Dutch authorities surrendered the New Netherland colony to the English under Richard Nicholls

With the unification of the two proprietary colonies of East Jersey and West Jersey in 1702, the provinces of New York and the neighboring colony New Jersey shared a royal governor. This arrangement began with the appointment of Queen Anne's cousin, Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury as Royal Governor of New York and New Jersey in 1702, and ended when New Jersey was granted its own royal governor in 1738.

Dutch Era of New Netherland (1624–1664; 1673–1674)

A 1685 reprint of the 1650 map Novi Belgii Novæque Angliæ showing Virginia, New Netherland, and New England.

New Netherland (Dutch: Nieuw-Nederland) was the 17th-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands and the Dutch West India Company. It claimed territories along the eastern coast of North America from the Delmarva Peninsula to southwestern Cape Cod. Settled areas of New Netherland are now constitute the states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut, and parts of Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.[1][2] The provincial capital New Amsterdam was located at the southern tip of the island of Manhattan at Upper New York Bay.[3]

New Netherland was conceived as a private business venture to exploit the North American fur trade.[4] By the 1650s, the colony experienced dramatic growth and became a major port for trade in the North Atlantic. The leader of the Dutch colony was known by the title Director or Director-General. On August 27, 1664, four English frigates commanded by Richard Nicolls sailed into New Amsterdam's harbor and demanded the surrender of New Netherland.[5][6] This event sparked the Second Anglo-Dutch War, which led to the transfer of the territory to England per the Treaty of Breda.[7][8]

# Portrait Director (or
Director-General)
Took office Left office Notes
1Cornelius Jacobsen May
(fl. 1600s)
16241625
2Willem Verhulst
(or van der Hulst)
(fl. 1600s)
16251626
3Peter Minuit
(1580–1638)
16261631
  • Purchased the island of Manhattan from Native Americans on May 24, 1626 for 60 Dutch guilders worth of goods.[9]
4Sebastiaen Jansen Krol
(1595–1674)
16321633
5Wouter van Twiller
(1606–1654)
16331638
  • Previously a Dutch West India Company warehouse clerk, used family connections to the Rensselaer family to gain appointment
  • Purchased Nut Island (Noten Eylant), later called Governor's Island from Canarsee tribe for two axeheads, a string of beads and iron nails
  • Lost the colony's claim of the Connecticut River valley to New England settlers
  • Pushed back encroaching Virginia settlers who tried to settle Delaware River valley
6Willem Kieft
(1597–1647)
16381647
7Peter Stuyvesant
(c.1612–1672) (Director General)
16471664

Restoration of the colony, 1673–1674

In 1673, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch were able to recapture New Amsterdam (renamed "New York" by the British) under Admiral Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest and Captain Anthony Colve.[14] Evertsen renamed the city "New Orange."[15] Evertsen returned to the Netherlands in July 1674, and was accused of disobeying his orders. Evertsen had been instructed not to retake New Amsterdam but instead to conquer the British colonies of Saint Helena and Cayenne (now French Guiana).[16] In 1674, the Dutch were compelled to relinquish New Amsterdam to the British under the terms of the Second Treaty of Westminster.[17][18]

Portrait Governor Took office Left office Notes
Anthony Colve
(fl. 1600s)
16731674
  • Colve's authority was brief, starting with the taking of New York, but ended on February 9, 1674 with the signing of the Treaty of Westminster, which restored the colony to the English. News did not reach the New World of the treaty's terms until late in the year.

Under British control (1664–1673; 1674–1783)

Apart from a short period between May 1688 and April 1689, during which New York was part of the Dominion of New England, the territory was known in this period as the Province of New York.

# Portrait Governor Took office Left office Notes
1Richard Nicolls
(1624–1672)
16641668as military governor
2Francis Lovelace
(1621–1675)
16681673
3Anthony Colve (Dutch Governor)16731674Dutch former naval captain who became Governor under a restored Dutch rule
4Edmund Andros
(1637–1714)
16741683
5Anthony Brockholls
(c. 1656)
16811683Commander-in-Chief of British Forces and acting governor
6Thomas Dongan, 2nd Earl of Limerick
(1634–1715)
16831688
7Francis Nicholson
(1655–1728)
16881691military governor and de facto only until June 1689
8Jacob Leisler
(c. 1640–1691)
16881691Militia officer in rebellion
9Henry Sloughter
(d. 1691)
16911691
10Richard Ingoldesby
(d. 1719)
16911692Military officer as acting governor
11Benjamin Fletcher
(1640–1703)
16921697
12Richard Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont
(c. 1636–1700/1)
16981700/1
13John Nanfan
(1688–1702)
17011702as acting governor
14Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon
(1661–1723)
17021708
15John Lovelace, 4th Baron Lovelace
(1672–1709)
17081709
16Pieter Schuyler
(1657–1724)
17091709as acting governor
17Richard Ingoldesby
(d. 1719)
17091709as acting governor
18Gerardus Beekman
(1653–1723)
17091710as acting governor
19Robert Hunter
(1664–1734)
17101719
20Pieter Schuyler
(1657–1724)
17191720as acting governor
21William Burnet
(1687/8–1729)
17201728
22John Montgomerie
(d. 1731)
17281731
23Rip Van Dam
(c.1660–1749)
17311732as acting governor
24William Cosby
(1690–1736)
17321736
25George Clarke
(1676–1760)
17361743as acting governor
26George Clinton
(c.1686–1761)
17431753
27Sir Danvers Osborn, 3rd Baronet
(1715–1753)
17531753
28James De Lancey
(1703–1760)
17531755as acting governor
29Charles Hardy
(c. 1714–1780)
17551758
30James De Lancey
(1703–1760)
17581760as acting governor
31Cadwallader Colden
(1688–1776)
17601762as acting governor
32Robert Monckton
(1726–1782)
17621763
33Cadwallader Colden
(1688–1776)
17631765as acting governor
34Sir Henry Moore, 1st Baronet
(1713–1769)
17651769
35Cadwallader Colden
(1688–1776)
17691770as acting governor
36John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore
(1730–1809)
17701771
37William Tryon
(1729–1788)
17711774
38Cadwallader Colden
(1688–1776)
17741775as acting governor
39William Tryon
(1729–1788)
17751780
40James Robertson
(1717–1788)
17801783as military governor
41Andrew Elliot
(1728–1797)
17831783as military governor

See also

References

  1. "Grant of Exclusive Trade to New Netherland by the States-General of the United Netherlands; October 11, 1614" from Documentary History of the State of Maine (Portland: Maine Historical Society / Bailey and Noyes, 1869–1916). Published online at the Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy, Yale Law School, Lillian Goldman Law Library. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
  2. Jacobs, Jaap. New Netherland: A Dutch Colony In Seventeenth-Century America. (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 35.
  3. van der Sijs, Nicoline. Cookies, Coleslaw and Stoops: The Influence of Dutch on the North American Languages. (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2009), 21.
  4. Dolin, Eric Jay. Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America. (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011) passim.
  5. World Digital Library. Articles about the Transfer of New Netherland on the 27th of August, Old Style, Anno 1664. Retrieved 21 March 2013
  6. Versteer, Dingman (editor). "New Amsterdam Becomes New York" in The New Netherland Register. Volume 1 No. 4 and 5 (April/May 1911): 49–64.
  7. Farnham, Mary Frances (compiler). "Farnham Papers (1603–1688)" in Volumes 7 and 8 of Documentary History of the State of Maine. (Portland, Maine: Collections of the Maine Historical Society, 2nd Series. 1901–1902), 7:311–314.
  8. Parry, Clive (editor). Consolidated Treaty Series 231 Volumes. (Dobbs Ferry, New York: Oceana Publications, 1969–1981), 10:231.
  9. Burrows, Edwin G., and Wallace, Mike. Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), xivff.
  10. Merwick, Donna. The Shame and the Sorrow: Dutch-Amerindian Encounters in New Netherland Early American Series. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006).
  11. "Journal of New Netherland 1647. Written in the Years 1641, 1642, 1643, 1644, 1645, and 1646". World Digital Library. 1641–1647. Retrieved 2013-08-01.
  12. Shorto, Russell. The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America. (New York City: Vintage Books, 2004).
  13. Otto, Paul. The Dutch-Munsee Encounter in America: The Struggle for Sovereignty in the Hudson Valley. (Oxford/New York: Berghahn Books, 2006), 152; and Kraft, Herbert C. The Lenape: Archaeology, History, and Ethnography. (Newark, New Jersey: New Jersey Historical Society, 1986), 241.
  14. Roosevelt, Theodore. "IV. New Amsterdam becomes New York The Beginning of English Rule. 1664–1674," in New York: A Sketch of the City’s Social, Political, and Commercial Progress from the First Dutch Settlement to Recent Times. (New York: Charles Scribner & Sons, 1906).
  15. Barrevald, Dirk J. From New Amsterdam to New York: The Founding of New York by the Dutch in July 1625. (Lincoln, Nebraska: Writers Club Press, 2001), 248.
  16. Shomette, Donald G. and Haslach, Robert D. Raid on America: The Dutch Naval Campaign of 1672–1674. (Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1988), 73, 139–151; De Waard, Cornelis. De Zeeuwsche expeditie naar de West onder Cornelis Evertsen den Jonge, 1672–1674. (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1928). (in Dutch)
  17. Westdorp, Martina. "Behouden of opgeven? Het lot van de nederlandse kolonie Nieuw-Nederland na de herovering op de Engelsen in 1673" Archived 2008-06-30 at the Wayback Machine in De wereld van Peter Stuyvesant (in Dutch). Retrieved 21 March 2013.
  18. Prak, Maarten. The Dutch Republic in the Seventeenth Century: The Golden Age. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 116.
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