Jan 22
A council of Iroquois Indians at Onondaga renews the tribe's allegiance
to England and promises aid against the French.
Feb 8
French troops lead by the Comte de Frontenac set an Indian settlement
in Schenectady on fire.
Feb 9
French troops and their Indian allies massacre Schenectady settlers.
Some escape and are saved from a violent snowstorm by sleighs
from Albany.
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.
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.
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.
Aug 23
Potter sails for Long Island from Newport, Rhode Island, on his
return trip.
Aug 30
Potter reaches Flushing, New York. 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. Hogs are to be kept penned,
and poisonous and noxious weeds are to be kept cleared by householders.
Province
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.
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 auth.`%ants and patzP, 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 rebellion leader Jacob Leisler and his son-in-law
Jacob Milborne are executed. Before their being hung and beheaded
Leisler declares his only objective was to protect the colony
against popery.
Oct 1
New York colony's Albany County is confirmed.
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.
Albany
Mayor Peter Schuyler leads an expedition against Canada, camps
at the Great Carrying Place, the portage between the Hudson River
and Lake Champlain.
Canada
Former Seneca missionary Father Jacques Fremin dies in Montréal.
England
William and Mary confirm the 1620 grant to the Plymouth Colony,
setting its parameters to include all lands between 42° 5
minutes and 44° 15 minutes N.
Oct 21
New York governor Benjamin Fletcher is commissioned governor of
Pennsylvania by William and Mary.
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.
State
Benjamin Fletcher becomes Royal governor. He asks the Dutch church's
Dominie Varick for a list of Leislerians and pressures them to
return to the church, improving attendance.
Massachusetts
Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, purchased from the Earl of Sterling
by the Earl of York, and under New York's jurisdiction as Dukes
County, are granted to Massachusetts. ** Dutch settlers
from the Hudson Valley begin moving into the Berkshires.
Apr 14
William Bradford establishes the first printing press in New York
City, on Hanover Square.
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.
Oct 4
Fletcher convenes colonial deputies to plan for war against the
French. Few plans get made.
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. **
Merchant Frederick Philipse builds a toll bridge across Spuyten
Duyvil Creek, linking Manhattan to the mainland. ** Governor
Fletcher grants a charter of incorporation to the Dutch Elders
and Deacons of the city, encouraging them to build a church.
Aug 15
Colonial delegates meeting in Albany sign a treaty with the Iroquois,
to keep the Indians from siding with the French.
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.
© 2001 David Minor / Eagles Byte