1674 - Sir Edmund Andros, governor of New York

New York, in 1674

January 16, 1674 - Mayor John Lawrence and councilors of New York complain to governor Anthony Colve for being constantly harassed by creditors regarding costs incurred to repair the defenses of the city.

It was decided to create a tax applicable to the residents whose capital exceeded 1000 guilders. Two commissions were in charge of the list and 62 people appearing as the richest in the city were actually solicited. The wealthiest proved to be Frederick Philipse with a capital of guilders 80 000. The collection turned out however inadequate and it was necessary to appeal to the people of Beverwyck (Albany).

February 19, 1674 - Signature of the Treaty of Westminster. The Dutch cede definitively the province of New York to England.

This treaty was mostly the opportunity of a happy haggling for Holland which gave up, admittedly, its territories of North America but gained some comfort with the acquisition of Suriname, a land considered more profitable.

New governor Anthony Colve had done a lot of work to try to restore the former colony but New Orange was only a fancy. The Dutch were exhausted by wars (it was about the third against England in 20 years) and even if their navy had achieved good results, more than half of their country was occupied by French troops. Defending New Netherlands required money and resources increasingly hard to find. Bloodless, the States General suffered an extremely worrying political instability and no alternative but to resolve to seek peace and return the conquered territories. It was a boon to Charles II whose financial situation was then quite critical! He did not hope so especially that the Parliament had just refused him the necessary subsidies needed to continue the war while pushing for months to reclaim the colony.

February 23, 1674 - The Lutheran minister of Delaware, Jacobus Fabritius is accused of brutality toward his wife Annetje Cornelis and forced by the authorities to leave the marital home and not to come close any more.

Arrived in New York in 1669, he was first appointed in Albany before coming to New York where he was noticed for his eccentric behavior. Governor Francis Lovelace had, in the time, obtained his transfer in Delaware.

A view of New York from Manhattan heights

March 6, 1674 - The Treaty of Westminster concluded with England puts an end to the Dutch colonization in North America.

April, 1674 - John Winthrop, Jr. is reelected governor of Connecticut for the fifteenth consecutive year.

May, 1674 - Become in turn a Quaker, William Coddington succeeds Nicholas Easton as governor of the royal colony of Rhode Island.

John Leverett (1616-1679)
Governor of Massachusetts

May, 1674 - John Leverett is reelected as governor of Massachusetts.

June 1st, 1674 – The Duke of York appoints Sir Edmund Andros governor of New York.

The Duke of York had not appreciated the enthusiasm with which the people of New York went back under Dutch rule. It was suggested to him to send them near Albany or to expel them but he had, meanwhile, been granted a new charter which further strengthened his already considerable powers. He chose as new governor Sir Edmund Andros, a 38-year old soldier and royalist aristocrat highly respected by the king who enjoyed an experience in the West Indies and the Netherlands, the language of which he mastered perfectly. Andros received for instruction to be firm but to restore also the links between the duke and the main Dutch merchants, the owners and the clergymen. He set out to keep the men who had worked with Richard Nicolls and Francis Lovelace including Frederick Philipse, Steven Van Cortland, William Beekman, Nicholas Bayard or Johannes Peyster. Only Cornelis Van Steenwyck was sidelined.

June, 1674 - Josiah Winslow is elected governor of Plymouth for a second time in a row. He also keeps his commissioner's post to the United Colonies with Thomas Hinckley.

James Stuart (1633-1701)
Duke of York

June 29, 1674 - King Charles II renews the charter granted to his brother James, Duke of York on all the region stretching from the Sainte-Croix River on the borders of Nova Scotia to Delaware and specifies that its inhabitants are all considered British subjects. The territory includes Maine, New Jersey, Long Island, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket Islands as well as the former Dutch territory of the Hudson Valley.

He had already been granted the province of Maine in 1664 by a first royal charter but it was also claimed by Massachusetts which had incorporated it into its own jurisdiction. Despite complaints of the residents and the creation of a royal commission to settle this dispute, the governor and the Court of Massachusetts had made no concessions, considering Maine as their allotment. Charles II was determined, this time, to secure the withdrawal of Massachusetts and to restore the rights of  heirs of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the original owner.

The first New Jersey deed, 1674

July 17, 1674 - Minister Fabritius is fined 100 guilders and sentenced to make public apology before the Court. He so avoids banishment.

Six days earlier, he had entered the home of his wife despite the ban served upon him and hurt a person who was present in the house before being neutralized by soldiers.

July 29, 1674 -  The Duke of York confirms ownership of the northern part of New Jersey to Sir George Carteret.

This one is bounded by a line from Barnegat Bay on the Atlantic Ocean to Pennsauken Creek on the Delaware River.

cf: The Royal Grant to Sir George Carteret

Sir George Carteret (c.1610 - 1680)
1st Baronet
Lod Proprietor of East New Jersey

August 4, 1674 - Captain Thomas Willett dies in Swansea, in the Plymouth colony, at the age of 63.

One year earlier, he had decided to leave New York where he was counselor to governor Lovelace, at the moment the Dutch had taken back the city to the English. He had then chosen to retire and to settle permanently in this village he had contributed to found in 1667 and where he owned an estate. 

August 13, 1674 - Captain Joseph West is elected a governor of Charles Town, Carolina. He has already held this position two years before.

September 9, 1674 - John Foster opens a print shop in Boston. He is the first to depart the 1638 law that confined the printing presses in Cambridge.

October, 1674 - Governor of New Orange (become again New York) Anthony Colve returns officially the city to the English.

November 1st, 1674 - New Governor Sir Edmund Andros lands in New York. He made the journey with Philip Carteret, back in New Jersey after being absent for more than two years.

Sir George Carteret had regained all his rights on New Jersey and the departure of the Dutch had ended the rebellion of some cities of the province. Remained the problem of the Navesink patents. The Duke of York had invalidated them but Carteret admitted that the people of this district had not taken part in the 1672 protest. He decided to do something by granting a 50-acre land to all those who had received patent as long as they pay a property tax. The proposal would be the subject of lengthy negotiations but it managed to appease the spirits.

Sir Edmund Andros (1637-1714)
Governor of  the province of New York

Sir Edmund Andros (1637 - 1714) – A native of London, he was the son of a close friend of King Charles 1st who had been appointed bailiff of Guernsey. He served for a time in the army of Prince Henry of Nassau and found himself in 1660 gentleman of the bedchamber of Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia, the daughter of King James Ist. He was then involved in the wars against the Dutch and had the honor of belonging to the first English regiment equipped with bayonets. He had just succeeded his father as bailiff of Guernsey, when he was chosen a few months later by the Duke of York to become the new governor of the provinces of New York and New Jersey.

November 4, 1674 - New Governor Edmund Andros confirms in post the counselors of Delaware in office before the Dutch occupation. Only Peter Alrich is suspended from his responsibilities because of his stands in favor of the invader.

The new council included well-known figures such as Peter Rambo, Peter Cock, Isaac Helme, Hans Block and William Tom. Captain Edmund Cantwell had meanwhile command of the fort of New Castle and mission to ensure that all the subjects of His Majesty would be restored in their rights.

Captain Cantwell informed the new governor that the settlers of Delaware were mostly satisfied by the new English administration.

November 9, 1674 - Dutch Governor Anthony Colve releases the magistrates of Albany from their oath of allegiance to the Netherlands and takes the way back to Europe.

November 13, 1674 - New Governor of New York Sir Edmund Andros appoints the various persons responsible for the province’s administration and restores the "Duke’s Laws".

Frederick Philipse (1626-1702)
Attributed to Painter Henri Couturier

Sylvester Salisbury became High Sheriff of Yorkshire. The other sheriffs were Michael Siston for Albany, Thomas Gibbs for New York, George Hall for Esopus and Edward Cantwell for Delaware.

Mattias Nicolls was appointed mayor of New York instead of John Lawrence who became his deputy. William Derwall, Frederick Philipse, Gabriell Minvielle and John Winder became councilors.

Sylvester Salisbury (? - Albany 1680) - This English officer had arrived in America in 1664 beside Richard Nicolls. He had taken part  in the capture of New Amsterdam and had afterward insured the command of Fort Albany. He was taken to Spain as war prisoner after the Dutch regained control over the province in August, 1673 before returning to his duties after his release.

The Assembly of Maryland passes a law requiring those who sit in the counties juries to support themselves at their own expense and subjecting to a head tax any person over ten years old, including the servants and the slaves. Only the ministers and the priests are exempt.