CHRONOLOGY OF NEW YORK CITY'S FACTUAL "FIRST" 1524-1999
Researched and Compiled by Miriam Medina

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*Please note this is a work in progress. New researched information will be added periodically.

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1)A windmill for the use of the town was erected on the Heere Straat between the present Liberty and Cortlandt streets. * (Bwy)

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1) The first of the line to come to the New World was William De Kay, a director of the Dutch East India and the Dutch West India Co, which established the colony of New Amsterdam. After several trips of inspection he settled at Nieuw Amsterdam about 1632 and became the first Fiscal of the colony. * (Hollanders)

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1) A Chirurgeon settled in New Amsterdam by the name of Herman Meynderts van den Boogaerdt. He had been surgeon of the ship "Eendracht" since 1630 and when in New York waters practiced on Manhattan. *(NYS History)

2) On April 16, 1633 the ancestors of the Van Twiller family landed from the ship "De Zoutburg," the first vessel of war that ever entered this harbor of New York City. * (Old Merchants)

3) In 1633 Adam Roelantsen, the first licensed schoolmaster in America took over the school of the Reformed Protestant Dutch church, which was established previously by Rev. Jonas Michaelius. * (eafd)

4) A brick building was erected in 1633 in the fort of New Amsterdam (future NYC) as a residence for Wouter Van Twiller, the fifth Dutch Governor. * (fff)

5) In 1633, the commercial importance of New Amsterdam was increased by the grant of the "Staple Right" a sort of feudal privilege similar to the institutions of the fatherland. By it all vessels trading along the coast or sailing on the rivers, were obliged either to discharge their cargoes at the port or pay certain duties. * (honycdtp)

6) Pearl, it is thought was the first street occupied, the first houses being built there in 1633. *(honycdtp)

7) The Bergens belong among the earliest settlers of America, but originally the family was Norwegian, Hans Hansen Berger went from Bergen, Norway to the Netherlands and thence to New Amsterdam in 1633. He married Sarah Rapalie the first white child born in New Amsterdam. * (Hollanders)

8) The new governor arrived here in New York City March, 1633 attended by 104 soldiers, wearing steel corsets and leather jackets and carrying half-pikes and wheel lock muskets. This was the first military force ever to land on the site of New York City. * (eonyc)

9) The REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH was the first organized in New-Amsterdam. This year, 1633, the first church edifice was erected on this island. It was built in what is called Broad-street. It was a small, frail, wooden building. The name of the first dominie is preserved, the Rev. EVERARDUS BOGARDUS. He came over from Holland with the celebrated WOUTER VAN TWILLER. The Dutch and the Huguenot, as well as the Pilgrims, brought the Church, the schoolmaster, and their Bibles with them. They erected a dwelling for the Rev. Mr. Bogardus to reside in. This was the first parsonage built on the island, if not in America. * (lcr)

10) The Hope, in command of "Schipper" Jurian Blanck, made her first voyage to New Amsterdam in 1633, having been captured from the enemy the previous year.

11) The Dutch were not neglectful of the benefits of education even in the early days, as in 1633 they took pains to establish a school which still exists the School of the Collegiate Reformed Church, the oldest institution of learning in the United States. (38)

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1) The first lettered man to come into the province was Dr. Lubbertus Van Dinck Lagen, who was skilled in all the sciences". He was appointed Schout-Fiscaal (Attorney-general) of New Netherland. *NYS History

2) 1634 Settlement begins on east side of East River, in Brooklyn *(MaritimeNY)

3) The first Schout of the Patroon Court seems to have been Jacob Albert sen Planck who arrived in the colony with his instruction list as Schout about August 12, 1634. * (NYS History)

4) Brooklyn got its start in 1634 when the Dutch founded Midwout or Middle Woods in the ' T Vlacke Bos, or Wooded plain. * (epic)

5) The far eastern portion of the present Borough of the Bronx skirting Long island sound and including Pelham Neck was settled by Anne Hutchinson and her husband, William, English stock, who came from Boston in 1634. Eight years later Throggs neck was settled by John Throckmorton and thirty-five families who came from new England to escape the cruelty of the Puritans. The north of what is now Westchester County was purchased directly from the Indians by Stephanus van Cortlandt, who thus became one of the first patroons of New Amsterdam. These were the chief pioneers of Westchester and their sturdy stock still hold sway in the territory acquired from the Indians. (38)

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1) Erected during Van Twiller's regime were the first church building on the site of 39 Pearl street, a bakery at the corner of Pearl street. * (eonyc)

2) Queens of N.Y.C. at the west end of Long island SE N.Y. between East River and Jamaica bay co-extensive with Queens Co. The first settlements in the area were made by the Dutch in 1635. Queens County was established in 1683.

3) Ferdinandus Van Siclen emigrated from Holland and arrived at New Amsterdam in New Netherland in 1635 when he was 17 years old. After remaining at New Amsterdam for about a year he settled at Flatlands on Long Island where he became possessed of a large farm. * (Hollanders)

4) The first progenitor of the Van Winkle family to come to America was Jacob Walingh or Walingen, who was a resident of the village of Winkel in North Holland the Netherlands. He arrived on the ship "Koning David" (King David) to New Amsterdam in June 1635 taking the name of Van Winkel. * (Hollanders)

5) The borough of Queens was first settled by the Dutch in about 1635. * (epic)

6) The first Italian to settle here was a Venetian craftsman named Peter Caesar Alberti who took up residence in Brooklyn in 1635. * (epic)

7) In 1635 the first purchase of Long island land from the Indians was made, and the earliest deed of land to individuals was a patent from Governor Van Twiller to Andries Hedden and Wolphert Garritsen for a tract of land in Amersfort, or Flatlands. The deed bears date of June 6, 1636. * (b.d.e. 8/8/1886)

8)  In 1635, the governor erected a substantial fort, and in 1643 a house of worship was built in the south-east corner of the fort. In 1644, a city hall or stadt house was erected, which was on the corner of Pearl-street and Coenties Slip. In 1653, a wall of earth and stones was built from Hudson River to East River, designed as a defense against the Indians, immediately north of Wall-street, which from that circumstance received its name. The first public wharf was built in 1658, where Whitehall-street now is. * (owc)

9) On the 22d of April, 1635, Charles the First of England issued letters patent to William, Earl of Sterling, Secretary of the Kingdom of Scotland, for the whole of Long Island.* (b.d.e.8/8/1886)

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1) It was largely from among the Walloons that the first settlements in the future Brooklyn were peopled; but the first grant of land within its limits was made in June, 1636, to-Jacob Van Corlear, one of Director-General Van Twiller's lieutenants.

2) Roelof Jans, to whom was granted in 1636 the company's farm #1 or part of it, a tract of 62 acres running north of Warren street. * (NYS History)

3) The Burgher family belongs among the earliest Dutch settlers in the New World. The first progenitor to sail for America was Burgher Jorissen who arrived from the Netherlands in the service of the Dutch West India Company in 1636 and settled in the colony of Manhattan and it is recorded that in 1639 he owned Hanover Square and Burgher's Lane to the East River. *(Hollanders)

4) Valphert Gerritse Van Couwenhoven on June 16, 1636 purchased a tract of land from the Indians in the western part of Long Island and there made his home giving to the locality the name of Amersfoort in memory of his home in Holland. This became the Town of Flatlands. * (Hollanders)

5) The De Forest family belongs among the earliest Dutch settlers in America. Jesse de Forest and his son Isaac settled at Harlem in 1636 with a group of French speaking Protestants. * (Hollanders)

6) The Polhemus family belongs among the earliest Dutch settlers of America. They descend from Theodorus Johannes Polhemus, first generation in this country who came over 1636 as the first Dutch minister, and settled at Flatbush, L.I. * (Hollanders)

7) First Africans dispatched to New Amsterdam; bought as perpetual servants. *(MaritimeNY)

8) The Vreelands, an old colonial family descend from Michael Jansen Vreeland who emigrated from the Netherlands & settled at New Amsterdam in the year 1636. * (Hollander)

9) Isaac de Forest emigrated from Holland to New Amsterdam in 1636.

10) In 1636 William Adriaense Bennett & Jacques Bentyn bought 930 acres of land from a Mohawk chief named Gouwane in the southeastern part of Brooklyn now called Gowanus.  In 1636 the well known name of Bennett appears as a purchaser of 900 acres at Gowanus. William Adriance Bennett, the purchaser, was doubtless the progenitor of the numerous families of that name still to be found in the Eighth Ward. This tract extended from the neighborhood of Twenty-eighth street, along Gowanus bay to New Utrecht. Bennett bought in conjunction with Jacques Bentyer and afterward became sole owner.* (epic)

11) The earliest recorded grant of land in Kings County was made by the Indians to Jacob Van Corlaer, in June, 1636. On the same day Andreis Hudde and Wolfert Gerritson purchased land contiguous to his, and soon after Wouter Van Twiller also purchased land, and these purchases formed the site of "New Amersfoort," now Flatlands. In the same year Bennet and Bentyn bought of the Indians 930 acres at Gowanus. * (B.D.E. 8/24/1884)

12) At that time, June 7, 1636, Jacobus van Corlear, some time Commissary at 'T Huys van Huip, bought of the Indians the fertile flats of Castateeuw." The same day, Jacques Bentyn, the Schout-Fiscal, and Willem Adrianse Bennet bought lands at Gowanus. *(E.L.I.)

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1) Dr. Johannes La Montagne was the first regular physician to take up residence in New Amsterdam. Settling in Harlem in 1637, an expert in medicine and surgery, he was the first legal enactment for the regulation of the practice of medicine in New York. *(NYS History.)

2) The first schoolmaster at New Amsterdam whose name is known was Adam Roelantsen. He is mentioned as such in a list of the salaried officials of the West India Company in 1637 and taught a school, which continues in the City of New York as the School of the Collegiate Reformed Church.. * (NYS History) Vol: V

3) The Pieter Claesen Wycoff House at Claredon Road and East 59th Street was built in 1637. * (Museums)

4) Jacob Janse Van Schermerhooren (1622-1688) arrived at New Amsterdam on March 4, 1637. * (Hollanders)

5) Pieter Claesen Wyckoff arrived from the Netherlands to New Amsterdam on March 13, 1637. * (Hollanders)

6) In 1637 a Dutchman named Hendrick De Forest became the first white man to settle in what is known as Harlem. * (epic)

7) Queens: This is the largest borough in area. As early as 1637 there were settlements by individual Dutch farmers within the area now known as Long island City. These were grants from the director-general and council at New Amsterdam, were under the supervision of the New Amsterdam government, and were known as "out Plantations". The remainder of the present borough was settled by colonists from New England. They received township government but modeled after the Dutch form. Among these villages may be mentioned Vlissingen (Flushing), Middleburg (Newtown), Heemstede (Hempstead and Rustdorp (Jamaica). * (historical handbook 1934)

8) In 1637 Joris Jansen de Rappalle bought 335 acres on the Wallabout Bay. These purchases were the foundation of the City of Brooklyn, and these seem to be the only historic certainties concerning our beginnings. He was a leader among the Walloons, and in 1637 bought from the native tribe a tract known as Rennegachank," situated on the side of "Mearechkawieck," since called Wallabout Bay. Rennegachank was a small river which emptied into the Wallabout, running in the rear of the old hospital, and but a short distance from General Johnson's residence. It has within a few years, owing to the great improvements made connecting Washington avenue with the Eastern District, become an important artery of trade.  * (B.D.E. 8/24/1884)

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1) Dutch West Indian Company negotiates the purchase of Greenpoint from the Keshaechqueren Indians * (Greenpoint)

2) Wilhelm Kieft the third governor of New Netherlands in 1638 instituted the custom of ringing the church bell nightly as a curfew bell. * (fff)

3) In 1638, for drawing a knife upon a person in a sailor's brawl, Gysbert Van Beyerland was sentenced "to throw himself three times from the sail-yard (yard-arm) of the yacht "Hope" and to receive from each sailor 3 lashes at the ringing of the bell. One of first incidents mentioned. * (NYS History)

4) Abraham Isaacksen Planck received a grant for Paulus Hoeck east of Ahasimus on the western side of the North River in May of 1638. * (NYS History)

5) Joris Derickson Brinckerhoff came from the Province of Drenthe in the Netherlands and landed in New Amsterdam in 1638. First he resided on Staten Island and later moved to Brooklyn where he secured a land grant in 1646. * (Hollanders)

6) Roosevelt family of American statesmen & Merchants. The first member of the family to come to America (c1638) was Claes Martinszen van Roosevelt who emigrated from Het Rosin Veltnear Zeeland in Holland.*(C.E.)

7) The first of the Hoaglands spelled as Hooglandt who came to this country from Holland. Cornelius Durcksen Hoochlandt settled at New Amsterdam in 1638. He was the first to establish a ferry from Peck's Slip, L.I. to a point below the present Fulton Ferry. * (Hollanders)

8) Paulus Hook is sold by Governor Keift, in 1638, to Abraham Isaacs Plank, for four hundred and fifty guilders.

9) "The Early History of Brooklyn," written by the Editor, Dr. Stiles, informs us that eight fathoms of duffels cloth, eight fathoms of wampum, twelve kettles, eight adzes, eight axes, and some knives, corals and awls, was the price paid to the Indian chiefs by the West India Company on the 1st of August, 1638, for the extensive area which comprised the whole of the former town of Bushwick, now forming the Eastern District of Brooklyn. * (B.D.E. 8/24//1884)

10) The earliest deed for land in the town of Brooklyn is a grant to Abraham Rycken in 1638.(b.d.e. 8/8/1886)

11) In a record of a lease in 1638, in the office of the secretary of the colony, of a certain tract of land near Fort Amsterdam, negroes are mentioned. The agreement is made in the names of "The Privileged Trading Company" and the "Honourable, wise and prudent Sir William Kieft, Director General of New Netherlands." This tract of land was used for the cultivation of tobacco, as was a part of Pawles Hook, the whole of which was sold by William Kieft to Abram Isaac Planck for L75, and a plantation to Thomas Hall, "with the negroes thereon."

12) A new era began in 1638, when, in response to the protest of the patroons, the States - General directed the West India Company to abolish the monopoly in trade and agriculture, and the right to engage in the fur trade was thrown open to the world. A duty of 10 per cent, on all imports from Holland and a duty of 15 per cent, on exports were collected by the company. The opening of trade had an immediate effect in attracting large parties of thrifty, respectable, prosperous settlers from Holland and from the English colonies; and in 1639 the number of farms on Manhattan Island had increased from seven to more than thirty, and soon a flourishing little town arose in the vicinity of what is now Bowling Green and the shores of the East River. * (honysy)

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1) The Bronx is named in memory of the areas first European settler, the Swede, Jonas Bronck. The earliest settlement in The Bronx took place along the Harlem River in 1639, in what is now Mott Haven.

2) 1639 : 1st medical man listed in the Colonies: Hans KIERSTEDE. *

3) Anthony Jensen and his wife Grietje, slandered the Rev. Evardus Bogardus and were constantly in litigious trouble. They were of such frequent court record that finally on April 7, 1639, they were sentenced to be forever banished from New Netherland "as public disturbers and slanderers." *(NYS History)

4) There were two other persons who were to take an active part in the affairs of the settlement, also among the arrivals at New Amsterdam. Joachim Pietersen Kuyter, a man of military experience and of active character and Cornelius Melyn who came on a visit of inspection in a vessel bringing a cargo of cattle. * (NYS History)

5) Among other leases of the company, bouweries was one to Van Twiller in 1639, who was busy at this time in superintending the letting out his boats and cows. * (NYS History)

6) Staten island, In 1639, David Peterson de Vries, having obtained a grant from Governor Van Twiller in 1636, introduced some settlers. *(histguide)

7) The Bronx: This borough received its name from Jonas Bronck. He bought a large area from the Indians in 1639 for "two guns, two kettles, two coats, two adzes, two shirts, one barrel of cider and six bits of money." Around this area grew a number of small settlements. Few of them, however, had a separate existence until about 1800. In 1874 the southern part of the present Bronx was annexed to New York City. In 1883 a commission was appointed to select "proper and desirable" lands for "one or more public parks". As a result large tracts were laid out for this purpose. The borough is divided by the Bronx River into an east and a west section.* (historical handbook 1934)

8) The first application for land in New Utrecht to the Director General and Council of New Netherlands (as this country was then called by Europeans) for the first settlements in the colony, was that made by Anthony Jansen from Salec, Africa a banished settler of new Amsterdam for one hundred morgen, or two hundred acres, on the 3d of August, 1639; which was granted, and a patent issued for the same on the 27th of may, 1643. These premises were located partly in New Utrecht and partly in Gravesend, as the town boundaries are now fixed. He probably removed to these lands immediately after the granting of his application, was recognized as a resident of New Utrecht shortly after its organization as a town, his dwelling being located as is supposed at what is now known as Unionville, and he was undoubtedly the first European settler who occupied lands within the boundaries of this town and its neighbor, Gravesend. * (B.D.E. 10/19/1877)

9) The reformed Dutch Church was the religion of the settlers and the Rev. Edverardus Bogardus, of New Amsterdam, who came from (old) Amsterdam, in Holland, in 1639, used to cross the East River to minister to the spiritual wants of Breuckelen and Flatbush until they got regular pastors of their own in 1654. * (b.d.e.9/25/1887)

10) The earliest deed on record is a grant to Thomas Berker, which was filed in 1639.(b.d.e. 8/8/1886.)

11) The first settlement under the English was made by Lyon Gardiner, on Gardiner's Island, in 1639, under a purchase made by him of the Indians, and which was confirmed by James Farret, agent of the Earl of Sterling, in 1640. *(b.d.e. 8/8/1886).

12) January 15, 1639, the Director-General Kieft bought from the Indians all the land from Rockaway to Sickrewhacky, and thence, across the island to Martin Gerretsen's Bay. The land was then granted to private planters, or to companies, by whom it was
farmed out. In 1640, a new charter gave to all immigrants the rights enjoyed by the Dutch. New England heretics and malcontents gladly sought a home under these liberal provisions. *( E.L.I.)

13) The first purchase of lands north of the Harlem River was made by the West India Company in 1639. Two years later Herr Jonas Bronet or Bronx arrived from Holland in his ship, the Fine of Troy, and purchased a tract of land corresponding to the territory now known as Morrisania. it is from this pioneer that the newly erected Borough of the Bronx gets its name. (38)

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1) First ferry between Manhattan and Brooklyn in operation. *(MaritimeNY)

2) Johannes De Peyster, a Dutch colonist in New Amsterdam (later NYC) where he settled in 1640. * (Century)

3) In July of 1640 some Raritan Indians were accused of taking certain property on Staten Island and of attacking a trading yacht. * (NYS History)

4) Gravesend was settled in 1640 by emigrants from Massachusetts who had before gone there from England. * (A&C).

5) In 1640 Kieft erected on Staten Island the first private distillery in the history of America. * (eonyc)

6) The First progenitor of the Van Dyck family that came to America was Hendrick Van Dyck who arrived from Ultrecht in the Netherlands at New Amsterdam in 1640. * (Hollanders)

7) Evert Jansen Wendel landed in New Amsterdam from Emden (East Friesland) in 1640 and lived for a time at beaver street. * (Hollander)

8) In May, 1640, the English attempted to make a settlement on a tract of land on the east side of Great Neck, near the Town of Hempstead. This land had been purchased by Daniel How from the Indians. The settlers were prevented from locating by Kieft, the Dutch Governor. The settlers removed to Southampton where they purchased a tract of land from the Indians and commenced a settlement there in December 1640, which was the foundation of that town.* (b.d.e. 8/8/1886).

9) The first attempt of the English to establish themselves within the present bounds of Queens County, was in the township of Hempstead, and in the spring of 1640. *(E.L.I.)

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1) Twelve men were drawn from Manhattan, Long Island and Povonia. This was the first popular body organized in New Netherland, the first board representative of the people. * (NYS History)

2) An important patent was the grant in August 1641, of land on Achter Cul, later Newark Bay including the valley of Hackingsack River. The patent was to Myndert Van der Horst who established a bouwery and a small redoubt on the land granted. * (NYS History)

3) Cornelius Melyn, in August 1641 was permitted to establish a plantation on Staten Island near the Narrows. He subsequently received moreover under directions from the West India Company a patent, as patroon over the entire island.

4) Gardiner's Island, a place of 3300 acres was settled by Lyon Gardiner in 1641. A Scotchman. * (A&C)

5) In 1641 Kieft instituted two annual fairs for the encouragement of agriculture, the first for cattle to be held on October 15th and second for hogs on November 1st, upon the Bowling Green. * ( nycp&p)

6) On the 28th of August 1641 at the Fort was formed the first public Assembly that ever convened on the Island of Manhattan.* (nycp&p)

7) The purchase of a tract of land on Long Island, now known as New Utrecht was made on September 10th, 1641. * (nycp&p)

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1) Dutch governor issues charter to Maspeth (Newtown Creek area) colony.

2) A stone church, seventy-two feet long, fifty-two feet wide, and sixteen feet over the ground, was begun by Kieft in 1641 and
finished the following year. The church was named Saint Nicholas in honor of the patron saint of Holland; but later it was also known as "The Dutch Church within the Fort." The contractors were John and Richard Ogden of Stamford, in Connecticut. *(Bwy)

3) The first two Presbyterian ministers who came to New York were Frances Doughty in 1642 and Richard Denton in 1643. * (NYS History) Vol: V

4) Although some farmers began cultivating land along the East River in 1639, the first sizable European settlement in Queens was established in what is today Maspeth in 1642 * (nyclc)

5) In 1642 the first grant of a city lot east of the fort at the Battery, was made to Hendricksen Kip. * (History of NYC)

6) Broadway De Heere Straat of the early Dutch settler, and another along the East River known as Great Queen, now Pearl Street, were the first streets running north and south in Manhattan. The name of Broadway for but a short stretch of the present street, was first used in 1642. * (Epic)

7) In 1642 the first ferry to Long Island was operated. * (Epic)

8) Jochem Pietersen Kuyter originally from Darmstadt, had been in the Danish service in the East Indies. He was persuaded by the West India Company to emigrate to this country, and brought hither his family in 1639. He was the first deacon of the new church, built in 1642.* (mccny)

9) Fulton Ferry: The First Ferry between New York and Brooklyn, or New Amsterdam and Breukelen, as the two places were then called, was established in the year 1642, by Cornelius Dircksen, who owned a farm and kept a country inn near where Peck Slip now is. He came at the sound of a horn that hung against a tree, and ferried the waiting passengers across the river in his little skiff for the moderate charge of three stivers in waumpum." *(B.D.E.  6/17/1872)

10) Soon after its settlement Flushing was visited by Quakers. They first settled in Gravesend, but later, because of their persecution by Governor Stuyvesant, they moved easterly and settled in other towns. A leader among them was John Bowne, the chief of the Bowne family in Flushing, who in 1642 built a house on Whitestone avenue, but later built one on Bowne avenue, which is now owned by Mrs. Robert B. Parsons, and which bears the date of 1661.John Bowne was sent to Holland in 1662, by order of Governor Stuyvesant, to be punished for the heinous crime of Quakerism, but the Dutch authorities, who believed that the consciences of men ought to be free and unshackled, released him and he returned in triumph to his friends in 1663.* B.D.E. 5/20/1894)

11) In 1642 a new stone church was commenced. Richard and John Ogclen engaged to build it out of rock stone, seventy-two feet long and fifty-two feet wide, and sixteen feet above the ground, the church wardens to furnish the lime. This church was built
on the Battery, near the corner of State-street and Broadway. After the city was taken by the English this church edifice was used by the Rev. Mr. Vesey, of the Episcopal Church, when the Dutch minister did not wish to occupy it. * (lcr)

12) Soon New Amsterdam had become a stopping-place for English shipmasters, as well as for many English traders, whom the opening of the fur trade brought to the little Dutch town, and in 1642 the City Tavern, as the first hotel was known, was built to accommodate the growing transient trade.* (honysy)

13) Ancient Order of Hibernians: A prominent Catholic Irish organization. The society was instituted originally for the protection of the Catholic priesthood and religion in Ireland, but it has now as its main object "the advancement of the principles of Irish nationality." According to some authorities the order was first instituted in 1642, following the great uprising in the north; according to others, in 1651, when Cromwell had proclaimed nearly the whole native population outlawed, and had put a price upon the head of every priest and made it death to attend a Catholic service. The founder was Rory Og O'Moo, and the society was at first known as The Defenders.

14) Adraien van der Donck, one of the most learned of the Hollanders, Doctor of the Civil and of the Canon Laws, came to Nieuw Nederlandt in 1642, as Sheriff of Rensselaerwyck. He became the owner of large estates and was identified with the most important
interests of the young colony. *( E.L.I.)

15) The first bridge over the Harlem River was built under a franchise for 99 years, granted in June, 1693, to Fredryck Flypsen or Philipse, to build and maintain at his own expense a bridge over the Spuyten Duyvil Creek, and to collect certain "easy and reasonable tolls" from such passengers as might cross it. The bridge was to be twenty-four feet wide and provided with a draw of sufficient size to permit the passage of small craft. It was further stipulated that it should be free for the passage of the King's forces, and should be called King's Bridge. This bridge was built during the same year, a little to the east of the site of the present structure which bears the same name. It remained in the hands of Philipse's descendants down to Revolutionary times, when it was forfeited to the State on account of the adherence of the family to the English Crown. (35)

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1) The first doctor to take up residence and practice in Brooklyn was Paulus van der Beeck who came to New Amsterdam in 1643, with a company of soldiers. He was the first Army surgeon. *NYS History.

2) Coney Island......The sandy strip that became New York City's playground belonged originally to Gravesend, a town established in 1643 by a band of English colonists. *( mcny.org)

3) The first attempt of any kind against thieves and evil doers generally to the dwellers on Manhattan island was made under Kieft, the Dutch Director general in 1643. He issued a proclamation forming a volunteer guard, on which all citizens had to serve in their turn.* (NYT)

4) In 1643 Gravesend was established by Lady Deborah Moody. * (epic)

5) In 1643 John Throgmorton settled on the skinny peninsula we call Throggs Neck. * (epic)

6) The first Catholic priest visited Manhattan in 1643. * (epic)

7) Brooklyn: By 1643 a little village named Breucklen had come into existence along the highway to Flatbush about a mile from the ferry to Manhattan, the name having been taken from an old town in Holland. There were many ways of spelling the name before "Brooklyn" was finally accepted. A number of other villages developed in the neighborhood, and later became Flatbush, Flatlands, New Utrecht and Bushwick. In 1816 a limited area in the region of the present Borough Hall was incorporated as a village. In 1834 a city Charter was granted. Twenty years later Williamsburg and Bushwick were absorbed into Brooklyn. At the time of consolidation (1898) Brooklyn had a population of nearly one million.

8) A noted Indian massacre took place in 1643 and for two years following bitter warfare was waged under the leadership of Captain John Underhill, a famous Indian fighter. So great was the popular alarm that Director Kieft called a popular meeting, the first ever held in the colony, at which a council of twelve men was chosen to advise him in the conduct of the war. (38)

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1) Paulus Vander Beeck of Gowanus, Long Island came from Bremen to New Netherland in 1644. * (Hollanders)

2) Arnoldus Van Hardenbergh, born in Holland, came to New Amsterdam in 1644. He was one of the "Nine Men" in 1645, governing body of the colony. * (Hollanders)

3) Flushing, this ancient village was begun in 1644. The Episcopal church was formed in Flushing in 1720, under the auspices of the Society for the Gospel in Foreign Parts * (A&C)

4) In the beginning of 1644 a Colony of English emigrants headed by Robert Fordham had settled at Heemstede on Long Island, after securing a grant of land from the Dutch government. * (nycp&p)

5) A school was established in Easthampton in 1644, and a teacher paid a salary of £33 per annum. It is to be presumed that schools were also established in many other settlements about the year mentioned above.* (b.d.e.8/8/1886)

6) The several English towns on Long island early in the Sixteenth Century sought connection with the New England colonies. Southampton was the first to join the New England colonies in 1644. *(b.d.e. 8/8/1886)

7) Rev. Richard Denton was the first minister of Hempstead, having formerly preached the gospel in Halifax, England. He settled in Hempstead in 1644. * (b.d.e. 8/8/08)

8) Stadt Huys or City Hall, New York.This building was of stone, and was built by the Dutch in 1644. It stood on the corner of Pearl-street and Coenties Slip. It was razed in 1700. * (owc)

9) 1644 Governor Kieft erected cattle-guard near line of modern street (April 4th). * (nahist)

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1) Town of Flushing (Vlissingen) settled. Area was from College Point in north to "The Hills" in south, and from Flushing Creek (west) to Little Neck (east).

2) The first Indian war of Kieft's administration was ended here at the Marketfield, or "The Plaine" on August 30, 1645. *(Bwy)

3) In 1645 Van der Donck went out of the colony going down the river to Manhattan where later he became one of the outstanding leaders of the people. * (NYS History)

4) In July 1645, the West India Company decided to commission Petrus Stuyvesant as Director-General. * (NYS History)

5) On August 25, 1645 an assembly of Dutchmen and Indian Chiefs met within the wall of Fort Amsterdam and signed a treaty. * (NYS History)

6) The Groat family belongs among the earliest Dutch settlers in the New World. The first progenitor who arrived in America was Symon Symonse Groat who came on the "Prins Maurits" as a boatswain for the Dutch West India Company in 1645 at New Amsterdam. * (Hollanders)

7) The Town of Gravesend is charted. Founded by Lady Deborah Moody and a group of English Anabaptists in 1643, it is only one of six original towns that was not settled by the Dutch.* (btl)

8) Home of Dirck Volchertsen - first family. His house stood on a knoll where Calyer Street now runs, about 100 feet west off Franklin St. (*Greenpoint)

9) On the 30th of August 1645, the Sachems of all the Hostile tribes assembled on the Bowling Green and smoking the Calumet of peace pledged themselves to eternal friendship with the whites. * (nycp&p)

10) The patent granting the ownership of Green Point to Dirck the Norman was dated April 3, 1645. He built the first house presumably the following year. * (hgp)

11) Flushing was not originally settled by the Dutch, as many suppose and as its name denotes, but by English pioneers who first settled in Connecticut. The Dutch who settled there a few years later named the place "Vlissengen," or Flushing for a town in Holland, whence they came. The patentees were Thomas Farrington, John Lawrence and John Hicks to whom a patent was granted by Governor Kieft, October 10, 1645. * (B.D.E. 5/20/1894)

12) In 1646 the inhabitants of Brooklyn were invested with a grant of municipal privileges. They had the privilege of electing two magistrates, in addition to the two they already had called "schepens," and to appoint a "scount," subordinate to the "schout fiscal" at New Amsterdam. At this time the village proper of Breuckelen was nearly a mile inland; the hamlet on the shore opposite Manhattan was known as the ferry. * (b.d.e. 9/25/1887)

13) September 10, 1645, the West India Company, acting through the Director-General Kieft, bought of the Indians the tract of land from Coney Island o Gowanus. It included the present town of Nieuw Utrecht. Contemporary official reports to the States-General speak of the new acquisition with well tempered enthusiasm, and say " 'T Lange Eylandt is the pearl of the Nieuw Nederlandt." *(E.L.I.)

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1) Dirck Volchertsen, a scandinavian, a sea-going man, a ship's carpenter by trade built the first house in Greenpoint in 1646 and became its first recorded resident.

2) Adriaen Reyersz, came with his brother Martin from Amsterdam, Holland to New Netherland in 1646, and settled in Flatbush, Long Island becoming the first progenitor of the Martense family of Flatbush, L.I. and the Reyers of Staten Island. * (Hollanders)

3) Jacobus Calyer Home settles. One of the first 5 families of Greenpoint. (*Greenpoint)

4) Brooklyn was one of the first to receive a municipal government. In 1646 the inhabitants of Brooklyn were invested with a grant of municipal privileges. They had the privilege of electing two magistrates, in addition to the two they already had, called "schepens," and to appoint a "scout," subordinate to the "schout fiscal" at New Amsterdam. At this time the village proper of Breuckelen was nearly a mile inland; the hamlet on the shore opposite Manhattan was known as the ferry. * (b.d.e.10/1/1892)

5) 1646, in that year the people of the Town of Gravesend by a vote at the first town meeting ordered every inhabitant to make twenty poles of fence to enclose a common field of corn, and in 1648, in a like manner voted to make a common pasture for their calves. Similar regulations were made in Newtown, Hempstead and many other towns on the Island. *(b.d.e. 8/8/1886)

6) The people of Breuckelen applied to the Council for permission to organize a town at their own expense. This privilege was granted November 22, 1646, by the Director-General Kieft, in behalf of the High and Mighty Lords States-General of the United Netherlands, His Highness of Orange, and the Honourable Directors of the General Incorporated West India Company. Jan
Teunissen was commissioned as Schout. This little village of Breuckelen was a mile inland, but the water-front was well taken up in bouweries, and there were even then three other distinct hamlets, the Gowanus, 'T Waale-Boght, and the Ferry, Het-Veer, as the nuclei of future growth. *( E.L.I.)    

7)  In 1646 Adriaen Van der Donck secured title to a tract sixteen miles along the Hudson River, north of Manhattan island, and extending east to the Bronx River. This tract now takes in the City of Yonkers and the entire southwestern part of Westchester County. (38)       

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1) Peter Stuyvesant arrives in New Amsterdam to assume his position as governor of New Netherlands.

2) First pier on East River constructed at Schreyer's Hook *( MaritimeNY)

3) Beekman, Wilhelmus, from Hasselt in Overyssel, Holland settled at New Amsterdam in 1647.

4) The first board of 9 men under Stuyvesant in 1647 consisted of 3 merchants, three citizens and 3 farmers to represent the people. * (NYS History)

5) Peter Peterse Van Nest emigrated from Ultrecht in the Netherlands and arrived at New Amsterdam in 1647. He was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church. Later he settled at Flatlands where he became a surveyor and a carpenter and Magistrate from 1655 to 1662 when he was appointed Lieutenant. * (Hollanders)

6) The Town of Flatlands (New Amersfoort) is chartered. Hans Hansen Bergen receives a grant of waterfront land in Brooklyn and Bushwick.  In 1647, a patent was granted to Hans Hansen Bergen, who received 400 acres. It was a very extensive plantation and extended from Rennegachanck creek (Wallabout creek) to Division avenue, including within its limits the present Nineteenth Ward, and parts of the Sixteenth and Eighteenth wards. The lands within this district passed into the hands of General Jeremiah Johnson, James Scholes, Abraham Remsen, Abraham Boerum, Abraham Meserole, McKibben and others. These names are all familiar, and many of them have been given to streets. * (BTL)

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1) New Amsterdam Governor Peter Stuyvesant appointed four fire wardens to patrol the area between the streets, inspect chimneys to be sure they had been swept properly, and to enforce the ban on wooden chimneys. Fire fighting and city politics have been intertwined ever since Stuyvesant shrewdly split these warden appointments between two Dutchmen and two
Englishmen. *FDNY

2) The court as organized (in 1648) by Van Slichtenhorst consisted at first of four and afterwards of 5 persons of whom two were designated as gecommitteerden. * NYS History

3) As to schools for more elementary studies, one was opened by Jan Stevensen in 1648. * (NYS History)

4) In 1648 the first pier was built on the East River. * (eonyc)

5) Organized fire fighting began in New York in 1648 when the first Fire Ordinance was adopted by the Dutch Settlement of New Amsterdam. Fines levied for dirty chimneys provided funds for the maintenance of buckets, hooks and ladders. It also established a fire watch of eight Wardens and required that each male citizen stand his turn on watch.*FDNY

6) In 1648 Adriaen Keyser Thomas Hall, Martin Krigier and George Woolsey were appointed fire wardens to inspect the houses in the city.* (nycp&p)

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1) Claes Martenszen van Rosenvelt, a Dutchman, was thee first of the line to reach the New World.* (Theodore Roosevelt called him his "very common ancestor.") It is recorded that Claes bought a farm in 1649 on Manhattan Island, south of Murray Hill, and just north of property owned by Governor Peter Stuyvesant. * (Delanoye.org)

2) In 1649 an order in NYC was established for the regulation of weights and measures the Amsterdam standard being adopted. * (nycp&p)

3) The first extended reference to the shipbuilding timber of New Netherlands is found in a Holland document of 1649, referring to the soil of the province: "It produces several kinds of timber suitable for the construction of houses and ships, be they large or small, consisting of various sorts of oak, to wit: Post oak, smooth white bark, gray bark, black bark, and still another sort, which by
reason of its softness is called butter oak. Various sorts of nut timber, hickory, large and small. This timber is very abundant here, and much used as firewood also, for which it is right well adapted. Chestnuts, three sort beeches, axe handle wood, ash, birch,
pine, lathwood, alder, willow, thorn, with divers other species adapted to many purposes, but their names are unknown to us." * (honysy)

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1) The first ancestor of the Amerman family who came from Holland to New Netherland, was Dirck Janse Amerman who emigrated in 1650 and settled at Flatlands (now south Brooklyn) * (Hollanders)

2) The Van Nuys family descends from Aucke Janse Van Nuys the first forefather in America. They were one of the first Dutch settlers in the New World who came to New Amsterdam from Holland in 1650. * (Hollanders)

3) In 1650 the Town of Hempstead passed resolutions that residents should attend public worship unless a reasonable excuse was offered, or suffer a fine of five guilders for the first offense and twenty guilders for the third offense. After the third offense the culprit was liable to corporal punishment or banishment. * (8/8/86 b.d.e.)