FLUSHING, formerly a township and a village of Queens county, N.Y., U.S.A., on Long Island, at the head of Flushing bay, since 1898 a part of the borough of Queens, New York city. It was settled in 1644 by a company of English nonconformists who had probably been living at Flushing in Holland, from which the new place took its name. Subsequently a large number of Quakers settled here, and in 1672 George Fox spent some time in the town ship. Before the Revolutionary War Flushing was the country seat of many rich New Yorkers and colonial officials.