The next year a party of about 3o Protestant Walloon families arrived. Of these colonists only about eight men remained on Manhattan, the remainder going to establish Ft. Orange where Albany now is. The next year more colonists came, and when director May gave way to director Van der Hulst, the colony numbered almost 200 persons. The government of the New Netherland province was vested in a director general and a council.
These officers, though formally appointed by the company, were subject to the approval of the States-General. The first director general, Peter Minuit, arrived with additional colonists in 1626, purchased Manhattan island from the Indians with pieces of bright cloth, beads and other trinkets to the value of 6o guilders or about $24, erected Ft. Amsterdam at the lower end of the Island, and made New Amsterdam the seat of government. Wou ter Van Twiller, who succeeded him in 1633, was recalled in 1637 because of his mismanagement. Under the wise rule of Peter Stuyvesant (q.v.) the province prospered and, at the time of the transfer of New Netherland to English control, the population stood at about io,000 (see NEW YORK: History). In 1658 Stuy vesant established a ''Rattle Watch" of eight men which may properly be called New York's first police force. The strife be tween the English and Dutch went on until 1664, when Col. Rich ard Nicolls took possession of the city without bloodshed on Sept. 8, 1664. The English flag was raised over the fort, which was renamed Ft. James, and New Amsterdam became New York.
The rights of the Dutch settlers were carefully maintained at first, and established institutions changed only gradually. The English reorganized the city government (1665) with a mayor, aldermen and sheriff to be appointed by the governor of the province for a term of one year, and also extended the city limits to include all of Manhattan island. The Dutch reoccupied the city from July 30, 1673, to Nov. 9, 1674, when Colve surrendered to Sir Edmund Andros, the new English governor. Andros re stored the English form of city government. The next hundred years is in the main a record of continuous struggle for control of the city government between the royal agents and the inhabitants. There were good and bad governors, but none was capable of stemming the tide of popular demand for greater freedom of self determination. The first serious break in English resistance came with the refusal of the merchants of New York and other parts of the province to pay certain duties exacted by the "Duke's Laws." Governor Thomas Dongan called the first New York assembly on Oct. 17, 1683, and to this body freemen were per mitted to elect representatives. Dongan's regime is notable also for "Dongan's Charter," which was granted the city in April 1686 and whereby sources of income were vested in the city cor poration, all previous rights and privileges being confirmed and conveyed to the corporation, including the proprietorship of the City Hall, the market houses, bridges, wharves, docks, ceme teries, ferries, unoccupied lands, and the waters within the city.
The city seal presented to the corporation the same year is that Eboraci, except that an eagle was substituted for the royal crown in 1784. Under the rule of Jacob Leisler (1689-91) the people were permitted, for the first time, to elect their own mayor, Peter De Lanoy, a privilege that lapsed until 1834. Sloughter, Leisler's successor, appointed as mayor Abraham DePeyster, a young, cultured and popular man of irreproachable character. He was effective in conciliating the warring factions, and re sponsible for many public improvements. The old "rattle watch" or police of the city was reorganized by DePeyster in 1697, and placed again under civil control. DePeyster built new wharves, provided the first system of poor relief, and instituted sanitary betterments. Business prospered in spite of the unrest in the province as a whole. Pirates in and about New York were a source of constant irritation, and Governor Benjamin Fletcher, who had succeeded Sloughter, was even suspected of being in league with them. They were finally dispersed by Bellomont, Fletcher's successor, and a measure of confidence in the govern ment restored. But the incompetence of governors Cornbury and Lovelace increased resentment against English government ; and its appointed mayors, though in the main men of good standing, were so frequently changed that none except William Peartree 0703-1700 made noticeable impressions upon municipal affairs. Peartree established the first free grammar school and a school for negro slaves. He also improved the jail and provided a debtor's prison in the City hall. Governor Robert Hunter, a cultured gentleman, who took office in June 171o, was more tactful than his predecessors; but his regime was ten years of turmoil. In April 1712, insurgent negroes massacred nine white men and wounded many more. Twenty-one negroes were legally executed, some in a most barbaric manner, and a large num ber of others, innocent as well as guilty, were imprisoned. Broadway was graded from Maiden Lane to the Commons, under Mayor Caleb Heathcote, and a new Presbyterian church was built. In 1725 under Governor William Burnet, William Bradford es tablished the first New York weekly paper, the New York Gazette. In 1731 the city imported a fire engine from London. In 1733, John Peter Zenger, proprietor of the New York Weekly Journal, was charged with libelling Governor William Cosby and was brought to trial, but was so ably defended that the jury excul pated him almost without deliberation. This was regarded as establishing the freedom of the press. A "negro plot" against the whites was "revealed" by an irresponsible servant girl in 1741. Thirty-four negroes were killed, 24 whites thrown into jail, and suspicion fell upon many prominent people. In 1742 the paid civil patrol was abandoned and an unpaid citizens' watch estab lished. This was so unsatisfactory that in 1747 a military watch was reinstated and continued until 1762, one year after the in auguration of street lighting.