Church of England

Elizabeth Glover & The Founding of Harvard University Press

April 28, 2025 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

At the start of Elizabeth I’s reign in 1558, a desire was expressed that the role and position of the Church of England should be explained. As a consequence, a stream of devotional and exegetical publications designed for Protestant edification flooded the market. Printers gained a prominent place in the process.

From the outset women were active participants in the trade. They looked after the well-being of young apprentices in the shop and worked alongside men as printer’s devils and compositors. They managed the distribution of printed matter, the sale of stationery and kept the books. [Read more…] about Elizabeth Glover & The Founding of Harvard University Press

Isaac Mann: A Saratoga County Loyalist

January 30, 2025 by Jim Richmond Leave a Comment

As we approach the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution there is a concerted effort to broaden the story of our founding by seeking out the stories of those who either labored in the background on both sides – women, the enslaved, and Native Americans for example – or those who outright opposed the Revolution. [Read more…] about Isaac Mann: A Saratoga County Loyalist

‘Sodomy’ & Colonial America Crime and Punishment

October 21, 2024 by Jaap Harskamp Leave a Comment

The early conquest of overseas territories led to the application of European directives regulating life in the colonies.

Imposing rules on sexual behavior served as tools of social control and dominance. Prohibitions on “sodomy” entered legislation in New England and New Netherland with severe penalties attached. [Read more…] about ‘Sodomy’ & Colonial America Crime and Punishment

A Quaker Legacy: Religious Freedom, Commerce & Compassion

September 8, 2024 by Jaap Harskamp 3 Comments

During the early days of settlement, economics in New Netherland trumped religion or identity. Pragmatism and tolerance were essential conditions of coexisting in a multi-national and multi-lingual colony, not abstract ideals. The Dutch Reformed Church may have been the official religion, but citizens were free to worship other teachings.

A substantial population of Huguenots, Quakers and Calvinists settled along the Hudson River. They were followed by Jewish immigrants. New England did not provide such leniency. Plymouth Pilgrims and the Massachusetts Bay Puritans were separate communities. [Read more…] about A Quaker Legacy: Religious Freedom, Commerce & Compassion

The Black Church in New York: Excerpts from Carter G. Woodson

August 2, 2024 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

What follows are excerpts from Carter G. Woodson’s The History of The Negro Church (1921) which illuminate the early development of the organized Black churches in what is now New York State before about 1800. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) was a prominent black leader and intellectual of the first half of the twentieth century. Born in Virginia in 1875 to formerly enslaved parents, he was educated at Berea College in Kentucky, the University of Chicago, and finally, Harvard, where he earned his Ph.D. in History. Woodson championed awareness of black historical experience by teaching and initiating the first Black History Week, which became the basis for the later Black History Month. He was a tireless writer also who published many volumes during his life, including his classic The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933). [Read more…] about The Black Church in New York: Excerpts from Carter G. Woodson

Politics, Printers, Bibles & Founding Fathers

May 1, 2024 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

In 1631 Charles I summoned his Royal printers Robert Barker and Martin Lucas to court after it was discovered that their reprint of the King James Bible contained a typographical mistake by leaving out the word “not” from the seventh commandment. In between exhortations that “thou shalt not kill” and “thou shalt not steal,” readers are instructed that “thou shalt commit adultery.” [Read more…] about Politics, Printers, Bibles & Founding Fathers

The Huguenot Diaspora, America’s First Consulate & The Slave Trade

April 4, 2024 by Jaap Harskamp 4 Comments

Huguenots were French Protestants who followed the teachings of theologian Jean Calvin for which they suffered severe persecution in the late sixteenth century and again after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in October 1685. During these periods of bloodshed, many of them left the country and sought refuge abroad.

Although small in numbers, Huguenots began to arrive in New Netherland in the 1620s, some (eventually) settling in the Dutch-speaking town of Bushwick (Boschwyck), Brooklyn, whilst others moved to New Rochelle and New Paltz as well as Staten Island. [Read more…] about The Huguenot Diaspora, America’s First Consulate & The Slave Trade

Pilgrim Edward Winslow: Separatist, Governor and International Diplomat

June 20, 2023 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

The early history of the Dutch in America is not confined to the Hudson River and the surrounding areas, but extends deep into New England. In 1620 a group of settlers from Leiden journeyed across the Atlantic to settle in North America. They are often overlooked in surveys of Dutch-American relations, because their history does not fit neatly into the nineteenth-century nationalist framework that still pervades the historiography.

Yet the Pilgrims of Plymouth — English, but honorary Dutchmen by hindsight — are worthy of our attention. One of the Pilgrims was Edward Winslow, Separatist, Governor, and International Diplomat. His story is told by Jeremy D. Bangs, the expert par excellence of Pilgrim history. [Read more…] about Pilgrim Edward Winslow: Separatist, Governor and International Diplomat

Major General William Alexander, Lord Stirling: A Short Biography

April 30, 2023 by Peter Hess 5 Comments

William Alexander was born on December 25, 1726 in the city of New York to well-known lawyer James Alexander and his wife Mary. Mary and James had emigrated from Scotland in 1716. When they married, Mary was already a widow with six children and she and James had seven more. William was the second son of Mary and James, but when his older brother died in 1731, William became the male heir to the Alexander clan. [Read more…] about Major General William Alexander, Lord Stirling: A Short Biography

A Short History of Christmas for New Yorkers

December 25, 2022 by Peter Hess 9 Comments

The tale of St. Nicholas is an old fable from mid-Europe that was popular in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. St. Nicholas was the patron saint of children, merchants and sailors and the patron saint of Amsterdam and was brought by the Dutch to the new world, which for the Dutch was Nieuw Nederlandt (New Netherland).

Many of the American traditions on Santa Claus originated in the Dutch settlement of New Netherland along the Hudson River between New Amsterdam (New York City) and Oranje (Beverwyck-Albany). The other colonies were English. [Read more…] about A Short History of Christmas for New Yorkers

Revolutionary Albany: The Battles of Saratoga & Loyalist Opposition

March 21, 2022 by Peter Hess 4 Comments

In the first days of August, 1777, Albany seemed doomed to be overrun by the British. General John Burgoyne had taken Crown Point, Fort Ticonderoga, Fort George, Fort Anne, Fort Edward and Fort Miller, the last substantial fortified place protecting the city from the north. To the west at Fort Stanwix, a siege was underway requiring many of General Philip Schyuler’s troops being sent to that fort’s defense from their camp on Van Schaick Island, now in the city of Cohoes.

Burgoyne however, had severely stretched his supply line. He was now having problems bringing up food and supplies over primitive roads that had been severely rutted and nearly destroyed by the Revolutionaries. He had to slow down to wait for food and had to keep his supply line protected all the way back to Canada, spreading his troops more thinly. [Read more…] about Revolutionary Albany: The Battles of Saratoga & Loyalist Opposition

Revolutionary Albany: Supplying Ticonderoga, Dealing With Loyalists & Iroquois Relations

March 2, 2022 by Peter Hess Leave a Comment

In early May, 1775 the Revolutionary War was underway on largely local scale. The attack on the British forces leaving Lexington and Concord had happened less than a month earlier, and 4,500 British troops had landed in Boston.

The lightly defended Fort Ticonderoga was taken on the morning of May 10, 1775, in a surprise attack by the Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys, with the help of Benedict Arnold. The fort had been held by the British for 16 years, since it was taken from the French in 1759. [Read more…] about Revolutionary Albany: Supplying Ticonderoga, Dealing With Loyalists & Iroquois Relations

Albany’s Anneke Jans Bogardus, Indecent Exposure, Trinity Church & The Bowery

December 12, 2021 by Peter Hess 21 Comments

By the mid-1800s, almost 200 years after her death, Anneke Jans Bogardus was one of Albany’s most famous people, having been the subject of many books, newspaper and magazine articles. The popular story was that Anneke was a daughter of William the Silent, who was later crowned King William I of the Netherlands.

Nineteenth-century rumor had it that, unbeknownst to Anneke, her father had left a large fortune to her and her sister and that her heirs should undertake legal action to claim it. Another rumor was that Anneke had owned a large portion of Manhattan Island worth billions that had been illegally deeded to Trinity Church and should be reclaimed. There was some truth to the story. [Read more…] about Albany’s Anneke Jans Bogardus, Indecent Exposure, Trinity Church & The Bowery

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