The Clarendon Papers, 1662-67, covering this early period of the English rule, are in the N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll. (Fund series), vol. ii. The important code known as the Duke’s Laws are also in the same Society’s Collections. Mr. O. H. Marshall examines the charters of 1664 and 1674 in the Magazine of American History, viii. 24.
A few of the letters of Nicolls and Lovelace to the Secretary of State, dated prior to 1674, are in the London State-Paper Office, but not till that year does the regular record seem to begin. Brodhead, ii. 261.
Of Thomas Willett, the first English mayor of the town, Brodhead gives the best account, in his History of New York, ii. 76, which may be supplemented by the account of his family given in the N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., ii. 376; xvii. 244. Cf. also Dr. John F. Jameson on the origin and development of municipal government in New York city, in Magazine of American History, 1882. The Manual published successively by Valentine and Shannon preserves much information regarding the city’s history. Cf. General De Peyster on “New York and its History,” in International Review, April, 1878, and Mrs. Lamb’s History of New York City, and other local monographs, of which further mention is made in the notes to Mr. Fernow’s chapter, in Vol. IV.
The English occupation of New York was confirmed by the Treaty of Breda, July 31, 1667. The original Latin and Dutch of its text appeared at the Hague in 1667. (Muller, Books on America, 1872, p. 119; Stevens, Historical Collections, vol. i. no. 31.) A contemporary engraving of the signing is in the Kort en bondigh Verhael, Amsterdam, 1667. (Stevens, no. 1079; Muller, Books on America, 1877, nos. 1697, 2268.) There was a French edition published at Amsterdam in 1668. (Recueil van de Tractaten, Hague, 1684).
The Dutch bibliographies refer to scores of pamphlets launched against Sir George Downing, the English diplomat who is charged with instigating the war with England (1663-67), and not infrequently assigning his animosity towards the Dutch to feelings engendered in his early New England home, Downing being a nephew of Governor Winthrop, and a graduate of Harvard College. (Sibley’s Harvard Graduates, i. 28, with a list of authorities, p. 51, and the Carter-Brown Catalogue, ii. 959, 975. Cf. on Downing’s agency, O’Callaghan’s New Netherland, ii. 515; Palfrey’s New England; Brodhead’s New York and his Colonial Documents of New York; and R. C. Winthrop’s paper in 5 Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. i.)
On the Dutch side, Aitzema’s Historie van Saken van Staet en Oorlogh, 1621-1668, Hague, 1657-1671, is a vast repository of documentary evidence, vol. iv. covering Downing’s period, and vol. vi. giving the negotiations of Breda. The best edition, with a supplement by Sylvius, was published in eleven volumes in 1669-1699. (Muller, Books on America, 1877, no. 47.) Sabin, Dictionary, v. 20,783, etc., gives various titles of Downingiana, and a full list of Downing’s works is given by Sibley, Harvard Graduates, i. 48. The Dutch also charged upon Downing the initiative in “curbing the progress and reducing the power” of their State through the Navigation Acts of 1651 and 1660; cf. Upham, in Hunt’s Merchants’ Magazine, iv. 407.
The relations of the new English province with the French and Indians are particularly illustrated in the papers relating to De Courcelles and De Tracy’s expedition against the Mohawks (1665), published in the Documentary History of New York, vol. i., where will also be found the documents concerning Denonville’s expedition against the Senecas and into the Genesee country in 1687. Cf. also the narrative of Denonville with O. H. Marshall’s notes, in 2 N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., ii. 149. For the expedition against Schenectady, 1689-90, see N. Y. Hist. Soc. Proc., 1846, p. 137; cf. Historical Magazine, xiii. 263, by J. G. Shea. A further treatment of the French and Indian wars is made in Vol. IV.
The Hon. Henry C. Murphy found in Holland the Relation de sa Captivité parmi les Onneiouts en 1690-91, by Father Millet, the Jesuit, and it was edited by Mr. Shea in New York in 1864. Field, Indian Bibliography, no. 1063, says that with the narrative of Jogues it gives us nearly all we know from personal observation of the Five Nations at this time. Further references to the literature of the aboriginal occupation will be given in Mr. Fernow’s chapter.
Regarding the seals of the province, see Documentary History of New York, vol. iv., for various engravings. (Cf. Historical Magazine, ix. 177, and Valentine’s Manual, 1851.) Reports on the Province, 1668-1678, are in the Documentary History of New York, vol. i.; and in vol. iii. the papers on Manning’s surrender in 1673, and the subsequent restoration.