The great metropolis of New York owes its name not to the English city but to James, Duke of York, whose ships sailed into the harbour and seized New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664. Within just a few years of that conquest, James – brother to King Charles II – had converted to Catholicism, and he ruled his new province from England as a personal proprietary colony, just as Lord Baltimore ruled Maryland. In 1683, he appointed an Irishman and a fellow Catholic, Thomas Dongan, as governor of New York.
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Thomas Dongan and the Catholic origins of New York’s liberties
Long before the American Revolution, Thomas Dongan established principles of representative government and religious liberty that helped shape New York’s political development
Andrew Cusack
8 min read
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