Richard Nicolls

Richard Nicholls (1624 – 28 May 1672) was the first English colonial governor of New York province.

Richard Nicolls
1st Colonial Governor of New York
In office September 1664 – Summer 1668
Monarch	Charles II
Preceded by	Peter Stuyvesant (as Director-General of New Netherland)
Succeeded by	Francis Lovelace
Personal details
Born	1624 Ampthill, Bedfordshire, England
Died	28 May 1672 (aged 47–48) North Sea, off Suffolk
Relations	Matthias Nicolls (nephew) Sir George Bruce (grandfather)
Mother	Margaret Bruce
Father	Francis Nicolls
Signature

Early life

Nicholls was born in 1624 in Ampthill in Bedfordshire, England. He was the son of Francis Nicolls (1582–1624), a barrister and Member of Parliament, and Margaret (née Bruce) Nicolls (1577–1652),[1] who were married at Abbots Langley in 1609. His mother was a daughter of Sir George Bruce of Carnock (c. 1550–1625), a Scottish merchant who built Culross Palace,[2] and a niece of Edward Bruce, 1st Lord Kinloss (1548–1611).[3]

Career

He commanded a royalist troop of horse (i.e., cavalry) during the English Civil War, and on the defeat of the king went into exile. Soon after the Restoration he became Groom of the Chamber to the Duke of York.

Province of New York

Through the influence of the Duke of York, in 1664 he was appointed on a commission with Sir Robert Carr (d. 1667), George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick, to conquer New Netherlands from the Dutch and to regulate the affairs of the New England colonies and settle disputes among them. The expedition set sail from Portsmouth on 25 May 1664, and arrived in New Amsterdam on 27 August 1664.[4] New Amsterdam was surrendered to Nicolls on 8 September 1664. Under authority of a commission from the Duke (later King James) Nicolls assumed the position of deputy-governor of New Netherlands (New York).[1]

NIEUW AMSTERDAM OFTE NUE NIEUW LORX OPT TEYLANT MAN by Johannes Vingboons (1664), an early picture of Nieuw Amsterdam made in the year when it was conquered by the English under Richard Nicolls.

He made 74th Street, beginning at the East River, the southern border patent line (which was called the "Harlem Line") of the village of Nieuw Haarlem (later, the village of Harlem); the English also renamed the village "Lancaster".[5][6][7][8]

His policy was vigorous but tactful, and the transition to the new regime was made smoothly and with due regard to the interests of the conquered people. The formerly Dutch colonists were guaranteed in the possession of their property rights, their laws of inheritance, and the enjoyment of religious freedom. The English system of law and administration was at once introduced into Long Island, Staten Island and Westchester, where the English element already predominated, but the change was made much more slowly in the Dutch sections. A code of laws, known as the "Duke's Laws", drafted by the governor with the help of his secretary, and nephew, Matthias Nicolls (c. 1630–1687), and dated 12 March, was proclaimed at Hempstead, Long Island, on 1 March 1665 and continued in force until 1683; the code was compiled from the codes of the New England colonies, and it provided for trial by jury, for proportional taxation on property, for the issuance of new patents for land and for land tenure only by licence from the duke.

Return to England

Nicolls returned to England in the summer of 1668 and continued in the service of the Duke of York and was replaced by Francis Lovelace as governor. He was killed in the naval battle of Southwold Bay on 28 May 1672. His monument at Ampthill incorporates the cannonball that killed him.[1]

References

Notes

1. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Richard Nicolls | English governor". britannica.com. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
2. "Papers on Mining in Scotland, 18th and 19th centuries". Archives Hub. Archived from the original on 1 August 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2008.
3. Weeks, Lyman Horace (1907). Book of Bruce; ancestors and descendants of King Robert of Scotland. Being an historical and genealogical survey of the kingly and noble Scottish house of Bruce and a full account of its principal collateral families. With special reference to the Bruces of Clackmannan, Cultmalindie, Caithness, and the Shetland Islands, and their American descendants. New York: The Americana Society.
4. "Articles about the Transfer of New Netherland on the 27th of August, Old Style, Anno 1664". World Digital Library. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
5. Elliot Willensky and Fran Leadon (2010). AIA Guide to New York City. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199772919. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
6. Eric K. Washington (2012). Manhattanville: Old Heart of West Harlem. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9780738509860. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
7. James Renner (2007). Washington Heights, Inwood, and Marble Hill. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9780738554785. Retrieved 10 April 2013.
8. "Mount Morris Bank Building" (PDF). Landmarks Preservation Committee. 5 January 1993. Retrieved 10 April 2013.

Sources

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Nicolls, Richard". Encyclopædia Britannica. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 663–664.