CHAPTER yill

KICHAKD NICOLLS,   THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  GOVERNOR

1664-1668
 

ICHAED NICOLLS, by the right of conquest, became
Grovernor of New-York on the 29th of August, 1664. He
was welcomed by the Dutch civic authorities whom he re¬
tained in office, and his flrst act was to direct that the city
should henceforth bear its new name; it was no longer "New Amster¬
dam," but " New-York," and the fort was named " Fort James." Thus
our city perpetuates the memory of the                 n

last of the Stuarts. But it also recalls (X)xC/kayr(L l^lLx:^crl£6
the York or Eboracum of the Roman       ^^

period in Britain, of the historic city whose libraries and schools in
the days of Alcuin and Charles the Creat began the civilization of
modern Europe.

Richard Nicolls, the new Grovernor, had been the confidant and faith¬
ful follower of the royal Stuarts. He was born in 1624 at Ampthill
in Bedfordshire; his father, a lawyer, had married a daughter of Sir