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The Old Continent a Town, with the Union Its City Hall1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 April 2014
Extract
On Thursday morning February 2nd, 1653, New York came into being as a city. From a dependent trading outpost run by the Dutch West Indies Company, it turned itself into a self-governing political community. Seven local magistrates went into the fort, swore an oath of service to the Dutch States General and said a prayer. Then they signed a municipal charter and conducted their first piece of business, putting their signatures to a statement ‘herewith [to] inform everybody that they shall hold their regular meetings in the house hitherto called the City Tavern, henceforth the City Hall, on Monday mornings from 9 o'clock, to hear all questions of difference between litigants and decide them as best they can.’
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- Copyright © T.M.C. Asser Press and the Authors 2014
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