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“We have impowered Our Trusty & Wellbeloved Major Edmund Andros . . . to take into . . . possession the place . . . called by the Dutch New Netherlands, but by Our Subjects New York . . .”
Charles II orders the Lord Keeper to affix the Great Seal of England to the commission of Edmund Andros, who has been empowered to take possession of New Netherlands from the Dutch. With this warrant, the King set into motion the birth of the English province of New York.
CHARLES II, King of England. Letter Signed to Heneage Finch, Baron of Daventry and Keeper of the Great Seal, Windsor Castle, England, 30 July 1674. 1 page; docket. 12”x 7½”.
Inventory# 22466 SOLD
Transcript:
[signature:] Charles R
Our will and pleasure is, that you forthwith cause Our great Seale to be applied unto a Com[m]ission bearing date the 24th. day of this instant July, whereby We have impowered Our Trusty & Wellbeloved Major Edmund Andros, and (in case of his death or other accident) Antony Brockhurst Gent. in Our name & for Our use to demand, & to take into either of their possession the place in the West Indies called by the Dutch New Netherlands, but by Our Subjects New York, together with all the Fortifications, Artillery, Armes, Am[m]unition, and necessaries of Warre therein remaining, or thereunto belonging, according to the Sixth Article of the Treaty of Peace concluded between Us & the States Generall of the United Provinces this 9/19th day of February last past. And for so doing this shall be your Warrant. Given at Our Court at Windsor the 30th. day of July 1674. in the Six & Twentieth yeare of Our Reigne.
By his Maties co[m]mand
To Our Right Trusty & Wellbeloved Councellor
Heneage Lord Finch Baron of Daventry Our Keeper
of Our great Seale of England.
[docket:] 30 July 1674. Warrant for Sealing Major Andros his Com[m]ission & taking poss[essi]on of New York yielded by ye Dutch by ye late Peace
Historical Background
Before the English ruled New York, the territory was the Dutch colony of New Netherlands, governed by Peter Stuyvesant. That changed in 1664, during one of the innumerable Anglo-Dutch wars, when the Duke of York sent an armed fleet into the harbor of New Amsterdam (now New York City) and demanded capitulation. The colony surrendered without a fight. It was promptly renamed “New York” after the Duke, who had received a charter to the territory from his brother King Charles II. Though the Dutch briefly recaptured the colony in 1673, they ceded it back to the English the next year through the Treaty of Westminster.
Charles II, who had been virtually bankrupted by the long-running Dutch conflict, hoped to quickly reestablish English authority in New York and begin to reap a profit from its profitable port city. At the Duke’s behest, the king commissioned Edmund Andros as the first proprietary governor. Andros, a staunch Stuart supporter, was a tough and experienced Army officer, fluent in both Dutch and French. He took charge of New York in the autumn of 1674, after negotiating the transfer of the territory with Dutch governor Anthony Colve and local officials. A no-nonsense leader, Andros brooked no resistance, but rewarded compliant Dutch inhabitants by allowing them to retain their property and continue practicing the Protestant religion.
Andros was a capable, though unpopular administrator. In 1680, after political opponents claimed he was holding back on revenues, the Duke recalled Andros to England. He was replaced as governor three years later by Thomas Dongan.
The original letters patent, that is, the royal commission of Andros to which the Great Seal was applied as here warranted, is in of the collection of the New-York Historical Society.
Charles II (1630-1685) was asked to return to England in 1660, following years of exile in the wake of that country’s Civil War. His coronation in 1661 marked the restoration of the monarchy, and the end of republican government in England. Charles’s reign was marred by the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London, the Second and Third Anglo-Dutch Wars, and by anti-Catholic hysteria fueled by dislike of the king’s Roman Catholic brother James, the Duke of York. All legal documents issued by Charles were dated as if his reign had begun in January of 1649, the date of his father’s execution.
Sir Edmund Andros (1637-1714) a long-time military officer, served as governor of New York from 1674-1681, president of the Dominion of New England from 1686-1689, and governor of Virginia from 1692-1697.
Provenance
Christie’s, London, 23 February 1983, lot 21; Phillips, New York, 24 January, 1984
Christie’s, New York, 27 March 2002 (Malcolm Forbes sale), lot 1; Swann, 15 September 2011 (Eric Caren sale), lot 227.
References
Christoph, Peter R. and Florence A., editors. The Andros Papers: 1674-1676 (Syracuse University Press, 1989)
Herst, Herman. “New York State’s Birth Certificate,” Manuscripts 37:2, Spring 1985, pp.125-6
Herst, Herman. “What is the Worth of a Unique Historic Rarity?” Forbes 139, March 9, 1987, p.26
Miscellaneous Manuscripts (MM-NYC), New-York Historical Society
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