There’s a reason we don’t talk about the colonial mayors of New York City. It’s because there’s not much to talk about.
No offense to colonial New York scholars and no offense to the 43 men who served as mayors during New York’s British colonial period from 1665 to 1783. In my heart of hearts, I believe that everyone has an interesting story to tell. But maybe these guys were the exception.
To be fair, we are dealing with relatively limited records when it comes to unearthing the stories of these men’s lives and their accomplishments as mayors. New York City’s Department of Records even says that their first collection of mayoral papers only consists of two thin folders, and those are dated to the 1820s, way past the period of time we’re looking at.
It’s possible that the lack of paperwork is due to the records simply not surviving to the present day. But I think this is probably because being mayor of New York back then wasn’t nearly as big of a deal as it is today. For the first one hundred and fifty years of the role’s existence, being mayor was a role you were appointed to by the governor, not elected to by the people. To me, it seems that the governor appointed whomever was in his favor, just like how the British monarch would appoint whomever was in their favor to the governorship. The men who were chosen to be mayor of New York were typically some of the richest merchants in town or came from very influential colonial families. It wasn’t uncommon when I was researching these first forty-three mayors to see the same surnames come up over and over.
And although becoming mayor of New York said a lot about your status within the colony, it didn’t grant you much power. From what I could gather, the mayor presided over the Common Council and lead the mayor’s court, which handled civil cases in the city. But that’s nowhere near the amount of power that New York City mayors have today.
So, my time of researching New York City’s first 43 mayors was kind of a bust, although I will say that there were a few standouts from this batch of mayors, but not for anything they did as mayor. I’ve compiled everything I learned in the very sparse-looking guide below. Here’s to hoping that NYC historians unearth more about these guys in the future and make that information accessible and digestible to the public.
