There was no Albany in 1650. There was only Fort Orange, and a small cluster of houses outside the fort considered illegal by the West India Company. Albany originated in 1652 as the village of Beverwyck, which was laid out by the West India Company in 1652 north of and physically separate from Fort Orange, but under its jurisdiction. The town was not called Albany until 1664 when the English took it. Merwick in her book Possessing Albany (page 73) notes that by 1655 in Beverwyck 75 lots had been patented to townsmen. In 1659 there were about 127 houses. It was said the population at that time was "230 able-bodied men" or "1100 souls."