I'm
reconstructing this from memory, but I believe Stokes had it right. For obscure
reasons, the charter given to the Duke of York in 1664 combined New
Netherland with a chunk of real estate, now in Maine, between the Kennebec
and Ste. Croix rivers. Twenty years later, when New York colony was
"shired" -- i.e. organized into English-style counties -- the
Maine territory became Cornwall and Dukes. It's unlikely that the European
residents of those two counties (there couldn't have been many) considered
themselves New Yorkers, however, and probably only the Duke's lawyers
would insist on including them with the colony's ten contiguous
counties. I've never seen evidence that anyone objected
when Cornwall and Dukes were attached to
Massachusetts after the collapse of the Dominion of New England -- or
indeed when Maine was subsequently detached from Massachusetts and brought into
the Union as part of the Missouri Compromise. Hope this helps
(assuming I got the story straight).
Edwin G. Burrows
Visiting
Distinguished Professor of History
Hofstra
University
Recently I wrote that Queens was
"named in 1683 when the province of New York was divided into 10
counties." This is also the version given in the Encyclopedia of New
York, referring to "the colony of New York" (in the entry on Queens).
But I. N. Phelps Stokes' "Iconography of Manhattan Island",
quoting from the original 1683 colonial law, notes that "the province of New
York" originally consisted of (or was claimed to consist of) Cornwall and
Dukes counties. Other apparently standard sources indicate Cornwall
County was surrendered to Massachusetts in 1692 (and became part of Maine in
1819) and Dukes County was surrendered to Massachusetts in 1686.
Is it correct to assume that the Stokes' version is accurate?
>>>Or is there some obscure nomenclature issue concealed here,
waiting to trip me up?<<< (My concern is heightened because I
cannot find the entry in the Encyclopedia of New York which relates to "New
York State", if there is one.)
Christopher Gray
Office for
Metropolitan History
246 West 80th Street, #8, NYC 10024
212-799-0520 fax -0542
e: [log in to unmask]
Christopher
Gray
Office for Metropolitan History
246 West 80th Street, #8, NYC
10024
212-799-0520 fax -0542
e: [log in to unmask]