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25th Precinct's Community Council Meeting
+ Lancaster? Seriously?
This is a reminder that our next 25th Precinct Council Meeting will be on:
Wednesday, February 21, 2024 at 6:00 PM
This month, the meeting will not be at the precinct, but rather will be held a few blocks away at Bethel Gospel Assembly (2-26 East 120th Street)
The British Tried to Change Harlem’s Name to…?
You probably know that the Dutch were the first Europeans to colonize Manhattan and that the British later seized the Dutch Manhattan holdings (including our neighborhood, then the village of Nieuw Haarlem).
During the back and forth of European powers, Richard Nichols (executor of the British Crown) issued a proclamation that changed New Harlem's name to Lancaster:
That from and after the date of these Presents, the said Town shall no longer be called New Harlem but shall be known and called by the name of Lancaster; and in all deeds, bargains and sales, records or writing shall be so deemed, observed and written. Moreover ' said Town lying very commodious for a Ferry to front the Main, which may redound to their and benefit as well as to a general good, the freeholders and inhabitants shall be obliged, at their charge, to build or provide one or more boats for that purpose, fit for the transportation of men, horses and cattle, for which there will be a certain allowance given as shall be adjudged reasonable. And the freeholders and inhabitants, their heirs, successors and assigns, are likewise to render and pay all such acknowledgments and duties as already are, or hereafter shall be, constituted and ordained by His Royal Highness the Duke of York, and his heirs, or such Governor and Governors as shall from time to time be appointed and set over them. Given under my hand and seal, at Fort James, in New York, on Manhatans Island, day of May, in the eighteenth year of the reign of our sovereign lord Charles the Second, by the grace of God King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc., and in the year of our Lord God, 1666.
In 1673, the Dutch briefly regained control of Manhattan and thus regained control of 'Lancaster' for a year before the British returned to recapture the Dutch colony a year later. '
‘Lancaster' never really took hold, and the name 'New Haarlem' quietly morphed into Harlem.
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