English, Irish & Scots in Early Albany


Native English speakers were part of the human mix in the city of Albany and its predecessors from the earliest days.

Within a general language identity, these settlers represented a diverse and essential element of the community mosaic.

Settler origins meant different things at different times

Besides the English language, they brought English customs, contexts, and connections

Some chose to fit in - others stood out

Embodying Albany's principal new blood, Anglo settlers were prominent agents of change during each historical period


Return of the Experiment




Chronological Outline:

Pre-1664: First permanent settlements
        the New Netherland Dutch
        Fur traders of 1660: WT names
        individual new men; Glen; Sanders

1664-1686: Birth of Albany
        Newcomers: interlopers and opportunists 1679; RS & RL;
        Loyalty Oath of 1664
        Duke's men: TD; IS

1686-1750s: next generations & first institutions - City Fathers
        the Fort and its people - JC & HH
        the Church of England
        a royal province - incentives and restrictions
        artists and cartographers create a visual record
        Peacetime immigration boom (1713-44) largely by-passes Albany

1754-63: French and Indian Wars:
        Albany Congress
        New Englanders
        other colonies SS
        Lawyers - WC
        British adherents WJ

1763-83: The American Revolutions
        The Other Revolutionaries
        newspaper and printing
        Masonic networking
        churches
        Wartime Newcomers were refugees - SL

1783-1800s: Becoming American
        the Third Revolution
        more newcomers - New England - other states - Canada - Europe - returned Tories



notes

This document was created in 2015 to structure a public program on the topic first presented at a meeting of the St. George's Society of Albany on April 24, 2015. It also can be used as a study guide.

the people of colonial AlbanySources: This page intends to provide access to information on early Albany people of English ancestry on this website and to link to exceptional and also notorious resources online. This sketch is informed chiefly by family and community-based resources developed by the Colonial Albany Project.

English and British: These terms have meant different things to different people both historically and to those considering them today. We might start with a Wikipedia entry for a timely general overview.
        Follow this link to more on early Albany Anglos on this website.

                References to English, Scots, Irish on this website.

Even some Tories were able to return. Notable here was old Goldbrow Banyar, a career royal official the first president of the St.George's Society of New York, who, by 1800, had settled on Pearl Street and died in Albany in 1815.



Home | Site Index | Navigation | Email | New York State Museum

first launched 4/22/15; updated 1/8/16