Anglos 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

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

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

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.

Sources: 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.

English, Irish & Scots in Early Albany