Explorer Henry Hudson, seeking a northwest passage to the Orient, entered what is today known as Jamaica Bay and “discovered” the Rockaway (then known as Reckowacky or “the place of our own people”) peninsula
April 1614
After wintering in lower Manhattan, Adriaen Block, Dutch navigator, sailed up the East River and through Hell Gate making it likely that he and his crew were the first Europeans to see Queens. He named the passage through the river “Hell Gate” meaning “bright passage.”
March 28, 1642
The first charter for a permanent settlement on Long Island was granted to Englishman Reverend Francis Doughty. The Rev. Doughty patent included the lands at the headwaters of the Newtown (Mespaetches) Creek and was named Maspeth (Mispat). The patent covered lands that stretched to the current Jamaica border, Flushing Creek, and Long Island City. The Doughty settlement did not last as it was burned out during an Indian uprising in 1643. After a short stormy term as minister in Flushing, Doughty eventually moved to Maryland and then Virginia.
July 1643
Richard Bruntnel receives a land grant in Dutch Kills. His farm embraces the modern communities of Sunnyside and Blissville.
October 10, 1645
Vlissingen received a charter from Willem Kieft, the Dutch governor of New Amsterdam and New Netherland. Vlissingen, named after a city in the Netherlands, was later corrupted by English speakers to “Flushing.”
October 19, 1645
Pieter Andriesen de Schoorsteenveger secured a ground brief, which covered much of Ravenswood. He enjoyed this land only a short time, for he was carried off into captivity by Indians during the “Indian Troubles of 1655.” He was never to be heard of again.
December 01, 1652
Englishman William Hallett Sr. received a land brief from the Dutch authorities in New Amsterdam for 161 acres in northwestern Queens. The area became Hallett's Cove and Hallett's Point on the East River at Hell Gate, now Astoria. This site was one of Queens' earliest settlements belonging to Jacques Bentyn, circa 1638, but abandoned and destroyed in the 1640s.
Hallett's Cove had been a place of safety in the age of sail, as navigators often waited there for more favorable tides to get them through Hell Gate to points east and north. The Hallett family remained prominent in the area for over 200 years.
February 02, 1653
Queens and Manhattan are separated into distinct political entities. New Amsterdam (specifically lower Manhattan island) is organized into an autonomous unit. The rest of New Netherland colony (including the towns that became organized into Queens County three decades later) would be absorbed into the British empire in less than a dozen years.
February 06, 1655
Gov. Nicolls confirmed a patent to Daniel Denton, William Hallett, Robert Coe, Anthony Waters and others on “a certain tract of land purchased for and on behalf of the Town of Jamaica.” Founded less than ten years before, this action secured the rights to the fledgling settlement’s official status under English rule. Jamaica Township, along with Newtown and Flushing Townships, comprises modern Queens.
March 21, 1656
After being petitioned three times by a group of fourteen men from Hempstead who wanted to settle some land they already “purchased” from the Indians, Gov. Peter Stuyvesant granted a warrant for the settlement of Jamaica. Their petition stated that they wanted a “place to improve our labor upon, for some of us are destitute of either habitations or possessions, others cannot comfortable subsist by their labors and exertions.”
The tract, which was between Hawtree Creek and Francis Lewis Boulevard, was issued on March 21, 1656.
December 27, 1657
Edward Hart, Town Clerk of Flushing, writes Flushing’s “Remonstrance for Religious Freedom.” When Gov. Stuyvesant orders that Quakers are to be banned from New Amsterdam, a small group from Flushing, Newtown, and Jamaica defied his order. Hart and Sheriff Tobias Feake are arrested after the Remonstrance (petition) is presented.
The descendants of the two signers, Edward Hart and Richard Stockton, signed the Declaration of Independence 119 years later.
January 15, 1658
On January 15, 1658, the Magistrates of Jamaica (Rustdorp) informed Governor Stuyvesant that Henry Townsend (who signed the Flushing Remonstrance) was hosting the banned sect, Quakers, at his house, He was fined 100 pounds and was to remain under arrest until this levy, and court costs, were paid. Although Townsend managed to pay this enormous fine he was again arrested a few years later when he was recorded at stating “they might squander and devour my estate and manacle my person, but that my soul was God’s and my opinions my own. ”
August 1659
The first court case is recorded in Newtown Township court records. Someone stole a wheel of cheese.
September 21, 1662
Governor Peter Stuyvesant banned the public exercise of any worship but “the [Dutch] Reformed worship and service.” But in Flushing, John Bowne and his wife Hannah invited Quakers to worship in their house. John Bowne was arrested and transported to Holland for trial. He defended himself successfully and was allowed to return to Flushing. His house is now a museum run by the Bowne House Historical Society.
September 21, 1662
The townships of Vlissingen, Middleburgh, and Rustdorp (later called Flushing), Newtown [Elmhurst], and Jamaica, are officially surrendered by the Dutch to the English. Peter Stuyvesant reluctantly gave up the fort at New Amsterdam and relinquished control over all the lands of New Netherland.
October 1662
After swearing allegiance to Connecticut, Long Island makes a bid to shake off Dutch rule and become part of New England.
December 14, 1662
The Council of New Amsterdam decreed “for the welfare of the community, to transport from this province the aforesaid John Bowne, if he continues abstinate and pervicacious, in the first ship to sail, for an example to others.”
Bowne and his wife Hannah had allowed Quakers to worship in their Flushing house, in spite of a ban issued on such worship by Governor Syuyvesant. On January 9, 1663, Bowne was deported to Holland aboard the Gilded Fox, for trial in Holland. He returned eventually, bearing with him the right of religious freedom, granted by the directors of the West India Company.
August 1664
William Hallett visited Astoria and bought a large tract of land from Chief Mattano, sachem of the Staten Island & Noyack (Fort Hamilton) Indians, for 58 fathoms of wampum, seven coats, one blanket and four kettles. The tract was 2,200 acres and extended from Bowery Bay to Sunswick Creek, encompassing all of modern Astoria and Steinway. The deed for this transaction was signed by four Indian chiefs by marks and witnessed by three white men. It still exists in the State Archives in Albany.
June 23, 1666
Captain Richard Betts obtained the governor's license to purchase Newtown Township from the Indians for the amount of 26 pounds, nine shillings. Chiefs Pomwaukon and Rowerestco signed the deed. They were members of the Canarsee tribe, a powerful clan that controlled Brooklyn, western Queens and the Hell Gate. Soon, most Native-Americans left, although some lingered at Maspeth Kills for a few years.
June 07, 1672
George Fox, founder of the Quakers, preached before several hundred from beneath oak trees across the road from Bowne House in Flushing. The Fox Oaks survived until mid-19th century, when they measured almost 13 feet in circumference near the ground. A stone marker erected in 1907 now marks the site.
February 19, 1674
On February 19, 1674, a treaty returned New York for the second and final time to Dutch rule. The Dutch considered Surinam, a sugar colony on the north coast of South America, as fair exchange.
The previous July, a Dutch squadron under two grim sea-dogs, Admirals Evertsen and Binckes, suddenly appeared in the lower bay. They sent word to the English commander “they had come for their own, and their own they would have.” After the local militia refused to fight and Evertsen’s frigates fired a couple of broadsides into the fort, the English surrendered to Dutch troops under the command of Capt. Anthony Colve.
The Dutch language was again made official, and schepens, burgomasters, and schout replaced sheriff, mayor, and aldermen. The Dutch towns along the Hudson submitted gladly, but Long Island was sullen and appealed to Connecticut for help. Colve and Evertsen, backed up by seasoned troops and a well-equipped squadron, warned the Long Islanders that they must submit. They did.
In November 1674, when the city was again turned over the English, Colve was on such cordial terms with the incoming English governor, Edmund Andros, that he gave his personal carriage and three horses to him.
June 23, 1680
William Hallett is appointed overseer by Newtown Township. The present Hallett's Cove, at Hell Gate, in Old Astoria Village marks the location of his 1652 settlement, one of the first European homesteads in western Queens. Later, while sheriff in neighboring Flushing, he got caught up in the religious struggles of the time and was arrested for harboring Baptists. He died about 1706, aged 90.
The Hallett family retains a presence in Queens to this day through the Hallett Funeral Home in Flushing.
November 01, 1683
Queens County was chartered. English governor Thomas Dongan organized the province of New York into twelve counties, ten of which exist today.There is no evidence in documents for almost 200 years that Queens was named for the controversial Catherine of Braganza–the earliest mention found only in the 1890s.
Other counties created at this time were New York County (Manhattan), Kings (Brooklyn), Richmond (Staten Island), Suffolk, and Westchester, Duchess, and Dukes. When Queens joined Greater New York and became one of the five boroughs in 1898, Nassau County (embracing the towns of Hempstead, North Hempstead, and Oyster Bay), became a separate county in 1899.
November 24, 1694
The first meeting at the Quaker Meeting House in Flushing took place. Situated at 137-16 Northern Boulevard, this house of worship was built on a three-acre plot purchased in November 1693. The Bowne House, built in 1661, still stands nearby. Today, the Meeting House still serves as a house of worship on Sundays and is open to the public by appointment.
