Municipal Records of New Amsterdam

Volume of New Amsterdam deeds before conservation

Volume of New Amsterdam deeds before conservation

In 1985, the New York City Municipal Archives acquired New Amsterdam and Common Council Minutes from the City Clerk. Dating 1647-1834, the manuscripts and their English translations document proceedings, resolutions, minutes, accounts, petitions, and correspondence of Dutch and English colonial governments.

The NYC Municipal Archives is in the process of digitizing its collection of 17th-century New Amsterdam records. As the records are made available online, links to them will appear below.

Note regarding language: Most of the records are in Dutch. A translation by Edmund B. O’Callaghan is available in Records of New Amsterdam, edited by Berthold Fernow (1897), available here through Google Books.

The following original Dutch manuscripts are now available:

  1. Ordinances of New Amsterdam, May 31, 1647 - Oct. 21, 1661

  2. Minutes of the Court of Burgomasters and Schepens of New Amsterdam, Feb. 2, 1653 – Aug. 31, 1654

  3. Minutes of the Court of Burgomasters and Schepens of New Amsterdam, Sept. 1654 – Nov. 15, 1655

  4. Minutes of the Court of Burgomasters and Schepens of New Amsterdam, Dec. 1655 – Aug. 28, 1656

  5. Minutes of the Court of Burgomasters and Schepens of New Amsterdam, Sept. 4, 1656 – Jan. 31, 1657

  6. Minutes of the Court of Burgomasters and Schepens of New Amsterdam, Dec. 17 - Dec. 20, 1657 (These 4 pages, inserted into volume 2 of the Original Dutch Records at an unknown date, represent the only records from a missing book covering the dates Feb. 1, 1657 to Jan. 3, 1658.)

  7. Minutes of the Court of Burgomasters and Schepens of New Amsterdam, Jan. 4, 1658 - Sept. 20, 1658

  8. (The book covering the dates Sept. 21. 1658 - Aug. 18, 1659 is missing from the collection.)

  9. Minutes of the Court of Burgomasters and Schepens of New Amsterdam, Aug. 19, 1659 - June 8, 1660

  10. Minutes of the Court of Burgomasters and Schepens of New Amsterdam, June 1660 - Oct. 1660

  11. Minutes of the Court of Burgomasters and Schepens of New Amsterdam, Oct. 1660 - March 1661

  12. Minutes of the Court of Burgomasters and Schepens of New Amsterdam, March 1661 - Oct. 31, 1661

  13. Minutes of the Court of Burgomasters and Schepens of New Amsterdam, Nov. 8, 1661 - Aug. 29, 1662

  14. Minutes of the Court of Burgomasters and Schepens of New Amsterdam, Sept. 5, 1662 - July 5, 1663

  15. Minutes of the Court of Burgomasters and Schepens of New Amsterdam, July 12, 1663 - May 1664

  16. Minutes of the Court of Burgomasters and Schepens of New Amsterdam, May 30, 1664 - April 7, 1665 (In August 1664, the rumor of an English fleet in Boston lead to hurried preparations for defense, but soon after their arrival in New Amsterdam General Stuyvesant surrendered to Admiral Nicolls without a fight, in September 1664.)

  17. Minutes of the Court of Burgomasters and Schepens of New Amsterdam, April 1665 - June 27, 1665 (In June 1665, the city of New Amsterdam became New York, and the council switched from the Dutch system to the English system of Mayor/Aldermen.)

  18. Records of the Mayor’s Courts of the City of New York, No. 1, June 27, 1665 - June 12, 1666 (Although this volume is the first of the English court system, many of the proceedings were still conducted and recorded in Dutch)

  19. Records of the Mayor’s Courts of the City of New York, No. 2, June 13, 1666 - July 16, 1667 (Records appear in both Dutch and English)

  20. Records of the Mayor’s Courts of the City of New York, No. 3, July 30, 1667 - Aug. 4, 1668 (Records appear in both Dutch and English)

  21. Records of the Mayor’s Courts of the City of New York, No. 4, Aug. 17, 1668 - Oct. 9, 1669 (Records appear in both Dutch and English)

  22. Records of the Mayor’s Courts of the City of New York, No. 5, Nov. 16, 1669 - Oct. 13, 1670 (Records appear in both Dutch and English)

  23. Records of the Mayor’s Courts of the City of New York, No. 6, Oct. 13, 1670 - Oct. 13, 1671 (Records appear in both Dutch and English)

  24. Records of the Mayor’s Courts of the City of New York, No. 7, Oct. 24, 1671 - Oct. 12, 1672 (Records appear in both Dutch and English)

  25. (The book covering the dates Oct. 13, 1672 - Aug. 11, 1673 is missing from the collection.)

  26. Proceedings of the War Council of New Orange (and Court of Burgomasters and Schepens), Aug. 12, 1673 - Nov. 13, 1673 (In July 1673, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, Dutch warships retook New York from the English. From August 12 - 16, 1673 the Dutch war council disbanded the English government and reconstituted the Dutch system of Schout, Burgomasters and Schepens. The City's name was changed to New Orange in honor of their patron, William of Orange.)

  27. Proceedings of the War Council of New Orange (and Court of Burgomasters and Schepens), Nov. 28, 1673 - Aug. 11, 1674

  28. Proceedings of the War Council of New Orange (and Court of Burgomasters and Schepens), Aug. 13, 1674 - Nov. 10, 1674

  29. Administrative Minutes of New Amsterdam, Volume 1: Mar. 8, 1657 - Jan. 28, 1661

  30. Administrative Minutes of New Amsterdam, Volume 2: Feb. 11, 1661 - May 20, 1664

  31. Burgomasters & Schepens, Volume 1: Powers of attorney, acknowledgements, indentures, inventories, deeds and conveyances, March 1653-November 1655

  32. Burgomasters & Schepens, Volume 2: Register of mortgages, December 18, 1654-February 14, 1660

  33. Burgomasters & Schepens, Volume 3: Deeds and conveyances, 1658-1660

  34. Burgomasters & Schepens, Volume 4: Deeds and conveyances, April 16, 1661-March 10, 1663

  35. Burgomasters & Schepens, Volume 5: Deeds and conveyances, March 10, 1663-June 20, 1665

  36. Burgomasters & Schepens, Volume 6: Notary records of Walewyn van der Veen, May 20, 1662-June 1664

  37. Burgomasters & Schepens, Volume 7: Debts and mortgages, March 6, 1660-April 25, 1665

  38. Burgomasters & Schepens, Volume 8: Records of the notary public, Salomon LaChaire, August 1661-September 1661

  39. Minutes of the notary public, Salomon LaChaire, Jan. - May 1661

  40. Minutes of the notary public, Salomon LaChaire, 1661-1662

  41. Records of Deeds, Bonds, etc. of New Orange, 1665-1675

  42. Original Records of Burgomasters & Orphan Masters, Surrogates Court, 1655-1666

Published English translations available online:

  1. Records of New Amsterdam, Volume 1 (Ordinances 1647-1661 and court minutes 1653-1655), edited by Berthold Fernow, published 1897.

  2. Records of New Amsterdam, Volume 2 (Court minutes 1656-1658), edited by Berthold Fernow, published 1897.

  3. Records of New Amsterdam, Volume 3 (Court minutes 1658-1661), edited by Berthold Fernow, published 1897.

  4. Records of New Amsterdam, Volume 4 (Court minutes 1662-1663), edited by Berthold Fernow, published 1897.

  5. Records of New Amsterdam, Volume 5 (Court minutes 1664-1666), edited by Berthold Fernow, published 1897.

  6. Records of New Amsterdam, Volume 6 (Court minutes 1666-1673), edited by Berthold Fernow, published 1897.

  7. Records of New Amsterdam, Volume 7 (Court minutes of New Orange 1673-1674 and administrative minutes 1657-1661, plus index), edited by Berthold Fernow, published 1897.

  8. Records of the city of New Amsterdam, in New Netherland, 1647-1654, from the English translations by Cornelius Westbrook, published in 1867. This is the earliest published translation of the Records of New Amsterdam, and covers the ordinances and the court records in Volume 1.

  9. Colonial Dames of the State of New York Vol. 1, Minutes of the Orphanmasters of New Amsterdam from 1655 to 1663, edited by Berthold Fernow, published 1902.

  10. Colonial Dames of the State of New York Vol. 2, Minutes of the executive boards of the Burgomasters of New Amsterdam and the records of Walewyn van der Veen, notary public, 1662-1664, edited by Berthold Fernow, published 1907. (The 2nd volume of the Administrative Minutes is translated and published here, the 1st volume was published by Fernow in Volume 7 of the Records of New Amsterdam).

English manuscript translations can be found here:

  1. Ordinances of New Amsterdam 1647-1661, translated by E.B. O’Callaghan

  2. Translation of Dutch Records 1647-1654, translated by Cornelius Westbrook (In the 1830s, Westbrook was hired to translate the ordinances and the first book of Court Minutes. Fernow describes the translation as poor and the heavy editing of this volume is probably in his hand from the 1890s.)

  3. Translation of Dutch Records 1654-1657, translated by E.B. O’Callaghan (In the 1848 O'Callaghan was hired to complete the translations started by Westbrook. This volume begins with the Council resolution to hire O'Callaghan, signed by clerk David T. Valentine, famed for his Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York, more commonly known as “Valentine's Manual.”

  4. Records of Burgomasters & Schepens, from 4 Jan. 1658 to 28th Sept. 1658; together with Register of Burgomasters’ Resolutions, from March 1657 to January 1661 (begins on page 251), translated by E.B. O'Callaghan (Fernow published these resolutions in The Records of New Amsterdam as “Administrative Minutes Vol. 1”).

  5. Records of Burgomasters & Schepens, from Aug. 19, 1659 to Aug. 29, 1662, translated by E.B. O’Callaghan

  6. Records of Burgomasters & Schepens, from Sept. 1662 to June 1665, translated by E.B. O’Callaghan

  7. Powers of attorney, acknowledgements, indentures, inventories, deeds, and etc. from 1651-1656, translated by E.B. O’Callaghan (Most of this material appears in the original Dutch in Burgomasters & Schepens Vol 1., although the dates are slightly expanded.)