Everything about Richard Nicolls totally explained
Richard Nicolls (born
1624 in
Ampthill,
Bedfordshire; died
May 28,
1672 on the
North Sea, off
Suffolk) was the first British colonial governor of
New York.
He commanded a royalist troop of horse during the
English Civil War, and on the defeat of the king went into exile. Soon after the
Restoration he became groom of the bedchamber to the
Duke of York, through whose influence he was appointed in 1664 on a commission with Sir
Robert Carr (d. 1667), George Cartwright and
Samuel Maverick, to conquer
New Netherland from the Dutch and to regulate the affairs of the New England colonies and settle disputes among them. The expedition set sail from
Portsmouth on
May 25,
1664, and
New Amsterdam was surrendered to Nicolls on
8 September,
1664. Under authority of a commission from the Duke (later King James) Nicolls assumed the position of deputy-governor of New Netherland (
New York).
His policy was vigorous but tactful, and the transition to the new regime was made smoothly and with due regard to the interests of the conquered people. They were guaranteed in the possession of their property rights, their laws of inheritance, and the enjoyment of religious freedom. The
English system of law and administration was at once introduced into
Long Island,
Staten Island and
Westchester, where the
English element already predominated, but the change was made much more slowly in the Dutch sections. A code of laws, known as the " Duke's Laws," drafted by the governor with the help of his secretary,
Matthias Nicolls (c.
1630-
1687), and dated the
12 March, was proclaimed at
Hempstead,
Long Island, on the
1 March 1665 and continued in force until
1683; the code was compiled from the codes of the
New England colonies, and it provided for trial by jury, for proportional taxation on property, for the issuance of new patents for land and for land tenure only by licence from the duke. Nicolls returned to
England in the summer of
1668 and continued in the service of the
Duke of York and was replaced by
Francis Lovelace as Governor. He was killed in the naval
battle of Southwold Bay on the
28 May 1672. His monument at
Ampthill incorporates the cannon-ball that killed him.
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