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New York (Colony). Council

Behind many of colonial New York’s key decisions stood this governing council, whose records capture the day-to-day business of lawmaking, land policy, military affairs, and government before the Revolution. Its surviving journals and minutes offer a direct window into how the colony was run from the late 1600s to 1775.

1 Audiobook

Papers Relating to an Act of the Assembly of the Province of New-York For encouragement of the Indian trade, &c. and for prohibiting the selling of Indian goods to the French, viz. of Canada

Papers Relating to an Act of the Assembly of the Province of New-York For encouragement of the Indian trade, &c. and for prohibiting the selling of Indian goods to the French, viz. of Canada

by Cadwallader Colden, Great Britain. Board of Trade, Great Britain. Privy Council, New York (Colony). Council

About the author

New York (Colony). Council was not an individual author but a colonial governing body, often described as the Governor’s or Executive Council of the Province of New York. It served as the upper house of the colony’s legislature and took part in the colony’s central decision-making for much of the colonial period.

The Council’s name appears as the corporate author of important historical records, including Journal of the Legislative Council of the Colony of New-York and Calendar of Council Minutes, 1668–1783. These volumes preserve proceedings, orders, and official actions that document how the colony handled legislation, land questions, military matters, and relations with Native nations.

For readers today, works attributed to the Council are valuable less as personal writing and more as primary sources. They bring together the formal voice of colonial government and help historians trace the political life of New York from the late seventeenth century until the Council’s disappearance during the Revolutionary era.