Province of New York

The Province of New York was the British Hudson colony on former Iroquois ground, built on York Shire, that ran from Long Island up the Hudson and Mohawk valleys to the Lakes, claiming westward beyond, seized as New Netherland in 1664 and American in 1783. Charles II sent his brother James, Duke of York, with a fleet against Peter Stuyvesant, who yielded without his West India Company's leave, and the province took its proprietor's name. De facto English from the muskets of 1664 and de jure as sovereign rule from Breda in 1667 and Westminster in 1674, with common law following the same year, it grew rich between New France and the sea. In 1776 its people joined the Thirteen in rebellion, and the Treaty of Paris in 1783 ended every British claim, Washington's Continental Army parading in grand celebration that November the 25th, turning the Hudson province into the American state.