Dongan Charter
Encyclopedia
The Dongan Charter is the 1686 document incorporating Albany
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...

, New York as a city. Albany's charter was issued by Governor
Governor of New York
The Governor of the State of New York is the chief executive of the State of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military and naval forces. The officeholder is afforded the courtesy title of His/Her...

 Thomas Dongan
Thomas Dongan, 2nd Earl of Limerick
Thomas Donegan, 2nd Earl of Limerick was a member of Irish Parliament, Royalist military officer during the English Civil War, and governor of the Province of New York...

 of the Province of New York
Province of New York
The Province of New York was an English and later British crown territory that originally included all of the present U.S. states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Vermont, along with inland portions of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine, as well as eastern Pennsylvania...

, a few months after Governor Dongan issued a similarly worded, but less detailed charter
Charter
A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified...

 for the city of New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. The city of Albany was created three years after Albany County
Albany County, New York
Albany County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, and is part of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metropolitan Statistical Area. The name is from the title of the Duke of York and Albany, who became James II of England . As of the 2010 census, the population was 304,204...

. The charter is the oldest existing city charter still in force in the United States and possibly in all the Western Hemisphere
Western Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere or western hemisphere is mainly used as a geographical term for the half of the Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian and east of the Antimeridian , the other half being called the Eastern Hemisphere.In this sense, the western hemisphere consists of the western portions...

. In 1936 the United States Congress commemorated the charter's 250th anniversary by minting a half dollar coin.

History

After the city of New York received a municipal charter from Governor Dongan the governor came to Albany, at which time the village sent a delegation of prominent men to request a charter of their own. The Patroon
Patroon
In the United States, a patroon was a landholder with manorial rights to large tracts of land in the 17th century Dutch colony of New Netherland in North America...

, after being encouraged by the governor, finally released all claims to Albany and forfeited a strip of land 1 miles (1.6 km) wide and 16 miles (25.7 km) long to Albany. Albany at the time consisted of about 500 residents living in around 140 houses. In July 1686 a delegation led by Pieter Schuyler
Pieter Schuyler
Pieter Schuyler was the first mayor of Albany, New York and the head of the Albany Commissioners for Indian Affairs...

 and Robert Livingston
Robert Livingston the Elder
Robert Livingston the Elder was a New York colonial official, and first lord of Livingston Manor. He married Alida Schuyler in 1679. He was the father of nine children, including Philip, Robert and Gilbert...

 traveled to New York to receive the charter for Albany; the charter was signed on July 25, 1686 and was read aloud to the citizens of Albany three days later. Due to England, and by extension Albany, using the Julian calendar
Julian calendar
The Julian calendar began in 45 BC as a reform of the Roman calendar by Julius Caesar. It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year .The Julian calendar has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months...

 at the time, the corrected date for the signing of the document under the Gregorian calendar
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter...

 is August 1, 1686.

During Leisler's Rebellion
Leisler's Rebellion
Leisler's Rebellion was an uprising in late 17th century colonial New York, in which German American merchant and militia captain Jacob Leisler seized control of the colony's south and ruled it from 1689 to 1691. The uprising took place in the aftermath of Britain's Glorious Revolution and the...

 Jacob Leisler
Jacob Leisler
Jacob Leisler was a German-born American colonist. He helped create the Huguenot settlement of New Rochelle in 1688 and later served as the acting Lieutenant Governor of New York...

 demanded the charters of Albany and the city of New York be forfeited, and New York yielded but Albany's mayor, Pieter Schuyler, refused. Schuyler went on to became one of the major leaders in suppressing the rebellion. The next major threat to the charter government came during the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...

 when the Common Council stopped meeting in 1775. The local Committee of Safety
Committee of Safety (American Revolution)
Many Committees of Safety were established throughout Colonial America at the start of the American Revolution. These committees started to appear in the 1760s as means to discuss the concerns of the time, and often consisted of every male adult in the community...

 took over daily functions until 1778 when the Common Council began meeting again.

A Dongan Charter Parade was held in 1936 for the 250th anniversary celebrations, and as part of the ceremonies the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

 authorized the minting of an Albany Charter half dollar
Half dollar
Half dollar may refer to a half-unit of several currencies that are named "dollar". Normally, $1 is divided into 100 cents, so a half dollar is equal to 50 cents...

 coin. Tricentennial celebrations held in 1986 included a re-enactment of the signing and awarding of the charter by Governor Mario Cuomo
Mario Cuomo
Mario Matthew Cuomo served as the 52nd Governor of New York from 1983 to 1994, and is the father of Andrew Cuomo, the current governor of New York.-Early life:...

 playing Governor Dongan, and Mayor Thomas Whalen playing Mayor Schuyler. Other events during the tricentennial were fireworks, music, the unveiling of a tricentennial clock, a hot-air balloon lift-off from Lincoln Park
Lincoln Park (Albany)
Lincoln Park is an urban park in Albany, New York, with a unique history, from being the site of a skirmish in 1626 between the Dutch and Mohawks to brickyards and breweries to being Albany's first public playground. The park features Albany's only outdoor non-wading swimming pool, along with...

, and a cake large enough to feed thousands. Mayors from other Albany's around the world were among the visiting dignitaries who were invited to the ceremonies and given a tour of the city by Mayor Whalen.

Provisions

The charter turned the village of Albany into a city under the name of "The Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of the city of Albany"; this legally separated it from Rensselaerswyck, a nearby colonial estate. The charter also established Albany's boundaries and a municipal government, as well as specifically naming the first officers. Certain special rights were put into the charter as well, such as the exclusive right to negotiate with the Native Americans
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

. It also established Albany as the sole market town in the upper Hudson region
Capital District
New York's Capital District, also known as the Capital Region, is a region in upstate New York that generally refers to the four counties surrounding Albany, the capital of the state: Albany County, Schenectady County, Rensselaer County, and Saratoga County...

, with the right to purchase land at Tionnderoge
Fort Hunter, New York
Fort Hunter is a hamlet in the town of Florida in Montgomery County, New York, on the Mohawk River at Schoharie Creek.In the 18th century, Fort Hunter was built as a fort near the location of one of the two primary Mohawk settlements. The Mohawk name for the village was rendered variously in...

 and Schaghticoke.

The mayor of Albany was the executive officer and selected by the Lieutenant Governor. He was also designated as the clerk of the marketplace and the coroner for both the city and Albany County. Two alderman and two assistant aldermen were chosen from each ward and sat on the Common Council along with the mayor and recorder. The mayor, recorder, and aldermen were also justices, the assistants however did not have any judicial powers.

The sole right to issue trading privileges anywhere in Albany County rested with the mayor and Common Council. Albany County encompassed all of Upstate New York north and west of Ulster County
Ulster County, New York
Ulster County is a county located in the state of New York, USA. It sits in the state's Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 182,493. Recent population estimates completed by the United States Census Bureau for the 12-month period ending July 1 are at...

 at that time, as well as the state of Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...

. All residents of New York, except those of Albany, were specifically banned from trading with any Iroquois
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...

 nation, or with any other native tribe to the west, east, or north of the city of Albany, or with native tribes anywhere within Albany County.

Amendments

The Dongan Charter was first amended on March 21, 1787 to remove the mayor's powers to act as the city and county's sole coroner, and to regulate trade with Indians. It continued to be used with only minor changes until March 16, 1870, when it saw major changes by the state legislature in 1870 and 1883. In the 1870 revision the name of the city was changed from "The Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of the city of Albany" to the "City of Albany". In 1998 the people of Albany adopted a revised charter as an amendment to the Dongan Charter.

Commemorative coin

The United States Congress authorized on June 16, 1936 the minting of 25,000 half dollar coins celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Dongan Charter. These were legal tender, though few actually ever circulated. The Albany Dongan Charter Coin Committee was established to approve the design and chose Gertrude Lathrop, an Albany native, to create a design, she would also go on to design the New Rochelle
New Rochelle, New York
New Rochelle is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state.The town was settled by refugee Huguenots in 1688 who were fleeing persecution in France...

 commemorative coin.

All 25,013 coins were minted at the Philadelphia Mint
Philadelphia Mint
The Philadelphia Mint was created from the need to establish a national identity and the needs of commerce in the United States. This led the Founding Fathers of the United States to make an establishment of a continental national mint a main priority after the ratification of the Constitution of...

, the 13 extra were for the assay commission and were destroyed. Commemorative coins
Early United States commemorative coins
The Early United States commemorative coins traditionally begins with the 1892 Colombian Half dollar and extends through the 1954 Booker T. Washington issue. The profits from the sale of commemorative coins was often used to fund a specific project...

 of this period had normally sold for $1.00 or $1.50, the Albany Charter Coin however was put for sale at $2.00. The commemorative coin mania that had been sweeping the country in the spring and summer of 1936 had already seen close to twenty other commemorative coins issued that same year, and had abated by the time of this issuing. 7,342 coins were returned to Philadelphia and melted in 1943 and between 1,600 to 2,400 were sold in 1954 by the State Bank of Albany.

the coins can fetch $330 for an uncirculated coin rated as MS-60
Coin grading
In coin collecting coin grading is the process of determining the grade or condition of a coin, one of the key factors in determining its value as a collector's item....

, and $470 for an MS-65. Original packaging, which is more rare, included a four-page booklet containing an illustration of the coin, a history of Albany, and slots for one to five coins. Both the booklet and the envelope it came in are highly collectible today. Even scarcer today are boxes designed to hold single coins and inscribed with "The National Commercial Bank and Trust Company of Albany".

Specifications

The Albany Charter coin is 30.6 millimetres (1.2 in) in diameter and weighs 12.5 gram (0.4409245263139 oz), with a reeded edge, and was 90% silver with 10% copper. The obverse is a beaver gnawing on a maple branch, which represents the importance that the fur trade
Fur trade
The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of world market for in the early modern period furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most valued...

 had in Albany's economy, with the maple used since it is New York's state tree. Seeds of a maple tree separate the words "United States of America" from "Half Dollar", which are arranged around the bottom periphery while "E pluribus unum
E pluribus unum
E pluribus unum , Latin for "Out of many, one", is a phrase on the Seal of the United States, along with Annuit cœptis and Novus ordo seclorum, and adopted by an Act of Congress in 1782...

" and "In God We Trust
In God We Trust
"In God We Trust" was adopted as the official motto of the United States in 1956. It is also the motto of the U.S. state of Florida. The Legality of this motto has been questioned because of the United States Constitution forbidding the government to make any law respecting the establishment of a...

" appear in small letters above the beaver. On the reverse are Governor Dongan, Robert Livingston, and Mayor Schuyler standing in front of a pine tree on a base inscribed with the year 1936. The artist's initials, "GKL", are inscribed next to the governor's feet. The mayor is holding the new charter and shaking hands with the governor. Above the three men is an eagle with the legend "Liberty". Arranged along the top periphery are the words "Settled 1614 Chartered 1686", while "Albany, N Y" arcs across the bottom; pine cones separate the two inscriptions.

External links

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