List of colonial governors of New York


The territory which would later become the state of New York was settled by European colonists as part of the New Netherland colony under the command of the Dutch West India Company in the Seventeenth Century. These colonists were largely of Dutch, Flemish, Walloon, and German stock, but the colony soon became a "melting pot." In 1664, at the onset of the Second Anglo-Dutch War, English forces under Richard Nicolls ousted the Dutch from control of New Netherland, and the territory became part of several different English colonies. Despite one brief year when the Dutch retook the colony, New York would remain an English and later British possession until the American colonies declared independence in 1776.
With the unification of the two proprietary colonies of East Jersey and West Jersey in 1702, the provinces of New York and the neighboring colony New Jersey shared a royal governor. This arrangement began with the appointment of Queen Anne's cousin, Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury as Royal Governor of New York and New Jersey in 1702, and ended when New Jersey was granted its own royal governor in 1738.

Directors (or governors) of New Netherland (1624–1664)

New Netherland was the 17th-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands and the Dutch West India Company. It claimed territories along the eastern coast of North America from the Delmarva Peninsula to southwestern Cape Cod. Settled areas of New Netherland are now constitute the states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut, and parts of Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. The provincial capital New Amsterdam was located at the southern tip of the island of Manhattan at Upper New York Bay.
New Netherland was conceived as a private business venture to exploit the North American fur trade. By the 1650s, the colony experienced dramatic growth and became a major port for trade in the North Atlantic. The leader of the Dutch colony was known by the title Director or Director-General. On August 27, 1664, four English frigates commanded by Richard Nicolls sailed into New Amsterdam's harbor and demanded the surrender of New Netherland. This event sparked the Second Anglo-Dutch War, which led to the transfer of the territory to England per the Treaty of Breda.
#PortraitDirector or
Director-General		Took officeLeft officeNotes
1Cornelius Jacobsen May
16241625
2Willem Verhulst
16251626
3Peter Minuit 16261631
  • Purchased the island of Manhattan from Native Americans on May 24, 1626 for 60 Dutch guilders worth of goods.
4Sebastiaen Jansen Krol 16321633
  • Commander at Fort Orange before and after his term as Director General
5Wouter van Twiller 16331638
  • Previously a Dutch West India Company warehouse clerk, used family connections to the Rensselaer family to gain appointment
  • Purchased Nut Island, later called Governor's Island from Canarsee tribe for two axeheads, a string of beads and iron nails
  • Lost the colony's claim of the Connecticut River valley to New England settlers
  • Pushed back encroaching Virginia settlers who tried to settle Delaware River valley
6Willem Kieft 16381647
7Peter Stuyvesant 16471664

Under British control (1664–1783)

Apart from a short period between May 1688 and April 1689, during which New York was part of the Dominion of New England, the territory was known in this period as the Province of New York.
#PortraitGovernorTook officeLeft officeNotes
1Richard Nicolls
16641668as military governor
2Francis Lovelace
16681673
3Anthony Colve16731674Dutch naval captain under restored Netherlands rule
4Edmund Andros
16741683
5Anthony Brockholls
16811683Commander-in-Chief of British Forces and acting governor
6Thomas Dongan, 2nd Earl of Limerick
16831688
7Francis Nicholson
16881691military governor and de facto only until June 1689
8Jacob Leisler
16881691Militia officer in rebellion
9Henry Sloughter
16911691
10Richard Ingoldesby
16911692Military officer as acting governor
11Benjamin Fletcher
16921697
12Richard Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont
16981700/1
13John Nanfan
17011702as acting governor
14Edward Hyde, 3rd Earl of Clarendon
17021708
15John Lovelace, 4th Baron Lovelace
17081709
16Pieter Schuyler
17091709as acting governor
17Richard Ingoldesby
17091709as acting governor
18Gerardus Beekman
17091710as acting governor
19Robert Hunter
17101719
20Pieter Schuyler
17191720as acting governor
21William Burnet
17201728
22John Montgomerie
17281731
23Rip Van Dam
17311732as acting governor
24William Cosby
17321736
25George Clarke
17361743as acting governor
26George Clinton
17431753
27Sir Danvers Osborn, 3rd Baronet
17531753
28James De Lancey
17531755as acting governor
29Charles Hardy
17551758
30James De Lancey
17581760as acting governor
31Cadwallader Colden
17601762as acting governor
32Robert Monckton
17621763
33Cadwallader Colden
17631765as acting governor
34Sir Henry Moore, 1st Baronet
17651769
35Cadwallader Colden
17691770as acting governor
36John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore
17701771
37William Tryon
17711774
38Cadwallader Colden
17741775as acting governor
39William Tryon
17751780
40James Robertson
17801783as military governor
41Andrew Elliot
17831783as military governor