The prudence, skill and wisdom of Richard Nicolls, his Deputy Governor, after much objection and opposition, which he completely and gently overcame, effected this; and between the 20th and 25th of October, 1664, hardly five weeks after the surrender, all the former Dutch ofiicials, and nearly three hundred of the male inhabitants of New York, including Stuyvesant, van Cortlandt, van Ruyven, van Rensselaer and Beekman, took the oath of allegiance to Charles the 2d and the Duke of York, as the lawful Sovereign, and the lawful Lord Proprietor of New York.
8.
The English System in the Province of New York under the Duhe of York as Lord Proprietor.
From the eighth day of September, 1664, when the Surrender of New Netherland to the English took place, the right of soil, the right of domain, the right of jurisdiction, and the source of power, in the Province of New York, was vested, and acknowledged to be vested, in the Duke of York under the Patent to him from King Charles the Second of the 12th of March, 1664. In this Patent, perhaps the strongest, most sweeping, and most comprehensive in its terms, of any granted in America by an English Monarch, the King gave to the Duke the entire territory of New Netherland therein described, (though of course that name was not used) upon this tenure, namely; -- "To be holden of us our Heirs and Successors, as of our Manor of East Greenwich and our County of Kent, in free and common soccage and not in Capite, nor by Knight Service, yielding and rendering * * * * of and for the same, yearly and every year, forty beaver skins when they shall be demanded, or within Ninety days after."