Albany was one of the original 12 counties of New York State, formed in 1683. The county seat is the City of Albany It is situated on the west bank of the Hudson River, approximately 135 miles north of New York City.
By 1774 Albany had the highest population across New York counties, almost 43,000 settlers. Present boundaries were settled by 1800 when Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, and Schoharie had been split off. Once reduced to the area west of the Hudson and south of the Mohawk, Albany's revised population was about one-third (25,000) of what it had been in 1790.
The New York State Department of Education website (accessed April 2007, www.nysed.gov) provides the following historic timeline summary.
- 1624 — Fort Orange established
- 1652 — Beverwyck created as a separate jurisdiction
- 1664 — Dutch surrender New Netherland to the Duke of York - Beverwyck becomes Albany!
- 1673 — Dutch regain control of New York for a year
- 1676 — English build a new fort overlooking
Albany
- 1680 — Missionaries Danckaerts and Sluyter visit Albany
- 1683 — Albany County created
- 1686 — Albany receives its municipal charter
- 1697 — Census shows city population at 714
- 1713-1744 — Three decades of peace on the New York frontier
- 1714 — city population counted at 1128
- 1749 — Peter Kalm arrives at Albany
- 1754 — The Albany Congress meets at city
hall
- 1754-1763 — The French and Indian War
- 1765 — Albany buys the fort and other military
buildings from the British
- 1766 — Sons of Liberty orchestrate opposition to the Stamp Act
- 1766 — Docks and seawall built by Albany Corporation
- 1771 — The Albany Gazette, Albany's first newspaper, begins publication
- 1773 — Laws and Ordinances of Albany published
- 1775 — First public meeting of the Albany Committee of Correspondence
- 1776 — Tories arrested for drinking to the King's health
- 1778 — Commissioners for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies prosecute Tories
- 1780 — New York State Legislature first meets in Albany
- 1782-83 — General George Washington visits Albany
- 1785 — Stewart Dean sails from Albany to China
- 1790 — Albany population reaches 3,498
- 1793 — Albany's first great fire destroys several blocks in the core city
- 1799 — New York State passes law that will abolish slavery by 1827
- 1800 — Census fixes city population at 5,349
- 1813 — First Albany city directory published
- 1820 — City population reaches 12,630
- 1823 — Funding appropriated for creation of an Albany Basin
- 1827 — Slavery ended by statute in New York State