History of New York City (1665–1783) port British ships evacuated in 1783. The English had renamed the colony the Province of New York, after the king's brother James, Duke of York and on June 12, 1665, appointed Thomas Willett the first of the Mayors of New York. The city grew northward and remained the largest and most important city in the Province of New York, becoming the third largest in the British Empire after London and Philadelphia. The Dutch regained the colony briefly in 1673, then finally lost it permanently to the English in 1674 after the Third Anglo-Dutch War. Leisler's Rebellion, an uprising in which
Thomas Curtis (Lord Mayor) one of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies. He was sent to Newgate Prison and fined for his refusal to comply, after which he became a fishmonger. He was elected mayor of London in 1556. The only other pewterer to become mayor of London, John Fryer, likewise became a fishmonger. Curtis died on 27 November 1559. His son predeceased him, leaving a granddaughter, Anne, as heir. She married the mercenary Thomas Stukley; her inheritance launched Stukley's public life. Curtis was buried at St Dionis Backchurch on 6 December 1559. Thomas Curtis (Lord Mayor) Sir Thomas Curtis (sometimes Thomas Curteys; d.