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
Vincent Thomas (mayor) Vincent Thomas (mayor) Vincent Johns Thomas (September 20, 1922 – November 7, 2015) was an American businessman and politician who served as the Mayor of Norfolk, Virginia, from 1976 to 1984. He also served as the chairman of the Virginia State Board of Education from 1975 to 1978. Thomas, who was born in Norfolk to Minnie Allison Thomas and Vincent Graves Thomas on September 20, 1922, was a lifelong resident of the city. He graduated from Maury High School in 1939. In 1943, Thomas received a degree in electrical engineering from the Virginia Military Institute. In 1960, the Norfolk City