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 Cooke (mayor) Philip Malpas, one of the leaders of the Lancastrian party within the city. They had one daughter and four sons, the eldest of whom was Philip, who was afterwards knighted. Thomas Cooke's will stated that he owned at least four brewhouses, taverns, and beerhouses, besides fishing-weirs on the Colne, a large farm at Gidea Hall, and numerous properties and manors in London, Surrey, Essex, and Kent. Thomas Cooke (mayor) Sir Thomas Cooke (died 1478) was an English merchant and Lord Mayor of London. He was born the son of Robert Cooke of Lavenham in Suffolk and moved to London to