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 Bell (Mayor of Gloucester) of arms. Thomas Bell Jnr. was twice Mayor of Gloucester, in 1543 and 1554/5. During his last term, together with the city aldermen, Bell visited Bishop John Hooper of Gloucester on the evening before the bishop's martyrdom on 9 Feb. 1555. Hooper thanked them for their visit and later Bell chased away people trying to record Hooper's last words at the stake. He is mentioned in Foxe's Book of Martyrs. Thomas Bell Jnr. married Sibill and had issue: Thomas Bell (Mayor of Gloucester) Sir Thomas Bell the Elder (1486–1566) was a cap manufacturer, mayor of Gloucester, and member of Parliament.