e way for the change. In 1665,
the year after the conquest, the city was given a Mayor, a Sheriff, and a
board of Aldermen, who were charged with the administration of municipal
affairs, and in the same year jury trials were formally established. In
July, 1673, the Dutch fleet recaptured the town, drove out the English,
and named it New Orange. The peace between Great Britain and Holland,
which closed the war, restored the town to the English, November 10th,
1674, and the name of New York was resumed. The Dutch Government was
replaced by the English system under a liberal charter, and during the
remainder of the seventeenth century the town grew rapidly in population
and size. In 1689 there was a brief disturbance known as Leislers'
Rebellion. In 1700 New York contained 750 dwellings and 4500 white and
750 black inhabitants. In 1693 William Bradford established the first
printing press in the city. In 1696 Trinity Church was begun, and in
1697, the streets were first lighted, a lamp being hung out upon a pole
extending from the window of every seventh house. In 1702 a terrible
fever was brought from St. Thomas', and carried off 600 persons,
one-tenth of the whole population. In 1711, a slave market was
established. In 1719 the first Presbyterian Church was built; in 1725
the New York _Gazette_, the fifth of the colonial newspapers, was
established; and in 1730 stages ran to Philadelphia once a fortnight, and
in 1732 to Boston, the latter journey occupying fourteen days. In 1731
the first public library, the bequest of the Rev. Dr. Wellington, of
England, was opened in the city. It contained 1622 volumes. In 1734 a
workhouse was erected in the present City Hall Park. In 1735 the people
made their first manifestation of hostility to Great Britain, which was
drawn forth by the infamous prosecution by the officers of the crown, of
Rip Van Dam, who had been the acting Governor of the town. The winter of
1740-41 was memorable for its severity. The Hudson was frozen over at
New York, and the snow lay six feet on a level. In 1741, a severe fire
in the lower part of the city destroyed among other things the old Dutch
Church and fort, and in the same year the yellow fever raged with great
violence. The principal event of the year, however, was the so-called
negro plot for the destruction of the town. Though the reality of the
plot was never proved, the greatest alarm prevailed; the fire in the fort
was declared