Jacob Leisler has been more an icon in historical writing than a person. That the icon has served very different groups over the centuries only shows that is has had little to do with the real person. In his own century he was both the fanatical and villainous despot and the martyred hero. In later times he was a forerunner of American democracy, and a symbol of colonial rebelliousness. He has also been pilloried in the Catholic press, not without justification, although Catholics were not among those treated most harshly during his administration. To Marxist theoreticians he was a voice for the proletariat; to National Socialist propagandists he was a German martyr. In short, much that has been written about Leisler has had to do with the interests of various groups and causes, many of them unrelated, or only distantly related, to anything happening in Leisler's time. It is only today that articles and books are beginning to appear in which his career is examined dispassionately. Many of the untruths are so ingrained that one must almost begin by saying what is not true before going on to discuss what is true about Leisler. Suffice it to say that, despite a long tradition of popular writing that he was base-born, resentful of being outside the mainstream of colonial life and commerce, and failing in his enterprises, he none of these. For much of our enlightenment we are indebted to the research by David William Voorhees, who has assembled copies of several thousand documents from private institutions and government archives from throughout Europe and North America.

This is the last of three volumes to document the administration of the Dutch-controlled colonies that were under the jurisdiction of New York's first governor, Sir Edmund Andros. The documents range from official correspondence, reports and notes, to court minutes.

This volume, part of the New York Historical Manuscripts series, presents the early years of the administration of New York's first governorship under Sir Edmund Andros, who, as a loyal supporter of King Charles II, was awarded succeeding governorships of most of the English North American colonies, beginning with New York.

This is the first of a two-volume collection of the official papers of the 17th-century governor of New York, Thomas Dongan. Published as part of the New York Historical Manuscript Series, these documents date from a period when the Dutch played a major role in building the New World.