History of Kingston, Ulster County, New York, USA

As early as 1614 the Dutch had set up a factorij (trading post) at Ponckhockie, at the junction of the Rondout Creek and the Hudson River. The first recorded permanent settler in what would become the city of Kingston, was Thomas Chambers, who came from the area of Rensselaerswyck in 1653. The place was called Esopus after the local Esopus tribe. As more settlers arrived, tensions developed between the Esopus and the Dutch, in part due to the Dutch selling alcohol to the young Esopus men...

In the spring of 1658 Peter Stuyvesant, Director-General of New Amsterdam, arrived and advised the residents that if they wished to remain they must re-locate to high ground and build a stockade. Tensions continued between the Esopus and the settlers, eventually leading to the Esopus Wars. In 1661 the settlement was granted a charter as a separate municipality; Stuyvesant named it Wiltwijck (Wiltwyck). It was not until 1663 that the Dutch ended the four-year conflict with the Esopus through a coalition of Dutch settlers, Wappinger and Mohawk. Wiltwyck was one of three large Hudson River settlements in New Netherland, the other two being Beverwyck, now Albany, and New Amsterdam, now New York City. With the English seizure of New Netherland in 1664, relations between the Dutch settlers and the English soldiers garrisoned there were often strained. In 1669 Wiltwyck was renamed Kingston, in honor of the family seat of Governor Lovelace's mother.

In 1777, Kingston became the first capital of New York...