Editing Albany County, New York (section)

===Colonial===
After [[England]] took control of the [[colony]] of [[New Netherland]] from the [[Dutch colonization of the Americas|Dutch]], Albany County was created on November 1, 1683,{{efn|name="Sullivan-founding"}} by [[New York Governor]] [[Thomas Dongan, 2nd Earl of Limerick|Thomas Dongan]], and confirmed on October 1, 1691.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Howell|editor-first=George Rogers|editor2-last=Tenney|editor2-first=Jonathan|title=Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations.|publication-place=New York|publisher=W. W. Munsell & Co.|year=1886|lccn=01014041|oclc=2367801|url={{Google Books|HGkJAQAAIAAJ|plainurl=yes}}|page=12}}</ref> The act creating the county vaguely defined its territory "to containe the Towns of Albany, the [[Manor of Rensselaerswyck|''Collony'' Rensselaerwyck]], [[Schenectady, New York|Schonecteda]], and all the villages, neighborhoods, and Christian ''Plantaçons'' on the east side of Hudson River from Roelef's Creek, and on the west side from Sawyer's Creek ([[Saugerties (village), New York|Saugerties]]) to the Sarraghtoga."<ref name="Howell1886p70">{{cite book|editor-last=Howell|editor-first=George Rogers|editor2-last=Tenney|editor2-first=Jonathan|title=Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations.|publication-place=New York|publisher=W. W. Munsell & Co.|year=1886|lccn=01014041|oclc=2367801|url={{Google Books|HGkJAQAAIAAJ|plainurl=yes}}|page=70}}</ref> The confirmation declared in 1691 was similar but omitted the Town of Albany, substituted "''Mannor'' of Ranselaerswyck" for "''Collony'' Rensselaerwyck", and stated "to the uttermost end of Sarraghtoga" instead of just "to Sarraghtoga". Livingston Manor was annexed to Albany County from Dutchess County in 1717.<ref name="Howell1886p70"/>

Albany's boundaries were defined more closely as state statutes would add land to the county, or more commonly subtract land for the formation of new counties.<ref name="Howell1886p71">{{cite book|editor-last=Howell|editor-first=George Rogers|editor2-last=Tenney|editor2-first=Jonathan|title=Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations.|publication-place=New York|publisher=W. W. Munsell & Co.|year=1886|lccn=01014041|oclc=2367801|url={{Google Books|HGkJAQAAIAAJ|plainurl=yes}}|page=71}}</ref> In 1772 with the creation of [[Tryon County, New York|Tryon]] and [[Charlotte County, Province of New York|Charlotte]] counties, Albany gained definitive boundaries and included what are now Albany, Columbia, Rensselaer, Saratoga, and Schenectady counties; large parts of Greene and Washington counties; and the disputed southwest corner of Vermont.<ref name=Genealogy>{{cite web | title = The Districts of Albany County, New York, 1772–1784 | publisher = The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society | author = David Kendall Martin | url = http://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/modules.php?name=Sections&op=viewarticle&artid=72 | access-date = August 30, 2009 | date =Fall 1990}}</ref>{{efn|name="Sullivan-founding"}}

The city of Albany was the first municipality within this large county,<ref name="Howell1886p71"/> founded as the village (dorp in Dutch) of [[Beverwyck]] by the [[Director-General of New Amsterdam]], [[Pieter Stuyvesant]], who also established the first court in Albany.<ref>{{cite book| title = The Settlement and Early History of Albany | url = https://archive.org/details/settlementandea00barngoog | first = William| last = Barnes | publisher = Gould, Banks, & Gould | year = 1851 | page = [https://archive.org/details/settlementandea00barngoog/page/n23 17]}}</ref> Albany was established as a city in 1686 by Governor Dongan through the [[Dongan Charter]] after the English took over the colony.<ref name="Howell1886p71"/> [[Schenectady, New York|Schenectady]] to the west was given a patent with some municipal rights in 1684 and became a borough in 1765.<ref name=Genealogy/>

The [[Manor of Rensselaerswyck]] was created as a district within the county in 1772, and later divided into two districts, one on each side of the Hudson River in 1779. The west district included all of what is now Albany County other than lands were in the city of Albany at the time.<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Howell|editor-first=George Rogers|editor2-last=Tenney|editor2-first=Jonathan|title=Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations.|publication-place=New York|publisher=W. W. Munsell & Co.|year=1886|lccn=01014041|oclc=2367801|url={{Google Books|HGkJAQAAIAAJ|plainurl=yes}}|page=72}}</ref> Though the Manor of Rensselaerswyck was the only district (along with the city of Albany) in what is today Albany County, it was not the only district in what was Albany County at the time. [[Pittstown, New York|Pittstown]] in 1761, and [[Duanesburgh, New York|Duanesburgh]] in 1764, were created as townships. But when districts were created in 1772, those townships were incorporated into new districts, Pittstown in [[Schaghticoke, New York|Schaghticoke]] and Duanesburgh into the United Districts of Duanesburgh and Schoharie.<ref name=Genealogy/> Schenectady was also made from a borough to a district in 1772.<ref name=Gazetteer>{{cite book | title = Gazetteer of the State of New York | first = John| last = French | page = [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_R_zHwh4xByQC/page/n626 598] | url = https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_R_zHwh4xByQC | year = 1860 | access-date = August 30, 2009 | publisher = R. Pearsall Smith}}</ref> Other districts established in 1772 were [[Hoosick, New York|Hoosick]], [[Coxsackie, New York|Coxsackie]], [[Cambridge, New York|Cambridge]], [[Saratoga, New York|Saratoga]], [[Halfmoon, New York|Halfmoon]], [[Kinderhook, New York|Kinderhook]], [[Canaan, New York|Kings]], [[Claverack, New York|Claverack]], [[Catskill (town), New York|Great Imboght]], and the [[Livingston Manor|Manor of Livingston]].

In a census of 1697, there were 1,452 individuals living in Albany County; two years later it would be counted as 2,016 at the beginning of [[King William's War]]. By the end of the war in 1698, the population had dropped to 1,482, but rebounded quickly and was at 2,273 by 1703. By 1723, it had increased to 6,501 and in 1731 to 8,573, which was slightly less than the population of the city of New York in the same year. In 1737, the inhabitants of Albany County would outnumber those of New York County by 17 people. In 1774, Albany County, with 42,706 people, was the largest county in colonial New York. According to the first Federal Census in 1790, Albany County reached 75,921 inhabitants and was still the state's largest county.<ref>{{cite web | title = Albany County | publisher = New York State Museum | url = http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/albanycounty.html | access-date = August 30, 2009 | archive-date = March 3, 2016 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160303211948/http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/albanycounty.html | url-status = dead }}</ref>