The German Patent:

Early Records
of Newburgh, New York

Unlike most settlements in the Hudson Valley, Newburgh was settled by English, Scottish, and Irish. Now the largest urban center in Orange County, Newburgh began early in the eighteenth century, as a German settlement under English charter - and as part of Ulster County. After the American Revolution it became a crucial point in the merchandising network that funnelled food and other products to Manhattan by water.

The Newburgh City Archives include a number of official records, beginning in the 1790s. The records on this site have been transcribed from those leather-bound, handwritten books, with varying degrees of success. Spelling, punctuation, and grammar were not big issues for most of the men who kept these records. While some used flowing Spencerian hand and a fine eye for spelling, they are the minority. The spelling, capitalization, and punctuation are rendered exactly as found in the original. Any word or number that is illegible is represented by empty brackets [ ], while a word that is questionable in its reading will be in [similar brackets]. Torn or missing segments are noted in italics.

Original page breaks are indicated by bars, and original page numbers have been retained. Be warned, however, that not all documents are numbered, or are only partially numbered, while some (notably the Village and Town of Newburgh Records 1803-1838), were numbered in spreads, or pairs of pages. In those sections dealing with accounts, therefore, the left hand pages (credits) have become separated from their right hand counterparts (debits).

Although these pages have been proofread, errors exist. If you suspect such an error in a context that is important to you or to your research, you may want to consult paper copies. The City of Newburgh Archives, Newburgh Free Library's Local History Room, and Crawford House (the museum of the Historical Society of Newburgh Bay and the Highlands) have photocopies of the originals, and hard copies of the transcriptions. (If you find such an error, please notify the transcriber so it can be corrected.)

The paper transcriptions include a name index. It was not practical to include such an index in the on-line version; instead a name list is included, with each name hyperlinked to the web page(s) on which it appears, Within each page, you can use your browser's "find" button, if you have one. Genealogists may want to consult these alphabetical lists before searching the main documents. The name list/index has not been corrected to modern spellings, so it is a good idea to look for all variants of a name.

There is a search engine associated with this site, which you may use by clicking here. Be warned that you will have to search for each spelling variation separately!

Documents presently on line:

Village and Town of Newburgh Records 1803-1838
name index to 1803-1838 Records  

Livestock Marks, Strays, and Slaves
name index to Marks, Strays, and Slaves

Town of Newburgh Tax Rolls, 1801  

Glebe Leases, Book One, 1790-1813
name index to Leases, Book One

The Fire Company, (organized 1797)

A partial genealogy of the Belknap family
which includes many of the people prominent in the other records
(and can help make it clear who is who)

Documents in preparation:
Glebe Leases, Book Two
Glebe Leases, Book Three
Glebe Leases, Book Four
Glebe Leases, Book Five

Of related interest:

City of Newburgh
Web Site

LIBERTY!
PBS Revolution series Web Site

About Newburgh

New York History Ring

Town of New Windsor History

Text of the law creating the Precincts of Newburgh and New Windsor

1870 birdseye view map of Newburgh
(search for "map" and "Newburgh")

State Library of New York

Historical Maps

Hope Farm Press
books about New York

stereopticon views of 19th century Newburgh

 

 

contents ©1999, 2000, 2001
 Jo Anne Fatherly

email me with comments

last updated February 20, 2001