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Kingston is a city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, United States. It is north of New York City and south of Albany. It became New York's first capital in 1777, and was burned by the British on October 13, 1777, after the Battles of Saratoga. In the 19th century, the city became an important transport hub after the discovery of natural cement in the region, and had both railroad and canal connections. Passenger rail service has since ceased, and many of the older buildings are part of three historic districts, such as the Stockade District uptown, the Midtown Neighborhood Broadway Corridor, and the Rondout-West Strand Historic District downtown. ==History== 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 Esopua and the Dutch, in part due to the Dutch selling alcohol to the young Esopus men.〔(Schoonmaker, Marius. ''The History of Kingston'', Burr Print. House, Kingston, NY 1888 )〕 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-located 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. During the summer of 1777, when the New York State constitution was written, New York City was occupied by British troops and Albany (then the second largest settlement in New York and capital of the newly independent State of New York) was under threat of attack by the British. The seat of government was moved to Kingston, which was deemed safer. However, the British never reached Albany, having been stopped at Saratoga, but they did reach Kingston. On October 13, 1777, the city was burned by British troops moving up river from New York City, and disembarking at the mouth of the Rondout Creek at "Ponckhockie". The denizens of Kingston knew of the oncoming fleet. By the time the British arrived, the residents and government officials had removed to Hurley, New York. The area was a major granary for the colonies at the time, so the British burned large amounts of wheat and all but one or two of the buildings. Kingston celebrates and re-enacts the 1777 burning of the city by the British every other year (2015 is the next "burning" of Kingston), in an city-wide theatrical staging of the event that begins at the Rondout. Kingston was incorporated as a village on April 6, 1805. In the early 1800s four sloops plied the river from Kingston to New York. By 1829 steamers made the trip to Manhattan in a little over twelve hours, usually travelling by night. Columbus Point (now known as Kingston Point) was the river landing for Kingston and stage lines ran from the village to the Point.〔(Hendricks, Howard. "Kingston", Clearwater, Alfonso Trumpbour. ''The History of Ulster County, New York'', W. J. Van Deusen, Kingston NY, 1907 )〕 The Dutch cultural influence in Kingston remained strong through the end of the nineteenth century. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kingston, New York」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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