Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will be the 112th mayor of the New York City, not the 111th. The city’s official list is missing the term of an early mayor.
The list neglects the second term of Mayor Matthias Nicolls in 1674-1675, when he served as the eighth mayor of New York City.
The mayors and their terms are found in the Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York (1675-1776), and a list is in Volume 8. An article on this topic was published in the Record of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society in July 1989. Historian Peter R. Christoph wrote:
“Edward I. Koch is the 105th Mayor of New York. The City Of New York Official Directory says so. So does The New York Times. But they are wrong: he is the 106th.
“Not only is he misnumbered, but so is everyone else after the seventh Mayor.
“It is a mind boggling thought: 99 mayors misnumbered – most of them gone to the grave, secure in the knowledge of their place in history, but all of them numerically out of whack. How could such a thing happen?”
Official NYC Mayors List
1. Thomas Willett 1665
2. Thomas Delavall 1666
3. Thomas Willett 1667
4. Cornelius Steenwyck 1668-1670
5. Thomas Delavall 1671
6. Matthias Nicolls 1672
7. John Lawrence 1673
8. William Dervall 1675
Mayors and Terms from Minutes of the Common Council
1. Thomas Willett, 1665-1666
2. Thomas Delavall, 1666-1667
3. Thomas Willett, 1667-1668
4. Cornelius Steenwyk, 1668-1670
5. Thomas Delavall, 1670-1671
6. Matthias Nicolls, 1671-1672
7. John Lawrence, 1672-1673
1673: Dutch occupation in August
1674: English regain control in November
8. Matthias Nicolls, 1674-1675
9. William Dervall, 1675-1676
You can learn more about New York City’s mayors and their connection to slavery at the Northeast Slavery Records Index.
Note: Several “acting mayors” are also not listed in the City’s Official List.
Paul Hortenstine is a writer and researcher on public policy and history. He has a M.A. in history from Washington University in St. Louis and a B.A. in history from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Read more about New York’s political history.
Illustration: “Old City Hall, Wall Street” from the Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York, D. T. Valentine, 1847 (NYC Municipal Library).
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