province of new york

The Province of New York (1664-1776) (Dutch: Provincie Nieuw-Neerland or Provincie New York) was a British colony which included most of the present U.S. state of New York. The province originally included the current states of New Jersey, Delaware and Vermont, along with inland portions of Massachusetts and Maine. The province was named for James, Duke of York and brother to Charles II in 1664, when the colony was won from the Dutch. The New York Provincial Congress declared itself the government of the State of New York in 1776 and ratified the New York State Constitution in the following year. While the British regained New York City as its military and political base of operations in North America during the American Revolutionary War, with a British governor technically in office, much of the remainder of the former colony fell to the Patriots. British claims on any part of New York ended with the Treaty of Paris (1783).