What Was the Religion of New York Colony?
Different religions could be found in New York Colony, such as Quaker, Lutheran, Anglican, Catholic and Judaism. New York Colony was founded as New Sweden, in 1626, by Peter Minuit and was later renamed New Netherlands. The Duke of York gained control, in 1664, and renamed the colony New York after himself.
New York Colony was one of the original 13 colonies along with New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. It was classified as part of the Middle Colonies region.
New York and the other middle colonies saw a mixture of religions, unlike New England, which was predominantly Puritan. Rather than New England meetinghouses, colonists of the middle colonies went to churches that resemble modern-day churches. Families would spend much of their Sunday in church. Church attendance became consistent ,in the late 1600s, and had reached approximately 60 percent, by the end of the colonial period.
The religious groups of New York Colony were separated into different areas based on geography. The Dutch Reformed Church was primarily located in the Hudson River Valley, where the Dutch had settled. West of Albany, along the Mohawk River, were the Lutherans and German Reformed Church. Congregationalists settled Suffolk County on Long Island, while French Huguenots founded the city of New Rochelle in Westchester County.
