Dongan Charter

Dongan Charter
Opening paragraph of the Dongan Charter
Ratified	July 25, 1686
Location	Albany County Hall of Records
Author(s)	Governor Thomas Dongan
Purpose	Incorporated the City of Albany

The Dongan Charter is the 1686 document incorporating Albany, New York as a city. Albany's charter was issued by Governor Thomas Dongan of the Province of New York, a few months after Governor Dongan issued a similarly worded, but less detailed charter for the city of New York. The city of Albany was created three years after Albany County. The charter is the oldest existing city charter still in force in the United States and "arguably in all the Western Hemisphere", according to Stefan Bielinski, former senior historian of the New York State Museum. In 1936 the United States Congress commemorated the charter's 250th anniversary by minting a half dollar coin.

After the city of New York received a municipal charter from Governor Dongan the governor came to Albany, at which time the village sent a delegation of prominent men to request a charter of their own. The Patroon, after being encouraged by the governor, finally released all claims to Albany and forfeited a strip of land 1 mile (1.6 km) wide and 16 miles (26 km) long to Albany. Albany at the time consisted of about 500 residents living in around 140 houses. In July 1686 a delegation led by Pieter Schuyler and Robert Livingston traveled to New York to receive the charter for Albany; the charter was signed on July 25, 1686 and was read aloud to the citizens of Albany three days later. Due to England, and by extension Albany, using the Julian calendar at the time, the corrected date for the signing of the document under the Gregorian calendar is August 1, 1686.