The ten original counties of the colony of New York were Albany, Ulster, Dutchess, Orange, Westchester, Richmond, Kings, Queens, Suffolk, and New York, formed under Lieutenant-Governor Thomas Dongan’s administration, and sent representatives to the General Assembly. The boundaries of several of these counties have not been materially changed, Albany county embraced the whole territory lying north of Ulster and west of the Hudson river, taking in nearly the whole State. From its territory fifty of the counties of the State have been erected and it has appropriately been called “the mother of the counties of New York.” Albanians love their old Dutch city and will cordially join in commemorating Henry Hudson’s advent to it nearly 300 years ago. Much has been said in this article about the Patroon system and the anti-renters, hoping to have these matters better understood by a statement of facts. Concerning affairs relating to Albany and vicinity, I have frequently referred to, quoted and used “Mr. Wiese’s History of the City of Albany,” 1884, and the “Bi-centennial History of Albany and Schenectady Counties from 1609 to 1886, published by W. W. Munsell & Co., 1886.” The article on “Anti-Rentism” was written by the Hon. Andrew J. Colvin. FRANK CHAMBERLAIN. All rights reserved. Albany, _September, 1907_. Transcriber’s Notes --Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook is public-domain in the country of publication. --Silently corrected a few palpable typos. --In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_. End of Project Gutenberg's Hudson Tercentenary, by Frank Chamberlain