With each passing year, the French in Canada became a larger threat to life in New York. During King George's War, in the 1740's, attacks were made on towns as far south as Albany, and in 1756, a much bigger war broke out. Known in Europe as the Seven Years War, the battles engaged on this side of the Atlantic were called the French and Indian War.
Thousands of troops from England were stationed in New York, and this ultimately helped the city make a fortune. People profited not only by doing business with the soldiers but by winning plum government contracts to supply goods and services for the military quartered in the city.
In addition, privateering made a comeback during this period. At least seventy ships were financed in New York and sent out into the wartime waters to seize enemy vessels and bring back their loot.
From Gotham: "All told, between 1739 and 1763 legalized plunder poured something like two million pounds into the pockets of two hundred or so investors--an immense accession of wealth at a time when, as Gerard G. Beekman observed, an income of three hundred pounds a year was sufficient to live 'Like a Gentleman' in New York."
ALSO DURING THIS DECADE:
1750--Captain Thomas Clarke acquires land north of the city, currently a western strip of midtown. He names it Chelsea.
1753--A new New Theater was built on the same site as the first which had closed 15 years earlier. Theater in the city is becoming more fashionable with the rise of the new gentry and several major theatrical productions are produced here. Many trace the first legitimate theater performance in New York to a production of Richard III during this year.
1754--New York's first school, King's College (now Columbia) is granted a charter and opens with eight students in the basement of the first Trinity Church. Construction for a new home for the college commences immediately on Trinity land just north of present-day Ground Zero.
1756--George Washington writes a letter and uses the term "New Yorker." This is its earliest known use.
1758--Bedloe's Island (now Liberty) is purchased to serve as a pesthouse (quarantine hospital) which opens two years later.
Sources: Gotham by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace; The Blue Guide New York by Carol von Pressentin Wright, Stuart Miller, and Sharon Seitz.
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