I turned many pages in several sources and found very little that happened in New York during the 1720's. It was a slow news decade, which is funny since this was the decade when William Bradford began printing The New-York Gazette.
There was, however, an increase in population and a rise in indentured servitude. People needing to leave Europe were willing to agree to years of service to pay for their voyage across the Atlantic. One particular group came from Scotland via Ireland. The Ulster Scots, or Scots-Irish, were descended from Scottish Presbyterians who had spent the 1600's living in the northern counties of Ireland before sailing to the mainland colonies of America (which absorbed 15,000 during this one ten-year period). Tens of thousands of Roman Catholics from the south of Ireland also emigrated to the New World during this time. New York City was a draw, because after completing their servitude, the immigrants could find jobs that paid well.
ALSO DURING THIS DECADE:
1724: The Baptist church is formally established in the city and a building is erected on the top of Golden Hill (present-day Cliff Street, near John).
1725: William Bradford, who set up his print shop in the 1690's, begins publishing the New-York Gazette.
1729: The first synagogue for Congregation Shearith Israel is built on Beaver Street.
Sources: Gotham by Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace; and the Blue Guide New York by Carol von Pressentin Wright, Stuart Miller, and Sharon Seitz.
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