Hortenstine told The Gothamist that he found records showing that Matthias Nicolls served a second term in 1675, but it was not consecutive. A piece of information the city forgot to write down.
Since then, officials have said that they knew about the research. Ken Cobb from the city’s Department of Records said the difference was surprising but worth looking into.
“This was in 1675. So then, when I later looked through the official list of the city, I noticed that they had missed this term,” Hortenstine said.
Every record after that one made the same mistake.
Removing one term, like with US presidents, shifts the whole sequence that comes after because nonconsecutive terms count separately.
If the finding is formally accepted, Mamdani would be recorded as the 112th mayor instead of the 111th.
Mamdani’s power and move to the new job are not affected by the issue, but rather the historical numbers that go with his office. If the city changes the record, the materials for the inauguration and future records will just need to be updated.
In 1989, Peter R. Christoph wrote about the oversight in the “Record of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society.”
“Edward I. Koch is the 105th Mayor of New York,” his essay began. “The City Of New York Official Directory says so. So does The New York Times. But they are wrong: He is the 106th. Not only is he misnumbered, but so is everyone else after Mayor No. 7. It is a mind-boggling thought: 99 mayors misnumbered — most of them gone to the grave, secure in the knowledge of their place in history, but all of them numerically out of whack. How could such a thing happen?”
Cobb was unable to locate any reference to Nicolls’ second term during a recent visit to the municipal archives. He did not, however, contest Hortenstine’s conclusions. Continue reading…
