Place:Hempstead (town), Nassau, New York, United States

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

The Town of Hempstead is one of the three towns in Nassau County in the U.S. state of New York. It occupies the southwestern part of the county, on the western half of Long Island. Twenty-two incorporated villages (one of which is named Hempstead) are completely or partially within the town. The town's combined population was 759,757 at the 2010 census, which is the majority of the population of the county and by far the largest of any town in New York. In 2019, its combined population increased to an estimated 759,793 according to the American Community Survey.

If Hempstead were to be incorporated as a city, it would be the second-largest city in New York, behind New York City; it is about three times the size of Buffalo, which has long been the state's second-largest city. It would be the 18th-largest city in the country, behind San Francisco, California, and ahead of Seattle, Washington. Hempstead is thus the most populous municipality in the New York metropolitan area outside New York City.

Hofstra University's main campus is located in Hempstead.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

The town was first settled around 1644 following the establishment of a treaty between English colonists, John Carman and Robert Fordham, and the Lenape Indians in 1643. Although the settlers were from the English colony of Connecticut, a patent was issued by the government of New Netherland after the settlers had purchased land from the local natives. This transaction is depicted in a mural in the Hempstead Village Hall, reproduced from a poster commemorating the 300th anniversary of Hempstead Village.

In local Dutch-language documents of the 1640s and later, the town was invariably called Heemstede, and several of Hempstead's original 50 patentees were Dutch, suggesting that Hempstead was named after the Dutch town and/or castle Heemstede, which are near the cities of Haarlem and Amsterdam. However, the authorities possibly had Dutchified a name given by co-founder John Carman, who was born in 1606 in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England, on land owned by his ancestors since the 13th century.

In 1664, the settlement under the new Province of New York adopted the Duke's Laws, austere statutes that became the basis upon which the laws of many colonies were to be founded. For a time, Hempstead became known as "Old Blue", as a result of the "Blue Laws".^[1]

During the American Revolution, the Loyalists in the south and the American sympathizers in the north caused a split in 1784 into "North Hempstead" and "South Hempstead". With the 1898 incorporation of the Borough of Queens as part of the city of New York, and the 1899 split of Queens County to create Nassau County, some southwestern portions of the Town of Hempstead seceded from the town and became part of the Borough of Queens.

Richard Hewlett, who was born in Hempstead, served as a Lieutenant Colonel with the British Army under General Oliver De Lancey in the American Revolution. Afterward, Hewlett departed the United States with other Loyalists and settled in the newly created Province of New Brunswick in what later became Canada. A settlement there was named Hampstead, in Queen's County next to Long Island in the Saint John River.

Geography

Inhabited Areas

Copied from Wikipedia: Town of North Hempstead, New York County: Nassau County, New York

Villages in the Town of Hempstead: Baxter Estates · East Hills · East Williston · Floral Park · Flower Hill · Garden City · Great Neck · Great Neck Estates · Great Neck Plaza · Kensington · Kings Point · Lake Success · Manorhaven · Mineola · Munsey Park · New Hyde Park · North Hills · Old Westbury · Plandome · Plandome Heights · Plandome Manor · Port Washington North · Roslyn · Roslyn Estates · Roslyn Harbor · Russell Gardens · Saddle Rock · Sands Point · Thomaston · Westbury · Williston Park

Hamlets in the Town of Hempstead: Albertson · Carle Place · Floral Park Centre · Garden City Park · Glenwood Landing · Great Neck Gardens · Greenvale · Harbor Hills · Herricks · Lakeville Estates · Manhasset · Manhasset Hills · New Cassel · New Hyde Park · North New Hyde Park · Port Washington · Roslyn Heights · Saddle Rock Estates · Searingtown · University Gardens

External Links

Excellent history from the Archives of the Town of Hempstead: http://www.townofhempstead.org/content/tc/history.html

• Outstanding guide to Hempstead family history and genealogy resources (FamilySearch Research Wiki). Birth, marriage, and death records, town histories, cemeteries, churches, newspapers, libraries, and genealogical societies.

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