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Miscount of NYC mayors spans centuries, archive search confirms
By
Elizabeth Kim
Published Dec 12, 2025
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Elizabeth Kim
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Elizabeth Kim
Published Dec 12, 2025
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Handwritten 17th century documents in New York City’s municipal archives confirm that the official count of mayors is off across centuries.
The discovery by Department of Records researcher Michael Lorenzini amounts to definitive proof that Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will not be New York City's 111th mayor, as the city’s records indicate and news outlets routinely report, but the 112th.
Lorenzini found the records in the “Mayor’s Court Minute Book,” which features minutes on court proceedings Mayor Matthias Nicolls presided over in 1674.
The minutes, Lorenzini said, are proof that Nicolls was both the sixth and eighth mayor of New York City.
Mayors with nonconsecutive terms are counted twice in the official record, much like U.S. presidents. But Nicolls' second term is missing from the city's count, resulting in a misnumbering of all subsequent mayors.
“The initial question was, should Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani be counted as the 111th or 112th?” Lorenzini wrote in a new post on the Department of Records' blog. “One thing for certain is he is not Mayor 111.”
He added: “It does appear that on January 1, 2026, Mayor Mamdani should be mayor number 112.”
Mamdani "is not the 111th mayor," Department of Records manager Michael Lorenzini said, citing the mayoral miscount across centuries.
Elizabeth Kim
Lorenzini began searching the archives after Gothamist reported on evidence of the mayoral miscount. After several days, he located the material in the New York County Clerk’s office, which keeps its own trove of historical documents.
“That's sort of the mic drop of historical research,” Lorenzini said. “If you can actually get your hands on the original source materials, you could say, ‘OK, I've traced it back as far as I can go. It's not hearsay anymore.’”
Paul Hortenstine, a Washington, D.C. historian who alerted Gothamist to the error, is urging Mamdani to acknowledge the mistake. One place to start is at his inauguration on Jan. 1.
“This isn't just about what number it is, but it's also about an opportunity for him and his team to think about what story they want to tell about New York City,” Hortenstine said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio was sworn in as the 109th mayor of New York City in 2010. He was actually the 110th.
Hiroko Masuike/Getty Images
Hortenstine stumbled across Nicolls’ second term while researching early mayors’ ties to slavery.
Nicolls, whose family owned large parts of Long Island, was a slaveholder.
“It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that New York City has been involved with slavery since its founding,” said Robert Snyder, the official Manhattan borough historian and a professor at Rutgers University.
He commended Hortenstine for highlighting new evidence of slavery’s ties to “the city's political leadership and merchant class.”
Lists of mayors date back as far as the mid-19th century, when David Thomas Valentine, a clerk who served on the city’s Common Council, created informational pamphlets on government. The first Green Book – the official government guidebook produced by the city – that included a list of mayors was published in 1921, according to Lorenzini.
None of the Green Books noted Nicolls’ second term.
There is a precedent for a correction to the official list of mayors. In 1937, Charles Lodwick, who served from 1694-1695, was inserted as the 21st mayor.
Mathias Nicolls' name is etched in handwritten minutes of the "Mayor’s Court" on court proceedings.
Elizabeth Kim
Mayor Eric Adams, who is known to tell reporters, “I’m 110,” could correct the record before he leaves office. But First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro said the current mayor would leave the matter up to the incoming administration.
A spokesperson for Mamdani did not respond to a request for comment.
Hortestine was not the first person to discover Nicolls had been overlooked in the history books.
“It's been pointed out, at least going back to 1935, that Nicolls had the second term and somehow nobody really paid attention,” Lorenzini said.
In 1982, Queens College history professor Kenneth Scott wrote about discovering Nicolls’ second term in the Minutes of the Mayor’s Court, according to Lorenzini.
In 1989, Peter R. Christoph, a librarian at the New York State Library, 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,” Christoph’s 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 number seven.”
Tagged
Politics
new york city
Elizabeth Kim
Elizabeth Kim is a reporter on the People and Power desk who covers mayoral power. She previously covered the pandemic, housing, redevelopment and public spaces. A native of Queens, she speaks fluent Mandarin. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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