Province of New York [SEP] inception
. When James ascended to the throne of England as James II, the province became a royal colony.
When the English arrived, the colony somewhat vaguely included claims to all of the present U.S. states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Vermont, along with inland portions of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Maine in addition to eastern Pennsylvania. Much of this land was soon reassigned by the crown, leaving the territory of the modern State of New York, including the valleys of the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers, and future
to large tracts of land in Ulster County, Staten Island, and New Jersey.
From its inception in 1683, until , Graham served as the first Recorder of New York City, essentially the deputy mayor of New York City (under mayors Cornelius Van Steenwyk, Gabriel Minvielle, Nicholas Bayard, Stephanus Van Cortlandt and Peter Delanoy).
On December 10, 1685, while serving as Recorder, Graham was appointed the Attorney General of the Province of New York to succeed Thomas Rudyard. In 1687, he was appointed