page_title: Albany County, New York
section_title: Timeline of boundary changes
hierarchical_section_title: Albany County, New York / History / Timeline of boundary changes
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the provinces of New York and New Jersey highlighting Albany County
context_page_description: Albany County is a county in the state of New York, in the United States. Its northern border is formed by the Mohawk River, at its confluence with the Hudson River, which is on the east. As of the 2010 census, the population was 304,204. The county seat and largest city is Albany, the state capital of New York. As originally established by the English government in the colonial era, Albany County had an indefinite amount of land, but has had an area of 530 square miles since March 3, 1888. The county is named for the Duke of York and of Albany, who became James II of England.
  Albany County constitutes the central core of the Capital District of New York State, which comprises the Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area.
context_section_description: Albany County was one of the original twelve counties created by the Province of New York on November 1, 1683. At the time, it included all of New York state north of Dutchess and Ulster counties, all of what is now Bennington County in Vermont, and theoretically west to the Pacific Ocean.
  On May 27, 1717, Albany County was adjusted to gain an indefinite amount of land from Dutchess County and other non-county lands.
  On October 7, 1763, King George III, as part of his Proclamation of 1763, created the new province of Quebec, implicitly setting the northern limit of New York at the parallel of 45 degrees north latitude from the Atlantic-St. Lawrence watershed westward to the St. Lawrence River, implicitly setting the northern limit of Albany County, but it was never mapped.
  On July 20, 1764, King George III established the boundary between New Hampshire and New York along the west bank of the Connecticut River, north of Massachusetts and south of the parallel of 45 degrees north latitude. Albany County implicitly gained present-day Vermont. Although disputes occasionally broke out later, this line became the boundary between New Hampshire and Vermont, and has remained unchanged to the present. When New York refused to recognize land titles through the New Hampshire Grants (towns created earlier by New Hampshire in present Vermont), dissatisfied colonists organized in opposition, which led to the creation of independent Vermont in 1777.
  On July 3, 1766, Cumberland County was partitioned from Albany County to cover all territory to the northern and eastern limits of the colony, including Windsor County, most of Windham County, and parts of Bennington and Rutland counties in present-day Vermont.
  On June 26, 1767, Albany County regained all of Cumberland County.
  On March 19, 1768, Albany County was re-partitioned, and Cumberland County restored.
  On March 16, 1770, Albany County was again partitioned. Gloucester County was created to include all of Orange, Caledonia and Essex counties, most of Washington County, and parts of Orleans, Lamoille, Addison and Chittenden counties in present-day Vermont.
  On March 12, 1772, Albany County was partitioned again, this time into the counties of Albany, Tryon (now Montgomery), and Charlotte (now Washington). This established a definite area for Albany County of 5,470 sq mi (14,200 km²).
  On March 24, 1772, Albany County was partitioned again, with an additional 50 square miles (130 km²) handed over to Cumberland County.
  On March 9, 1774, Albany County was partitioned again, this time passing 1,090 square miles (2,800 km²) to Ulster County.
  On April 1, 1775, Albany was again partitioned, this time giving up 60 square miles (160 km²) to Charlotte County, who then exchanged this land with a like parcel in Cumberland County.
  On January 15, 1777, Albany County was again partitioned, this time on account of the independence of Vermont from New York, reducing Albany County by an additional 300 square miles (780 km²).
  On June 26, 1781, Bennington County, Vermont, attempted to annex a portion of Albany County that today includes portions of Washington and Rensselaer counties to form what they called "The West Union". The fledgling United States – under the Articles of Confederation – arbitrated this annexation, and condemned it, resulting in Vermont ceasing the annexation on 1782-02-23.
  On April 4, 1786, Columbia County was created from 650 square miles (1,700 km²) of Albany County land.
  On March 7, 1788, New York, refusing to recognize the independence of Vermont, and the attendant elimination of Cumberland County, attempted to adjust the line that separated Cumberland from Albany County in present-day Vermont, but to no effect.
  On February 7, 1791, Albany County was partitioned again, this time to form Rensselaer and Saratoga counties. Rensselaer received 660 square miles (1,700 km²), while Saratoga received 850 square miles (2,200 km²). Also the town of Cambridge was transferred to Washington County. A total of 1,680 square miles (4,400 km²) changed hands.
  On June 1, 1795, Albany County was once
caption: Albany County in 1777
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