Zohran Mamdani will be New York City's first Muslim and first mayor of South Asian descent when he takes office on Jan. 1, 2026. Researchers uncovered that Matthias Nicolls' second term in the 1670s was omitted from many printed lists, a gap traced to 19th‑century compilations. Correcting the record would renumber roughly 350 years of mayors and could list Mamdani as the 112th mayor. Archivists say the discrepancy highlights broader inconsistencies in how the city has counted colonial and acting leaders.
Zohran Mamdani Could Be New York City's 112th Mayor After Centuries‑Old Record Fix
FILE - New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani listens as President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Nov. 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Zohran Mamdani will mark several historic firsts when he takes office on Jan. 1, 2026 — including becoming New York City's first Muslim and its first mayor of South Asian heritage. This week he also learned his ordinal in the city's roster of mayors may change: researchers say a centuries‑old omission could make him the 112th, not the 111th, person to hold the office.
Independent historian Paul Hortenstine, who has been examining early New York mayors and their ties to slavery, noticed that the second term of Matthias Nicolls (reappointed in late 1674) is missing from many commonly used lists. Nicolls is normally listed for 1671–1672, but his return after a brief Dutch interlude was left out of printed mayoral rolls that began appearing in the mid‑1800s.
How One Omission Ripples Through History
Because other mayors who served nonconsecutive terms are typically counted more than once, Hortenstine argued Nicolls should be treated the same. Adding Nicolls' second term would shift the numbering of roughly 350 years of officeholders — moving William Dervall to No. 9 and making incumbent Eric Adams No. 111 under the revised sequence.
Archivists Trace The Gap
The city Department of Records and Information Services reviewed the claim after local reporting highlighted the discrepancy. In a Dec. 11 blog post, agency archivist Michael Lorenzini mapped the messy trail of colonial records and confirmed that Nicolls' second appointment was omitted when 19th‑century lists were compiled.
“It does appear that on January 1, 2026, Mayor Mamdani should be mayor number 112,” Lorenzini wrote, while noting that “the numbering of New York City ‘mayors’ has been somewhat arbitrary and inconsistent.”
Lorenzini and other historians emphasize the complexity: Dutch‑era “burgomasters” (who served in pairs) are usually not included; acting mayors are inconsistently numbered; and leaders of the Native American communities that predated colonization are not represented in these rolls. Comparisons are further complicated because the mayor originally governed only Manhattan until the late 1800s expansion that added the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.
Why It Matters
Beyond the ordinal, the debate has pushed renewed interest in the city's earliest officeholders and their personal and political connections to slavery and colonial governance. Hortenstine hopes the discussion encourages closer examination of early records and the people they represent — a reminder that historical lists can still yield surprises.
Bottom line: A long‑overlooked 17th‑century reappointment appears to have been dropped from printed mayoral lists, and correcting that omission would add one to the ordinal numbers assigned to mayors across the next three and a half centuries — including Mamdani's.
