Whitehead Hicks: 43rd - Northeast Slavery Record Index

Whitehead Hicks, attributed to Paul Moschowitz, date unknown, Massachusetts Historical Society

Whitehead Hicks, Mayor 1766–1776: Hicks (1728 – 1780) was the first mayor born in what is present day Queens. He was an attorney who supported independence and by early 1776, his office as mayor in British-held New York became untenable and he resigned from office. He later served as a judge and retired to Jamaica, Queens.

Probated will of Whitehead Hicks, November 26, 1780, NY State Archives

In his will, Hicks leaves enslaved people to be divided among his wife Charlotte, daughter Margaret, and his sons John, Thomas, and Elias. He wrote “plate slaves household furniture stock farming utensils and personal estate” would be divided by his family. In the 1790 census, his son John has six enslaved people on what appears to be the family estate in Flushing.[1]

[1] Historical Society of the New York Courts, biography of Whitehead Hicks; History of the New Netherlands, province of New York, and state of New York: to the adoption of the federal Constitution, text; NY State Archives, Probated will of Whitehead Hicks, 1780; Northeast Slavery Record Index

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