The province was not represented in Parliament, nor could the voice of its people reach the chapel of St.Stephen at Westminster as readily as it had reached the chambers of the Binnenhof at the Hague." Nicolls was succeeded by Francis Lovelace in 1667.

Lovelace was a quiet man, unfitted to encounter great storms, yet he showed considerable energy in dealing with hostile Indians and French on the northern frontier of New York.

He held friendly intercourse with the people of New England, and in the summer of 1672, when a hostile squadron of Dutch vessels of war appeared before his capital, he was on a friendly visit to Governor Winthrop of Connecticut.

War had again broken out between England and Holland, and the Dutch inhabitants of New York had shown signs of discontent at the abridgment of their political privileges and a heavy increase in their taxes without their consent.

Personally, they liked Lovelace; but they were bound to consider him as the representative of a petty tyrant.