<P> The Province of New York was established after the naval invasion and absorption of the previous Dutch Colony of New Netherlands . The original proprietor was the Duke of York, the future James II of England and James VII of Scotland and younger brother of the then - King of England, Charles I. Its Colonial Charter was under authority from the Monarch, (the King or Queen of Great Britain) of the Kingdom of England and later of Great Britain, after the Act of Union of 1707 which united England and Wales and the formerly independent kingdom of Scotland </P> <P> The First Constitution of 1777, which replaced this Colonial Charter with its royal authority, for the newly independent "State of New York" was framed by a Convention which assembled at White Plains, New York, (just north of New York City) on Sunday evening, July 10, 1776 . The city was then threatened with a British occupation by an invading British Army landing on Staten Island . There were repeated adjournments and changes of location, caused by the increasingly desperate war situation, with General George Washington's ragged Continental Army, forced out of New York City by crushing defeats in the New York and New Jersey campaign . </P> <P> The work of creating a democratic and free independent state continued by the Convention through the bitter winter with the British quartered in the City of New York and Washington's few thousand troops camped in winter quarters to the southwest in Morristown, New Jersey . The first Constitutional Convention in New York's history terminated its labors at Kingston, New York, on Sunday evening, April 20, 1777, when the new Constitution was adopted with but one dissenting vote, and then adjourned . It was not submitted to the people for ratification, however because of the war situation . It was drafted by John Jay, Robert R. Livingston, (new Chancellor of the State of New York), and Gouverneur Morris, noted financier for the Revolutionary Colonial war effort . </P> <Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> Wikisource has original text related to this article: New York Constitution of 1777 </Td> </Tr> </Table>

Who wrote the new york state constitution of 1777