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The British colonies of New York, New Jersey, and Delaware were carved from the 17th-century Dutch settlement of New Netherland founded by the explorer Henry Hudson in 1609. For this work Mr. O'Callaghan set for himself the task of identifying the name, location, and date of service of every Dutch official to serve in New Netherland until the last trace of Dutch authority was removed in 1674. The book opens with a helpful chronology of the life of New Netherland, highlighting such milestones as the commencement of colonization in 1623, the Dutch settlement of Staten Island in 1641, the appointment of Peter Stuyvesant as Director of New Netherland in 1647, the granting of New Netherland to England's Duke of York in 1664, and so on.

Working from official records, O'Callaghan then proceeds to enumerate by category and thereunder by date The Register of New Netherland. Following is a list of the various public and private officials, as well as private citizens accorded special status by Dutch law named in the book: Directors of the Dutch West India Company, Commissioners of New Amstel, Patroons of New Netherland, Directors General, Members of the Council of New Netherland, Clerks and Secretaries to the Council, Surveyors General, Commissaries of Districts, Representatives of the Commonality of Manhattan and Brooklyn, Burgomasters and Schepens, Orphan Masters, Magistrates, Town Clerks, Town Treasurers, Court Messengers, Provost Marshals, Fire Wardens, Clergymen, Notaries, School Masters, Physicians, Midwives, Ambassadors, Members of the General Assembly, Commissioners, and the names of the Great and Small Burghers of New Netherland. Each official so identified is easily referenced in the name index at the back of this seminal Dutch-American reference work.