CHAPTER II

The Early Settlement of Delaware County to the Grant of the Province to William Penn

[Please note that this chapter is heavely footnoted.  The footnotes are indicated by an “*” and “(number*).]

The first vessel under the control of white men whose prow ever ruffled the bosom of the great sheet of water now known to the world as Delaware Bay was the “Half Moon” (“Halvemann”), of eighty tons burden, an exploring vessel belonging to the Dutch East India Company, commanded by Henry Hudson. The log-book of Robert Jewett, the mate, records that about noon of Friday, Aug. 28, 1609, a warm, clear day, “we found the land to tend away N.W. with a great bay and river.” The lead line, however, disclosing many shoal places, the vessel, next morning, was put about and steered on a southeast course, the officers being convinced that “he that will thoroughly explore this great bay must have a small pinnace that must draw but four or five feet water, to sound before him.”

The following year Sir Samuel Argall is said to have entered the bay; and in honor of Thomas West, Lord De La War, the then Governor of Virginia, he named it Delaware Bay. In 1610, Lord Delaware, it is stated, himself visited it, and again in 1618, when he died on his vessel when off the Capes. In 1614, Capt. Cornelius Jacobsz Mey, in the “Fortune,” a vessel owned by the city of loom, entered the bay, and in commemoration of his visit Cape Cornelius and Cape May between them still bear his name. Two years subsequent to Mey’s voyage, Capt. Cornelius Hendrickson, in a small yacht, the “Restless,” is positively asserted by some historians- and the statement is almost as positively denied by others- to have explored the Delaware as far as where the Schuylkill empties into the former river. If it be true that Capt. Hendrickson did actually sail up the stream to the place named, he was the first European of whom we have record that saw any part of the land now comprising the county of Delaware, for his vessel moved along the river the entire length of our southeastern boundary, and he must have noticed the localities where afterwards was planted that germ of civilization from which has evolved the great commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

The history of the various attempts of the Dutch and Swedish powers to establish permanent lodgment on the Delaware is a most interesting theme to the student of our colonial annals. Especially is this true since the indefatigable labors of the members of the Historical Societies of Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey have unearthed in recent years a number of authentic documents and historical papers whose very existence was unknown, which now shed much light on those early days of adventurous colonization. But the scope of this work forbids other than a brief narrative of these events excepting where, happening wholly within the territory now comprising Delaware County, they become part of the immediate story of this locality.

In 1621, in Holland, was incorporated the great West India Company, which while its object was a monopoly of the trade of the territory where it might locate posts simply for barter with the savages, the practical result of its efforts was the establishment of a permanent colony in New York and, in a measure, the settlement of the Delaware. Under the auspices of this company, in 1624, Capt. Mey located a garrison* near the mouth of Timber Creek, Gloucester Co., N.J., and built Fort Nassau, which post was abandoned the year following. Nevertheless the Dutch company did not relinquish its purpose of making a permanent lodgment on the Delaware, and with that end in view, Samuel Goodyn and Samuel Bloemmaert in 1631 purchased from three of the chiefs of the resident tribe of Indians a large tract of land, sixteen miles square, extending from Cape Henlopen northward towards the mouth of the river. To this purchase- although it was not made until after the arrival of the vessel in the winter of 1630-31, which was remarkably mild-Capt. Peter Heyes, in the ship “Walrus,” conveyed a small colony, which he located on Lewes Creek, designing to establish a whale- and seal-fishery station there, as well as plantations for the cultivation of tobacco and grain. The settlement was called Swanendale, or “Valley of Swans,” because of the great number of those birds in the neighborhood. After the erection of Fort Oplandt, and surrounding it with palisades, Capt. Peter Heyes sailed for Holland, leaving Gulls Hossett, commissary of the ship, in command of the territory.

Early in 1632 it was determined that David Pietersen De Vries, one of the patroons of the company and an experienced navigator, should repair to the colony on the Delaware with a number of emigrants, to join those already there; but before the expedition sailed from the Texell, May 24th of that year, the rumor was received that the little colony at Swanendale had been massacred by the Indians. The truth of this intelligence was established when De Vries entered the Delaware, after a circuitous passage, on the 5th of December following, and a careful exploration was made in a boat the next day. The fort was found a charred ruin, while the bones of the settlers and those of the horses and cows were discovered here and there bleaching in the sun. The adroit De Vries, however, managed to secure the confidence of the Indians, and induced one of the natives to remain all night on his vessel, from whom he learned the circumstances connected with the massacre. The particulars, as so related by the Indian, are thus recorded by De Vries:**

“He then showed us the place where our people had set up a column to which was fastened a piece of tin, whereon the arms of Holland were painted. One of their chiefs took this off, for the purpose of making tobacco-pipes, not knowing that he was doing amiss. Those in command at the house made such an ado about it that the Indians, not knowing how it was, went away and slew the chief who bad done it, and brought a token of the dead to the house to those in command, who told them that they wished that they had not done it; that they should have brought him to them, as they wished to have forbidden him not to do the like again. They went away, and the friends of the murdered chief incited their friends, as they are a people like the Indians, who are very revengeful, to set about the work of vengeance. Observing our people out of the house, each one at his work, that there was not more than one inside, who was lying sick, and a large mastiff, who was chained,- had he been loose they would not have dared to approach the house,- and the man who had command standing near the house, three of the stoutest Indians, who were to do the deed, bringing a lot of bear-skins with them to exchange, sought to enter the house. The man in charge went in with them to make the barter, which being done, he went to the loft where the stores lay, and in descending the stairs one of the Indians seized an axe and cleft his head so that he fell down dead. They also relieved the sick man of life, and shot into the dog, who was chained fast, and whom they most feared, twenty-five arrows before they could dispatch him. They then proceeded towards the rest of the men, who were at work, and, going amongst them with pretensions of friendship, struck them down. Thus was our young colony destroyed, causing us serious loss.”

On Jan. 1, 1633, De Vries, who by divers presents had so won the good opinion and friendship of the Indians that they concluded a treaty of peace with him, sailed up the river, and on the 5th of the same month reached the abandoned Fort Nassau, where he was met by a few Indians, who seeing him approaching, had gathered there to barter furs. The Dutch captain told them he wanted beans, and that he had no goods to exchange for peltries, whereupon the savages told him to go to Timmerkill (now Cooper’s Creek, opposite Philadelphia), where he could get corn. An Indian woman to whom he had given a cloth dress secretly informed De Vries that if he went there he would be attacked, for the natives had murdered the crew of an English boat which was ascending the Count Earnest (Delaware) River. Thus fully on his guard, the next day when De Vries went to Timmerkill he permitted the Indians to visit his vessel, at the same time informing the savages that their evil designs had been revealed to him by Manitou, the Indian god. After making a treaty of permanent peace with them, being unable to obtain corn in any quantity on the Delaware, De Vries sailed to Virginia, where he purchased provisions and received from the Governor a present of six goats for Swanendale, to which he returned, and subsequently taking the colonists on his vessel, sailed to New York and thence to Europe. Hence, in the summer of 1633 no settlement of Europeans was located at any point along the shores of Delaware Bay and River.

In 1635 a party of Englishmen from the colony on the Connecticut River, consisting of George Holmes, his hired man, Thomas Hall, and ten or twelve others, attempted to make a lodgment on the Delaware, of which fact the Dutch authorities in New York seemed to have had information, and made preparation to thwart their design, for when the English squatters made an effort to capture Fort Nassau they found it garrisoned. The English party were taken prisoners and sent to Manhattan, where they were permitted permanently to settle. Thomas Hall, at the latter place, rose to some eminence, and was active in all the movements in the early days of New York while it was a Dutch province.

In 1624, William Usselincx visited Sweden, and as as it was he who had drafted the first plan for the Dutch West India Company, he was invited by Gustavus Adolphus to remain in Sweden. Although advanced in years, in 1626, Usselincx obtained from the king a charter for the Swedish West India Company, a commercial organization, whose project of forming a colony in “foreign parts” received the earnest support of Gustavus Adolphus and Axel Oxenstierna, the great chancellor of Sweden. But nothing beyond the consent of Adolphus to the organization of the company seems to have been done, and even the official royal signature to the charter was never procured. Hence after the death of the king the company was dissolved and the whole project apparently was abandoned, notwithstanding a publication of the privileges granted by charter, although unsigned by the late monarch, was made by Chancellor Oxenstierna. This was the external appearance merely, for several persons were still earnest in the effort to establish the Swedish West India Company. It is a peculiar circumstance that as late as the middle of the year 1635 the objective-point of the proposed expedition seemed to have been undetermined, the coast of Guinea and that of Brazil being under consideration, while the eastern coast of North America apparently offered no attractions whatever. In the summer of 1635, Peter Minuit, who had some knowledge of the territory on the Delaware, entered into correspondence with the Swedish authorities, and early in 1637 he went to Sweden, where, after many difficulties, on Aug. 9, 1637, the Admiralty issued a passport for the ships “Kalmar Nyckel” and “Gripen,” the former a man-of-war, and the latter a sloop, or tender, which vessels comprised Minuit’s fleet, the first Swedish expedition. It is stated in a Dutch state paper that Minuit’s colonists were “Swedes, the most of whom were banditti.”*** Unforeseen delays followed, until the winter was near at hand before the expedition finally made sail for the New World, after having put into the Dutch harbor of Medemblik for repairs. It is stated by Professor Odhner,(4*) of Sweden, that documentary evidence seems to establish the fact that the fleet arrived in the Delaware in March or early in April, 1638. Minuit about that time, it is known, purchased from the Indians a tract of land several days’ journey in extent, located on the west bank of the river, whereon he set up the arms of Sweden, and with a salvo of artillery christened the fort he began building, near the present site of Wilmington, the “Kristina,” in honor of the youthful queen whose flag he was the first to unfold on the American continent. The river Christiana retains the name thus bestowed on the fort- for Minuit called that stream the Elbe- to this day. Within the palisade were built two log houses, for the accommodation of the soldiers and for the storage of provisions.

After the little settlement had been provided with all necessaries to sustain life, and for barter with the Indians, Lieut. Mans Kling was placed in command of the garrison, and Minuit, in July, 1638, sailed for Sweden, touching in his homeward voyage at the West Indies, where the sloop “Gripen” had preceded him. At St. Christopher he sold all the merchandise on the “Kalmar Nyckel,” and in place of the cargo he had taken to the island, loaded the vessel with tobacco. When ready to sail Minuit and the captain of his vessel were invited to visit a Dutch ship, “The Flying Deer,” and while on board of the latter a furious hurricane arose, compelling all the vessels in the road-stead to go to sea. Several of the ships were dismasted, while others were lost, among the latter “The Flying Deer.” She was never afterwards heard from. The “Kalmar Nyckel” made search for the missing Swedish officers, but, learning no tidings of them, after several days sailed for Europe. The sloop “Gripen” subsequently returned from the West Indies to the Delaware, where she was loaded with furs, and sailed for Sweden, reaching there in the latter part of May, 1639, having made the passage in five weeks.

The same year Cornelius Van Vliet, a Dutch captain, was ordered to proceed in the “Kalmar Nyckel” to New Sweden, learn the condition of the colony, and make report of the country, no report having been made by Minuit, as it was the purpose of Queen Christina to people the land with Swedes. To the latter end an effort was made to obtain willing emigrants, but failing in that, the government ordered the Governors of Elfsborg and Varmland “to lay hands on such marriaged soldiers as had either evaded service or committed some other offence, and transport them, with their wives and children, to New Sweden, with the promise to bring them back, if required, within two years; to do this, however, ‘justly and discreetly,’ that no riot might ensue.” (5*)

The “Kalmar Nyckel” on her second voyage to the colony sailed for Gottenburg, where she arrived in June, 1639. There she was detained more than three months, occasioned by the difficulty of procuring emigrants, cattle, horses, swine, implements for husbandry, and partly because of the negligence of the new commander of the second expedition. Rev. Reorus Torkillus, the first Swedish clergyman in New Sweden, is believed to have been one of the passengers on the vessel, which left Gottenburg in the early autumn of 1639. The ship was obliged to stop at Medemblik to be overhauled, she having sprung a leak, and, afterward, when having put to sea, she was twice compelled to return for repairs, until the crew stated they were not willing to sail in such a vessel and under such a captain. Van Vliet was thereupon discharged, a new crew procured, and Capt. Pouwel Jansen, a Dutchman, given charge of the ship. The “Kalmar Nyckel,” after encountering a remarkable storm, that intercepted all navigation in the Zuider-Zee, finally, on Feb. 7, 1640, sailed from the Texel for New Sweden. Lieut. Peter Hollandare, who had been appointed Governor of the province, accompanied the expedition, which, after a voyage of over two months, landed at Christiana on the 17th of April of the same year, where they found the colony planted by Minuit in good condition.(6*) The emigrants who accompanied the second expedition were of the most unpromising character, since Peter Hollandare records that “no more stupid, indifferent people are to be found in all Sweden than those who are now here,” and the domestic animals transported in the ship were few and of poor quality. On Nov. 2, 1640, the ship “Friedenburg,” under the command of Capt. Jacob Powellson, having on board a number of Dutch colonists, with Jost Van Bogardt, who emigrated under the auspices of the Swedish crown, cattle, and “other things necessary for the cultivation of the country,” arrived in New Sweden. These emigrants occupied land three or four Swedish miles below Christiana. Very little is known of the history of the colony from 1640 to 1643, saving that in 1642 a general sickness prevailed among the Swedish settlers on the Delaware.(7*)

The “Kalmar Nyckel” returned to Sweden in July, 1640. The home government, in its anxiety to obtain settlers for its American colony, had ordered the Governor of Orebro to prevail upon the unsettled Finns in that province to emigrate with their wives and children to New Sweden, while Mans Kling was instructed from the mining classes, and particularly from among the roaming Finns, who lived free of charge in the houses of the inhabitants of the Swedish forests, to procure settlers to be sent abroad. The third expedition, in the “Kalmar Nyckel” and the “Charitas,” sailed for New Sweden in 1641, and a number of the Finns came hither in those vessels. Hence many of the early Swedish settlers were not of a class to be desired as founders of a new empire, for the archives of Sweden disclose the fact that quite a number of criminals and forest-destroying Finns were transported to the Delaware River settlements to rid the mother-country of their presence. The Finns mentioned had, in violation of the mandates of the royal government, set fire to the forests in Varmland and Dal, that they might free the ground of trees to sow grain in the ashes, and for this act they were banished to the New World. Professor Odhner directly asserts that in the province of Skaraborg, a trooper, who was condemned to death for having broken into the monastery gardens at Varnhem, was permitted to make his selection between being hanged or embarking for New Sweden, and as late as 1653 (8*) a criminal who had been convicted of killing an elk on the island D’Auland was sentenced to transportation hither.

The fourth colony, and the one whose history most intimately connects itself with Delaware County, was that which left Gottenburg on Nov. 1, 1642. This expedition, composed of the ships “Fama” and “Swan,” was under the command of Lieut.-Col. John Printz, who had been commissioned Governor of New Sweden, Aug. 15, 1642, with an annual salary of one thousand two hundred dollars in silver and an allowance of four hundred rix-dollars for expenses. The journey was a long one; “the watery way to the West was not yet discovered, and therefore, for fear of the sand-banks off Newfoundland, the ships which went under the command of Governor Printz sailed along the coast of Africa until they found the eastern passage, then directly over to America, leaving the Canaries high up to the north.” (9*) They landed at Antigua, inhabited at “that time ‘by Englishmen and negroes, with some Indians,’ where they ‘spent their Christmas holidays, and were well entertained,’” says Mr. Holm, “‘at the Governor’s house.’ After quitting this seat of ‘perpetual summer’ (as the same gentleman depicts it) they encountered ‘a severe storm,’ accompanied at the last ‘with snow,’ which ‘continued about fourteen days,’ by which they ‘lost three large anchors, a spritsail, and their mainmast, and the ship was run aground; but on the 15th of February, 1643, by God’s grace, came up to Fort Christina, in New Sweden, Va.,’ in the precise phrases of the historian, ‘at two o’clock in the afternoon.’ Here the first three Swedish expeditions had established their chief settlement, under Minuit and Hollandare, and here remained a short time also this fourth and greatest’ of the colonies, enjoying friendly intercourse with fellow-countrymen most glad to welcome them, and happily reposing from the distresses of their long and perilous voyage.’” (10*)

Under the instructions he had received from the home government, Printz, in the exercise of his discretion, located the seat of government at Tinicum Island, where he built a fort, which he called New Gottenburg, and resided for a time in the fortress, until he built his mansion-house, known in our annals as Printz Hall. On this island the principal inhabitants then had their dwellings and plantations. (11*) With the fort at that place, Printz controlled the passage of the river above Tinicum, and when he, shortly afterward, built Fort Elsenburgh, at Salem Creek, placing therein four brass and iron twelve-pound cannon and one “pots-hooft,” (12*) manned by twelve soldiers in command of a lieutenant, he rendered the Dutch fortress on the east side of the river above the mouth of the Schuylkill almost useless to the Holland colony, as was fully recognized by Hudde, who reported that Printz had closed “the entrance of the river.”

We are told by Campanius that “In the beginning of Governor Printz’s administration there came a great number of those criminals, who were sent over from Sweden. When the European inhabitants perceived it they would not suffer them to set their foot on shore, but they were all obliged to return, so that a great many of them perished on the voyage. This was related to me, amongst other things, by an old, trustworthy man, named Nils Matsson Utter, who, after his return home, served in His Majesty’s life-guards. It was after this forbidden, under a penalty, to send any more criminals to America, lest Almighty God should let his vengeance fall on the ships and goods, and the virtuous people that were on board.” (13*)

This statement is in direct conflict with the report of Governor Printz in 1647, for therein he asked instruction from the home authorities “how long the criminals must serve for their crimes,” (14*) and is told that nothing definite can be prescribed respecting that matter, that it is left to his discretion, but those who reform and perform their duty satisfactorily may be allowed the same wages as other free people. “But those who go on in the same wrong way as before and do not exhibit any improvement may have their punishment increased by you, Sir Governor, or may continue to serve without wages.”(15*)

The voluntary emigrants to New Sweden were of two classes, the freemen, those who were privileged to settle where they chose in the colony and to return to the mother-country at pleasure, and the company’s servants, those who were employed at stipulated wages for a designated term. “There was a third, consisting of vagabonds and malefactors; these went to remain in slavery, and were employed in digging the earth, throwing up trenches, and erecting walls and other fortifications. The others had no intercourse with them, but a particular spot was appointed for them to reside upon.(16*)

The first year under Printz’s administration many of the settlers died, which the Governor states was due to hard work and the scarcity of food. (17*) In four years thereafter (1647) we learn from the report furnished the home government that the total number of whites in the Swedish settlements on the Delaware was one hundred and eighty-three souls. Twenty-eight of the freemen had made settlements, and part of them were provided with oxen and cows. Tobacco seems to have been chiefly the crop grown, for in the return cargo of the “Golden Shark,” in that year, was six thousand nine hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco, grown in New Sweden, the rest having been purchased from Virginia. To stimulate this project those persons who cultivated land were exempted by the home government for ten years from taxation. A grist-mill had been erected by Printz in 1643, about a quarter of a mile in the woods at “Kara Kung,” otherwise called the Water-Mill stream, “a fine mill, which ground both fine and coarse flour, and was going early and late. It was the first that was seen in that country.”(18*) This mill was located on Crum Creek, and the holes sunk in the rocks to receive the posts supporting the frame-work are still to be seen, near the Blue Bell Tavern, on the Darby road. (19*) Townsend Ward (20*) tells us that in front of the old portion of the Blue Bell Tavern “is a carriage stepping-stone of considerable historical interest, for it is, perhaps, one of the first millstones used in what is now the territory of Pennsylvania, and was in use before Penn’s arrival. The stone is circular in form, with a square hole through its centre. Not far from the inn, and in the bed of the creek, only a few feet west of the old King’s (Queen’s) road bridge, may be seen the holes, drilled in the rocks, in which were inserted the supports of the ancient mill wherein the stone was used. Mr. Aubrey H. Smith remembers finding, when a boy, a piece of lead weighing seventeen pounds, that had evidently been run, when melted, around an inserted post.” Printz was much pleased with the mill, “which runs the whole year, to the great advantage of the country, particularly as the windmill, formerly here before I came, would never work, and was good for nothing.”(21*) Not only had he built this needed public improvement, but had caused some waterfalls to be examined as a site for saw-mills below the dam of the grist-mill, as well as three other places where oak-timber grew plentiful. But as he was without the saw-blades, and no person in the colony understood the management of such an establishment, Printz suggested to the home government that it would be worth considering, as a good trade in planking, pipe-staves, and timber could be made with the West Indies and other points, provided a proper vessel was kept in New Sweden to transport those articles to market.(22*)

It is not my purpose to relate the history of the difficulties and trials which Printz had to contend with from the encroachments of the Dutch and English in their efforts to make a lodgment on the Delaware. That he was insolent in his manner to those whom he regarded as intruders on the Swedish territory cannot be questioned, if the statement of his enemies is to be credited. Hudde tells us that Printz replied to his suggestion that the Dutch were the earliest settlers on the Delaware, “that the devil was the oldest possessor of hell, but he sometimes admitted a younger one.” That on another occasion, Printz treated contemptuously a letter he had sent him by a sergeant, in that he threw it towards one of his attendants who stood near him, saying, “There, take care of it,” and that when the sergeant insisted on seeing the Governor, who left him to meet some Englishmen, he, the sergeant, was thrown out of doors, “the Governor taking a gun in his hand from the wall to shoot him, as he imagined, but was prevented from leaving his room,” and that when the servants of the Dutch Company went to Tinicum, Printz unreasonably abused them, “so that they are often, on returning home, bloody and bruised,” while John Thickpenny,(23*) of the New England colony on the Delaware, deposed that, at Tinicum, Printz cursed and swore at the Englishmen, calling them renegades, and threw John Woollen, the Indian interpreter for the English settlers, into irons, which Printz himself fastened on his legs, and that he stamped with his feet in his rage. Despite all these statements, Printz was true to his sovereign’s interest in the colony, even if he had failed in that respect in the Old World.(24*)

On Feb. 20, 1647, when the ship “Golden Shark,” which had arrived in New Sweden on the 1st of October of the preceding year, left the colony on the return voyage to Europe, Printz dispatched Lieut. John Pappegoya, as a special messenger to orally make a report of the growth and need of the settlement. Pappegoya had been one of the early Swedish settlers on the Delaware and had returned home, but desiring to revisit New Sweden, he came back in 1644, particularly recommended to the favorable consideration of Printz by the home government. It is believed at the time Pappegoya was sent to Sweden as bearer of dispatches he was then married to Armigart, Governor Printz’s daughter, who figured prominently in our early annals. He returned to New Sweden in a short time (in those days of long voyages), for about in the middle of June, 1648, Hudde (25*) mentions that the committee of the Dutch Council, after completing the purchase of land on the Schuylkill from the Indians, “with a becoming suite, sailed to Tinne Konck, and was received there by the commissay, Huygen and, Lieut. Passegay (Pappegoya), who left them about half an hour in the open air and constaint rain,” before they could obtain an interview with Governor Printz. When the latter, after administering the affairs of the colony on the Delaware for twelve years, sailed for Sweden in the latter part of the year 1653, he left the government in charge of his son-in-law, John Pappegoya.

May 21, 1654, the ship “Eagle” arrived at New Castle, having on board John Claudius Rising, who had been appointed commissary and Governor’s assistant counsellor,- an office equivalent to Lieutenant-Governor; but Printz having sailed before Rising came, the full charge of the colony devolved upon him. His first official act was not only a violation of his instructions, but an error which was disastrous in its results to the colony. As the vessel came to at Fort Cassimir two guns were fired as a salute to the fortress, after which Rising demanded the surrender of the stronghold. The Dutch commander desired time to consider, but Rising ordered a force of thirty men to land and take the place by assault, refusing, as the Dutch alleged, “to give one hour’s delay.” Acrelius tells us, “A correct inventory was made of everything in the fort, and every one was allowed to carry off his property, whether belonging to the company or to private individuals;”(26*) while Gerrit Becker, the Dutch commander, deposed, “I could scarcely induce him (Rising) by prayer not to be turned out naked, with his (my) wife and children, and all the property in this fort was confiscated by them.”(27*) The capture of this fortress having taken place about noon on Trinity Sunday, the Swedes called it the “Fort of the Holy Trinity;” and subsequently, under the supervision of Peter Lindstrom, the engineer, it was repaired, enlarged, and “as good as built anew.”

On the 17th of June, 1654, Vice-Governor Rising held a council with the Indian sachems at Printz Hall, at Tinicum, and although the savages stated that the Swedish vessel had introduced among them diseases, of which many of their people died, the gifts which Rising laid before them were too tempting to be resisted, and a treaty of friendship was then made between the Swedes and the Indians, which has ever since been faithfully observed on both sides.”(28*)

When the news of the capture of Fort Cassimir was received in Holland it excited much indignation among the directors, and although previous to that event the home government had not approved fully of Stuyvesant’s action in erecting the fort at New Castle, all differences of opinion were swallowed up in the indignation and anger the seizure of the fortress aroused. Hence, Stuyvesant was ordered “to exert every nerve to revenge that injury, not only by restoring affairs to their former situation, but by driving the Swedes from every side of the river, as they did with us, provided that such among them as may be disposed to settle under and submit to our government may be indulged in it.” (29*) In conformity with the spirit of these instructions, Stuyvesant silently but promptly made preparation for an aggressive movement against the Swedish settlement on the Delaware. To that end he gathered an armament and fleet, while the Swedes, unaware of the danger that lowered over them, made no unusual provision for defense. On Sunday, Sept. 4, 1655, the expedition under Stuyvesant, in seven vessels, with about six hundred men, set sail for the Delaware, and on the morning of the 9th of September anchored a short distance from Fort Cassimir, when Stuyvesant sent a lieutenant ashore to demand the restitution of the stronghold. Lieutenant Schute, the Swedish officer, desired time to communicate with his superior, which was refused. In the mean while the Dutch commander had landed a force which occupied all the approaches in rear of the fort, and, after some negotiation, the Swedish garrison capitulated on the morning of the 11th of September. After the reduction of Fort Cassimir the Dutch forces laid siege to Fort Christiana, and from Governor Rising’s official report (30*) we learn that the enemy made regular approaches until, having their guns in position in rear of the fort, Stuyvesant formally demanded the surrender of the post within twenty-four hours. The Swedish Governor, after a general consultation with the whole garrison, decided to accede to the demand he was powerless to resist. The articles of capitulation, among other matters, provided that the Swedish forces should march out of the fort with the honors of war,- drums and trumpet playing, flags flying, matches burning, and with hand and side arms. That they, as prisoners of war, were first to be conducted to Tinicum Island, and placed in the fort at that place until they could be taken to New Amsterdam. (31*) Campanius asserts that “The Dutch then proceeded to destroy New Gottenburg, laying waste all the houses and plantations without the fort, killing the cattle, and plundering the inhabitants of everything that they could lay their hands on; so that after a siege of fourteen days, and many fruitless propositions to obtain more humane treatment, the Swedes were obliged to surrender that fortress for want of men and ammunition.”(32*)

From the fact that the articles of capitulation at Fort Christina stipulated for the detention of the Swedish prisoners of war at the fort at Tinicum, and that there is, so far as known, an absence of all documentary evidence to support the assertion made by Campanius, the conclusion seems irresistible that that author has confused his account of the doings at New Gottenburg with those occurring on the siege of Fort Christiana. Vice-Governor Rising, in his report,(33*) already mentioned, when relating the pillaging of “the people without sconce of their property, and higher up the river they plundered many and stripped them to the skin,” thus briefly narrated the outrages of the Dutch invaders at Tinicum. “At New Gottenberg they robbed Mr. Papegoija’s wife of all she had, with many others who had collected their property there.” Not a word has this man, who pictured the minutest incident of the siege of Fort Christiana, and the killing of Swedish “cattle, goats, swine, and poultry,” to say about the investment of Fort Gottenburg, the resistance of its slender garrison for fourteen days, or the laying waste of all the houses and plantations without the forts. Certain it is, that the Swedish Church at Tinicum, Printz Hall, and other buildings stood uninjured long years after the Dutch power in North America had waned before the conquering standard of Great Britain. In 1680 “the remains of the large blockhouse, which served them (the Swedes) in place of a fortress,” was on the island, together with “three or four houses built by the Swedes, a little Lutheran Church made of logs, and the ruins of some log huts.”(34*) In Rising’s reply to Stuyvesant,(35*) only thirty-four days after the capture of Fort Christiana, he does not mention the destruction of the post at New Gottenburg, but sets forth the following outrages committed by the Dutch in their conquest of New Sweden: “Your Honor’s troops have behaved here as if they were in the country of their bitterest enemy, as the plundering of Tornaborg, Uplandt, Finland, Princedorp, and other places more clearly proves (not to speak of the deeds done about Fort Christiana), where the females have partly been dragged out of their houses by force; whole buildings torn down, even hauled away; oxen, cows, pigs, and other animals daily slaughtered in large numbers; even the horses were not spared, but shot wantonly, the plantations devastated, and everything thereabouts treated in such a way that our victuals have been mostly spoiled, carried away, or lost somehow.” So, too, on Dec. 19, 1656,(36*) the directors instruct Stuyvesant to occupy the fort at New Gottenburg with eight or ten soldiers provisionally, “as well for the safety of the Swedes, now our subjects.”

The Dutch had conquered, and the Swedish flag no longer floated over the disputed territory on the Delaware. But the triumph was a costly one, the expenses of the expedition swelling so largely the debt of the Dutch West India Company that in the summer of 1656, to relieve itself from liability to the city of Amsterdam, the company ceded to the burgomasters of that municipality a portion of the Delaware River territory, extending from Bombay Hook to Christiana Creek, which subsequently was known as “the City’s Colony,” while the land north of that creek was termed “the Company’s Colony.”

Before intelligence of the conquest of New Sweden had reached the mother-country, on March 24, 1656, the Swedish ship “Mercury,” with a hundred and thirty emigrants on board, entered the river. John Paul Jacquit, the Dutch Governor, prohibited the captain of the vessel to land the crew or passengers, as well as refusing to permit him to ascend the river beyond Fort Cassimir. John Pappegoya, who had not yet returned to Sweden, together with Capt. Huygen, on March 30th wrote to the Council in New Amsterdam, requesting that these emigrants who came from Sweden should be permitted to settle in the colony, urging as reasons “the immense loss they would suffer, many good farmers would be ruined, parents separated from children, and even husbands from wife,” but their appeals only made the Council hold more firmly to their resolution that the Swedes should settle at New Amsterdam, where their number could not be a constant menace to the authorities. Much time was consumed in tedious negotiations, until at length the patience of the Swedish colonists was exhausted, and through the influence of Pappegoya with the savages, a number of the residents, Swedes and Indians, went aboard the vessel, when, in spite of the guns of the fort or the command of Governor Jacquit, the anchor was weighed, the “Mercury” sailed up the river, and landed her cargo and passengers at Christiana.(37*) The Dutch, fearing that some of the Indians on board might be injured, refrained from firing on the vessel in her passage by the fort.

After the Dutch had acquired absolute sway on the Delaware the ancient Swedish capital at Tinicum seems to have been abandoned, possibly because of the grant of that island to Governor Printz, hence in the early records only occasionally, at this period, do we find allusion to any places lying within the boundary of the present county of Delaware. Georan Van Dyck, who had been appointed sheriff of the company’s colony, requested permission to establish the Swedish settlers in villages, and on June 12, 1657, the Council responded that he was “not only authorized and qualified, but also ordered and directed, to concentrate their houses and dwellings, but henceforth to erect them in shape of a village or villages, either at Upland, Passayonck, Finland, Kinghsessing, on the ‘Verdrietige hoeck,’ or at such places as by them may be considered suitable, under condition that previous notice be given to the Director-General and Council, in case they should chose some other places than those specified above.”(38*) This effort to gather the Swedish residents into villages failed, and it seems not to have been pressed earnestly until after William Beekman was appointed, Oct. 28, 1658, vice-director of the company’s colony on the Delaware, and even not then until the directors in Holland, under date of Oct. 14, 1659,(39*) recommend that the Swedes should be separated and scattered among the Dutch, since they, the directors, had reason to believe that the English may undertake “something against us there under the Swedish flag and name.” In furtherance of this recommendation, Beekman, in March following, attempted to execute the order, but found that he could not get the Swedish settlers to choose a location for the village, every one asserting that he would keep his entire lot and fields.(40*) Miss Printz “objected to moving because the church was located at Tinicum, on her plantation, that her buildings were heavy, that she had offered her land rent free, but no one would live with her.” Beekman also informed Stuyvesant that to enforce the edict then would result in great loss, as it would prevent the planting of spring crops, and he, therefore, had granted the Swedes five or six weeks longer before compelling compliance with the order. Thus the matter rested, for the Dutch authorities could not convince the Swedes of the advantage of the proposed change, and they had not sufficient force at hand to compel obedience therewith. (41*) Beekman, however, constantly endeavored to prevail upon them to settle at Passayuuk, but when the Swedes intimated that “they would rather go to Maryland than to remove to another place here and sponge upon the others,” the project was finally abandoned by the authorities.

The affair of the Delaware’s having been so mismanaged that many complaints had been lodged with the authorities in New Amsterdam, Council on April 20, 1658, determining that these matters “as well as some necessary arrangements to be made among and regarding the Swedes, cannot well be attended to by a letter,” ordered that Stuyvesant and Pieter Tonneman should personally visit the Delaware River settlements “for the special service and advantage of the company.” On May 8th Stuyvesant was at Tinicum, for on that day Georan Van Dyck, Orloff Stille, Malthys Hanson, Peter Rambo, and Peter Kaik; the Swedish magistrates, (42*) presented a petition to the General Director, asking for the appointment of a court messenger to serve summons, make arrests, and “the carrying out of sentences,” and that they be allowed “free access to the commander at Fort Altona to get assistance from the soldiers in case of emergency.” The third request was “that an order be made that nobody shall leave these boundaries without knowledge of the magistrates, much less, that the servants, man or woman of one, when they leave or run away without their masters’ or mistress’ permission, shall be concealed by the other.”

From this petition, which was favorably received and acted on, we learn that Fort Gottenburg had at this time ceased to be a military post. This was perhaps due to the fact that the Dutch officers were doubtful of the loyalty of the Swedes to the new administration, and thought it judicious to concentrate their forces at the most available and strongest fortification; that at Tinicum, being merely a block-house, was abandoned. We also gather from the same document that the system of redemption servitude at that early stage of our history was recognized in this locality.(43*)

From the report of Jacob Alricks to the commissioners of the city’s colony, Oct. 10, 1658, (44*) we ascertain that children from the almshouse at Amsterdam had been sent over to the Delaware River settlements and had been bound out among the residents there, the eldest for two, the major portion for three, and the youngest children for four, years. He suggested that from time to time more of these young people should be dispatched hither, “but, if possible, none ought to come less than fifteen years of age and somewhat strong, as little profit is to be expected here without labor.”

In a letter from Beekman to Stuyvesant, April 28, 1660,(45*) the former states “that among the Fins at Opland there is a married couple who live very wretchedly together, and the wife is often fearfully beaten, and daily driven out of the house like a dog, which was continued through several years. Nothing is heard of the wife, but he, on the contrary, has committed adultery. Therefore the priest, the neighbors, the sheriff, and commissaries, and others besides, have appealed to me, at the request of the man and the woman, that they might be divorced, and the few animals and personal property be divided among them. I answered that I would inform your Noble Worship of it and await orders.” What was done finally in this case is unknown.

On the night of Sept. 20, 1661,(46*) the wife of Rev. Laurence Charles Laers, the Swedish priest at Upland, eloped with Joseph Jongh (Young), the fugitives leaving the settlement in a canoe. Director Beckman, the next day, as soon as he was informed of the occurrence, dispatched an express to the Governor of Maryland and the magistrates at Sassafras River, requesting that should the parties come there they might be detained, and he notified of the fact. Four days afterwards Beekman came to Upland to look after the property there of Jacob Jongh. It appears that in his hasty flight Jongh had left his personal effects at Upland, and the next day the Rev. Mr. Laers went to the house of Andreas Hendriexson, a Finn, where his wife’s paramour had lived, and without notifying the authorities forced open the door of Jongh’s room with an axe.(47*) The keys to the chest belonging to the fugitive being found in the apartment, the clergyman opened the luggage and appropriated some of the contents. The Dutch authorities supposed, as they learned nothing from Maryland, that the runaways had gone to New England, whereas it is now almost conclusively established that this Jacob Jongh or Young made his way to Maryland, where he subsequently figured prominently in the early history of that colony.(48*) The abandoned husband, however, did not appear to be crushed by his wife’s desertion, for in less than a month (October 15th) he asked Vice-Governor Beekman to be allowed the next day to make the first proclamation of the banns of his intended marriage with a girl of seventeen or eighteen years, which consent the former withheld until he could hear from Stuyvesant.(49*) The authorities in New Amsterdam apparently acted too slowly for the reverend lover, for November 8th (50*) he again asked for advice “whether he may now marry again, as his household requires it.” On December l5th (51*) he was granted a provisional divorce, the decree being subject to Stuyvesant’s approbation; but without tarrying until the latter signified his approval, the reverend gentleman, on Sunday, Jan. 26, 1662, entered anew into the married relation, which act aroused the indignation of Beckman, and prejudiced him against “this fine priest.” On April 14, 1662, the case against the Rev. Mr. Laers was tried at Fort Altona. He was prosecuted on behalf of the company for having broken into the room and making an inventory of the goods left by the absconding Joseph Jongh. In the crude system of justice then in vogue on the Delaware, the court sentenced him to pay two hundred guilders, which had been advanced to Jongh to purchase grain for the company, forty forms in beavers which were due from Jongh to Director Beckman and Mr. Decker, and was also fined forty guilders for usurping the authority of the court. The unhappy defendant was in addition informed that “his new marriage was declared illegal.”(52*) The clergyman thereupon petitioned Governor Stuyvesant, setting forth that he broke the door open in the search for his wife, whom he imagined was concealed in that place; that he had found among Jongh’s goods a few pairs of his (the petitioner’s) wife’s stockings; that he had no intention “to vilify the court;” that his acts were committed through ignorance, and that in his marriage “he did not suppose it should have been so unfavorably interpreted;” he therefore, to save his “reputation as a minister,” prays that the Governor will disapprove of the sentence of the court, and “not inflict any further punishment” than that he has already undergone, since, independent of the fine of two hundred and eighty guilders, the desertion of his wife had cost him nearly two hundred guilders.(53*) What was done with, this petition does not appear.

From the report made by the commissioners and directors of the city’s colony,(54*) on Aug. 10, 1663, we learn that on the Delaware River it was found that “the Swedes, Fins, and other natives” had “made and erected there 110 good bouweries, stocked with about 2000 cows and oxen, 20 horses, 80 sheep, and several thousand swine.” This was comparatively a good showing, and it induced the city of Amsterdam to accede to the proposition of the Dutch West India Company, that the former should, in discharge of the debt owed by the company, accept a deed for “all the country on the Delaware.” In furtherance of this agreement a formal deed was executed Dec. 22, 1663, and the sway of the authorities at New Amsterdam ceased on the Delaware River. On the day after the date of this conveyance Beckman wrote to Stuyvesant that fifty farm laborers who had arrived in the ship “St. Jacob” during June of that year had been hired out to farmers, and that six or seven girls had been sent on the same vessel to cook and wash for the emigrants. He informed the director-general that “this is almost the same method as that of the English trade in servants.”(55*)

The authority of the city of Amsterdam over the entire Delaware River settlements was only of brief duration, and destined in a few months to be wholly overthrown. The crown of Great Britain had never acknowledged the right which the Dutch and Swedes maintained they had acquired by occupancy to the territory, and it was merely due to the intestine discord at home that the former nation had not earlier brought the mooted subject to the arbitrament of arms. Charles II., then firmly seated on the throne of England, on March 12, 1664, granted to his brother James, Duke of York and Albany, the territory now comprising the State of New York and New Jersey, and, by a subsequent grant, that of Delaware. With unusual promptness the duke fitted out an expedition, consisting of four vessels of war and four hundred and fifty men, including sailors and soldiers, which, under the command of Col. Richard Nicolls, sailed from Portsmouth, England, on May 25, 1664,(56*) to reduce and occupy the Dutch possessions in North America. Sir Robert Carr, George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick, Esquires, accompanied the expedition as commissioners appointed by the king, with power to hear and determine all military, civil, and criminal matters, and to proceed in all things for “settling the peace and security of the country,” as also to adjust “boundaries between neighboring colonies and disputes between the Indians and the English.” (57*) The Governors of New England were instructed by the king “to join and assist them vigorously in recovering our right to those places now possessed by the Dutch, and reducing them to an entire obedience and submission to our government.”(58*) On the 25th of August the frigate “Guinea,” the first vessel of the expedition to reach the point of destination, entered the lower bay of New Amsterdam, and a proclamation was issued guaranteeing protection to those persons who should submit to the English authority. The other vessel having arrived, after considerable negotiation, on the 9th of September, the Dutch authorities surrendered New Amsterdam to the English, the latter permitting the garrison to march out of the fort with all their arms, drums beating and colors flying. The English commissioners, when they had acquired possession of the settlement, changed the name of the place to New York, in honor of the duke. To secure control of the Delaware River territory, on the 3d (13th) of September, 1664, Sir Robert Carr was ordered to proceed thither with the frigates “Guinea” and “William” and “Nicholas” and “to reduce the same”(59*) to an English province. The instructions given him, among other things, required that all planters were to retain their real and personal property unmolested by the conquerors, and Carr was particularly directed to conciliate the Swedes; that all persons were to be permitted liberty of conscience; the magistrates were to be continued in office for six months on subscribing to the oath of allegiance; the settlers were to be protected from violence in persons or estates; and the system of jurisprudence there is urged not to be disturbed for the present.(60*) After a long and troublesome passage, the expedition arrived in the Delaware on the last day of September, and passed the fort at New Amstel without an exchange of shot, which was done, as Carr states, “the better to sattisfie the Sweede, who, notwithstanding the Dutches pswasions to ye contrary, were soon our frinds.” Carr then summoned the fort to surrender, and for three days negotiations were had between the opposing forces, which resulted in the magistracy of the place agreeing to surrender the town, a conclusion in which D’Hinoyossa and his soldiers declined to concur. “Whereupon,” states Carr, in his official report,(61*) “I landed my soldiers on Sunday morning following, & comanded ye shipps to fall downe before ye Fort withn muskett shott, wth directions to fire two broadesides apeace upon yt Fort, then my soldiers to fall on. Which done, the soldiers neaver stoping untill they stormed ye fort, and soe consequently to plundering; the seamen, noe less given to that sporte, were quickly wthin, & have gotten good store of booty; so that in such a noise and confusion noe worde of comand could be heard for sometyme; but for as many goods as I could preserve, I still Keepe intire. The loss on our part was none; the Dutch had tenn wounded and 3 killed. The fort is not tenable, although 14 gunns, and Wthout a greate charge Wch unevitably must be expended, here wilbee noe staying, we not being able to keepe itt.” We learn from Col. Nicolls’ report to the Secretary of State(62*) that the storming-party was commanded by Lieut. Carr and Ensign Hooke; and, notwithstanding the Dutch fired three volleys at them, not a man in their ranks was wounded in the assault. Sir Robert Carr, it seems, stayed aboard the “Guinea” until the fort was captured, when he landed and claimed that the property in the fort, having been won by the sword, was his and his troops. All the soldiers and many of the citizens of New Amstel were sold as slaves to Virginia by the English conquerors, and most of the negroes belonging to the Dutch settlers were distributed among the captors, as were also one hundred sheep, forty horses, sixty cows and oxen.(63*) Lands and estates were confiscated, and granted by Sir Robert Carr to his officers, as well as the commanders of the vessels which took part in the expedition to the Delaware.

When the standard of Great Britain floated from the flag-staffs over the captured Dutch forts on the Hudson and the Delaware it marked the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon race on the North American continent, and as authority was then exercised from Maine to Florida, on the Atlantic coast, by a homogeneous people, it made possible the great nation that was born to the world a century later. It was singularly fortunate, at this juncture, that the unbridled executive power in the new province was confided to so prudent and able a man as Col. Richard Nicolls proved to be, whose “administration was so wise and impartial that it enforced universal peace.”(64*) On the Delaware the Swedes, who had heretofore been held as a subjugated people, were in every respect benefited by the change, and even the Dutch settlers bad reason to be glad that the tyrannical sway of Stuyvesant had ended. In May, 1667, Col. Francis Lovelace succeeded Col. Nicolls, and, as has been said by an able writer, “under Governor Lovelace the work of adjusting the government of the Delaware, so as to bring it slowly but steadily into conformity with English law, progressed systematically year by year, until it received an unexpected check in 1673 by the total, but temporary, suspension of English authority incident to the second conquest of the country by the Dutch.”(65*)

Late in the summer of 1671 the Indians had committed several atrocious murders, and it became necessary for Governor Lovelace to act cautiously but firmly to check further outrages, and to punish the culprits for the crimes already perpetrated. As preliminary to an Indian war he ordered that persons living in the outer settlements should thrash their grain and remove it and the cattle to a place of comparative safety; that no person, on pain of death, should sell powder, shot, or liquor to the savages, as also recommending the strengthening of garrisons and fortifications. Lovelace prudently had a conference with the Governor of New Jersey, to secure, if war should result, the co-operation of that province, since the murderers were said to be under that jurisdiction, and a meeting was held at New York, September 25th, and another at Elizabethtown, N.J., Nov. 7, 1671, when it was determined that it was injudicious at the then late season to begin an offensive movement against the savages, but that several companies of soldiers should be organized on the Delaware; that every man capable of bearing arms (between the ages of sixteen and sixty) should always be provided with powder and bullets, fit for service, under a penalty; that block-houses should be erected at several places on the river; and also forbidding the shipment of grain unless a special license should be granted therefor. In the latter part of November the Indian sachems and William Torn, clerk of the court on the Delaware, held a council at Upland, at the house of Peter Rambo, at which the savages promised to bring the murderers to the whites within six days thereafter that they might be punished for their crimes, and if they could not bring them alive they agreed to deliver their dead bodies, as an earnest of their purpose to prevent a war between the races. It afterwards appeared that one of the guilty men escaped from his people, and could not be delivered as promised, but the other was captured. It is stated by Tom(66*) that the smaller Indian, learning of the purpose of the sachems, went to the other and advised him to flee. The latter said he would go the next morning. Of the two Indians who had been dispatched to take the culprits one was a personal friend, and was loath to kill his captive, but when the latter learned that the sachems had determined he must die he placed his hands on his eyes and said, “Kill me.” The other savage, not his friend, thereupon shot two bullets into his breast. The body was taken Wiccaco and delivered to the whites, who transported it to New Castle, where it was hung in chains. The other murderer escaped by flight. The sachems faithfully notified the tribes that any of their people who should murder a white person would be similarly dealt with, and with this annunciation the cloud drifted by, greatly to the satisfaction of the magisates on the Delaware, who were opposed to the war, because among other things they proposed to “make ‘wns at Passayvncke, Tinnaconck, Upland, Verdrieties Hoocks, whereto the out plantacions” must retire in the event of a struggle.(67*)

The proscription on trade, which prevented vessels from ascending the Delaware River beyond the fort at New Castle, remained in force until the latter art of the year 1672, after which date no record remains, so far as known, of special licenses being given to trade above that point. On Sept. 29, 1671, Governor Lovelace authorized Capt. Thomas Lewis, of the sloop “Royal Oak,” “to trade and Trafic, as the said masters occasion shall require,” on the Delaware above Newcastle, and no other vessel was permitted there to ship corn or provisions for exportation.(68*) But previous to this Capt. Martin Crieger, who seems to have run a packet-sloop regularly from New York to New Castle, had license to go to the latter point, and Mrs. Susanna Garland was authorized to trade between those places.(69*) In about three weeks subsequent to the issuing of this license, permission was given the wife of Lawrence Hoist to go in Capt. Martin Crieger’s sloop to New Castle, and “from thence to go up the River in some boat or Canoe to the Sweeds Plantations with shoes & such other of her Husband’s Trade, & to return again without any maner of Lett, hinderence or molestation whatever.”(70*) March 20, 1672, John Schouten, in the sloop “Hope,” was authorized to trade at New Castle and parts adjacent, while the same day John Garland, of New York, and Susanna, his wife, were licensed to “Traffick with the Indyans” on the river above New Castle.(71*) Mr. Christoph Hoogland, Sept. 28, 1672, was licensed to go on Criegers sloop to New Castle, with the privilege to trade on the river. Capt. Crieger, who was a “Dutchman,” seems to have run the packet between the places named for more than ten years, for in July, 1682, Deputy Governor Markham complained that Capt. Crieger at New Castle had permitted Lord Baltimore the use of astronomical instruments, which were shipped by Markham at New York and intended only for him.(72*)

War having been declared in 1672 by England an France against the United Belgic Provinces, on the 30th of July, 1673, the colony of New York, with its dependencies on the Delaware River settlements, was recaptured by the Dutch fleet under Admiral Evertsen, and Capt. Anthony Colve was commissioned Governor-General of “New Netherlands with all its Appendencies.” Peter Alricks was appointed commander on the Delaware, with instructions that the right of private property should not be disturbed, nor should that belonging to persons holding office under the Duke of York be confiscated where the party took the oath of allegiance to the Dutch government. Freedom of conscience was assured to those who were followers of the true Christian religion according to the Synod of Dordrecht, but the new commander was instructed not to permit “any other sects attempting anything contrary thereto.”(73*) By the terms of the treaty of peace, Feb. 9, 1674, the province reverted to the Duke of York, and English authority was reestablished on Oct. 1, 1674, when Maj. Edmund Androsse, as governor, received possession of Fort James at New York, and appointed Capt. Edmund Carr commander on the Delaware. On Sept. 25, 1676, the Duke of York’s laws were promulgated as the rule of conduct on the Delaware River, and courts in conformity therewith were established; one of which was “above att Uplands,” where quarterly sessions were directed to be held on the second Tuesday of the month.

Early in the year 1675 the first member of the Society of Friends known to have, resided within the boundaries of Delaware County purchased an estate at Upland. Robert Wade, on March 21, 1675, bought the tract of ground known as Printzdorp from “Justina Armguard, alias vpo Papegay,” for eighty pounds sterling,(74*) whereon he subsequently erected the famous “Essex House.”

The Essex House(75*) stood on the site of the present brick dwelling at the northwest corner of Second and Penn Streets, Chester. It was a story and a half in height, its southeast gable fronting the river, the rear or southwest side facing Concord Avenue, and its front, with a commodious porch, extended the entire length of the building to Chester Creek. Almost one hundred and ten feet southeastwardly from it stood the noted trees under which Penn landed, seven years after Wade became the owner of the estate. In the journal of the Labadists, Dankers and Sluyter, in 1679, particular mention is made of these trees.

“We have nowhere seen,” they record, “so many vines together as we saw here, which had been planted for the purpose of shading the walks on the river side in between the trees.” (76*) It seems that Wade, after the purchase of the estate from Mrs. Pappegoya, returned to Great Britain, whence, accompanied by his wife, Lydia, he sailed in the ship “Griffin,” which arrived in the Delaware on the 23d of Ninth month (November), 1675. It was in that year, we are told, that William Edmundson, a public Friend from Ireland, made a second visit to America, and while he and his party journeyed, swimming their horses across the river at Trenton and the intermediate creeks, and camping out in the woods at night, when on the way to “Delaware Town, on the west side of the river Delaware,” . . . “there came up a Finland man, well-horsed, who spoke English. He soon perceived what they were, and gave them an account of several of their friends. His house was as far as they could ride that day; there he conducted them and lodged them kindly. The next morning being the first day of the week, they went to Upland (since named Chester), where a few Friends were met at Robert Wade’s house. After meeting was over they took boat and went to Salem, where they met with John Fenwick and several families of Friends, who, with those at Chester, had come from England in that year with John Fenwick.”(77*) It is, however, nowise certain that the Essex House had been built when the first recorded meeting of Friends in Pennsylvania was held at Wade’s dwelling at Upland, but that it had been erected before 1679, the statement of the Labadist ministers, already quoted as a note, conclusively establishes.

Governor Andross, on Sept. 25, 1676, promulgated the Duke of York’s laws by proclamation, declaring that they “Bee likewise in force and practiced in this River and Prechicts,” excepting such ordinances as were peculiarly applicable to Long Island. At the same time he ordered courts to be held at three places on the river. That at Upland to be a Court of Quarter Sessions, and to begin on the second Tuesday of the month.(78*)

The records of these early courts are historically interesting, for in them is found the story of the gradual growth of the English system of jurisprudence in the State, which will be related elsewhere in this work.

On March 4, 1681, Charles II. of England signed the great charter which conveyed to William Penn, in lieu of the sum of sixteen thousand pounds, which the king owed to Admiral William Penn, the enormous tract of land now known as Pennsylvania, and from that period our early annals become more interesting, for from that time we may date the actual founding of this great commonwealth. Almost immediately thereafter Penn sent his first cousin, William Markham, to the colony as his Deputy Governor. It is presumed that he came over in the ship “John and Sarah,” from London, commanded by Henry Smith, which was the first to arrive here after the grant was made to Penn. Certain it is that Markham was in New York about June 15, 1681,(79*) and previous to the 21st of that month he had presented his commission to the authorities at New York, for on that date the Governor and Council issued a proclamation announcing the royal grant and commanding all persons to recognize Markham as Governor of Pennsylvania. On August 3d following he was at Upland and had assumed the reins of power on the Delaware, for on the date last mentioned his Council took and subscribed to the oath of office. The members of the Governor’s Council were Robert Wade, Morgan Drewt, William Woodmanse, William Warner, Thomas Fairman, James Sandilands, William Clayton, Otto Ernst Cock, and Lasse Cock, almost every one residents of the territory now Delaware County. “The proceedings of their first session were kept secret and little is known, except that the government of the new province was established with the capital at Upland, where we find Markham holding court on the 30th of November, 1681.”(80*) Markham made his residence at the Essex House,(81*) and there the first summons from Penn, calling a General Assembly, were written and proclaimed, for, as is well known, the proprietary was Wade’s guest on his first coming to the province in 1682.

* Dr. Smith (“History of Delaware County,” page 9.) states that from the deposition of Catelina Tricho, said to have been the first white woman at Albany, the colonists who located at and built Fort Nassau in 1624 were accompanied by females. The curious document (see “Documentary History of New York,” vol. iii. page 49) is as follows:
     “NEW YORK, February 14, 1684-5.
     “The deposition of Catelina Tricho, aged fouer score yeares or thereabouts, taken before the right honoble Collo. Thomas, Lent and Governour under his Royll highss James, Duke of York and Albany, etc., of N. York and its Dependencyes in America, who saith and declares in the pr’sens of God as followeth:
     “That she came to this Province either in the year one thousand six hundred and twenty-three or twenty-loner, to the best of her rememberance, an that fouer women came along with her in the same shipp, in which the Governor, Arien Jorissen, came also over, which fouer women were married at Sea, and that they and their husbands stayed about three weeks at this place, and then they with eight seamen more went in a vessel by ordrs of the Dutch Governor to Delaware river and there settled. This I Certifie under my hand and ye Seale of this province.
     “THO. DONGAN.”

** “Voyages of Devries.” New York Historical Society Collection (new series), vol. iii. page 23.

*** Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. v. p. 236.

(4*) “The Founding of New Sweden” (Penn. Mag. of History, vol. iii, p. 279) is a mine of interesting information on the early settlements of the Delaware River.

(5*) “The Founding of New Sweden,” by Professor C.T. Odhner. Translated by Professor G.B. Keen, Penn. Mag. of History, vol. iii. p. 396.

(6*) This statement, which appears from Swedish documents, is in marked contrast to the assertion of Director Kieft, whose letter, dated in the latter part of May, 1640 (“New York Colonial Documents,” vol. i. p 593), states, “The Swedes in the South River were resolved to move off and to come here” (New York). “A day before their departure a ship arrived with a reinforcement.”

(7*) Winthrop, vol. ii. p. 76.

(8*) Penna. Archives, 2d series, p. 780, where, is given Queen Christina’s order of Aug. 11, 1653, directing that Henry D’Oregrund, a malefactor under sentence of death, be sent to New Sweden.

(9*) Acrelius, “History of New Sweden,” p. 41.

(10*) Professor G.B. Keen’s summary of Printz’s voyage, in “Descendants of Joran Kyn,” Penna. Mag. of History, vol. ii. p. 326.

(11*) Campanius, “History of New Sweden,” p. 79.

(12*) Hudde’s Report, Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. v. p. 104.

(13*) Campanius, “New Sweden,” p. 73.

(14*) Penna. Mag. of History, vol. vii. p. 277.

(15*) Count Oxenstierna’s reply to Printz, Penna. Mag. of History, vol. vii. p. 283. In fact, we have reason to believe that during all our colonial history criminals were sent to the American plantations. In a series of articles on crimes and criminals, published in the New Castle (England) Weekly Chronicle, in 1883, the author says, “The statute of 39 Elizabeth was converted by James I. into an Act of Transportation to America, by a letter to the treasurer and council of Virginia, in the year 1619, commanding them to send 100 dissolute persons to Virginia, which the Knight Marshall would deliver to them for the purpose.’ Transportation is not distinctly mentioned by any English statute prior to Charles II., which gives a power to the judges, at their discretion, ‘either to execute or transport to America for life the mosstroopers of Cumberland.’ This mode of punishment, however, was not commonly practiced until the reign of George I. The courts were then, by Act of Parliament, allowed a discretionary power to order felons to be transported to the American plantations. This lasted from 1718 to the declaration of American independence in 1776.” The importation of criminals into this colony in the character of redemption servants, who were purchased from the officers in England, became such a public evil that on Feb. 14, 1729-30, the General Assembly by statute forbade masters of vessels, under heavy fines, landing such persons in the province, and extended the penalties to merchant who should import, sell, or dispose of such convicts in the province in violation of the act.

(16*) Campanius, “New Sweden,” p. 73.

(17*) Printz’s Report, Penn. Mag. of Hist., Vol. vii. p. 272.

(18*) Campanius, p. 81. of course the statement applies to the first mill run by water. We know, from Printz’s report, that a windmill had preceded it.

(19*) Record of Upland Court, p. 88.

(20*) “A Walk to Darby,” Penn. Mag. of Hist., vol. iii. p. 262.

(21*) Report for 1647, Penn. Mag. of Hist., vol. vii p. 274.

(22*) Penn. Mag. of Hist., vol. vii. P. 279.

(23*) Deposition of John Thickpenny, “New Haven Colonial Records,” vol. i. pp. 97-99.

(24*) John Printz was well educated, and after he entered military life he rose rapidly during the Prussian and German war. In 1638 he was promoted lieutenant-colonel of West Götha Cavalry. In 1640 he shamefully and disgracefully surrendered the fortress of Chemnitz, and returned to Stockholm without the consent of the field-marshal. He was put under arrest, tried, and broken of his rank in the army. He was subsequently (Aug. 16, 1642) appointed Governor of New Sweden. On his return to the Old World he was made a general, and in 1658, Governor of the district of Jonkoping. He died in 1663, leaving no male issue to succeed to the title conferred on him in 1642.

(25*) Hudde’s Report, Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. v. p. 115.

(26*) Acrelius, “New Sweden,” p. 63.

(27*) Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. v. p. 253.

(28*) Campanius, p.78.

(29*) Hazard’s Annals, p. 168.

(30*) Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. v. p. 224.

(31*) Acrelius, “Hist. of New Sweden,” p. 76.

(32*) Campanius, “New Sweden,” pp. 85, 86. Smith, in his “History of New Jersey,” page 34, says the Dutch “destroyed New Gottenburg, with such houses as are without the fort, plundering the inhabitants of what they had, and killing their cattle.” From his account it also appears that the fort at Tinicum was defended fourteen days, and that the pillaging took place before the fort was surrendered. The statements of both Campanius and Smith were doubtless based on traditionary recitals, which, in descending from one generation to another, had confused two separate matters into one. Campanius’ work was not published until 1702, nearly forty years after the circumstances narrated took place, while that of Smith was issued long subsequent to that date. To show how soon confusion may take place in matters connected with historical events it is only necessary to cite “An Account of the Seditious False Konigsrnack in New Sweden” (Penn. Mag. of Hist., vol. vii. p. 219), where is given, by an unknown writer, in 1683, an account of the attempted insurrection of the Long Fin, which occurred in 1669. The writer states, “These are the particulars which I received from the oldest Swedes,” and yet he relates that the conspirators ” went to Philadelphia and bought powder, balls, shot, lead, and so forth,” nearly fourteen years before that city had an existence.

(33*) Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. v. p. 227.

(34*) Journal of a Voyage to New York in 1679-80. Memoirs of the Long Island Hist. Soc., vol. i. p. 177.

(35*) Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. vii. p. 487.

(36*) lb., 496.

(37*) Acrelius, “Hist. of New Sweden,” p. 90. Vincent says (Hist. of State of Delaware, vol. i. p. 276) that the passengers and cargo of the “Mercury” were landed at Marcus Hook. On what authority that statement is based is not given.

(38*) Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. vii. p. 511.

(39*) lb., p. 598.

(40*) Ib., p. 628.

(41*) Acrelius, “Hist. of New Sweden,” p. 96.

(42*) Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. vii. p. 531.

(43*) As to the latter statement, see Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. vii. p. 716.

(44*) lb., vol. v. p. 300.

(45*) lb., vol. vii. p. 634.

(46*) lb., 5th series, vol. vii. p. 668.

(47*) lb., 669.

(48*) Johnson’s “History of Cecil County, Md.,” pp.80-130.

(49*) Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. vii. p. 670.

(50*) lb., 671.

(51*) lb., 672.

(52*) Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. vii. p. 680.

(53*) Hazard’s Annals, p. 332.

(54*) Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. v. p. 470.

(55*) lb., vol. vii. p. 716.

(56*) Old style; England at that time had not accepted the modern computation of time.

(57*) Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. v. pp. 507-512.

(58*) lb., 513.

(59*) Hazard’s Register, vol. i. p. 36; Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. v. p. 536.

(60*) Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. v. pp. 536, 537.

(61*) Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. v. p. 550.

(62*) 2 lb., 541.

(63*) N.Y. Colonial Doc., vol. iii. p. 345; Vincent’s fist, of Del., p. 432.

(64*) Gordon’s “History of Pennsylvania,” p. 30.

(65*) Appendix B, Duke’s Book of Laws, p. 447.

(66*) Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. v. p. 610.

(67*) Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. vii. p. 756.

(68*) lb., vol. v. pp. 605-607.

(69*) lb., pp. 611, 612.

(70*) lb., p. 613.

(71*) 1b., 628.

(72*) Penna. Mag. of Hist., vol. vi. p. 429.

(73*) Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. v. p. 636.

(74*) Recital in Deed from Jonathan Dickinson Sargeant and William Rotch Wister, trustees under the will of Albanus C. Logan, deceased, to John M. Broomall, Deed Book E, No. 2, page 673, etc., Recorder’s office, Media, Pa. The date of the conveyance to Wade is of record, 1673, but that there is a clerical error is evident from the following letter, which is published in “A Further Account of New Jersey, in an Abstract of Letters written from thence by Several Inhabitants there Resident. London, Printed in the year 1676,” pages 6 and 7:
     “DEAR AND LOVING WIFE
     “Having now an opportunity to let thee understand of my welfare, through the great mercy of God &c, and as to the other place it is as good or healthful place as man can desire to live in, and here is plenty enough of all provisions, and good English Wheat and Mault, plenty of Fish and Fowl; Indeed here is no want of anything, but honest people to Inhabit it; there is Land enough purchased of the Indians for ten times so many as we were and these Indians here are very quiet and Peacable Indians; In New England they are at Wars with the Indians, and the news is, they have cut off a great many of them; but in this place, the Lord is making way to exalt his name and truth; for it is said by those that live here abouts, that within these few years, here were five Indians for one now, and these that be are very willing to sell their land to the English; and had John Fenwick done wisely, we had not been disperst, but I hope it may all work for the best; And dear Wife, I hope thou will be well satisfied to come and live here, where we may live very quietly and Peacably, where we shall have no vexation, nor tearing nor rending what we have from us; I have bought a plantation by the advice and consent of some Friends, upon which there is a very good house, a great deal of Out-housing, Orchards, and Gardens ready planted, and well-fenced; I do intend (if God permit) after the Harvest is gotten in, to come to England for thee, and I hope thou wilt be willing to come, seeing here are several of thy Neighbours whom thou knowest well, as Richard Guy and his Wife and William Hancock and his Wife, and many others; and here is an honest Friend with me, that would have a fourth part of the Land &c., And so hoping these lines may find thee in good health, as through the great mercy and goodness of God I have never been better in health.
     “My love to Richard Green, he desired me to send him some account of the Country, which to the best of my knowledge I will do; as to Buildings here is little until more People come over, for the Inhabitants that were here did generally Build their own houses, though after a mean manner, for they fell down Trees, and split them in Parts, and so make up a sorry House, &c. But here is Earth enough that will make very good Bricks, and Stone enough of several sorts, as four that will stroke fire, which may make millstones, or what a man will put them to; they make their Lime of oyster shells; here is a good Land and a Healthful and Plentiful Country, here is no Tanner in all the River, but some Tann their Hides themselves, after their own manner. Here is good Oak enough, here is Hemp and Flax, good Water, and the Ground will bear anything that Groweth in England, and with less Pains and trouble; with my dear Love to thee I rest thy loving Husband.
     “ROBERT WADE.
     “Delaware River, the place called Upland, the 2d of the 2d month, 1675.”

(75*) In “A Journal of a Voyage to New York in 1679-80,” Memoirs of Long Island Historical Society, vol. i. p. 183, it is recorded: “It was late before we left here and we therefore had time to look around a little and see the remains of the residence of Madame Popegay, who had her dwelling here when she left Tinekonk.” The diary the preceding day mentions that Robert Wade had brought the travelers to Upland after dark, and “we went to the house of the Quaker who had brought us down.” So that there can be no doubt that the Essex House was never owned by Mrs. Pappegoya.

(76*) “Journal of a Voyage to New York in 1679-80.”. Memoirs of Long Island Historical Society, vol. i. p. 183.

(77*) Smith’s “History of the Province of Pennsylvania.” Hazard’s Register, vol. vi. p. 182.

(78*) Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. iii. p. 783.

(79*) A letter to William Penn from New York, dated June 25, 1681, says, “This is to acquaint thee that about ten daies since here arrived Francis Richardson with thy Deputy.”- Penn. Mag. of Hist., vol. vi. p. 175.

Source:  Page(s) 2-15, History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, by Henry Graham Ashmead, Philadelphia: L.H. Everts & Co. 1884

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