USA > Delaware > Minutes of the Council of the Delaware state from 1776 to 1792, V 1 > Part 1
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39
Gc 975.1 D377p no.6,pt.1 1940041
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02254 3778
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
https://archive.org/details/minutesofcouncil01dela
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PAPERS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE.
Senate VI.
MINUTES
-OF-
THE COUNCIL
OF THE
DELAWARE STATE,
FROM 1776-1792
1776 TO 1792. 1 'ic Library
V./
MAR 2 3 1961 Dallas, Texas THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF DELAWARE, WILMINGTON. 1887.
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Delaware General Assembly Senate Minutes of the council of the Delaware State 1776 to 1792
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(Papers fof the Delaware Historical Society #6
1387 v. I & II
1940041
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. INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
Although the Swedes were not the original discoverers of the Delaware Bay and River, they were the first colonists who made a permanent settlement on its western shore. Henry Hudson, under a commission from the Dutch East India Company, having failed to find a nearer route to China by the Northern Seas, turned his course southward to explore the coast of North America. In the prosecution of this object, he sailed into the Delaware Bay, above Cape Henlo- pen, on the 28th of August, 1609, but, believing the navigation to be dangerous on account of sand-bars, did not go up the river. In the following month he . anchored off Manhattan Island, and subsequently ascended the river which still bears his name. In October, of the same year, he returned to Holland with . a report and chart of his discoveries. In the next year, 1610, some merchants of Amsterdam, acting as partners, freighted a ship and sent her to Manhattan to trade with the natives. This adventure proving profitable, they obtained from the States-General exclusive authority for four years to trade on the North River and its vicinity. In 1614, the Dutch built Fort Amsterdam, on the southern point · of Manhattan, and, at a later period, Fort Orange on an island near Albany. At these places they enjoyed a monopoly of trade with the Indians for several years. In 1621, the States of Holland granted a charter for twenty-four years to the West India Company, with exclusive powers and privileges, The business of the company was commercial. To successfully prosecute it, colonization was necessary. Hitherto the Dutch had only established trading-posts in America ; but from this time efforts were made to settle the country, both on the Hudson and the Delaware,* or South River, as it was then called. It was under the auspices of this Company that the first Dutch colonists landed on the shores of the Delaware, in 1623. : They came from Holland under the leadership of Cor- nelius May. They brought with them merchandise and the means of defense, and sailed up the river as far as Gloucester Point, New Jersey, about four miles
* So called in honor of the English peer of that name who entered the bay one year after its discovery by Hudson.
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south from Philadelphia. lIere May landed and built Fort Nassau. This ad- venture was not profitable. De Vries, it is conjectured, came over from Holland in the spring of 1631, with a ship and a yacht, laden with cattle, grain, seeds and *agricultural implements. His people settled near Cape Henlopen, on Lewes Creek, which he named Hoorn-kill, probably after Hoorn, a port in north Hol- * land. He built a trading-house, or fort, and leaving one of the emigrants in command returned home. This colony was destined to be of short duration. Soon after the departure of De Vries, a quarrel arose between the Dutch and the Indians, which speedily terminated in the slaughter of all the former, thirty-two in number. .
De Vries came over again in 1633, to see the charred remains of his fort on Lewes Creek and the bones of his murdered countrymen, and sailed up to Fort Nassau, only to find it in the possession of the natives, its former occupants having mostly removed over to Fort Amsterdam. Thus, it will be seen that from the date of Hudson's discovery, 1609, up to the time of De Vries' second visit, every attempt of the Dutch to plant a colony on the Delaware had ended in failure and disappointment. Their settlements on Manhattan Island, and on the North River, in the meantime, had been more prosperous, and continued to grow in population and wealth until all their possessions in America, called New Netherlands, were finally surrendered to the English, under the treaty between the States-General and England, of the 9th of February, 1674.
Gustavus Adolphus, the soldier-king of Sweden, and the champion of the Protestant cause in Europe, in the early part of the seventeenth century, had projected a plan of sending out a colony to America, which he did not live to carry into execution, having fallen in the battle of Lutzen, in 1632, in the zenith of his fame; but his distinguished Chancellor, Oxenstiern, faithful to the memory of his king, and having confidence in the success of the enterprise, pre- vailed on Queen Christina, the daughter of Gustavus, to give it her patronage. Peter Minuit, who had been Governor of New Amsterdam, and had lately quar- relled with the Dutch Company and been dismissed from his office, was selected to take charge of the expedition, and under his direction two vessels, the " Key of Calmar" and the " Griffin," were equipped for the service. They were stored with provisions, with arms and ammunition, and with merchandise for
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trade. They arrived in the early spring of 1638, and sailed up the Delaware. The colonists disembarked at "The Rocks," on Minquas Creek, where they at once erected a fort, naming it, in honor of their youthful Queen, Fort Christina.
By the public records at Stockholm, it appears that in 1640, several companies · of emigrants left Sweden for the new colony. One ship, called the Fredenburg, laden with men, cattle, and implements of husbandry, was licensed by the Swed- ish authorities to proceed to New Sweden, as they called the country on the west side of the Delaware. Peter Minuit, the first. Governor, died in 1641, and was succeeded by Hollendare, a native Swede and a soldier by profession, who was soon followed by John Printz, a lieutenant-colonel in the service of the Queen. Governor Printz came out with a little squadron of two ships of war and a transport, having on board soldiers and a large number of emigrants, and arrived at Christina on the 15th of February, 1643. In seeking a location for his colony he found a spot, a short distance above where Chester now stands, called by the Indians, Tenacong, since known as Tinicum, and, still later, as The Lazaretto. In his commission he was styled Governor of New Sweden. His instructions, dated at Stockholm, August 15, 1642, point out, in detail, his official duties. Among other things, he is directed :
" Ist. To promote, by the most zealous endeavors, a sincere piety towards Almighty God, in all respects. To maintain the public worship according to the doctrines and rites of the National Church. To support a proper ecclesiastical discipline. To urge instruction and virtuous education of youth and children. To administer justice according to Swedish laws in decision of controversies, and penalties on offenders-even capital, on atrocious malefactors-but not without a scrupulous examination, and the approbation of his counsellors, whom he was to choose amongst the wisest and best men in the colony. To preserve, so far as practicable, the manners and customs of Sweden, accommodating them, in some cases, to existing circumstances. To promote diligently all profitable branches of industry." Particular attention is to be given to agriculture, and to the raising of cattle and sheep. He is also to create a traffic for peltry, with the Indians, and to explore the country for valuable kinds of woods and metals.
"2d. Relating to the Dutch and English. With the first mentioned he was to cultivate a friendly intercourse, but positively to deny their pretended right to any
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part of the land on the west side of the river, purchased by the Swedes from the Indians; * * * * and he was authorized, if all friendly negotiation proved fruitless, to repel force by force." * "Some English fami- · lies, about sixty persons, having settled in the preceding year, (1641) on Ferken's Creek," (now Salem) * * " he may receive them under allegiance to the Swedish Crown, but rather by gentle means endeavor to effect their de- parture, as more expedient for the interest of her Majesty, and of the Company."
Soon after the arrival of Printz, the struggle began between the Dutch and the Swedes for the control of the territory on the west shore of the Delaware, from the Schuylkill to Cape Henlopen, the former claiming by right of discovery and settlement, the latter by settlement and purchase from the Indians. The Dutch also bought land from the natives and erected Fort Cassimir, at the place where New Castle now stands. Printz, apprehensive of trouble from this fort, and per- haps to solicit aid from the home government, returned to Sweden in 1652, or 1653, leaving his son-in-law in temporary command of the colony. Before his departure, Printz had built Fort Elfsborg, at the mouth of Salem Creek, on the east side of the Delaware, but this was abandoned, after the erection of Fort Cassi- mir, on the pretence that it was untenable on account of the mosquitoes, and was called, in ridicule, Fort Mosquito. He had also built Fort New Gottenburg at Tinicum.
Printz was succeeded by Governor Rising, who came over in a man-of-war, with a military engineer, officers, and soldiers. Rising captured Fort Cassimir, the garrison being unprepared for defense, and capitulating on favorable terms.
About the middle of August, 1655, Governor Peter Stuyvesant, with a squad- ron of seven ships and transports, containing six or seven hundred men, sailed from New Amsterdam and arrived in the Delaware, on the 30th. On the Ist of September he recaptured Fort Cassimir, and on the 14th took possession of Fort Christina, without opposition, the Swedes being practically defenseless against the superior forces of the Dutch. All the other possessions of the Swedes, on the Delaware, fell into the hands of the Dutch at this time, and thenceforth the Swedish colony existed only in history.
John Paul Jaquet was the first Dutch Governor on the Delaware. The country
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was divided into two colonies; one of these, including Christina, and extending from Christina to Bambo-Hook, was called the "Colony of the Company," and the other, extending north, up the Delaware, to the extent of the settlement, was called " The Colony of the City." Lands in the "Colony of the City," were . conveyed in Amsterdam, by the Burgomasters and Council; deeds for land in the Company's Colony were executed by directors and commissioners. Jacob Alrich, December 19, 1656, was appointed Governor of the City Colony, by the Burgomasters and Council, and fixed his residence at New Amstel .* October 28th, 1658, William Beekman was appointed Governor over the Company's Colony, to reside at Altona, now Wilmington. He administered the affairs of the Company, regulated the trade, levied the customs payable on all vessels arriving at New Amstel, and superintended the Swedes.
The number of Swedish families in the colony at this time was 130, as ascer- tained by an official return, and they made a majority of the whole population. Allowing six persons to a family, there were probably not more than 1200 Euro- , peans on the Delaware in 1659, including women and minors.
At first there was an attempt made to drive out the Swedes. Governor Stuy- vesant ordered them to remove, notwithstanding that some of them had been in the country for more than twenty years, had cleared lands, built houses and planted orchards. They were a quiet, peaceable and inoffensive people. The parent government had declined in military power and national influence, and was no longer able to aid them in regaining the control of the country. They refused to go, and Governor Beekman not having any inclination to enforce Stuyvesant's order, nothing more was heard of it. In a few years the Dutch and Swedes, by family alliances, formed one people. The language of the Dutch had such affin- ity to the Swedish, that their children soon understood the religious services in the Swedes' Church and finally joined in their worship. The Dutch had no regu- lar ministry among them. The Swedes, on the contrary, were careful to maintain public worship as regularly as their isolated situation would admit; and consti- tuting so much the larger portion of the population, especially about Christina, the rising generation of the Dutch lost their national language and character so entirely, that, in 1697, Rudman, who had just arrived from Sweden, as a mission-
* Now New Castle.
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ary, says: " We live scattered among the English, yet our language is preserved as pure as anywhere in Sweden." ( Ferris' Original Settlements on the Delaware, 110.)
On August 27, 1664, New Amsterdam was surrendered to the English, and the remainder of the New Netherlands was soon subjected to the same authority. Colonel Nicholls assumed the administration of the territory on the west side of the Delaware, as Governor, under the Duke of York, to whom it had been grant- ed.by Charles II. on March 12, 1664. The Dutch, in August, 1673, recaptured all the New Netherlands, and once more in possession of their old domain in America, reestablished the government under their own officers. But, in the following year, on the conclusion of the war between England and the States- General, by the treaty of Westminister, made February 19, 1674, the country was restored to the English.
On the 4th of March, 1680, Charles II. granted to William Penn the province of Pennsylvania, and on the 24th of August, in the same year, the Duke of York conveyed to Penn the " territories of Pennsylvania," or "the three lower counties on Delaware." Sir Edmund Andross was the last Governor, under the Duke of York, who exercised authority over Delaware, his administration ending on the establishment of the Proprietary Government. Courts had been established in each of the Counties, and the Governor, as the deputy of the Duke, issued patents for locating lands, and executed deeds.
Penn first landed at New Castle, on the 24th of October, 1682, and after formally taking possession of the country, proceeded to Upland, now Chester, and on the 4th of November summoned an Assembly, to consist of an equal number of members for the province and the three lower counties, according to the 16th article of the frame of government which had been made before his departure from England, with the approval of the authorities there. At this Assembly an act of union was passed, annexing the three lower counties, at their own request, to the province, in all matters of legislation. Also an act of settle- ment, confirming certain laws agreed on in England, with some alterations, was passed in form. The Dutch, Swedes, and other foreigners were then naturalized, and the Assembly adjourned, after a session of three days. The Legislature was composed of a Provincial Council and Assembly, called the General Assembly,
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the members of which were elected by the freemen of the Province and Territo- ries, three for each county for the Council, and nine for the Assembly. The counties were named Philadelphia, Bucks, and Chester; New Castle, Kent, and Sussex. The Governor and Provincial Council were to prepare and propose to the General Assembly all bills which they should jointly assent to, " not inconsistent with the powers granted by the King's letters patent to the Proprietary and Gov- ernor aforesaid."
Thus was instituted, under favorable auspices, the government of Penn.
In 1684, Governor Penn was compelled to return to England to look after his own and the interests of his infant colony, and delegated his powers for two years to a commission, of which Thomas Lloyd was President. This commission was afterwards renewed from time to time, as Penn did not revisit the Province until the autumn of 1699. In the meanwhile, dissensions took place between the Province and the Territories, growing out of the jealousies and differences of sentiment between them, which finally culminated in a separation.
The principal grievance of the Representatives of Delaware, as appears by' their protest, dated at Philadelphia, the first of the second month, 1691, seems to have been " the encroachments made upon their rights and privileges by the Province, in imposing officers upon them, without their consent or approbation." Later still, they complained of the burthens imposed upon them by the union with the Province, in that their part of the expenses of the government was greatly increased, without any corresponding benefit, and finally, after the rising of the General Assembly, on the 28th of October, 1701, the Province and Ter- ritories never again joined in acts of legislation. Penn endeavored to reconcile the opposing bodies, but without success, and at last consented to their separation, giving to each its own government, in case they could not agree. Penn sailed for England again at the close of the year 1701, having constituted Andrew Hamilton his deputy, and James Logan, secretary.
Hamilton died in December, 1702, and the greater part of his administration had been employed in endeavoring to effect a union between the Province and the Territories, under the new charter of privileges granted by Penn just before he left the country, and under which a way was opened for the return of the
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Territories; but the fatter still complained that they were outnumbered and out- voted in the Assembly. They expressed their willingness to reunite in legislation with the Province, under the new charter, dated at Philadelphia, the 28th of October, 1701, as they understood it: "That is to say : If the Province will join with us in representing the same by four members out of each county, so that our representatives may be equal in number, conform to the second article of the said charter, and the ancient use and practice of this government." The new charter had left the choice of union or separation open for three years, and this proposition of the Territories was made the 13th of April, 1704. The offer was refused by the Province.
As exhibiting the comparative wealth of the Territories with the Province, the sums raised by a tax of one penny in the pound, in the fifth year of the reign of William and Mary, for the support of the government, show no great disparity between the two. The amounts paid by the different counties were as follows:
Philadelphia, £ 314 II II
New Castle,
143 15 0 .
Sussex,
101 1 9
Kent, 88 2 10
Chester,
65 0 7
Bucks,
48 4 .1
John Evans, on the death of Hamilton, was appointed Deputy Governor by the Proprietor, with the Queen's royal approbation, and arrived in the Province, in December, 1703. Failing, like his predecessor, to effect a reunion, he, in the latter part of 1704, met the Assembly of the lower counties, at New Castle, which was the first to act independently of the Province, and thenceforward the separation was complete. The first law recorded under his administration was "An act about seven years possession," and was " enacted by the honorable John Evans, Esq., with Her Majesty's Royal approbation, Lieutenant-Governor of the Counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex, on Delaware, and Province of Pennsylvania, by and with the advice and consent of the freemen of the said Counties, in General Assembly met, and by the authority of the same." This was in 1704. And in this style the legislation of the Counties was conducted under successive Lieutenant-Governors, until John Penn was appointed “Gov-
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ernor and Commander-in-Chief of the Counties," &c., in 1773. The last act to which he gave his official approval, passed October 28, 1775, was a supplement to "An act for the more effectual ascertaining and fixing the limits of the several counties within this government, and for remedying some inconveniences that .may arise by the late establishment of the boundaries and divisional lines be- tween the same and Maryland.
The Colonial government ended with the Declaration of Independence by the Congress of the United States, on the fourth of July, 1776, and with remarkable promptitude a Convention was called and a State government organized under a Constitution entitled " The Constitution or System of Government, agreed to and resolved upon by the Representatives in full Convention of the Delaware State, formerly styled the Government of the Counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sus- sex, upon Delaware, the said Representatives being chosen by the Freemen of the said State for that express purpose." This instrument bears date the 20th of Sep- tember, 1776, and the first election for members of the General Assembly was held on the 21st of October following, in the court-houses in the several coun- ties. The first session of the new legislature met at "New Castle-on-Delaware,". October 28, 1776.
The Council of Delaware, the minutes of whose proceedings, from 1776 to 1792, are contained in the following pages, was a part of the legislative body of the State, corresponding to what is now called the Senate. It was organized under the Constitution of 1776, and continued in existence until the Constitution of 1792 went into operation. It was composed of nine members, three from each county, who were required to be freeholders and twenty-five years of age, and were elected by the people in such manner that one-third of the Council was elected every year. The other branch was called the House of Assembly, con- taining seven members from each county, elected annually. The Legislature was known as the General Assembly of Delaware. A President, or Chief Magis- trate, was chosen on joint ballot by both houses, and in case of his death, inabil- ity, or absence from the State, the Speaker of the Council exercised the powers of President until a new appointment by the General Assembly.
A Privy Council, of four members, was chosen by ballot, two by each House, whose duties appear to have been to advise with the President in relation to
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embodying the militia, calling special meetings of the General Assembly, in making appointments to certain offices, and in filling vacancies in others until a new election.
Some few omissions will be observed in the printed pages, which could not · be supplied with accuracy, owing to the accidental mutilation of the original manuscript journal, but enough has been preserved intact to form a record of his- torical value.
John McKinly was the first President chosen for the prescribed term of three years, from Feburary, 1777, but his administration was cut short by his capture by the British, at Wilmington, at the close of the battle of Brandywine, on the IIth of September, in the same year. On March 30, 1778, it is recorded, that, " Whereas his Excellency John McKinly, our worthy President, taken by the enemy in September last, still remains a prisoner, with little prospect of exchange shortly, and the Speaker of Council, who acts as Vice-President, requesting to be relieved from the duties of that office," etc., thereupon the two houses, on the next day, by joint ballot, elected Cæsar Rodney for the full term of three years. He was succeeded by John Dickinson, on November 13, 1781, who continued in office until his election as President of the Supreme Executive Council of Penn- sylvania. Governor Dickinson, as we learn from his valedictory to the legislature, had designed before this to remove his family to Wilmington and make that place his permanent residence. This purpose was afterwards carried out. He resided in Wilmington during the latter years of his life, and on his death was interred in the burial ground attached to the Friends' Meeting House, at the corner of 4th and Washington streets. The Vice-President filled the office until February Ist, 1783, when Nicholas Vandyke was elected, who served a full term, and was succeeded by Thomas Collins, on whose death, joshua Clayton was elected, and he was the last President or Governor under the Constitution of 1776.
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