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CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
FROM THE BOOKS OF
GEORGE MORGAN WELCH '03 COLONEL Judge Advocate General's Department Army of the United States
Cornell University Library F 172S8 T94
Some records of Sussex County, Delaware.
olin 3 1924 028 865 520
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Cornell University Library
The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text.
http://archive.org/details/cu31924028865520
ERECTED BY THE STATE OF DELAWARE TO COMMEMORATE THE SETTLEMENT, `ON THIS SPOT, OF THE FIRST DUTCH COLONY, UNDER DE VRIES, A. D. 1631.
HERE WAS THE CRADLING OF A STATE.
"THAY DELAWARE EXISTS AS .A, SEPARATE COMMONWEALTH IS QUE TO. THIS COLONY." BANCROF YE
SOME RECORDS
OF
SUSSEX COUNTY DELAWARE
COMPILED BY
C. H. B. TURNER LEWES, DELAWARE
PHILADELPHIA ALLEN, LANE & SCOTT 1 1909 11 1
14075603 ×
PREFACE.
SOME of the records in this book have been published before, but in a form inaccessible to most people.
Previous to the settlement of the dispute between Lord Baltimore and Penn Sussex County was only 30 miles long and 12 miles wide. That is the portion referred to in these records.
I am deeply indebted to the Rev. Sadler Phillips, Chaplain to the Bishop of London, and the Rev. and Mrs. P. T. Mignot of Guernsey for many kindnesses shown me when searching for records in Europe.
To Mr. William M. Marines' " Bombardment of Lewes," I owe most of my information about that important event.
C. H. B. T.
LEWES, DEL., November 5, 1909.
SOME RECORDS OF SUSSEX COUNTY.
"There is probably no State in the Union where one would find less material for writing its history than in Delaware," says the American Historical Association in its report for 1906.
Let one attempt to write the history of any portion of Delaware and the statement of the American Historical Association will be found only too true.
Where Lewes now stands the Indians had a village called Sikoness, or Sikeoyness. We can imagine the astonishment of the savages as on August 28th, 1609, Henry Hudson sailed into the bay opposite the village.
From that time until 1631, when the expedition called Devries' expedition sailed into what is now called Delaware Bay and planted the Colony on a point of land above Lewes, which the colonists called Swaanendael, the Indians saw very few, if any, white persons.
The VanRenssalaer Bowier papers give us some account of the doings at Swaanendael until the colonists were mas- sacred by the Indians. It is as follows :---
"With the de Walvis, they, in 1631, took possession of the bay of the South River in New Netherland, occupying the place of their colony with twenty-eight persons engaged in whaling and farming, and made suitable fortifications, so that in July of the same year their cows calved and their lands were seeded and covered with a fine crop, until finally by the error of their Commis all the people and the animals were lamentably killed, whereby they suffered incalculable damage, which damage the remonstrants attempted to repair in the year 1632 with the former ship den Walvis and besought the Com- pany to lend a helping hand, who neither by word or deed would render any assistance."
Samuel Godjn, Patroon of Swaandael, sold out to the West India Company, July, 1634.
There had been considerable friction between Kilian* and the West India Company, because Kilian wanted colonists to till the land, and the West India Company were opposed to having the land cleared and settled, as it caused a scarcity of fur-bearing animals.
* Van Renssalaer.
2
SOME RECORDS OF SUSSEX COUNTY.
The VanRenssalaer Bowier papers say :-
"During the two years when the late Mr. Godijn and his people were trading in Swanendael, the Company received from the South River, through their servants, a no less quantity of skins than in former or later years, but he obtained his furs in addition to these by bartering with other tribes.
"This caused so much jealousy that the Company sent a Commis there, trading close by the people of Godijn, deprived him in one year of over 500 skins in Swanendael alone."
Again Kiliaen VanRenssalaer says: "We are trying to populate the land and in time to spread the teaching of the Holy Gospel by many people, while they (the West India Company), on the contrary, employing only a few people, look solely for the profits of the fur trade."
The Swedes do not seem to have attempted to colonize what is now Sussex County.
Secretary Van Tienhoven, writing from The Hague, Feb- ruary 22d, 1650, says: "The further progress of the Swedes could be prevented and neutralized by planting a Colonie at Swaanendael, otherwise called the Whorekil, on the West side of the Bay."
And he also says: "Send a clergyman, or, in his place provisionally, a Comforter of the Sick, who could also act as Schoolmaster."
While records are lacking that would tell us many things to the credit of the Dutch, the above record sets forth in a few words that they had a care for men's souls, as well as for their minds and bodies.
The Hoorn Kil, the name given these parts by the Dutch settlers, unfortunately spelled Horekil, Whorekill, and so many other ways, suggests the love of David Pietersen de Vries for his native place the municipality of Hoorn.
Vice-Director Alrichs, writing to Amsterdam, Holland, from New Amstel, on the South River, August 13th, 1657, says: "I have already stated that there is a fine and excellent country called the Whorekil, abounding very much in wild animals, birds, fish, &c., and the land is so good and fertile that the like is nowhere to be found. It lies at the entrance of the Bay, about two leagues up from Cape Henlopen." .
Lord Baltimore's people were giving the Dutch on the South River much uneasiness by their claims to all the territory occupied by the Dutch, from New Amstel to the Whore Kil.
3
CIVIL RECORDS.
The Marylanders were threatening New Amstel and the Whore-Kil; New Amstel, being the more important place, the Dutch "did resolve to quit the Whore-Kill, thinking it better to quitt that place then to run the hazard of weak- ening New Amstell. The English then came out of Mary- land, from a part now called Somersett County and drew neere the Whorekill, tradeing with the Indians. Where- upon it was reported that the said English men began to build and settle in that part of the country.
"A Commander and sixteen men were sent to the Whore- kill to take possession againe, but another 'resolucôn' was taken a short time after to call the said soldiers back, and soe the Whorekill was left againe.
"There was likewise a boate dispatched to the Whorekill and there plundered and tooke possession of all effects be- longing to the Citty of Amsterdam, as alsoe what belonged to the Quaking Society of Plockhoy to a very naile, ac- cording to the letter written by one of that company to the City of Amsterdam, in which letter complaint was made that the Indians at the Whorekill had declared they never sold the Dutch any land to inhabitt."
The Dutch placed buoys in the Bay, 1658. The same year the Whore Kil was annexed to New Amstel.
In 1657 the Indians near Lewes, or the Whore Kil, had captured some shipwrecked English.
Word was sent to Vice-Director Alrichs at New Amstel. In a letter from Alrichs to Mr. Petrus Stuyvesant, Director- General of New Netherland, dated Fort New Amstel, Oc- tober 29th, 1657, he says: "Since writing the foregoing I have tried in several ways, as for instance dispatching first Capt. Flaman, to go to the Horekil, to release the English, who were shipwrecked there with two boats, but he, Flaman, has come back, without having accomplished anything on account of the loss of an anchor; I then have sent Michiel * * * there, who, after an absence of 14 days ransomed the remaining Englishmen from the Indians and brought them here together * * to the number of 14."
One of the earliest settlers in the Whore Kil was Hal- manius Frederick Wiltbank, to whom was granted 800 acres of land, July 28th, 1676. There were grants to others at the same date: Henry Stricker, Timothy Love, (Re- hoboth Creeke), Randall Reveille, John King, Robert Winder,
4
SOME RECORDS OF SUSSEX COUNTY.
Daniel Harte, John Roods (Roads), Daniel Brown, Alex- ander Molestine, Abraham Clemmy, and Otto Wolgast.
As we shall see later Wiltbank played a more important part in the history of Lewes than did the others named above.
Order Appointing a day of General Fasting and Prayer: "HONORABLE, DEAR, FAITHFUL
"Although the most merciful God, rich in grace and compassion, hath, notwithstanding our unworthiness, watched over us hitherto and daily gives us abundant cause to proclaim His praise and to bless His august name for the innumerable benefits and favors ex- hibited from time to time, in granting peace and quiet both with our neighbouring Christian nations and the Indians, the natives of the country, as well as in bestowing a bountiful harvest, having certainly blessed our basket of bread and staff of life, wherein His goodness and beneficence are clearly manifest.
"Yet, considering that the righteous God hath visited many and divers inhabitants of this Province, not only this summer, with pain- ful and long, lingering sickness, but, moreover, also, that His kindled anger and uplifted hand threaten with many and divers punishments, especially with a devastating Indian war, which is no other than a just punishment and visitation of our God for our enormous sins of unbelief, dilatoriness in God's service, blaspheming His holy name, desecrating the Sabbath, drunkenness, lasciviousness, whoredom, hate, envy, lies, fraud, luxury, abuse of God's gifts, and many other iniquities. And because we run counter to God in our sins, God, in His threatenings will oppose us with punishments, unless we turn to Him, (whom, in our iniquities we have abandoned) in sincere humility and true contrition of heart that He may turn aside His wrath from us, and assist and bless us with His favor, therefore, we have considered it necessary, to that end, to proclaim Wednesday, the 15th October of the current year, a day of Universal Fasting and Prayer, and, accordingly, notify and command all our officers and subjects that they prepare themselves on the aforesaid day to appear, at the time aforesaid, with changed heart, at the usual place in the usual place in the general meeting, not only to hear God's word, but also, unanimously, with an humble and penitent heart, solemnly to call on the Lord's name that it may please His Divine Majesty to remove from our road His just plagues, wherewith we are already stricken, and to divert His rod, which flourishes over us, and to pour down His wrath upon the Heathen who know not His name; to take this budding Province into His fatherly pro- tection; to maintain it against the efforts of all evil-minded men who seek its ruin; merciful to visit the inhabitants of this Province with corporeal and spiritual blessings, that the Word of Truth may be proclaimed and spread among many people, and that their rulers may be as lights among this evil and perverse generation; that to this end God may vouchsafe to send forth faithful laborers into His harvest to proclaim unto Jacob his sins and unto Israel his trans- gressions; particularly that God may be pleased to endow our Magis- trates and regents of this land with understanding, wisdom, fore-
5
CIVIL RECORDS.
sight and godliness, that they may resolve, design and valiantly execute whatsoever may be of service to the happiness of the country and welfare of the inhabitants both in body and soul. In order that it may the better be put into practice, we interdict and forbid, during divine service on the day aforesaid, all exercises and games of tennis, ball-playing, hunting, fishing, ploughing, sowing, and, moreover, all other unlawful practices, such as dice, drunkenness, on pain of the corporeal correction and punishment thereunto al- ready affixed; in like manner are all servants of the Divine Word, within our government, hereby admonished to direct their preaching and prayers to this end.
"Thus done and concluded in our Council, in Fort Amsterdam, in New Netherland, the 30th September, 1659.
"Signed P. STUYVESANT "C. VAN RUYVEN, Secretary.
"Delivered the writing to Domine Welius on the 10th of this October, 1659."
At this date Lewes, or the Hoorn Kil, was part of New Netherland, and the inhabitants were obliged to observe this, the first Fast Day, of which there is any record.
October 16th, 1659, Director Alrichs was made very angry by a statement of two of the Commissioners of the Director General of New Netherland, that the Fort at the Horekil or Sikonesse was "apparently built more for private designs than for the good of the Country."
Alrichs said: "We demand hereby further explanation and interpretation of these words, for it will not do to blurt out every thing bad and to make honest people suspected by their Masters and Principals without foundation and reason.
We say we could not do else, but what we have done until now, 'nor that we know to have promised the recall of the garrison from the Horekil, as your Honors say,' but only of a few men, according to your Honor's advice, who were really ordered up, but afterwards remained for some reason there."
At a court-martial held in New Amstel November 3d, 1659, to try one Samuel, a Corporal, who " while very drunk did not obey the order to go into arrest, because he had beaten his own wife, whereupon the Lieutenant struck him with his ratan, Samuel tore the same from his hand, the Lieutenant then drew his sword and struck him with the flat side of it and drove him, with the assistance of the Sergeant into the guardhouse. The Lieutenant said that he abused him meanwhile very much."
The Sheriff Van Sweeringen demanded that Samuel be shot.
6
SOME RECORDS OF SUSSEX COUNTY.
Samuel's wife came to Vice-Director Beekman, " saying that her husband had been condemned last Wednesday or the 5th inst. to be banished the Colony for 6 months, but that as yet he was kept in chains and that now another resolution had been taken to send him with three men to the Horekil, about which she was very grieved."
The conditions of the Horekil must have been quite differ- ent from the Lewes of the present day, for banishment to Lewes would be considered a reward rather than a punish- ment.
In 1660 the aforesaid Samuel was carried away from the Horekil by Michiel Carman, who got in trouble for the act.
A ferry between Cape May and Lewes was established very early in the history of the Horekil for we read, July, 1660, that "the sail-boat or ferry at the Horekil has been cast ashore and badly damaged; the garrison have sent me word, (Beekman, at New Amstel) several times and complained that they are victualled very sparingly."
Word was received by Beekman at New Amstel, 1662, "that the Horekil was to be abandoned and the City's soldiery here (Hoorn Kil) to be disbanded."
This did not happen, for the ship St. Jacob,* skipper Peter Luckassen, which arrived at New Amstel July 28th, 1663, with about sixty farm laborers and girls, had left "41 souls with their baggage and farm utensils at the Horekil."
1663. May 12th. Herry Petefar, Englishman, and Jacob Jansen, Dutch sailor, make a declaration at request of Peter Alrick, commander of the South River, that without his and the people's assistance no goods could have been saved from the bark "King Charles," stranded on April 12th, last, near Cape Hinlopen. Witness, Jurien Blanck and Michiel Taeleus.
The English having taken New Amsterdam, 1664, the "ffrygotts, the Guinney, and the William and Nicholas, and all the souldyers which are not in the Fort" were ordered to proceed to the Delaware as speedily as possible to capture the towns, &c. Thus ended the Dutch rule for some years.
The English granted Mr. Peter Alrichs "liberty to Trade or Trafficke either by himself, or his Deputy with the Indyans or any others, in or about Hoare Kills in Delaware Bay, for Skins, Peltry or what other Commodityes those parts shall afford."
* Plockhoy came in this ship. See page 34.
THE FORT.
7
CIVIL RECORDS.
In 1668 "there was no officer at ye Whore-Kill to keep the Peace."
William Douglass was sent to New Castle for trial. It was charged against him that he had "behaved himself ill at ye Whore-Kill." The Court ordered "hee shall bee Continued in Prison, untill farther Order, but that his Irons bee taken off. However if hee can give security not to returne to ye Whore-Kill &c hee may bee Discharg'd."
Very early in the history of Sussex County the inhabit- ants protested against tariff, and the Governor, Sir Francis Lovelace, and his Council ordered: "Whereas, I Received a Petition from ye Inhabitants at ye Whorekill in Delaware Bay wherein is represented unto me ye great Inconvenience of ye late Imposition of 10 P. Cent upon all furres & peltry exported from thence, The wch hath no way redounded to a publique good as was proposed, &c & I have thought fitt to remitt & abolish ye late ord' for custumes there October 22. 1670."
William Tom and Peter Alricks wrote Governor Lovelace, March 9th, 1679, of the "intention to build a blockhouse 40 foote square wth 4 att every for fflancks in the middle of the Towne the Fort not being fitt to be repaired and if repaired of noe defence lying at the extreme entrance of the town and noe garrison therefore wee beg that wee may libty to pull itt downe and make use of the tiles bricks and other materials for the use of o" new intended fortificacion wch if wee have noe occasion for, as wee fear wee shall, will be con- venient for a Courthouse notwithstanding."
This fort was destroyed before 1773, as an Act of the Assembly, for that year, for erecting a bridge over Lewes Creek, states that the bridge is " to begin at or near the place where the fort in the said town stood."
Trouble had been brewing between the people of Mary- land and the people of the Hore Kil for some time. It was the trouble about Lord Baltimore's grant, as to the boundaries North and East.
A letter from the Hore Kil, April 27th, 1672, signed by Will Tom, Pieter Alricks, Walt" Wharton, Ed. Cantwell, states: "This morning appeared before us Harmen Cornelius ent John hyshebon who informe that a certain prson by name Mr. Jenkins who rane into the Horekill and thus surveyed severall lands in the bay by p'tended commission from the Lord Baltimore threatening the Inhabitants that denyeth
8
SOME RECORDS OF SUSSEX COUNTY.
his power that they shall be sent for into Maryland there to be punished whether he has commission or noe is uncertayne these we thought fitt to acquaint yo" hon" to wayte yr hon's. further order."
Richard Perrot, of Virginia, asks for a grant of land on the Horekil.
" May it plese your Honour
"In May last my selfe with some other Gentlemen of Vergeney came over to Delieware to see the plase and liking the plase wee made choise of severall tractes of Land for our Selfes and nabores and had made bold to have given your Honor A visitt had not one of our Company falen ill so that wee implied Mr. Walter Wharton ffor to paten our Land: now may it plese your Honor about four days be- fore I came to seete [settle], the Mareland men Have sarvaed it again in the Lordes name I much fear it will disharten the Rest of the gentlemen from cuming vp at the falle and severall more of our nabores that would cume vp at the fale of the lefe very Honest-men and good House Keepers they desired me to take them vp sume Land, which I am doutfull to doue unless your Honor will bee plesed to give me permission for it.
"I dout not but to se the plase well seted in tow or three years at the * * * and a trade from London, the plase is good and helthy and wanteth nothing but peple I was in good Hopes I should have had the hapines to have got vp before your Honore left deliware but my hopes was in vaine I Hope your honor will bee plesed to honor me with A line or two whoe is youre faithful and obedient servant unknowne
"FROM THE HOREKIL "RICHARD PERROT.
"June 21, 1672."
This P. S. is added to the above letter.
"If your Honore plese to grant us all the land to us Vergenianes that lieth betwene the Horekil and the Mortherkill wee shall take spedey care fore the seating of it, as may bee expected at so great a distance when Layed out according to menes familise what good Land there may bee found in the distance. I know not at present wee Have A desire to be neare together as the plase will aforde I intend Ver- geney for sum occasione of bisnes and send up my sonn. "R. P.
"These ffor the Honored ffransis Loulis, Esqr. Governor and Cap- tain Generall of new Yorke pr with Care."
At a Council held at Fort James, New York, July 1st, 1672, among other cases to be tried was that of Daniel Brown who had been arrested at the Horekil and sent, prisoner, to New York.
The court ordered Daniel to enter into a Recognizance of £20 for his good behavior on his return to the Horekil, and that Daniel was to ask pardon of the Magistrates at the Horekil on his return.
9
CIVIL RECORDS.
At the same court this order was made:
"The Request of ye Magistrates at the Whore-Kill being taken into Considercon, wherein they desire reperacon of the Damages & Losses they susteyned by the Privateers the last Winter, they may be permitted to lay an Imposition upon strong liquors.
"It is allowed of & consented unto, and the Magistrates there have hereby power to levy & receive upon each Anchor of strong liquors spent of disposed of amongst them the value of foure Guildrs in wampm, & this to continue for one year only after this shall come to the said Magistrates hands, untill the Conveniency or Inconveniency thereof shall better appear."
One Jones with a number of companions from Maryland attacked the Whorekil and plundered the inhabitants. Word having been sent to the Governor at New York, Lovelace, he wrote the following letter to Governor Philip Calvert of Maryland, August 12th, 1672 :-
"SR. I thought it had been impossible now in these portending boysterous times, wherein all true hearted Englishmen are buckling on their Armors to vindicate their Honor & to assert ye imperial Interests of his Sacred Majesties Rights and Dominions, that now (without any just ground either given or prtended) such horrid Outrages should be committed on his Maties Leige subjects, under ye protection of his Royall Highness Authority as was exercized by one Jones, who wth a party as dissolute as himself, took ye paines to ride to ye Whore Kill, where in Derision and Contempt of the Dukes Authority bound ye Magistrates, and Inhabitants, despitefully treated them, rifled, and plundered them of their Goods; and when it was demanded what Authority, hee acted, answered in noe other language than a Cockt Pistol to his Breast, wch if it had spoke, had forever silenced him.
"I doe not remember I have heard of a greater Outrage & Riott committed on his Majesties Subjects in America, but once before in Maryland.
"Sr you cannot but imagine his Royall Highness, will not bee satis- fied wth those violent proceeding; in wch ye Indignity rebounds on him; Neither can you but believe, It is as easy an Undertaking for mee to retaliate the same Affront on Jones his Head and Accomplices as hee did to those indefensible Inhabitants.
"But I rather chuse to have first a more calme Redress from you, to whom I now appeale, and from whom may in Justice expect that Right in ye Castigation of Jones cum Socys, that yor Nature and Law has provided for: Otherwise I must applye myselfe to such other Remedyes as the Exigence of this Indignity shall perswade mee to. Thus leaving it to your Consideracion I still remaine
"Yor very humble servant "FR LOVELACE.
"FORT JAMES IN NEW YORK
"Ye 12th day August 1672."
Captain John Carr writes the following letter from New Castle to Gov. Lovelace :-
10
SOME RECORDS OF SUSSEX COUNTY.
"SIR :- According to your Honors orders we sent those papers to the Horekil by Mr. Wharton where they found noe reception. I need not give your Honor the reasons, for your Honor will find them in the papers inclosed taken by Mr. Wharton, the number of men and horse that came to the Horekil was about thirty, but they were sixty halfe way, where meeting Mr. Parrot goeing to Acamahe and soe to Virginia and understanding by him there was noe other forces from your Honor but the Inhabitants of the Horekil thirty horse was sent back to Maryland, this Mr. Parrot is a gentleman seated near Horekil by your Honor's patent, the Horekil boat is come heere with fower of the inhabitants and desiers to take a tract of land up the river near your Honors land, they say before they came from thence Harmanus and Sanders was returned from St. Maries, who brings news that in Maryland they are levieing a considerable force to bring this place &c. to their obedience. "JOHN CARR."
Answer to Carr's letter :-
"CAPT CARR :- The Lettr you sent by Express over Land came safe to my hands wth the enclosed Relacion and Papers concerning the Whore Kill, & the Marylanders forcible possessing themselves of the Place, as also of the Goods and Estates of some of the Inhabitants of wch wee had some Rumors before, but did not give much. Credit to it, supposing what was done before to bee the rash Action of some Private person, not thinking the Authority of Maryland would invade his Royall Highness Territoryes wch he hath been possest of for near 8 yeares &c. &c.
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