History of Delaware : 1609-1888, Part 15

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : L. J. Richards
Number of Pages: 776

USA > Delaware > History of Delaware : 1609-1888 > Part 15

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It must be confessed that if the Swedes on the Delaware were not a happy people it was their own fault. But they were happy. Come of a primitive race not yet spoiled by fashions, luxury. and the vices of civilization, and preferring agri- culture and the simplest arts of hu-bandry to trade. they found themselves in a new, beautiful, and fertile region, with the mildest of climates and th

watched as suspicions. That this ill usage took place, appears from 1. testimony given by Bysingh to those who had suffered, several of al. Wele preserved in the reginal. The Dutch have in vain endeavete ! defend their aggressions by allegations that the Swedish establishet . was by a private company, beran- the whode was undertaken nlpler t. authority and protection of the government."

One of these rettitoutes given by Bysingh is copied on the pero mu- the swel s Church at Wieraco , it is "a fasfort given by Bysit _!! Nicholas Mattan. ". I do by these presents certify, that the beast ! Aming my whole time, behaved as an hoto -t. Matthfut servant 4 1 crown. He was brought on board the enemy - vesel, and endured. 1 three weeks, with the other printers, contumirliens ishita. In ; satte true his house Was plundered, and his wife stigguided her . At ments."

SIR EDMUND PLOWDEN AND NEW ALBION.

Kindliest of soils. Government, the pressure of this reads like an idyl of Jean Paul, or one of the laws, the weight of taxation they scarcely knew, naive, charming poems of Bishop Torner. It is a picture, some parts of which have been delight- fully reproduced by th . poet John G. Whittier in his " Pennsylvania Pilgrim." and their relations were always plea-ant, friendly, and intimate with those savage tribes the terror of whose neighborhood drove the English into sudden atrocities and barbarities. Very few Swedles ever Fot a night's rest because of the Indian's war- whoop. They were a people of simple ways, in- dustrious, loyal, stealfast. In 1693 some of these Delaware Swedes wrote home for ministers, hook-, CHAPTER VI. and teachers. This letter says, " As to what con- verns our situation in this country, we are for the SIR EDMUND PLOW DEN AND NEW ALBION. most part husbandmen. We plow and sow and till the ground ; and as to our meat and drink, we live according to the old Swedish custom. This enuntry is very rich and fruitful, and here grow all sorts of grain in great plenty, so that we are richly supplied with meat and drink ; and we send out yearly to our neighbors on this continent and the neighboring islands bread, grain, flour, and oil. We have here also all sorts of beasts, fowls, and fishes. Our wives and daughters employ them- selves in spinning wool and flax and many of them in weaving ; so that we have great reason to thank the Almighty for his manifold mercies and bene- tits. God grant that we may also have good shepherds to ford us with his holy word and saera- ments. We live also in peace and friendship with one another, and the Indians have not molested us for many years. Further, since this country has ceased to be under the government of Sweden, we are bound to acknowledge and deelare for the sake of truth that we have been well and kindly treated, as well by the Dutch as by his Majesty the King of England, our gracious sovereign ; on the other hand, we, the Swedes, have been and -till are true to him in words and in deeds. We have always had over us good and gracions magis- trates ; and we live with one another in peace and quietude." 1

One of the missionaries sent over in response to the touching demand of which the above quoted pas-age is part, writing back to Sweden after his arrival, says that his congregation are rich, alding, " The country here is delightful, as it has always been described, and overflows with every ile-sing, so that the people live very well without bring compelled to too much or too severe labor. The taxes are very light ; the farmers, after their work is over, live as they do in Sweden, but are clothed as well as the respectable inhabitants of the towns. They have fresh meat and fish in abandance, and want nothing of what other countries produce; they have plenty of grain to make bread, and plenty of drink. There are no for in this country, but they all provide for demselves, for the land is rich and fruittil, and by man who will labor can suffer want." All

Heraus of the Swedes on the Delaware. By Rev. J. C Clay, D.D. 41

BEFORE the grant of the Province of Mary- land to Cecilius Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, in 1632, Sir Edmund Plowden, an Englishman of distinguished ancestry, with Sir John Lawrence and others, petitioned Charles the First for a grant of Long Island and thirty miles square, to be called Syon. This was modified in another pe- tition to the king, asking permission to occupy "an habitable and fruitful Island named Isle Plowden, otherwise Long Isle," " near the conti- nent of Virginia, about sixty leagues northwards from James City, withont the Bay of Chesapeake," and "forty leagues square of the adjoining continent, as in the na- ture of a County Pala- tine or body politiek, by the name of New Albion, to be held of your Majesty's Crown of Ireland, exempted from all appeal and subjeetion to the Gov- ernor and Company of Virginia." One month after the Province of Maryland was given to Ceeili- SIR EDMUND PLOWDEN. ns Calvert, King Charlesordered his -eeretary, John Coke, to request the Lords Justices of Ireland to grant to the petitioner- the island " between thirty- nine and forty degrees of latitude," and forty leagues adjacent on the adjoining continent, with the name of New Albion. This grant, which was enrolled in the city of Dublin, where Sir Edmund Plowden chose to have it registered, being a Peer of Ireland, conveyed to him the following uneer- tain-bounded territory ;

"Our saith bouil is Maryland north beutel, and beginnith at Aquata or the sonthermet or first cape of Delaware Bay in thirty- eight sel ferry natistes, and . vnuneth by, or through, or in luning Kont I-te. through thisspeack Bay to Passataway ; ineinding the taly of Powrotlathe river to the head of toucheront branch of that riser, being three bished miles due west and theme nethward to the how of Hnison's tiver titty borges, and so down laden's river to the Decat, sixty begge; and, then . at the deein and Iles der ree De la wir But. the south the My rian; mal son hundred and eighty mails, Then all Hulken's river. Ils, Long Ile, or Pamunke. and all I-les within tout learies of the said Protilice."'s

Shortly after New Albion was granted to Sir : Pennsyleuros ML jazire, Vol. vii , pige 3.6 & Force's Historien! Trusts, Vol. Ii page is.

HISTORY OF DELAWARE.

Edmund Plowden, Captain Thomas Young, a son of Gregory Young, of York, received a special commission from the king, which is printed in Rymer's " Fundera," and dated September 23, 1683, authorizing him to fit out armed vessels for the voyage to Virginia and adjacent parts ; to take possession in the king's name of all territory dis- covered, not yet inhabited by any Christian people ; to establish trading posts with sole right of trade, and to make such regulations and to appoint such officers as were necessary to estab- lish civil government.

In the spring of 1634 the exploring expedition departed, the lieutenant of which was Robert Evelyn, a nephew of Young; Evelyn's father, of Godstone, Surrey, having married Susan, the cap- tain's sister. Among other officers was a surgeon named Seott, and the cosmographer was Alexander Baker, of St. Holborn's Parish, Middlesex, de- seribed by Young as " skilful in mines and trying of metals." The great object of Captain Young was to ascend the Delaware River, which he called Charles, in compliment to the king, until he found a great lake, which was said to be its source, and then to find a Mediterranean Sea, which the Indians reported to be four days' journey beyond the mountains. He entered Delaware Bay on the 25th of July, 1634, and on the 29th of August had reached the Falls of the Delaware River. On the first of September Lieutenant Robert Evelyn was sent in the shallop " up to the rocks both to sound the water as he went and likewise to try whether the boats would pass the rocks or no." Meeting a trading vessel there from Man- hattan, Young ordered Evelyn to see the Hol- landers outside of Delaware Bay and then to go and discover along the Atlantic coast. He was sent as far as Ilud-on's River, and then returned to Young on the Delaware. Captain Young writes : " As soon as he was returned I sent him presently once more up to the falls, to try whether he could pa-s those rocks at a spring-tide, which before he could not do at a neap-tide; but it was then also impossible with any great boats, where- upon he returned back to me agayne." 1

After this expedition Young, still being in the Delaware River, where he traded with the Indians at Fort Eriwoneck. Robert Evelyn was sent with dispatches to England, where he remained until the fall of 1636, when he returned to Virginia and the next year was one of the councillors and sur- veyors of that colony. At this time George, his brother, came to Kent Island, in Maryland, as the agent of the London partners of William Clayborne.

When Robert Evelyn again returned to England he was induced, in 1641, to write a small quarto

1 Young's letter in Miss. Hist. Society Collections, Fourth Series, Vol. ix., page al.

with the title " Direction for Adventurers, andtr Description of the healthiest, pleasantest, rile- plantation of New Albion, in North Virginia a letter from Master Robert Eveline, who Is there many years." The description was in : form of a letter and addressed to Plowden's wis

Sir Edmund Plowden's first visit to Amet: was in 1642. Robert Evelyn, who had also ; turned on the 23d of June of the same year, w: commissioned by the authorities of Maryland ... take charge, and command, of all or any of t! English in, or near about, Piscataway, and k ;; train and master them."

During the year 1642 Plowden appears to list sailed up the Delaware and visited " the fort give over by Captain Young and Master Evelyn, which seems to have been in or near the Schuylki: Ilis residence was chietly in Northampton County Virginia," and he brought some servants of hi- family from England.+

: Rey Edward D. Neill, President of Macalester College, Minnes. who has given much thue and thought to early American history, his very interesting pajer on Sir Edmund Plowden, publishe | it 1 Pourghanez Maquina. Vol. Vi , Japeth, to which we are mili Dust of the farts embraced in this chapter, says : "Wlan Liel ni w in England in A. D 16 4, Elinind Plowden was living at Wanstan Ly . miran- happy, and cansing these who were in any way &b ] - leder : 1.4 him to feel most miserable. His harsh treatment of others, and ing der alle temper, made him a pest in the neighborhood. About thi. t . also, be left the church of Rome, and contornird to the thor het I latot His wife, Mabel, to whom he had been married twenty .. years, on account of his cruelty was at length obliged to make u pannt. The court sustained her, and Flowden was ordered to pay " expenses of suit and provide alimony. Another complaint was 1. 1. asamust him on May 3. 165>, for beating the wife of Rev. PL : Ohitield. Rector of Lasham, who was abunit to become a matter, Fruits Plowden and the clergy man had aragreed upon the terms of a vra lease. As late as November 14, In20, he manifested ' passport, ' 'obten Is ing." and persisted in contempt of cont, by refusing to pay las with alimony. It had become evident that it he should sail for Austa bisher nice would not be deployed."

wir Einund Plowden was the lined descendant of Edmund Pl. wit the learned and honoral de pleader, who died in list, whose commute Fire un law, Chief Justice Cole called " exquisite and elabor ?" " V. the year lotu, Howden was married to Mabel, daughter of Peter Me Her, of Warstead, Han-line. In the calendar of state Fair 16.4-15, there is a nature of five points and intention shilling- of - Data V assesseal upon sir Edmund's tenant- in Hampshire.

" In the manuscript ferenla of North, nyiton tomty, Virgini t. ATe some partienlars in the life of sir Dimund Plowdeo, Ku't. H gp ... when he sailed for Amina with a frp had be brought two beder introduction from Within Weldy of Loand. n. the admessed to " Im ('dey at his plantation in Maryland," he being at that time the. point coadjuter of the best Mission, and theother was ad dresseft head of the Mission, " To Ins Noble Reverend Mr. Andrew White i - att Marylatul." There is an auce unt azatet Plowden ly the the Northampton Count of thier lutehed pounds of tobacco fot t de positions, making roques, el. There are other brief mettersi; on the records showing ins resabener in the county, among och wirliet between "Capt. Thamna- Butlaisse phontnt cant Find #: den." slated Manh4. 1.42-41 -Templomd . M . V .

4 In the man- rift records of Maiylan I, in the Land of cat A: ojis, there is a th tice ot Margaret Bient, the matirite fracht 6 ernor Leonard Calvert, visitner the I-le et Rent, in the +h .p Bay, and impamed by Anne, a lathe hund-servant of Ser Edann. . den. In infi Nathan Pope jetstamped the Frost al tourt at Mat. to have three mand-servants of Sir Edmund Plowden delivered to s. that he could convey them to Sir Jimund in Virginia, on.he's 14:, Witham Iltonhead made vath letop the same court that is J 142, matterdane, Lomion, Jahe ami k.le anor stevenson und et wil si Mumund Plowden, Ku't, to wave him for tove you. Allen, in Inlawe Bos, and write to have fifty pounds tel. sunum, and they find themselves glutine, in January 1. hat, Hond's. of tobacco, due by Fre unt ut charmers atel phia. last summer for Ellen and Jane Stevenson, mand-servants of th Sir Edmund " ; and Je attached sur Dinaund Plow den's right . !! until the bill was pand. an Edmund afterwards sued his two h. .

SIR EDMUND PLOWDEN AND NEW ALBION.

John Printz, the third governor of New Sweden, of Maryland, which he. claimed were included in arrived on the 15th of February. 1643, at Fort christina on the Delaware. He appears to have resisted the claims of Plowden. In the " Re- mon-trance of New Netherlands," published in 1,50, is the following :

" We cannot omit to say that there has been here, both in the time of : motor Kieft and in that of General Stuyvesant, a certain Englishtitan . . call At himself sir Elmunud Plowden, and, styling bumwelt Earl "detinato of New Allon, pretend af that the country on the west site ! the North River as far as Vizimia, was his property midler a giant u Jutro, [Charles I ] King of England, but he remarked that he a uld have to misunderstanding with the Dutch, but was notch ofthe note i sti and bure a grudge against, John l'un, the swedish Governor in south livet, in consequence of reriving some alfronts which v. 1. :. Jag to read, but which he would take an opportunity of resetting and pay sing himself of the south River. "I

It appears by the statement of Charles Varlo? that Sir Edmund Plowden, with his wife and two children, came over to New Albion to enjoy his property. Finding that it was occupied, and claimed by the Swedes and Dutch, he took up his residence for six years in Northampton County, Virginia, and on Kent Island and other portions

ervants for one thousand pounds of tobacco for trespass for departing unLawfully out of his service in Virginia. Ellen stevenson atterwar married William Branthwaite, a prominent citizen of st. Mary's County, Maryland. Anne Fletcher, who had contracted with sir Edmund How den in England to serve as a waiting mand for his lady and daughters In New Albion, sued him for her wazes in February, 1of3, and, not biking the country, desired him to pay the expense of her transportation 1. The George Bux, about the same time, demanded of Sir Edmund one thousand pounds of tobacco " for prinse and physick laat somer for euro of Anne Fletcher, maid-servant to the sand sir Edward." Hand, sirl others, note a purchase, in 1643, of a halt tuterest in a bark, by sir klmund, which was then used by him.

The following interesting report of Sir Edmund Plowden is to be fand in the second report of John Printz, Governor of New Sweden, to the swedish West India Company, dated Christina, June 20, 1641:

"In my former communications concerning the English knight, I have mentioned how last year, in Virginia, he desired to sait with his prople, sixteen in number, in a barque, from Heckemak [ Acromack] to hikathans [or Kecoughtan, the present Hampton]; and when they raine to the Bay of Virginia, the captain who had previously conspired with the knight's people to kill hint) directed his course not to hthethan, tat to Cape Henry, passing which, they came to ab ile in the lugh sed calied Smith's Island, when they took counsel in what way they should f ut him to death, and thought it best not to slay him with their hands, lut to & t him, without food, or clothes, or arms, on the above-named sand, which was inhabited by no man or other animal save wolves and t-ury ; and this they dol. Nevertheless, two young noble retainers, who L ... | been brought up by the knight and who knew nothing of that plot, when they beheld this evil fortune of their lord, leaper 1 from the bargue Into the ocean, swam ashore, and remained with their master. the f urth day following, an English sloop stiled by Smith's Island, coming .. . love that the young men were able to had her, when the knight w.is Liarn aboard thalf dead and as bl k as the gromsh and conveyed to H. kemik, where he recovete 1. The knight's prople, however, arrived w th the barqite May o, lo13, at our Fort Elfsborg, and asked after ships :.. OM England. Herenyon I demanded their pass, and mquired from wience they mamie ; and as well as I perceived that they were not with a f1 for errand, I took them with ine tthungh with their consent, to ' hr .- tina, to bargain about flour and other provisions, and questioned Som until a small-servant (who had been the knight's wa-hop-wonen) afsend the truth and betrayed them. I at once cansel an inventory .. Is taken of their goods, in their presence, and hold the people iranere until the very English sloop which had roseund the knight Grand with a letter from hun concerning the matter, addressed not . no to me, but to all governors and commandants of the whole cost '} rida Thetempem I sinrendered to him the people, barque and . ... in partir accordance with the inventory, and he pad me 425 -der for my rspelers. The shirt of these trata de the knight has .1 . vermind. He himself is still in Virgini and gas he const castle pro-

" Io stod lestypes that come from thetive he grants tree commission to . . here in the river with the stooges; but I have that get permitted f them to pass, nor shall I do so until I receive under and com- . I to that effect from my must gracious queent, ber Royal Majesty of

: "Natute Displayed, " London, 1794, page 142, et seq

his grant. He brought over with him numerous servants and settlers, and went to great expense and labor, in endeavoring to establish his claims. He leased to Lord Mason 5,000 aeres, who was to settle it with 50 mica ; to Lerd Sherrord he leased 1000 acres, who was to settle it with 100 men : to SI Sir T. Dandy he Icased 1000 acres, who was to settle it with 100 men; to Mr. Heltonhead 5000 acres, who was tosettle it with 50 men : to Mr. C Haltenhead's brother buCy acres, who was to settle it with 50 men ; to Mr. Bowls 4090 aeres, who was to settle it with 40 men ; to C'ap- tain Wm. Clayborne 5000 acres, who was to settle it with 50 men, and to Mr Maskery 5000 acres, who was to SIR EDMUND PLOWDEN'S ARMS. settle it with 50 men.

According to Evelyn's account of New Albion, a splendid palatinate was projected-the banks of the Delaware were set off into manors -- all the earl's children received titles, and a chivalrie order was instituted under the imposing name of The Albion Knights of the Conversion of the twenty- three Kings. His grant as we have shown, em- braced all of the territory now comprised within New Jersey, regardless of the prior grant of a large portion thereof, to the New England Com- pany. all of Delaware, and parts of Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York. By the liberal grant which Plowden procured from his sympa- thetie monarch, he was invested with the title of Earl Palatine, which drew after it very great privileges to the grantee; for Bracton, " the anciente-t of lawyers," as Plantagenet calls him, defines an Earl Palatine to be one who has regal power in all things, save allegiance to the king. The first of the manors, ealled Watcessit, the car! reserved for himself. It was situated about the site of Salem, N. J., at the southern end of what Plantagenet calls "the mountless plain, which Master Evelin voucheth to be twenty miles broad and thirty long, and fitty miles washed by two fair navigable rivers ; of three hundred thousand acres fit to plow and sow all corn. tobacco and tlax and rice, the four staples of Albion." Three miles as was e-timated from Watcessit, lay the domain of " Lady Barbara, Barones of Richneck, the mirror of wit and beauty," adjoining Cotton River ( now Alloway's Creek), "so named of six hundred pounds of cotton wilde on tree growing." says our historian ; who further sets forth the value of the seat awarded to the Earl's favorite daughter, by adding that it was of " twenty-four miles compasse,

HISTORY OF DELAWARE.

of wood, huge timber trees, and two feet black secretary of estate or seal keeper, and twelve mould, much desired by the Virginians to plant the council of state, or upper house; and these. . tobacco." The manor of Kildorpy, at the falls of Trenton, was unappropriated. Bolalmanack, or Belvedere, on the Chesapeake shore of Delaware State, was given to Plantagenet under the lord's seal, as a reward for his pains in exploring the country.

How far this scheme was realized we cannot tell. It is said that the New Haven settlers at Salem were visited by Master Miles, who swore their officers to fealty to the Palatine before their expulsion by the Dutch and Swedes. When the Earl himself came to New Albion, in 1543, it is said he " marched, lodged and eabinned together among the Indians."

The Knights of the Conversion, composed originally of Sir Edmund Plowden, and the seven persons with whom he conferred, partook strongly of the fantastic spirit which marked the Hudi- brastie age. Whatever selfish motive might have influeneed them in reality in their organization, they professed to have at heart only a desire for the conversion of the twenty-three Indian tribes living within the limits of Sir Edmund's grant. Hence upon the badge of their order we find their own and Plowden's arms, supported by the right hand of an Indian kneeling, around which are twenty-two crowned heads; the whole being enriched by the legend Docebo iniqouos vias tuas, et impii ad te convertentur. The knight's device was a hand holding a crown upon the point of a dagger, above an open Bible; and the Palatine's arms, two flowers upon the points of an indented belt, with the legend virtus beat sie suos.

Of the mode intended to be pursued by these knights in proselyting the Indians, Plantagenet has left us a hint, for he tells us that any gentle- man who was out of employ, and not bent to labor, might come to New Albion "and live like a devout apostolique soldier, with the sword and the word, to civilize and convert' them to be his majesty's lieges, and by trading with them for furs, get his ten shillings a day," which he thought much better than contracting with the govern- ment at home " to kill Christians for five shillings a week."

But notwithstanding the " apostollie blows and knocks," which the Knights of the Conversion thus meditated for the good of their red brothers' souls, the Earl himself intended no such logic for his English subjects. Ile meant by an act of his parliament to require an observance of some of the fundamental creeds, but there was to be "no persecution to any dis-enting, and to all such as the Walloons free chapels." The government he had projected was, excepting his own exorbitant powers, as liberal as his church. Its officers were "the Lord, head governor, a deputy-governor.

five of them, were also a court of chancery." H lower house consisted of thirty burghers fro! chosen, who were to meet the lords in Parliamo annually on the tenth of November, to legi-le for the palatinate. Any lawsuit under fort shillings, or one hundred pounds of tobacco value, was to be " ended by the next justice at of shilling charge." The jurisdiction of the count; courts, consisted of four justices, and meeting ever two months, began at ten pounds sterling, or fifter :. hundred weight of tobacco; and the costs of h. case tried herein were to exceed four shilling -. Appeals lay from these courts first to chancery and then to parliament ; and our author conclude -

DOCEE

THE MEDAL AND RIBBON OF THE ALBION KNIGHTS.

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History of Delaware : 1609-1888, Part 15

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia : L. J. Richards Number of Pages: 776

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : L. J. Richards
Number of Pages: 776