USA > Delaware > History of Delaware : 1609-1888 > Part 16
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his exposition of the Earl's judiciary by saying : " Here are no jeofails nor demurers ; but a sum- mary hearing and a sheriff; and clerk of comt with small fees, and all for the most part in a few words."
After the dispersion of the New Albion subject- (as Plantagenet claims the settlers on Vareken- Kill, in 1642, to have been ) the land embraced in their purchase of the Indians was the cause of much controversy between the Dutch governor of New Ani-terdam, and the commissioners of tl .. united colonies of New England. On the 19th of September, 1650, all difficulties were apparently removed by a treaty concluded at Hartford, be- tween Stuyvesant and the said commissioners, by which it was agreed "to leave both parties in
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statu quo prias, to plead and improve their just charges, together with my perfect pedigree as is interests at Delaware, for planting or trading as drawne at my house.": they shall see cause." !
Having failed to induce the emigration of the "viscount>, barons, baronets, knights, gentlemen, merchants, adventurers and planters" to the hope- ful colony, and having studied minutely the char- acter and peculiarities of his twenty-three kings, and as Wateesit had fallen, and disgusted with the treachery of the men he had loaded with titles and promises, Sir Edmund Plowden determined to return to England. In the summer of 164> he visited Boston on his return home. Governor Winthrop in his journal writes: " Here, arrived one Sir Edmund Plowden who had been in Vir- ginia about seven [six] years. He came first with a patent of a County Palatine for Delaware Bay ; but wanting a pilot for that place, he went to Vir- ginia, and there having lost the estate he brought over, and all his people scattered from him ; he came hither to return to England for supply, in- tending to return and plant Delaware, if he could get sufficient strength to dispossess the Swedes."
Arriving in England, Plowden determined to make another effort to stock the country with settlers. Accordingly " A Description of the Province of New Albion " was issued, and on Tuesday, June 11, 1650, a pass was granted for about "seven-score persons, men, women and chil- dren to go to New Albion," but there is no evi- dence that the party ever sailed. The effort to awaken an interest in New Albion failed, and when the Dutch Commissioners, in the fall of 1659, visited Secretary Philip Calvert in Maryland, they argued that Lord Baltimore had no more right to the Delaware River than " Sir Edmund Plowden, in former time would make us believe he hath unto, when it was afterward did prove, and was found out that he only subuptiff and obreptiff hath something obtained to that purpose which was invalid." To this it was replied by Calvert " That Plowden had no commission, and lay in jail in England on account of his debts; that he had solicited a patent for Novum Albium from the king, but it was refu-ed him, and he thereupon applied to the Vice Roy of Ireland, from whom he had obtained a patent, but that it was of no value."
Plowden signed his will on the 29th of July, 1655, in which he styles himself "Sir Edmund Plowden, Lord Earl Palatinate, Governor and Cap- tain-General of New Albion in North America," and devised his possessions in America to his son Thomas, and made William Mason, Esq., of Gray's Inn, his trustee. He directed that his body should be buried in Ledbury Church in Salop, with " brasse plates of my eighteene children had affixed to the said monument at thirty or fourty powndes 1 " Reminiscencey of Old Gloucester, S. J., by Iate Mickle, page 23.
In his will which was proved July 27, 1659, he says he " resided six " years in New Albion. Sir Edmund Plowden's son Thomas died in 1698, and in his will which was signed on the 16th of May. and proved on the 10th of september, 1698, he bequeathed to his wife New Albion, the patent of which he said had been wrongfully detained for years to his great loss and hindrance, by his son- in-law Andrew Wall, of Ludshott, in the county of Southton.
Before the War for Independence Charles Varlo, of London, purchased one-third of the charter of New Albion, and spared no expense to secure the property, by registering his title deeds under the great seal of London. He also sent printed copies of the charter to be distributed among the inhabitants of East and West Jersey. After the close of the Revolution, in May, 1784, Mr. Varlo secured an appointment as governor of the province of New Albion, and embarked with his family for America. He took steps to reeover the estate by a suit in chancery, and pursued other measures but failed, and after the expenditure of much time and treasure-he returned to Europe. He there petitioned to the king but received no an- swer. He then applied to the treasury to secure compensation which was then usually paid to loyalist«, but he failed to obtain redress because there was no act of Parliament authorizing his special payment. He then sought the Prince of Wales to use his influence with the king to make some " restitution for the heavy losses I have had, in perusing an unconstitutional act, arising from a erowned act." In all these efforts Mr. Varlo failed, and upon the acknowledgment of the inde- pendence of the colonies as free and independent states, all the rights of the heirs of Sir Edmund Plowden were swallowed up by the occupants of the territory.
CHAPTER VIL.
DELAWARE UNDER THE DUTCH.
AFTER the conquest of the Swedish settlements on the Delaware, Director Stuyvesant left for New Amsterdam, leaving the administration of justice and the superintendente of public interests in the
: A writer in the first series, 4th volumino, of London Vita und Queries, assets "that Sir Edmund ned at Wan-trad, County of Southampton, passion of large estates in eleven parishes of England, and that : "il. of their parishes by his will, A De los, how lett nombrey (54) after, to be paid eight days after his despise, and date is to be buried in the chapel of the Flowdeus at Lashfary, in salog, and a stone month- nicht with an inscription in Mass bearing the name of his children. amol another with his correct pedigree, ay drawn out to his house ut
J Penus, trania Magazine, Vol. VIL, page [2.
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hands of John Paul Jacquet, who he afterwards confirmed as vice-director. Andries Hudde was made secretary and surveyor, and Elmerhuysen Klein counselor. These three officers, with two of the "mo-t expert freemen," were to form the Court of Civil Justice. Fort Casimir, now regaining its original name, was to be the seat of government. above which no trading vessels were to go, unless they received a permit. In the settlement of the country, the colonists were to concentrate then- selves in families of sixteen to twenty in number, and were to pay annually for their lands twelve stivers a morgen in lieu of tenths. The town lots were forty feet by fifty. and the street- from four to five rods in breadth.1 The Swedes were to be closely watched, and if any should be found disaffected, they were to be sent away "with all imaginable civility," and, if possible, he induced to come to Manhattan. The vice-director was also required to " maintain and protect the Reformed religion. as it is learned and taught in this country, in conform- ity to the Word of God and the Synod of Dord- recht, and to promote it as far as his power may extend." The whole number of inhabitants con- sisted, at the time, of about a dozen families. Police regulations were adopted, and a liberal commercial treaty was arranged with the Indians with the assistance of the inhabitants.
New Sweden cea-ed to be the name of the terri- tory, as it was now part of the Dutch territo- ries of New Netherlands, and went by that name. The Delaware River was called the South River.
Meanwhile, information reached the States Gen- eral, through their ambassador at the Court of London, of the fall of Fort Christina, and of the expulsion of the Swedes from the Delaware. The Swedish government remonstrated with their High Mightinesses at Amsterdam, but the protest was of no avail. The Swedes could not follow up their protests with a sufficient force to command respect, for "they had their hands full" of the war they were then waging against Poland. On May 26, 1656, the Directors communicated to Stuyvesant their approbation of his conduct, "though they should not have been displeased had such a formal capitulation not taken place ;" for " what is written is too long preserved, and may be produced when not desired, whereas words not recorded are in the lapse of time forgotten, or may be explained away."
The Dutch West India Company being much in debt, caused by its operations in Brazil and Guinea, now became embarrassed by the aid it extended Stuyvesant in recovering South River. In order to liquidate the debt which the company owed to
the city of' Amsterdam for the aid which that city afforded in the expulsion of the Swedes, and to strengthen the southern boundaries of New Nether- land, it propo-ed to code Fori Casimir and a pro- portionnie tract in its vicinity to the Burgomasters of Amsterdam." Copfor nees followed, the result of which was that the above fort, with all the country from the west side of the Minquas, or Christina Kill, to the mouth of the Delaware Bay ( named " Boomtre's Hoenek ' by the Dutch, now corrupted! into " Bombay Hook." and Canaresse by the Indian; ), inclusive, and so far as the Minguas land extended, became, with the Company's rights and privileger, the property of the city of Amster- dam, and was erected into a colony of the first class, under the title of Nieuwer Amstel, named after one of the suburbs belonging to the city, between the River Amstel and the Harlem Sea. Six commissaries were appointed by the Burgo- masters to manage the colony, who were " to sit and hold their meetings at the West India House on Tuesday> and Thursdays." A set of " conditions" was drawn up, offering a free passage to colonists,
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SEAL OF NEW NETHERLANDS, 1655-1664.
lands on the river side for their residence, and pro- vision- and clothing for one year. The city engaged to send out "a proper person for a schoolmaster, who shall also read the holy Scriptures in public and set the Psalms." The municipal government was to be regulated " in the same manner a- here in Amsterdam. The colonists were to be exempted from taxation for ten years ; after that time they should not " be taxed higher than those who are taxed lowest in any other district under the govern- ment of the West India Company in New Nether- land." Specific regulations were adopted with respect to trade : and besides the recognitions payable to the West India Company on goods exported front Holland, four per centum was to be paid in New Netherland.
All these arrangement- were ratified and con- firmed by the State> General, upon condition that a church should be organized and a clergyman established as soon as there were two hundred in- .
1 This laying out of inte was the beginning of the town of New Amstel, now New Castle, For a long time it was the nurt nuportant town on the banks of the Delaware. On the 5th ot l'etanary, he, Jacobus t'table presented a petition to the Conned "respecting a plate tattoni near the corner, where brick and stone are made and baked."
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habitants in the colony. Preparations were imme- diately made to organize the colony, of which Jacob Alrichs, an unele of Beck, the vice-director at Curacoa, was appointed director. Martin Kregier, of New Amsterdam, upon Stuyve-ant's "good report," was commissioned as captain of a company of sixty soldiers, and Alexander d'Hinovossa, who had formerly served in Brazil, was made lieutenant. Ordinances were also passed requiring the colonists to take an oath of allegiance to the States General, the burgomasters of Amsterdam, and the director and council of New Netherland, and likewise to promise faithfully to observe the articles which defined their Anties and obligations to the city, These, among other things, required them to remain four years at New Amstel, unless they gave satis- factory reasons for leaving, or repaid, within the proper time, the expenses incurred on their account.
The West India Company informed Stuyvesant of all these arrangements, and instructed him to transfer the territory which the city had purchased to Alrichs on his arrival in New Netherland. At Forts Christina and New Gottenburg, "now called by us Altona and the island of Kattenberg," he was to maintain for the present a small garrison. "The confidence which we feel," they added, "about the success and increase of this new colony, choose their own officers. Upon his return to New and of which we hope to see some prominent features next spring, when, to all appearance, large numbers of the exiled Waklenses, who shall be warned, will flock thither as to an asylum, induces us to send you orders to endeavor to purchase, before it can be accomplished by any other nation, all that traet of land situated between the South River and the Hook of the North River, to provide establishments for these cmigrants." 1
About 167 colonists embarked on December 25, 1656, in the ships " Prince Maurice," the " Bear," and the " Flower of Guelder," and set sail from the Texel for South River. The emigrants, after suffer- ing many discomforts, arrived in the South River early in 1657. Alrichs' arrival on April 21. termi- nated the official carcer of Jacquet. Upon his return to Manhattan on account of this misgovern- ment, he was arrested and prosecuted.
In a few days after the arrival of the first colo- niste, Stuyvesant, in obedience to the orders of the Dutch West India Company, formally transferred to Alrichs " the Fort of Casimir, now named New Amstel, with all the lands dependent on it, in con- formity with our first purchase from and transfer by the natives to us on the 19th of July, 1651." L'pon his arrival at Fort Casimir, Alrichs received from Jacquet a surrender of his authority, and the colony of New Amstel was formally organized. The region north of Christina Kill remained under the jurisdiction of the West India Company, in
obedience to whose orders the name of Fort Chris- tina was changed to that of " Altona."
During the few months of Alrichs' directorship, New Amstel prospered. The municipal govern- ment was remodeled, the town was laid out, build- ings were rapidly erected, a bridge was placed over the creek near Fort Casimir, a magazine erected, the fort repaired, a guard house, bake house and forge built, together with residences for the clergy- men and other public others ;- industry promised snecess, and thirty familie- were tempted to emigrate from Manhattan to the flourishing colony on South River.' At the end of the first year, New Amstel was " a goodly town of about 100 houses!" +
An inevitable consequence, however, of the establishment of the city's colony was the increase of smuggling. Large quantities of fur- were ex- ported without payment of duties, which caused the regular traders to complain, and the revenue suffered severely. To remedy these irregularities, at his suggestion, Director-General Stuyvesant was sent by the council of New Amsterdam, in com- pany with Peter Tonneman, to South River. On his arrival at Altona, the Swedes were called upon to take the oath of allegiance which was required of all the other colonists, and they were allowed to Amsterdam, Stuyvesant informed the council that " many things are there not as they ought to be," and to maintain the rights of the company he appointed William Beekman Viee Director of that distriet. ITis in-tructions required him to live at first at Altona, but to have his permanent residence at or near New Amstel, where he could more con- veniently attend to the collection of the revenue. He was invested with all the powers of the com- pauy on the whole of the South River, except the district of New Amstel, and was bound to maintain the Reformed religion.
The prosperity of New Amstel had, meanwhile, become clouded. The colonists had planted in hope ; but heavy rains setting in, their harvest was
A city-hall for the burghers was also erected. It was a lug-bumbling. two stories high, and twenty feet square. The whole of the buildings were inclosed within a square.
3 Salt wor ss are referred to in the record- at this period. Forty cows Were, at the same time, intra It ed in the colony, which were purchased lo Alrichs at priees ranging from one humired and twenty-eight to one hundred and thirty guil dops per head, or almut -7, ed each.
+Alnelas, in one of his lettere, thus jethe of the government of New Amstel, In fore and after his arrival : " I found the government to con- sist of a military council over the soldiers, who were here of old. The diferentes lotween the old settlers, who consisted of about twelve of thirteen families, vete deabd by the commander and two popis atting us si hepens, and a wiretary uygunted from among the ihate- tants, by the general, on the jout of the West India Company. These . apresenta deste, now that the idu e hud charged hands, that a burgher- The government should be continued, according to the conditions, asit was under the director geral and the West Indi Comprachy , so It W., and they continued to me at all differences between harsher and buy- Lhet. All affair- appert minis to the any and imnhiaty math Is Wely dropped of his une and the council, and dut ren of between the city's . avants. soldiers, traushamus and frommen, until the arrival of the "Balance," (this day. ) when -even city councilky - were elected, and it atu them three new schepens were cho & n; another secretary and schout were also appointed two . brt- and two dearuns, for the management of chur n affairs.' - Hol. Doe, quoted in note by O'Call. Vol. i., p. GST.
1 Broadhead's list ry of New York, vol. 1, p. 631.
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ruined, and food became scarce and dear. An epidemie fever broke out; the surgeon and many children died ; and most of the inhabitants suffered from a elimate to which they were not accustomed. While the disease was yet raging, the ship " Mill " arrived from Holland, after a disastrous voyage, bringing many new emigrants, among whom were several children from the Orphan House at Amsterdam. The population of New Amstel now exceeded six hundred; but its inhabitants were " without bread," and the ship which brought the new emigrants brought no supply of provisions. Industry was crippled, while wages advanced. Commissary Rynvelt and many "respectable" inhabitants peri-hed, and a long winter stared the famished survivors in the face.
On the 25th of April, 1658, Evert Pieterson, whose official position was that of schoolmaster and comforter of the sick, landed at New Amstel. He is the first schoolmaster of whom there is any record on the Delaware. He at once commenced keeping school, and had twenty-five scholars on the 10th of August following. In a letter of his to the Commissioners of Amsterdam, he states that " wharves were already laid out" at New Amstel, " and almost built." Ile also says that he " found twenty families, mostly Swedes," in the soldiers who had been sent out from Holland, but City's Colony (that portion of Delaware south of the Christina), "and not more than five or six belonging to our (the Dutch) nation."
New Amstel was in deep distress early in 1659. Disease and famine had almost decimated its popu- lation, and the heat of the summer had enfeebled the unacelimated survivors. The wife of Alrichs was one of the victims. Everyone had been occu- pied in building houses and in preparing gardens, so that little grain was sown ; and the emigrants from Holland brought very scanty supplies of pro- visions. "Our bread magazine, our pantry room, our only refuge is to Manhattan," wrote the desponding Alrichs to Stuyvesant. The conditions of settlement were also altered at this time by the burgomasters of Amsterdam, which only added difficulties to the colony. The despairing colonists began to leave South River, the sobliers of the garrison deserted, and took refuge in Virginia and Maryland. To add to the alarm of the distressed settlers, intelligence was received that the English in Maryland claimed the property on South River, and that persons would soon be sent to claim possession. The panie caused by the last report had not had time to sulside before Col. Nathaniel Utie with a suite of six persons from Maryland arrived. He spent some days in sowing " seditious and mutinous seed among the community," and finally peremptorily commanded the Dutch to leave South River, or else declare themselves subject to Lord Baltimore.
Two days afterward, Lord Baltimore's agents
returned to Maryland, and rumors soon spread thyr five hundred men were to march upon the South River. Messengers were despatched to New Am- sterdam for re-enforcements and Director General Stuyvesant sent overland sixty soldiers under the command of Captain Kreiger, who, with Secretary Van Ruyven, was commissioned to act as general agents for the service of the company. August Heermans and Resolved Waldron, were also despatched on an embassy to the government of Maryland, to settle the difficulties. They pro- ceeded, with a -mall escort, from New Amstel, and after many embarrassing adventures, arrived in a week at Patuxent. After being hospitably enter- tained, and meeting Governor Fendall and his couneil, and Secretary Calvert, and discussing the merits of the respective claims to the property in dispute, the commissioners returned, having failed in their mission.
Pending these discussions, anxiety and alarm prevailed among the Dutch colonists; business was suspended, and every one prepared for flight. Within a fortnight, fifty persons, including several families, removed to Maryland and Virginia. Scarcely thirty families remained at New Amstel. The colony was overwhelmed with debt; of the five remained at the Horekills, and ten at New Amstel. At the close of the year 1659, the in- habited part of the colony of the South River did not extend beyond two Dutch miles from the fort.1 In the midst of these troubles, vice-director Alrichs died, having intrusted the government to Alex- ander D'Hinovossa, with Gerrit Van Sweringen and Cornelis Van Gezel as councillors. On assuming the government of New Am-tel in January, 1660, Hinoyosea, by his indiscreet conduet, produced
1 Abunt this time one of the Swedish ministersattempted to preach in the City's Colony-in the town of New Amstel. The commander- of the colony would not print this on a count of the difference Letwr n the religious faiths of the Dutch and Swedes. In a letter to Mitchie they est : "The bold undertaking of the Swedish parson to preach in the colony without permission does not greatly please us Su other region let the rete tuned can or may be tolerated there, sy you must, ly proper means, fruit an end to prevent such presumption on the part of other sectarles."
Ina better dit d August Dith, to the Commissioners at Amsterdam, Alrichs gives the following unflattering account of the settlers at New
" In the * Princa Maurice; " =and he, " were " colonists, free het di- crait's bien, amongst them some waskmen, but the mayor part tril > toets, who del tet learn their trades very well, and ran away from thelr sichchers, 10 civil servants, Th women, dottern and med seps inte. Those who arnved in the voice . De Wang,' ' De s nue' ' Da Mudou' Were of the _ and reparte, wastrely throw good Tomels anon- the whole lot. The total was IST troligen and servants, 20 - i hets and civil -ervatits, Jo women and children, and the maul servants of the nou red wine a and children, de, who came heir as stugle wemett
The wages for filme, at this time, on the Delaware, according to Aliche letters, were for laborers, three guides a day ; for mechames.
In Draw the following mechanes were enposed at Now Ani-t. L. They are the hrst nated as following these funds in this stite, 112 Cornelis Themu -- en, a sunth ; Wilnam Van Rosenberg, 1 surgrop ; Thy, Je mein, thủy working at rất peutering with Andress Andriessen; he is the mist cute ater's apprentice rewarded. There Were also Joust, of Amsterdam, and Antony Willausen, of Vicedlandt, Didsuns.
DELAWARE UNDER THE DUTCH.
great diseords, which were increased when news of for the whole territory was executed by Stuyvesant the proposed retransfer of the colony to the West to Alegna ler U'lliasvossa, who became sole com- mandant, or vice director ; and William Beekman, left without position on the Delaware, was after- wards appointed Sheriff or Schout of a district on the North River. India Company reached the South River, With Beekman his relations were scarcely pleasant ; and complaints were constantly made to New Amsterdam of his haughty and insolent demeanor, and his contempt of the provincial regulations respecting the sale of liquors to the savages.
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