USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania > Part 3
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On Feb. 20, 1647, when the ship "Golden Shark," which had arrived in New Sweden on the 1st of Oc- tober of the preceding year, left the colony on the return voyage to Europe, Printz dispatched Lient. John Pappegoya, as a special messenger to orally make a report of the growth and need of the settlement. Pappegoya had been one of the early Swedish settlers on the Delaware and had returned home, but de -. pervision of Peter Lindstrom, the engineer, it was siring to revisit New Sweden, he came back in 1644, particularly recommended to the favorable considera- On the 17th of June, 1654, Vice-Governor Rising held a council with the Indian sachems at Printz Hall, at Tinicum, and although the savages stated that the Swedish vessel had introduced among them diseases, of which many of their people died, the gifts which Rising laid before them were too tempt- ing to be resisted, and a treaty of friendship was then "made between the Swedes and the Indians, which has ever since been faithfully observed on both sides." 6 tion of Printz by the home government. It is be- lieved at the time Pappegoya was sent to Sweden as bearer of dispatches he was then married to Ar- migart, Governor Printz's daughter, who figured prominently in our early annals. He returned to New Sweden in a short time (in those days of long voyages), for about in the middle of June, 1648, Hudde3 mentions that the committee of the Dutch Council, after completing the purchase of land on the Schuylkill from the Indians, " with a becoming suite, sailed to Tinne Konck, and was received there by the commissay, Huygen and Lieut. Passegay (Pappe- goya), who left them about half an hour in the open
1 Deposition nf Joho Thickpenoy, " New Haven Colonial Records," vol. i. pp. 97-99.
9 John Printz was well educated, and after he entered military life he rose rapidly during the Prussian and German war. In 1638 he was pro- moted lieutenant-colonel of West Götha Cavalry. In 1640 he shamefully and diegracefully surrendered the fortress of Chemnitz, and returned to Stockholm without the consent of the field-marshel. He was put under arrest, tried, and broken of his rank in the ermy. He was enhsequently (Ang. 16, 1642) appointed Governor of New Sweden. On his return to the Old World he was made e general, and in 1658, Governor of the dis- trict of Jookoping. He died in 1663, leeving no male issue to succeed to the title conferred on him in 1642.
3 Hadde's Report, Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. v. p. 115.
air and constaint rain," before they could obtain an interview with Governor Printz. When the latter, after administering the affairs of the colony on the Delaware for twelve years, sailed for Sweden in the latter part of the year 1653, he left the government in charge of his son-in-law, John Pappegoya.
May 21, 1654, the ship " Eagle" arrived at New Castle, having on board John Claudius Rising, who had been appointed commissary and Governor's as- sistant counsellor,-an office equivalent to Lieutenant- Governor; but Printz having sailed before Rising came, the full charge of the colony devolved upon him. His first official act was not only a violation of his instructions, but an error which was disastrous in its results to the colony. As the vessel came to at Fort Cassimir two guns were fired as a salute to the fortress, after which Rising demanded the surrender of the stronghold. The Dutch commander desired time to consider, but Rising ordered a force of thirty men to land and take the place by assault, refusing, as the Dutch alleged, "to give one hour's delay." Acrelius tells us, "A correct inventory was made of everything in the fort, and every one was allowed to carry off his property, whether belonging to the com- pany or to private individuals ;" + while Gerrit Becker, the Dutch commander, deposed, "I could scarcely induce him (Rising) by prayer not to be turned out naked, with his (my) wife and children, and all the property in this fort was confiscated by them."} The capture of this fortress having taken place ahout noon on Trinity Sunday, the Swedes called it the " Fort of the Holy Trinity ;" and subsequently, under the su- repaired, enlarged, and " as good as built anew."
When the news of the capture of Fort Cassimir was received in Holland it excited much indignation among the directors, and although previous to that event the home government had not approved fully of Stuyvesant's action in erecting the fort at New Castle, all differences of opinion were swallowed up in the indignation and anger the seizure of the fortress aroused. Hence, Stuyvesant was ordered "to exert every nerve to revenge that injury, not only by re- storing affairs to their former situation, but by driving the Swedes from every side of the river, as they did with us, provided that such among them as may be
4 Acrelius, " New Sweden," p. 63.
5 Penna. Archivee, 2d series, vol. v. p. 253.
6 ('ampanina, p. 78.
8
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
disposed to settle under and submit to our govern- ment may be indulged in it."1 In conformity with the spirit of these instructions, Stuyvesant silently but promptly made preparation for an aggressive move- ment against the Swedish settlement on the Delaware. To that end he gathered an armament and fleet, while the Swedes, unaware of the danger that lowered over them, made no unusual provision for defense. On Sunday, Sept. 4, 1655, the expedition under Stuyve- sant, in seven vessels, with about six hundred men, set sail for the Delaware, and on the morning of the 9th of September anchored a short distance from Fort Cassimir, when Stuyvesant sent a lieutenant ashore to demand the restitution of the stronghold. Lieutenant Schute, the Swedish officer, desired time to communicate with his superior, which was refused. In the mean while the Dutch commander had landed a force which occupied all the approaches in rear of the fort, and, after some negotiation, the Swedish gar- rison capitulated on the morning of the 11th of Sep- tember. After the reduction of Fort Cassimir the Dutch forces laid siege to Fort Christiana, and from Governor Rising's official report2 we learn that the enemy made regular approaches until, having their guns in position in rear of the fort, Stuyvesant form- ally demanded the surrender of the post within twenty-four hours. The Swedish Governor, after a general consultation with the whole garrison, decided to accede to the demand he was powerless to resist. The articles of capitulation, among other matters, provided that the Swedish forces should march out of the fort with the honors of war,-drums and trumpet playing, flags flying, matches burning, and with hand and side arms. That they, as prisoners of war, were first to be conducted to Tinicum Island, and placed in the fort at that place until they could be taken to New Amsterdam. Campanius asserts that "The Dutch then proceeded to destroy New Gottenburg, laying waste all the houses and plantations without the fort, killing the cattle, and plundering the in- habitants of everything that they could lay their hands on; so that after a siege of fourteen days, and many fruitless propositions to obtain more humane treatment, the Swedes were obliged to surrender that fortress for want of men and ammunition."4
From the fact that the articles of capitulation at Fort Christina stipulated for the detention of the Swedish prisoners of war at the fort at Tinicum, and that there is, so far as known, an absence of all documentary evi- dence to support the assertion made by Campanius, the conclusion seems irresistible that that author has con- fused his account of the doings at New Gottenburg with those occurring on the siege of Fort Christiana. Vice- Governor Rising, in his report,5 already mentioned, when relating the pillaging of "the people without sconce of their property, and higher up the river they plundered many and stripped them to the skin," thus briefly narrated the outrages of the Dutch in- vaders at Tinicum. " At New Gottenberg they robbed Mr. Papegoija's wife of all she had, with many others who had collected their property there." Not a word has this mau, who pictured the minutest incident of the siege of Fort Christiana, and the killing of Swedish " cattle, goats, swine, and poultry," to say about the investment of Fort Gottenburg, the resistance of its slender garrison for fourteen days, or the laying waste of all the houses and plantations without the forts. Certain it is, that the Swedish Church at Tinicum, Printz Hall, and other buildings stood uninjured long years after the Dutch power in North America had waned before the conquering standard of Great Britain. In 1680 "the remains of the large block- house, which served them (the Swedes) in place of a fortress," was on the island, together with "three or four houses built by the Swedes, a little Lutheran Church made of logs, and the ruins of some log huts."6 In Rising's reply to Stuyvesant," only thirty- four days after the capture of Fort Christiana, he does . not mention the destruction of the post at New Got- tenburg, but sets forth the following outrages com- mitted by the Dutch in their conquest of New Sweden : "Your Honor's troops have behaved here as if they were in the country of their bitterest enemy, as the plundering of Tornaborg, Uplandt, Finland, Prince- dorp, and other places more clearly proves (not to speak of the deeds done about Fort Christiana), where the females have partly been dragged out of their houses by force ; whole buildings torn down, even hauled away; oxen, cows, pigs, and other animals daily slaughtered in large numbers; even the horses were not spared, but shot wantonly, the plantations devastated, aud everything thereabouts treated in such a way that our victuals have been mostly spoiled, carried away, or lost somehow." So, too, on Dec. 19, 1656,8 the directors instruct Stuyvesant to occupy the
1 Hazard's Aunals, p. 168.
2 Penus. Archives, 2d series, vol. v. p. 224.
3 Acrelius, " Hist. of New Sweden," p. 76.
4 Campanius, " New Sweden," pp. 85, 86. Smith, in his " History of New Jersey," page 34, says the Dutch "destroyed New Gotteuburg, with such houses as are without the fort, plundering the inhabitants of what they had, and killing their cattle." From his account it also ap- pears that the fort at Tinicum was defended fourteen days, and that the pillaging took place before the fort was surrendered. The statements of both Campanius and Smith were doubtless based on tradition- ary recitals, which, in descending from one generation to another, had confused two separate mattere into one. Campanine' work was not published until 1702, nearly forty years after the circumstances nar- rated took place, while that of Smith was issued long subsequent to that date. To show how soon confusion may take place in matters connected with historical events it is only necessary to cite " An Account of the Seditious False Konigsmack in New Sweden" (Penn. Mag. of Hist., vol.
vii. p. 219), where is given, by an uoknowa writer, in 1683, an account of the attempted insurrection of the Long Fia, which occurred in 1669. The writer states, " These are the particulars which I received from the oldest Swedes," and yet he relates that the conspirators " went to Phila- delphia and bought powder, bells, shot, lead, and so forth," nearly four- teen years before that city hud an existence.
5 Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. v. p. 227.
6 Journal of a Voyage to New York io 1679-80. Memoirs of the Long Island Hist. Soc., vol. i. p. 177.
7 Penna. Archivse, 2d series, vol. vii. p. 487.
8 Th., 496.
9
EARLY SETTLEMENT.
fort at New Gottenburg with eight or ten soldiers pro- visionally, " as well for the safety of the Swedes, now our subjects."
The Dutch had conquered, and the Swedish flag no longer floated over the disputed territory on the Dela- ware. But the triumph was a costly one, the expenses of the expedition swelling so largely the debt of the Dutch West India Company that in the summer of 1656, to relieve itself from liability to the city of Am- sterdam, the company ceded to the burgomasters of that municipality a portion of the Delaware River territory, extending from Bombay Hook to Christiana Creek, which subsequently was known as "the City's Colony," while the land north of that creek was termed " the Company's Colony."
Before intelligence of the conquest of New Sweden had reached the mother-country, on March 24, 1656, the Swedish ship "Mercury," with a hundred and thirty emigrants on board, entered the river. John Panl Jacquit, the Dutch Governor, prohibited the captain of the vessel to land the crew or passengers, as well as refusing to permit him to ascend the river beyond Fort Cassimir. John Pappegoya, who had not yet returned to Sweden, together with Capt. Huygen, on March 30th wrote to the Council in New Amsterdam, requesting that these emigrants who came from Sweden should be permitted to settle in the colony, urging as reasons " the immense loss they would suffer, many good farmers would be ruined, parents separated from children, and even husbands from wife," but their appeals only made the Council hold more firmly to their resolution that the Swedes should settle at New Amsterdam, where their number could not be a constant menace to the authorities. Much time was consumed in tedious negotiations, until at length the patience of the Swedish colonists was exhausted, and through the influence of Pappe- goya with the savages, a number of the residents, Swedes and Indians, went aboard the vessel, when, in spite of the guns of the fort or the command of Gov- ernor Jacqnit, the anchor was weighed, the "Mer- cury" sailed up the river, and landed her cargo and passengers at Christiana.1 The Dutch, fearing that some of the Indians on board might be injured, re- frained from firing on the vessel in her passage by the fort.
After the Dutch had acquired absolute sway on the Delaware the ancient Swedish capital at Tinicum seems to have been abandoned, possibly because of the grant of that island to Governor Printz, hence in the early records only occasionally, at this period, do we find allusion to any places lying within the boun- dary of the present county of Delaware. Georan Van Dyck, who had been appointed sheriff of the company's colony, requested permission to establish
the Swedish settlers in villages, and on June 12, 1657, the Council responded that he was " not only author- ized and qualified, but also ordered and directed, to concentrate their houses and dwellings, but henceforth to erect them in shape of a village or villages, either at Upland, Passayonck, Finland, Kinghsessing, on the ' Verdrietige hoeck,' or at such places as by them may be considered suitable, under condition that previous notice he given to the Director-General and Council, in case they should chose some other places than those specified above."2 This effort to gather the Swedish residents into villages failed, and it seems not to have been pressed earnestly until after Wil- liam Beekman was appointed, Oct. 28, 1658, vice- director of the company's colony on the Delaware, and even not then until the directors in Holland, under date of Oct. 14, 1659,3 recommend that the Swedes should be separated and scattered among the Dutch, since they, the directors, had reason to believe that the English may undertake "something against us there under the Swedish flag and name." In fur- therance of this recommendation, Beekman, in March following, attempted to execute the order, but found that he conld not get the Swedish settlers to choose a location for the village, every one asserting that he would keep his entire lot and fields." Miss Printz "objected to moving because the church was located at Tinicum, on her plantation, that her buildings were heavy, that she had offered her land rent free, but no one would live with her." Beekman also informed Stuyvesant that to enforce the edict then would result in great loss, as it would prevent the planting of spring crops, and he, therefore, had granted the Swedes five or six weeks longer before compelling compliance with the order. Thus the matter rested, for the Dutch authorities conld not convince the Swedes of the advantage of the proposed change, and they had not sufficient force at hand to compel obedience therewith.5 Beekman, however, constantly endeav- ored to prevail upon them to settle at Passayunk, but when the Swedes intimated that "they would rather go to Maryland than to remove to another place here and sponge upon the others," the project was finally abandoned by the authorities.
The affair of the Delaware's having been so mis- managed that many complaints had been lodged with the authorities in New Amsterdam, Council on April 20, 1658, determining that these matters "as well as some necessary arrangements to be made among and regarding the Swedes, cannot well be attended to by a letter," ordered that Stuyvesant and Pieter Tonne- man should personally visit the Delaware River set- tlements "for the special service and advantage of the company." On May 8th Stuyvesant was at Tini- cum, for on that day Georan Van Dyck, Orloff Stille,
1 Acrelina, " Hist. of New Sweden," p. 90. Vincent says (Hist. of State of Delaware, vol. i. p. 276) that the passengere and cargo of the "Mer- cury" were landed at Marcus Hook. Ou what authority that statement is based is not given.
2 Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. vii. p. 511.
3 Ib., p. 598.
5 Acrelina, " Hist. of New Sweden," p. 96.
4 Ib., p. 628.
10
HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
Malthys Hanson, Peter Rambo, and Peter Kaik, the Swedish magistrates,1 presented a petition to the Gen- eral Director, asking for the appointment of a court messenger to serve summons, make arrests, and "the carrying out of sentences," and that they be allowed " free access to the commander at Fort Altona to get assistance from the soldiers in case of emergency." The third request was "that an order be made that nobody shall leave these boundaries without know]- edge of the magistrates, much less, that the servants, man or woman of one, when they leave or run away without their masters' or mistress' permission, shall be concealed by the other."
From this petition, which was favorably received and acted on, we learn that Fort Gottenburg had at this time ceased to be a military post. This was per- haps due to the fact that the Dutch officers were doubtful of the loyalty of the Swedes to the new ad- ministration, and thought it judicious to concentrate their forces at the most available and strongest fortifi- cation ; that at Tinicum, being merely a block-house, was abandoned. We also gather from the same doc- ument that the system of redemption servitude at that early stage of our history was recognized in this locality.2
From the report of Jacob Alricks to the commis- sioners of the city's colony, Oct. 10, 1658,3 we ascer- tain that children from the almshouse at Amsterdam had been sent over to the Delaware River settlements and had been bound out among the residents there, the eldest for two, the major portion for three, and the youngest children for four, years. He suggested that from time to time more of these young people should be dispatched hither, "but, if possible, none ought to come less than fifteen years of age and some- what strong, as little profit is to be expected here without labor."
In a letter from Beekman to Stuyvesant, April 28, 1660,4 the former states " that among the Fins at Op- land there is a married couple who live very wretch- edly together, and the wife is often fearfully beaten, and daily driven out of the house like a dog, which was continued through several years. Nothing is heard of the wife, but he, on the contrary, has com- mitted adultery. Therefore the priest, the neighbors, the sheriff, and commissaries, and others besides, have appealed to me, at the request of the man and the woman, that they might be divorced, and the few ani- mals and personal property be divided among them. I answered that I would inform your Noble Worship of it and await orders." What was done finally in this case is unknown.
On the night of Sept. 20, 1661,5 the wife of Rev.
1 Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. vii. p. 531.
" As to the latter statement, see Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. vii. p. 716.
3 Ib., vol. v. p. 300.
4 Ib., vol. vil. p. 634.
6 Jb., 5th series, vol. vii. p. 668.
Laurence Charles Laers, the Swedish priest at Up- land, eloped with Joseph Jongh (Young), the fugi- tives leaving the settlement in a canoe. Director Beekman, the next day, as soon as he was informed of the occurrence, dispatched an express to the Gov- ernor of Maryland and the magistrates at Sassafras River, requesting that should the parties come there they might be detained, and he notified of the fact. Four days afterwards Beekman came to Upland to look after the property there of Jacob Jongh. It ap- pears that in his hasty flight Jongh had left his per- sonal effects at Upland, and the next day the Rev. Mr. Laers went to the house of Andreas Hendriexson, a Finn, where his wife's paramour had lived, and without notifying the authorities forced open the door of Jongh's room with an axe.6 The keys to the chest belonging to the fugitive being found in the apartment, the clergyman opened the luggage and appropriated some of the contents. The Dutch au- thorities supposed, as they learned nothing from Maryland, that the runaways had gone to New Eng- land, whereas it is now almost conclusively estab- lished that this Jacob Jongh or Young made his way to Maryland, where he subsequently figured promi- nently in the early history of that colony." The abandoned husband, however, did not appear to be crushed by his wife's desertion, for in less than a month (October 15th) he asked Vice-Governor Beek- man to be allowed the next day to make the first proclamation of the banns of his intended marriage with a girl of seventeen or eighteen years, which con- sent the former withheld until he could hear from Stuyvesant.8 The authorities in New Amsterdam ap- parently acted too slowly for the reverend lover, for November 8th9 he again asked for advice "whether he may now marry again, as his household requires it." On December 15th 10 he was granted a provis- ional divorce, the decree being subject to Stuyvesant's approbation ; but without tarrying until the latter signified his approval, the reverend gentleman, on Sunday, Jan. 26, 1662, entered anew into the married relation, which act aroused the indignation of Beek- man, and prejudiced him against "this fine priest." On April 14, 1662, the case against the Rev. Mr. Laers was tried at Fort Altona. He was prosecuted on behalf of the company for having broken into the room and making an inventory of the goods left by the absconding Joseph Jongh. In the crude system of justice then in vogue on the Delaware, the court sentenced him to pay two hundred guilders, which had been advanced to Jongh to purchase grain for the company, forty florins in beavers which were due from Jongli to Director Beekman and Mr. Decker, and was also fined forty guilders for usurping the author- ity of the court. The unhappy defendant was in ad-
6 Ib., 669.
7 Johnson's " History of Cecil County, Md.," pp. 80-130.
8 Ponna. Archives, 2d series, vol. vil. p. 670.
º Ib., 671.
10 Ib., 672.
11
EARLY SETTLEMENT.
dition informed that "his new marriage was declared illegal."1 The clergyman thereupon petitioned Gov- ernor Stuyvesant, setting forth that he broke the door open in the search for his wife, whom he imagined was concealed in that place ; that he had found among Jongh's goods a few pairs of his (the petitioner's) wife's stockings; that he had no intention "to vilify the court;" that his acts were committed through ignorance, and that in his marriage "he did not sup- pose it should liave been so unfavorably interpreted ;" he therefore, to save his " reputation as a minister," prays that the Governor will disapprove of the sen- tence of the court, and " not inflict any further pun- ishment" than that he has already undergone, since, independent of the fine of two hundred and eighty guilders, the desertion of his wife had cost him nearly two hundred guilders.2 What was done with this petition does not appear.
From the report made by the commissioners and directors of the city's colony,' on Aug. 10, 1663, we learn that on the Delaware River it was found that "the Swedes, Fins, and other natives" had "made and erected there 110 good bouweries, stocked with about 2000 cows and oxen, 20 horses, 80 sheep, and several thousand swine." This was comparatively a good showing, and it induced the city of Amsterdam to accede to the proposition of the Dutch West India Company, that the former should, in discharge of the debt owed by the company, accept a deed for "all the country on the Delaware." In furtherance of this agreement a formal deed was executed Dec. 22, 1663, and the sway of the authorities at New Amsterdam ceased on the Delaware River. On the day after the date of this conveyance Beekman wrote to Stuyves- ant that fifty farm laborers who had arrived in the ship "St. Jacob" during June of that year had been hired out to farmers, and that six or seven girls had been sent on the same vessel to cook and wash for the emigrants. He informed the director-general that " this is almost the same method as that of the English trade in servants."+
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