History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 15

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534

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1 Hermaomessing, Tachaacho, Armewamix, Arwames, Tekoke, Ar- menverens, etc. The year in which the fort was built is also disputed, but the circumstances mentioned in the text make it probable that its construction was undertaken very shortly after Capt. Mey'e arrival ont. 2 It is not possible to state eatisfactorily in what year the settlement was given up nor why. The deposition of Peter Lawrenson before Gov- ernor Dongan, of New York, in March, 1685, says that he came into this colony io 1628, and in 1630 (actually 1631), by order of the West India Company, he, with some others, was eent in a sloup to the Delaware, where the company lind a trading-house, with ten or twelve servants belonging to it, which the deponent himself did see settled there. ... " And the deponent further eaith that upon an island near the falls of that river and near the west side thereof, the said company some three or four years before had a trading-house, where there were three or four families of Walloons. The place of their settlement he saw ; and that they had been grated there he was informed by some of the onid Wal- lowons themselves when they were returned from thenice." It is in this in lefinite way that the beginnings of all history are written.

in April, 1638. In 1642 the garrison comprised twenty men, and the fort was continually occupied from this time forth until the Dutch destroyed it.

In 1624, Peter Minuet (the name is also spelled Minuit, Minnewit, or Minnewe) came out and suc- ceeded Mey as director of the New Netherlands colo- nies. He held this position until 1632, when he was recalled, and Van Twiller became Governor in his stead. Minuet, as will be seen further on, was a sagacious and enterprising man, but he had to pur- sue a conservative policy as director of the New Netherlands, for the welfare of the colony was neg- lected sadly by the West India Company. But few immigrants and colonists came out, the garrisons were not strengthened, nor was much effort made to ex- tend either the boundaries or the trade of the colony. Some negro slaves indeed were landed on Manhattan Island at least as early as 1628, but their labor was not esteemed. The chief business done was in trading with the Indians for peltries and furs. In fact the West India Company was so puffed with the arro- gance that proceeds from great successes and sudden wealth, that the directors despised the small and plod- ding colonial ways and the slow and meagre profits derived from such sources. It had won brilliant vic- tories at sea. It had taken in two years one hundred and four Spanish prizes. It had paid dividends of fifty per cent. It had captured the Panama plate fleet. It frequently sent to sea single squadrons of seventy armed vessels. It had captured Bahia in 1624, and Pernambuco in 1630, and it aspired to the conquest of Brazil. These brilliant performances cast the puny interests of the New Netherlands traders into the shade, and the company did not care to be bothered with the discharge of duties which were nevertheless particularly assigned to it in the char- ter. So obvious was this departure from the original purposes of the company that so early even as 1624 we find that William Usselincx, the founder of the company, had abandoned it in disgust, and was seek- ing to persuade King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden to establish a Swedish West India Company, such as would be operated more in accordance with his original plan.

There were still some very shrewd heads among the members of the Amsterdam chamber, men who while quite willing to take all the gold and silver and pre- cious stones they could get, yet were fully acquainted with the more abiding virtues of land. Of these were John De Laet, the historian, Killiaan Van Rensselaer, the diamond-cutter, Michael Pauw, Peter Evertsen Hulft, Jonas Witsen, Hendrick Hamel, Samuel Go- dyn, and Samuel Blommaert, all rich, all well in- formed, all interested in the support and develop- ment of the colonies on the North and South Rivers, especially if these could be effected in a way further to enrich themselves. The secretary of Minuet and the colony, Isaac De Rasieres, a keen observer and skillful diplomatist, was devoted to the interests of

FIRST SETTLEMENTS ON THE DELAWARE AND SCHUYLKILL RIVERS.

Godyn, Van Rensselaer, and Blommaert, and he prob- ably kept them apprised of all that was going on in the New Netherlands. While Minuet, with reduced forces, was compelled through fear of Indians to con- centrate his people at Manhattan, abandoning all ex- posed places, the Amsterdam directors, after consult- ing with De Rasieres, whom Minnet had sent home, procured a meeting of the Executive "College" of nineteen, and secured from it a Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions, which the States-General confirmed on June 7, 1629. This was a complete fendal consti- tution, adopted years before Lord Baltimore's charter. It created a landed aristocracy, and handed the State over pretty much to their control. The plan for the colonization of the territory was its subdivision into separate and independent settlements or estates, each to be under the control of a patroon, or feudal Jord, who was to settle it at his own expense in ex- change for many peculiar privileges. The charter provided that any member of the West India Com- pany (to none others were these privileges open) who should within four years plant a colony of fifty adults in any part of New Netherland (except the island of Manhattan, which the company, having bought it from the Indians, reserved to itself ) should be acknowledged as a "patroon" or feudal chief of the territory he might thus colonize. The land se- Jected for each colony might extend sixteen miles in length if confined to one side of a navigable river, or eight miles on each side if both banks were occupied ; but they might rnn as far into the country as the sit- nation of the occupiers should permit. More immi- grants entitled the patroon to proportionately more land. The colonists under the patroons were ex- empted from all taxes for ten years; they acquired their estates in fee-simple, with power of disposing by will; they were magistrates within their own bounds, and each patroon had the exclusive privilege of fish- ing, fowling, and grinding corn within his own do- main; they could also trade anywhere along the American coast, and to Holland by paying five per cent. duty to the company at its reservation of Man- hattan. The company reserved the fur trade to itself, and none of the colonists were to engage in any man- ufactures.

A review of events and circumstances incident to the settlement of Eastern Pennsylvania without ref- erence to the speculative greed of men whose oppor- tunities misled them would be incomplete. Ordinary foresight and sagacity indnced the belief in the minds of these first voyagers that settlements would speedily follow the line of commerce, and lands eligibly located would soon have market valne. Ambitious capi- talists, such as Samuel Godyn and Samuel Blom- maert, prompted by so keen and observing a resident as Isaac De Rasieres, whose official position gave him peculiar advantages in advising his friends, were not slow in concerting measures to advance their interest in large land enterprises. As early as 1629 they re-

tained two purchasing agents to buy lands from the Indians on the south side of the Delaware Bay. Their purchase embraced a tract thirty-two miles in length, extending a distance of two miles into the country from the shore line, the patent thereof being duly reg- istered and confirmed June 1, 1630. Similar pur- chases were made on and near the Hudson River by William Van Rensselaer, Michael Pauw, and John De Laet. These extensive operations were viewed with disfavor, and led to general and unfriendly criti- cism, and naturally excited quarrels among the specu- lators and their retainers. To avoid scandal and ex- posure there seems to have been what was deemed an equitable division of advantages. In a word, there had been over-reaching and sharp practice. Explan- ations and restitution were discreetly made. Fortu- nately for Godyn and Blommaert, who were obliged to improve their land on the Delaware Bay, under the terms of confirmation of their purchase, they fell in with David Pietersen De Vries, who had just re- turned from the East Indies. He was a man of un- conth exterior, but of good heart, and from experience had become observant, not alone in nautical matters, but in all worldly affairs, and was on terms of great personal intimacy with Godyn. His services were deemed so important to the success of the enterprise that he was admitted to equal advantages,-i.e., his experience was deemed equivalent to the capital of those associated in the enterprise.

De Vries became a patroon Oct. 16, 1630, and at once set to work to promote the designs of his asso- ciates. The ship " Walvis," or " Whale," of eighteen guns, and a yacht were immediately equipped. They carried out emigrants, cattle, food, and whaling im- plements, De Vries having heard that whales abounded in the Bay of South River (Godyn's Bay, or Newport May Bay, as it now also began to be called), and ex- pecting to establish profitable fisheries there. The expedition sailed from the Texel in December under the command of Pieter Heyes, of Edam. De Vries did not go ont at this time, and the voyage was not profitable. De Vries accuses Heyes of incapacity and cowardice, saying he would not sail through the West Indies in an eighteen-gun ship. Still, Heyes did a large business for his employers. He reached South River in the spring of 1631, and established his colony on the Horekill, " a fine navigable stream, filled with islands, abonnding in good oysters," and surrounded by fertile soil. The place was near the present site of Lewes, Del. Here a palisaded brick house was erected, and the colony of more than thirty souls was called Swaannendael, the Valley of Swans. The Dutch title was inscribed upon a pillar, on a plate of tin, surmounted by the arms of Holland. The fort, named "Oplandt," was given in the com- mand of Gilliss Hossett, Van Rensselaer's agent in buying lands around Albany. Heyes, after he had settled matters at Swaannendael, crosscd to the Jer- sey shore and bought from ten chiefs there, on behalf

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

of Godyn, Blommaert, and their associates, a tract of land extending from Cape May twelve miles north- ward along the bay and twelve miles inland. This purchase was registered at Manhattan June 3, 1631. The whale fishery having come to naught, in Sep- tember Heyes sailed for home to report to his em- ployers.

De Vries now determined to go out to the South River himself, and preparations were made for him to take charge of another ship and yacht. Just as he was about to sail from the Texel, May 24, 1632, Gov- ernor Minuet arrived from New Amsterdam with intelligence of the massacre of the colony at Swaan- nendael. This was cold news for De Vries and his associates. The patroon sailed, however, and after a long and checkered voyage arrived off Swaannendael early in December. The site of the little settlement told a fearful tale; the honse itself nearly ruined, the stockade burnt, and the adjacent land strewed with the skulls and bones of the colonists, the remains of cattle, etc. The valley was silent and desolate. De Vries returned on board his yacht and fired a gun to attract attention of the savages. After some mutual mis- trust, communica- tion was opened with them, and De Vries was told a cock - and - bull story of a chief having ignorantly removed the coat DAVID PIETERSEN DE VRIES. of arms from the pillar and been murdered by the colonists for doing it, whereupon his tribe, in revenge, massacred the colonists. De Vries knew too much about the Dutch cruelty and harshness to the Indians to believe any such story. He had before him all the evidences of the white man's cruelty and the savage's wild revenge. The fatal deed was irreparable, and De Vries, keeping his own counsel, did what he could to restore confidence and peace by making presents to the Indians of "duffles, bullets, hatchets, and Nuremberg toys," so as to get them to hunt beaver for him, instead of lying in ambush to murder more colonists. The result was a treaty of peace, the first ever made in Delaware waters.

On Jan. 1, 1633, the navigation being open, De Vries proceeded up the bay and river in his yacht. At Fort Nassau he heard of the murder of the crew of an English sloop, and met some Indians wearing the Englishmen's jackets. These Indians also made a show of offering peace, but De Vries dealt with them very cautiously, as they greatly outnumbered his men.

On January 10th, De Vries cast anchor at the bar of Jacques Eylandt, precisely opposite the present city of Philadelphia, somewhere over against Willow Street, near the site of what is now known as Wind- mill Island.1 Thence he went down river again, an- choring half a mile above Minquas Kill, on the look- out for whales. He was finally twice frozen up, and in some danger from Indians, numerous war parties of whom he saw, there being some intestine feud among the adjacent tribes. Released from the ice, he reached Swaannendael on February 20th, and on March 6th sailed for Virginia, returning to South River only to break up the colony at Swaannendael and go home. Once more the Delaware River and Bay were abandoned to the Indians, and once more the attempt at settlement by white men had failed. There were no further efforts made to settle on South River until the Swedes came in 1638, but, as has been stated, there must have been a more or less intermit- tent occupancy at Fort Nassau, and possibly there may have been a permanent garrison from the begin- ning of Van Twiller's director-generalship.2

NOTE .- If the story of New Albion ie other than an historical myth, the English were among the earliest adventurers and settlers on the Delaware. Between 1623 and 1634, for several dales are mentioned, Charlee I. granted an extensive territory to Sir Edmund Plowden, which embraced Long Island, all of New Jersey, Delaware, and parts of Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, who formed a company of noble-

] The har of Jacques Eylandt embraces the spot where the city of Camden is now built.

" The 21st of June, 1634, is the alleged date of the probably spurious Sir Edward Plowden or Ployden'e charter for impossible territory some- where between the Potomac and Newark Bay.

Rev. Edward D. Neill, president of Macaleeter College, Minn., who has given considerable attention to Maryland history, though from a rather sectarian stand-point, contributed two papere on Plowden to the fifth vol- ume of the Pennsylvania Magazine, conducted by the Historical Society of that State. He assumes Plowden's existence, aud that he was the linenl descendant of Edmund Plowden, the commentator on English law, who earned Coke's encomiums and who died in 1584. Plowden, according to Neill, did obtain a grant in 1632, through King Charles I.'s request to the viceroy of Ireland for a certain " Isle Plowden" and forty leaguee of the mainland, called "New Albion." The island lay between 39º and 40° latitude. Capt. Young, commissioned by the king in September, 1633, sent out an exploring expedition in 1634, which ascended the Del- aware as far as the Falle. . If this expedition ever sailed, it must have been the one mentioned by De Vries-ae having been massacred by the Indians. There is no proof that Plowden eent out thie party or had anghit to do with it. Evelyn, who commanded it, was in the service of Clay- borne's London partners. Plowden, says Mr. Neill, was living at hieseat at Wanstead in Hampshire in 1635, unhappy, beating his wife, quarrel- ing with hie neighbors, and changing his religion. His wife and hia clergyman'e wife both had him arrested for assault and battery, and his wife procured a divorce from him. In 1641, Evelyn wrote a pamphlet descriptive of New Albion, dedicated to Plowden's wife. The next year Plowden was on the Chesapeake. This was ten years after he ie said to have procured thie rich grant. No one can explain why he did not look after euch an estate sooner. Plowden lived most of hie time in Virginia, but was in Maryland, on Delaware Bay, at New York, and in New Eng- land. He was abroad just seven years, say his chroniclers, and then went home to return no more to " New Albion." It is conjectured that his seven years' residence was on account of being traosported, and that hie New Albion claim was trumped up after the time of his sentence wae served out. Plowden is reputed to have died in 1665. Mr. Neill further says that in 1635-40, Plowden was a prisoner in the Fleet Prison, London, for refusing to pay hie wife's alimony. Mr. Neill must see that the dates of Plowden's adventures are as irreconcilable as hie adven- tures.

THE FIRST SWEDISH SETTLEMENTS.

men and gentlemen under the title of "The Albion Kuights." The Delaware was the chosen ground to settle, and the company pledged itself to introduce three thousand trained men into the colony. Colo- Dists were actually introduced, and made their homee on the Delaware; but neither the number nor exact location can be told. Plowden was lord proprietor and captain-general, while one Beauchamp Plantagenet was made agent of this company of knightly settlers. The earl and Plantagenet were here seven years, and became well acquainted with the country and Indian tribes. A government was framed, and the machinery of civil administration put in operation, but its duration is unknown. A history of the colony was published in 1648, which con- tained the letter of one "Master Robert Evelia," addressed to Lady Plowden after his return to England. Ife was four years on the Dela- ware, and in his letter he states that "Captain Claybourn, fourteen years there trading," sustains what he says of the country. Evelyn evi- dently sailed up the river to the falls, for he mentions the streams which empty into it, names the tribes which live along it, with their strength, with some description of the country and the productions. Six leagues below the falls he speaks of " two fair, woody islands, very pleasant aad fit for parks, one of one thousand acres, the other of fourteen hundred or thereabouts." These were probably Burlington and Newbold's Islands. Near the falls, he says, "is an isle fit for a city : all the ma- terials there to build, and above the river fair and navigable, as the In- dians informed me, for I went but ten miles higher." The "isle fit for a city" refers, doubtless, to Morris Island, or the one abreast of Morris- ville. Itis barely possible that he fell into the popular error of some explorers of the period, that the Delaware branched at the falls, aud that the two branches formed a large island above. He says that a ship of one hundred and forty tons can ascend to the falls, and that "ten leagues higher are lead mines in stony hills." At the falls he locates the Indian town of Kildorpy, with clear fields to plant and sow, and near it are sweet, large meadows of clover or honeysuckle." The letter speaks of the abundant store of fish in the river, of water-fowl that swim upon its surface, and the game, fruit, and nuts to be found in the woods that line its banks, and of the magnificent forest-trees. Evelyn must have traveled well into the interior, and through portivas of Bucks County. He speaks of the new town of the Susquehaunocks as a " rare, healthy, and rich place, and with a crystal, brond river." This must refer to the Susquehanna River and the tribe from which it takes its name.

What became of Plowden's colony would be an interesting inquiry if we had the leisure to pursue it or the data necessary to solve it. The late William Rawle, of Philadelphia, who gave the subject a careful and intelligent investigation, believed that some of those who welcomed Penn to the shores of the Delaware were the survivors of the Albion Knights. History offers no Œdipus to wuravel the mystery .- Davis, History of Bucks County.

CHAPTER V.

THE FIRST SWEDISH SETTLEMENTS.

party of English who, under George Holmes, had taken possession of Fort Nassau. These adventurers, thirteen in number, were taken prisoners by the Dutch and sent to Virginia, from whence they came, as their captors believed, although it is said by some writers that they came to the fort from the New Eng- land colonies. Samuel Godyn died in the year 1634. His heirs and legal representatives in adjusting his estate provoked contentions with those who had been engaged in land speculations, which led to discoveries bordering upon scandal. The West India Company came to the rescue of the litigants, and purchased from Godyn's heirs and associates all the territory owned by them on both sides of the Delaware River for the sum of fifteen thousand six hundred guilders.

The wide-spread publicity which resulted from the operations of the enterprising Hollanders in estab- lishing trade with the Indians and possessing them- selves of large landed estates in the New World nat- nrally stimulated the ambitious princes of Europe to efforts for the extension of their power and dominion

SWEDISH BLOCK-HOUSE. [Used for Public Worship mn 1677.]

on the North American continent. Efforts to estab- lish colonies were always made by royal authority under liberal grants and chartered privileges. Large sums of money in many instances were expended in equipping these expeditions, and in capitalizing and controlling them and the commerce resulting from them. These investments were made upon the ex- pectation of a fair return, and when financial reverses and disappointments occurred changes in the man- agement ensued. Salaried officers were turned ont at the home office or recalled from abroad, who be- came important factors in the formation of new pro- jects, and all the more useful by reason of their ex- perience. Such a person was William Usselincx,1 a Hollander, born at Antwerp, in Brabant, who as early as 1624 presented himself to King Gustaf Adolph of Sweden, and laid before him a proposition for a trading company to be established in Sweden, and to extend its operations to Asia. Africa, and Magellan's Land (Terra Magellanica), with the assurance that

THE ineffectual efforts of the Dutch to secure a per- manent lodgment on the Delaware south of the Schuylkill River left their large landed interests in an unprofitable and precarious condition. It is not seriously pretended by commentators that the Dutch pioneers had any higher motives than those prompted by commercial advantages and the hope of obtaining wealth. It seems reasonably clear that a trading- post was still maintained by them on the Delaware, known as Fort Nassau, but not permanently occupied. It was doubtless an outpost, and for some years after the colony at Swaannendael was broken up was vis- ited by them at seasonable periods of trade and ex- change with the Indians. That they were vigilant in their watch upon the Delaware is proven by the fact that they sent an armed force to dislodge a small | this would be a great source of revenue to the king-

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

dom. Full power was given him to carry out this important project, and thereupon a contract of trade was drawn up, to which the company was to agree and subscribe. Usselincx published explanations of this contract, wherein he also particularly directed attention to the country on the Delaware, its fertility, convenience, and all its imaginable resources.

To strengthen the matter a charter was secured to the company, and especially to Usselincx, who was to receive a royalty of one thousandth upon all articles bought or sold by the company. The powerful king, whose zeal for the honor of God was not less ardent than for the welfare of his subjects, availed himself of the opportunity to extend the doctrines of Christ among the heathen, as well as to establish his own power in other parts of the world.1 To this end he sent forth letters patent, dated at Stockholm, on the 2d of July, 1626, wherein all, both high and low, were invited to contribute something to the company, ac- cording to their means. The work was completed in the Diet of the following year, 1627, when the estates of the realm gave their assent and confirmed the measure. Those who took part in this company were his Majesty's mother, the Queen Dowager, Christina, the princess, John Casimir, the Royal Council, the most distinguished of the nobility, the highest officers of the army, the bishops and other clergymen, to- gether with the burgomasters and aldermen of the cities, as well as a large number of the people gener- ally. The time fixed for paying in the subscriptions was the 1st of May of the following year (1628). For the management and working of the plan there were appointed an admiral, vice-admiral, chaplain, under- chaplain, assistants and commissaries, also a body of soldiers, duly officered. But when these arrange- ments were in full progress and duly provided for the German war and the king's death occurred, which caused this important work to be laid aside. The Trading Company was dissolved, its subscriptions nullified, and the whole project seemed about to die

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History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 15

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1534

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534