USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania, colonial and federal : a history, 1608-1903, Volume One > Part 10
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Given at the Court at Whitehall the Second day of Apre 1681. In the Three and thirtieth year of Our Reign.
To the Inhabitants and Plan- ters of the Province of Pennfilvania.
By His Majefties Command, CONWAY.
LONDON, Printed by the Aligns of John Bill, Thomas Newcomb, and Henry Hills, Printers to the Kings moft Excellent Majefty. 1681. 1
Proclamation of the Charter to William Penn, April 2, 1681
The Dutch Settlement
tona during these years to see this fully exemplified. In Novem- ber, 1659, Beekman writes that at Altona six Indians, inflamed with Becker's brandy, disturbed the place, were pursued by the soldiers "into the bushes," and came back later and stole two blankets and a gun. A few weeks after, "two soldiers being drunk" -- again on Becker's liquor -- "burned a little Indian canoe, whereupon the savages threatened to set fire to a house or kill some cattle," so that Beekman had to interfere and pacify them. But, worse still, an Indian who had been drinking in the woods with a white man, Pieter Mayer, was next morning found dead, "a little further into the woods," whereupon the other In- dians threatened the man who had sold the liquor, saying he had put poison in it. Presently they set the dead body "upon a hur- dle, and put it on four great prongs," opposite the house where the liquor was bought, as a "curse" to the place.
Worse followed. A week after the report of these occur- rences, Beekman wrote that two Indians had been killed "by Christians," and their bodies found "in the underbrush or marshy places near New Amstel." Presently it appeared that three had been killed, instead of two; it "was done upon the farm of the late Mr. Alrich by his two servants." Stuyvesant, in a letter to Holland, calls it a "cruel murder," committed "only from the damnable desire of wampum," the victims being "a man, a woman and a boy." The murderers were known, and had been arrested, but D'Hinoyossa and his Council released them. The settlers were alarmed, fearing bloody reprisals by the Indians, and endeavors were hastily made to conciliate the neighboring chiefs. Beekman wrote to the Swedish sheriff Van Dyck to come to Altona to meet the Indians for that purpose, the Swedes being "better acquainted with the temper and manner of the sav- ages than we new-comers," but Van Dyck excused himself, say- ing the Indians had told them not to "trouble themselves with the matter." An incident a little later ( April, 1660) may be added here. Jan Barentsen, a carpenter, was killed by the Indians in the direc-
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tion of Maryland, and his wife died, either at Colonel Utie's or at the house of "Jacob," an Indian trader in the Susquehanna region. A child of this unfortunate couple survived, and the romantic story attached to it that it had been born in Holland "at the departure of Mr. Alrich, in the ship Prins Maurits," in 1657, and had been christened "Amstelhoop" (Hope of Amstel), "at the request of the Lords Burgomasters."
The revenge of blood for the three Indians killed near New Amstel came early in May, 1661, when four white men, three English and one Dutch, were killed by Indians on the road from
Thosfore
Signature of Thomas Lloyd; governor of Pennsylvania; born 1640; died 1694
New Amstel to the Maryland settlements. As the news spread, the neighboring Indians, expecting now to be attacked by the whites, hid "in great fear" for two weeks. Two of them, how- ever, had brought to New Amstel some of the clothing of the slain victims, and offered it for sale. They were arrested, but after an examination released by D'Hinoyossa as "not the right savages." The crime aroused general excitement and alarm. The Maryland authorities upbraided D'Hinoyossa for his action, and reports quickly spread that the English of that province would come in force and inflict their own punishment on the In- dians. The river Indians were terrified at the rumor, and many of them met at Passyunk to collect wampum for presents to the Minquas to induce them to intervene. "The Minquas," Beek- man adds in repeating this, had "already offered presents in pel- tries to the Governor of Maryland for this matter, but he refused to accept them, and had on the contrary requested them to go and destroy the river savages, which they declined to do." A few weeks later, commissioners from Maryland appeared at New Am- stel, and D'Hinoyossa summoned the river chiefs from Passyunk
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and other places to a conference to compose the troubles. Only one chief ventured to come, and he was from the east side of the river, not the west, but the meeting was held at Appoquinimy, on the border line of the Maryland country. Governor Calvert him- self attended, "and made peace with the aforesaid sachem, and merry with D'Hinoyossa." This conclusion was pleasing, no doubt, to the absent "river chiefs," who had been saying to An- dreas Hudde and others that "the English have killed some of
Edward Shipon
Signature of Edward Shippen; member Provincial Council, 1696-1712; judge of the Supreme Court, 1697; mayor of Philadelphia, 1701
ours, and we again some of theirs," and that one would "set off against the other."
Nor have these details quite exhausted the evil story. Early in September, 1662, Joris Floris, an old man, was driving through the forest, near New Amstel, with a wagon drawn by two horses, when he was "shot down from the horse" and scalped. Beekman wrote that he thought a river Indian had been previously shot by the whites, and that this was an act in reprisal ; but further inquiry made the murder more mysterious. A few weeks later, in No- vember, "about an hour after evening," a young man, a servant of Jan Staelcop, the miller near Altona, was killed "about four hun- dred steps from the Fort." The river Indians charged this on the Minquas or Senecas, and a fortnight after, five Minqua chiefs, with their suites, came to Beekman at Altona, alleging that the act had been committed by a captive Seneca belonging to them. They declared their own good will. "As long as any Christians have lived here,". they said, "it never can be proved that any ill or violence has been done them by our nation," though three years
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before, they added, a Minqua Indian had been killed by the Chris- tians at New Amstel. Often, they said, they had mediated for peace between the Christians and other Indians.
The war of the Iroquois tribes, at this period, upon the In- dians of the Susquehanna, has been referred to in ' an earlier chapter. Beekman wrote at the end of May, 1661, that "the Minquas and the Sinnecus are at war with each other." Six weeks later he repeated this, and added a report that "the English from Maryland have assisted the Minquas with fifty men in their fort." In October he heard that the Minquas were hard pressed by the Senecas, and that the latter had killed twelve river Indians on the river "a little above the Swedish settlement," so that the Swedes now feared the Senecas would kill their cattle. In Feb- ruary, 1662, he reported the war on the Susquehanna continuing, and in December the Minqua chiefs visiting Altona said they were expecting the aid of eight hundred "black Minquas," of whom two hundred had already come. Next spring they would resume their war against the Senecas and assail them in their own stronghold-"visit their fort." In May following, 1663, how- ever, the Senecas were first in the field. "Jacob," the Indian trader, sent word to Andreas Hudde that 1600 Senecas-an exaggerated figure, of course-with their wives and children, were marching on the Minquas, and were then but two days dis- tant. Later Beekman repeats this story, but reports the Senecas as only eight hundred, and relates that the Minquas had made a sally from their fort, and had driven off their assailants, pursu- ing them for two days, killing ten and capturing others.
The lugubrious story of drunkenness, quarrels, murders, and wars made the dark side of the colony's life; there was, however, a better side. A cheerful feature was the confidence shown in the Indians by selecting them as guides and messengers. The letters of Alrich and Beekman, if sent overland, as was the rule, were given to an Indian to carry. He went in a boat to Meg- geckessou, the falls of the Delaware at Trenton, and thence by
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land to Communipaw, opposite New Amsterdam. In many let- ters Beekman adds the memorandum that he is sending it "by a savage." "On the 9th instant, at night, I sent a savage to your
honor." "Sir, this is in haste, as the savage is very urgent to leave with the tide." "Mr. Beekman" (writes Andreas Hudde) "has requested me to forward this, . . therefore I have hired this savage thereto; he is to have at the Manahatas a cloth and a pair of socks." "Gentlemen, I have promised the bearer, . . a piece of cloth and a pair of socks provided he brings over the letter in four or five days at the utmost." These are some of the many references to the subject. As the plan was consistently maintained it is evident that the Indians proved faithful carriers.
The name of an Indian runner, Sipaelle, is given in one letter, but few other names of the local Indians are known. Becker, the brandy-selling clerk, says he gave a drink occasionally to friendly sachems such as "Meckeck Schinck, Wechnarent, Are- weehing, and Hoppaming," but of none of these have we any other account than the dram-drinking except in the case of Hop- paming. Of him Beekman relates, in January, 1661, that "about fourteen days ago, the grave of one Hoppemink, an Indian chief, was robbed ; he had been buried a short time before (in New Am- stel). They took out of it a party of wampum, 3 or 4 pieces of duffel, and further what he had with him; the savages murmur about it, and may perhaps undertake something bad."
It had been a fixed plan of the Dutch officials to collect the Swedes into compact communities, where they could be more readily watched. But though numerous efforts were made, the time never came when this could be effected. The Swedes naturally did not desire to leave the homes they had made. Beek- man went among them at different times to persuade them to re- move, but he had himself little heart in the undertaking, and re- ported to Stuyvesant that the difficulties were great. In April, 1660, he writes that he has been with the Swedes and Finns "sev- eral days." There was a dispute among those at Kingsesse and
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Aroenemeck which should remove-in which neighborhood they should concentrate. "Nobody is willing to make room, .. everyone asserts that he will keep his entire lot and fields." At Tinicum Madam Papegoia declared she could not remove, "on account of her heavy buildings, also because the church stands
Seal of David Lloyd
there." A sergeant, Andries Lourens, had tried to enlist some Swedes for the Esopus war against the Indians, but none would go; Beekman believed their head men had advised them "not to scatter themselves, but to keep about here"-which is very likely. For the time he decided that they should not be disturbed until they could gather their harvests, and in May Peter Kock and two other deputies came to represent that the proposed removal was impracticable, and to say that if they must break up, "then we shall go away to where we may remain living in peace." Finally the Dutch officials appear to have abandoned the scheme.
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It is probable that the Swedes had in some cases a definite grant of land. In the recitals of old titles in Delaware there is occasionally a reference to a grant by Stuyvesant, though no original papers appear to be extant.
The division of the Dutch territory into separate jurisdictions and interests was obviously a grave disadvantage. In 1663, therefore, the City of Amsterdam acquired from the West India Company all its claims upon the South river. The matter was under negotiation throughout the year; at the end of December Stuyvesant executed a formal act ceding to D'Hinoyossa, as the representative of the burghers of Amsterdam, "the South River from the sea upwards, so far as that river extends itself-toward the country, on the East side three miles from the border of the river, and toward the West side so far as the country extends un- *til it reaches the English colonies."
D'Hinoyossa, who had been to Holland, and had explained to the burghers of Amsterdam the great possibilities of trade and population on the Delaware, came back as the ruler of the whole river, triumphing thus over Beekman, whose office was now end- ed, and over Stuyvesant, whose authority he had defied. He reached New Amstel December 3, 1663, in the ship de Purmer- lander Kerck (the Church of Purmerland), with Peter Alrich and Israel Helm "as members of the High Council," and about one hundred and fifty immigrants. He proceeded at once to or- ganize his colony, and his policy appeared more favorable to the Swedes than Stuyvesant's had been. Peter Cock was appointed collector of tolls on imports and exports, and Israel Helm to supervise the fur trade "at the upper end of Passyunk."
All this, however, was in vain. It recalls the energy of Ris- ingh just before Stuyvesant swooped down upon him in 1655. The English lion was now ready to devour New Netherland. The summer of 1664 brought the catastrophe, when the fleet of the Duke of York appeared at Manhattan. In September Stuyvesant surrendered there, and in October the colony of D'Hinoyossa
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was captured. We shall speak of these events in more detail, in the chapter following.
The number of white people on the west bank of the Delaware river, at the close of the year 1664 can only be conjectured. There were, no doubt, fully a thousand, and possibly there were twice that number. D'Hinoyossa represented at Amsterdam, in 1663, that there were people on "one hundred and ten plantations," be- sides those living in the towns, soldiers, etc. In 1659 it had been proposed to tax the Swedes "five or six guilders for each family," and Beekman estimated that this would produce about four hundred guilders, thus indicating that there were not over eighty Swedish families. In March, 1660, he reported that Sheriff Van Dyck said "the Swedes and Finns count about 130 men capable to bear arms," which would indicate a total Swedish and Finnish population of at least six hundred.
The colonists were located on or near the river. A handful of soldiers probably remained at the Delaware capes, and there was also there a little colony of communistic "Mennonites" whom Peter Cornelius Plockhoy had brought over from Holland a few months earlier. Northward from the capes to Bombay Hook, and thence to New Amstel, there was hardly a white man's home. New Amstel itself was the most important place on the river- though D'Hinoyossa proposed now to locate the colonial capital at Appoquinimy (now Appoquinimink), southeast from New Amstel, as a better point from which to trade with Maryland. Al- tona, besides its decayed "fort," had a few houses. Then, north- ward, the clearings and plantings of the Swedes extended to where Philadelphia now stands, most of them being north of the Pennsylvania line. There were some centers of activity and life; Marcus Hook, Upland, Tinicum (occasionally called New Leyden), Passyunk, Kingsessing and Karakung (the old Swedes Mill), were places known to all, white and red, who had acquaint- ance with the South River colony.
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CHAPTER V
UNDER THE DUKE OF YORK .- 1664-1681
T HE Dutch had had many warnings of the English purpose. From the side of New England encroachments had been coming on Long Island, and on the mainland, almost within sight of Manhattan. From the side of Maryland, as we have seen, claims were made which would have obliterated New Netherland. The closing years of Stuyvesant's rule were times of distress and distraction over the increasingly difficult task of maintaining his ground.
The fatal weakness of his situation lay in the nature of the colony itself. It had never really taken root. It was essentially a trading, not a planting, enterprise which the West India Com- pany had undertaken, and as a competent American writer has observed, "the trading spirit is not of itself sufficient to establish successful settlement, and monopolies cannot be safely intrusted with the government of colonies."
It had been the traditional policy of England to claim the whole North American coast covered by the two blanket charters which James the First had granted to the London and the Plym- outh companies in 1606-stretching from Carolina to Nova Scotia, including islands within a hundred miles of the coast, and reaching inland without limit. When in 1632 Charles the First told the Dutch ambassadors, as has been related, that the settle- ments called New Netherland were all on English ground, it was but a re-statement of the settled policy, and a warning of what should be expected at a time convenient to England. And this
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time, after the passage of the Navigation Act by the English Par- liament, in 1660, and its amendment in 1663, had now come.
For the Navigation Act was an instrument to build up Eng- land's commerce, and destroy that of Holland. It provided that no European goods should go into an English colony except they came from England in an English ship. Furthermore, no goods produced in the colonies which the English merchants cared for- and they were strictly enumerated in the law, and the list in- creased from time to time-could be sent to any other ports than those under the English crown, though goods not desired in Eng- land might be sent from the colonies to ports south of Cape Finis- terre on the coast of Spain, thus cutting out the coast of France.
The establishment of this system was the beginning of the chapter which first consolidated England's power in North Amer- ica, and in the end lost to her all she seemed to have gained. The Navigation Acts, and the consequent monopoly of colonial trade in the hands of English merchants, was an intolerable injustice which in a large degree caused the Revolution of 1776.
But the American Revolution was in 1663 a full century dis- tant. The pressing question in England was the expansion of trade, the abasement of Holland, increase of the Crown revenues, and consequent profit to those who had the job of collecting them. It was perceived that the intended monopoly in trade in America could not be effective on the long coast line while the great port at Manhattan remained in the hands of the Dutch, and while they held the traffic of the North and South rivers. Some illicit trade there would always be, but the amount of it, with this great gap open in the English line, must be unbearable.
The policy of England therefore concurred with the personal inclination of the King and his brother, when on the 12th of March, 1663-4,1 Charles granted to James, Duke of York, a pat-
1We have come now to the English calen- dar usage and its "double dating" between January 1 and March 24. The Dutch would have made this date March 22, 1664, for
they had adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1582, but England retained the Julian cal- endar until 1752.
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WILLIAM PENN HOTEL
Old Penn Mansion, Letitia Court
Built 1682; removed and re-erected in Fairmount Park in 1882
Under the Duke of York
ent for a great body of land in America, lying between the west bank of the Connecticut river, and the east side of the Delaware, the inland line being drawn from "the head of the Connecticut river to the source of Hudson river, thence to the head of the Mo- hawk branch of the Hudson, and thence to the east side of Dela- ware bay." This was New Netherland, the colony which the Dutch had been promoting almost since the voyage of Hudson, but Charles assumed that it was English territory, and that the Dutch for half a century had simply been intruders upon it.
Such a claim, if pressed, meant of course war with the Dutch Republic. For that the English King and his brother were ready, if not prepared. Though their sister had married one of the chief of the Dutchmen, William, Prince of Orange, and the son of this marriage, William, now a lad of fourteen, was their nephew, neither King nor Duke loved Holland.1
The Duke of York was the Lord High Admiral of England. Ships to seize the Dutch territory were thus at his command, and four of these were at once fitted out for America. Four commis- sioners went on board, to take charge of the new territory when it should be seized-Col. Richard Nicolls, Sir Robert Carr, Col. George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick. The last-named had been some time in the Massachusetts colony, an implacable oppo- nent of the ruling people there; the other three were officers in the British army. Nicolls was the brains of the commission, an able and sagacious man.
James, Duke of York, with whom we must now concern our- selves more or less for a quarter of a century of this narrative, was in 1664 thirty-one years old. He had married in 1660 Anne
1As this narrative of Pennsylvania will presently have to do with this nephew of Charles and James, William of Orange, who became the son-in-law of James in 1677, and King of England in 1688 (Will- iam III.), a few facts of interest may be mentioned here. William's father died in 1650, of small-pox, eight days before his
(the son's) birth, and his mother (Mary, daughter of Charles I., and sister of Charles II., and James II.), going to London, in 1660, at the Restoration, died there, of small-pox, so that William was left an orphan at ten years. He succeeded his uncle and father-in-law, as King of Eng- land, in 1688.
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Hyde, daughter of that distinguished, if not altogether honored figure in English history, the Earl of Clarendon. As his brother the King had no legitimate children-though many others- James was heir presumptive to the English throne. The grant of the American territory to him would therefore, if he became king, merge in the Crown possessions, and the settlements upon it become a Crown colony.
Sailing from Portsmouth England, on the 15th of May (1664), the Duke's ships were at Boston late in July, and on the 19th of August had reached the waters around Manhattan Island.
Showynne Signature of Thomas Wynne, member of the Assembly, 1683
The four were the Guinea, the Elias, the Martin, and the William and Nicholas, carrying altogether eighty-two guns. They had on board about four hundred and fifty soldiers. It was a force so overwhelming that resistance by Stuyvesant was manifestly impracticable. He would, however, have made a defense, if his councillors had not overborne him. They preferred to yield and accept the assurances of Col. Nicolls, rather than resist and be worse used. On the 29th of August the fort of New Amsterdam was surrendered by Stuyvesant, and the English flag was raised over it.
The South river colony was promptly visited, also. It did not lie-that part of it which had importance-within the King's grant to the Duke, for it was on the west side of the Delaware, but it was part of New Netherland. Sir Robert Carr was there- fore sent, September 3, with the Guinea and the William and Nicholas, and as many soldiers as could be spared from the Man- hattan fort, to "reduce" it to submission. The other three com- missioners gave him a letter of authority. It began : "Whereas, we are informed that the Dutch have seated themselves at Dela-
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ware Bay, on his Majesty of Great Britain's territories, without his knowledge or consent, and that they have fortified themselves there, and drawn a great deal of trade thither ; and being assured that if they be permitted to go on, the gaining of this place will be of small advantage to His Majesty, we"-etc., etc.
Caleb Pusey House, near Chester
Oldest building in Pennsylvania, having been built in 1683. Occupied by William Penn during occasional visits. Photo by Louise D. Woodbridge.
Once more, then, a hostile fleet came inside the capes and up the bay. The voyage from New York-as henceforth we shall know it-had been tedious, and it was not until the last day of September that the two warships reached New Amstel, and Carr summoned the place to surrender. He had, he says, "almost three days' parley" with the Governor and the burghers; the latter agreed to yield, but the Governor and soldiers refused. He there- fore landed his men, and the ships fired two broadsides upon the fort, after which it was stormed. The assailants sustained no loss, but the Dutch had ten wounded and three killed. This is Carr's account, and all we have. If we may trust it, D'Hinoyossa appears as a more resolute defender of the post he held than his
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Dutch predecessor in 1654, or the Swedish in the following year.
Whether or not the capture was attended with bloodshed, Carr's men, according to his own report, plundered right and left. In the fort and the town soldiers and sailors vied with one another in robbery. Carr said they made so much "noise and confusion" about it that his commands could not be heard. The cows, oxen, horses, and sheep of the settlers were seized. More important than the quadrupeds were a number of negro slaves, who also fell prize to the Englishmen. There were some sixty or seventy of these. They had reached Manhattan in the Gideon, a slave ship, with over two hundred more, just before the arrival of the Eng- lish fleet, and had barely escaped capture there, Peter Alrich having hurried them across the North river, and thence overland to New Amstel. They were now divided among the captors, and Carr promptly traded some to Maryland. In his report, a few days after the capture, he says : "I have already sent into Mary- land some Neegars which did belong to ye late Governor at his plantation above, for beefe, pork, corne, and salt, and for some other small conveniences which this place affordeth not."
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