USA > Pennsylvania > The history of Pennsylvania : from its discovery by Europeans, to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 > Part 4
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Printz returned to Sweden in 1652, leaving his son-in-law, John Pappegoia, vice-governor. In 1654, Pappegoia also returned to Sweden, and the government devolved upon John Risingh, who had come out a short time before, clothed with the authority of commissary and counsellor. He conti- nued, under the title of director-general, to preside over the Swedes, until they were entirely reduced by the Dutch. He renewed the former treaties with the Indians, and, at a council held in 1654, they promised to maintain a sincere friendship. The engineer Lindstrom accompanied Risingh. Both actively promoted the welfare of the colony, and the former made many minute explorations, and constructed plans of the several forts of the river, aided in improving their fortifications, and framed a map of the bay, river, and adjacent country, which is remarkable for its correctness,
* Smith's N. Y. Dutch Records.
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and curious, as exhibiting the various streams which empty . into the Delaware, with their Indian names. A descriptive memoir, highly interesting, accompanied this map .*
The possession of the Delaware, by the Swedes and Dutch, was for some years in common. In addition to the forts at Nassau and Lewistown (Hoarkills), the latter in 1651, built fort Kasimer at Sandhocken, the present site of Newcastle.t This approximation was too great for the temper of the Swedes. Printz remonstrated, and Risingh demanded that the fort should be delivered up; but receiving a refusal, resolved to obtain it by force or stratagem. He approached the for- tress, and, after firing two complimentary salutes, landed with thirty men, who were received by the commandant as friends; but, discovering the weakness of the garrison, they imme- diately mastered it, seized on all the effects of the West India company, and compelled several of the vanquished to swear allegiance to the queen Christina. Open war having been thus made, without the formality of a declaration, Stuyve- sant, then governor of New York, although busily engaged with his troublesome neighbours of Connecticut, resolved on direful vengeance.}
On the 9th September, 1654, the Dutch governor, com- manding an overwhelming force, appeared in the Delaware. On the 16th, he anchored before fort Casimer, landed his troops, and demanded the surrender of the place. Sven Scutz, or Schute, the commandant, asked leave to consult his chief, Risingh; but this being refused, the fort was surrendered on articles of capitulation. Its whole strength consisted of four cannon, fourteen pounders, five swivels, and a parcel of small arms, all of which were retained by the conquered. The stronger fortress of Christina was held by governor Risingh in person; but even he dared not resist the invincible Stuyve- sant. On the 25th of the same month, this earliest monu- ment of Swedish enterprise in America, submitted to a strange master, and with it fell the whole Swedish colony. The
* MSS. Library of Am. Phil. Soc. t Campanius. Acrelius. Smith's New York. # These wars have been worthily chronicled by the erudite and facetious Knickerbocker.
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fort and palace and church at Tennekong also became the prize of the conquerors, and were either prostrated in sacri- fice to the angry Stuyvesant, or have fallen under the tooth of time. The latter is the most probable, since the courage of the renowned Dutch captain was not sullied by barbarism .*
The country having been thus subdued, Stuyvesant issued a proclamation favourable to those who chose to remain under his government. About twenty Swedes swore fealty to the " States General, the lords directors of the West India com- pany, their subalterns of the province of New Netherlands, and the director general then or thereafter to be established." Risingh and one Elfwyth, a trader of note, were ordered to France or England, and from thence to Gottenburg.t Among those that remained in New Sweden, was the wife of Pape- goia. To her the island of Tennekong descended, and was by her subsequently sold to captain Carr, the English go- vernor, from whom the purchase money, three thousand guilders, was recovered by an execution from the council at New York .¿ In March, 1656, the Swedish resident at the Hague remonstrated against the conduct of the West India company, but the United Provinces never gave redress.
During the possession of the Swedes, several vessels ar- rived from Sweden, bringing adventurers, who devoted them- selves to agriculture. The last ship thus freighted, through the unskilfulness of her officers, entered the Raritan river, instead of the Delaware, and was seized by Stuyvesant, then about to prepare for his campaign against Risingh. Many improvements were made by this industrious and temperate people, from Henlopen to the falls of Alumningh or Sanki- kans. Beside the places we have already named, the founda- tion of Upland, the present Chester, was laid at Mocoponaca; Korsholm fort, commanded by Sven Soner, was built in Passaiung. Manaiung fort was placed at the mouth of Schuylkill river, known to the natives by the names of Ma- naiung, Manaijunk, Manajaske, Nitabacong, or Matina-
* Smith's New York. Acrelius.
+ Smith's New York. + N. Y. Records.
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cong; by the Dutch, Schuylkill; and by the Swedes, Skiar- kilen and Landskilen. Then also were marked the sites of Nya Wasa and Gripsholm, somewhere in the neighbourhood of the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers; Straws Wijk, and Nieu Causeland, or Clause Land, (the present New Castle;) and forts were erected at Kinsessing, Wicacoa, (Southwark,) Finlandt, Meulendael, and Lapa- nanel. On the eastern shore, also, the Swedes had settle- ments at Swedesborough and other places. Most of these are marked on the maps of Campanius and Lindstrom, and were probably little more than dwellings of farmers, with such slight defences as might protect them from a sudden incur- sion of the natives .* Among the discoveries of metallic riches which rewarded the labours of the Swedes, we are in- formed of silver and gold mines. The former are also noticed by Master Evelyn in his description of the country, reported by Plantagenet in his Memoir on New Albion, but they did not remunerate those who endeavoured to work them.t(1)
After its recovery from the Swedes, the Dutch governed the country on South river by lieutenants, subject to the di- rector-general at New Amsterdam. Johannes Paul Jacquet was the first vice-director. His successors were Peter Alricks, Hinojossa, and William Beekman. They were empowered to grant lands, and their patents make part of the ancient titles of the present possessors. Alricks' commission of the 12th April, 1657, shows the extent of the Dutch claim on the west side of the Delaware. He was appointed " director- general of the colony of the South river of New Nether- lands, and the fortress of Casimer, now called Niewer Amstel, with all the lands depending thereon, according to the first purchase and deed of release of the natives, dated July the 19th, 1651, beginning at the west side of the Minquas, or Christina kiln, in the Indian language named Suspecough, to the mouth of the bay or river called Boompt hook, in the Indian language Cannaress; and so far inland as the bounds and limits of the Minqua's land, with all the streams and
. Campanius. Acrelius. Lindstrom MS.
+ Lindstrom. See 1 Proud. Smith's New Jersey.
(1) See Note D, Appendix.
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appurtenances and dependencies." Of the country north- ward of the Kill, or southward of Boompt Hook, or Can- naress, no notice is taken. In 1658, Beckman was directed to purchase cape Henlopen from the natives, which, for want of goods, was not effected until the succeeding year. * From the orders and the purchase of 1651, it would seem that no reliance was placed on the purchases made of the Indians by Goodyn in 1629, and by the Swedish governors Minuit, Printz, and Risingh.
In 1642, as we have seen, the Dutch expelled the English from the Schuylkill, as intruders on rights too notorious to be disputed; but during the present year, the Marylanders de- manded possession, of the shores of the Delaware, by virtue of the patent from the English crown to lord Baltimore. Colonel Nathaniel Utie, commissioner from Fendal, governor of Maryland, visited Niewer Amstel, to protest against the occupation by the Dutch of the western shores of the Dela- ware bay, threatening to assert lord Baltimore's right by force, but offering also to receive the settlers under his juris- diction, upon the terms granted to other emigrants. Beek- man proposed to refer the controversy to the decision of the republics of England and Holland; and Stuyvesant, by his commissioners despatched to Annapolis, made the like pro- position, asserting the title of the East India company, arising from prior occupancy and the assent of the English govern- ment, protesting against the conduct of Fendal, as a breach of the treaties between the Dutch and English nations. In the following year, Baltimore applied through his agent, cap- tain Neale, to the Dutch West India company, for orders to their colonists on the Delaware to submit to his authority. A peremptory refusal was instantly given, and a petty war in the colonies was prevented by the weakness of Maryland, and the hopes of redress, from measures then contemplated by the English nation against all the Dutch possessions in North America. t
* Smith's New York. The deed for this purchase is now in the posses- sion of the state of Delaware. + N. Y. Records. N. Y. Hist. Col. vol. iii. 368. Smith's New York.
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HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
From a pamphlet published in 1648,* it would appear that a grant had been made by James I., to sir Edward Ploeyden, of the greater part of the country between Maryland and New England, which was erected into a province and county palatine. The boundaries of this extensive palatinate are asserted to be, in the language of the writer, "one thousand miles compass of this most temperate rich province: for our south bound is Maryland's north bound-and beginning at Aquats, or the southernmost or first cape of Delaware bay, in thirty-eight degrees forty minutes, and so runneth by or through or including Kent isle, through Chesapeake bay to Piscataway, including the falls of Potomac river, to the head or northernmost branch of that river, being above three hun- dred miles due west, and thence northward to the head of the Hudson river to the ocean sixty leagues, and thence to the ocean and isles, across Delaware bay to the south cape fifty leagues; in all seven hundred and eighty miles. Then all Hudson's river isles, Long isle or Pamunke, and all isles within ten leagues of the said province being." These limits, if not very precise, are certainly comprehensive. The rights derived from this patent seem to have slept, during the reigns of James and the first Charles, but were awakened amid the revolution. Before 1648 a company was formed, under sir Edmund Ploeyden, for planting this province, in aid of which our author wrote his description of New Albion. This little work contains a comparison between New Albion and other countries of the new world, giving all preference to the for- mer, and a learned exposition and defence of the rights of an earl palatine, who, among other royalties, having power to
· This pamphlet is addressed by Beauchamp Plantagenet " To the right honourable and mighty lord Edmund, by Divine Providence lord proprietor, earl palatine, governor and captain-general of the province of New Albion, and to the right honourable, the lord viscount Monson of Castlemain, the lord Sherard, baron of Leitrim, and to all other the viscounts, barons, baro- nets, knights, and gentlemen, merchants, adventurers, and planters, of the hopeful company of New Albion, in all forty-four undertakers and sub- scribers, bound by indenture to bring and settle three thousand able trained men in our several plantations to the said province."
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create barons, baronets, and knights of his palatinate, had be- stowed a baronage upon our author and others, as well as upon each of his own children. Thus there were the son and heir ap- parent and governor, Francis lord Ploeyden, baron of Mount Royal, an extensive manor on Elk river, and Thomas lord Ploeyden, high admiral, baron of Roymount, a manor on the Delaware bay, in the vicinity of Lewistown; and the lady Winifred, baroness of Uvedale in Websneck, deriving its name from its abundance of grapes, producing the Thoulouse, Muscat, and others.
From circumstances, it is probable that this New Albion company sent out agents, who visited different portions of the province, and that some of them established them- selves there; that the Palatine himself and some of his friends, with whom was Plantagenet, sought temporary cover from the storms of civil war in England, amid the American wilds; that a fort named Eriwomec was erected at a stream called Pensouken, next below Rancocas, on the Jersey shore, and that a considerable settlement was made at Watcessi, or Oijtsessing, at or near the present site of Salem .* These settlements were probably broken up by the united force of the Dutch and Swedes. No vestige of them now remains, and all the knowledge we possess in relation to them is con- jectural. 1(1)
Trumbull, in his history of Connecticut, informs us " that in 1640 some persons at New Haven, by captain Nathaniel Turner, their agent, purchased for thirty pounds sterling a large tract of land, for a number of plantations, on both sides of Delaware bay or river, with a view to trade, and for the settlement of churches in gospel order and purity: that the colony of New Haven erected trading houses upon the lands, and sent nearly fifty families to make settlements upon them;
* New Albion. Barker's Address. + Smith's History of New Jer- sey. Bescryvinge van Virginie, Nieu Nederlandt, &c. Pennsylvania Regis- ter, 1828, vol. iv.
(1) See Appendix, Note E, for a further account of New Albion. The curious reader will find the work of Plantagenet in the Philadelphia Li- brary, No. 1019, octavo.
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and that settlements were made under the jurisdiction of New Haven, and in close combination with that colony, in all their fundamental articles."
This account, like many others relating to the Connecticut claims on the Delaware, is to be received with great caution. It is highly improbable, that fifty families from New Haven were, at this time, seated upon that river. We gather, however, from the complaints of the Connecticut traders, that they visited the Delaware for the purposes of trade, and that they were expelled by the Swedes and Dutch, under Kieft, in 1642; their trading house (if any they had) destroyed, their goods confiscated, and their persons imprisoned. The commissioners of the united colonies, upon an investigation of the facts, directed governor Winthrop to remonstrate with the Swedish governor, and to claim indemnity for the losses sustained, amounting (damages for imprisonment included, we presume,) to one thousand pounds .* Winthrop addressed letters to Kieft and Printz, but received no satisfactory an- swer. At an extraordinary meeting of the commissioners in 1649, the general court of New Haven proposed for con- sideration, the propriety of speedily planting the Delaware bay. But the commissioners, deeming it imprudent by any public act to encourage the settlement of lands alleged to have been purchased there, refused to countenance any at- tempt for that purpose; but declared that the New Haven merchants might improve or sell the land they had pur- chased as they should see cause.t The conduct of the Dutch to these merchants, formed a part of the grievances submit- ted to the delegates from Stuyvesant and the united colo- nies, in September, 1650, when the New England colonies claimed a right to the Delaware, under their patents, and by purchases from the Indians; the price of the latter we have already stated. These delegates, for want of sufficient light, concluded to leave both parties at liberty to improve their interests on that river.
* Trumbull's Connecticut. Proceedings N. E. Commissioners, 1643. t Trumb. Con. vol. i. Record of the United Colonies.
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Encouraged by this declaration, the inhabitants of New Haven and its vicinity fitted out, in the following year, a vessel with fifty adventurers, designed to make settlements on the Delaware. This vessel stopped at New York, and, the object of her voyage being communicated to governor Stuyvesant, he arrested and confined a part of the crew, and, obtaining possession of their commission and other papers, refused to re-deliver them, until the adventurers consented to return to New Haven. He threatened, that, should he discover any of them upon the Delaware, he would send them prisoners to Holland, and that he would resist their encroachments in that quarter even to bloodshed.
But the colony of New Haven was not disposed to aban- don her pretensions under these threats. She brought the subject again before the commissioners of the united colonies, in 1654, and obtained from them a letter to the Dutch go- vernor, in which the rights alleged by the Dutch and Swedes, are very summarily disposed of, " as their own mistake, or at least the error of them that informed them," whilst the rights of the people of New Haven appeared " so clear, that they could not but assert their just title to their lands, and desire that they might peaceably enjoy the same." This letter produced no other effect than others which had been previously written. The colony of New Haven submitted very impatiently to these obstacles, and would have removed them by force of arms, had her sister colonies been disposed to involve themselves in hostilities. She applied, in 1651, to the Plymouth colony for aid against such as should oppose her in settling a plantation upon the Delaware, but the Ply- mouth people shortly replied, that "they did not think it meet to answer their desire in that behalf, and that they would have no hand in any such controversy." Deprived of all hopes of effectual assistance from their neighbours, the traders of New Haven were compelled to remain at peace. The country was soon after granted to the duke of York, and their pretensions were too feebly sustained by justice, to al- low them to be arrayed against the duke's title. Hence, for
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near a hundred years, no claim to lands in Pennsylvania was made by Connecticut.
The governor of New Netherlands had always found the New England colonists troublesome neighbours. Their en- croachments had given him much uneasiness. In the year 1753, they formed the design of driving the Hollanders from the continent, and applied to Oliver Cromwell for assistance. Although favourably disposed to this measure, the protector, perhaps deterred by more important objects, did not make any efforts to accomplish it. After his death, his son Richard instructed his naval commanders and the colonial govern- ments to make the attempt; but the subversion of his ephe- meral power prevented the execution of his orders. Charles II., however, influenced by his enmity to the States General, entered readily into the views of his trans-atlantic subjects. He granted to James, duke of York, the territory possessed by the Dutch,* and soon after, colonel Richard Nichols, as- sociated with George Cartwright, sir Robert Carr, and Samuel Maverick, with three ships, having one hundred and thirty guns and six hundred men, aided by forces from Massachu- setts and Connecticut, summoned Stuyvesant to surrender New Amsterdam and his whole province. (1)
This formidable force, and the favourable terms offered to the inhabitants, disposed them to capitulate, notwithstanding the efforts of the governor to excite resistance. After a few days of fruitless negotiation, during which Stuyvesant pleaded in vain the justice of the title of the States General, and the peace existing between them and the English nation, a ca- pitulation was signed, t and, immediately afterwards, a force was despatched to reduce fort Orange. In honour of the duke of York, the city of New Amsterdam received the name of New York, and fort Orange that of Albany. The greater part of the inhabitants submitted cheerfully to the new go- vernment, and governor Stuyvesant retained his property, and closed his life in New York.
* 20th March, 1664. (1) See Appendix, for the boundary of country granted to the duke of York. + 27th August.
.
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Sir Robert Carr, with two frigates, and the troops not re- quired at New York, was sent to compel the submission of the inhabitants on the Delaware, which he effected with the expenditure of two barrels of powder and twenty shot .* By articles of agreement, signed Garrett Saunders, Vautiell, Hans Block, Lucas Petterson, and Henry Cousturier, it was stipulated, that " the burgesses and planters submitting them- selves to his majesty, should be protected in their persons and estates; that the present magistrates should continue in their offices; that permission to depart the country should be given within six months to any one desirous thereof; that all people should enjoy liberty of conscience in church dis- cipline as formerly; and that any person taking the oath of allegiance, should become a free denizen, and enjoy all the privileges of trading into any of his majesty's dominions, as freely as any Englishman."
The whole country having been thus conquered without bloodshed, colonel Nichols, by virtue of a commission from the duke, assumed the government at New York. In the latter end of October,t he was commissioned by his associates, Cartwright and Maverick, to repair to Delaware bay, to esta- blish the government there, by deputing such officers and taking such measures as he might deem necessary. It does not appear, however, that he made the visit; and the affairs of the Delaware settlements were conducted by the ancient magistrates, under the supervision of captain John Carr, until the year 1768; during which, Carr's authority was recognised, and a council was appointed by him, consisting of Hans Block, Izrael Holme, Peter Rambo, Peter Cock, and Peter Aldrick, with instructions, that in all matters of difficulty and import- ance, they should have recourse, by way of appeal, to the go- vernor and council of New York.
The capture of New York and its dependencies led to an European war between Great Britain and Holland, ending in the treaty of Breda, at which the right of the former to
* MS. copy of New York Records, in secretary's office at Harrisburg. 1st of October. + Oct. 24.
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their newly acquired territories in America was acknow- ledged. *
Colonel Nichols governed the province for nearly three years with justice and good sense. He settled the bounda- ries with the Connecticut colony, which, yielding all claim to Long Island, obtained great advantages on the main, push- ing its line to Marmaroneck river, about thirty miles from New York: he prescribed the mode of purchasing lands from the Indians, making the consent of the governor requisite to the validity of all contracts with them for the soil, and di- recting such contracts to be entered in the public registry: he incorporated the city of New York, under a mayor, five aldermen, and a sheriff:t and, although he reserved to him- self all judicial authority, his administration was so wise and impartial, that it enforced universal praise.
Colonel Francis Lovelace succeeded colonel Nichols, in May, 1667. By proclamation, he required that all patents granted by the Dutch, for lands upon the Delaware, should be renewed, and that persons holding lands, without patent, should take out titles under the English authority. Power was given to the officers on the Delaware to grant lands, and the commission of surveyor-general, of all the lands under the government of the duke of York, on the west side of the Delaware, was issued to Walter Wharton. Governor Love- lace also renewed the duty of ten per cent. imposed on goods imported by the Delaware, which had been established by the Dutch, and repealed by his predecessor; but it was found so oppressive, that he also was compelled to revoke the order by which it was established.
A feeble attempt at rebellion against the English govern- ment, was made by a Swedish adventurer, called the Long Finne, whose name was Marcus Jacobson, but who assum- ing to be the son of Koningsmarke, a distinguished Swedish general, traversed the country, uttering seditious speeches, and exciting the people to insurrection. We are uninformed of the true nature of this man's character and designs. It is
* July 10, 1667. + June 12, 1665.
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probable that he proposed, by the aid of the Indians, to over- throw the English power on the Delaware, and to re-establish that of his own countrymen. He succeeded in seducing many from their allegiance, among whom were men of con- sideration and property. Henry Coleman, a Finne, who became his chief follower, was well versed in the English and Indian tongues, and " deserted his home, his cattle, and corn," to promote the enterprise; and, from a letter of governor Lovelace, we are informed that a Domine, or clergyman, was also concerned with the Long Finne. The governor issued a proclamation, commanding the arrest of Long Finne, Cole- man, and their associates; but, as they kept much with the Indians, their capture was difficult. At length the former was apprehended, tried, and convicted, by a commission sent from New York, and sentenced to death. But the council at New York changed his sentence, and doomed him to be se- verely whipped, branded with the letter R upon his breast, imprisoned for one year, and to be transported to Barbadoes, and sold as a slave for four years .* His principal associates wererequired to give security for their future good conduct, and to pay the value of half their goods and chattels to the king; others of less note were fined in small sums, at the discretion of the commissioners.
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