Duke of York Receives New Patent for His Grant, June 29, 1674

The English claimed the right to the country upon the South, or Delaware River, because of the fact that John Cabot sailed up and down the Atlantic coast.

Captain Thomas Young and his nephew, Robert Evelin, under a commission from King Charles “to go forth and discover lands in America,” arrived in the South River July 24, 1634. They remained at the mouth of the Schuylkill five days, and made two attempts to pass beyond the falls near Trenton. They built a fort at a place called Eriwoneck, probably the site of Philadelphia.

In 1635 the governor of Virginia sent fifteen armed men, under command of Captain George Holmes, to the South River, and they took possession of Fort Nassau and the contiguous country. The Dutch governor of New Netherland promptly sent a force which recaptured the fort and made prisoners of Holmes and his invaders.

In 1641 New Haven merchants and planters sent George Lamberton and Nathaniel Turner to make land purchases on the South River. They bought from the Indians and built a block house, to which place about sixty persons from Connecticut settled. The venture proved profitable, and soon other colonists arrived, and many houses were built near the mouth of the Schuylkill.

The Swedes and Dutch both protested and in May, 1642, two sloops arrived from Manhattan with instructions to expel the English quietly, if possible, but by force, if necessary. The Dutch were compelled to use force, sent the English prisoners to Manhattan and burned their improvements.

Charles II having been restored to the throne of Great Britain, he granted to his brother, James, Duke of York, later King of England, the lands lying between the Connecticut and Delaware Rivers. The duke fitted out an expedition, sailed to the mouth of the Hudson, and demanded the surrender, which was made August 27, 1664.

This expedition then proceeded to the Delaware and November 3 forced the surrender of that colony. Colonel Robert Carr was appointed Deputy Governor.

This conquest caused a war between Great Britain and Holland, which ended in favor of the former. The City of New Amsterdam became City of New York; Fort Orange became Albany; the South River became Delaware River, and New Amstel became New Castle.

Colonel Richard Nicholls governed the territory with justice and good sense until August, 1668, when he was succeeded by Colonel Francis Lovelace.

447The first rebellion in the country was stirred up about this time, 1669, when Konigsmark, known as the “Long Finn,” with another Finn, named Henry Coleman, who understood the Indian language, went about preaching sedition and creating disturbances among settlers and Indians.

Madame Papegoja, daughter of former Governor Printz, and Carolus Lock, the Swedish preacher, were said to have been adherents. Konigsmark was finally captured, put in irons, publicly whipped, branded with the letter “R” (for Rebellion), and sold into slavery in Barbados.

George Fox, the founder of the sect of Quakers, arrived from England and rode through New Jersey, crossed the Delaware where is now Burlington by swimming his horse. He then rode thirty miles that day and slept on some straw in the house of a Swede. This was in 1672, and the coming of this visitor had great significance for the future of Pennsylvania.

The Maryland Government sent a surveyor in April, 1672, to survey lands in the Delaware Colony for Lord Baltimore. In a few months a more warlike demonstration was made, when a detail of thirty, commanded by one Jones, rode into the Horekill and “bound the magistrates and inhabitants, despitefully treated them, rifled and plundered them of their goods,” and when it was demanded “by what authority were these proceedings,” it was answered with a “cock’t pistol to the breast of the impudent questioner.” Jones seized all the Indian goods and skins, drove a spike into the touch-hole of the great gun, and seized all the small arms and mill stones.

War again broke out between Great Britain and Holland in March, 1672, and had its consequent effect on the affairs along the Delaware.

In August Governor Lovelace declared that the war included those in America. The blow fell suddenly at New York, and Lovelace was taken while on a visit in Connecticut.

A Dutch fleet appeared before New York, July 30, 1673, of such superior strength that effective resistance was impossible. The fort capitulated and New York again became a Dutch city.

The Delaware colony made no resistance; the English were too few in numbers, the Dutch too willing, and the Swedes too indifferent. Peter Alricks again became the commander of the Delaware River.

The renewed Dutch Government lasted only a year, when, by the treaty of Westminster, February 19, 1674, New Netherland was finally ceded to Great Britain.

On June 29, 1674, King Charles gave a new grant to the Duke of York, who appointed Major Edmund Andros governor.

Andros set up a court at Upland in which were settled the controversies of the settlers. He reinstated in office those who had been magistrates at the time of the Dutch conquest, Peter AlricksAlricks excepted.

448The administration of Andros continued quite seven years, during which the only courts in what is now Pennsylvania were held at Upland. Nearly always the justices were Swedes.

The settlers above Christina Creek formed what later became the Pennsylvania Community. The settlers above the creek attended court at Upland, those below obtained justice at New Castle. This marked division was made November 12, 1678, and from that date the designation “county” became commonly employed.

Swedes’ Mill on Cobb’s Creek set up by Printz, in 1643, continued in use, but another was now built below New Castle. Others were built afterward.

At this time there were no roads, simply paths for man or horse, and cartways where merchandise was to be transported. Such were indicated by blazed trees. November, 1678, the court ordered “that every person should within the space of two months, as far as his land reaches, make good and passable ways from neighbor to neighbor, with bridges where needed, to the end that neighbors on occasion may come together.”

The time now approached when the lands along the shores of the Delaware became a place of refuge for all the sect of Quakers, and March 4, 1681, William Penn received a patent for the lands in America, to which the King gave the name Pennsylvania.