Pre-Penn Settlements of the Delaware Valley

Pre-Penn Settlements of the Delaware Valley Lenape, Dutch, and Swedes in the Delaware Valley in the Seventeenth Century* by Marshall Joseph Becker rrHE SWEDISH AND DUTCH COLONISTS first settling the Delaware Valley were few in number and did not maintain tight social groups like those formed by the Quaker immigrants. Their political and social subjugation by the English has led to their absorption into an ethnic limbo from which it is difficult to return. Recent searches for Lenape history also have provided evidence for the genealogies of these early Europeans. All three groups have become the basis for a large contemporary population of Americans who recognize no particular ethnic affiliation. Swedish Settlement on the South (Delaware) River: After an attempt by the Dutch to establish a trading post at Swanendael (Lewes, Del.) ca, 1630-1632, Dutch colonial activity on the side of the Del. River declined. Their post opposite present Philadelphia, called Ft. Nassau, continued operations for some years, but does not appear to have been permanently inhabited and few Dutch settlers actually occupied this area. The Swedish expedition of 1638 established Fortress Christina at the Lenape site of Hopokehocking, which was on the peninsula where Wilmington now stands. This trading station was moderately successful, and a small settlement developed around it. Colonists associated with the Swedes, however, tended to occupy scattered farmsteads along the river. In 1643, the second Swedish colonial governor, Johan Printz, established a combined trading station and house on Great Tinicum Island (see Becker 1979). This post, called 'rya Goteborg, became the center of the Swedish colonial effort in this area and served until the Dutch asserted control in 1655. In effect, the Printzhof was the first *Abstract of a lecture presented by Mr. Becker, professor of Anthropology, West Chester State College, West Chester, Pa. before the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania on Nov. 3, 1981. 227 228 The Pennsylvania Genealagical Magazine seat of government located permanently in what is now the state of Pennsylvania, and for that reason, I would like to return later to this aspect of the colonial history of our state. Problems in Research: Our research into genealogical or geographical matters is hampered by the wide range of orthographic, variation to be found in the early documents. Variations in the spelling of a name or a place are common, and even change in the same document. Standardization of spelling was not a great concern in the seventeenth century and probably reflects the observation that very kw Europeans of that period could read. Other problems in our research derive from the difficulty we have in transliterating place names and other words which derive from native languages. In combination with the task of understanding early orthography (Stryker Rodda 1980) our task is rendered most difficult. The extensive documentation offered by Benjamin Fernow (1877) indicates that few seventeenth century colonists could read and only the elite were schooled in writing, in addition to a few specialists. Most Europeans "signed" official documents with their marks, in ways quite similar to those used by native Americans. There does not appear to have been any embarrassment regarding this illiteracy until the eighteenth century when a general increase in these skills led many people to learn to "write" their names in place of making their marks. The growth of literacy may have been stimulated by a more urban oriented population after 1700, but still most people could not "write" anything but their names. Various other aspects of European technology beside writing were rather rudimentary in the seventeenth century. Aside from a basic knowledge of the storage techniques which characterize "agrarian" societies, and technology imported from Europe (metal working, shipbuilding), the early colonists lived a precarious life often not very difierent from that led by the local populations. This fostered a great deal of mutual co-operation in the early years. Only after European skills and organization were firmly established in the New World did the colonists become differentiated from and often hostile to their native hosts. Names: Similarities and Differences in Patterns of the The custom of taking new names in different settings was common too, but not limited to the native peoples on the South River. According to Richards (1929:51) many of the early Swedish immigrants took Pre-Penn Settlements in the Delaware Valley 229 new names when they arrived in the New World. The well-known Peter Rambo had been called Per Gunnarsson, but "following a custom quite common among the Swedes, took on as 'a surname the name of his old home in Sweden, Rambo." The Swedes used nicknames as well, so that we have a record of "Cornelis or Neles Learsen" on a document from 1680 which also bears the name of "Oda jonson (otherways called Carringa oda ." (Colonial Society 1904:465). The well-known Lasse Cock (Lawrence Cox) appears innumerable times in the Pennsylvania colonial documents, but with several variations in the way in which his name is spelled. Biographical information might clarify this background and offer clues as to the original form of his name. The trader named Tilghman (Steelman, Stelman), who worked the area from Delaware up to the Lehigh River, appears on several documents and with numerous variations to his name. Names of Swedes and others resident on the west side of the Delaware River are to be found on the census of 1680 (Fernow 1877:646-9). John Brigs appears to have compiled this listing for Sir Edmond Andros, Governor of New York, as a means by which the population on the South River might be better understood. The largely English groups on Cedar and Duck Creeks are listed first, and represent the two largest population aggregates of the time in that region. The seven householders at Ammersland (Henrick Johnson, Bartill Eschillson, 011a Sioubee, John Grilsaw, Mathias Mattison, Martin Martinson, and Jacob Clementson provide a representative sample of Swedish settlers in the area. Other names appear frequently, such as 011a Toersen, and several individuals appear to have only a Christian name. Most of these single-name people are designated as being Finnish, such as "Simon ye tfin" and "Mathias ye ffin." The ethnic Finns reflect the power of the Swedish nation at that time, an empire which included all of Scandinavia and much of the surrounding area which is now Poland, the Soviet Union, etc. People such as Peter Rambo and Fop Outhout are noted, but surprisingly only one Cock (at Kincesse) in addition to Lass Cock (Lawrence Cox) at Matinicum. No Yokums, or Joachims, appear on this census, but only the settlers close to the river appear to be noted. The hardy colonists who penetrated the forest were not recorded by Brigs. Printz: A Family which did not leave its name Johan Printz, the son of a pastor, took advantage of the oppor- 230 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine tunnies afforded by the age of exploration to alter his economic and social position within seventeenth century Swedish society. Printz spent years as a soldier, later became a knight and ultimately a nobleman. The instructions (dated 15 August 1642) which Printz was given prior to his departure for the New World directed him to select a place of residence and to find a suitable place for a fortress by which he couid close up (control trade on) the South River. Printz was to have the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and the title of Governor of New Sweden. Printz, accompanied by Johan Campanius and a small company of settlers, left Gottenburg on 1 November 1642 and, three and one-half months later, reached the South River via Antigua and the southern route. The southern route may have been preferred for winter travel, but it took the voyagers away from the New England area wheie wampum for trade was to be secured at low prices. Trading stations of the Dutch and English, as well as the Swedes, were already long established on the South River and the appointment of Printz may have been intended to improve the Swedish position in local trade with the Minquas. Printz landed at Fortress Christina on 15 February 1643. His grant fbr Teneko Island is dated 6 November 1643, but Printz probably did not live at Tinicum until completion of at least a portion of the "complex" of buildings. Work at Tinicum probably began in the summer of 1643 and may have been completed by the winter of 1644. From all the evidence one may assume that the blockhouse in this case was of log construction with a rectangular plan, and that it also served as Printz' residence (The Printzhof). Given his ambitions, one might presume that Printz would attempt to replicate on Tinicum Island a house constructed on the order of a Swedish noble's "gore" or manor house (gard) A "gore" of the seventeenth century consisted of a series of wooden buildings arranged around a courtyard and often enclosed by a palisade or fence. The close proximity of structures within such a "gore" complex might explain why the fire 425 November 1645 destroyed all the buildings at Nya Goteborg. By the end of 1646, the complex had been built, supposedly on a grander scale. The main building stood until destroyed by another fire in the early nineteenth century. A small church and some type of fortification also occupied this island, but both may have been separate from the manor complex. In 1643 there were resident along the South River (Delaware) a small cluster of English at a trading station and a tiny colony of Dutch Pre-Penn Settlements in the Delaware Valley 23 1 patroons established by the Swedish government to the south of Fortress Christina. The "Swedish" colonial population along the Delaware, including Finns and other "Scandinavian" populations, were never numerous probably due to the rigors of life on the frontier. The scattered . residential pattern of the Scandinavian is quite evident in the Swedish census of 1680. When de Vries left New Amsterdam on 3 October 1643 he included in his travels a brief tour of four forts on the South River. Five days sail out of New Amsterdam he reached Fort Elsinburg. The exact location and configuration of this "fort" remain unknown. Printz had built Elsinburg, also called Myggenborg because of the mosquitos, to protect the channel from the east side of the river. Printz claimed that it had been finished within eight months of his arrival on the South River. Elsinburg was abandoned about 1653, after the Dutch constructed Fort Casimir (ca. 1651?) nearby. Christina was the second fort reached by de Vries in 1.643; New Gothenberg, the third; and Fort Nassau the last. De Vries visited with Governor Printz, then continued a (Swedish?) mile further up the river to Fort Nassau. On the 19th de Vries and Governor Printz went to 11•Minquakil," the site of a little fort and some houses (Fortress Christina) a The burning of the Printzhof complex, supposedly through the carelessness of Swan Was, took place on 25 November 1645 (Old Styk). Rebuilding began at once, and a little church was added. Johan Campanius noted that the church was consecrated on 4 September 1646, and a burial place laid out. A report of the contraction of this church according to the Swedish fashion appears with Printz' report of 20 February 1647. The Reverend Johan Campanius ofificiated at this church, "instructed" the "savages," and learned the Lenape dialect. His translation of the Catechism into Lenape may be the first such work in the New World. The presence of Campanius and the ill-fated Swan Was (whose name also disappears from the record) provides us with evidence as to the size of the population in 1645-6. In the census of 1680 (Fernow 1877: 648) only 2 householders were resident on the island: "Mr. Andrew Carr" and "Hansa Walter." This suggests that the island never held a population greater than two families. Andreas Hudde's report on the South River (7 November 1648) provides the best survey of Dutch-Swedish relations for that period of time. Hudde had been appointed as the Dutch Commissary of Wares 232 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine on 12 October 1645 and came to examine conditions at a time when the Dutch were beginning to assert their control over the region between the Connecticut River and the Virginias. Hudde described, the area between the Printzhof and Fortress Christina, which was about two (Dutch) miles downstream. Hudde (in G. Smith 1862) noted that some plantations "continued nearly a mile; but few houses only are built, and these at considerable distances from each other. The farthest of these is not far from Tinnekonk... Farther on, at the same side till you come to the Schuylkill, being about two miles, there is not a single plantation, neither at Tinnekonk, because near the river nothing is to be met but underwood and valley lands." Relations between the scattered Swedes and the few Dutch Traders (or settlers) in the 1640's were passively hostile. Both often relied upon each other to survive in the face of a stressful environment. These interactions were rarely cordial, and the construction of fortified posts were designed to ensure access to local trade and to protect tobacco growing lands. The construction of the Swedish fort Elfsburg on the opposite (New Jersey) shore was part of the Swedish defense program. By 1655 the Dutch gained control and formally took charge of the South River. The short-lived Swedish colony did not have an active commercial interaction with their homeland. Like small businesses today we would call this venture "undercapitalized"—and during the entire course of years from 1638 to 1655 only a few crossings (fewer than 12; some say only 4) of Swedish ships provided support for these people. Dutch ships often provided supplies needed for trading and farming and when Governor Printz returned to Sweden he sailed aboard a Dutch ship. The scattered residential pattern of these early Europeans in some ways reflected the Lenape settlement pattern: low density and small clusters widely separated over the landscape. This pattern was evident in the census of 1680 noted above, but was altered rapidly by the tremendous migration of Friends into the area and by their astounding reproductive pattern. Since Printz was in residence at Tinicum between 1644 and 1653 there were probably members of the Okehocking Indian band alive in 1700 who had seen Printz or '‘meschatz" (large belly) when they were children. Hudde refers to an encounter in 1646 at which he was told of an Indian named Meerkedt, a sachem said to have been residing near Tinnekonk. Meerkedt may well have been the father or a lineal ancestor of one of the three Okehocking Indians (Pokais, Sepopawny, and Pre-Penn Settlements in the Delaware Valley 233 Muttagooppa) so well known from colonial documents of the period around 1700 (Becker 1976: 33). Our genealogies of Lenape from this period are as good as those for most Europeans. Sources for Early Pennsylvania Research I. For Lenape and other native people; a. Land sales b. Meetings (treaties) with colonists c. Moravian Records (in particular, the Baptismal accounts, which provide biographies and names of kin, particularly kin who also had been baptized. d. Records regarding trade, resettlement, etc. I For Europeans 1. Basic, General and essential a. Roach and Smith (especially pp. 19-21). 2. Swedes a. Hazard 1852 b. Acrelius 1874 c. Myers 1912 d, Fernow 1877 3. Dutch a. Hazard 1852 b. Weslager 1961 c. Myers 1912 d. O'Callaghan 1858 e. Van Rappard Documents 1. Gehring 1977, 1981 III. Locations for Research I. Swedes: American Swedish Historical Association Swedish National Archives 2. Dutch: Albany (Archives of the State of New York) In particular at the Archives Mr. Charles Gehring, an expert on Dutch doucments (and also Swedish) IV. Select Bibliography: Acrelius, 1874—A History of New Sweden, Trans. by W. M. Reynolds. Philadelphia: Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Reprinted 1966, Readex Microprint Corporation. 234 The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine Becker, Marshall J. 1976—The Okehocking: A Remnant Band of Delaware Indians. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 46(3): 24-61. 1979—Ethnohistory and archaeology in search of the Printzhof; the seventeenth century residence of Swedish colonial governor Johan Printz. Ethnohistory 26(1): 15-44. English Names as used by the Lenape during the Colonial Period: ms. Acculturation and Cultural Continuity in the Transitional Period. Fernow, Benjamin (editor)1877—Documents Relating to the History of the Dutch and Swedish Settlements on the Delaware River, Vol. XII. Albany: The Argus Company. Gehring, Charles T. (editor) 1977 Delaware Papers (English Period). New York Historical. Manu script Vols. X.X-XXI. Genealogical Publishing Company: Baltimore. i981 Delaware Papers (Dutch Period). New York Historical Manuscripts, Vols. XVIII-XIX, Translated by C. T. Gehring, Genealogical Publishing Company: Baltimore. Hazard, Samuel (editor)1852—Pennsylvania Archives. First Series, Vols. 1-12. Philadelphia: Joseph Severns and Company. Hudde, Andreas (see G. Smith) Myers, Albert Cook (editor) 1912—Narratives of Early Pennsylvania, WestNew Jersey, and Delaware 1630-1707. Charles Scribner's Sons: New York. O'Callaghan, E. B. (editor) 1858—Documents Related to the Colonial History of the State of New York. Albany: Weed, Parsons, and Company. Richards, Samuel H.1929—New Stockholm: The Swedish Settlement. Year Book for 1929: The New Jersey Sociey of Pennsylvania. Roach, Hannah Benner and Gail Thurman Smith (compilers) 1956—Reference Guides for Course in Genealogical Methods. Mimeographed. Smith, George-1862—History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Ash mead Press. Stryker-odds, Harriet 1980—Understanding Colonial Handwriting. New Jersey History 98(1):81-96. Weslager, C. A.1961—Dutch explorers, traders and settlers in the Delaware Valley 1601)1664. University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia.