Chapter 7 – Delaware Under the Dutch

CHAPTER VII

DELAWARE UNDER THE DUTCH

AFTER the conquest of the Swedish settlements on the Delaware, Director Stuyvesant left for New Amsterdam, leaving the administration of justice and the superintendence of public interests in the hands of John Paul Jacquet, who he afterwards confirmed as vice-director. Andries Hudde was made secretary and surveyor, and Elmerhuysen Klein counselor. These three officers, with two of the “most expert freemen,” were to form the Court of Civil Justice. Fort Casimir, now regaining its original name, was to be the seat of government, above which no trading vessels were to go, unless they received a permit. In the settlement of the country, the colonists were to concentrate themselves in families of sixteen to twenty in number, and were to pay annually for their lands twelve stivers a morgen in lieu of tenths. The town lots were forty feet by fifty, and the streets from four to five rods in breadth.* The Swedes were to be closely watched, and if any should be found disaffected, they were to be sent away “with all imaginable civility,” and, if possible, be induced to come to Manhattan. The vice-director was also required to “maintain and protect the Reformed religion, as it is learned and taught in this country, in conformity to the Word of God and the Synod of Dordrecht, and to promote it as far as his power may extend.” The whole number of inhabitants consisted, at the time, of about a dozen families. Police regulations were adopted, and a liberal commercial treaty was arranged with the Indians with the assistance of the inhabitants.

New Sweden ceased to be the name of the territory, as it was now part of the Dutch territories of New Netherlands, and went by that name. The Delaware River was called the South River.

Meanwhile, information reached the States General, through their ambassador at the Court of London, of the fall of Fort Christina, and of the expulsion of the Swedes from the Delaware. The Swedish government remonstrated with their High Mightinesses at Amsterdam, but the protest was of no avail. The Swedes could not follow up their protests with a sufficient force to command respect, for “they had their hands full” of the war they were then waging against Poland. On May 26, 1656, the Directors communicated to Stuyvesant their approbation of his conduct, “though they should not have been displeased had such a formal capitulation not taken place;” for “what is written is too long preserved, and may be produced when not desired, whereas words not recorded are in the lapse of time forgotten, or may be explained away.”

The Dutch West India Company being much in debt, caused by its operations in Brazil and Guinea, now became embarrassed by the aid it extended Stuyvesant in recovering South River. In order to liquidate the debt which the company owed to the city of Amsterdam for the aid which that city afforded in the expulsion of the Swedes, and to strengthen the southern boundaries of New Netherland, it proposed to cede Fort Casimir and a proportionate tract in its vicinity to the Burgomasters of Amsterdam.” Conferences followed, the result of which was that the above fort, with all the country from the west side of the Minquas, or Christina Kill, to the mouth of the Delaware Bay (named “Boomtye's Hoenck” by the Dutch, now corrupted into “Bombay Hook,” and Canaresse by the Indians), inclusive, and so far as the Minquas land extended, became, with the Company's rights and privileges, the property of the city of Amsterdam, and was erected into a colony of the first class, under the title of Nieuwer Amstel, named after one of the suburbs belonging to the city, between the River Amstel and the Haerlem Sea. Six commissaries were appointed by the Burgomasters to manage the colony, who were “to sit and hold their meetings at the West India House on Tuesdays and Thursdays.” A set of “conditions” was drawn up, offering a free passage to colonists, lands on the river side for their residence, and provisions and clothing for one year. The city engaged to send out “a proper person for a schoolmaster, who shall also read the holy Scriptures in public and set the Psalms.” The municipal government was to be regulated “in the same manner as here in Amsterdam. The colonists were to be exempted from taxation for ten years; after that time they should not “be taxed higher than those who are taxed lowest in any other district under the government of the West India Company in New Netherland.” Specific regulations were adopted with respect to trade; and besides the recognitions payable to the West India Company on goods exported from Holland, four per centum was to be paid in New Netherland.

All these arrangements were ratified and confirmed by the States General, upon condition that a church should be organized and a clergyman established as soon as there were two hundred inhabitants in the colony. Preparations were immediately made to organize the colony, of which Jacob Alrichs, an uncle of Beck, the vice-director at Curaoa, was appointed director. Martin Kregier, of New Amsterdam, upon Stuyvesant's “good report,” was commissioned as captain of a company of sixty soldiers, and Alexander de Hinoyossa, who had formerly served in Brazil, was made lieutenant. Ordinances were also passed requiring the colonists to take an oath of allegiance to the States General, the burgomasters of Amsterdam, and the director and council of New Netherland, and likewise to promise faithfully to observe the articles which defined their duties and obligations to the city. These, among other things, required them to remain four years at New Amstel, unless they gave satisfactory reasons for leaving, or repaid, within the proper time, the expenses incurred on their account.

The West India Company informed Stuyvesant of all these arrangements, and instructed him to transfer the territory which the city had purchased to Alrichs on his arrival in New Netherland. At Forts Christina and New Gottenburg, “now called by us Altona and the island of Kattenberg,” he was to maintain for the present a small garrison. “The confidence which we feel,” they added, “about the success and increase of this new colony, and of which we hope to see some prominent features next spring, when, to all appearance, large numbers of the exiled Waldenses, who shall be warned, will flock thither as to an asylum, induces us to send you orders to endeavor to purchase, before it can be accomplished by any other nation, all that tract of land situated between the South River and the Hook of the North River, to provide establishments for these emigrants.”**

About 167 colonists embarked on December 25, 1656, in the ships “Prince Maurice,” the “Bear,” and the “Flower of Guelder,” and set sail from the Texel for South River. The emigrants, after suffering many discomforts, arrived in the South River early in 1657. Alrichs' arrival on April 21, terminated the official career of Jacquet. Upon his return to Manhattan on account of this misgovernment, he was arrested and prosecuted.

In a few days after the arrival of the first colonists, Stuyvesant, in obedience to the orders of the Dutch West India Company, formally transferred to Alrichs “the Fort of Casimir, now named New Amstel, with all the lands dependent on it, in conformity with our first purchase from and transfer by the natives to us on the 19th of July, 1651.” Upon his arrival at Fort Casimir, Alrichs received from Jacquet a surrender of his authority, and the colony of New Amstel was formally organized. The region north of Christina Kill remained under the jurisdiction of the West India Company, in obedience to whose orders the name of Fort Christina was changed to that of “Altona.”

During the few months of Alrichs' directorship, New Amstel prospered. The municipal government was remodeled, the town was laid out, buildings were rapidly erected, a bridge was placed over the creek near Fort Casimir, a magazine erected, the fort repaired, a guard house, bake house and forge built, together with residences for the clergymen and other public officers;*** industry promised success, and thirty families were tempted to emigrate from Manhattan to the flourishing colony on South River.(4*) At the end of the first year, New Amstel was “a goodly town of about 100 houses!”(5*)

An inevitable consequence, however, of the establishment of the city's colony was the increase of smuggling. Large quantities of furs were exported without payment of duties, which caused the regular traders to complain, and the revenue suffered severely. To remedy these irregularities, at his suggestion, Director-General Stuyvesant was sent by the council of New Amsterdam, in company with Peter Tonneman, to South River. On his arrival at Altona, the Swedes were called upon to take the oath of allegiance which was required of all the other colonists, and they were allowed to choose their own officers. Upon his return to New Amsterdam, Stuyvesant informed the council that “many things are there not as they ought to be,” and to maintain the rights of the company he appointed William Beekman Vice Director of that district. His instructions required him to live at first at Altona, but to have his permanent residence at or near New Amstel, where he could more conveniently attend to the collection of the revenue. He was invested with all the powers of the company on the whole of the South River, except the district of New Amstel, and was bound to maintain the Reformed religion.

The prosperity of New Amstel had, meanwhile, become clouded. The colonists had planted in hope; but heavy rains setting in, their harvest was ruined, and food became scarce and dear. An epidemic fever broke out; the surgeon and many children died; and most of the inhabitants suffered from a climate to which they were not accustomed. While the disease was yet raging, the ship “Mill” arrived from Holland, after a disastrous voyage, bringing many new emigrants, among whom were several children from the Orphan House at Amsterdam. The population of New Amstel now exceeded six hundred; but its inhabitants were “without bread,” and the ship which brought the new emigrants brought no supply of provisions. Industry was crippled, while wages advanced. Commissary Rynvelt and many “respectable” inhabitants perished, and a long winter stared the famished survivors in the face.

On the 25th of April, 1658, Evert Pieterson, whose official position was that of schoolmaster and comforter of the sick, landed at New Amstel. He is the first schoolmaster of whom there is any record on the Delaware. He at once commenced keeping school, and had twenty-five scholars on the 10th of August following. In a letter of his to the Commissioners of Amsterdam, he states that “wharves were already laid out” at New Amstel, “and almost built.” He also says that he “found twenty families, mostly Swedes,” in the City's Colony (that portion of Delaware south of the Christina), “and not more than five or six belonging to our (the Dutch) nation.”

New Amstel was in deep distress early in 1659. Disease and famine had almost decimated its population, and the heat of the summer had enfeebled the unacclimated survivors. The wife of Alrichs was one of the victims. Everyone had been occupied in building houses and in preparing gardens, so that little grain was sown; and the emigrants from Holland brought very scanty supplies of provisions. “Our bread magazine, our pantry room, our only refuge is to Manhattan,” wrote the desponding Alrichs to Stuyvesant. The conditions of settlement were also altered at this time by the burgomasters of Amsterdam, which only added difficulties to the colony. The despairing colonists began to leave South River, the soldiers of the garrison deserted, and took refuge in Virginia and Maryland. To add to the alarm of the distressed settlers, intelligence was received that the English in Maryland claimed the property on South River, and that persons would soon be sent to claim possession. The panic caused by the last report had not had time to subside before Col. Nathaniel Utie with a suite of six persons from Maryland arrived. He spent some days in sowing “seditious and mutinous seed among the community,” and finally peremptorily commanded the Dutch to leave South River, or else declare themselves subject to Lord Baltimore.

Two days afterward, Lord Baltimore's agents returned to Maryland, and rumors soon spread that five hundred men were to march upon the South River. Messengers were despatched to New Amsterdam for re-enforcements and Director General Stuyvesant sent overland sixty soldiers under the command of Captain Kreiger, who, with Secretary Van Ruyven, was commissioned to act as general agents for the service of the company. August Heermans and Resolved Waldron, were also despatched on an embassy to the government of Maryland, to settle the difficulties. They proceeded, with a small escort, from New Amstel, and after many embarrassing adventures, arrived in a week at Patuxent. After being hospitably entertained, and meeting Governor Fendall and his council, and Secretary Calvert, and discussing the merits of the respective claims to the property in dispute, the commissioners returned, having failed in their mission.

Pending these discussions, anxiety and alarm prevailed among the Dutch colonists; business was suspended, and every one prepared for flight. Within a fortnight, fifty persons, including several families, removed to Maryland and Virginia. Scarcely thirty families remained at New Amstel. The colony was overwhelmed with debt; of the soldiers who had been sent out from Holland, but five remained at the Horekills, and ten at New Amstel. At the close of the year 1659, the inhabited part of the colony of the South River did not extend beyond two Dutch miles from the fort.(6*) In the midst of these troubles, vice-director Alrichs died, having intrusted the government to Alexander D'Hinoyossa, with Gerrit Van Sweringen and Cornelis Van Gezel as councillors. On assuming the government of New Amstel in January, 1660, Hinoyossa, by his indiscreet conduct, produced great discords, which were increased when news of the proposed retransfer of the colony to the West India Company reached the South River. With Beekman his relations were scarcely pleasant; and complaints were constantly made to New Amsterdam of his haughty and insolent demeanor, and his contempt of the provincial regulations respecting the sale of liquors to the savages.

The hostile attitude of the Maryland authorities had, in the mean time, been under the consideration of the Amsterdam directors, who ordered Stuyvesant to oppose their encroachments, “first warning them in a civil manner not to usurp our territory; but if they despise such kind entreaties, then nothing is left but to drive them from there, as our claims and rights on the lands upon South River are indisputable.” But while the company was thus strenuous in asserting its territorial rights to the whole South River, it declined to receive back from the city of Amsterdam the colony of New Amstel; and the city's commissaries, obliged to continue their reluctant support, appointed Hinoyossa director in place of Alrichs.(7*)

In 1661, public attention was drawn toward the South River, and various plans of emigration were proposed. Finally, a colony of Mennonists, or Anabaptists, established themselves at the Horekill. Pieter Cornelis Plockhoy was principal leader of the colony.(8*)

The Dutch West India Company, seeing the impossibility of its colonial enterprise on the South River, proposed favorable terms to the city of Amsterdam for the surrender of “the whole of the Delaware from the sea upwards as far as the river reached, with the territory on the east side, three Dutch miles into the interior, and on the west as far as the country extended toward the English, saving the rights of the settlers and proprietors in the neighborhood.” After formal, and somewhat lengthy negotiations, it was at length determined, on the 12th of February, 1663, that the Company should confer on the city the entire South or Delaware River. By this grant, the “high and low jurisdiction” which the city of Amsterdam possessed formerly over the colony of New Amstel alone was now extended over the whole territory on the river. The formal transfer of the territory on the Delaware to the city of Amsterdam did not take place until December 22, 1663, when a deed for the whole territory was executed by Stuyvesant to Alexander D'Hinoyossa, who became sole commandant, or vice-director; and William Beekman, left without position on the Delaware, was afterwards appointed Sheriff or Schout of a district on the North River.

In the meantime Hinoyossa, who had arrived at Amsterdam, induced the burgomasters to appropriate large sums of money for the vigorous prosecution of the work of colonization. He represented the Maryland authorities, with whom he had communicated, as anxious to promote intercolonial commerce; that the Swedes, Finns and others had already one hundred and ten plantations, and thousands of cattle and swine, besides horses and sheep; that the city had already two or three breweries, and more were wanted to supply the English with beer, who, in return, could furnish a thousand tubs of tobacco a year; and that ten thousand furs and other articles could be annually procured from the Indians, and exported from the colony. These representations had their effect. The next month Hinoyossa set sail for the South River with about one hundred and fifty colonists, and arrangements were made to dispatch another ship. Not long afterwards he arrived, and Beekman, in obedience to the company's orders, immediately recognized him as chief of the Dutch on the South River. His administration, however, was of short duration, extending from December 28, 1663 to October 1, 1664. During this limited period, arrangements were made for extending the fur and tobacco trade; a governmental revenue was provided for by the imposition of a tax on imported goods, and upon tobacco and furs exported, and to prevent trouble from savage excess, the brewing and distilling of liquors was prohibited in the colony.

The relations between the English in Maryland and the Dutch on the Delaware during all this time were far from being harmonious. Hardly had Charles II. reached the throne of England, before Lord Baltimore instructed Captain James Neale, his agent in Holland, to require of the West India Company to yield up to him the lands on the south side of the Delaware. Neale, accordingly, made a formal demand for the surrender of New Amstel, and informed the directors that Lord Baltimore would use all lawful means to defend his rights and subject the Dutch to his authority. The Amsterdam Chamber referred the question to the College of the XIX. who resolved, on Sept. 1, 1660, that they would defend their rights with “all the means which God and nature had given them.”

Doubts had, meanwhile arisen in the council of Maryland, whether New Amstel was really within the limits of that province, and all further demonstrations were delayed until Lord Baltimore obtained from the king a confirmation of his patent. Pending these proceedings, the two colonies concluded a treaty of peace with the Indians at the head of Apoquinnimy creek. The Marylanders, at the same time, proposed to deliver two or three thousand hogsheads of tobacco annually to the Dutch in return for negroes and merchandise.

In 1663, news came that the heir of Lord Baltimore was about to visit Altona, and Beekman, finding that “here on the river not a single draught of French wine is obtainable,” requested Stuyvesant to send him some from Manhattan, “to treat the nobleman with.” The next month, Lord Baltimore's son, Charles Calvert, came to New Amstel and Altona with a suite of twenty-six or twenty-seven persons. Beekman entertained him, not as a proprietary, but as a guest, and their intercourse was pleasant and harmonious. In conjunction with Van Sweringen, the schout of New Amstel, Calvert renewed the treaty with the savages, but when it was proposed to define the limits of the two colonies, he replied that he would communicate with Lord Baltimore. The young nobleman took leave of his Dutch hosts in all good feeling, and proposing to visit Boston the next spring, by way of Manhattan, he desired Beekman to convey his thanks to Stuyvesant for his “offer of convoy and horses.”(9*)

The circumstances which led to the overthrow of the Dutch in the New Netherlands, do not demand any long recital. The facts are few, and there is no stirring episode in connection with them. No revolution could have been more tame, no transfer of an empire more apathetic. The Dutch had always had the sagacity to know that the English were their worst enemies in this continent. New Netherland lay like a wedge between Virginia and New England, separating and weakening those colonies, while at the same time it kept both from access to the best soils, the most desirable and salubrious climates, and the boldest navigable waters in America. From the time of Lord Baltimore's settlement on the Chesapeake (1634), the pressure which the Dutch felt so much upon their eastern frontier was repeated with an added strain on the southern. Baltimore's charter called for all the land north of the Potomac and south of the fortieth parallel. This line would have included the present site of Philadelphia, and Baltimore was urgent in asserting his claim. As has been stated, he sent Col. Nathaniel Utie to New Amstel (now New Castle) to give notice of his rights and how he meant to enforce them, and his ambassador went among the simple-hearted, timid Dutch and Swedes like a hectoring constable armed with a distraint warrant. Utie and others assisted the Indians who were at war with those tribes who were clients and allies of the Dutch, and Fendall and Calvert repeatedly made it appear that they meant to invade the South River colony and overthrow the Dutch power, either by sailing in at the mouth of the Delaware or by an invasion overland by way of Elk River. So great was the pressure put upon them that the Dutch abandoned their settlements about the Horekills, and withdrew farther up the bay. As a further precaution, and to erect “a wall between them and the English of Maryland,” the Dutch West India Company, as we have shown, ceded to the city of Amsterdam, to which it owed heavy debts, its entire jurisdiction over the South River colony.

But the English to be dreaded did not live in the colonies but at home. The Stuarts were in power again, and so greedy were they and their followers, after their long fast during the period of the Commonwealth and the Protectorate, that England, though clean stripped, did not furnish spoils enough to “go round.” Charles II., moreover, had no liking for the Dutch, and it had already become the policy of Great Britain to obtain control of the North American continent. On March 12, 1664 (O.S.), the king granted to his brother James, Duke of York and Albany (afterwards King James II.), a patent for all the land embraced between the St. Croix River on the north and the Delaware Bay on the south. This covered all of New England, New York, and New Jersey, but it did not include the west side of the Delaware River and Bay, showing clearly that the king respected his father's charter conveying this territory to Calvert. All of the land granted by this patent, from the St. Croix River to the Passaic, had been previously conceded to the Plymouth or North Virginia Company by King James I. The duke, in July, sold or granted the territory between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers' the whole of New Jersey, in fact to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. War between the English and Dutch broke out two months after the Duke of York received his patent, and the latter, who was lord high admiral of the British navy, at once (May 25, O.S.) fitted out an expedition to capture the New Netherlands in other words, to take possession of the country patented to him by his brother. The expedition, consisting of four vessels, with one hundred and twelve guns and three hundred soldiers, besides the ships' crews, was under command of Col. Richard Nicholls, who was accompanied by Sir Robert Carr, Kt., George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick, commissioners to the several English colonies to hear complaints, redress grievances, and settle the “peace and security of the country.” Their instructions bound them first to reduce the Dutch colonies, as the fountain of sedition and sanctuary of discontent and mutiny, to “an entire obedience.” The massacres of Amboyna were cited in proof that the Dutch were not fit to be intrusted with great power, and it was declared to be “high time to put them without a capacity of doing the same mischief in America, by reducing them to the same rule and obedience with the English subjects there.” Submission to English authority was all that was to be required of them, and no man who submitted was to be “disturbed or removed from what he possessed.”

The Dutch, both at home and in New Netherland, were acquainted with the expedition and its objects, but took no real measures of defense. The first vessel of the expedition arrived at the outer bay of New Amsterdam August 25th, and a proclamation was at once issued, offering protection to all who submitted. Stuyvesant repaired the walls of his fort, but he could not rally the people to reinforce the garrison. They would not leave their villages and boueries, their wives and children, upon any such venture. On the 30th, Col. Nicholls demanded the surrender of the fort and island, replying to Stuyvesant's commissioners that he was not there to argue questions of title, but to obey orders, and the place must surrender to him without debate, or he would find means to compel it to do so. Stuyvesant was still disposed to argue, to temporize, to fight if he could, but the frigate ran up alongside the fort, broadside on, and demanded an immediate surrender. The people assembled in town-meeting and declared their helplessness, the dominies and the old women laid siege to Stuyvesant, and on the 9th of September, 1664, New Amsterdam surrendered, the Dutch marching out of their fort with all their arms, drums beating, and colors flying. The terms of the capitulation were very liberal, considering that no defense was possible. In fact, the English did not want any war. They sought territory, and they knew that that takes half its value from being in a pacific state.

After arranging affairs at New Amsterdam, the name of which was now changed to New York, Sir Robert Carr, with two frigates and some soldiers, was sent to the Delaware to receive the submission of the Dutch there. They reached New Amstel on September 30th. The inhabitants at once yielded, but the truculent D'Hinoyossa, with Alrichs and Van Sweringen, threw himself into the fort, and declined to come to terms. Carr landed some troops, made his frigates pour two broadsides into the fortress, and then incontinently took it by storm, the Dutch losing three men killed and ten wounded, the English none. The result of D'Hinoyossa's foolhardiness was the sack of the fort, the plunder of the town, the confiscation of the governor's property, as well as that of several of his supporters, and the selling of the Dutch soldiers into Virginia as slaves. A good many negro slaves also were confiscated and sold, a cargo of nearly three hundred of these unhappy beings having just landed at South Amboy and been run across the Delaware with the idea of escaping the English in New York. The name of New Amstel was changed to New Castle, and D'Hinoyossa retired to Maryland, where he was naturalized and lived for several years in Talbot County, but finally finding he could not recover his property, which had been taken by Carr and others, he returned to Holland, entered the Dutch army, and fought in the wars against Louis XIV.(10*)

In May, 1667, Nicholls was superseded by Sir Francis Lovelace as governor of the Dutch settlements on the North and South Rivers, and in July of that year peace was made between the Dutch and English on the basis of the uti possedetis. On the Delaware, the government remained in charge of Sir Robert Carr, with Capt. Robert Needham acting as military commander. In May, 1672, the town of New Castle was erected into a corporation, and Capt. Edmund Cantwell was appointed the first High Sheriff, and Peter Alrichs Bailiff, or chief magistrate, for the town and river. In August, 1669, some disturbance arose on the Delaware in consequence of the conduct of a Swede called “the long Finn,” who gave himself out as the son of General Count Konigsmark, made seditious speeches, and tried to incite some sort of a rebellion. He is thought to have had the countenance, if not the active support, of Printz's daughter, Armgart Pappegoja. He was arrested, put in irons, tried, convicted, and sentenced to be publicly whipped, branded on the face and breast, and sent to the Barbadoes to be sold, all of which was done as set forth.

In 1673 war again broke out between the Dutch and English in consequence of the malign influence of Louis XIV. upon Charles II. The French king invaded the Netherlands with two hundred thousand men, and there was a series of desperate naval battles between the combined French and English fleets, with one hundred and fifty ships, and the Dutch fleet of seventy-five vessels, under De Ruyter and the younger Tromp. The last of these battles, fought off the Helder, resulted in the defeat of the allied squadrons, and the Prince of Orange at once dispatched several vessels under Binckes and the gallant Evertsen to recover possession of New Netherlands. The British made but little resistance, while the Dutch welcomed their old friends. Lovelace fled, and in a few days the Dutch had resumed control of all their old provinces in North America.

Captain Anthony Colve was made governor, but there were only a few administrative changes, though a general confiscation act was passed against the English. In 1674, February 10th (O.S.), the treaty of Westminster was signed, and peace again made between the Dutch and English, with a proviso enforcing the restitution of all countries taken during the late war. Under this treaty, the English resumed their conquests of 1664. The Duke of York's patents were renewed, and the duke appointed Sir Edmund Andross governor over the whole country from the west side of the Connecticut River to the east side of the Delaware. Andross arrived out November 10th, and at once proceeded to restore the statu quo ante bellum as far as he could. He was an astute, well-informed man, of good habits, with the tact of a practiced courtier, and many of the rare accomplishments of a statesman. Under his administration and that of his deputies on the Delaware, Capt. Cantwell,(11*) Capt. Collier, and Christopher Billop, the settlements on the South River prospered, and grew rapidly in population, resources, and in sympathy and fellow-feeling with the other colonies.

* This laying out of lots was the beginning of the town of New Amstel, now New Castle. For a long time it was the most important town on the banks of the Delaware. On the 5th of February, 1656, Jacobus Crabbe presented a petition to the Council “respecting a plantation near the corner, where brick and stone are made and baked.”

** Broadhead's History of New York, vol. 1, p. 631.

*** A city-hall for the burghers was also erected. It was a log-building, two stories high, and twenty feet square. The whole of the buildings were inclosed within a square.

(4*) Salt works are referred to in the records at this period. Forty cows were, at the same time, introduced in the colony, which were purchased by Alrichs at prices ranging from one hundred and twenty-eight to one hundred and thirty guilders per head, or about $78.80 each.

(5*) Alrichs, in one of his letters, thus speaks of the government of New Amstel, before and after his arrival: “I found the government to consist of a military council over the soldiers, who were here of old. The differences between the old settlers, who consisted of about twelve or thirteen families, were decided by the commander and two persons acting as schepens, and a secretary appointed from among the inhabitants, by the general, on the part of the West India Company. These expressed a desire, now that the place had changed hands, that a burgher-like government should be continued, according to the conditions, as it was under the director-general and the West India Company; so it was, and they continued to decide all differences between burgher and burgher. All affairs appertaining to the city and military matters were disposed of by me and the council, and differences between the city's servants, soldiers, trainsbands and freemen, until the arrival of the “Balance,” (this day,) when seven city councillors were elected, and from them three new schepens were chosen; another secretary and schout were also appointed, two elders and two deacons, for the management of church affairs.”  Hol. Doc. quoted in note by O'Call. Vol. ii., p. 337.

(6*) About this time one of the Swedish ministers attempted to preach in the City's Colony in the town of New Amstel. The commissioners of the colony would not permit this on account of the difference between the religious faiths of the Dutch and Swedes. In a letter to Alrichs they say: “The bold undertaking of the Swedish parson to preach in the colony without permission does not greatly please us. No other religion but the reformed can or may be tolerated there, so you must, by proper means, put an end to prevent such presumption on the part of other sectaries.”

In a letter dated August 16th, to the Commissioners at Amsterdam, Alrichs gives the following unflattering account of the settlers at New Amstel.

“In the Prince Maurice,” said he, “were 35 colonists, free handicraft's men, amongst them some workmen, but the major part tradesmen, who did not learn their trades very well, and ran away from their masters too early, in consequence of their own viciousness. Also 47 soldiers, 10 civil servants, 76 women, children and maid servants. Those who arrived in the vessels De Waig, De Sonne, De Muelen were of no good repute, scarcely three good farmers among the whole lot. The total was 137 tradesmen and servants, 70 soldiers and civil servants, 300 women and children, and the maid servants of the married women and children, &c., who came here as single women.

The wages for labor, at this time, on the Delaware, according to Alrichs' letters, were, for laborers, three guilders a day; for mechanics, four guilders a day.

In 1660 the following mechanics were employed at New Amstel. They are the first named as following these trades in this State, viz.: Andries Andriessen, a carpenter; Theunis Servaes, of Harlem, a cooper; Cornelius Theunissen, a smith; William Van Raesenberg, a surgeon; Thys Jacobsen, a boy working at carpentering with Andries Andriessen; he is the first carpenter's apprentice recorded. There were also Joost, of Amsterdam, and Antony Willimsen, of Vreedlandt, masons.

(7*) Broadhead's History of New York, vol. 1, p. 682.

(8*) The association was to consist of married males and single men who had attained the age of twenty-four years, who were not bound to service or indebted to the association. No superiority or office was to be sought for; but all persons were to obey the ordinances for the “maintenance of peace and concord.” No minister of the gospel was to be allowed in the association; for being composed of persons of various religious opinions, no one minister could preach in accordance with the sentiments of the whole of their community, and to get one of each sect, it was argued, would not only be impossible, “but an inevitable pest to all peace and union.” The number that agreed to settle was thirty-five men. The city of Amsterdam agreed to loan each of them one hundred guilders. The whole community were to be secured for this loan. Thus every man was surety for all the rest.

(9*) Broadhead's History of New York, vol. 1, p. 717.

In the early part of June a battle took place between the Minqua and Seneca Indians. “The Senecas, to the number of eight hundred, blockaded the Minquas in their fort whilst a large proportion of their numbers were out hunting. When the Senecas approached, three or four men were dispatched to the fort with the offer of peace, while their force remained at a distance; but a Minqua returning from hunting discovered the Senecas, so that the next day those in the fort concluded to meet them with twenty or thirty men. The other Minquas at the same time, with their forces, made an attack, put the Senecas to flight, and pursued them for two days, retaking ten person sand killing ten Senecas.” The Governor of Maryland assisted the Minquas with two cannon and four men to manage them. The accounts of this battle handed down to us are confused. It is more than probable the assistance rendered by the Marylanders contributed to the Minquas victory. The site of the battle is not definitely known; but it is supposed to have been within the limits of the State, probably in the neighborhood of Iron or Chestnut Hill, near Newark, as the Minquas fort was situated on a high mountain. These hills answer best to the description given by Campanius as the site of the Minquas stronghold.

On the South River at this time, according to the report of the Commissioners of the city of Amsterdam, the Swedes, Finns and other nations had established about 110 good boweries or farms, which had a stock of 2000 cows and oxen, 20 horses, 80 sheep, and several thousand swine. It was recommended that no Hollander should be employed in agriculture; but that Swedes, Finns and other foreign nations should be induced to emigrate to the South River for that purpose. The city was to offer to lend such people sufficient to pay their passage and purchase agricultural implements. Most of the emigrants who arrived in the “Parmeland Church” with D'Hinoyossa were Swedes and Finns, who were aided by the city of Amsterdam in this manner.

The Dutch of the Delaware at this time brewed a great deal of strong beer, which was sold to the Marylanders (who did not manufacture any) for tobacco.

On the 4th of November, Andreas Hudde, who figured so prominently in the early part of our history, died at Appoquinimy, which was then the name of Appoquinimink. He had been a faithful servant of the Dutch for many years, and his services were appreciated by them; but he had been robbed and all his property destroyed by the Indians, and he had sunk from the position of commissary, or governor, to that of clerk. He petitioned for his discharge as clerk, and it being granted, had left Altona on the 1st of November, and was going by the way of Appoquinimy to Maryland, where he intended engaging in the brewing business; but he died before he reached there of an “ardent fever.” His first service under the Dutch was as surveyor at Manhattan, 1642, from which station he was removed; in 1645 he was commissary at Fort Nassau, since which time he had been identified with the Dutch on South River. Vincent's History of Delaware, pp. 402, 408-409.

(10*) Vincent says: “After the capture of the town and fort of New Amstel a general scene of plunder took place. All the soldiers and many of the citizens of New Amstel were sold as slaves to Virginia (for white slavery or forced service then existed, as well as black). The negroes brought by the “Gideon” and run across New Jersey by Alrichs were forfeited, and mostly divided among his captors, save those that the Dutch managed to conceal. Several were taken belonging to Alrichs. Eleven were returned to him some four years afterwards by Ensign Arthur Stock as a free gift. They also took from the Dutch all the produce of the land for that year, and amongst other things were 100 sheep, 30 or 40 horses, 50 to 60 cows and oxen, a brew-house and still belonging to it, and a saw-mill ready to put up. (This is the first mention we have of a saw-mill in Delaware.) They also plundered the settlement of the Mennonists at the Hoernkill, leaving the inhabitants there (to use the words of Van Sweringen) “not even a nail.” Stuyvesant also, in writing of this affair, says: “That although the citizens of New Amstel made no resistance, they were striped and utterly plundered.” He also confirms the selling of the citizens and soldiers as slaves. The amount of plunder obtained amounted to 4000. Carr, notwithstanding the amount of sheep and cattle taken from the unfortunate citizens of New Amstel, in writing to Colonel Nicholls giving an account of the expedition, says: “That nothing was to be had on the Delaware but what was purchased from other places, and that to supply the wants of the garrison he had to send into Maryland some negroes belonging to D'Hinoyossa, which he sold for beef, pork, and salt,” and, to use his own words, “other small conveniences,” which, he said, “the place affordeth not.”

(11*) Captain Edmund Cantwell and William Zorn were authorized to take possession of the fort at New Castle, and see to the preservation of all stores of war at that place, or any part of the river. The former was appointed Sheriff, or Schout, and the latter Secretary, or clerk. Both, in conjunction, were ordered to collect the quit-rents and other duties established by the English, before the coming of the Dutch. The officers of the government on the Delaware, at this time, were, therefore, as follows: Sheriff, or Schout, Captain Edmund Cantwell; Secretary, William Zorn; Magistrates of New Castle, Hans Block, John Moll, Foppo Outhont, Joseph Chew, Dirck Alberts. Magistrates on the river, Peter Cock, Peter Rambo, Israel Helme, Lars Adriesen, Woolle Swain.

The government continued thus constituted until the 23d of September, 1676, when Cantwell and Zorn were relieved by the appointment of Captain John Collier, as Commander on Delaware River and Bay, and of Ephraim Hermans as Secretary. The following Magistrates were also commissioned: For New Castle, John Moll, Henry Ward, William Zorn, Foppo Outhont, Jean Paul Jacquett, Gerritt Otto. For the River, Peter Cock, Peter Rambo, Israel Helme, Lars Adriesen, Woolle Swain, Otto Earnest Cock.

On the 13th of August, 1677, Captain John Collier was relieved by Governor Andross, of the command of affairs on the Delaware, by the appointment, in his place, of Captain Christopher Billop, as Chief Officer. Billop continued as Commander, or Chief Officer, on the Delaware, until the latter part of 1679, when he was removed for misconduct. We have no record of the appointment of his successor. By the Governor's proclamation, introducing the Duke of York's laws upon the Delaware; three judicial districts upon the river were also established, viz.: One at New Castle, one at Upland, and one at the Whorekill. In 1680, a fourth district was established, by a division of the Whorekill, which was called St. Jones. Duke of York's Book of Laws, pp. 454, 455, 457.

Hazard, under date of 1675, says: “It appears, from a reference on the New Castle Court Records, to proceedings of a court held in New Castle, March 24, 1674, (1675,) that courts were established here as early, or perhaps prior to this date. The records are, at present, not among those at New Castle, where the earliest that we have seen are October, 1676. We have seen no evidence of courts in the time of Lovelace, though there must, no doubt, have been some legal proceedings. Courts were held at a place now called Troy on Jones's Creek, near Dover, for Jones's, now Kent, at Whorekill, now Lewistown, for the county of Deal, now Sussex county.” Annals of Pennsylvania, p. 416

 SOURCE: Page(s) 61-68, History of Delaware, 1609-1888, Volume One by Scharf, Thomas J., Philadelphia; L.J. Richards & Co., 1888