CHAPTER X.

THE Swedes on the Delaware had at this time, lived under three different governments; their own, the Dutch, and the English. They had increased under them all, and had extended their settlements from Christina and its vicinity, to the Poquessing creek on the west side of the Delaware. On the east side they had a settlement on Raccoon Creek, called Swedesborough, and at other places in smaller companies. When William Penn obtained the province of Pennsylvania, their most important settlements were at New Castle, Wilmington, and the neighbouring country; at Marcus Hook, Chester, Tinicum, and its vicinity, at Kingsessing, Passyunk, Wicaco, and the land on which the city of Philadelphia now stands, at Frankford, Pennypack, Poquessing, and probably at other places. They had then three places of worship, one at Crane-hook, near Christina,* one at Tinicum, and one at Wicaco, in the old fort there. Their population passing as Swedes, amounted to nearly 1000. Those descended on one side only from Swedish parents, though probably not amounting to near that number, were undoubtedly numerous. We know they had intermarried extensively with the Dutch, and some marriage connections had no doubt been formed with the English.

The only settlements forming villages in 1681, were New Castle, Marcus Hook, Chester, and Wicaco. The largest of them was New Castle, settled by the Dutch after the erection. of Fort Cassimir in 1651. A few houses may have been built before the year 1656, but nothing like a town or village appeared there, until after the recapture of Fort Cassimir, and subversion of the Swedish authority on the Delaware. In the last

* We have no account of the erection of the church at Swedesborough. It is mentioned in the early records of Christeen church.

mentioned year a large number of Dutch families removed from the settlement of Manhattan, and other places on the North river. Seventy-five deeds for land were granted at that time, mostly for lots on the point, which had been selected as the location for the village, on account of its beauty, and as the most suitable place for trade. The point extended out into the water, far beyond the general course of the western shore, commanding extensive views of the country, both up the river, and down toward the bay. Before the Dutch purchased this spot of the Indians, it was known to the Swedes by the name of “ Sandhuken," and was called by the English traders, "Grape-vine point." The town was named "New Amstel."* After the conquest by the Swedes, it was the seat of government for the lower division of the colony; which had been allotted to the West India Company. Here the governors mostly resided, and here was the only fort that was kept up as a place of defence subsequent to the surrender of Fort Christina. After the capture of the colony by the English, they called it "New Castle." By this name it has been known ever since.

When George Fox, the reputed founder of the Society of Friends, travelled through the American colonies, in 1672, he visited New Castle, and was hospitably entertained by the governor and people. His account of that visit furnishes some interesting facts illustrative of the state of the country at that period. He and his companions left " Middletown Harbour" on a branch of the Raritan, New Jersey, the 9th of September, 1672, and took a south-westerly course, so as to head the rivers, and, as much as possible, avoid swamps and impassable streams. After passing through many Indian towns, and travelling, as he supposed, forty miles, they made a fire in the woods, and so passed the first night, probably near the place at which Allentown was afterwards located. The next day they travelled about fifty miles, and lodged in a house that had been deserted for fear of

* New Castle was incorporated by Lovelace in 1672, to be governed by a Bailiff and six assistants, with power to try causes for not more than ten pounds. They were permitted thenceforward to carry on trade without making entry at New York as formerly. Smith's N. J. p. 72.

the Indians. This was probably at the spot where the city of Burlington now stands,* as, one year before, two Dutch men had been murdered on an island which lies between that city and Bristol. The narrator, says it was "near the head of the bay," meaning the head of navigation. The third day they crossed the Delaware, passing first from the Jersey shore to an island which he calls "Upper Dinidock," thence to the Pennsylvania side, the whole distance computed at one mile. Their horses swam the river, while the Indians took the travellers over in their canoes. Thence going about thirty miles to the house of a Swede, they procured some straw, and lay there that night; probably near the Blue Bell tavern in Kingsessing, then a Swedish settlement. The fourth day they travelled through the woods, about forty miles; made a fire and slept by it, to dry their clothes, the day having been rainy. This was probably in Brandywine-Hundred. The fifth day they "passed over a desperate river, which had in it many rocks and broad stones very hazardous" to them and their horses. "From thence," says the narrative, "we came to Christian river, where we swam over our horses, and went ourselves in canoes; but the sides of the river were so bad and miry, that some of the horses had like to have been laid up. From thence we came to a town called New Castle, heretofore called New Amsterdam,† [New Amstel]

* This is rendered almost certain by a number of circumstances. The island now the site of the city of Burlington, was held by four Dutchmen about that time. Gordon's Gazetteer, p. 113. The men that were murdered, Smith says, were Dutchmen; the survivors were alarmed and deserted the house. The name of the island where the murder was committed was called Matineconk or Tineconk, which G. Fox, by a slight mistake understood to be Dinidock. It was called Upper Tineconk, to distinguish it from the island on which Burlington stands, then called lower Tineconk. Campanius calls the place Tennako, and says it was inhabited by the Dutch, p. 83. Tiniconk or Tenacong, is probably the Indian name for island.

† In 1675, William Edmundson travelled through the colonies. In his journal, pp. 107, 108, he calls the town "Delaware Town." The Duke of York in his deed of feoffment to Wm. Penn, dated August 24, 1682, calls it "New Castle, alias Delaware Town." Proud's Hist. vol. 1, p. 201.

and being very weary, and inquiring in the town, where we might buy some corn for our horses, the governor came into the street and invited me to his house, and afterwards desired me to lodge there, telling me he had a bed for me, and I should be welcome."*

The governor under the Duke of York, at this time, was Lord Lovelace. The house he lived in stood near the shore, on the north side of Harmony street, near the corner of the first street running parallel with the river. It was built of brick, and over each window and door was a low, eliptical arch made of yellow bricks imported from Holland. When in a state of dilapidation, the timbers appeared to have all been hewed; indicating its erection before the introduction of saw mills; and the mortar cement had been made of lime, that was burnt from oyster shells, before any lime-stone had been discovered. This building was standing within forty years from the present time.†

We cannot with certainty trace the course our travellers took to pass from Middletown on the Raritan, to New Castle. But. we cannot be mistaken in pointing to the Brandywine, as the "desperate river which had in it many rocks and broad stones, very hazardous to them and their horses," nor can we be deceived in calling the river, whose sides "were so bad and miry," that their horses suffered severely in crossing it, our Christina; which the journalist calls Christian-river. The "rocks" of the one and the "miry sides" of the other, sufficiently identify them to the present time.

From this account we learn that in 1672, more than forty years after the first permanent settlement on the Delaware, the country between Amboy and New Castle, was yet in a wilder

*

George Fox says, the governor offered his house, and they held a public meeting in it, to which most of the town's people came.

This house was pointed out to the author by his father nearly sixty years ago. It was then a decent dwelling house.

The course pursued by our travellers was necessarily very circuitous, as there were neither roads nor bridges. By G. Fox's estimate, they travelled 168 miles in going from Middletown harbour to New Castle. The distance by the present route is about one hundred miles.

ness state. Indian towns; streams crossed by the aid of the natives with their canoes; the original forests of the country, traversed by Indian paths; dangerous swamps and morasses, are the principal subjects of remark. Burlington, the oldest town in west Jersey, was not laid out until five years afterwards, and the scite of Philadelphia was then inhabited by the Indians. The Swedish settlement at Upland is not mentioned; the travellers, in order to avoid rivers and creeks, kept inland, and probably crossed the country eight or ten miles west of the Delaware.

Marcus Hook is not laid down as a village, on Vander Donck's map of 1654 and 1655. It is marked on that map as FINLAND. This was the name of all the country lying between the Hook and Chester. It was one of the few pieces of land granted by patent, under the Swedish government. The grant was made to a native of Finland, and because he was not a Swede, perhaps it was deemed necessary that he should have a patent or deed for the property. As the document is curious, and connected with the history of our early settlements, it is deemed proper to insert it in full, as translated by Charles Springer, a native Swede of the seventeenth century:

"We, Christina, by the grace of God Queen of Sweedland, Gothen, and Wenden, Great Princess of Finland, Dutchess of Estland, &c.

Be it known, that we of our favour, and because of the true and trusty service which is done unto us and the Crown, by our true and trusty servant, Captain Hans Ammundson Besk, for which service he hath done, and further is obliged to do, so long as he yet shall live; so have we granted and given unto him freely, as the virtue of this our open letter, is, and doth shew and specify; that is, we have freely given and granted unto him, his wife and heirs, that is heirs after heirs, one certain piece and tract of land, being and lying in New Sweedland, Marcus Hook by name, which doth reach up to, and upwards to Upland Creek, and that with all the privileges, appurtenances and conveniences thereunto belonging, both in wet and dry, whatsoever name or