I N AN article appearing in The Pennsylvania ^Magazine of History

Transcription

1 zjfrcore zjxcissing Evidence: Two "Depositions by Sarly Swedish Settlers I N AN article appearing in The Pennsylvania ^Magazine of History and biography in 1956, Nicholas B. Wainwright introduced transcripts of depositions made by three early settlers of New Netherland testifying to Dutch occupancy along Delaware Bay and River before the Maryland Charter was issued by Charles I to Lord Baltimore in These depositions were used successfully by William Penn in September, 1685, to counter Lord Baltimore's territorial claims before the Lords of Trade in the council chamber at Whitehall. Two additional depositions, also included among the documentary evidence gathered by Penn, are printed below for the first time in their entirety. These documents, each of which is endorsed "WP" and designated a "Sweeds Certificat," were still in the hands of a private owner, Thomas F. Cadwalader, in 1938, the year of the Swedish tercentenary. At that time, he allowed them to be placed on temporary display in the museum of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and to be listed as items 89 and 90 in the catalogue then published by the Society. Subsequently, both documents were presented to the Society. 2 The first deposition reads as follows: These are to certifie whom it may concern, That we ye Ancient Swedes, planted upon the River Delaware in America, do declare, That the First of our Nation, that came & Planted in this River & the Creeks thereunto belonging, did find the Dutch possest of ye said River, and that the Lord Baltimore in those daies made no 1 Nicholas B. Wainwright, "The Missing Evidence: Penn v. Baltimore/' Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography', LXXX (1956), A Catalogue of Books & Manuscripts Relating to the Swedish Colonization on the Delaware River; Coates List #16, Penn Agency, Thomas Cadwalader Section, Cadwalader Collection. 35

2 $6 A. R. DUNLAP AND C. A. WESLAGER January Pretentions thereunto, and that since he had his Patent 3 granted to him by his Majesty Charles ye First King of Great Britain, he hath never made any Claim to any part of the Land upon this River, that we know of, we are sure he hath made none to any that was, or is in the Swedes Possession from Christina Creek to ye Falls of the said River Delaware And we do further certifie, that the Swedes did Anciently purchase of ye Natives the Lands lying from ye said Christina Creek to neer ye Falls of ye River Delaware & in Obedience to his Maj :[es]tys Letters Patents 4 & his declaration together with his Royal Hig:[h]n[es]s's release, 5 we have freely submitted our selves to William Penn Esq:[ui]r[e] as our Rightfull Proprietary & Govern :[ou]r under ye Kings Maj :[es]ty & do Joyfully so recognize & acknowledg[e] him, promising Faith & Allegiance to ye King of great Britain & his Successors as our Soveraign & Fidelity & Obedience to our said Proprietary & Govern :[ou]r his Heirs & Assignes under ye King, which we are resolved by the help of God to maintaine to ye utmost of our Power. Signed by us underwritten, who have been here about Fifty Years, on the behalf of our selves & ye rest of ye Ancient Planters, yet Liveing, of ye Sweedish Nation, on this West side of ye River Delaware, at Wicoco 6 ye nth day of ye Month called January his Piter b Cock his Peter ^A. Rambo Marck Lasse Cock 3 Clayton Colman Hall, Narratives of Early Maryland: (New York, 1910), Samuel Hazard, Annals of Pennsylvania from the Discovery of the Delaware: (Philadelphia, 1850), Ibid., For a discussion of this name see Amandus Johnson, trans, and ed., Geographia Americae (Philadelphia, 1925), 401; and cf. Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York (Albany, 1856), I, 594, 598.

3 1967 MORE MISSING EVIDENCE 37 his Swen /'VA Marck Swensen Jacob Yongh. Gott[en]b[ur]g. 7 Larss Andersson Collinu Capt. Hans I I Manssons marke The second deposition covers much of the same ground, but in greater detail, especially with regard to Swedish relations with the Indians and the sensitiveness of the Swedes to possible English occupancy of the western shore of the Delaware River. In the following transcript the identifying material is placed above the title rather than in the upper half of the left-hand margin, the position it occupies in the manuscript. The 25th of the Mon:[th] called June Peter Cock aged seventy foure, Peter Ramb[o] seventy two & Hamce Monson [Hance Mansson] aged seventy two years or there abouts, appeared before us W[illia]m Welch, James Claypoole & Thomas Wynne three of the Kings Justices of the peace for the County of Philadelphia in the Province of Pennsilvania, Who being solemnly attested, did severallie declare that what they have here respectively certified & subscrybed is the truth & nothing but the truth, as God shall help them. Wm Welch [seal] James Claypoole [seal] Tho Wynne [seal] Pennsilvania &c: The Certificate and Deposition of Certain Antient Sweeds Living on the West side of Delaware In the year 1638 Came into this Countrey from the Crown of SweedLand Governo[u]r Minivett [Peter Minuit], and in Case he 7 Amandus Johnson, The Swedish Settlements on the Delaware, (Philadelphia, 1911), II, 716.

4 38 A. R, DUNLAP AND C. A. WESLAGER January should dye, Mounce Kling [Mans Kling] his deputy, with Henriques Hugen [Hendrick Huygen] Marchant for the Sweeds Company, with two shipps, Who anchored in Cristina Creek, & Lay there six weeks & three days, supplying themselves with wood & water only, Expecting that if any under the Crown of England had any just pretensions to the adjacent Lands, they might then have an Opportunity to Claime. At the expiration of the saids [sic] six weeks & three days & no body Claiming nor hindering they went a shoare & built a fort. Therafter they agreed with the Susquahanna Indians & bought from them as much of the Adjacent Lands as they could shoot over with a Cannon bullet from Cristina. In the year Iot h March one of the abovesaid shipps returned with Peter Holland [Peter Hollander Ridder] deputy Governo[u]r for the Sweeds, Peter Rambo, Andrees Bown [Andreas Boon] 8 & severall other Sweeds, who bought Land from an Indian king Named Kekesikkun from the abovenamed distance of a Cannon bullet shott as farr as over against Mekaquatshoe eight miles above Burlington. And befor the said ship went away they bought from another Indian king Named Shakapemeck all the Lands from Christina to Duck Creek, where wee sett up the armes of the Crown of SweedLand in the presence of the said Shakapemeck. Eighteen Months afterwards Returned hither from SweedLand the said Mounce Kling deputy Governo[u]r for the Sweeds with Peter Cock 9 & severall other Sweeds with two shipps & seated Upland, Tinnecum & severall other places & built forts. Eighteen Months therafter Came hither John Prince [Johan Printz] Governo[u]r in Chief for the Sweeds who had full & ample power & did quietly possess what the foremer Governo[u]rs had 8 The names of Rambo and Boon (Bonde, Boone) first appear in a list of the inhabitants of New Sweden during 1643 and 1644 (ibid., 701, 706), and frequently thereafter. 9 Peter Cock, or Kock, was a member of the fourth expedition, which arrived in New Sweden in November, Johnson, Swedish Settlements, I, 152. For other references to his activities see ibid,, I, 462, tfisn.; II, 664, 704, 712. See also a letter dated Dec. 23, 1683, from Nicholas Bayard to William Penn ("Papers Relating to the Three Lower Counties," Penn Papers, XV, 21, Historical Society of Pennsylvania), in which the writer specifically refers to Peter Cock as a good potential source of information about early happenings along the Delaware.

5 1967 MORE MISSING EVIDENCE 39 bought, & that without any trouble or Molestation from any person whatsoever. Three years afterwards the said John Prince in anno 1651, sent Peter Rambo, Peter Cock, Hannse Mounson [Hance Mansson] 10 with three more, Agents to the isle of Kent in Mary-Land, having a Susquahanna Indian for their guide, to enquire whether any persons there, had any pretensions to the above Settlements & Lands, Which wee did by two Letters one in the German, another in the Latin tongue in the Name of the then Queen of Sweedland, & the very day of our arrivall there was a Court held in the said Isle of kent by Major Ringell 11 President of the said Court & Capt[ain] Vaughan 12 to whom wee delivred our Letters, who received us very kyndly into the Court & advised us to goe to Severn with our Letters to Coll[onel] LLoyd 13 then deputy to the Late Lord Baltemore then in England, & one Capt[ain] Marsh 14 went with us, When wee Came to Severn wee delivred our Letters to the said Coll[onel] LLoyd, who received both them & us very kyndly & showed us all the tokens of friendship & kept us with him Nine days & told us hee had no Claime att all to our New Settlements & promised to Live Neighbourly and quietly with us and without any Molestation as from them & gave us a Letter to our Governo[u]r Prince to that effect, & so did Courteouslie dismiss us & ever since wee have Lived quietly without disturbance or Claime from them or any other person what- 10 The name of Hance Mansson first appears in a list of the inhabitants of New Sweden during 1643 and Johnson, Swedish Settlements, II, 704, 705. For other references see ibid., I, fan.; II, 511»., 596, 602, 712, 720. u Evidently Thomas Ringold, a justice of the peace in what was then Kent County, Md., including Kent Island (now Queen Anne's County). Matthew Page Andrews, The Founding of Maryland (New York, 1933), 323; and Johnson, Swedish Settlements, II, 568n,, 569, 572. For some of the information in this footnote, and in the three which follow, we are indebted to William B. Marye of the Maryland Historical Society. 12 Capt. Robert Vaughan, of the Maryland militia, was commander of Kent Island at the time the Swedish emissaries were sent to Maryland. Andrews, 120, ; Hall, 152, Edward Lloyd, an influential figure in the affairs of early Maryland, who held many high offices. Matthew Page Andrews, History 0/ Maryland (New York, 1929), 120, 123, 142; Hall, 219,228,238, Thomas Marsh, a justice of the peace in Anne Arundel County and a member of the Provincial Court. Andrews, History of Maryland, 120; not John Marshall, as Johnson suggests, Swedish Settlements, VII, 5727*.

6 40 A. R. DUNLAP AND C. A. WESLAGER January soever under the Crown of England till the taking of this River by Collonel Nicholls. 15 Wittnesses present George Thorpe MichellHencke[?] Joseph Realph [?] John Dajnjvers of These Antient Q, Sweeds doe Certify The Mark ^ Peter respectively from Cock the time of their The Mark (^ Peter Rambo of The Mark j ^ Hannce Monson Each of the above depositions contains a statement regarding Lord Baltimore, as well as information about Swedish land purchases from the Indians. There are, however, significant differences: the first deposition alludes to the prior Dutch occupancy of the Delaware; to the purchase from the Indians of the west bank of the Delaware from the "falls" (near Trenton) to Christina Creek, but not below; and to the declaration, by the Swedes, of allegiance to King and Proprietary. It also uses the Indian geographical name Wicoco instead of Philadelphia; and, finally, it has a longer list of signatories. On the other hand, the second deposition differs from the first in its precise reference to events with dates, as well as names of places and participants and in the specific information it gives about Governor Printz's relations with the government of the Maryland colony.!5 Colonel Richard Nicholls sent an attacking force, under command of Sir Robert Carr, to the Delaware in 1664 to reduce the Dutch settlements. C. A. Weslager, Dutch Explorers, Traders and Settlers in the Delaware Valley, (Philadelphia, 1961), chapter 10.

7 1967 MORE MISSING EVIDENCE 4I The discussion which follows deals with the reliability of the memories of the three principal signatories, and with what new pieces of information are afforded by these depositions in relation to Swedish land acquisition and colonial relations between the Swedes and the English. First, as a test of reliability, a comparison of the depositions (and especially of the second one, which has the greater detail) with the established historical record may be made. An accepted account of the coming of Peter Minuit, with the first Swedish expedition, to the Minquas Kil (now Christina Creek) appears in an affidavit made in Amsterdam in 1638 by four members of the crew of the F^almar J^yckeL This document, which was discovered by Amandus Johnson and put in the record in 1911, 16 tells how Minuit and members of his party pushed into the creek and made "their presence known with all kinds of signs, both by the firing of cannon and otherwise," and then goes on to say that they did not find any sign or vestige of Christian people... whereupon... Minuit requested and caused the nations of people to whom the land really belonged to come before him, whom he then asked, if they wished to sell the river, with all the land lying about there, as many days' journeys as he would request. This they agreed to with the common consent of the nations.. and thereupon, on the twenty-ninth of March [1638]... appeared... before the.. ship's council, in the name of their nations or people, five Sachems or princes, by the name of Mattahorn, Mitot Schemingh, Eru Packen, Mahamen, and Chiton, some being present [on behalf] of the Ermewormahi, the others on behalf of the Mante and Minqua nations. And these sachems or princes, at the same time and place, in the presence of the whole ship's council... transferred all the land, as many days' journeys on all places and parts of the river as they requested; upwards and on both sides. 17 If one compares this affidavit with the second deposition, a number of points of accord are evident: for example, the year of the expedition, the name of the leader, the waiting period before the land was purchased, the acquiring of land from the Indians, and the building of a fort on the bank of Christina Creek. The chief points of difference 16 Johnson, Swedish Settlements, I, facing From the translation of the affidavit which appears in Albert Cook Myers, Narratives of Early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey y and Delaware (New York, 1912),

8 42 A. R. DUNLAP AND C. A. WESLAGER January are that the deposition makes definite mention of a second vessel; that it speaks specifically of the English instead of "Christian people" in general; that it refers only to the "Susquahanna Indians/' i.e., zjxcinqua, an Iroquoian-speaking tribe, whereas the affidavit makes it clear that Algonkian-speaking Lenape Indians were also involved, the Srmewormahi and tmante; and that the land purchased by Minuit was measured by the reach of a cannon-bullet shot instead of by "days' journeys." The last three of these points seem of little moment. As far as the first point is concerned, it is known from other sources, if not from the affidavit, that a second vessel, the Fogel Qrip, accompanied the Rjilmar Jtyckel in All things considered, the details recalled in the first paragraph of the second deposition by the three septuagenarians, Peter Cock, Peter Rambo, and Hance Mansson, seem reasonably accurate. Close examination of the rest of that document tends to confirm this impression of accuracy. For instance, this deposition is in accord with accepted historical knowledge in its statement about Deputy- Governor Ridder, Peter Rambo, Andreas Boon, and several other Swedes, as well as in the statements about Deputy-Governor Kling, Peter Cock, etc., and about the arrival of Governor Printz. Even the chronology is not much out of line. Johnson puts Kling's arrival in the first week of November, 1641, 19 which corresponds closely to the deposition's statement that his arrival was eighteen months after that of Ridder, who came in March, 1639/40. Again, Johnson gives February 15, 1643, as the date of the arrival of Printz, 20 which is, as the deposition says, about a year and a half after the coming of Kling. The phrase "Three years afterwards," which begins its final paragraph, and which is intended to bridge the gap between the arrival of Printz and the year 1651, is an error in calculation. Secondly, let us consider what the depositions offer that is new. To begin with, Minuit's instructions were to purchase land along the west bank of the Delaware between the Minquas Kil (Christina Creek) and the Sankikans Kil, at present Trenton. 21 Instead, he seems to have acquired land in roughly equal amounts below and 18 Johnson, Swedish Settlements, I, in; Weslager, 169.!9 Johnson, Swedish Settlements, I, /^., I, Weslager, 172.

9 1967 MORE MISSING EVIDENCE 43 above Fort Christina, but did not purchase land as far up the Delaware River as he had been instructed to do. 22 Johnson found evidence that Minuit negotiated two deeds, now missing, one embracing land south of the Christina to Bombay Hook (or Duck Creek), the other, land above the Christina as far north as the Schuylkill. 23 It was left to Ridder, we learn from the second deposition, to secure the land above the Schuylkill "as far as over against Mekaquatshoe eight miles above Burlington." 24 In addition to information about land purchase, the depositions also tell us something new about Lenape Indian names of places and persons. The two geographical names, Wicoco and Mekaquatshoe, do not, of course, appear here for the first time, but the forms are of interest as variants of names recorded many times in earlier decades of the century. Finally, the two depositions furnish welcome information about colonial relations between the English of Maryland and the Swedes. It is well known that Minuit was apprehensive of trespassing on the territorial interests of the Dutch West India Company, by which he had formerly been employed, and his instructions cautioned him to "shun the limits of New Netherland in order not to become involved in any quarrel with the West India Company." 25 The instructions were less emphatic about conflict with the interests of other colonial powers, but the second deposition now makes it clear that Minuit was so apprehensive of English presence on the western shore of the Delaware that he lay at anchor in the Christina for six weeks and three days in expectation of English protest. Only when none was received did he proceed to build a fort and think of making land purchases. Swedish anxiety about the English, particularly those in 22 Johnson, Swedish Settlements, I, Ibid. According to the second deposition, Ridder apparently thought it necessary to repurchase the land between Duck Creek (or Bombay Hook) and the Christina. Also note that Johnson speaks of the possibility that Ridder may have bought land south of Duck Creek down to Cape Henlopen (ibid. y 1,201, ), but Swedish deeds to support this assumption have still to be found. This lack of documentation seems striking when the rather thorough documentation of the Dutch purchases along Delaware Bay and River is recalled. Furthermore, the failure of our Swedish deponents even to hint at a Swedish claim to this territory makes Johnson's suggestion doubly suspect. 2 * Compare ibid.> I, aoo Weslager, 173.

10 44 A. R. DUNLAP AND C. A. WESLAGER January Maryland and Virginia, was also evident during the administration of Governor Rising (i ), after New Sweden was well established. This has long been realized, 26 but it is from the second deposition that we learn that Governor Printz sent Peter Cock, Peter Rambo, and Hance Mansson along with three other Swedes and a Susquehanna Indian guide to Maryland in 1651 to inquire, by means of a letter in "German" and a duplicate in Latin, whether Lord Baltimore intended to exercise claim to lands along the Delaware then occupied by the Swedes. If Printz had been fully aware of the political situation in the Maryland colony, he would not have sent his emissaries to Kent Island under the impression that it was the seat of the government. When these emissaries arrived there they learned that Lord Baltimore's deputy governor was to be found at Severn, now Annapolis. Continuing their journey across Chesapeake Bay, accompanied by Captain Marsh, the Swedish party were kindly received at Severn and were told that Lord Baltimore had no claim to the land on which they were settled. They were even given a letter to deliver to Governor Printz, according to the deponents, in which this assurance was formally expressed. The final assertion in the second deposition, that the Swedes lived quietly thereafter without disturbance or claim by any persons under the Crown of England, implies that there was no friction between the Maryland government and that of New Sweden. In the beginning, of course, the Swedes had been in conflict with Sir Edmund Plowden, and also with the English of New Haven; 27 and after the Dutch conquest of New Sweden in 1655, Governor Fendall of Maryland sent Colonel Nathaniel Utie to intimidate the Dutch citizens (among whom could be counted many Swedes) at New Amstel. 28 But these events are all irrelevant to the main point the deponents wanted to make: namely, that during its seventeen-year existence New Sweden had good relations with the Maryland colony, and, as stated in the first deposition, "Lord Baltimore in those daies made no Pretentions thereunto/' 26 Johnson, Swedish Settlements, II, Ibid., I, chapter XXXVI. 28 Weslager,

11 1967 MORE MISSING EVIDENCE 45 In conclusion, since the Maryland charter was issued six years before Minuit's expedition arrived on the Delaware, the Swedish settlements could not qualify as previous occupancy. Thus, the hactenus inculta clause in the Maryland charter could not be invoked as applicable to the Swedes. The first deposition, however, referring as it does to the prior Dutch occupancy, reinforces the depositions of the three early Dutch settlers quoted by Wainwright. Furthermore, both Swedish depositions gave Penn admissible evidence that Lord Baltimore was not in occupancy of lands on the western shore of the Delaware when the Swedes arrived, and that he took no action to interfere with their settlement. ft(ewark> Del. Hockessitjy Del. A. R. DUNLAP C. A. WESLAGER