AN ABSTRACT
OF
WARREN MACDONALD'S
DUKE OF YORK PATENTS ON
PILOTTOWN ROAD
Basically, this is a study
of how Lewes happened and uses the findings of Dr. David Marine
a member of the Sussex
Society of Archeology and History back in 1955. A map that Dr.
Marine
sketched outlines eight
patents, located by Shipcarpenter on the SE side, Pagen Creek, now
Canary, on the SW side and Lewes Creek on the NE side, and a tract
of land reserved for the Town set between Shipcarpenter Street and
South Street, now Savannah Road.
This area has been called
“Delaware's First Square Mile” and holds the sites of the
1631 Swanendael settlement, the 1695 West India Company fort and
trading post, Plockhoy's Colony, the
areas of 1617 census by
Wiltbank, the 1673 “Burning of Whorekill” and several raids by
Maryland's
Lord Baltimore.
The Duke of York's patents
brought attention to the “First Square Mile of Delaware” which
is thought had not received the due respect it deserved by the
Dutch, the Duke of York nor Lord Baltimore and formed a rough
neighborhood into a permenent settlement and important port of call
that was deserving greater
respect and a court of law and the adjoining lands quickly filled
with settlers
wanting legal protected
property. This is how Lewes happened to take shape.
The list of Duke of York
patents and notes of them is listed below;
#8, no date, 112 acres, to
owner Cornelius Verhoofe, #7, January 15, 1675, 69 acres Jan
Kipshaven
# 6 , July 7, 1675, 80
acres, owner Alexander Molleston, #5, July 7, 1676, 132
acres, owner
William Tom, #4, July 2,
1672, 150 acres, owner, Helmainas Wiltbank, #3, January 24,
1675,
50 acres, owner William
Clark. #2, May 25, 1670, 140 acres , owner Helmainas Wiltbank, #
1,
July 7, 1675, 134 acres ,
owner Helmainas Wiltbank.
Parcels 1, 5 and 6 were
laid out by Edmubd Cantwell, the official surveyor at the time.
The
parcel 2, was first granted
to Dirck Pieters, by Francis Lovelace, Yorks governor in New York
and has a long story behined it. Parcel 3; Original
patent holder was Simond Pawlin who assigned parcel to Captain
Nathaniel Walker, who assigned it to William Clark, 11 June 1681.
Parcel #4; to Wiltbank ,
grant by Lord Baltimore. Parce #7 ; Surveyed by Capt. Edmund
Cantwell.
Parcel #8, granted while
Andros was governor, late in 1676.
The parcel reserved for the
Town was probably surveyed in 1675. Wiltbank claimed owner
but the position against
him by the Town prevailed. It was laid out by Capt. Cantwell as
“Common”
for cattel feed and
firewood.
Robert Shankland in 1723
survey noted that the Town tract was claimed by Dyreits Paten,
however, this was never proven.
A chronological long road
to Lewes follows:
1632: After the Swanendael
massacre de Vries and his investors abandon their efforts in this
area
and that which was
purchased from the local Indians in 1629, from Bombay Hook to
Fenwick was
sold to the Dutch West
India Company which discouraged settlement and carried on a fur trade
with the local Indians.
1638: Swedish interest
headed by Peter Minuit, took advantage of Dutch lack of activity ,
and established a colony at Christina, called it New Sweden what
grew with an influx of Swedes and Finns. The Sweds purhased the land
south to Cape Henlopen annd caused a disruption to the fur trade.
1655: After years of
increasing provocation the Dutch West India Company's director
general , Peter
Stuyvesant, led an
invasion from his post in Manhatten into Delaware and put an end to
Swedish
rule there.
1656: The West India
Company, in dept to the City of Amsterdam transferred ownership to
them of
land from Christina River to
Bombay Hook. This colony was known as New Amstel with it's center
at todays New Castle.
1657, t he first director
of this colony was Jacob Alricks'. Late this year, fourteen men
from Virginia came ashore at Cape Henlopen, probably runaway
servants, and raised concerns that the English were trying to take
over lower Delaware.
1658: Stuyvesant learned
that the tract from Bombay Hook to Cape Henlopen was to be purchased,
the area then called Horekil by the Dutch. The West India Company's
William Beckman and
Stuyvesant took steps to
purchase land from the Indians to build a fort near the Cape as soon
as
possible.
1659: In June of this year,
Beekman for the Company and d'Hinojossa for the City, pirchased
Horekil and took twenty of
the City's soldiers there with them. The soldiers were to stay and
build a 'fort' on parcel #4. Maryland moved against the Dutch and
demamsed them to leave Delaware. The Dutch remained.
1661 New Amstel took
Gerritt van Sweringen as it's Secretary, d'Hinojoosa took City of
Amsterdam
over as it's director.
Maryland softened it's belligerent stand and showed interest in
trade.
1662: d'Hinojossa names
Alricks, who had returned to New Amstel, and was granted all
rights to trade between Bombay and Cape Henlopen. d'Hinojossa made
attempt to have Amsterdam take control of the Delaware River .
This year Pieter Cornelis Plockhoy, a Mennonite , received grant to
establish a semisocialistic society in Horekil.
1663: The ship St. Jacob
brought the Plockhoy group, 41 people with baggage and farm tools ,
to
Horekil. D'Hinojossa
took this ship to Amsterdam where Alrick's was already. Upon his
return he brought workmen on a four year service term, and Sander
Molleston, aka Maelstten, of Saxony.
All of Delaware River,
aka South River, was turned over to City of Amsterdam.
1664: On March 12, this
year, Englands King Charles II gave to Duke of York, aka James,
Charles' brother, the coastal lands of America from Maine to New
Jersey on the Delaware Bay.
A plan to end the Dutch
hold on New Netherlands was prepared. A naval force under the
Colonel Richard Nichols
caused Stuyvesant to surrender Manhatten on September 8.
Sir Robert Carr was sent to
Delaware with a small force and by that October had put down
d'Hinojossa's feeble
resistance and 'confiscate' Plockhoy's settlement.
In this change of masters,
Alrichs lost his properties, but soon was accepted by the new
government, received most of
it back, plus a liscense to trade with the Whorekil Indian
1665 – 1669 : For the
next five years the Duke of York's officials in New York took no
interest
in Whorekil, to them it was
an unimportant place somewhere under the order of officials at New
Castle.
At the same time Lord
Baltimore's people, busy at St Mary's, did not push Maryland's
claim
to Delaware. They were slow
in getting the Eastern Shore settled. Some people from Virginia's
Eastern Shore did spill over into Marylands somerset, at that time
covering Maryland from the Chesapeake Bay up to Delawares Indian
River, and had a settlement called “Manokin” on the Potomoke
River. After the lands of Somerset were claimed, then, Maryland
looked north, toward the good lands in southern Delaware.
But still the Duke of York
did nothing to bring his settlers to Whorekil where land patents were
available to all comers.
However, the process was confusing and slow, it strained patience
of those
interesed. Who was there?
The Dutch that were always there, some West India Company fur
traders, The Duke of York's people did not make it easy for these
old settlers to remain.
1670: Lord Baltimore had
his Maryland Council lay ground work to take over what they called
S The southward 'run' into
Somerset, was established later for inhabiting
“Seaboard Side” and
Whorekil. Land was available through William Stevens and James
Weedon , on easy terms for people of English and Irish descent,
hope was they would transport themselves to Durham.
James Weedon was made
surveyor and Daniel Brown was made constable of Durham. Apparently
these men and their party
were well received by the Pilottown Dutch settlers when they appeared
at the Whorekil . At last someone to hand out land grants.
In October, six Dutchmen
were granted land at “Whorekil on the Chesterfield Creek”,
the short lived name for Lewes Creek. Weedon had a problem, these
were not English nor Irish names, so, he changed the Dutch spelling
of names to an anglicized spelling. Otto Wolgast became Otho
Walgatt,
Willem Claesen was now
William Clauson, Antony Pieters became Anthony Peter, and so on.
Whorekil at this time still
had a Dutch Court run by Wiltbank, but the Dutch settlers all
accepted Weedon's patents. The Duke of York also issued a Pilottown
road patent. So who had the control?
1671: It appears that the
Whorekil Dutch Court still was accepted in the area as 'in
control'.
Wiltbank was commissioned to
provide a list of persons at the Whorekil which he did. It
accounted for 47 “total souls” , 29 Dutch families, wives,
children and servents , and 18 English families from Somerset
Maryland.
JamesWeedon. The surveyor,
died mid year and his family and servants went back to Maryland. The
other Marylanders who came with him remained.
1672: Appears that the
dutch are still in controland ignor lord Baltimores demands. Maryland
launched another plan to
control Delaware, Whorekil being the chief target, Dutham was
changed to
Worcester, officials were
appointed but never acted in any capacities.
Pilottown Road land grants
were reissued to three persons, Thomas Walker, 300 acres, John
Smith, 300 acres, Frances Jenkins 600 acrea. To this tract the name
of “Pershore” was given.
These Jenkins grants had no
bearing on the Duke of York grants.
1673: In to Sussex county
moved John Avery, John Rhodes and John King, without the Duke of
York's authorizstion. This year 1600 Dutch troops overwhelemed the
English at New York, New Netherlands revived, New york becane New
Orange. The Delaware River was South River again
and Whorekil becane Horekil.
The Swedes, Finns, Marylanders on south River were able to keep
their homes. Howeverm this is the year Lord Baltimore decided to
take charge and in December his aid,
Captain Thomas Howell and
40 hoesemen road in and took control for about four weeks, but cold
weather and meger food supplies forced Howell to withdraw. On
Christmas eve, Howell retirned and ordered the resident to muster
with their guns and ammunition for drill and there he confiscated the
arms, told the people to gather up their belongings as he was going
to burn all dwellings and that he did. This action for sure put
the resident in precarious circumstances, there was the cold, no
food, several woment with child, The Dutch and some of the English
who had made Whorekil home did not leave. Not long after this raid
the Dutch & English war ended, New York and Delaware returned to
the English and a policy of procedure to grant lands was provided.
1675 – 1676: These years
brought hope as property rights and law were restored. Whorekil
received and English system Court and the laws of the Duke of York
were to be followed. Helm Wiltbank,
Edward Southrin, Sander
Molleston, John King and Paul Marsh were ordered to be Justices of
this court, and Daniel Brown was made constable. With this court in
control the town of Lewes earned it's place among places, so to
speak. It was said Lewes had a Dutch mother and a Maryland English
father.
The early settlers of Lewes
deserve full admiration for forceing a town to come about by
their persistent occupation
of the Pilottown Roads patents.
The source of this
abstract, repeat abstract, is Warren Macdonald's, assisted by Helens
Carter
Potter, article in the 2002
Volume V, Journal of the Lewes Historical Society, which has much
more detailed information of the 'people' involved and would be
necessary reading to those interested.
November 19, 2017 by
Harrison H.
