Once Upon a Time in Delaware

by Katharine Pyle

If Penn only had that strip of land, his ships could sail up the river more safely. He could also carry on a better trade with the Indians along its banks. So he asked the Duke of York to let him have this river land. We have already read how the Duke of York answered him,—how the Provinces on the Delaware were given to Penn on lease, for a certain share of rents and profits, and a rose to be presented to the Duke every Michaelmas, on demand. This lease was to run ten thousand years, which was the same as if it were a gift out and out.

So what is now our State of Delaware came into the possession of William Penn, and in the deeds its boundaries were laid out; the northern one was still to be the arc of the circle drawn around New Castle. Its western boundary was to be a straight line drawn on down from the rim of this “twelve mile circle,” till it should meet another line, a straight one, which was to be drawn from Cape Henlopen across to the Chesapeake, and was to be the southern boundary of the State. If you will look at the map in the front of the book, you can see how the arc of the twelve-mile circle and the two straight lines to the south and the east give Delaware its present shape. The eastern part of the land within the twelve mile circle extended all the way to low water mark on the New Jersey shore, and also to the center of the bay south of the circle. The grant gave Penn the Pea-Patch Island too, where Fort Delaware was afterward built.

The Duke of York gave the land to William Penn. But years and years before that, long before the Duke of York himself owned the Provinces on the Delaware, there was another Englishman who claimed them as his own.

This was Lord Baltimore. In 1632, the King had given him a grant not only of Maryland, but of what is now Delaware, as well. The grant was given on the word of Lord Baltimore, that no Christian people had ever settled on the peninsula. But, as we know, about one year before that DeVries had landed at Zwannendael, had bought the land there and had started his little settlement. Probably Lord Baltimore knew nothing of this. Whether he knew or not, the King was very angry when he found what a mistake had been made, and that the Dutch had made a settlement in Delaware years before. There was even a great deal of doubt as to whether Lord Baltimore’s grant would hold good.

Perhaps it was because of this doubt that Lord Baltimore did not make any claim to these Delaware lands until 1659. At that time, his brother, Lord Calvert, was the Governor of Maryland. The Dutch were living along the Delaware, and had built forts there.

In that year (1659) five or six Dutch soldiers deserted from the Dutch fort at New Amstel[1] and fled down into Maryland.

The Dutch Director-General sent a message to Lord Calvert, asking him to send the deserters back to him.

Lord Calvert answered the Dutchman very politely. He was very willing to send the soldiers back, he said, but at the same time he wished to warn the Director that New Amstel and Altona,[2] and all the land along the Delaware up to the fortieth degree, belonged to Lord Baltimore.

When this message was brought to the Dutch Director and his council, they were surprised indeed. This was the first they had heard of the English having any claim to the land at all. They could hardly believe it, and yet they were so afraid of getting into trouble with the English that some of the councillors wanted to leave New Amstel at once, and move up to the Hudson, where they would be safe.

It was not long before they heard again from Maryland. In August, Colonel Utie came over from St. Mary’s,[3] bringing letters and messages from Lord Calvert. The message that he brought was that the Dutch must move away at once. They must give over all the land to the English. However, they might stay on one condition. That was that they would obey English rules, and would agree that Lord Baltimore was the owner of the land and their ruler.