Two of the petitioners, Worsley and Barret, afterward dying, “the whole estate and interest” in the grant became vested in the seven survivors, and of these, Ryebread, Pack, Inwood, and Trusler, in consideration of gifts of five hundred acres of land in the province, abandoned their claims, Dec. 20, 1634, in favor of “Francis, Lord Plowden, son and heir of Sir Edmund, Earl Palatine,” and George and Thomas Plowden, two other of his sons, their heirs and assigns, forever. The same year, apparently,[742] Plowden granted to Sir Thomas Danby a lease of ten thousand acres of land, one hundred of which were “on the northeast end or cape of Long Island,” and the rest in the vicinity of Watsessett, presumed to be near the present Salem, New Jersey, with “full liberty and jurisdiction of a court baron and court leet,” and other privileges for a “Town and Manor of Danby Fort,” conditioned on the settlement of one hundred “resident planters in the province,” not suffering “any to live therein not believing or professing the three Christian creeds commonly called the Apostolical, Athanasian, and Nicene.”
The plans of the Earl Palatine were simultaneously advanced by the independent voyages of Captain Thomas Yong, of a Yorkshire family, and his nephew and lieutenant, Robert Evelin, of Wotton, Surrey, undertaken in virtue of a special commission from the King, dated Sept. 23, 1633, to discover parts of America not “actually in the possession of any Christian Prince.”[743] These persons sailed from Falmouth, Friday, May 16, 1634, and arriving between Capes Charles and Henry the 3d of July, left Virginia on the 20th to explore the Delaware for a “Mediterranean Sea,” said by the Indians “to be four days’ journey beyond the mountains,” from which they hoped to find an outlet to the Pacific Ocean, affording a short passage to China and the East Indies. On the 25th they entered Delaware Bay and proceeded leisurely up the river (which Yong named “Charles,” in honor of his sovereign), conversing and trading with the savages, as far as the present Trenton Falls, which they reached the 29th of August, and where they were obliged to stop, on account of the rocks and the shallowness of the water. On the 1st of September they were overtaken here by some “Hollanders of Hudson’s River,” whom Yong entertained for a few days, but finally required to depart under the escort of Evelin, who afterward explored the coast from Cape May to Manhattan, and on his return made a second ineffectual attempt to pass beyond the rocks in the Delaware.[744] Both Yong and Evelin “resided several years” on this river, and undertook to build a fort there at “Eriwomeck,” in the present State of New Jersey. Tidings of their actions were frequently reported to Sir Edmund Plowden, and in 1641 was printed a Direction for Adventurers and Description of New Albion,[745] in a letter addressed to Lady Plowden, written by Evelin. Books concerning the province were likewise published, it is said,[746] in 1637 and 1642.
About the close of 1641, the Earl Palatine at length visited America in person, and, according to the testimony of Lord Baltimore,[747] “in 1642 sailed up Delaware River,” one of his men, named by Plantagenet “Master Miles,” either then or about that time “swearing the officers” of an English settlement of seventy persons, at “Watcessit” (doubtless the New Haven colonists at Varkens Kil, now Salem Creek, New Jersey[748]), to “obedience” to him “as governor.” Plowden’s residence was chiefly in Virginia, where, it is recorded, he bought a half-interest in a barque in 1643;[749] and it is probable that he had communication with Governor Leonard Calvert, of Maryland, since a maid-servant belonging to him accompanied Margaret Brent, the intimate friend of the latter, on a visit to the Isle of Kent, in Chesapeake Bay.[750] The longest notice of him during his sojourn on our continent occurs in a report of Johan Printz, Governor of New Sweden, to the Swedish West India Company, dated at Christina (now Wilmington, Delaware), June 20, 1644,[751] the importance of which induces the writer to translate the whole of it. Says Printz,—
“In my former communications concerning the English knight, I have mentioned how last year, in Virginia, he desired to sail with his people, sixteen in number, in a barque, from Heckemak to Kikathans;[752] and when they came to the Bay of Virginia, the captain (who had previously conspired with the knight’s people to kill him) directed his course not to Kikethan, but to Cape Henry, passing which, they came to an isle in the high sea called Smith’s Island, when they took counsel in what way they should put him to death, and thought it best not to slay him with their hands, but to set him, without food, clothes, or arms, on the above-named island, which was inhabited by no man or other animal save wolves and bears; and this they did. Nevertheless, two young noble retainers, who had been brought up by the knight, and who knew nothing of that plot, when they beheld this evil fortune of their lord, leaped from the barque into the ocean, swam ashore, and remained with their master. The fourth day following, an English sloop sailed by Smith’s Island, coming so close that the young men were able to hail her, when the knight was taken aboard (half dead, and as black as the ground), and conveyed to Hackemak, where he recovered. The knight’s people, however, arrived with the barque May 6, 1643, at our Fort Elfsborg, and asked after ships to Old England. Hereupon I demanded their pass, and inquired from whence they came; and as soon as I perceived that they were not on a proper errand, I took them with me (though with their consent) to Christina, to bargain about flour and other provisions, and questioned them until a maid-servant (who had been the knight’s washerwoman) confessed the truth and betrayed them. I at once caused an inventory to be taken of their goods, in their presence, and held the people prisoners, until the very English sloop which had rescued the knight arrived with a letter from him concerning the matter, addressed not alone to me, but to all the governors and commandants of the whole coast of Florida. Thereupon I surrendered to him the people, barque, and goods (in precise accordance with the inventory), and he paid me 425 riksdaler for my expenses. The chief of these traitors the knight has had executed. He himself is still in Virginia, and (as he constantly professes) expects vessels and people from Ireland and England. To all ships and barques that come from thence he grants free commission to trade here in the river with the savages; but I have not yet permitted any of them to pass, nor shall I do so until I receive order and command to that effect from my most gracious queen, her Royal Majesty of Sweden.”
Printz’s opposition to Plowden’s encroachment within his territory was never relaxed, and was entirely successful. In the course of his residence in America, the Earl Palatine of New Albion visited New Amsterdam, “both in the time of Director Kieft and in that of General Stuyvesant,” and, according to the Vertoogh van Nieu Nederland,[753] “claimed that the land on the west side of the North River to Virginia was his by gift of King James [Charles] of England, but said he did not wish to have any strife with the Dutch, though he was very much piqued at the Swedish governor, John Printz, at the South River, on account of some affront given him, too long to relate; adding that when an opportunity should offer, he would go there and take possession of the river.” Before re-crossing the ocean, he went to Boston, his arrival being recorded in the Journal of Governor John Winthrop, under date of June 4, 1648, having “been in Virginia about seven years. He came first,” says the Governor, “with a patent of a County Palatine for Delaware Bay, but wanting a pilot for that place, went to Virginia, and there having lost the estate he brought over, and all his people scattered from him, he came hither to return to England for supply, intending to return and plant Delaware, if he could get sufficient strength to dispossess the Swedes.”
Immediately on reaching Europe, Plowden set about this task, and, to obtain the greater credit for his title as “Earl Palatine of New Albion,” both in and out of that province, as well as recognition of the legality and completeness of his charter, submitted a copy of the latter to Edward Bysshe, “Garter Principal King of Arms of Englishmen,” who received favorable written opinions on the subject from several serjeants and doctors of laws, which, with the letters patent, were recorded by him Jan. 23, 1648/9, “in the office of arms, there to remain in perpetual memory.”[754] At the same time (December, 1648) there was published another advertisement of Plowden’s enterprise, entitled A Description of the Province of New Albion,[755] by “Beauchamp Plantagenet, of Belvil, in New Albion, Esquire,” purporting to contain “a full abstract and collection” of what had already been written on the theme, with additional information acquired by the Earl Palatine during his residence in America.
The work is dedicated “To the Right Honourable and mighty Lord Edmund, by Divine Providence Lord Proprietor, Earl Palatine, Governour, and Captain-Generall of the Province of New Albion, and to the Right Honourable the Lord Vicount Monson of Castlemain, the Lord Sherard, Baron of Letrim, and to all other the Vicounts, Barons, Baronets, Knights, Gentlemen, Merchants, Adventurers, and Planters of the hopefull Company of New Albion, in all 44 undertakers and subscribers, bound by Indenture to bring and settle 3,000 able trained men in our said severall Plantations in the said Province,”—the author, himself “one of the Company,” professing to “have had the honour to be admitted as” the “familiar” of Plowden, and to “have marched, lodged, and cabbined” with him, both “among the Indians and in Holland.”[756] It opens with a short treatise “of Counts or Earls created, and County Palatines,” followed by an adulatory account of the family of the Proprietor, and a defence of his title to his province, comprising some original statements with regard to the Dutch[757] and Swedes. Specific mention is made of several tribes of Indians dwelling in New Albion, and of numerous “choice seats for English,” some of which have been approximately identified.[758] “For the Politique and Civill Government, and Justice,” says the writer, “Virginia and New England is our president: first, the Lord head Governour, a Deputy Governour, Secretary of Estate, or Sealkeeper, and twelve of the Councell of State or upper House; and these, or five of them, is also a Chancery Court. Next, out of Counties and Towns, at a free election and day prefixed, thirty Burgesses, or Commons. Once yearly these meet, as at a Parliament or Grand Assembly, and make Laws.... and without full consent of Lord, upper and lower House, nothing is done.” “For Religion,” observes the author, “I conceive the Holland way now practised best to content all parties: first, by Act of Parliament or Grand Assembly, to settle and establish all the Fundamentals necessary to salvation.... But no persecution to any dissenting, and to all such, as to the Walloons, free Chapels; and to punish all as seditious, and for contempt, as bitterly rail and condemn others of the contrary: for this argument or perswasion of Religion, Ceremonies, or Church-Discipline, should be acted in mildnesse, love, and charity, and gentle language, not to disturb the peace or quiet of the Inhabitants, but therein to obey the Civill Magistrate,”—the latter remarkable programme of universal tolerance in matters of faith being probably designed to protect Catholic colonists in the same manner as the famous “Act concerning Religion” passed by the Maryland Assembly the following year. The book closes with some practical advice to “Adventurers,” and promises all such “of £500 to bring fifty men shall have 5,000 acres, and a manor with Royalties, at 5s. rent; and whosoever is willing so to transport himself or servant at £10 a man shall for each man have 100 acres freely granted forever.”