DELAWARE RIVER, a stream of the Atlantic slope of the United States, meeting tide-water at Trenton, New Jersey, 130 m. above its mouth. Its total length, from the head of the longest branch to the capes, is 410 m., and above the head of the bay its length is 360 m. It constitutes in part the boundary between Pennsylvania and New York, the boundary between New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and, for a few miles, the boundary between Delaware and New Jersey. The main, west or Mohawk branch rises in Schoharie county, N.Y., about 1886 ft. above the sea, and flows tortuously through the plateau in a deep trough until it emerges from the Catskills. Other branches rise in Greene and Delaware counties. In the upper portion of its course the varied scenery of its hilly and wooded banks is exquisitely beautiful. After leaving the mountains and plateau, the river flows down broad Appalachian valleys, skirts the Kittatinny range, which it crosses at Delaware Water-Gap, between nearly vertical walls of sandstone, and passes through a quiet and charming country of farm and forest, diversified with plateaus and escarpments, until it crosses the Appalachian plain and enters the hills again at Easton, Pa. From this point it is flanked at intervals by fine hills, and in places by cliffs, of which the finest are the Hockamixon Rocks, 3 m. long and above 200 ft. high. At Trenton there is a fall of 8 ft. Below Trenton the river becomes a broad, sluggish inlet of the sea, with many marshes along its side, widening steadily into its great estuary, Delaware Bay. Its main tributaries in New York are Mongaup and Neversink rivers and Callicoon Creek; from Pennsylvania, Lackawaxen, Lehigh and Schuylkill rivers; and from New Jersey, Rancocas Creek and Musconetcong and Maurice rivers. Commerce was once important on the upper river, but only before the beginning of railway competition (1857). The Delaware division of the Pennsylvania Canal, running parallel with the river from Easton to Bristol, was opened in 1830. A canal from Trenton to New Brunswick unites the waters of the Delaware and Raritan rivers; the Morris and the Delaware and Hudson canals connect the Delaware and Hudson rivers; and the Delaware and Chesapeake canal joins the waters of the Delaware with those of the Chesapeake Bay. The mean tides below Philadelphia are about 6 ft. The magnitude of the commerce of Philadelphia has made the improvements of the river below that port of great importance. Small improvements were attempted by Pennsylvania as early as 1771, but apparently never by New Jersey. The ice floods at Easton are normally 10 to 20 ft., and in 1841 attained a height of 35 ft. These floods constitute a serious difficulty in the improvement of the lower river. In the “project of 1885” the United States government undertook systematically the formation of a 26-ft. channel 600 ft. wide from Philadelphia to deep water in Delaware Bay; $1,532,688.81 was expended—about $200,000 of that amount for maintenance—before the 1885 project was superseded by a paragraph of the River and Harbor Act of the 3rd of March 1899, which provided for a 30-ft. channel 600 ft. wide from Philadelphia to the deep water of the bay. In 1899 the project of 1885 had been completed except for three shoal stretches, whose total length, measured on the range lines, was 43⁄8 m. The project of 1899, estimated to cost $5,810,000, was not completed at the close of the fiscal year (June 30) 1907, when $4,936,550.63 had been expended by the Federal government on the work; in 1905 the state of Pennsylvania appropriated $750,000 for improvement of the river in Pennsylvania, south of Philadelphia.
DELAWARE WATER-GAP, a borough and summer resort of Monroe county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the Delaware river, about 108 m. N. of Philadelphia and about 88 m. W. by N. of New York. Pop. (1890) 467; (1900) 469. It is served directly by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, and by the Belvidere division of the Pennsylvania railways; along the river on the opposite side (in New Jersey) runs the New York, Susquehanna & Western railway, and the borough is connected with Stroudsburg, Pa. (about 3 m. W. by N.) by an electric line. The borough was named from the neighbouring gorge, which is noted for the picturesqueness of its scenery, especially in winter, when the ice piles up in the river, sometimes to a height of 20 ft. Here the river cuts through the Kittatinny (Blue) Ridge to its base. On the New Jersey side is Mt. Tammany (about 1600 ft.); on the Pennsylvania side, Mt. Minsi (about 1500 ft.); the elevation of the river here is about 300 ft. The gap (about 2 m. long) through the mountain is the result of erosion by the waters of a great river which flowed northwards acting along a line of faulting at right angles to the strike of the tilted rock formations. The scenery and the delightful climate have made the place a popular summer resort. The borough was incorporated in 1889.
See L. W. Brodhead, The Delaware Water-Gap (Philadelphia, 2nd ed., 1870).
DE LA WARR, or Delaware, an English barony, the holders of which are descended from Roger de la Warr of Isfield, Sussex, who was summoned to parliament as a baron in 1299 and the following years. He died about 1320; his great-grandson Roger, to whom the French king John surrendered at the battle of Poitiers, died in 1370; and the male line of the family became extinct on the death of Thomas, 5th baron, in 1426.
The 5th baron’s half-sister Joan married Thomas West, 1st Lord West (d. 1405), and in 1415 her second son Reginald (1394-1451) succeeded his brother Thomas as 3rd Lord West. After the death of his uncle Thomas, 5th Baron De La Warr, whose estates he inherited, Reginald was summoned to parliament as Baron La Warr, and he is thus the second founder of the family. His grandson was Thomas, 3rd (or 8th) baron (d. 1525), a courtier during the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII.; and the latter’s son was Thomas, 4th (or 9th) baron (c. 1472-1554). The younger Thomas was a very prominent person during the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. After serving with the English army in France in 1513 and being present at the Field of the Cloth of Gold, he rebuilt the house at Halnaker in Sussex, which he had obtained by marriage, and here in 1526 he entertained Henry VIII. “with great cheer.” He disliked the ecclesiastical changes introduced by the king, and he was one of the peers who tried Anne Boleyn; later he showed some eagerness to stand well with Thomas Cromwell, but this did not prevent his arrest in 1538. He is said to have denounced “the plucking down of abbeys,” and he certainly consorted with many suspected persons. But he was soon released and pardoned, although he was obliged to hand over Halnaker to Henry VIII., receiving instead the estate of Wherwell in Hampshire. He died without children in September 1554, when his baronies of De La Warr and West fell into abeyance. His monument may still be seen in the church at Broadwater, Sussex.
He had settled his estates on his nephew William West (c. 1519-1595), who then tried to bring about his uncle’s death by poison; for this reason he was disabled by act of parliament (1549) from succeeding to his honours. However, in 1563 he was restored, and in 1570 was created by patent Baron De La Warr. This was obviously a new creation, but in 1596 his son Thomas (c. 1556-1602) claimed precedency in the baronage as the holder of the ancient barony of De La Warr. His claim was admitted, and accordingly his son and successor, next mentioned, is called the 3rd or the 12th baron.
Thomas West, 3rd or 12th Baron De La Warr (1577-1618), British soldier and colonial governor in America, was born on the 9th of July 1577, probably at Wherwell, Hampshire, where he was baptized. He was educated at Queen’s College, Oxford, where he did not complete his course, but subsequently (1605) received the degree of M.A. In 1597 he was elected member of parliament for Lymington, and subsequently fought in Holland and in Ireland under the earl of Essex, being knighted for bravery in battle in 1599. He was imprisoned for complicity in Essex’s revolt (1600-1601), but was soon released and exonerated. In 1602 he succeeded to his father’s title and estates and became a privy councillor. Becoming interested in schemes for the colonization of America, he was chosen a member of the council of the Virginia Company in 1609, and in the same year was appointed governor and captain-general of Virginia for life. Sailing in March 1610 with three ships, 150 settlers and supplies, he himself bearing the greater part of the expense of the expedition, he arrived at Jamestown on the 10th of June, in time to intercept the colonists who had embarked for England and were abandoning the enterprise. Lord De La Warr’s rule was strict but just; he constructed two forts near the mouth of the James river, rebuilt Jamestown, and in general brought order out of chaos. In March 1611 he returned to London, where he published at the request of the company’s council, his Relation of the condition of affairs in Virginia (reprinted 1859 and 1868). He remained in England until 1618, when the news of the tyrannical rule of the deputy, Samuel Argall, led him to start again for Virginia. He embarked in April, but died en route on the 7th of June 1618, and was buried at sea. The Delaware river and the state of Delaware were named in his honour.
A younger brother, Francis (1586-c. 1634), was prominent in the affairs of Virginia, and in 1627-1628 was president of the council, and acting-governor of the colony.