Commemorates the establishment of the

first permanent European presence on

the Delaware Bay

1631

In 1631, a group of settlers under David

Pietersz de Vries landed near this spot

to form a whale hunting station and

agricultural settlement. The settlers

of Swanendael, meaning " Valley of

the Swans," crossed the Atlantic in

the Walvis.

A report to de Vries confirmed that the

settlers had been killed and the buildings

destroyed as a result of a cultural

misunderstanding between the Dutch

and Native people in the area.

The Original Inhabitants

(Picture included)

The inhabitants of the land previous to

the Dutch arrival were of an Algonquian

group called Cinconicins,written in early

records as Sickoneyns, Siknoessink,

Siconesius and Siconese, or Great

Siconese. It is likely that the Great Siconese

lived by hunting and the intensive

gathering of a wide veriety of natural

resources. The resources would have

been seasonally available in the forests,

in numerous streams and along the coast.

Our knowledge of these Native people

comes from information recovered through

scientific investigation of archaeological

sites in the Lewes area, and from

information obtained in historical

records dating from the colonial period.

Dutch Arrival

(Picture included)

In 1609, Henry Hudson sailed into the

Delaware Bay, in search for the Northwest

Passage to China. His voyages contributed

to the establishment of European colonies

in North American. One of these, called

New Netherland, was established by the

Dutch. New Netherland included present

day New York, New Jersey, and Delaware.

The Delaware River, known as the South

River in the seventeenth centry, formed

the southern boundry of New Netherland.

In 1629, Gillis Hossitt and Jacob Jansz,

agents of the Dutch West India Company,

traveled to the Delaware area to

purchase land from the Native Americans.

The concept of land ownership was

foreign to the Native Americans, who were

more familiar with the concept of gifting.

A tract of land, eight Dutch miles long and

half a Dutch mile in width, was acquired by

the Dutch in exchange for cloth, axes,

adzes, beads, and various other goods.

A patent was registered and confirmed in

1630.

In Amsterdam, Samuel Godyn gained the

rights to settle the new territory and

arranged for "patroons" to invest

in the project. David Pietersz de Vries

was given general administration of the

colony from Holland. [Picture included:

Landing of the DeVries Colony at

Swanendael, Lewes, Delaware 1631 by

Stanley M. Arthurs] Captain Peter Heyes

was to command the Walvis and company

agent Gillis Hossitt was to be in direct

charge of administering the settlement

on site. The purpose of the settlement

was " to carry out the whale fishery

in that region, and to pant a colony for

the cultivation of all sorts of grain, for

which the country is very well suited

and of tobacco." ( Journal of de Vries)

1909

Dedicated on September 22, 1909

Placed on the National Register of Historic

Places on February 23, 1972

Swanendael

On December 12th, 1630, the Walvis

departed Holland with twenty-eight men

and supplies to build a colony. After

dropping off some supplies and passengers

in the West Indies, the Walvis reached

Blommert's Kill, later named Hoerenkil

(modern day Lewes Creek). The settlers

constructed a palisade, dormitory, and

cook house. In September, Peter Heyes

departed for Amsterdam in the Walvis,

leaving Hossitt to run the colony.

In 1632, de Vries prepared to set sail with

two vessels bearing additional settlers

and supplies for the settlement. Before

they departed, however, news relating

to the destruction of the colony by local

Native Americans postponed the trip.

Sailing on May 24th with the Walvis

(whale) and the Teencoorntgen

(little squirrel) with fifty men, de Vries

came upon the burned settlement on

December 5th, 1632.

After asking a local Native American what

had happened, de Vries wrote the

following in his journal: " He then

shoed us the place where our people had

set up a column, to which was fastened a

piece of tin, whereupon the arms of Holland

were painted. One of their chiefs took this

off for the purpose of making tobacco pipes,

not knowing that he was doing amiss. Those

in command at the house made such ado

about it, that the Indians, not knowing how it

was, went away and slew the chief how [sic]

had done it, and brought a token of the dead

to the house to those in command, who told

them that they wished they had not done it,

that they should have brought him to them,

as they wished to have forbidden him to do

the like again.They then went away, and the

friends of the murdered chief incited their

friends... to set about the work of vengeance."

According to de Vries, the Native Americans

came upon the settlement as the colonists

were working outside the walls and "struck

them down."

Although the colony lasted barely a year, the

claiming of the territory fostered Dutch

resettlement of the lower Delaware Valley. In

1655, after approximently twenty- four years,

they would intensify settlement efforts. The

South River, including the Lewes area,

became a flourishing Dutch colonial area.

The settlement at Lewes also included a

Mennonite colony under Pieter Cornelisen

Plockhoy by 1663.

As a result of political, economic, and military

rivalries, in 1664 the Englished seized the

Dutch holdings in New Netherland. Many

Dutch settlers, however, remained and

contributed to the political, social and

economic development of the new English

colony.

(Picture included: Hand drawn map of Swanendael circa 1630s)

Marker is on Pilottown Road (Front Street), on the right when traveling north.

Courtesy hmdb.org

Credits and Sources: