Delaware

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1639 Map of Delaware Bay and River

Delaware, the first of the thirteen original States that ratified the federal Constitution; takes its name from Lord De la Warr (Delaware), who entered the bay of that name in 1610, when he was governor of Virginia. It had been discovered by Hudson in 1609. In 1629 Samuel Godyn, a director of the Dutch West India Company, bought of the Indians a tract of land near the mouth of the Delaware; and the next year De Vries, with twenty colonists from Holland, settled near the site of Lewes. The colony was destroyed by the natives three years afterwards, and the Indians had sole possession of that district until 1638, when a colony of Swedes and Finns landed on Cape Henlopen, and purchased the lands along the bay and river as far north as the falls at Trenton (see NEW SWEDEN). They built Fort Christiana near the site of Wilmington. Their settlements were mostly planted within the present limits of Pennsylvania. The Swedes were conquered by the Dutch of New Netherland in 1655, and from that time until 1664, when New Netherland was conquered by the English, the territory was claimed by the Dutch, and controlled by them. Then Lord Baltimore, proprietor of Maryland, claimed all the territory on the west side of Delaware Bay, and even to lat. 40°; and settlers from Maryland attempted to drive away the settlers from the present State of Delaware. When William Penn obtained a grant of Pennsylvania, he was very desirous of owning the land on Delaware Bay to the sea, and procured from the Duke of York a release of all his title and claim to New Castle and 12 miles around it, and to the land between that tract and the sea; and in the presence of all the settlers he produced his deeds (October, 1682), and formally accepted the surrender of the territory. Lord Baltimore pressed his claim, but in 1685 the Lords of Trade and Plantations made a decision in Penn's favor. A compromise afterwards adjusted all conflicting claims. The tracts which now constitute the State of Delaware, Penn called "The Territories," or " Three Lower Counties on the Delaware." They were governed as a part of Pennsylvania for about twenty years afterwards, and each county had six delegates in the legislature. Then Penn allowed them a separate legislature; but the colony was under the governor of Pennsylvania until 1776, when the inhabitants declared it an independent State. A constitution was adopted by a convention of the people of the three counties - New Castle, Kent, and Sussex --Sept. 20, 1776. A State government was organized, and John McKinley was elected its first governor. In 1792 a second constitution was framed and adopted. Although Delaware was a slave State, it refused to secede at the outbreak of the Civil War ; and, though it assumed a sort of neutrality, it furnished several regiments of volunteers for the Union army. In all the wars Delaware patriotically furnished its share of men and money for the public defense. The population in 1890 was 168,493; in 1900, 184,735.

OLD SWEDISH CHURCH, WILMINGTON, DELAWARE.

When Howe entered Philadelphia (September, 1777) the Americans still held control of the Delaware River below that city. On Mud Island, near the confluence of the Schuylkill and Delaware, was built Fort Mifflin. On the New Jersey shore, opposite, at Red Bank, was Fort Mercer, a strong redoubt, well furnished with heavy artillery. At Billingsport, on the same shore, 3 miles lower down, were extensive but unfinished works designed to guard some obstructions in the river there. Other formidable obstructions were placed in the river below forts Mifflin and Mercer, in the form of chevaux-de-frise-sunken crates of stones, with heavy spears of iron-pointed timber, to receive and pierce the bows of vessels. Besides these, there were floating batteries.

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