#18 - Supplemental Reading or More Rabbit Holes?

 This week we are visiting a few articles that I read at the beginning of this endeavor, hoping to gain some context for early Lewes/Swanendael. They also were meant to help me understand the surrounding context since there isn't much written on my topic. I needed a basic understanding of the impact of the Chesapeake, the Swedes, and the Dutch to the area of Lewes and the Ryves Holt House to start to understand which areas were going to have influence on my work. 

First up was an article about architecture in the Chesapeake. "Adaptation and Innovation: Archaeological and Architectural Perspectives on the Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake," from 2007 by Willie Graham, Carter L. Hudgins, Carl R. Lounsbury, Fraser D. Neiman, and James P. Whittenburg. They are all professors or museum professionals somehow related to or working at Williamsburg. I knew a ton of work has been done on the topic - Jamestown and Williamsburg being main motivators. So, it was a place I could start, see if anything was relevant and follow my nose to things I could use. As I know now, the Virginians had very little to do with the Delaware River. But, the article was very helpful in strategizing theoretical building evolutions for the Chesapeake, namely the way the colonists experimented with new forms but tended to build in certain ways based on how safe and stable they felt in their surroundings. This may end up being helpful for understanding Swanendael and the RHH because the former would have been an early settlement in an area void of other Europeans, perhaps they built easy and quick rather than sturdy and slow. RHH may be either, I suppose, but when I understand the early history of Lewes between 1650 and 1700, I should have a better idea of how stable the settlement was. And interesting comment they made in the article about fortifications may be helpful for the Swanendael debate: palisades were quickly adopted since typical late medieval fortifications were overkill since the native  populations at first lacked horses and firearms. So, it would make sense that fortifications at Lewes would be simple wooden palisades like at Jamestown. I should look into this more if I want to learn more about the 'DeVries Palisades' in Lewes. 

Next I read a few articles related to the Swedes on the Delaware River. They were mainly focused up near current day Wilmington, but I needed to understand the likelihood of interaction between New Sweden and the Dutch at Swanenddael and eventually Whorekill/Lewes. As it turns out, they seemed to basically ignore each other. The first is a chapter from a book about Rules and Regulations, "How to Plant a Colony in the New World: Rules and Practices in New Sweden and 17th century Delaware Valley," from 2018 by Magdalena Naum. It explained how as New Sweden was transferred to Dutch control then to English, the Swedish and Finnish residents were require to leave or swear allegiance; they were then treated as second class citizens. But they don't seem to have interacted down the river into the Delaware Bay. There were two fun anecdotes: the story of Mans Petersson Stacke, an apparent drunkard who was responsible for 40% of cases involving slander, assault, and battery. Apparently he was living his best Viking life.  Then there was the story of the Long Swede Rebellion, which was a 1669 attempt by the English to frame some Swedish dissents by accusing them of revolt. Then, I found the best part - another map! This one is from 1644 or 1655 by Pieter Lindstrom and shows the area around the Delaware Bay up to Fort Christiana (Wilmington). I think the names are in Swedish, but it could be Old Dutch. Either way, it marks Cape Hinlopen, Blomerskilen (flower or Samuel Blomaert, a Swanendael patroon?), Paradijet (paradise?), Paradijusdden (paradise cape?) marked near something that looks like a cross between Minas Tirith and a pyre, and finally Mordarekilen (murder creek?). All very intriguing! These seem to match up with current Cape Henlopen, Lewes, Prime Hook, and Slaughter Beach. I will, once I get high res images, do a post just analyzing the maps at some point. 

Since my last name is Long, I just had to read about the Long Swede Rebellion, even though I figured it meant a very tall Swede. So I read an article from 2006 by Evan Haefeli, "Revolt of the Long Swede." It was cited by Magdalena Naum, and seems to be where she got most of her information on the topic. But I was right, the guy involved, was described as tall and imposing. But basically it does seem that this story was cooked up by the English as a method of control over the Swedish and Finnish communities in their new territory. So, moving on!

Then I found a presentation from the Early Colonial Archaeology Symposium in 2011, "Early Settlement at Bombay Hook, Kent County, DE," by Megan E. Springate and Richard Grubb & Assoc (an cultural resources firm, hire me, please?!). Bombay Hook is the first large 'outjut' into the Delaware Bay, it was probably a good navigation point and obvious from satellite imagery. I read this article since there seems to be some issue finding the true site of Swanendael, but I also hoped this article might help me understand the settlement density for the southern/western/lower part of Delaware. Turns out not many people lived here before 1750. It was apparently called "Boomtjes Hoeck" in Dutch, "tree point." In 1638, it marked the southern border for New Sweden, later it was the Southern edge for land controlled by the Dutch West India Company for the City of Amsterdam. This must mean Bombay Hook would have been the northern border of the Swanendael patroonship... Then, in 1644, Bombay Hook was made the border between the English jurisdictions of New Castle (north, up the Bay) and Whorekill (down the bay towards Cape Henlopen). The rest of the article describes specific settlements in the Bombay Hook Wildlife Refuge which could become helpful later on, but I will revisit as needed. 

And finally, a presentation by Kim Burdick in 2019 "South River Tales: Swanendael." I need to email her! She writes with skepticism about the location of Swanendael as well! She goes over the 1952 and 1964 excavations, confirming the finding of post holes arrayed like a palisade with a southern bastion. She mentions this site was chosen because in 1909, yellow Dutch bricks were found at the site. She uses a lot of quotes from primary sources (translated of course), that I will need to track down to read myself, but some of them describe interesting things. Like the size of the Swanendael patroonship as being from Cape Henlopen, up the bay '8 large miles.' What is a large mile? But that gives a range to work with to find Swanendael, the settlement. She uses another map, too! This one is called "Caert Vande Svydt Rivier in Niew Nederland" by Jan Vinckeboons in perhaps 1639. It is marked with 'Swanendael' like a regional note, not a settlement, which confirms the size of the land purchase; it seems to extend to modern day Bombay Hook, or even further up to Augustine. This one is at the Library of Congress, so more easily shareable! She then describes some references from DeVries' published accounts, namely claiming the settlement of Swanendael being at the 38th and a half degree. Lewes is at 38.77, Slaughter beach is 38.9, Murderkill River is 39... Not bad, but not helpful! I wonder what their degree of accuracy was, or what 1630s 38.5 degrees North means to current maps. Burdick then describes a book by Parr in 1969 which seems to be the origin for a lot of the 'myths' of Zwaanendael. Other references mentions Reedy Point being the boundary with New Sweden, which happens to be just north of Bombay Hook and matches the map. Another mentions the 1659 fort ordered at Lewes, Hoorn Kill by Peter Stuyvesant. Because this source seems to be just the slides from Burdick's presentation, I need to hunt down more data to gain context. I hope she'll be interested in sharing with me, but it does show that I'm not entirely crazy! 

Lots of text for this week, but my research process works best when I get a chance to recap my readings. And historical research is often a ton of reading and analyzing for little reward. When I can consolidate the important parts into a page or so of type, it helps me percolate data and see patterns. For instance, I now can see how important maps will be to determine the siting for Swanendael. I also now know that I shouldn't have to research much into New Sweden, but I will continue to need to find Dutch primary sources, then eventually English ones. 

Next week join me for my first foray into primary sources for the RHH and Lewes. And learn about the Burning of the Whorekill. 

*image from "How to Plant a Colony."