Seventeenth Century Maps that Depict the Pelham Region

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Maps, of course, provide an interesting glimpse of changes within our region since the earliest European explorers began traversing the area and attempting to chart and map it for others to follow.  Dutch and English cartographers began crafting such depictions that included the region around today's Pelham as early as 1614.  

The accuracy and reliability of such maps must be considered with extreme care, however.  Most were drawn and engraved in Holland or England and were crafted by reliance on earlier maps supplemented with interpretations of carefully recorded information from the logs of ships that since had visited the same region.  Indeed, many maps of the New York region included images of Natives, Native canoes and dugouts, Native palisades, and other such cultural resources but placed the locations erroneously.  As one example, some showed birch bark canoes off the shores of Manhattan, an unlikely scenario since the Natives of the region crafted dugout canoes, not birch bark canoes which were far more prevalent near Massachusetts.  

Many, many maps were crafted simply by beginning with a copy of an earlier map.  Thus, errors were repeated over and over in many instances for decades.  Still, much can be learned from reasoned consideration of such maps and the ways they depict particular areas.

Today's Historic Pelham Blog article presents details from a handful of important 17th century maps that included depictions of the region that later became Pelham.  In each instance, the detail is followed by a brief commentary that summarizes a little about the historical significance of the map viz-a-viz the Pelham region.  

There are far too many such 17th century maps to discuss in a single article.  Indeed, some already have been discussed in other Historic Pelham Blog articles.  See, e.g., Mon., Aug. 13, 2018:  There Seems To Be Another Early 17th Century Map that References Siwanoys.  Today's article, however, will begin what is planned as a series of intermittent discussions of such maps in an effort to document such material as it relates to the history of the little Town of Pelham, New York.  Each detail, on which visitors can click to see a higher resolution of the image, is followed by a citation to its source and a link to an image of the full map which, typically, can be magnified to very large size for study.

Detail from "Nova Anglia, Novum Belgium et Virginia + Bermuda majori mole

expressa" (New England, New Netherland, and Virginia, and Bermuda Drawn

on a Larger Scale).  1630.  By Mapmakers Hessel Gerritsz and Ioannes de Laet.

Source:  Christie's, LAET, Johannes de (1593-1649) and Hessel GERRITSZ

(1581-1632). Nova Anglia, Novum Belgium et Virginia.  Leiden, ca 1630.,

(visited Aug. 18, 2018).  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

This map is considered a landmark work.  It was prepared in 1630, barely five years after the founding of New Amsterdam and the construction of Fort Amsterdam. The detail above shows the region that became Pelham just left of center.  There are three significant references important to the history of the region.  There is a reference to "Helle gat" (today's Hell Gate where the so-called East River enters Long Island Sound, once a treacherous, boulder infested area where many vessels foundered).  There also is a reference to "Wecké" in the region which clearly is an early reference to Wiechquaeskeck.  The reference may have been a reference to the geographical feature referenced so often as "Wickers Creek" (and by many spelling variants).  However, because other nearby references on the map clearly indicate local Native peoples, this most likely is a reference to the Wiechquaeskeck Natives in the region.  If so, it is significant to note that it is the only such Native reference on the map in the Pelham region -- there is no reference to Siwanoys.  

A third significant aspect of the detail is the reference in the Long Island Sound waters off the shores of the Pelham region to "Aechipelago" (i.e., Archipelago) and the depiction of a host of islands off the shores.  This group of islands clearly would include the myriad such islands, islets, and rocky outcroppings off the shores of Pelham including City Island, Hart Island, Hunter's Island, Travers Island, Davids Island, the Blauzes, the Chimney Sweeps, and dozens of other such islets.

Detail from "Nova Belgica et Anglia Nova." (New Netherland and New

England.) 1635.  By Mapmaker Willem Blaeu.  Source:  "Nova Belgica

et Anglia Nova," New York Public Library Lionel Pincus and Prrincess

Firyal Map Division, Digital Image No. 434101 (visited Aug. 18,

2018).  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

Though published in 1635, this is an enhanced, engraved, and published version of Adriaen Block's early 1614 manuscript map of New Netherland and New England.  Unlike most of the other maps, this one is oriented with north depicted to the right on the map as seen by the viewer.  

This early map references "Wecke" (i.e., Wiechquaeskecks) roughly in the region of today's Pelham (with no reference in that region to Siwanoys).  The map also shows "Hellegat" and three references in the area to "Archipelagus" (or other spelling variants). 

Detail from "Nova Anglia, Novum Belgium, et Virginia" (New England,

New Netherland, and Virginia).  1636.  By Mapmakers Janssonius

Jansz and Johannes Jan.  Source:  Nova Anglia, Novum Belgium, et

Virginia, New York Public Library, Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal

Map Division, Image ID 484206 (visited Aug. 18, 2018).  NOTE:

Click on Image to Enlarge.

Map collectors refer to this map as the "first state" of Janssoniu (or Jansson) Jansz's printed map plate that clearly was based on the above-referenced 1630 copper plate prepared by cartographer Hessel Gerritsz.  Because the map is based on the earlier 1630 Gerritsz map, the region of today's Pelham references the same three features important to Pelham history:  (1) Wecke; (2) Helle gaet; and (3) Aechipelago.

Detail from "Nova Belgica sive Nieuw Nederlandt." 1656.  Prepared by

Adriaen van der Donck and Included in van der Donck's "Beschryvinge

van Nieuw-Nederlant" Published in 1656.  Source:  "Nova Belgica sive

Nieuw Nederlandt," 1656, John Carter Brown Library Map Collection,

Brown University, Accession No. 02929, File Name 02929-1, Call No.

F656 D678b (visited Aug. 18, 2018).  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

This map is fascinating because it was created from a map drawn by Adriaen van der Donck, after whom today's Yonkers is named.  During portions of the 1640s van der Donck owned and developed a vast acreage awarded him by the Director-General and Council at Fort Amsterdam that encompassed a large swath of the southwestern portion of today's lower Westchester County.  Van der Donck actually resided in the region and served as, among other things, a guide and interpreter for the Dutch colonial authorities given his experience with local Natives.

That makes the map detail depicted above quite interesting given that it contains a reference to "Siwanoys" suggesting that a band of local Natives in the region was known as "Siwanoys."  Interestlingly, the map places such "Siwanoys" north and northwest of Stamford rather than in the Pelham region.  

The Pelham region, which is labeled "Freedlant," is shown as populated by the Natives known as "Manhattans" (who also are shown as located on today's Manhattan).  It is known that the Manhattans of the Island of Manhattan and the Wiechquaeskecks of the Bronx and lower Westchester County, both Lenape groups that spoke the Munsee dialect, were close and communicated and traded with one another via a significant trail that became Broadway and Old Boston Post Road.  However, most modern scholars agree that the Manhattans populated the Island of Manhattan while the Wiechquaeskecks populated much of the Bronx, Westchester County, and even southwestern Connecticut.

The map seems to copy other earlier maps in its placement of a reference to "Siwanoys" north of Stamford.  It also includes a reference to "Hellegat."  Though it references "Archipelago" in Long Island Sound well east of Stamford, it shows the Sound as the "Oost Rever" (East River) and depicts many small islands in waters off the shores of Freedlant.  

Detail from "Pas caerte van Nieu Nederlandt en de Engelsche Virginies

van Cabo Cod tot Cabo Canrick"  1666.  By Mapmaker Pieter Groos.

Source:  Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps Inc., "Pas caerte

van Nieu Nederlandt en de Engelsche Virginies van Cabo Cod tot

Cabo Canrick" (visited Aug. 18, 2018).  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

This detail immediately above is from a significant 17th century Dutch map that illustrates the Atlantic coast of America from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras with, of course, an emphasis on the Dutch Colony of New Netherland.  Cartographer Pieter Goos published the map in De Zee Atlas ofter Water-Weereld, first published by Goos in 1666.  

There are a number of notable features in the region that became today's Pelham depicted on this map.  First, it once again includes a reference to "Hellegat" (similar to the earlier-referenced 'Helle gaet" references described above.  It also references the Pelham region as "Freedlant," a Dutch term that translates very roughly as "Freedom Land."  Not only did the Dutch know today's Pelham region as Freedlandt (with many variant spellings reflected in 17th century records) but also in the 1960s a massive amusement park operated in the same area (including the area where today's Co-op City stands) that was named "Freedom Land."  Additionally, it shows the Long Island Sound off of Pelham shores as "Oost Rivier" (i.e., "East River").  Finally, this map shows the "Archipelago" as an area of islands off Connecticut shores, although it continues to show many small, untitled islands and islets off the shore of "Freedlant."

 Detail from "Pas caerte van Nieu Nederlandt en de Engelsche Virginies : van

Cabo Cod tot Cabo Canrick" (Later Edition, 1676, of Map by Pieter Goos first Published

in 1666).  Source:  Pas caerte van Nieu Nederlandt en de Engelsche Virginies :

van Cabo Cod tot Cabo Canrick, New York Public Library Lionel Pincus and 

Princess Firyall Map Division, Digital Image No.  433976 (visited Aug. 18, 2018).

NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

This detail from a 1676 edition of a map first published by cartographer Pieter Groos in 1666 (see above) includes two interesting elements depicted in the region that became today's Pelham.  First, it once again includes a reference to "Hellegat" (similar to the earlier-referenced 'Helle gaet" references described above.  It also references the Pelham region, once again, as "Freedlant."

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Why Did Local Wiechquaeskeck Natives Sell Their Land to Thomas Pell in 1654?

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In 2009, the Bronx County Historical Society Journal published an article by this author on the identities and biographical data of Thomas Pell and the New Englanders who signed the Pell Deed acquiring lands from local Wiechquaeskeck Natives on June 27, 1654.  See Bell, Blake A., The New Englanders Who Signed Thomas Pell's 1654 Agreement Acquiring Much of Today's Bronx and Lower Westchester Counties From Native Americans, The Bronx County Historical Society Journal, Vol. XLVI, Nos. 1 & 2, pp. 25-49 (Spring / Fall, 2009).

Since then, the author's research has focused on the identities and biographical data of the Natives who signed the Pell Deed.  See, e.g.:

Fri., Jun. 15, 2018:  Who Was Shawanórõckquot, a Native American Sachem Who Signed the Pell Indian Deed on June 27, 1654?

Tue., Jun. 19, 2018:  What Do We Know About "Cockho," a Native American Who Signed the Pell Indian Deed on June 27, 1654?  

As such research has progressed, interesting light has been shed on the possible motives behind the decision of local Wiechquaeskecks to sell their land to Thomas Pell in 1654.  Today's Historic Pelham Blog article collects a little of that research and presents a hypothesis.

There is evidence to suggest that at the time Thomas Pell purchased the land for 500 pounds sterling on June 27, 1654, news that the April 5, 1654 Treaty of Westminster ending the First Anglo-Dutch War had not yet reached Thomas Pell and his compatriots.  See Bell, Blake A., The New Englanders Who Signed Thomas Pell's 1654 Agreement Acquiring Much of Today's Bronx and Lower Westchester Counties From Native Americans, The Bronx County Historical Society Journal, Vol. XLVI, Nos. 1 & 2, pp. 25-49 (Spring / Fall, 2009).  Indeed, New Englanders were in the midst of preparing for an assault against New Netherland and Fort Amsterdam when news of the Treaty of Westminster finally reached them.  See id.  

It is possible, therefore, that local Wiechquaeskecks viewed the sale to Thomas Pell as a way to align themselves with New Englanders rather than the Dutch of New Netherland in the event the First-Anglo Dutch War enveloped the region as feared.  Indeed, it seems that local Wiechquaeskecks were very unhappy with Dutch authorities and their diplomatic "incompetence" in their dealings with Natives.  Moreover, Shawanórõckquot (the Wiechquaeskeck sachem who was listed as the first "Saggamore" who signed the Pell Deed) had a long, unpleasant history with the Dutch authorities of Fort Amsterdam further supporting the hypothesis that local Natives sold their land to Pell to spite the Dutch and align themselves with the New Englanders.

For years Director of New Netherland Willem Kieft had bullied local Natives and even savaged some Native settlements.  The Wiechquaeskecks in the Pelham region had grown to detest the Dutch.  Indeed, in August 1643, local Natives descended on settlers who had planted on today's Throggs Neck and in the region of today's Pelham Bay Park and massacred many including Anne Hutchinson and most of her family who were authorized by the Dutch authorities to settle in the region.

One scholar recently has described how the Wiechquaeskecks of the region had grown to hate the Dutch authorities in connection with long conflict between 1636 and 1645 that included both the Pequot War and Kieft's War:

"For the more independent Munsee-speaking democracies to the west [i.e. nearer New Netherland], war with colonists led first to a sense of solidarity between between sachems, but that cohesion faded the longer the war dragged on.  Some powers, particularly the Raritans and Esopus, were defiant throughout the conflict and remained dismissive of Dutch authority in the years following.  Other powers that had long sought peaceful dealings with New Amsterdam -- the Wiechquaesgeeks, Hackensacks, Tappens, Tankitekes, and Canarsies -- were at first frustrated at the Dutch director's incompetence in diplomacy and then became enraged at his provocation. . . ."

Source:  Lipman, Andrew, The Saltwater Frontier:  Indians and the Contest for the American Coast, p. 130 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2015).

Although the Dutch, the English, and the Natives were brutal during the long conflict, the Dutch killed far more Natives than the English who also, when the brutality finally ended, had far more "Indian partners" than the Dutch.  According to Lipman:

"Yet even in these wars of domination, diplomacy was essential.  English governors' attention to -- and sometimes deliberate manipulation of - Algonquian rules of alliance was in sharp contrast to the Dutch leadership's indifference to Native peacemaking protocols.  The English, who killed far fewer of their enemies than the Dutch, would end up claiming more territory  and more Indian partners, while the grueling Dutch war with their Munsee neighbors ended with the colonists in the same position as when they began."

Source:  Id., p, 129.  

Moreover, the great Wiechquaeskeck sachem Sawenaroque who signed the Pell Deed via his mark and is referenced in that document as "Shawanórõckquot" had a long and unpleasant history with local Dutch authorities.  For example, some have suggested that in his younger days, Shawanórõckquot was a great "warrior chief" who fought the Dutch as Dutch authorities sought to massacre peaceful Native American bands in the lower Hudson River Valley during Kieft's War (1643-1645), also known as the Wappinger War. See, e.g. Smoke Signals, Bound Vols. 7-9, p. 20 (NY, NY: Indian Association of America, 1955) ("Faced with extermination at the hands of the sadistic Gov. Kieft who proceeded to massacre peaceful bands in the lower Hudson River area in 1643, the Mohegans under the famous warrior chief Shanorocke or Shenorock found themselves forced into a wholesale war.").

Clearly there was no love lost between the Wiechquaeskeck sachem Sawenaroque and the Dutch.  Indeed, a few years after the sachem signed the Pell Deed, he was imprisoned for unspecified charges by the Dutch in New Amsterdam at the close of the so-called "Esopus Wars" that raged during the 1660s.  Indeed, on March 6, 1660, Dutch officials summoned several local chiefs to Fort Amsterdam to warn them against joining with or assisting the Esopus and Raritan Natives in the ongoing conflict. The five sachems present at the gathering agreed and the agreement was documented as a "Treaty" in the minutes of the meeting. 

Those minutes reflect that at the end of the meeting, the Dutch officials asked the Natives "whether they had anything more to say." The Natives responded by demanding to know "why Sauwenare [i.e., Sawenaroque] was not also present, whereas he was also a chief and their friend." Significantly, the Dutch responded that the Wiechquaeskeck sachem was not present because he was being held in a Dutch prison at Fort Amsterdam "on account of some [unspecified] charges made against him." The Dutch responded that they would immediately bring Sauwenare to the meeting and grant him a release from prison if each of the chiefs present "would engage themselves, that he or his people should do no more harm to us or to ours or in case it should happen, that they would then deliver the evil-doer into our hands." The chiefs agreed and the sachem referenced as Sauwenare was brought to the room. The minutes reflect in detail what happened next: 

"Sauwenar was brought up and informed of the foregoing, whereupon he answered that he was glad, that the peace was renewed, that his heart would henceforth be that of a Dutchman and he would live with them like a brother. Thus they left satisfied and the Sachems engaged themselves, to inform all their savages and it was made known to the neighboring villages by the firing of a cannon." 

Source: Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York, Vol. XIII, pp. 147-49 (Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons and Company, 1881).

This incident, of course, suggests that there likely was no love lost between the Wiechquaeskeck sachem "Sauwenar" and the Dutch. He may have informed the Director General that "his heart would henceforth be that of a Dutchman and he would live with them like a brother," but what would he be expected to say as a man hoping to avoid a return to imprisonment and depart with his sachem colleagues?

Given that news of the end of the First Anglo-Dutch War does not seem to have reached the Pelham area before June 27, 1654 and the fact that local Wiechquaeskecks and their sachem Sauwenaroque hated the Dutch, it seems likely that the Natives decided to sell their lands to Thomas Pell as a way of aligning themselves with English settlers in the event fighting began between New Netherlanders and New Englanders in the region as part of the First Anglo-Dutch War.  This also could explain why the lands were sold to Pell despite evidence that the same lands previously were sold to the Dutch at least once (in 1649) if not more than once before.  See Mon., Sep. 07, 2015:  Why Did Native Americans Sell Lands Including Today's Pelham First to the Dutch and then to the English?  See also Wed., Aug. 12, 2015:  Significant Research on the First "Indian Deed" Reflecting the Dutch Purchase of Lands that Included Today's Pelham; Mon., Aug. 31, 2015:  Seyseychkimus, The Native American "Chief" and Signer of 1649 Indian Deed Encompassing Pelham.

Munsee Family Like Munsee-Speaking Wiechquaesgecks Who

Once Inhabited the Region Including Today's Pelham.  NOTE:

Click on Image to Enlarge.

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