Does this 17th Century Colonial Document Reference Natives Named "Siwanoys"?

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I long have argued that there were no local Natives who knew themselves -- or were referenced by others or properly identified -- as "Siwanoys" despite the nearly two-hundred-year-old Pelham tradition to the contrary.  See Wed., Jan. 29, 2014:  There Were No Native Americans Known as Siwanoys; Mon., Aug. 13, 2018:  There Seems To Be Another Early 17th Century Map that References Siwanoys; Mon., Aug. 20, 2018:  A 17th Century Book Reference to "Siwanois" Natives in the Region of Today's Pelham.

One of the bases for this conclusion is the fact that research has not revealed any primary source 16th, 17th, or 18th Dutch or English colonial documents showing that a group of local Natives identified themselves (or were identified by authorities) as a group named "Siwanoys."  Rather, countless such primary source documents (hundreds, if not thousands) identify the local Natives who inhabited the region that became today's Pelham and Pelham Bay Park as "Wiechquaeskecks" (with a variety of spellings).

Yesterday's Historic Pelham Blog article focused on a reference in a book published in the Netherlands in 1625 that stated:  "The natives here are called Siwanois, and dwell along the coast for eight leagues, to the neighborhood of Hellegat."  The article concluded that the un-sourced reference written by a man who never had visited America could not be viewed as actual evidence that local Natives were, in fact, known properly as "Siwanoys."  Indeed, recent scholarship seems to be settling on the suggestion that the term "Siwanoy" was a descriptive term that meant sewan (i.e., wampum) making people ("oy") of this place.  Another alternative seems to be, roughly, people to the south or southerly people.

Today's Historic Pelham article addresses an early 18th century colonial document that makes a reference to Natives known as "Sewonkeegs."  At least one scholar has concluded that the term "Sewonkeeg" was a spelling variant of "Siwanoys."  See "SYNONYMY" in Hodge, Frederick Webb, ed., Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Part 2, pp. 1021, 1137 (Washington, DC:  Gov't Printing Office, 1912) (stating "Sewonkeeg = Siwanoy"). 

In January, 1700 (new style), officials of the Colony of Connecticut were concerned about rumors of an "Indian Rising."  There were rumors that Natives well to the north including Mohawks were planning an attack against English settlers in New England.  The Governor of the Colony of Connecticut at the time was Fitz-John Winthrop (known as "John Winthrop" like his father who served as an earlier Governor of the Colony of Connecticut and like his Grandfather who served as an earlier Governor of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay). On January 22, 1699/1700 (old style, the equivalent of February 1, 1700 under the "new style" Gregorian Calendar), Governor Winthrop and a group of military and civilian advisers gathered in New London to meet with a number of local Native sachems and their various "councils."  The purpose of the meeting was to reaffirm earlier peace arrangements with the local Natives and to learn from them what they had heard of the rumors regarding plans by Natives to the north including Mohawks to attack English colonists.

One of the Natives present at the meeting was a Mohegan sachem named "Owaneco."  Owaneco was the eldest son of the Mohegan sachem Uncas.  He was named after Uncas' father, Owaneco.  Owaneco spoke at length during the meeting.  He detailed all rumors his people had heard.  Among those rumors was one that certain "Eastward Indians" including the Mohawks and Nowonthewogs were conspiring to attack English settlers and had sent wampum to "Western Indians" including "the Sewonkeeg" to secure their participation in the plot.  The specific reference contained in the record of the meeting reads, in pertinent part, as follows:

"Likewise he [i.e., Owaneco] informs that about a month since he heard that the Mohawks and the Nowonthewog or the Eastward Indians had combined against the English and that they had agreed to send Wampom to the Sewonkeeg or Western Indians, and that they had sent a girdle of Wampom to the Wapaquasett or New-Roxbury Indians of which he was to have a part; when he heard this news he advised his men to be silent till the belt of Wampom should be brought to him --"

If Frederick Webb Hodge, editor of the Native American Handbook, Part 2, published in 1912 was correct and "Sewonkeeg = Siwanoy," then arguably this early 18th century document would suggest the existence of a band of Natives understood (at least by the sachem Owaneco) as Siwanoys. 

Once again, like the 1625 reference in the book by Johannes De Laet addressed in yesterday's article, this much later 18th century reference to "Sewonkeeg" does not support the existence of  a group of Natives in the region of today's Pelham that were known properly as "Siwanoys."

First, of course, the location of these "Sewonkeegs" is only referenced as "Westward" of the "Eastward Indians" that included the Mohawks and the Nowonthewog.  The "Westward" reference is simply too broad to assume that the actual location was the region that included today's Pelham and Pelham Bay Park.

Second, Frederick Webb Hodge is one of many scholars who seem simply to have assumed the existence of "Siwanoys" (likely due to reliance on the work of others who also assumed their existence) without ever detailing any evidence whatsoever to establish their existence.  

Third, this document is an early 18th century document.  Scholars seem entirely to agree that by the end of the 17th century, years of warfare, periodic epidemics, and waves of settlers who took control of nearly all local land from Natives had forced the Natives (including those who once populated the region that became today's Pelham and Pelham Bay Park) out of the Hudson River Valley.  Thus, there is virtual certainty that the reference to "Sewonkeegs" who were "Westward" of the Mohawks and Nowonthewog could not have been a reference to Natives near the Pelham region.  Admittedly, of course, Native bands were forced elsewhere and this could be a reference to such a band, but the evidence is scant -- and virtually non-existent -- that a substantial band of Siwanoys large enough to be capable of being recruited for an early 18th century attack against English settlers continued to exist (much less continued to exist in this region).

Fourth, spelling variants of most Native references are legion in the early colonial records where scribes simply tried to reproduce in writing the phonetics of such terms.  Thus, it admittedly could be the case that the "Sewonkeeg" reference was a spelling variant of the more common spelling of "Siwanoy."  It must be recognized, however, that whether Siwanoys existed or not, the term "Sewonkeeg" may not be a spelling variant of the term.

Fifth, there are countless 17th century Dutch and English documents that make clear that Natives in the area that became today's Pelham and Pelham Bay Park were referenced as "Wiechquaeskecks" (also with a wide variety of spellings).  Assuming that this record dated January 22, 1699/1700 (old style) referencing ""Sewonkeegs" is actually a reference to "Siwanoys," this single document certainly provides little support for the conclusion that that Natives known as "Siwanoys" once populated the Pelham region and sold their lands to Thomas Pell on June 27, 1654 (old style).

Portrait of Fitz-John Winthrop (Born March 14, 1637; Died

November 27, 1707) Who Served as 24th Governor of the Colony

of Connecticut, 1698-1707.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

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Transcribed immediately below is the January 22, 1699/1700 (old style) record referenced in today's Historic Pelham Blog article.

"Information respecting a rumored Rising of the Indians.

[New-York Papers, Bundle, H, J, K, K 23, 24, 25.]

The information made by Owaneco Sachem of Monhegan concerning a combination of the Indians to make warr upon the English given to the Gover r & Councill in New London January the 22 1699/1700

PRESENT -- The Honb le  John Winthrop Esq Governour,
Capt n Samuell Mason, 
Capt Dan l Wetherell,
Mr. Rich d Christophes
Mr Nemehiah Smyth, Mr. Nehemah Palmer.

The Indians then attending were (: besides Owaneco Sachem of the Mohegans and divers of his Councill:) Momohans Councill, Scadaub Sachim of a part of the Pequots with his Councill and the Indian Councill of Nihantick. -- 

The interpreters were:  Capt n John Stanton and Lieut t James Avery: -- 

Owaneco being asked what he desired to relate -- Declared:

He remember the covenant made between the Colony and His Father, pursuant to which he had made hast to inform Capt n Mason as soon as he understood any mischief to be designed against the English.

The Hon ble Governour then telling him, that he had sent for him to know and now expected to hear from him:) what he had heard concerning the designe, that as he had heretofore so he might also now shew, how carefull he was, that, that ancient covenant might not be broken.  Owaneco went on and reported as followeth:  That he had news by a Juncks'es Indian call'd Wadungum (: about two months since :) that a Dutchman at Albany had told of the Mohawcks that King William had ordered all the Indians to be cutt off; and that the English and French had letters about it, and that the Dutchman advised the Mohawcks to buy ammunition speedily; because in a little time none would be suffered to sell them any, and sold them presently about twenty barrells of powder -- 

Since which Owaneco informs that he heard that Canada Mohawks were come over to the other, and that they held a great Councill, where the news above mentioned was discoursed -- The Canada Mohawks said they heard the same, wherefore they came over to take Councill with them against the English.  An Indian whose name is Toby formerly belonging to the Indians that live at New Roxbury (: and who had a hand in the killing of one Johnson near the same town in the last war with the Indians, from the English, they might then easily destroy the English; Upon which the Mohawks imployed Toby to carry presents to the Nipmug (: or Wapaquassett) Indians, and to the Mohogans to draw them off from the English and withall to assure the Mohegans that if they would not forsake the English, they would look upon them as Enemies -- 

Likewise he informs that about a month since he heard that the Mohawks and the Nowonthewog or the Eastward Indians had combined against the English and that they had agreed to send Wampom to the Sewonkeeg or Western Indians, and that they had sent a girdle of Wampom to the Wapaquasett or New-Roxbury Indians of which he was to have a part; when he heard this news he advised his men to be silent till the belt of Wampom should be brought to him -- 

About a week after this Owaneco being at Norwich, one Nanaquabin a principal Indian among the Wapaquassetts came to him and asked him to refresh himself with a cup of sider, and gave him at Ensigne Bushnel's a piece of eight and an half, with a shilling which he shewed to Ensigne Bushnell and soon after went out of Norwich; designing home, but when he had got out of Town, a young Indian running after him, overtook him and told him, Nanaquabin was comeing to speak with him, upon which he made a stop until Nanaquabin came up, who then told him that he had a secret to tell him and desired that the Indians that were with him might be sent away which he did, and then Nanaquabin told him, there was a great designe on foot ag st the English, that the Mohawks were concern'd in it; and confirmed the former news which he had heard of the Mohawks, and at the same time Nanaquabin delivered to Owaneco a part of the girdle of Wampom (which he had delivered to Capt n Mason and was by him brought to the Governour and Councill.) which Wampom Nanaquabin told him the Mohawks had sent him and that the Wapaquassett Indians had already received  part of a girdle of Wampom -- He further said that Nanaquabin importuned him very much to keep this matter close, and pressed upon him the danger that would be in discovering it, because the designe was not yet ripe for the Schachkook Indians were gone a hunting to Manadnuck and Winepisseoket and were to meet at Namaschaug a fishing place, where they were to receive orders from the Mohawks when to strike the blow; and perswaded him to withdraw from the English; telling him that whatsoever discovered the plott would be look'd upon as enemies to the combined Indians and made to eat fire -- After this discourse, Nemaquabin asked Owaneco what answer he would returne to the Mohawks; who said he must first ask his Councill; then Owaneco asked Nemaquabin, how the Wapaquassett Indians liked the designe, who said very well, and that they have returned them thanks and a present of twenty five shillings; Then Owaneco asked him how much time he must have to answer them in; who replyed, the sooner the better; but not later then the beginning of the spring; after this discourse they both went to Shatuskett, and stayed there two nights; Owaneco asked Nemaquabin, where he would hunt this winter; who answered at Manadnuck but when Owaneco replyed that Manadnuck was a place of death, because he had received the Wampom; then he said he would go into Philips Country and draw off from the English, the Indians that were in those parts. --"

Source:  O'Callaghan, E.B., ed., Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New-York; Procured in Holland, England and France, by John Romeyn Brodhead, Esq., Agent, Vol. IV, pp. 613-15 (Albany, NY:  Weed, Parsons and Co., 1854) (footnotes omitted).

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Connecticut Authorized Thomas Pell to Make Another Purchase of Native American Lands in 1663

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It was déjà vu.  Apparently Pelham founder Thomas Pell believed that if it worked once, it likely would work again.

During early 1654, as the First Anglo-Dutch War raged, Thomas Pell used the confusion of the times to acquire from local Native Americans lands that the Dutch claimed they already had acquired -- the very lands that became the Manor of Pelham.  Indeed, in 1653 and early 1654, only months before Pell’s purchase, the Commonwealth of England and the United Provinces of the Netherlands were at war.  Although they fought the “First Anglo-Dutch War” entirely at sea, English and Dutch settlers feared fighting would spread to the North American colonies at any time.  Only days before Pell’s purchase, Dutch and English colonists were unaware that the Treaty of Westminster had been signed in Europe on April 5, 1654, ending the war. Amidst all this, Pell negotiated his acquisition of Native American lands claimed by the Dutch – a dangerously provocative act clearly designed to support the English cause and to defy the Dutch.  For more about how Pell used the unsettled political circumstances of the First Anglo-Dutch War to further his personal gain and the political objectives of the English settlers by acquiring Pelham, 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).

Nearly a decade later, Thomas Pell saw another such opportunity as the winds of war swirled yet again.  The English and Dutch were on the brink of war again as the Second Anglo-Dutch War loomed.  Moreover, Thomas Pell was still smarting from the Dutch wresting control of the settlement he planted on his new Pelham lands known as "West Chester."  See Tues., Apr. 24, 2018:  Important New Scholarship on the Men to Whom Thomas Pell Sold Part of the Manor of Pelham in 1654; Wed., Apr. 25, 2018:  More on the Settlement of Westchester Planted by Thomas Pell in 1654.

As the drums of war sounded, in March of 1663, more than a year before Petrus Stuyvesant surrendered New Amsterdam to a small English fleet on September 8, 1664, Thomas Pell obtained a license from the General Assembly of the Colony of Connecticut to acquire lands to expand his Pelham purchase.  

At a session of the General Assembly held at Hartford on March 10, 1663, Governor John Winthrop Jr. and the members of his Assembly entered the following into the records of the Assembly:

"AT A SESSION OF THE GEN ll ASSEMBLY AT HARTFORD, MARCH 10th 1663.

John Winthrop Esq r, Gou r.

Assis ts.

Mr. Allyn,          Mr. Woolcot,
Mr. Willys,        Mr. Clark,
Mr. Treat,          Mr. Allyn, et Sec'y.

Deputies:

Mr. Wadsworth,       Tho:  Judd,               John Nott,
Mr. Fitch,                 Mr. Jehu Burre         Wm. Cheny,
Capt. Newbery,        John Bnkes,             Tho: Tracy,
Ln t Fyler,                Nath:  White,            Tho:  Leppingwell,
Anth:  Hawkins,       Sam ll Boreman,       Mr. Rob:  Chapman. . . .

This Court doth grant liberty to Mr. Thomas Pell to buy all that land of the Indian proprietors between West Chester and Hudsons Riuer, (that makes Manhatoes an Island,) and lay it to West Chester, prouided that it be not purchased by any before, nor in their possession. . . ."

Source:  The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, Prior to the Union with New Haven Colony, May, 1655; Transcribed and Published, (In Accordance with a Resolution of the General Assembly,) Under the Supervision of the Secretary of State, With Occasional Notes, and an Appendix:  By J. Hammond Trumbull, Vol. I, pp. 417, 418 (Hartford, CT:  Brown & Parsons, 1850).

Though there are no further records of efforts by Pell to secure the lands to the southwest of his Pelham purchase all the way to the Hudson River, had he done so, today's Pelham likely would be a very different place.  For reasons now lost to history, however, Thomas Pell never succeeded (and, perhaps, never attempted) to acquire such additional lands adjacent to those he purchased on June 27, 1654 that subsequently became the Manor of Pelham.

John Winthrop, Known as "John Winthrop Junior" or "The Younger,"

Was the Eldest Son of John Winthrop, the First Governor of the Massachusetts

Bay Colony, and Mary Forth.  He Was Governor of the Colony of Connecticut

and Head of the General Assembly at the Time a License Was Issued to Thomas

Pell on March 10, 1663 to Purchase Additional Lands from Native Americans

Adjacent to the Lands that Became the Manor of Pelham.  NOTE:  Click on

Image to Enlarge.

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Below is a brief excerpt of material from a wonderful article by L. H. Roper entitled in a recent issue of The New England Quarterly entitled "The Fall of New Netherland and Seventeenth-Century Anglo-American Imperial Formation, 1654-1676."  It provides an excellent background of the tumultuous events leading up to the Second Anglo-Dutch War and the surrender of New Amsterdam to the English on September 8, 1663. 

"The Connecticut leadership did not await the conclusion of London's laborious process.  News that it had received its charter, which was proclaimed in the colony on 9 October 1662, was taken as a license to intensify its pressure to detach Long Island and 'West Chester' from Dutch authority and to extend its 'protection' to the New Haven towns of Southold (on Long Island) and Guilford.  By 8 January 1663, Stuyvesant learned that Connecticut was aserting that its patent included all of Long Island.  Accordingly, the colony had issued a 'peremptory order' to the inhabitants of Oostdorp (Westchester) informing them that henceforth they were subject to Connecticut's control; in addition, over the course of 1663, Connecticut operatives incited riots against Dutch authority at Rustdorp (Jamaica), Middleburgh (Elmhurst), Vlissengen (Flushing), Hempstead, and Gravesend.  In December, Stuyvesant was compelled to arms to prevent an English group from acquiring the lands of the Neversink Indians between the Barnegat and Raritan Rivers in modern New Jersey.  By the spring of 1664, Dutch authority in these places hung in the balance as Hartford, acting expressly in accordance with its new powers, directed Winthrop and three other leading colonists -- Wyllys, Matthew Allyn, and John Young -- 'to go over to Long Island, and to settle the English plantations on the Island under this Government,' while Thomas Pell received 'liberty' to buy the Indian lands between 'West Chester' and the Hudson River.  Five days later, Stuyvesant received a report that 'the English of Westchester' had been intriguing with the Esopus and Wappinger Indians, who between June and December 1663 had fought a nasty war with the Dutch in the Hudson River Valley, 'to kill all the Dutch and drive them away' after the English had seized Long Island and Manhattan.  A presumed English spy arrived at Wiltwijck (Kingston) the following month proclaiming that the English would take over New Netherland 'within 6 or 8 weeks.' 33

[Footnote 33:  "33  Report made by P. W. van Couwenhoven of Information Respecting Intrigues of the English with the Wappins and Esopus Indians, [March 1664], and Letter from Ensign Nyssen to Director-General Stuyvesant, Reporting the Visit of an Englishman at Wildwyck, 21 April 1664 (n.s.), DRCHNY, 13:363-64, 368.  For English activity in the Neversink country, see Instructions Given to Martin Cregier and Covert Loockermans for the Purchase of the Nevesing Country, from Barnegatt to the Raritan, 6 December 1663 (n.s.), Journal of a Voyage to the Newesinghs by Captain Cregier, and Agreement Made by the Newesingh Indians to sell to the Dutch their Lands, not already sold, 6-11 December 1663 (n.s.), DRCHNY, 13:311-12, 314-16, 316-17; Edward Rous and and Others to John Scott, 2 December 1663, MHS Collections, 5th ser., 1:397-99.  For Connecticut's activities, see Connecticut Records, 1:384-87, 392-98 at 398; Letters Relating to the Annexation of Long Island to Connecticut, DRCHNY, 14:516-18; Meeting of the General Assembly, 10 March 1664, Connecticut Records, 1:416-24 at 418.  For the attachment of 'West Chester' and Long Island to Connecticut, see Extract from a Letter of Stuyvesant to the Directors, 8 January 1663 (n.s.), DRCHNY, 14:520; Meeting of the Council, 10 July 1663, Meeting of the General Assembly, 8 October 1663, At a Generall Assembly Held at Hartford, 12 May 1664, and At a General Session of the Generall Assembly at Hartford, 8 [October] 1663, Connecticut Records, 1:406-7, 425-31 at 426-27, 409-16 at 411-12; extract from a Letter of Stuyvesant to the Directors [Westchester], 14 May 1663 (n.s.), To his Honor, Secretary Cornelis van Ruyven, at Fort Amsterdam, 15 November 1663, and Letters from Director Stuyvesant to the Governor and Council of Connecticut about the Claims of the Latter, 5 November 1663 (n.s.), DRCHNY, 14:526-27, 531-40."]

Stuyvesant's protests to Connecticut and to his superiors in the West India Company brought him no satisfaction on either front.  34  

[Footnote 34:  "34  Extract from a Letter of Stuyvesant to the Directors, 26 April 1664 (n.s.), and Extract from a Letter of Stuyvesant to the Directors, 4 August 1664 (n.s.), DRCHNY, 14:546-48 at 547-48, 551-55."]

When Winthrop returned to America, Stuyvesant  asked him for a 'categorical answer'; meanwhile, a delegation to Hartford in October 1663 requested that the neighbors honor their 1650 treaty until further directions were received from Europe.  Connecticut officials insisted on the colony's right to all of the disputed territory and, further, its duty to perfect the king's grant.  Continuing to dissemble, Winthrop, supposed friend of the Dutch colony, advised the visitors that the Connecticut patent did not include New Netherland; nonetheless, he mostly absented himself from the negotiations on the grounds of illness and declined to put his opinion in writing since, as he insisted, the language of the patent was clear on its face.  His councilors, though, when presented with this view, observed that 'the Governor is but one man.'  The confused and irritated emissaries returned to New Amsterdam empty handed.  35

[Footnote 35:  "35  Journal kept by Cornelis van Ruyven, Burgomaster Cortlandt and John Laurence, Delegates from New Netherland to the General Assembly at Hartford, in New England, in the month of October, 1663 (n.s.), DRCHNY, 2:385-93; Peter Stuyvesant to John Winthrop Jr., 20 July 1663 (n.s.), and Thomas Willett to John Winthrop Jr., 23 July 1663 (n.s.), MHS Collections, 5th ser., 1:395-96, 396-97."]

By August, Stuyvesant, now fully disabused of Winthrop's motives, had prepared as best he could for an English attack.  He informed the West India Company of Connecticut's predations on Long Island, which reflected his neighbor's contempt for the boundary negotiated in 1650.  He also heaped skepticism on the report relayed by his superiors.  The assembling commissioners and military expedition, the report had concluded, were intended for New England with the brief to 'install' bishops there and to unite those colonies 'under one form of government in political, as well as ecclesiastical matters.'  Dismissing the report's hopeful inference that the initiative would provoke resistance and manifest New English affinity for the Dutch colony, Stuyvesant insisted that New Netherland was the real target, and his intelligence was supported by news that Rhode Island had received a charter, which included a grant of liberty of conscience, and that York had been granted his patent.  36

[Footnote 36:  "36  Extract from a Letter of Stuyvesant to the Directors, [4 August 1664 (n.s.)]; [responding to] Chamber of Amsterdam to the Director and Council of New Netherland, 21 April 1664 (n.s.), DRCHNY, 14:551-55 at 552-54, 2:235-37 at 235-36."]

Four frigates bearing Nicolls, Maverick, Carr, Cartwright, and between three and four hundred soldiers reached Nantasket toward the end of July.  The commissioners sought the assistance of the Massachusetts government, which agreed to recruit and pay for two hundred volunteers and to send Clarke and Pynchon (Wylly's son-in-law and close friend of Winthrop, the physician of his wife, Amy) as the colony's representatives to the mission.  Notifying Winthrop of their arrival, the other commissioners planned to rendezvous with him at Gravesend, at the western end of Long Island.  37

[Footnote 37:  "37  John Pynchon and Thomas Clarke to Secretary Edward Rawson, [15 August 1664], Pynchon Papers, 1:32; Colonial Records:  General Entries, vol. 1, 1664-65, University of the State of New York, State Library Bulletin, History, no. 2 (May 1899):  55; Massachusetts Records, vol. 4, pt. 2, pp. 120-24.  For Pynchon's relationships with Winthrop (with whose family Amy Wyllys Pynchon lived in 1654-55, while he treated her) and Wyllys, see, e.g., letters between Pynchon and Winthrop of 22 May, 20 June, 26 July, [30 November], and [17 December] 1654.  Pynchon Papers, 1:5-13, 131.  The social connections between these New England imperialists also appear from Amy Pynchon's requests for treatment on her knee from Thomas Pell (John Pynchon to John Winthrop Jr., 1 and 7 May 1660, Pynchon Papers, 1:32-34)."]

At the end of August, the fleet arrived at New Amsterdam and ordered the town to surrender or be sacked; meanwhile, Nicolls proceeded to recruit additional colonial troops to swell the occupying force.  38  

[Footnote 38:  "38  License to Recruit Soldiers on Long Island against the Dutch, 24 August 1664, and Letter from Col. Nicolls to Capt. Young about such Long Island People as have taken up arms against the Dutch, 29 August 1664, DRCHNY, 14:555-56."]

Stuyvesant's attempts to delay the inevitable came to nothing; with a shortage of powder and his defenses in disarray, he was compelled to accept terms.  Yet, despite the Crown's involvement, Connecticut's hand remained firmly on the tiller.  According to the Reverend Samuel Drisius, 'about 600' New Englanders had joined the expedition.  Stuyvesant, in his report to the States General, noted that defeat came at the hands of 'the Hartford Colony, our too powerful enemies,' who had been 'reinforced by four Royal ships.'  We may wonder what went through the director-general's mind when Winthrop personally delivered the articles of capitulation to him.  39"

[Footnote 39:  "39  The West India Company and its operatives on the South River had reports of 300 soldiers; see West India Company to the Burgomasters of Amsterdam, [July 1664], and Commissioners of the Colonie on the Delaware River to the Burgomasters of Amserdam, [June 1664], DRCHNY, 2:243, 244.  The New Amsterdam government later reported that one of the frigates carried almost 450 soldiers 'and the others in proportion,' but this seems an exaggeration given the other accounts and the size of the ships; see Translation of a letter from the Schout, Burgomasters, and Schepens of the City of New Amsterdam, to the West India Company, 16 September 1664, in John Romeyn Brodhead, Commemoration of the Conquest of New Netherland on the Two Hundredth Anniversary, by the New York Historical Society (New York:  By the Society, 1864), pp. 70-71; Letter from Rev. Samuel Drisius to the Classis of Amsterdam, 15 September 1664 (n.s.), DRCHNY, 13:393-94 at 393.  E. B. O'Callaghan, the nineteenth-century translator and editor of DRCHNY, translated 'gesecondeert' as 'reinforced' in Stuyvesant's Report of the Surrender of New Netherland, 1665 (DRCHNY, 2:365-70 at 366), but 'seconded' or 'supported' seems aa superior translation of the original Report of the Honorable Peter Stuyvesant, late Director-General of New Netherland, on the causes which led to the surrender of that country to the English (Archive States General, 1.01.07 in.nr.12546.57, Nationaal Archief, The Hague).  My thanks to Jaap Jacobs for the original reference and for his wisdom on this and many other points.  For Winthrop's delivery of the terms, see Answer of Ex-Director Stuyvesant, 1666, DRCHNY, 2:429-47 at 444."]

Source:  Roper, L. H., The Fall of New Netherland and Seventeenth-Century Anglo-American Imperial Formation, 1654-1676, The New England Quarterly, Vol. 87, No. 4, pp. 686-89 (Dec. 2014).


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Thomas Pell Was Elected a Freeman of Connecticut on October 9, 1662, the Day the Crown's Connecticut Charter Was Read to the Public

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On October 9, 1662, Governor John Winthrop of the Colony of Connecticut presided over The General Assembly or Court of Election at Hartford during an elaborate ceremony in which the new charter of the Colony of Connecticut was read to the Freemen. Thereafter, the freemen each took an oath administered by the Generall Assembly "for ye due discharge of the trust committed to them" as reflected in the charter.

The charter had been issued by the Crown on April 23, 1662. According to some sources, it likely arrived in Connecticut in about September of that year. It was read to the freemen on October 9.

During the same session, the Court announced that Thomas Pell was admitted as a Freeman and further stated that "This Assembly doth order, that for ye future, such as desire to be admitted freemen of this Corporation shal p r sent themselues with a certificate under ye hands of ye major part [170] of the Townesmen where they liue, that they are p r sons of civill, peaceable and honest conversation, and that they attained the age of twenty one yeares and haue 20l. estate, besides their person in the List of estate; and that such persons, soe quallified to ye Courts approbation, shalbe p r sented at October Court yearly, or some adjourned Court, and admitted after ye Election at ye Assembly in May. And in case any freeman shal walke scandalously or commit any scandalous offence, and be legally convicted thereof, he shalbe disfranchized by any of o r civill Courts."

The reference to Pell's election as a Freeman is brief. It reads "Persons admitted to be Freemen, by this Court; -- Mr. Sam ll Talcot, Will m Pitkins, Nathan ll Goodwin, Mr. Tho: Pell, John Olmstead & John Clarke Jun r."

Source: Trumbull, J. Hammond, ed., The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, Prior to the Union With New Haven Colony, May, 1665; Transcribed and Published (In Accordance with a Resolution of the General Assembly,) Under the Supervision of the Secretary of State, with Occasional Notes, and an Appendix, pp. 384 & 389 (Hartford, CT: Brown & Parsons 1850).

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Reference to John Pell in 17th Century Records Relating to Settlement of the Boundary Between New York and Connecticut

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John Pell, often referenced as "Second Lord of the Manor of Pelham", seems to have played a limited role in the events surrounding settlement of a boundary dispute between New York and Connecticut in the late 17th century. Some records relating to the settlement of that dispute were collected in a book published in 1893 entitled "Documents Relating to the Connecticut Settlement in the Wyoming Valley". One of those records contains a reference to John Pell. Consequently, I have transcribed the record below, followed by a citation to its source.

"A General Court held at Hartford May 8th 1684. This Court havinge heard the Agreement made by the Committee appointed by this Court November last about setlinge of Bounds betweene this Collonye & New York : thaye approved of what was done : and appointed Major Nathan Gold one of the Councell to attend the Searves wth Mr Jehue Burr and Capt Jonathan Selleck who are herebye commisonated to attende the searves of layeinge out the Line betweene the sayd province of New Yoark & Connecticott Colonye acordinge to the agreement made the Tweenty eaight of November 35th yeare of his Mag is Reigne 1683 : at Fort James in New York : & Mr Harriman Surveighor with such other Gentlemen as shall be appointed from New Yeork & thaye are to meet at Stamford on the first Wensdaye in Octobar next to attend the sayd Searvice : and in case any of those appointed by providence should be disenabled to attende the Searves : The Governour is heare by desired to putt & appoint some suitable person or persons to supplye and attend the searvice in the rome of him or them as shall be disenabled. Signed by order of the Gover and General Court P John Allyen Secr. This is trew coppye of the originall comparred bye Jonat. Selleck, John Pell.

True Copy compared with the Record by me

ROBT. HARPUS, D. Secrty."

Source: Egle, William Henry, ed., Documents Relating to the Connecticut Settlement in the Wyoming Valley, p. 305 (Harrisburg: E. E. Meyers, State Printer 1893).

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Information About Thomas Pell in the Catalogue of the Names of the First Puritan Settlers of the Colony of Connecticut Published in 1846

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In 1846, R. R. Hinman released a multivolume work entitled "A Catalogue of the Names of the First Puritan Settlers of the Colony of Connecticut; with the Time of Their Arrival in the Colony, and Their Standing in Society, Together with Their Place of Residence as Far as Can be Discovered by the Records". The book contained a very brief reference to Thomas Pell, often discribed as the "First Lord of the Manor of Pelham". The reference is quoted in its entirety immediately below, followed by a citation to the source.

"Pell, Thomas, New London county, was made free, 1662. It was ordered, that those who wished to be freemen should present themselves in person, with a certificate under the hands of a majority of the townsmen where they resided, that they were persons of civil, peaceable and honest conversation and the age of 21 years, and had £20 estate, exclusive of the poll, in the list. With such certificate and the approbation of the General Court, they could be made free. A Doctor Pell, supposed to be Thomas or his father, who resided at the fort as physician under Lieut. Gardner, went with Major Mason as surgeon for the little army to meet the Pequotts in the battle in 1637 -- but proved himself cowardly by remaining on board the vessel, instead of going up to the battle to the relief of the wounded. Probably the same Thomas Pell who came to Massachusetts in the Hopewell."

Source: Hinman, Royal Ralph, A Catalogue of the Names of the First Puritan Settlers of the Colony of Connecticut; with the Time of Their Arrival in the Colony, and Their Standing in Society, Together with Their Place of Residence as Far as Can be Discovered by the Records, Vol. I, p. 62 (Hartford, CT: E. Gleason 1846).

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