Crane Hook on the Delaware - NC CHAP

28 NEW SWEDEN COLONISTS UNDER THE DUTCH NEW SWEDEN COLONISTS UNDER THE DUTCH 29
because under rumored threats of an English attempt to take the
Delaware settlements, and fear that the Indians would join the
English, the leaders among the up-river colonists at last realized
that for safety the outlying farmers should move closer together
about one of the small settlements on or near the Schuylkill that
could be defended: Kingsessing, Aronameck, or Passyunk. But
the question of who was to move where raised such a controversy
that Vice-Director Beeckman spent several days among them, try-
ing to have the place and time of moving settled. None of the
farmers wanted to be the ones to move and those who had large
tracts at a suitable place for developing a community were un-
willing to make room for others. In the end they all remained
where they were. Some of them said if they had- to move at all it
would be to Maryland. Meanwhile the Swedish officers with
Beeckman's help prevented any acceptances of D'Hinojossa's offer
that year.23 If the site of his offer was <strong>Crane</strong> <strong>Hook</strong>, that land still
had a short time to wait for settlers. The same year Beeckman
reported that the "Swedes and Finns count about 130 men able to
bear arms." This would indicate as probable, a population of 400
above the Christina, in that fortunate district, while the colony
to the south had dwindled from a high of 600, given by Director
Alrichs in August 1658, before there were any deaths in the epi-
demic, to a possible low of 200 or less.2"
In the spring of 1662, Director Alexander D'Hinojossa, now
formally commissioned to his office, tried again to persuade the
farmers up the river to come into the City's Colony. On June 21,
Vice-Director Beeckman wrote:
Sixteen or eighteen families, mostly Finns, residing in our jurisdic-
tion, to whom great offers have been made by Mr. d'Hinojossa, in-
tend to move into the Colony; they are to have 18 years freedom of
all taxes with their own judges and decisions up to 100 guilders, also
free exercise of their
Except for taxes these were the conditions under which they had
been living in the West India Company territory since October,
1655 under Peter Stuyvesant's grant of privileges.
When it came to the actual moving some of these families may
have changed their minds, but that some of them did move to
23 Ibid., XII, 299, 306, 300, 310, 301.
24 Ibid:, 11, 51, 54.
25 Ibid., XII, 384.
<strong>Crane</strong> <strong>Hook</strong>, then or later, is determined by comparing the names
of up-river Swedes or Finns with the same names that appear in
<strong>Crane</strong> <strong>Hook</strong> tax lists, court records, and deeds within the next
few years and in confirmations later. Acrelius, who gives a bio-
graphical paragraph on Pastor Lokenius, writes:
In a deed of division, which he drew up between Paul Jon's widow
and her children, dated at Tranhook on the 14th of April, 1664, he
calls himself Pastor Loci, although the church was not erected for
three years after that time.26
That Lokenius called himself pastor of <strong>Crane</strong> <strong>Hook</strong> in a public
record implies at least, that Director D'Hinojossa kept his promise
concerning freedom of religion. As for Paul Jon,27 the only man
of that name known to have been on the river at the time was
"Paul Johns{s)on, freeman", who came with Rising in 1654 and
lived first at the S~huylkill.~~ Under Vice-Director Jacquet, in
1656, he appears in the Dutch records as Sergeant Paulus Jansen,
who farmed "his Honor's land" on the half shares opposite
Fort Altena. He probably lived near the fort; for in the early
summer of 1657, he was one of two sergeants there under the
i
I direction of Andries Hudde. In September 1660 he had a "square"
i plot of land in the neighborhood and in addition was given a
1 patent dated April 7, 1661, for "a lot for a house and garden near
Fort Altena."29 He may have been one of the first to accept
D'Hinojossa's offer of <strong>Crane</strong> <strong>Hook</strong> land in 1662.
Further proof that other up-river Lutherans were permanent
settlers at <strong>Crane</strong> <strong>Hook</strong> in the early 1660s is to be found in the
"Census of the responsible housekeepers" at <strong>Crane</strong> <strong>Hook</strong> about
1675-78.30 Thirteen taxables are named or partly named in a
defective manuscript:
26 Acrelius, 177. "Tranhook" from l'rane. Swedish for <strong>Crane</strong> and Hoeck,
Dutch for point, neck, or cape of land. See Dunlnp, Dlrtrh arzd Suedi~h Plare-
Nrrmer ir~ Delnufare, 56.
27 Many Swedes and Finns at this prriod did not have permanent surnames.
1;cch son or daughter might take the given name of the father with son or dotter
.~(lclcd. P.iul Jan's son u~ould have the surname Paulsson.
28 Johnson, 11, 719.
29 Dorutrzentr, XII, 151. 170, 183; Pe~/~/r)lr,r~~~ia Arrhiz,e.r, 2nd set. V, 6.
31) Dor~~me~~tr, XII, 648. Thc "census" xvhich lists inhabitants from Wicaco
(I'l~il.iclclphi;i) south to Cedar creek in Kent County is undated. The transcript
In llrir ~cf(,ren~c is placed bet\rfecn documents of April 21 and May 1, 1680. But
\(.v~.I.II of tllr prrsons n.lmccl h.~d clled in 1676 and 1677 as proved by probate.
8I1.c.11. :~n,l co~l~t rccor(I\. 11.1115 Ijlo(k h(.fore M.iy 11, 1676.- (Dorurne~ts, XII,
5.15; 0c.I~. 'I'o(.r\r11, 1. h(~forr Nov. 5. 1678. -- (hletll Crrtle Reroidr, 1, 247-258);
.IIILI ~ ~ I I I ~ I \