PDF – Volumes 18 & 19 – Delaware Papers, Dutch Period, 1648-1664 translation (scanned book images)

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This collection of official documents pertaining to the administration of the Delaware region ends with the seizure of New Netherland from the Dutch in 1664. It is the first of two published translations that comprise volumes 18 to 21–a continuous series of manuscripts from the beginning of the Dutch period through the period of English rule–of the New York Colonial Manuscripts. The papers from the English period can be found here.

Delaware Papers (Dutch period) contains letters, petitions, reports, etc., relating to the administration of the South River region of New Netherland. This series contains administrative records created by the Dutch West India Company (WIC) in the Delaware region and sent to New Amsterdam. The records relate to problems with the Swedes and include a report on Swedish activities in the Delaware region prior to Stuyvesant’s arrival in New Netherland. Additional material includes extracts from Petrus Stuyvesant’s letterbook regarding the Delaware region from 1648 to 1650; records pertaining to the takeover of New Sweden in 1655; council minutes of Jean Paul Jacquet, vice-director of WIC territory on the South (Delaware) River until 1657; letters from Jacob Alrichs, director of New Amstel, to Stuyvesant from 1657 to 1659; letters from Willem Beeckman, vice-director of WIC territory on the South River from 1659 to 1664; and documents relating to agreements and terms met during the struggle with Sweden for control over the region.

This publication contains the eighteenth and nineteenth volumes of the Dutch Colonial Manuscripts at the New York State Archives. In the 19th century, E. B. O’Callaghan reorganized the original 49 record books of New Netherland into this series based on document type and time period. These documents were translated by Charles Gehring and published in 1981 as Delaware Papers (Dutch Period) in the New York Historical: Manuscripts: Dutch series.