Research


Scope and Content Note

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.

Records created by Jacob Alrichs and Alexander d'Hinojossa during their tenures as directors of New Amstel (1657-1664) are no longer extant. Since Stuyvesant's copybooks of outgoing correspondence to authorities in the Delaware region also do not survive, this series represents an incomplete record of Dutch administration.

Known as the "Delaware Papers" of the Dutch period, this series originally constituted volumes 18 and 19 of the New York Historical Manuscripts in the New York State Library. The original records are in the Dutch language.