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The Swedish Church on the Delaware

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Conrad J. I. Bergendoff
Affiliation:
Augustana College and Theological Seminary, Rock Island, Ill.

Extract

In his equally delightful and informative book, The Dutch and Swedes on the Delaware, Christopher Ward suggests that American history might have turned out differently if stormy weather had not driven the Mayflower off its course and thus landed the Pilgrims north of Cape Cod instead of in Delaware Bay. “Speculations,” Ward writes, “as to the effect of a kindlier climate, a more generous soil, upon the character of the English immigrants, of the Puritans, who followed them, and of their descendants—could lead to divers conclusions. One thing is certain however; if the Pilgrim Fathers had spent that first winter in Delaware Bay, they would have had a better time.”

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1938

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References

1 Ward, Christopher, The Dutch and the Swedes on the Delaware (Philadelphia. 1930), 32.Google Scholar

2 Ward, , op. cit., 378.Google Scholar

3 Reynolds, incorrectly, has “that.”

4 Acrelius, Israel, A History of New Sweden or, The Settlements on the River Delaware (Stockholm, 1759)Google Scholar. Trans, by W. M. Reynolds. Published by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1874. pp. 186–189.

5 Johnson, Amandus, The Swedish Settlements on the Delaware, 1638–1664, 2 vols. (Univ. of Penna., 1911), I, 344Google Scholar; cf. II, Appendix B.

6 Aerelins, , A History, 176Google Scholar. Johnson, , op. cit., I, 206Google Scholar, believes a small ehureh was erected near the fort even before 1643.

7 Aerelius, , A History, 43.Google Scholar

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12 Thos. Campanula Holm, A Description of the Province of New Sweden, tr. Dr. Ponceau, 75–6.Google Scholar

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14 Svedberg is the author of a Ms. work, Svecia Nova seu America Illuminata, 1727Google Scholar, which contains material from Holm, letters from and to Sweden in re the Delaware colony and original reflections of the author. An abridgment of this work was printed as America Illuminata (Skara, 1732).Google Scholar

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18 Pastor at Wicaco, 1737–1741.

19 Acrelius, , A History, 237Google Scholar. The only sour note was the complaint of the Anglican clergy that the greatest number of marriage fees went to Wicaco.

20 Norberg, , Svenska Mission, 49.Google Scholar

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27 Clay, J. C., Annals of the Swedes on the Delaware, 3rd ed., 108109Google Scholar

28 Ibid., 143.

29 Letter in Collin's “A Brief Account of the Swedish Mission,” (The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 16), 355356.Google Scholar

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31 W. M. Reynolds, in Introduction, XIX, to his translation of A History of New Sweden, by Israel Acrelius.

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