Henry Jacobs Falkinburg I & Mary Jacobs
The Delaware Colonies
The roots of the Falkenburg family in America were planted before the founding of the United States. The story begins in the Colony of New Sweden along the banks of the Delaware River in the latter part of the seventeenth century. Henry Jacobs Falkinburg appears in early colonial documents of this region. He did not take on the family name Falkinburg until the period of English rule. As with most northern Europeans, the use of surnames was not customary and Henry’s name was likely a patronymic designation Henry, son of Jacob.
Colony of New Sweden
Sweden began its colonization of North America with an expedition which left Göthenberg in 1637 under the leadership of Peter Minuit. The expedition entered the Bay of the Delaware River, known to the indigenous population as Lenapehanna, and established a settlement at what is present day Wilmington, which they named Fort Christina after their queen. Lenaphanna derives from the name of the tribe native to this area (the Lenape), and hanna which means river in the native language. Although the Dutch colony of New Netherlands was centered in New Amsterdam and along the Hudson River, the Dutch had a presence on the Delaware as well. The Swedish colonists were permitted to settle on the west banks of the River. The colony prospered and expanded upstream to an area south and west of current day Philadelphia. In 1655 the rivalry between the Swedes and the Dutch climaxed when a Dutch force led by Peter Stuyvesant of New Netherlands captured the Swedish settlements. Although Sweden gave up its colonial presence in North America, the Dutch permitted the population of Swedes, Finns and Germanic peoples who had settled along the Delaware a degree of self-rule permitting the inhabitants to follow their cultural heritage. The period of Dutch rule was brief, for in 1664 the region was claimed by the Duke of York expanding British colonial rule in the new world colonies. The British changed to the name of the river and the emerging colony to Delaware to honor Sir Thomas West (Lord de la Warr), the first governor of the Virginia Company. The colonial establishment also redesigned the Lenape as the Delaware indians.
The most complete description of Henry Jacobs Falkinburg is found in the writings of Leah Blackman. Henry Jacobs Falkinburg was known by several names. Among them are Henric Jacobson Falconbre [2.1], Henry Jacob Falkenberg [2.2], Jacob Hendricks [2.3]. The most common name attributed to our ancestor is Henry Jacobs Falkinburg. Dr. Peter Craig1 states that Henry Jacobs Falkinburg came to the Delaware in 1663 or 1664, a period during which farmers from northern European nations were recruited to settle the colony. [2.4] There is a record2 of a Jacob Hendrics aboard the Rooseboom which sailed from Amsterdam 24 MAR 1663. [2.5] The first documentation of Henry is in the 1671 Census of the Delaware [2.6]. The census was taken to assure that the government of the Duke of York (located on Manhattan Island) received proper taxes from the landholders on the Delaware River. The census shows that Henry lived with his wife, a daughter of Sinnick Broer. Broer “arrived in New Sweden... and in 1671 was residing in Deer Point with his two sons... and a daughter married to a Holsteiner, Hendrick Jacobs, who later took the surname Falkenberg." [2.7] Deer Point3 was located near Fort Christina. Today this is in the city of Wilmington, DE. The Broer family, natives of Finland, set sail from Göteborg, Sweden in November 1655 on the ship Mercurius, bound for the colony of New Sweden. When the Mercurius arrived at Fort Casimir (New Castle, DE) in 1656, the Dutch were in control and refused to let the Swedish ship discharge its passengers. During the night Swedish colonists along with friendly Lenape indians secretly boarded the Mercurius and ordered the captain to sail upriver to Tinicum Island, where anxious passengers disembarked. After the English took control of the region, Sinnick Broer was granted a patent to the land at Deer Point by the English governor [2.7]. The sea chest shown below was brought by Sinnick Broer and his family aboard the Mercurius to New Sweden. This colonial artifact now resides in the American Swedish Museum in Philadelphia.
In the 13 MAR 1678 record of the Upland Court (which administered justice for the colonial Swedes now living under English colonial rule) Henry made petition and received approval for improving a parcel of land.
“Upon the Peticon of hendrik Jacobs desiering a grant to take up one hundered acres of Land, The Court doe grant the Peticonr his Request hee seating & Improoveing said Land, according to Lawe Regulacons and orders;” [2.8]
Sea chest brought by Sinnick Broer
to New Sweden
aboard the Mercurius in 1656
Map showing the settlements along the Delaware in 1638
| Notes | |
1 |
Craig is Fellow, American Society of Genealogists, Fellow of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania and Historian of the Swedish Colonial Society |
2 |
This could be our ancestor. He is listed as traveling with his uncle Adrian Lammertsen, and his family (wife and six children). |
3 |
Deer Point is near Fort Christina Park and the Old Swedes Church in Wilmington. |
| References | |
2.1 |
Smith, Samuel, History of Nova Caesarea:The Colonial History of New Jersey, James Parker, printer to the King for the Province of New Jersey,1765. Electronic copy of 1890 reprint available from Digital Antiquaria. p. 81 |
2.2 |
Brown, Rev. Allen H., The Character and Employments of the Early Settlers on the Sea-Coast of New Jersey, Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society, Second Series, Vol VI 1879-81. p. 34 |
2.3 |
Dankers, Jaspar and Peter Sluyter, Journal of a Voyage to New York and a Tour of Several American Colonies in 1679-80, Translated by Henry C. Murphy, (The Long Island Historical Society, 1867). p. 175. |
2.4 |
Craig, Peter S., Sinnick Broer the Finn and his Sinex, Sinnickson & Falkenberg Descendants, Swedish Colonial News vol.2, no 7 (Fall 2002) p. 12. |
2.5 |
Morgan, Christopher and Edmund B. O'Callaghan, The Documentary History of the State of New York, Volume 3, (Albany, N.Y., 1850) p. 60 |
2.6 |
Craig, Peter S., 1671 Census of the Delaware, Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1999). p. 42 |
2.7 |
Craig, Peter S., Sinnick Broer the Finn and his Sinex, Sinnickson & Falkenberg Descendants, Swedish Colonial News vol.2, no 7 (Fall 2002) p. 2. |
2.8 |
___ Memoirs of the Historical society of Pennsylvania, Vol. 7, The Record of the court at Upland, in Pennsylvania. 1676 to 1681, And a military journal, kept by Major E. Denny, 1781 to 1795. p 133. |