King Charles II, not his brother the Duke, made Penn's original Pennsylvania
boundary "twelve miles distance Northwards of New Castle Towne."
When they did their 1682 deal, the Duke made Penn two separate deeds of
feoffment for the Delaware lands. I don't have the wording in front of me now,
but one included all land west of the left bank within the twelve-mile circle,
and the other included land west of the river from there southward. The first
of these deeds accounts for the fragment of the circle on DENJ at the north end
of Artificial Island.
Lowell G. McManus
Leesville, Louisiana, USA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Flynn, Kevin" <flynnk@...>
To: <BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 5:13 PM
Subject: RE: [BoundaryPoint] Re: river condo authority joins denj follies
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Lowell G. McManus [mailto:mcmanus71496@...]
>> Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 4:02 PM
>> To: BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com
>> Subject: Re: [BoundaryPoint] Re: river condo authority joins denj
>> follies
>>
>>
>>
>> Kevin Flynn asked:
>>
>> > What was the Duke of York's purpose, when conveying the
>> Three Lower Counties
>> > (Delaware) to Penn, in insisting that Penn's Pennsylvania
>> not come within a
>> > 12-mile radius of New Castle? I never quite understood the
>> purpose since
>> > Penn was to exercise authority over both. Were the
>> inhabitants of what was
>> > to become Delaware dela-wary (haha) of being ruled by Quakers?
>>
>> In 1651, Peter Stuyvesant established Fort Casimir (now New
>> Castle) for the
>> Dutch West India Company. In 1664, the Duke of York received
>> the lands lost by
>> the Dutch, lying now in New York, New Jersey, and Delaware.
>> In 1681, Charles II
>> granted Pennsylvania to William Penn, describing it such that
>> "twelve miles
>> distance Northwards of New Castle Towne" would remain in the
>> possession of the
>> Duke. In 1682, Penn, needing an outlet to the sea via the
>> Delaware River,
>> bargained with the Duke for the land now comprising Delaware,
>> which became the
>> "Lower Counties" of Pennsylvania. The Delaware people,
>> however, were indeed
>> wary of Quaker rule, felt overshadowed by Philadelphia, and
>> felt under-protected
>> from both pirates and Lord Baltimore. In 1701, Penn granted
>> a charter for a
>> separate government for the Lower Counties, and its assembly
>> first met in 1704
>> to make its laws. The "Government of the counties of New
>> Castle, Kent, and
>> Sussex, upon Delaware" still reported to the Pennsylvania
>> governor, but not to
>> the Pennsylvania assembly. Only in 1776 did Delaware cut the
>> cord when its
>> people adopted a revolutionary constitution for "Delaware State."
>>
>> Lowell G. McManus
>> Leesville, Louisiana, USA
>
> Hmmmm. If the Duke established that Penn's boundary was to be "twelve miles
> distance Northwards of New Castle Towne," then what is the basis for
> broadening that DEPA line around in an arc to affect NJ at all? The Duke
> didn't also say "12 miles southward as well," did he? I do recall reading
> something once from the DE archives that extended DE sovereignty to the left
> bank or Jersey shoreline, but don't remember the logical basis for it.
>
>
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