General Notes

Eventful Years

Timewise, New Sweden occurred only seventeen years after the famousMayflower expedition, scarcely 100 years before the American Revolutionand 200 years before the beginning of the mass migration from Finland toAmerica.

Delaware Colony of Swedes and Finns Has Left Heritage to America

Because the colony of New Sweden retained that name for only eighteenyears many students of American history are but slightly familiar withthe Finnish and Swedish settlements which grew up in Delaware,Pennsylvania and New Jersey several decades before the coming of WilliamPenn. The ships Kalmar Nyckel and Fogel Grip, landing in the spring of1638, brought the first Finnish and Swedish settlers. The present nationof Finland was then a part of Sweden, and the colony was named NewSweden. Wilmington, the first settlement, was called Fort Christina inhonor of the Swedish Queen, daughter of Gustavus Adolphus who had plannedthe sending of colonists to America prior to his death on the battlefield of Lutzen, in 1632. One branch of the stream which enters theDelaware River at that point still bears her name.

The colony remained small throughout the years it was under Swedishcontrol. Johnson reports the following population figures:

Total number of male inhabitants, in 1644
105

Total number of inhabitants, in 1647
183

Total number of male inhabitants, in 1648
83

Total number of "officers, soldiers, servants, freemen", 1654-55
240

The question of how many of the New Sweden settlers were Swedes and howmany should be classified as Finns admits of no fully satisfactoryanswer. Probably the outstanding reason for the difficulty is that thenames of both Finns and Swedes were, as far as records are concerned,nearly always given in Swedish. Thus Johnson mentions names like thefollowing as belonging to Finnish settlers: Eskil Larsson; KlementJöransson, Jöns Påfvelsson, Bertel Eskelsson, Clemet, Anders, Johan,Måns, Clemet Mickelsson, Hendrick, Karin Lasse, Evert Hindricksson, MånsJurrensson, Hinrick Matzon,( Matts Hansson,) Knut Martensson, KarlJansson, Johan Fransson. (See vol. I, pp. 149, 150, 239, 463, 464, note;vol. II, pp. 535, 545, 547, 667, 712, 713.) Thus it is not easy todistinguish, by referring to names alone, between Swedes and Finns.

Both specific information and incidental reference in Johnson's studyfurnish, however, proof positive and final that the Finnish element inNew Sweden was important. Of the 12 separate expeditions which were madeto the colony between 1638 and 1656, only one is recorded in a mannerthat clearly separates the Finnish settlers from the Swedish. The lastexpedition, which arrived on the Delaware in March 1656, numbered 105persons. Of those, 9 were officers and servants, 4 were Swedish women andmaidens, 33 were Finnish men, 7 were Finnish women and maidens, 32 wereFinnish children of 12 or under. (See Vol. II, p. 634.)
It was Fleming who signed the instruction for the first Governor of thecolony, Peter Holländer Ridder, who came from Ekenäs (Tammisaari) insouthern Finland. Fleming also obviously recruited his nephew ChristerBoije, from Pernå, for the dangerous journey over the Atlantic. One otheremigrant who can be linked with Fleming is Matts Hansson of Borgå(Porvoo), who was deported for a minor crime. The persons listed abovethus include a soldier, a Governor (even if he did not have that title),a noble, and a criminal, who all went to New Sweden.




  Matts Hansson, who was hired to be a gunner at Fort Christina. Theydeparted from Stockholm on the Charitas among a group of new settlersthat included Hansson's brother, Anders Hansson.
After five years of service at Fort Christina, Matts Hansson became afreeman on 1 December 1646. Like other freemen, he soon became unhappywith Governor Printz's harsh treatment of the settlers. On 27 July 1653,he and his brother joined other freemen in filing a complaint with theGovernor. Printz, however, branded the complaint a "mutiny" and left forSweden, leaving the colony under the rule of his son-in-law JohanPapegoja, threatening to take legal action against the mutineers on hisreturn.

The voluntary emigrants to New Sweden were of two classes, the freemen,those who were privileged to settle where they chose in the colony and toreturn to the mother-country at pleasure, and the company's servants,those who were employed at stipulated wages for a designated term. "Therewas a third, consisting of vagabonds and malefactors; these went toremain in slavery, and were employed in digging the earth, throwing uptrenches, and erecting walls and other fortifications. The others had nointercourse with them, but a particular spot was appointed for them toreside upon. The first year under Printz's administration many of thesettlers died, which the Governor states was due to hard work and thescarcity of food. 5 In four years thereafter (1647) we learn from thereport furnished the home government that the total number of whites inthe Swedish settlements on the Delaware was one hundred and eighty-threesouls. Twenty-eight of the freemen had made settlements, and part of themwere provided with oxen and cows.

     In 1638, the tall ship KALMAR NYCKEL arrived at what is now theChristina
River in Wilmington, DE bringing settlers who established New Sweden. Aduplicate of
the KALMAR NYCKEL was launched in Wilmington on September 28, 1997 andcan
be viewed at the waterfront. Pictures of this beautiful ship are shownbelow.
The ships reached Delaware Bay in March 1638, and the settlers began tobuild a fort at the site of present-day Wilmington, Delaware. They namedit Fort Christina, in honor of Sweden's twelve-year-old queen. It was thefirst permanent European settlement in the Delaware Valley.

During the next seventeen years, twelve more Swedish expeditions left thehomeland for New Sweden. A total of eleven vessels and some 600 Swedesand Finns reached their destination. The colony eventually consisted offarms and small settlements along both banks of the Delaware River intomodern Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland.



As discussed in the text, the Kalmar Nyckel and the Charitas traveledtogether on the Kalmar Nyckel's third voyage to New Sweden in 1641-42. Onthis expedition the names of some, but not all, of the passengers wererecorded before the vessels left Sweden. However, there is no record atGothenburg which lists the name of the ship to which each passenger wasassigned. Peter S. Craig's documentary research permits identifying a fewof the passengers assigned to one or the other vessel, but the majoritymust be listed as having sailed on either the Kalmar Nickel or theCharitas. As with those shown on the above 1640 list the majority ofthese passengers remained in New Sweden as colonists, although somereturned to Sweden on later vessels.

Those known to have arrived on the Kalmar Nyckel:
Mats Hansson, gunner his wife, Elizabeth

Anders Larsson Dalbo One of Settlers Arriving on the Kalmar Nyckel - 1640
The Kalmar Nyckel did not bring any women or children to New Sweden in1638, and when it sailed back to Sweden it left 25 men at Fort Christina.Most of them returned to Sweden when the vessel arrived on the secondvoyage, and no official record was made of the few that remained.' Thefollowing list of names, compiled by Peter S. Craig, leaves no doubt thatwomen and children arrived on the second voyage; these were the firstfamilies to settle in the colony. The list is not complete, but it is thebest that can now be offered and is subject to expansion. Although themajority remained in New Sweden as permanent settlers, some returned toSweden on ships that later delivered new colonists. Moreover, some whoreturned to Sweden came back again to the colony. Where the occupationand place of origin is known this information is shown alongside thename.