New Castle New Castle Delaware United States
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The Dutch claim the area south to the Delaware (at this time called "South River"); the Swedes claim an area for the Realm of Sweden on the south side of the Delaware that encompasses much of the present-day U.S. state of Delaware, eventually including parts of present-day southeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey on the north side of the river.
The colony of New Sweden remains in constant friction with the Dutch.
The Dutch under Peter Stuyvesant in 1651 had established Fort Casimir at present-day New Castle, only seven miles (twelve kilometers) south of Fort Christina, in order to menace the Swedish settlement.
On Trinity Sunday in 1654, Johan Risingh, Commissary and Councilor to New Sweden Governor Lieutenant Colonel Johan Printz, officially assumes his duties and begins to extricate all Dutch from the Delaware River.
Fort Casimir, its garrison having no gunpowder, surrenders and is renamed Fort Trinity (in Swedish Fort Trefaldighet).
The Swedes are now in complete possession of their colony.
The Susquehannocks meet with the Swedes on June 21, 1654, to reaffirm their ownership.
Peter Stuyvesant, in reprisal for the Swedish attack, sails into the Delaware River with a fleet of seven vessels and about seven hundred men and retakes Fort Trinity, the former Fort Casimir on September 11, 1655, renaming it New Amstel (in Dutch Nieuw Amstel).
Subsequently, Fort Christina, located one point six miles east of present downtown Wilmington, Delaware, also falls on September 15th and all New Sweden comes under the control of the Dutch.
John Paul Jacquet is immediately appointed Governor, making New Amstel the capital of the Dutch-controlled colony.
The Swedish and Finnish settlers continue to enjoy a degree of local autonomy, having their own militia, religion, court, and lands.
The Province of Pennsylvania has grown so large by 1704, that their representatives want to make decisions without the assent of the Lower Counties.
The two groups of representatives began meeting on their own, one at Philadelphia, and the other at New Castle.
Penn and his heirs remain proprietors of both and always appoint the same person Governor for their Province of Pennsylvania and their territory of the Lower Counties.
The fact that Delaware and Pennsylvania share the same governor is not unique.
New York and New Jersey from 1703 to 1738, will share a governor.
Massachusetts and New Hampshire also share a governor for some time.