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Chapter XXV
The Court, Bench, And Bar Of Delaware County.
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| according to demand or circumstances." The letter wherein the foregoing facts appear was written by William Beekman, vice-director, to Stuyvesant, April 28, 1660,1 and is particularly interesting to the annalist, for it furnishes a more comprehensive insight as to the manner in which judicial affairs were conducted, together with the scope of inquiry and the jurisdiction of the courts under the Dutch ascending on the Delaware, than any other paper of that time. From it we learn that Peter Rambo, a Swede, and one of the commissioners, had already grown weary of public cares and desired to resign the office; that at the court held the 19th of August in the preceding year twelve or fifteen of the "Swedish or Finnish Nation," who had been summoned to appear by Jager, the court messenger, failed to attend the session, and that thereupon Beekman made a rule that hereafter for any similar default "committed wantonly and intentionally, without the hindrance of sickness or God's weather and wind," the party so offending should be fined ten guilders, the reason for the rule being "that no one should be delayed in his claim" because of the voluntary absence of those persons who should be in attendance. It was difficult, however, to compel the rude settlers to recognize the law's power to correct wrong or the province of the court to meddle in personal affairs. In the same letter Beekman relates that Mr. Learsen, the Swedish priest at Upland, having been violently assaulted and "fearfully beaten" by Peter Mayer, complained to him, and that he had ordered both parties to the quarrel to be summoned, but before the day fixed for the hearing "the affair was settled between them, thus asserting that the judge had nothing to say about it." Peter Mayer, who it seemed was inclined to indulge in assaults and batteries, paid his fine for non-attendance. The judges, then as now, did not always agree in their conclusion as to the law or the jurisdiction of the court. Beekman complained that Oele Stills, one of the Swedish magistrates, had "made strong opposition to him" at the last court-day, because the former had suspected Stille of permitting the Swedish priest to perform a marriage in his presence without proclamation having been first made in church, and against the will of the parents of the contracting parties. Beekman, as president judge, imposed on the clergyman a fine of fifty guilders, to which decision Stille dissented, stating that the court had no jurisdiction to correct such affairs; that it was a matter for the Consistory of Sweden alone to inquire into. The priest seemed to be governed by the dissenting opinion, for when summoned to appear he informed the officer that he had nothing to do with the court of Christiana, and did not attend. Proceedings in divorce, it would appear, were not within the province of the tribunal, for the letter states that there was then "among the Fins at Opland" a married couple "who live very wretchedly together, and the wife is often fearfully beaten, and daily driven out of the house like a dog," which condition of matrimonial infelicity had continued for several years. The trouble was so generally known that at length a Swedish priest at Upland, the neighbors, the sheriff, and the commissioners, at the request of the man and wife, applied to Vice-Director Beekman, desiring that they might be divorced, and the few animals and personal property they owned be divided between them. The whole matter was referred to Stuyvesant, but whether the divorce was ever granted does not appear in any record now published. Dr. Smith was of the opinion that the parties to this unhappy marriage resided near Marcus Hook, the territory in that neighborhood then being known as Finland. | 1 Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. vii. p. 635. | ||
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The matters thus set forth from Beekman's letters peculiarly relate to our history, and are exceedingly interesting, since all the persons mentioned resided within the limits of the present county of Delaware, and because it is conclusive of the fact that at that time no court existed within the territory belonging to the present State of Pennsylvania. Notwithstanding the differences in opinion between Vice-Director Beekman and Stille, the latter still continued as one of the magistrates, for on the trial of Evert Hendrickson for a dastardly assault on Joran Kyn, at Upland, on the 6th and 16th of April, 1663, the court at Fort Altena, where the case was heard, consisted of Vice-Director Beekman, Oele Stille, Mats Hanson, and Peter Cock, commissioners. The plaintiff in this proceeding had been worried by the defendant's hog running on his land, and he had pointed his gun at the animal, when the defendant assaulted him with a stick, endeavoring to break his head. The plaintiff in warding off the blows received a stroke on the elbow which disabled his arm for a month. Hendrickson not satisfied with this, went home and brought his gun, saying at the same time to Kyn, "I would like right well to shoot you down now, you scoundrel." The evidence established that the preceding autumn the defendant had threatened the life of the plaintiff, at which time he put a knife to the plaintiff's throat, stating he had a mind to cut his head off. The first assault had been overlooked by Kyn, on condition that he would give him no further trouble. The witnesses united in the opinion that Hendrickson was a desperado "who troubled the place at Upland's Kil."2 The defendant was banished for his ill doings, and removed to the neighborhood of New Castle. | 2 Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New York, vol. xii. pp. 424-26. | ||
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In the early fall of the following year Sir Robert Carr, in command of the English forces, subjugated the Dutch provinces on the Delaware, but in the articles of capitulation, dated Oct. 1, 1664, it was stipulated that "the Scout, the Burgomaster, Sheriffe, | |||