A History of the Kalmar Nyckel
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The Kalmar Nyckel was a remarkable ship. She was the pride of Sweden, heavily armed, able to hold a large cargo, yet more nimble and maneuverable than other ships her size. Majestic and seaworthy, this three-masted square-rigger first crossed of the Atlantic Ocean in 1638. Unknown to most Americans, and omitted from all but a few history books, she has the distinction of being the ship that crossed the Atlantic Ocean more times than any other ship before the American Revolution. She only made four round trips, but nonetheless, that was the more than any other ship was able to accomplish.
The modern replica of the Kalmar Nyckel was built 350 years later to become Delaware's Tall Ship. Back in 2001 and 2003, several members of our family sailed aboard her, and my father boarded her once much earlier after the construction was complete but before she was ready to sail. The new Kalmar Nyckel was constructed to resemble the original ship as closely as possible, but much guesswork had to be used. A few contemporary descriptions exist, but no blueprints, plans or drawings of the original Kalmar Nyckel have been found. Like the original Kalmar Nyckel, the replica is painted the same shade of blue as found on the Swedish flag and hosts a golden lion as her figurehead. Unlike the original, and hidden from view, the modern-day ship has a engine for back-up power and a contemporary kitchen for her crew. Both ships were built with a square stern and a high poopdeck, underneath which the ship's captain's quarters could be found. Even if they were almost the same size, in the seventeenth century, her captain would have considered the space large and comfortable, while to a modern eye the modern Kalmar Nyckel's captain's quarters appear to be cramped. Different members of our family spent glorious and fun-filled sunny afternoons aboard the new Kalmar Nyckel on the Delaware Bay. In contrast, when some of our ancestors crossed the Atlantic Ocean aboard the original ship, they would have spent many weeks in miserable quarters bringing with them all their clothes and other earthly possessions, including, if they were so lucky, livestock.
The first Kalmar Nyckel served her country for more than thirty years. She was a merchant ship that had been redesigned as a man-of-war. The first time the Kalmar Nyckel sailed across the Atlantic, she was under orders to attack any vulnerable enemy ship she might encounter and relieve it any cargo the captain deemed to be valuable -- in other words, in addition to all the other remarkable things about her, the Kalmar Nyckel was also a pirate ship.
To appreciate the history of the Kalmar Nyckel, it is important to understand the colonial aspirations of the Kingdom of Sweden. Not to besmirch the Swedes, but Sweden is not the first (or second, or third, or fourth) country you think of as an empire-building world power. In American history surveys, Nya Sverige, or New Sweden, which lasted fewer than two decades, is usually considered an insignificant episode, if it is included at all. However, when the Kalmar Nyckel was setting her trans-Atlantic record, Sweden really was a "Great Power" in Europe. The Thirty Years War was raging, and King Gustavus Adolphus II earned the nickname the Lion of the North as he became the principal military figure of Europe. He was hailed a great Protestant champion and did his best to vanquish the Catholic states and conquer for Sweden as much of Europe as he could. He expanded his empire from Finland and much of Scandinavia to include Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, plus significant parts of Russia, Poland, and Germany. When his daugther Christina succeeded him, she used as her title "Queen of Sweden, of the Goths and Wends, Grand Duchess of Finland, Duchess of Estonia, Karelia, Bremen, Verden, Stettin-Pomerania, Kashubia and Wenden, Princess of Ruegen, Dame of Ingermanland and Wismar."
When trading company directors approached Gustavus Adolphus II with a proposal for extending the empire into the New World, he was enthusiastic about the opportunity to increase his empire and readily granted them a charter. If the directors were pleased to have a charter, they were disappointed in two other major regards. The king provided no funds for an expedition across the Atlantic (or beyond), and he gave them no ships. Ships could not be spared while war was being waged. Fortunately, the directors had experience in organizing an expedition to the New World. Most of them were Dutch, not Swedes, and had been involved in the founding of New Amsterdam. They had only approached the Swedish king because they had been fired by their royal Dutch patrons. Good Protestant capitalists and disgruntled empire builders, they were looking for a fresh start and a second chance to make their fortune.
The trading company was first chartered in 1626. The company had several different names and was re-organized more than a few times. Names included the General Trading Company, the Swedish Florida Company, Swedish West Indian Company, the Ships' Company, the Australian Company, the South Company, the United South Ships Company, and finally the name we know it by today, the New Sweden Company. Not much progress was made, however, for several years. The waging of the Thirty Years War made it difficult for a trading company to raise money, hire crews of sailors, and find willing settlers with which to establish a new colony. Then, when things finally started to look promising, the king was killed in battle.
The great Gustavus Aldolphus's eleven-year-old daughter succeeded him to the throne. Fortunately for the directors of the New Sweden Company, the young queen, or in actuality the Swedish regency government led by chancellor Axel Oxenstierna, proved to be just as keen on creating a Swedish empire as the king had been. Unfortunately for the directors, setbacks in the Thirty Years War had caused Sweden to lose control over some Prussian ports and the revenues they generated, so the new government was even less willing to part with money from the Swedish treasury. Oxenstierma would prove to be more helpful, however, in helping the company acquire a ship.
Early dreams for Swedish empire appear to have included Asia, Brazil, African copper mines, and what someone called Magellanland, but the trading company only made progress after Peter Minuit became a director. His name should be pronounced "min WEE," French for "midnight," as Minuit was born to a French-speaking Walloon family. Minuit joined the board of directors in 1632 and convinced the Swedish authorities to focus on the North America. North America had been overlooked, because by 1630 there wasn't any part of it left to claim. Minuit, however, having been only recently fired as the Director-General of New Netherlands, had a solution to that problem. His plan involved secrecy, international intrigue, and an almost enlightened notion regarding Indian sovereignty. He might also have had thoughts of revenge.
All this time, the company was still without a ship. It took two years after Minuit joined the New Sweden Company before the deal could be worked out to acquire its first, the Kalmar Nyckel. The Kalmar Nyckel had not been built to be a trans-Atlantic sailing ship. She started her life as a Dutch merchant vessel sometime in the 1620s. Technically, she was a pinnace, a fairly lightweight class of ship that in that era was used as a warship, merchant ship, ferry boat, or smuggling vessel. The exact year she was built is unknown. She entered the Swedish service in 1629 when she was purchased to defend the city of Kalmar, a major port on the Baltic Sea. The citizens of Kalmar had been ordered by the king to raise the money themselves, both to purchase the ship and acquire armaments to convert her into a warship. Her original name is unknown, but she was now christened Kalmar Nyckel, which means Key of Kalmar. In many books the name of the ship is written Key of Calmar. "Calmare Nyckel" was the preferred spelling of the ship by the United States Delaware Valley Tercentenary Commission in 1938. Calmer Sleutel was her name in Dutch. Despite the fact that the Swedish crown didn't pay for her, five years later, in 1634, the ship was confiscated in the name of the queen without any compensation to the good people of Kalmar and presented to the private trading company.
Once a ship was in their possession, the directors still took more than a few years to raise enough funds to outfit her for a trans-Atlantic voyage. Then in 1636 a second, smaller ship, the Fogel Grip (or the Griffon Bird), was acquired by the company as well. A launch of the two ships was planned for the summer of 1637. Minuit received secret orders (that he may have written himself) outlining the mission. The ships were to sail to the Delaware River (or Zuyd Rivier [South River] as the Dutch called it). Once there, they were to purchase land from the native people who lived there and claim the land for Sweden. The first expedition was also tasked with establishing contacts for trade in tobacco and fur. No permanent colonists were on board, but 25 soldiers would be left behind in a fort that would be built.
The
summer came and went, as did most of the fall, with nothing but delays.
Peter Minuit was sick part of that time, and his absence may have
enhanced the problems. Finally in November 1637 the Kalmar Nyckel
and Fogel Grip set sail from Gothenburg. Minuit led the
expedition, but the captain of the Kalmar Nyckel
was Jan Hindricksen van der Water (which could be translated as John
Henderson of the High Seas). Hindricksen was Dutch, as were most of his crew, including Andries Luycaszen [Andres Lucassen], an officer who had "before this lived long in the country and who knew their language." Also on the crew were Swedes, Danes, Germans, and even one Scot. Bleak November is perhaps not the best
time to start an oceanic voyage, and after only a couple days of
sailing, a violent winter storm in the North Sea nearly destroyed both
ships. The ships were separated, and each crew thought the other was
lost. However, the Kalmar Nyckel found shelter in the harbor
of Texel, a port city on an island that was part of Holland. The
survival of the Kalmar Nyckel can be credited to naval skills
of Captain Hindricksen and his crew. A full week later the Fogel
Grip, also badly leaking, found shelter in the same harbor.
Since the orders were secret, it is quite possible that no one aboard either ship except for Minuit and Hindricksen knew they were about to invade Dutch territory. That would be important information to keep quiet about if you are in dry dock at a Dutch port. To keep the mission a secret, Peter Minuit even felt it necessary to make a deal with a Dutch friend to transport four passengers to New Amsterdam or as close to there as possible during their voyage to "Virginia," as many then called all of North America. The Swedish ships remained in Dutch port undergoing repairs for about a month before setting sail again on December 31. Their route first took them to the Caribbean. This was necessary back then, because of currents and prevailing winds. The Swedes were no different than other European nations in including the Caribbean islands as part of the triangular trading system. By order, if the crews found themselves in isolated waters, they were to exploit vulnerable Spanish galleons. There is no evidence that the crew of Kalmar Nyckel ever engaged in piracy, but once back in Sweden, Andreas Joransson, the captain of the sister ship Fogel Grip got in trouble for not reporting some Spanish booty he captured. Whether acquired through force or trade or good deed, a slave from West Africa was taken aboard the Fogel Grip. Antoni, as he was named by the Europeans, then took residence in New Sweden. Since Sweden had abolished slavery, Anthoni became a free man. If not the first, he was at least one of the first emancipated slaves in North America.
In March 1638, Hindricksen and his crew proved their navigational skill once again as the Kalmar Nyckel reached the Delaware Bay. When Henry Hudson on the voyage Half Moon in 1609 "discovered" the bay, he did not enter it because he thought it would take a pinnace, a smaller ship, to navigate its shoals. Now a pinnace had done just that. Details of the voyage are unknown since Minuet's diary and log were lost. The location of where in the New World they first landed is in dispute. It is possible they went to shore at Cape Henlopen. Israel Acrelaus, one of the earliest historians of New Sweden, states this, but later historans have questioned the accuracy of this account. If the stop was made, the crew did not stay long. That the ship landed in Jamestown is possible. There was a report that the Fogel Grip had gone to Jamestown to trade for tobacco, but exactly when is not recorded. A report from the British treasurer in Virginia to the British Secretary of State, dated 8 May 1638 (and published in the Virginia Historical Magazine in 1903) indicates that a Dutch ship commisioned by the Queen of Sweden requested to have free trade in tobacco to carry to Sweden, but that the request was denied. The British treasurer wrote from Jamestown, but where the exchange between the Kalmar Nyckel and the British was made in not clear.
Eventually the ships entered the Delaware Bay and proceeded cautiously for another forty miles up the Delaware River. Caution was necessary both because the river was shallow in places and because they did not wish to encounter any Dutch ships or settlements. At last on 29 March 1638, they reached their pre-assigned destination, a western tributary that the Dutch had called the Minquas Kill. It is now the Christina River. Continuing about two miles further, well hidden from traffic on the Delaware, they dropped anchor. As the Pilgrims had Plymouth Rock, the Swedes had "The Rocks," a natural rock formation that could serve as a natural loading dock in what was otherwise low and marshy land. This rocky point is known today as Swedes' Landing.
The crew did not immediately go ashore. Instead they shot off the ships' cannons. After it was determined that no Europeans were around, they wanted to attract the attention of any nearby non-Europeans. Minuit's secret plan could now be revealed. In a matter of days, five sachem (also known as Indian chiefs) from two distinct tribes, the Lenape (or the Delaware) and the Minquas (known both as the Mingo and Susquahannock), boarded the Kalmar Nyckel. Members of both tribes were present because even though the Lenape lived in the area, they were subservient to the Minquas. While aboard the ship, Minuit, an experienced negotiator, aided by Andries Luycaszen, his interpreter, successfully made a deal. There aboard the mighty ship, an historical agreement was signed. Ownership of the land on the western side of the Delaware was officially and legally transferred from two New World "nations" to the Kingdom of Sweden. Nya Sverige, or New Sweden, was founded.
What Minuit had done was remarkable. Minuit knew that the land on the western shore of the Delaware River had not been purchased from any native people by the Dutch, and to his knowledge not by any European power. To his legal thinking, that meant it was available for Swedish possession. This went against accepted legal justification among the European powers, and both the English and the Dutch both had previously claimed the land as their own. The only land purchased for New Amsterdam from the native people was the island of Manhattan for the infamous $24 worth of trinkets. The actual deal was "for the value of 60 guilders." Trinkets was added much later to the tale, and if converted to a modern equivalent, the value would be closer to $1000. Now he was taking a giant step further. What was unique about the Kalmar Nyckel treaty was that the Europeans did not take possession of land until after an agreement had been made. Only after the documents were signed did the governor claim the land in the name of Queen Christina. Enlightened or not, Minuit, in founding New Sweden, acknowledged that the native people were its only and rightful owners. What Minuit and every other European of the time failed to understand was that the Indians had an entirely diffferent understanding of land ownership. The two tribes thought they were only agreeing to share the land with these new people. Land was sacred to them; it was not a commodity that could be bought and sold.
With this first agreement, the territory of New Sweden stretched about seventy miles along the Delaware River. The original deed is lost, so the exact boundary in not known. It might only have included the Miquas Kill watershed. What the Swedes established as the northern border was the Schuylkill River, just short of a stretch of wilderness that would become Philadelphia. The southern border was probably that stretch of wilderness that is still a stretch of wilderness, or, at least, a national wildlife refuge -- Bombay Hook. To the west, in theory, at least, New Sweden extended all the way to the Pacific Ocean, since no western boundary was known to have been set. In 1648, when the Dutch and Swedes were embattled, however, Andries Hudde, the commander of one of the Dutch forts (so not an unbiased witness) claimed that the Susquahannock told him that the Swedes bought only a tiny parcel of land -- as much as was contained within six trees -- for the sole purpose of clearing a bit of land to plant some tobacco. The fact that the Swedes enjoyed unusally harmonious relations with their Indian neighbors brings the Dutch commander's story into question.
It is not recorded what goods Peter Minuit exchanged for Manhattan, but it is known that the Swedes brought useful items for negotiating with the Indians. Peter Minuit's previous dealings with Indians provided him with the knowledge of what items would be valued. Brought aboard ship for trading were several hundred knives and axes, hoes, iron pots and copper kettles, wine, distilled spirits, and a great number of lengthy bolts of cloth. What might be called trinkets included mirrors, combs, jewelry, and Jew's harps. Not all of the trading items the New Sweden Company brought, however, were used to buy land. Much or most of that stock was saved for later to barter for furs and pelts. One sacham claimed several years later to Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant (so Stuyvesant claimed) that for the land itself the Swedes only paid only a "kettle and other trifles" plus some promised goods that were never delivered.
It is not clear exactly how long the Kalmar Nyckel or the Fogel Grip remained in New Sweden on this first voyage, but it was about six weeks. The Fogel Grip departed first. The crew had either earlier gone to Jamestown to trade for tobacco or did so now. In either case, it failed, so before returning to Sweden, the Fogel Grip traveled to the West Indies to search piratically for Spanish gold. Minuit wished to return to Sweden soon, anxious to organize the next voyage to bring permanent colonists, but the Kalmar Nyckel remained in New Sweden until the completion of the fort. The Swedish invaders had been sleeping aboard ship until that time. Minuit supervised the clearing of land both for the planting of crops and for the building of Fort Christina. The name may not sound formidable, but it honored the young Swedish queen. The fort included a log palisades, a log cabin to serve as a barracks, and a log storage structure. The insignia of the young queen was raised on a pole for all to see, even if Minuit hoped no European would – at least not before he returned with more soldiers and the first permanent settlers. Initially the purpose of Fort Christina may have been to protect the 25 men (they were all men and included the freed slave) who were left behind from unfriendly natives. It was soon determined, however, that the Lenape and Minquas were peaceful people and cooperative trading partners and agricultural advisors. There were no more than a few isolated incidents. Through the history of New Sweden, the main function of its forts became to protect the Swedes from other Europeans, as much as from the "savages."
By the middle of June Minuit and the Kalmar Nyckel set sail. The ship had been loaded with 769 beaver pelts, 314 otter pelts, and 132 bearskins, with plenty of cargo space remaining. It was still loaded with wine and spirits for trade in the West Indies. Before heading home, however, the Kalmar Nyckel first sailed up the Delaware for her crew to see the full extent of the new territory and for further trade with the Lenape. This was not Minuit's most strategic decision, since during the trip, the ship was spotted by the Dutch as she passed by Fort Nassau, a fort on the east side of the Delaware near the future location of downtown Philadelphia.
Once they saw the invading ship, did the Dutch fire upon the Kalmar Nyckel? No, this first encounter in the great war on the Delaware was bloodless, as would be every other battle between these two colonial powers. The keen-eyed Dutch soldiers on duty, knowing the Swedes were allies, simply reported their observation to a superior officer, who, in turn, sent a report to headquarters in New Amsterdam, when, after some time, it found its way to the director-general. The director-general then passed word to the Dutch West Indies, and from there the news was forwarded to Holland. Communication was limited by the comings and goings of ship, so delays of weeks or months were likely. Eventually, the report was brought to the attention of a key Dutch government official who must have then composed a petition. After the petition received royal approval, it would have been carried by a royal envoy traveling by ship and delivered to the Dutch ambassador to Sweden who promptly(?) would have presented the petition to the Swedish crown. The petition asked that the government of Sweden to please remove all Swedes from Dutch territory. It was all very dignified and diplomatic, and it was totally ineffective in persuading the Swedes to abandon its ambitions.
It is not clear which made it back to Europe first, word of the Swedish incursion or the two Swedish ships that did the incurring. Tragedy struck the Kalmar Nyckel on the return voyage. Governor Minuit and Captain Hindricksen died while the Kalmar Nyckel was still in the Caribbean. However, they were not aboard the Kalmar Nyckel at the time. On August 5, 1638, while in a harbor at St. Kitts, then known as St. Christopher’s Island, the two were aboard a Dutch sloop, the Flying Deer, at the invitation of her captain, when a hurricane blew in, swept her out to sea, and sunk her. All the Flying Deer's crew and passengers were lost. The Kalmar Nyckel proved more seaworthy, for though damaged, they survived the storm. Michel Symonssen, the first mate, assumed command. He and the crew of the Kalmar Nyckel spent nearly two months searching for their leaders, but, following prescribed orders, then returned to Sweden. But the voyage wasn't that easy. An additional major storm caused enough damage to the Kalmar Nyckel that she had to alter course and head to the Dutch West Frisian Islands for repairs. It was early 1639 before the Kalmar Nyckel reached home.
For the second expedition, the Kalmar Nyckel was to sail alone. After returning to Sweden, the Fogel Grip had run aground while on an unrelated voyage and was left to founder. Strapped for cash, the company was unable to purchase another ship, and the crown, still at war, had none to spare. Delays seemed to be unavoidable. As many problems were related to the New Sweden Company itself as to the seaworthiness of the ship. Without Minuit taking the lead, the process of organizing the second expedition crawled. It took several months for the trade company's directors to select another governor. Another Dutch citizen, Peter Ridder, was appointed, but, alas, he was a poor choice. He exhibited no commitment to the project, was ineffectual as a leader, and possibly dishonest. After the accountants determined that the first expedition failed to make a profit from the sale of fur pelts and tobacco, several key investors withdrew their backing. Even more problematic was recruiting permanent settlers. No kind of enticement seemed to be able to attract more than a handful of Swedish men and even fewer families. The problem was solved only when the Swedish crown offered to supply the company with involuntary settlers -- army deserters. Swedish prisons were full of them. Involuntary, is not quite the right term, although coercion rather than encouragement was probably employed. A law was passed to commute the prison sentences of army deserters to if they emigrated with their families to the new colony. The presence of prisoners did not make New Sweden a penal colony, however, since legally the deserters were emigrating by their own choice and none were transported bound and shackled. They were were even paid to accept passage aboard the Kalmar Nyckel. They would be more like indentured servants than prisoners, and after a limited term of service to the New Sweden Company, they became free and were given the choice to continue to live in New Sweden or return to the mother country.
After completion of repairs and with this new supply of
passengers of 35 to 50 men, women, and children, the
trading company was ready for the Kalmar Nyckel to weigh
anchor. Shortly after she set sail in September 1639, however, the Kalmar
Nyckel
sprang a leak. She first found harbor in yet another Dutch port,
Medemblik, but the captain found it necessary to return to Gothenburg.
Repairs were made, but after another launch was attempted, the leaks
reappeared, and the Kalmar Nyckel returned to port a second
time. Before launching again, an investigation was made, and the new
captain was charged with failure to
properly supervise the work. Further investigation uncovered the
likelihood that the captain had skimmed money that should have been
spent on fixing the leaks properly. Even further misconduct was then
discovered. The captain had been overcharging the company but
undersupplying the cargo with key items that included butter and beer.
Although Ridder survived as governor, the captain was fired. Troubles
mounted when several crew members then quit, either because they were
loyal to the captain or in cahoots with him. A new captain and a large
number of new crew members had to be recruited, and Ridder seemed in no hurry. During the time wasted, the remaining crew had to be paid, and the waiting passengers and livestock had to be housed and fed. The delays, the costs of repairs, and
the fraud almost guaranteed that once again the voyage of the Kalmar
Nyckel would not be profitable. Finally, when all was ready,
storms delayed the launch date. Having been doubly repaired, the Kalmar
Nyckel set sail for New Sweden on February 7, 1640, about a year after she had returned.
Several accounts recorded that the second voyage was more difficult and unpleasant than the first. The problem was not so much bad weather, but the poor skill and lack of discipline of the crew. Animosity arose between the Dutch crew members and the Swedish settlers, especially the colony's first minister and the New World's first Lutheran preacher, the Reverend Reorus Torkillis. The Dutch crew was accused of spending most of their day drinking and smoking and damning the Swedes. When the pastor grew ill, the crew refused him his request for some liquor for his medicinal needs. One positive note was that a healthy baby was born during the voyage, Olle Swennson.
Once again the Kalmar Nyckel set anchor at "the Rocks" outside Fort Christina. She arrived on April 17, 1640. Nearly two years had elapsed since the ship had departed from Fort Christina with two dozen soldiers behind. In much less time than that, half of the pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts, had perished, but all the Swedish soldiers had survived. It appears that had the Kalmar Nyckel taken a few weeks longer to arrive, her crew may have found Fort Christina abandoned, since the Swedish soldiers had almost given up and had made plans to relocate to New Amsterdam. Not surprisingly, not a single soldier who had been left behind chose to remain in New Sweden when the Kalmar Nyckel sailed home again. Two civilians from the first expedition elected to remain in New Sweden, however. Claes Jansen (also spelled Klas Jansson), who was a tailor by trade but had been employed as a carpenter, remained, as did Anthoni Swart, the freed slave. The Kalmar Nyckel remained in New Sweden less than a month -- only as long as necessary for Governor Ridder to settle into his new quarters and the ship to be laded with fur pelts.
Before the Kalmar Nyckel made her third voyage, the Freedenburgh, a ship employed by an agent for about twenty families from Utrech, set sail from Holland and arrived in New Sweden by November 1640. The colonists' goal was to establish a semi-independent settlement with allegiance to the Swedish crown, but the names of passengers, the exact location of the settlement, and whether or not it ever gained any semi-autonomy remain mysteries.
There was new interest after the Kalmar Nyckel returned from her second voyage. Rumors had spread that the Kalmar Nyckel had been captured by the Turks. Whether or not that was a factor, once the ship was back in Sweden, it took less time to organize the next voyage, even if it couldn't be called expedious. There are no accounts of any particular scandals or difficulties in readying the ship for another trip across the ocean. The New Sweden Company now had special help from the Swedish Crown to filling the passenger list before the Kalmar Nyckel had returned from her second voyage. The government saw in New Sweden a solution to the Finnish problem. It has been estimated that more than half of the "Swedes" that came on the third voyage of the Kalmar Nyckel were actually Finns. That may have been true of the second voyage as well. The Finns had been conquered several generations before and although legally Swedes, many were not loyal to the Swedish crown and when forced into the army became deserters. The problem the Swedish government had with is ethnically Finnish population, however, was much greater. Since the end of the previous century, Finns had been coerced to settle in some previously uninhabited forest lands to produce charcoal, the primary fuel for homes and industry since Sweden had no coal. The Finns, using their ancient burnbeating method, were all too successful, and forests were noticeably starting to disappear. Burnbeating was outlawed, but since there was still a need for charcoal and the Finns had few other options to make a livelihood, the practice continued. One of the few other sources of income for the Finns were pelts and furs, and again because they were too successful, the Finns' hunting method was outlawed. The Finns fought back against the Swedish government's oppression and regained a new spirit of Finnish national identity. With prisons filling up too rapidly with Finnish burnbeaters, hunters, and political agitators, the idea of transportation to New Sweden sounded very attractive to the Swedish officials. Once again, however, the settlers weren't bound or sentenced to New Sweden, but had a certain amount of free will in making the decision.
The record of the third trans-Atlantic voyage of the Kalmar Nyckel is even more poorly documented than the first two. A few facts are clear. The third voyage of the Kalmar Nyckel began in July of 1641, almost exactly a year after she had returned from the second voyage. The original plans did not include the Kalmar Nyckel, but it was called up for trans-Atlantic duty after other ships were deemed to be unfit. For this trek the Kalmar Nyckel was joined by a larger vessel, the Charitas. There is no surviving passenger list to indicate who came on the third voyage. It is thought that all, or almost all of the passengers came aboard the Kalmar Nyckel since the Charitas was strictly a cargo ship and lightly armed, it carried livestock, seeds, trade goods, provisions, and other freight such as farming implements.
By the time the Kalmar Nyckel made her the fourth voyage to New Sweden, additional ships had been engaged to provide transport between Sweden and its colony. There was now a new governor, the four hundred pound, third governor, Johan Printz, who was also known as Round John by colonists and Big Belly by the natives. The last voyage of the Kalmar Nyckel was made in tandem with another ship, the Fama. Both ships were commissioned to transport cargo, rather than passengers, and there were only two passengers of record on the Kalmar Nyckel. One, John Pagegoja, was later to become an officer in the New Sweden army, marry the governor's daughter, and serve as acting governor when Round John left suddenly after twenty-two freemen signed the petition of complaint against Printz. According to Pagegoja, the last trans-Atlantic voyage of the Kalmar Nyckel lasted two months, and she came ashore the 27th of February, 1644.
While the Kalmar Nyckel was on her voyage home, war broke out between Sweden and Denmark, and upon her return to Sweden, the Kalmar Nyckel was immediately commissioned into military service. The nimble pinnace principally served as part of the fleet that protected the city of Gothenburg. Because of her fleetness, the Kalmar Nyckel was also used to spy on the Danish fleet. On one occasion, trapped in Danish waters, she was able to escape. Her most deadly action occurred in August 1645 when she engaged a much larger and better armed Danish ship, St. Peer. Only twelve officers and sailors from the Kalmar Nyckel survived, but with the reinforcement from other Swedish ships, the Kalmar Nyckel captured the St. Peer. A final assault on the Danish fleet was called off when word came that the Danes had agreed to the Swedish peace terms.
As tensions between the Dutch and the Swedes in the new world escalated, Round John requested that the Kalmar Nyckel be sent to New Sweden for a fifth time to provide the colony with more arms and supplies. The queen approved the request, but when it was realized the amount of damage she had received in naval battles, the admiralty deemed her unfit for further ocean crossings. On June 19, 1651, the queen signed the papers that decommissioned the Kalmar Nyckel and authorized her to be sold to Cornelius Rolofsson. Alas, the identity of Cornelius Rolofsson, even to his nationality, has not been discovered, although it is thought he was Dutch. There is no further record of the great ship, the Kalmar Nyckel. There are two conflicting reports (or speculations) of her ultimate fate. One account is that she went down off the coast of the city of Kalmar as a merchant ship, either sunk on purpose or as the result of another leak or an accident. Another story gives her a grander fate as a Dutch warship that was sunk by the English in the North Sea in 1654 during the First Anglo-Dutch War.
Starting with the second governor, Ridder, the colonists worked to expand the size of New Sweden. Ridder abandoned Minuit's idea to confine New Sweden to the western shore of the Delaware River. Very quickly after he arrived, Ridder purchased territory from the Lenape on the eastern shore of the Delaware, in what is now New Jersey. Territorial claims now stretched beyond the Schuylkill as far north as the land near what is now Trenton.
Both the Dutch and the English became concerned, although at this early time the English presence along the Delaware was limited largely to concerns for fur trade. In 1640 and 1641 representatives of the New Haven Colony purchased lands on the east side of the Delaware from the same sachem who had also "sold" the same land to the Swedish. An English settlement, however, was abandoned soon after it was started.
After Round John Printz replaced Ridder as governor, he decided not only to extend settlement further along both sides of the Delaware River, but he wished to move the capital of New Sweden to Tinicum Island, in sight of Fort Nassau. As a direct challenge or perhaps out of vainglory, he built another fort, a badstu (sauna), and a private two-story residence. The “Printzhof” was made of logs but it was the first in the colony to have glass windows.
In part because of renewed fighting in Europe, but also because Queen Christina was now ruling on her on without chancellor Oxenstierna and had little interest in empire building, Sweden basically abandoned its colony for more than six years. As a result, New Sweden almost collapsed. With trade with the mother country non-existent, trade needed to be increased with the Dutch and English colonies. Although there was some of that, instead Governor Printz started what became known as the "battle of the forts." The nature of the battle was one of constructing them, not attacking them. Perhaps to prove that Sweden had the right to colonize on both sides of the river, Round John built Fort Elfsborg near the mouth of the Delaware on the east side of the river. For some reason, however, it was quickly abandoned. Then Round John built a fortified trading post along the Schuylkill River just further inland than any Dutch trading post or fortification.
Tensions intensified when Peter Stuyvesant became the new director-general of New Netherlands. He escalated the battle of the forts by having a Dutch fort erected even farther inland on the Schuylkill than the Swedish
post. The Swedish governor responded by building a Swedish fort
opposite the river from the Dutch fort. Responding on a different
front, the Dutch then built Fort Casimir on the Delaware, six miles
south of Fort Christina, in effect giving the Dutch control the
Delaware again.
This warlike bluffing was brought to a halt when Round John made a hasty return home to Sweden. His increasingly autocratic rule led to discontent enough that he had one colonist executed on charges of treason. In response to that, a petition for reform signed by 22 freemen. The governor fumed that this was "mutiny," but, on the excuse that he needed to make a personal appeal to the Queen for renewed assistance, he left New Sweden soon after on the next ship.
In 1654, the colony's last governor, Johan Risingh, arrived, and recommenced hostilities immediately. On his way to his new home, he thought it would be a good time to lay siege to the new Dutch Fort Casimir. Although the Dutch had cannons to defend themselves with, alas, they had no gunpowder. Without either side firing a shot, the Dutch surrendered. Governor Risingh claimed it for Sweden and re-named it Fort Trinity.
When headstrong Peter Stuyvesant got word of the Swedish action, however, he became furious. Instead of sending off a biting petition like previous governors had done, he decided to deal with the Swedish problem once and for all. The following summer, he put together a great armada of seven ships, three of which were real warships. Aboard were between 400 and 600 musketeers and other soldiers, which was two or three times the population of New Sweden, women and children included. This time, as a precaution Stuyvesant made sure his soldiers had both arms and ammunition.
When the Dutch armada reached Fort Trinity, Stuyvesant ordered the captain (Skute, by name) to surrender. There were about 30 (some sources indicate fewer than 20) Swedish soldiers to defend the fort, but the captain, who had been under orders to resist a Dutch advance up the river, but so far had done nothing, responded to Stuyvesant's ultimatum with an appeal for delay. Since he was not authorized to abandon the fort, he asked that he be allowed to send word to the governor concerning what action to take. Stuyvesant refused the request and countered by landing troops above the fort. First emissaries were exchanged, then Stuyvesant and Skute met in person. When the Dutch director-general threatened to commence firing, the poor captain, realizing that resistance was useless, surrendered. The Swedish soldiers were taken aboard on of the ships in the armada as prisoners of war, but Captain Skute and his fellow officers were simply put under house arrent and were even allowed to keep their arms. This was not as noble as it might sound, the Dutch had discovered the Swedes hadn't resupplied the fort with any ammunition after they had taken it over the year before. Once again in the contest for the control of New Sweden, not a shot was fired, not one casualty was suffered by either side.
Pumped up by his military success, Stuyvesant then sailed down Minquas Kill, now called Christina Creek, to lay siege to Fort Christina. Governor Risingh received advance word that the Dutch fleet was on its way and that he was not satisfied with the retaking of Fort Trinity but wanted to end the colonial aspirations of Sweden forthwith. However, since the bulk of his military force had been a Fort Trinity, there was little he could do, and the center of the Swedish empire in America and the stronghold of Swedish might and power was quite vulnerable. None the less it took a full two weeks of siege and negotiation before the Swedish governor agreed to articles of surrender. Once again no shots were fired, and a bloodless war came to an end. On 15 September, 1655, New Sweden no longer existed. In its place the Colony of New Amstel was born as a semi-autonomous unit within the colony of New Netherlands. This allowed the Swedish settlers to not only continue their culture and religion, but keep possession and ownership of their land. Within a matter of weeks Risingh returned to Sweden with several of his soldiers and a tiny number of settlers. However, more than ninety percent of the Swedes and Finns decided to stay. They appeared quite willing to take an oath of allegiance to the Dutch government.
That same year, Governor Stuyvesant formally established Upland Court as both a judicial and administrative body within which former Swedish colonists could operate. They could hold their own court and even form their own militia. The Dutch honored their land and trading rights. It was called Upland Court because its court was held in the town of that name, which later became Chester, Pennsylvania. After the English took New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664, they continued to recognize the autonomy of the Swedes through Upland Court. It continued to operate until Pennsylvania was established in 1681.
Only after the second voyage of the Kalmar Nyckel did New Sweden really begin its life as a colony, and only after the third crossing of the Kalmar Nyckel were the numbers large enough for New Sweden to be considered anything more than a trading outpost. In the history of New Sweden, the number of colonists never surpassed six hundred, and for much of its history the population did not reach two hundred. A large number of settlers belonged to the military. Others worked for the New Sweden Company in the fur trading business or served the governor in a civil service capacity. Some indentured laborers were employed to plant tobacco, but even those with previous farming experience were unfamiliar with this crop. Their efforts were never very successful, and after a few years they went on to other occupations or to more productive farming. The land had not been all forest when the Swedish colonists arrived. In addition to the wide expanses of oak, nut, and maple trees were open areas where Lenape had cultivated their three sisters of bean, squash, and corn. They had built semi-permanent villages, but had left some of them abandoned. The colony expanded as more land was cleared outside the fort, and houses, mostly log cabins, were now built. The colony became widely scattered. As land was cleared for plantations further and further away from the forts, the colonists never settled far from the shore of rivers or the bay. The settlers built no roads but relied on boats and canoes as their principal form of transportation.
The colony never came close to reaching self-sufficiency. Although livestock prospered and enough grain had been harvested that windmills could be built to grind it, colonists relied on support and supplies from Sweden, that were sporatic. In one year when crops failed, starvation loomed. When the colony was abandoned by Sweden for six years, the population plummeted, due to death and desertion to other colonies. Even if their governments were feuding, the Swedish and Dutch colonists maintained contact and good relations. In the long times of absence of supplies from the homeland, the Swedes relied on trade with the Dutch, the Lenape, and to some extent the English to survive.
Records indicate that women did a marvelous job of bearing healthy babies. Families with twelve or thirteen children were common. In addition to childbearing, rearing growing families, and the everyday household chores of cooking and baking, which included hauling water and building and maintaining fires, the women were expected to milk cows (what few there were) and tend the other livestock, spin wool and flax, weave, and sew and handstitch every seam in the clothing they made. It was the women who worked the gardens for food while the menfolk tended the cash crops, were away on trading missions, or worked other occupations. Also included as women's work were mending fishing nets and brewing ale. Only the governor's family and a few others would have servants, so the only help the women would have would be from their daughters.
The Swedes were Lutherans, but due to the scarcity of ministers, only a few churches were built. After the first minister, Reorus Torkillus, died, he was replaced by Johan Campanius, who arrived on February 15, 1643. He not only served the colonists, but he learned the language of the natives and spent much of his time as a missionary to them. As the colony expanded, it is not clear how regularly services were attended. A letter lamenting the lack of a Swedish minister reported that during one congregation's services, hymns were sung, Gospels were read, but no sermons were preached, and communion was not received. With or without church services, the settlers practiced the religious life that dated back to the beginning of the Protestant reformation. Civil laws and religious customs both prohibited blasphemy and cursing, working on the Sabbath, and violating a rather strict ethical code. Witchcraft was outlawed, although the Finns were accused of practicing their own form of religion that combined Christianity and shamanism.
Throughout its years of existence, New Sweden peacefully co-existed with its neighbors, the Lenape -- perhaps because the settlers were generous traders and weren't very threatening. Since the New Sweden Company was interested in a profitable fur trade, they did not try to disrupt the lives of the Lenape, as some other Europeans had by removing them from their land or destroying their villages. The Finns continued their burnbeating practices, but they clear-cut land no further than about three miles from the Delaware River, so it was not threatening to the native people. According to historian Israel Acrelius, there remained the feeling that "the Indians were not always to be depended on that they would not make an incursion, fall upon the Christians, and capture the whole flock."
Antoni, the slave brought to New Sweden aboard the Fogel Grip in 1639 after he had been captured in the Caribbean, appeared to have found a home in New Sweden as a free man. His name appears in all three lists of New Sweden settlers created from1644 to 1655. I don't know how the name might have been spelled or rendered in the original Swedish, and that could change some understanding about his status in the colony. In different English language sources that have reproduced the lists, the name appears differently each time and is spelled variously as Antoni, Anthony, Anthoni, and Antonius. Swart, Swartz, and Black are listed along with the first name in 1644 and 1654/55, but not in 1648. It is not clear if Swart was used as a surname or a description in the earliest list, but it appears to be a last name by the third list.
According to the 1644 list, he was living on Tinicum Island in service to the governor. In the version of the list found in Amandus Johnson, his entry is "Anthony, a negro." In the version of the list found in Myers, he is Antoni Swart. If the first is a more accurate translation, that may indicate he had yet to take on a surname, which may or may not indicate an inferior status. However, several Swedes were listed without surnames as well. He was listed third among four "laboring-people who are appointed to cut hay for the cattle, and also in the meantime to follow the governor in the little sloop." Since the others were all Swedes, and since slavery had been abolished in Sweden, his service appears to be that of a free man or at worst an indentured servant working for his freedom. I have no idea what the job of "following the governor in the little sloop" means, but it does not appear to be attending the governor as a personal servant. That the job might have included navigational skills is suggested by the fact that another of the four, Per Andersson, became the skipper of the Governor's sloop in 1648. It probably did not include military service, since soldiers were specifically named on the list immediately above the group of four laboring-people.
Antoni's entry in the roll list of 1648 is both brief and mysterious. In the list of "Soldiers, Freeman and Servants," which includes everyone except for Officers, his entry is "Anthony, a Morian or Angoler, who was a purchased slave, brought here on the Grip in 1639." This is the translation, at least, as found in the Amandus Johnson version. The list was presented chronologically, so Anthony appears second. He was not specifically listed as a freeman, but the reference to his slavery was given in the past tense. A footnote by Johnson explains "'Morian [negro] or Angoler' indicates that he came from Angola, the Portuguese Colony in West Africa near the river Kunene."
By the 1654/55 list of officers, soldiers, servants and freemen in the colony, Swartz does seem more like a surname, and a note that he "made several purchases from the company in 1654" can be seen as evidence that he was now a freeman, if he was not before. There is one other Swartz listed in 1654/55, Lars Swartz. However, it is unlikely that he was related to Antoni, since he had only arrived in New Sweden in 1654 aboard the Örn (the Eagle).
There is no further mention of Antoni in any records once the Dutch and then the English took over the colony of New Sweden. Whether or not he was treated as an equal; whether or not he married and had children; or whether he remained in a settlement on the Delaware River, returned to the Caribbean, or moved west as did many former New Sweden colonist did is all unknown and subject of great speculation.
Our family, through my father's mother, traces its roots to New Sweden through the Holstein line back to Matts Holstein. It is not clear that anyone named Holstein was a passenger aboard the Kalmar Nyckel or arrived while New Sweden was still in existance. Anna Holstein, a nineteenth century genealogist, wrote that according to family tradition the first Holstein, Matts or Matthias, was a carpenter who was born in New Sweden in 1644 and whose father had arrived on the Key of Calmar with Peter Minuit. There is some evidence for this being true. One passenger on the first voyage of the Kalmar Nyckel (the only voyage with Peter Minuit aboard) who remained to settle in New Sweden was named Claes Jansen (or Claes Janssen or Klas Johannson). He was a carpenter. The custom at the time was for children to derive their last name from their father's first name, so Claes Jansen's children would have been named Claesson. Indeed, Matts Holstein's original last name was Claesson, and if they were both carpenters, the shared occupation might suggest a family link. However, there are problems with this story. The reason the surname was changed from Claesson to Holstein was most likely because the family was from Holstein, which was then part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It does not appear, however, that Claes Jansen was from Holstein. Contradictory evidence lists his birthplace as Västergötland, Sweden, or Niewkerck, in Holland. Perhaps he wasn't born in either place, but migrated there from Holstein. Not likely, but possible. A contemporary genealogist, the late Peter Stebbins Craig, found a church record indicating Matts Holstein's birthplace as Dittmarschen, in Holstein, in 1642. That would pretty much settle things, except for other church records that might provide contradictory evidence. There is a reference to a record in the Old Swedes Church that indicates Matts was baptized there in 1642. Unfortunately several churches were known as the Old Swedes Church, and I have not seen the actual document. The other record is from a 1693 Gloria Dei church census, where old Matts Holstein is listed, but not marked as a member who was born "in the homeland." If "in the homeland" meant back in Europe, that suggests he was born in New Sweden, but if "in the homeland" meant specifically Sweden, a person born in Holstein would not have been included. Craig also indicates that Matts Holstein came in 1663 to New Amstel, which means he came after the Dutch had incorporated New Sweden into New Amsterdam. New Amstel was the Dutch name for the place that started out as Fort Casimir, then became Fort Trinity [Trefaldigheets], but as New Amstel was then an expanded settlement. One year later, when the English took over, New Amstel became Newcastle [or New Castle]. Craig does not indicate his source for the date nor the name of the ship on which he might have been a passenger. There were two ships that arrived in New Amstel in 1663. The St. Jacob came in July with over a hundred passengers, only a handful of whom were listed by name. In December the Purmerender Kerck arrived with over 150 passengers, only four of whom were named.
It is through the wives of several generations of Matts Holsteins that we can trace at least five ancestors who came to New Sweden aboard the Kalmar Nyckel: Peter Gunnarsson Rambo, Peter Larsson Cock, Sven Gunnarsson, his wife [whose name is not known], and their daughter Gertrude Svensdotter, who was only a year old when she traveled to New Sweden. Three of Peter Larsson Cock's daughters married three of Peter Gunnarsson Rambo's sons, and oldest of these men's granddaughters, Britta Rambo, married Matts Holstein's son, who was also named Matts Holstein. Our connection to Gertrude Svensdotter and her parents is through her great granddaughter, Magdalen or Maudlin Hulings, who married Matthias Holstein, the third in that line with the same name. Through Magdalen Hulings, we can trace ancestry to Lars Huling (many variations of the name exist), who arrived aboard the Örn (Eagle) in 1654. He was also from Holstein and was a couple generations removed from minor French nobility. There most likely were additional ancestors of ours aboard the Kalmar Nyckel, but the records are too incomplete, especially in providing women's names, to provide clear evidence.
There is controversy about who the first Matts Holstein's wives were. In 1892, Anna Holstein named Britta Gostenburg as his wife. Craig's research, with some speculation, pointed instead to Lasse Cock's eldest sister, who was probably named Helena, as Matts' first wife, with whom he had four sons. After his first wife died, again according to Craig, Matts married his housekeeper Catharina Månsdotter, daughter of Måns Pålsson and Elisabeth Pålsdotter, both of Finnish ancestry. Catharina bore two sons and a daughter.
Tracing Elisabeth Pålsdotter's line back further, her parents Margareta Andersdotter and Pål Jönsson Mullica had come to New Sweden in 1654, a year before New Sweden came to an end. Pål seems to have been a good law-abiding citizen, but Margareta was a bit of a trouble-maker. It was she, not her husband, who made a legal complaint against a neighbor in a land dispute, and after she had became a widow twice, she was found guilty and fined 100 guilders (meant to be a devasting amount so as to discourage potential rebels) by the English government for being a conspirator in the Long Finn Rebellion.
Peter Gunnarsson Rambo
was both typical and extraordinary among the New Sweden colonists.
Since he was the longest living of the original settlers, he later
became known as the Father of New Sweden. It is not known for sure
whether or not he came to New Sweden voluntarily. He was indentured by
the company to plant tobacco on the New Sweden Company's plantation
just outside the fort. It is also not known whether his ethnicity was
Swedish or Finnish. He was living in Gothenburg before he came to New
Sweden, but many Finns were living there then, and his wife was from a
Finnish region of Sweden, although he did not marry her until he had
been in New Sweden for eight years (and three years after he had become
a freeman). In 1644, upon his freedom, he had relocated to the eastern
shore of the Schuylkill River in what is now West Philadelphia [If you
are interested in seeing the old Rambo haunts, you will likely be
disappointed, since the land is now occupied by a Sun Oil refinery]. He
became a prosperous farmer, orchardist, and something of a land
speculator. He made his mark rather than sign his name on some legal
documents, but that does not necessarily mean he could not read and
write. His mark on one document was simply the letters P R B, and in
another a very stylized X:
The senior Rambo was honored and trusted by his community and became quite a prominent figure. He served as a
ruling judge of Upland Court even as the control of the colony changed
from Swedish to Dutch to English. Among the Swedish contingent appointed to greet William Penn when he arrived in the now English controlled Pennsylvania was Peter Gunnarsson Rambo and Peter Larson Cock. Rambo's good dealings with the Lenape became useful to the English as they tried to make peace with the original settlers of the region. In 1683, when Penn signed a treaty to acquire further land from the Lenape beyond the original limits of the city of Philadelphia, Peter Rambo made his mark as a witness and may have acted as an interpreter. When Upland Court was finally ended
when the colony of Pennsylvania was created, Rambo, who had been naturalized as an English citizen, continued to serve
as a judge. He didn't always get along with the authorities, however.
In 1654, he was charged by Governor Printz for illegally selling grain
to the Dutch, and in turn, he was one of the twenty-two freemen who
signed the petition of complaint against Governor Printz. Peter Rambo's
word was also valued by his Indian neighbors, and through his actions
an armed conflict with the Indians was prevented. In 1668, Rambo met
with members of the Mantas Indians after two members of the tribe had
murdered three settlers. Rambo convinced those he met with to pledge to
capture the two fugitives and return them to justice in the English
courts. Only one was caught and returned, but the crisis was averted.
As part of the settlement, Rambo informed the English authorities that
the "Indyans in those parts have desired that there be an absolute
prohibicon upon the whole River on selling Strong Liquors to the
Indyans." After his long life and public service, Rambo was so revered
by his church that after his death, when a new building, the Gloria
Dei, was constructed, instead of moving Rambo's grave, they built the
church around his remains.
Information about old Peter Rambo is found in an addenda of notes to a supplementary diary published as an appendix to Peter Kalm's Travels in North America. Kalm's travelogue of his adventures from 1748 to 1751 has been available in English since 1770, but his supplementary diary was first translated in 1937. In an entry on the early Swedish settlers, Kalm reports on a conversation with Peter Rambo, grandson of Peter Gunnarsson Rambo, on 30 January 1749. The grandson told him that the elder Peter Rambo told the English that his hands had been the very first to sow seeds in the settlement of New Sweden. He also spoke of apple seeds and other tree and garden seeds that old Peter brought with him in a box. The Rambo apple is now a rare variety, but it was once very popular, especially in the mid-Atlantic states. The first Rambo apple tree might have been grown from a seed in that box. The seeds may have come from Sweden, but it is also possible that he had picked up seeds while in port in Holland, since he resided there for most of a year waiting for repairs and the hiring of a new crew. Due to the similar traits of the Rambo with several Rambour varieties, a family of popular European apples that originated in France, it seems likely that one parent of the Rambo was one of the Rambours. Apples do not grow true from seeds, so the Rambo would be a new variety. Rambour apples had spread from France to the rest of Europe about a century before Peter Gunnarsson left for New Sweden. Whether they were related or not, there is a long history of confusion between the Rambo and Rambour apples. The Summer Rambo was originally called the Rambour Franc, and the common name only became Summer Rambo well after the Civil War. A genealogist many years ago speculated that Rambo took his name from Ramberget, a mountain that overlooked the city of Gothenburg, and that explanation appears not have been questioned. One translation of "bo" from Swedish to English is "resident," so Rambo could be a shortened form of Ramberget-bo. The grandson wrote that the family name was first Ramberg but was changed to Rambo. He provided no reason. Genealogists have found records of Rambergs, but not Rambos, livng in Sweden in that century. A theory was proposed by Ormond Rambo in 1948 that Peter Gunnarsson was born in the village of Rambo near the present day parish of Degerfors in the province of Västerbotten. This might support the idea that he was of Finnish ethnicity, since modern Västerbotten borders Finland. For many reasons Peter Gunnarsson and his family might have emigrated to the city of Gotenburg. Unfortunately for this theory there are no historic maps or other documents that record a Rambo placename as early as the 17th Century. It seems a bit wild to speculate that a man might have named himself for the apple, but I still wonder about the connections and coincidences. It is not definite that Peter Gunnarsson Rambo developed the Rambo apple. It is just as likely that a later member of the Rambo family developed the Rambo apple. There was orcharding in the family for several generations. The conversation between Peter Kalm and Peter Rambo did not mention any specific varieties of apples. The first written documentation for the Rambo apple is not until William Coxe's 1817 treatise, A View of the Cultivation of Fruit Trees, and the Management of Orchards. In the section on the Rambo, he writes, "This apple is much cultivated in Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New-Jersey; taking its name from the families by whom it was introduced into notice." The Rambo apple could easily have come after several generations of plantings and orchard development.
Brita Mattsdotter came to the colony of New Sweden around 1641. As is the case with most women of New Sweden, little is known about her. Since she did not come to the New World with family, it is believed she must have been employed as a maidservant, since single women otherwise would not have made the voyage. One early arriving maidservant arrived with Lieutenant Mons Nilsson Kling and his wife and child in 1641. Brita came from Wassa, according to her husband Peter Gunnarsson Rambo, whom she married several years after her arrival. Wassa is now called Vaasa and is in Finland, but in the 17th Century, it was part of the Kingdom of Sweden. There were both Swedes and Finns in Wassa, but maidservants from Wassa would have been part of the conquered Finnish population. After her marriage to Peter Gunnarsson Rambo, she became the mother of at least six children, and possibly two or more others.
Peter Larsson Cock was a passenger on the Kalmar
Nyckel when she made her third voyage. He was likely one of those Finns who had been
making lots of trouble back in Sweden. He was described as an
"imprisoned soldier from Smedjegarden." Smedjegarden was no garden, but a dungeon in a castle in Stockholm. In exchange for release from the dungeon, it was written that he "must serve as a soldier for
penalty, and is to receive necessary sustenance and clothing." If his
name doesn't sound Finnish, there are several reasons. First for
official records, the Swedish government used the Swedish version of
any Finn's name. More importantly, Cock, or Kock in some records, was
the name Peter adopted only while aboard ship, after he had become the
ship's cook (Kock being Swedish for cook). Later generations changed
the name to Cox or Cook. He married a year and a half after he arrived
in New Sweden, but while still in servitude. After he became a freeman,
he moved with his family to an island at the mouth of the Schuylkill.
He and his wife eventually had twelve children who reached adulthood.
Cock continued to be a troublemaker of sorts. He was accused of trading
guns with the Indians. Even though a jury of his peers found him not
guilty, the governor sentenced him to three months of hard labor. This
may indicate a personal feud between Cock and the governor, rather than
lawbreaking, for later on, Cock joined Rambo as a ruling judge of
Upland Court under the Swedes, the Dutch, and the English, and as a
judge of the court in the colony of Pennsylvania. His public service
and trust can also be seen by the fact that in 1663, Cock was appointed
Collector of Tolls on Imports and Exports. On documents he also made
his mark, which was not always identical.
appears one time, but
later it was written in a slightly different form: 
One incident involving a Rambo son and a Cock daughter (not in our direct family line, however) reveals something of the social mores of the time. In 1685 Peter Cock and his daughter Brigitta (Bridget in the court record) took John Rambo to court for fornication and "criminal intercourse." On the night before Christmas the previous year, John had pulled off a plank of the Cocks' house [in the roof, I am guessing] and jumped down to the floor of the loft. He then entered the room where three teenaged Rambo daughters were sleeping. John awakened Brigitta by getting into bed with the sisters and declaring loudly that he wanted to marry Brigitta -- just as his brother had married Bridget's older sister. Bridget's sisters left the bed and slept the rest of the December night on the cold floor. The court fined both John and Brigitta ten pounds and ordered John to marry Brigitta "before she be delivered" or make payments to maintain the child. Peter Cock was also fined five shillings for swearing in court. He had cried out "By God" at one point during the hearings. The relationship between John and Bridget appears to have been a bit strange, because in a subsequent trial that year Brigitta sued John for breach of promise (the first such case in Pennsylvania). John was fined one hundred and fifty pounds. Nonetheless, John and Bridget did marry eventually (after the birth of their first child), and together they had ten more children.
Gertrude Svensdotter traveled on the Kalmar Nyckel when she was one year old. Her father Sven Gunnarsson was one of the army deserters who had been rounded up and sent with his family to help settle New Sweden. Her older brother Sven was three, and while on board her brother Olle was born. After his servitude was completed, her father prospered. He joined Rambo and Cock the others in signing the petition against Governor Printz, and like Rambo and Cock he later purchased land north of the Schuylkill. Gertrude was a real frontier woman in spirit. She married a soldier, Joen or Jonas Nilsson, who after eleven years of army service in New Sweden, quit to marry and become a farmer. When Gertrude was pregnant with their first child, her husband left her to return to Sweden. She was a single mom for almost two full years before her husband returned. It is unknown if she cleared land and began farming or lived with relatives. The only reason known for her husband's departure was to collect unpaid wages but it seems there must have been something more. Once reunited, Gertrude and her husband moved to Kingsessing (near some of the Holstein, Rambo, and Cock family members), while her brothers took over their father's 1125-acre plantation that bordered the Delaware River several miles east of there. In 1683 her brothers ceded most of that acreage to an enterprising English Quaker named William Penn, who used the land to build a city of brotherly love. Downtown Philadelphia was built on land once owned by our forebearers.
Lars or Laurens Hulings (many variations of the name exist), traveled aboard the Örn (Eagle) in 1654, only a few years before New Sweden was yielded to the Dutch. Almost all of the information about the earliest Hulings comes from a footnote in Memorials of the Huguenots in America: With Special Reference to Their Emigration to Pennsylvania, 1901, by Ammon Stapleton, and a genealogical article William H. Egle wrote in the February 11 issue of the Harrisburg Daily Telegraph. He cites an old book he found in Wilkesbarre. Lars's grandfather was Jean Paul Frederick, Marquis de Hulingues, a noble of the once independent Province of Béarn, in the Pyrenes Mountains. The grandfather was a Huguenot in the retinue of Henry of Navarre, later Henry IV. Since no information about his father has been found, he may have been a commoner at birth. In 1572, the marquis became engaged to Isabella de Portal, from Toulouse, a lady in waiting to the French Queen Mother (Catherine de Medici). In August of that year, the couple barely escaped death in the St. Bartholomew Massacre. He was the sole personal attendant of Henry to survive an attack on the Louvre, due to the reciprical kindness of a soldier he had earlier aided. The arch-Catholic Catherine de Medici was one of the instigators of the massacre, so Isabella must have kept her Huguenot beliefs well hidden. The noble couple first escaped to the port of Dieppe, where they were married, and then tried to take a ship to England. Instead "adverse winds" took them to the Danish coast, and from there they went to Sweden, where they took refuge. Their grandson Lars appears to have been born in Sweden but moved to Holstein at least for a time. His two sons were born in Holstein, and Lars's epithet was Holsteiner. By 1654, they had returned to Sweden, for that was the year the family traveled aboard the Örn (Eagle). All documentation points to them coming to New Sweden freely. They eventually settled in what is now Gloucester County, New Jersey. His son Laurens married Catherine Laican, who was born in Sweden. Laurens died in 1700. Lars's second son Marcus, aged 14 when he arrived in New Sweden, was the first of multiple generations of Marcus Hulings, although he himself was more commonly known during his lifetime as Marcus Laurensen. He settled with other Swedes on the Schulykill River in what is now Berks County and lived there until he died in 1689. One of the later Marcus Hulings built a stone inn that stands today. Other Hulings appear to have migrated to the New World from England, but I don't know how closely they are related to the Swedish Hulings.
New Sweden was probably doomed from the start, not because of a military failure, but because of undersettlement. During seventeen years, only thirteen Swedish expeditions were launched, and several of them brought few or no permanent residents, and during some others ships sank or were captured by enemies. To contrast the populating of New Sweden with that of New England, in the same time the Swedes sent twelve ships, the English sent over two hundred.
Under Dutch rule, however, the Swedes flourished as a semi-autonomous "Swedish Nation" governed by a court of presidents/judges whom the Swedes chose themselves. The Dutch Governor Stuyvesant even helped organize a few more expeditions to bring more Swedish immigrants.
Five years later, when the English brought an end to New Netherlands, the Swedes and Finns yet again proved most willing to swear an oath of allegiance to yet another crown. Once more they were allowed to keep their land and independent court. When William Penn arrived to create Pennsylvania he did not confiscate land but he recognized the already established deeds and bought land from Swedish landowners to build Philadelphia. The Swedes and Finns quickly assimilated into the English culture.
Although the sauna never took hold in America, the Finns of New Sweden were responsible for establishing one icon of America, the log cabin, which appeared in the new world for the first time in New Sweden. Their particular method of building with logs was not practised elsewhere in Europe, but it was so well suited to the early frontier that it was copied by pioneers from all ethnic groups. The Finn's practice of their burnbeating to clear forests was also very effective and also widely copied, and in only a few generations much of the wilderness of eastern America had disappeared.
Even if New Sweden ultimately ended in failure for its crown and company, it proved itself to be one of the most remarkable adventures in the history of American colonization. New Sweden has the distinction of being one of the smallest and shortest lived of all of the European settlements of North America. Founded on false premises (according to European law, at least) on territory already claimed by two other countries, and perhaps the most ill-conceived and poorly conducted colonial attempts, the Swedish settlers themselves became remarkably resilient. Rather than cower before the obese governor Johan Printz, the colonists stood up and petitioned against him and forced him to return to Sweden. The colony was perhaps the most peaceful in the history of colonization and established the best goodwill between the native peoples and the settlers. In matters of war, great powers could learn from New Sweden, that when it is clear that a war cannot be won, no death or injury to soldier, sailor, or civilian should be risked. The losers in this bloodless battle were the Swedish Crown and investors of the New Sweden Company. One person might have learned a lesson. In 1648, seven years before Sweden lost its only colony, Queen Christina, against the advise of some of her closest advisors, decided to end Sweden's involvement in the Thirty Years War. She was quite criticized at the time and grew discontent with her regency. In 1654, the year before the Dutch took over New Sweden, she abdicated her throne. The winners in the attempted conquest were the Swedish and Finnish settlers themselves, who were able to adapt and thrive. Willing to swear an oath of allegience to any who demanded it, they continued to enjoy a high degree of local autonomy, owned their own lands, practiced their own religion, and even maintained their own court and militia.
Weslager, C. A. A man and his ship: Peter Minuit and the Kalmar Nyckel. Wilmington: Kalmar Nyckel Foundation, 1990.
Craig, Peter Stebbins. The 1693 census of the Swedes on the Delaware: family histories of the Swedish Lutheran Church members residing in Pennsylvania, Delaware, West New Jersey & Cecil County, Md., 1638-1693. Winter Park, Fla.: SAG Publications, 1993.
Acrelius, Israel. A History of New Sweden: or, The Settlements on the River Delaware. Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1874.
Ferris, Benjamin. A history of the original settlements on the Delaware: from its discovery by Hudson to the colonization under William Penn; to which is added an account of the ecclesiastical affairs of the Swedish settlers, and a history of Wilmington, from its first settlement to the present time. Wilmington : Wilson & Heald, 1846.
Johnson, Amandus. The Swedish settlements on the Delaware, 1638-1664. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1911.
Kalm, Pehr. Travels into North America; containing its natural history, and a circumstantial account of its plantations and agriculture in general ; with the civil, ecclesiastical and commercial state of the country, the manners of the inhabitants, and several curious and important remarks on various subjects. 3 volumes. London : Printed for the editor, 1770-1771.
Peter Kalm's Travels in North America (Wilson Erickson, 1937) translated by Adolph B. Benson, however, is the version that includes the Appendix with additional notes that include the interview with Peter Rambo about his grandfather Peter Gunnarsson Rambo.
Linn, John B. and William H. Egle, eds. Papers relating to provincial affairs in Pennsylvania, 1682- 1750. (Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, Vol. 7.). Harrisburg, Lane S. Hart, State Printer, 1878.
Myers, Albert Cook. Narratives of early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey and Delaware, 1630-1707. New York, Scribers, 1912.
Includes: "Account of the Swedish churches in New Sweden," by Reverend Israel Acrelius, 1759; Affidavit of four men from the "Key of Calmar," 1638; Report of Governor Johan Printz, 1644; Report of Govern John Printz, 1647; Report of Governor Johan Rising, 1654; Report of Governor Johan Rising, 1655; Relation of the surrender of New Sweden, by Governor Johan Clason Rising, 1655.
Peterson, Gary Dean. Warrior Kings of Sweden: The Rise of an Empire in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. McFarland, 2007.
Weslager, C. A. The Delaware Indians; a history. New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1972.
Kalmar Nyckel Foundation, online home of Delaware's Tall Ship. It now has an online guidebook with some history of the ship.
Greetings from Gothenburg, a brief, illustrated history of the Kalmar Nyckel from Jan-Erik Nilsson of Gotheborg.
Swedish Colonial Society, information about forefathers, Old Swedes churches, and maps and a brief history of New Sweden.
Swedish Heritage USA, sponsor of the new New Sweden Centre, located, information for researchers, galleries, table of events, and links.
The Delaware Finns, a history of Finnish emigration and settlement by E. A. Louhi.
Rambo, Beverly Nelson, and Ron Beatty. The Rambo Family Tree. 2nd edition. 2007. [downloadable file.]
This page written and maintained by John R. Henderson (jhenderson@ithaca.edu),
Last modified: 29 March 2018 – 380 years after the landing of the Kalmar Nyckel in the New World
Photographs by Paul E. Henderson and Ed Lyness
URL: http://www.icyousee.org/kalmar.html
