Fort Nya Elfsborg was a fortification and settlement established as a part of

New Sweden New Sweden ( sv, Nya Sverige) was a Swedish colony along the lower reaches of the Delaware River in what is now the United States from 1638 to 1655, established during the Thirty Years' War when Sweden was a great military power. New Sweden fo ...

. Built in 1643 and named after the Älvsborg Fortress off Gothenburg, Fort Nya Elfsborg was located on the

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...

side of the Delaware River, between present day

Salem Salem may refer to: Places Canada Ontario * Bruce County ** Salem, Arran–Elderslie, Ontario, in the municipality of Arran–Elderslie ** Salem, South Bruce, Ontario, in the municipality of South Bruce * Salem, Dufferin County, Ontario, part ...

and

Alloway Creek Alloway Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the Delaware River in Salem County, New Jersey in the United States. The name is a deriv ...

History

At the time of European colonization in the 17th century, the Delaware was known as the South River and the Salem River was known as Varkens Kill, or Hogg Creek. The Dutch established a

factorij Factory was the common name during the medieval and early modern eras for an entrepôt – which was essentially an early form of free-trade zone or transshipment point. At a factory, local inhabitants could interact with foreign merchants, o ...

at Fort Nassau on the east bank of the South River in 1626, and claimed the territory as part of

New Netherland New Netherland ( nl, Nieuw Nederland; la, Novum Belgium or ) was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic that was located on the east coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva ...

. Despite the claim, the colony of

was founded, in 1638, at

Fort Christina Fort Christina (also called Fort Altena) was the first Swedish settlement in North America and the principal settlement of the New Sweden colony. Built in 1638 and named after Queen Christina of Sweden, it was located approximately 1 mi (1. ...

on the west bank. In 1641, without having a patent, a group of 60 settlers (20 families) from the

New Haven Colony The New Haven Colony was a small English colony in North America from 1638 to 1664 primarily in parts of what is now the state of Connecticut, but also with outposts in modern-day New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. The history o ...

(in today's Connecticut) purchased land along the kill and the Schuylkill from indigenous

Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory inclu ...

. In 1643, the Dutch forcibly disbanded their trading post on the Schuylkill opposite their fort. Fort Nya Elfsborg was built shortly after

Johan Printz Johan * Johan (given name) * ''Johan'' (film), a 1921 Swedish film directed by Mauritz Stiller * Johan (band), a Dutch pop-group ** ''Johan'' (album), a 1996 album by the group * Johan Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada * Jo-Han, a manu ...

, governor of New Sweden, arrived in the colony on 15 February 1643, allowing the Varkens Kill settlement to remain if they swore allegiance to Sweden. He also built Fort Nya Gothenborg on

Tinicum Island Tinicum Township, more popularly known as "Tinicum Island" or "The Island", is a township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The population was 4,091 at the 2010 census, down from 4,353 at the 2000 census. Included within the townships boundari ...

(to the immediate SW of today's

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

), where he built his own manor house which he called

The Printzhof The Printzhof, located in Governor Printz Park in Essington, Pennsylvania, was the home of Johan Björnsson Printz, governor of New Sweden. In 1643, Johan Printz moved his capital from Fort Christina (located in what is now Wilmington, Delaware) t ...

. Fort Nya Elfsborg had iron and brass 12pd cannons mounted on earth and wooden palisades. It was a Swedish-style three-cornered earthen redoubt with eight guns. Log farmsteads similar to those found in Sweden went up around the fort further downriver, so that

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company ( nl, Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie, ''WIC'' or ''GWC''; ; en, Chartered West India Company) was a chartered company of Dutch merchants as well as foreign investors. Among its founders was Willem Usselincx ( ...

ships coming up from the bay would have to pass them first. At that time, this area of the river was mostly swamp and the soldiers garrisoned there were inundated by mosquitos. Fort Mosquito (''Fort Myggenborgh''), as it was commonly nicknamed, was eventually abandoned, the soldiers succumbing not to enemy cannon fire, but bites. New Sweden burned down the fort after the Dutch built

Fort Casimir Fort Casimir or Fort Trinity was a Dutch fort in the seventeenth-century colony of New Netherland. It was located on a no-longer existing barrier island at the end of Chestnut Street in what is now New Castle, Delaware. Background The Dutch ...

across the river in 1651. The actual site of the fort is now under water at Elsinboro Point. In August 2012, archeological surveys were undertaken to locate the precise location and any remains of the fort, without success. There is a black stone monument outside the Elsinboro Township School. The stone block came from an old fortress in Sweden built in the 13th century.''Monument Dedicated June 6th 2004'' (New Sweden Heritage Monument)
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References

Sources

* Johnson, Amandus. ''Instruction for Johan Printz, Governor of New Sweden, The First Constitution or Supreme Law of the States of Pennsylvania and Delaware''. (translated from the Swedish with Introduction, Notes and Appendices, Including Letters from Governor John Wint. Philadelphia: The Swedish Colonial Society, 1930) *Weslager, C. A. ''New Sweden on the Delaware: 1638-1655'' (Wilmington, DE: The Middle Atlantic Press, 1988).

External links

New Netherland and Beyond Delaware River Settlements 1637-1682A Forgotten ColonyThe Story of Church Boats; First Ferries of the Delaware River

History

References

Sources

External links

See also