Lewes monument should honor Pieter Heyes

Please, no more DeVries monuments perpetuating a historical error! Christopher L. Ward, a respected Delaware historian, wrote of DeVries: “His effort to colonize Delaware was abortive, and his part in her history is not important.” Where history went wrong: George Bancroft, “History of United States From Beginning To Constitution” (1834) at first attributed the Lewes founding to DeVries and was heavily relied on by historians, but Bancroft’s history was revised in 1882 to report: The first settlement was made with “a ship of 18 guns, commanded by Pieter Heyes, who planted a colony of more than 30 souls under the superintendence of Gillis Hossitt.” “The voyage of Heyes was the cradling of a state. That Delaware exists as a separate commonwealth is due to this colony.” … but the correction received limited notice until a later date. Today, we do know the correct history. 

In Hoorn, an expedition was assembled by Samuel Godyn, the head of the Amsterdam Chamber of the Dutch West India Company. His protégé David DeVries wanted to captain this expedition but was unacceptable to the patroons, and he was not invited to go even though he volunteered to supervise the colony. The Walvis ship, carrying 80 passengers, which included French-speaking Belgian farmers, Dutch yellow bricks, lime, ammunition, provisions, four horses, 12 cows and merchandise, left Hoorn under Admiral Peter Heyes Dec. 12, 1630.

Around April 1631, Capt. Heyes landed the Walvis’ Belgian colonizers and the supplies somewhere opposite the mouth of Lewes Creek. The colonizers built a house with the Dutch yellow bricks and erected a wooden stockade. The farmers planted their crops, primarily grains and tobacco. In September 1631, the site was turned over to Gilles Hossitt. Admiral Heyes and the Walvis sailed back to Hoorn. He had planted the historically important 1631 colony at Lewes. Heyes is name that should be on the new monument.

David DeVries was determined to be chosen for the syndicate’s next captain. DeVries was given command of the Walvis with a charge to bring more settlers to the Swaanendael site. Just before the Walvis with 50 passengers was ready to depart Hoorn in May 1632, news arrived from New Amsterdam that the Swaanendael site had been destroyed and there were no survivors. When DeVries reached Swaanendael Dec. 6, 1632, he found the site settled by Heyes and Hossitt in 1631. It had been burned and was full of heads and bones of men and animals. He counted 32 bodies and had his men bury the dead.

Late March 1633, DeVries sails back to Hoorn, taking with him all the supplies and all the men he had brought for the Swaanendael colony. He never established a colony. He criticized Godyn and the other patroons, and sold out his interest in the Dutch West India Company’s enterprises.