THE DESCENDANTS OF JÖRAN KYN, OF NEW SWEDEN. JÖRAN KYN,* one of the earliest European residents upon the river Delaware, and for more than a quarter of a century the chief proprietor of land at Upland, New Sweden, afterwards Chester, Pennsylvania, was born in Sweden about A. D. 1620. He came to America in company with Governor John Printz, in the ship Fama, which "sailed from Stockholm," narrates Magister John Campanius Holm, a fellow-passenger in the same vessel, "on the 16th of August, 1642," and, after stopping at Dahlehamn, Copenhagen, and Helsingör, left Gottenburg Castle for the "Spanish Sea" (as the Atlantic Ocean was at one time called) "on the 1st of November, at noon." The route pursued by them upon their journey was a long one, adopted, says Acrelius, when "the watery way to the West was not yet well discovered, for fear of the sand banks off Newfoundland." They coasted along Portugal and * This (under the form of Kijn) is the earliest spelling of the surname met with, and dates from 1663. The older generations of the West New Jersey branches of the family employed the form of Kijhn. Other methods, numbering a dozen, Dutch and English, are mere attempts to render in those languages the sound of the Swedish original. Keen is the first English spelling of the name recorded, occurring as early as 1665, and is the mode adopted by the family to-day. It has the merit of representing a close approach to the ancient sound, besides being of cognate derivation, and yielding a translation of the obsolete old Swedish word. This is more nearly reproduced in sound and meaning by the German Kühn. The Christian name of Jöran (or Göran) was frequently written after the Dutch style of Jurian: it was sometimes strangely corrupted, but was never properly anglicized as George. Probably not earlier than 1617, or his name should not appear in the list of "Tydable Persons” residing at Upland in 1677 (which excluded those over sixty years of age), nor later than 1623, considering the date of his eldest grandchild's birth. See Thomas Campanius Holm's Description of New Sweden, translated by Peter S. Du Ponceau, LL.D., and published by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Chapter VI., where quite a detailed account of the voyage is given. The Fama was accompanied by another ship named Svanen, the Swan. Barbary, and, passing far to the south of the Canary Islands, landed at Antigua, inhabited at that time "by Englishmen and negroes, with some Indians," where they "spent their Christmas holydays, and were well entertained," says Campanius, "at the Governor's house." After quitting this seat of "perpetual summer" (as the same gentleman depicts it) they encountered "a severe storm," accompanied at the last "with snow," which "continued above fourteen days," by which they "lost three large anchors, a spritsail, and their mainmast, and the ship was run aground; but on the 15th of February, 1643, by God's grace, came up to Fort Christina, in New Sweden, Virginia," in the precise phrases of the historian, "at two o'clock in the afternoon." Here the first three Swedish expeditions had established their chief settlement under Minuit and Ridder,* and here remained a short time, also, this fourth and greatest of the colonies, enjoying friendly intercourse with fellow-countrymen most glad to welcome them, and happily reposing from the distresses of their long and perilous voyage. The encroachments of the neighbouring Dutch and the recent repairing of their little Fort Nassau determined the new Governor to remove, however, to the more commanding post of Tutæænungh or Tini * Peter Minuit and the first colony sailed from Gottenburg on the shipof-war Kalmar Nyckel, accompanied by a smaller vessel called Gripen, the Griffin, towards the close of December, 1637, and reached the river Delaware in March, or, at the latest, the beginning of April, 1638. The second colony, under Peter Hollender Ridder, sailed from Gottenburg in the same Kalmar Nyckel, or Key of Kalmar, leaving the Texel on the 7th of February, 1640, and, after a quick passage for those days, landed at Christina on the 17th of April following. And the third colony sailed from Gottenburg in the same well-tried vessel, accompanied by the ship Charitas, fitted out at Stockholm, and leaving that place for Gottenburg May 3, 1641. Besides these one other expedition had preceded Governor Printz in settling on the Delaware, a colony of Dutchmen with Jost van Bogardt, who emigrated under the auspices of the Swedish Crown in the ship Freedenburg, arriving in New Sweden on the 2d of November, 1640. and who occupied land three or four Swedish miles below Christina (Statements based, in great part, on the authority of MSS. Records relating to New Sweden in the Royal Archives at Stockholm. Acrelius, who is, in general, remarkably trustworthy and accurate, confounds the colony of 1641 with Printz's expedition, and makes but cursory mention of that of Ridder.) cum, where he erected a "new fort provided with considerable armament," named by him Nya Götheborg, and "also caused to be built a mansion, for himself and family, which was very handsome," says Campanius, surrounded by "a fine orchard, a pleasure house, and other conveniences," and called by the proprietor Printzhof.* At this place, likewise, according to the same authority, "the principal inhabitants had their dwellings and plantations," and here resided Jöran Kyn. In a "Rulla" dated by Printz at "Kihrstina, June 20, 1644," preserved in the Royal Archives at Stockholm, he is mentioned (under his appellation of Snöhuitt) as a soldier in the Governor's lifeguard,§ and in a "List of Persons living in New Sweden, March 1, 1648," is once more similarly described. It was not long before the small island in the Delaware, where these early colonists had their first homes in the New World, had ceased to afford sufficient scope for their fast growing families, and was abandoned by many of them for other "The dilapidated remains of what was said to be the chimney of this 'mansion,' says Dr. George Smith in his excellent History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, "were standing within the recollection of the author, and up to this time one of the small foreign-made bricks, of a pale yellow colour, of which it was partly constructed, may be occasionally picked up in the vicinity. Its site was a short distance above the present Tinicum hotel, and on the opposite side of the road." Benjamin Ferris, in his History of the Original Settlements on the Delaware, says: "This Hall stood more than 160 years, and was at last burnt down by accident, since the commencement of the present century." † Printed (together with Governor Printz's second official report of the condition of the young Swedish colony, of the same date) at the end of an interesting little sketch of this earliest period of our annals, entitled "Kolonien Nya Sveriges Grundläggning, 1637-1642," written by the learned historian Professor C. T. Odhner on the occasion of the Centennial Exhibition recently held in Philadelphia, a translation of which is given in The Penna. Magazine of History and Biography, vol. iii. pp. 269-284, and 395-411. In the "List" referred to immediately afterwards (written in German) the name is given as Schneeweiss, which means the same, of course, snowwhite, and was applied to him, possibly, in consequence of some physical peculiarity, such as the lightness of his complexion. Designations of the sort were very common in the early Swedish colony. § Among "såldaterne som dageligen fölia, förresa och achta på Governeuren," soldiers who daily attend and travel with the Governor. residences on the main river shore. The site which proved attractive to the eyes of Jöran Kyn was Upland, and we cannot wonder at his choice of this abode. Not only did the place enjoy the privilege of close proximity to the seat of government (which still remained at Tinicum), but it was also favoured in the possession of great natural advantages (among the rest in being at the mouth of a navigable stream), and was, moreover, already in a good state of cultivation, having been occupied by farm-servants, in the employment of the Swedish Company who organized the colony, as a tobacco-plantation, as early as 1644.* The tract of land which he acquired was unusually large, even for those days of liberal grants, extending along a great part of the eastern bank of Upland Kill, now Chester Creek, for a mile and a half above its mouth-at the northwestern portion, upon which the Crozer Theological Seminary is situated at present, three-quarters of a mile in width-and reaching to the east along the Delaware as far as Ridley Creek. It was about the period, probably, of the departure for "old Sweden' of his friend and fellow-sol * See the "Relation" and "Rulla" already referred to. These contain the first mention of the name of Upland as yet discovered, preceding by four years that presumed to be the earliest at the time of the publication, by the Historical Society, of the "Record of Upland Court." "The name might seem rather English than Swedish," says Mr. Edward Armstrong, "were it not known that many of the emigrants came from Upland, a province in Middle Sweden on the Baltic, to which the natural features of the new region bore some resemblance." The Indian name of the country bordering on Upland Creek was, according to the Royal Swedish Engineer, Peter Lindström, Mesckopenachan. †The boundaries of this estate may, in a measure, be discerned even in the remnants of it still accredited to him in a drawing of Chester, without date, but made some time after the arrival of the English settlers, inserted in Dr. George Smith's well-known History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The identification of them in the text has been confirmed for me, very kindly, by John Hill Martin, Esq., author of the interesting book on Chester. "Gambla Swerige" is a term already applied to his native country by Governor Printz in his "Relation" of 1644. Acrelius is mistaken in giving as the date of Printz's return home "the year 1652;" in company with his wife and children, Henrik Huyghen, and some of the colonists, the Governor left the Delaware in the beginning of November, 1653, and, crossing the ocean in a Dutch vessel, reached Rochelle by the 1st of December, and dier* Governor Printz that he resigned his military functions, and gave himself more unreservedly to the pursuits of agriculture; and these, with the care of his youthful family, continued to be his chief engagements, and detained him ever at Upland, during the rest of his long life. It is to be regretted that we can glean so little information, comparatively, about the settlers on our river at this remotest period of our history, but that they were men of more than ordinary energy, savouring of the spirit of bold Viking ancestry, seems plainly indicated by the fact of their so early embarkation for our wild and distant shores. That Jöran Kyn was likewise noted for singular gentleness of disposition, and great excellence of character-qualities not always accompanying the former trait-we have more positive testimony. The Dutch Commissary Huygen, in a letter to his "cousin," Vice-Director Beekman, dated "Tinnackunk, 29th M'ch, 1663," alluding to a violent assault upon him by a certain "miscreant" of Upland a few days before, speaks of him as "the pious Jurriaen Snewit, a man who has never irritated a child even." And the very Holland by the new year, and arrived in Sweden in April, 1654. (See the admirable Akademisk Afhandling, entitled Kolonien Nya Sveriges Historia, by Carl K. S. Sprinchorn, Stockholm, 1878, a translation of which appears in The Penna. Magazine of History and Biography, vol. VII, pp. 395-419, and vol. VIII, pp. 17-44, 129-159, and 241-254.) It will be remembered that Printz was himself a soldier, and before his appointment to the Governorship of New Sweden Lieutenant-Colonel of the West Götha Cavalry, and after his return to his native country promoted to the rank of General. Whether the intimacy of his relations with Jöran Kyn can best be accounted for by the supposition of a companionship in arms on European battle-fields is matter for conjecture. "Den vromen Jurriaen Snewit, een mensch die geen kind oijt heft vertoorni." I am indebted for the expressions (in the very language in which they were written by Commissary Huygen) to the kind courtesy of the late accomplished Mr. B. Fernow, Keeper of the Historical Records in the Office of the Secretary of State at Albany, and editor of the last volume of Documents relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York, comprising "Documents relating to the History of the Dutch and Swedish Settlements on the Delaware River." He says that the original letter is still in existence at Albany, having been kept by Vice-Director Beekman among his official correspondence, or sent by him to Governor Peter Stuyvesant. Mr. Samuel Hazard refers to the circumstance related in it in his Annals of Pennsylvania, p. 345, copying from the translation t |