DENEWCAS-L Archives

From: Debbie <>
Subject: [NewCastle] Communicant Records, Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Church, 1713, Part II
Date: Tue, 2 Mar 2004 12:00:00 -0500

June 7. Jonas Walraven and his wife, Annika, also the daughter of Brita.

June 21. Johan Goiding and his wife, Annika.

July 5. Herr(7) Eric [Ericus] Biork and his wife(8). Mans Gustafson
[Justis. Justice, Justison] and his wife Catharina.

July 19. Anders Gustafson and his wife, Brita.

Aug. 2. Elisabet von Neeman [Vanneman],, also the daughter of Elisabeth.

Aug. 30. Peter Mag.[ister] Hesselius and his wife Sara.(9) Herr
Abr.[aham] Lidenius.(10) Brita Stalcop. Johan von Culen. Kerstin
Palssen [Paulson, Poulson]. Maria Palssen.

Oct. 18. Peter Maansson's wife Carin. Olof Mansson. Annika Tossawa
[Tussey].

Nov. 1. Conrad Constantin[e] and his wife Kerstin.(11)

Nov. 8. Peter Caupony and his wife, Helena. (12)

Nov. 22. Herr Eric Bjork and his wife. Pastor Mag.[ister] Hesselius
and his wife Sara. Maria Stalcop.

Nov. 29. Judith van de Wer [Vandever], in her illness.

Dec. 2 Johan Cock, at St. George's, in his illness.

Dec. 25. Jacob Hindersson [Hindricson, Hendrickson] and his wife Malin
[Magdalen, Magdalena], Georg Litien and his wife Kerstin. Jacob van de
Wer and his wife. Hans Petersson and his wife Sara. Gabriel Petersson
and his wife Kerstin, Hans Sher [Shere, Shiere] and his wife, Anna.
Henric Roisko. Christian Petersson. Olof Nilsson and his wife
Margareta. (These members of the congregation, living on the other
side of the (Delaware) River were given Connunion by Herr Lidenius)14

Dec. 26. Johan Gustafsson and his wife Brita .(15) Mans Gustafsson and
his wife Catharina. Johan Van de Wer. Judith van de Wer.
---------------
(7) The degree of respect and dignity implicit in the use of "Herr" in
these early records is not conveyed by modern translation.

(8) Eric Biork and Christina Stalcop, daughter of Peter Stalcop, were
married on Oct. 6, 1702, by Andreas Sandel who had come from Sweden not
long before to succeed his friend Andreas Rudman as pastor at Wicaco
(Philadelphia). From Sandel's diary:

"1702, July the 15th. Came Mag. Biork, with his intended bride, to Mag.
Rudman [at Wicaco]. I did come there too.

the 16th. Again I walked from Passajung (Passyunk) to Mag. Rudman in
order again to pay my respects to Mag. Biorks [sic] [and] Mag. Rudman,
and I did then escort his sweetheart to show her the town, as she had
not seen it before.

Sept. the 20th. Under a heavy rain, I went down to Christina [Old
Swedes, Wilmington, DE] to say the banns for Mag. Biork and his
sweetheart, Stina Stallkapp, who afterwards were joined in marriage Oct.
6th. I was very ill in the intervening time...so it was with the very
greatest ado I was able to marry them."

Biork himself wrote to the Swedish Resident in London, a letter
preserved in the Swedish Royal Archives, to tell of his marriage:

"Especially is my situation much changed in that a good man's child of
my congregation, now in her sixteenth year, Kristina Stallcop by name,
has, by her modest ways and unusual proficiency in all things, at length
bound my heart unto herself, although she, because of her shyness toward
me and my office, did for a time politely decline, but all the more
pleased me thereby."

When Andreas Sandel preached Christina Stalcop Bjork's funeral sermon in
Sweden, he gave the date of her birth as Apr. 19, 1686.

(9) On May 3, 1713 "the fourth Sunday after Easter", and the first day
of his regular pastorate at Christina, Andreas Hesselius was married to
Sara, daughter of Jonas Walraven. (Holy Trinity Records, First Book,
pg. 96).

(10) Abraham Lidenius, who had come from Sweden with Hesselius to be his
assistant, was assigned charge of the families "over the river" [New
Jersey], to their great satisfaction. While those living in the Raccoon
Creek area were generally considered a part of the Wicaco congregation,
and those of Penn's Neck a part of the Christina congregation, Mr.
Lindenius ministered to them all.

(11) In October, 1684, Conrad Constantine, on behalf of his wife,
Christian, late widow and relict of Pella Perker [Parker?], deceased,
testified that he had duly and legally proved a certain noncupative will
of said Pella which made provision for the widow and eight children.
New Castle Wills, book A-1, pg. 65.

(12) Peter Petersson, called Caupony, Caupany, Caupeny, to distinguish
him from Peter Petersson, Smith. This odd nickname, which has aroused a
great deal of interest and conjecture, actually has a very simple
explanation. It is derived from the Swedish word "kåpa" meaning, the
the usage of the day, "a short cloak. To English ears, the broad "å" had
almost the sound of "au", as in "caught"; hence, the wearer of the short
cloak became Peter Caupany. (cf. the transition from Pålsson to
Paulson). Another nickname, Stalcop, (see footnote 15), unlike Caupany,
has been preserved as a family name.

(13) Johan Cock died two weeks later, and was buried in his garden on
December 16. Mr. Hesselius went down to St. George's again "about 20
English miles" to preach the funeral sermoon and had a difficult time
getting home. "When I now returned to my usual ferry place," he wrote in
his Journal, "with the idea of being brought across the [Christina]
river, with my horse, and now had my home in sight, it was impossible to
get over the water in any manner, because it was all covered with
ice...too strong for the barge to cut through, but too weak for me to
walk over."

(14) Further mention of some of these families "over the River" may be
found in "The Records of Swedish Lutheran Churches at Raccoon and Penns
Neck, 1713-1786" (American Guide Series, Federal Workers' Project, 1938).

(15) Andreas Sandel's "Diary", p. 135:"1704, Nov. the 11th. Along with
Giosta Giastashon's [Justa Justis'] son Jean [John, Johan] I went down
to Christina, where he was married to Petter Stacko's [Stalcop's]
daughter." Mr. Sandel did not recognize the familiar Swedish words
"stål kofta", literally "steel jacket", which had grown, in half a
century on the Delaware, into the surname Stalcop.

Johan Andersson Stålkofta, a gunner, first member of the present
Stalcop/Stalcup family to come to New Sweden, appears in the 1654-55
roll of the freemen in the colony. He died "on Christina Creeke" before
Sept. 22, 1685, when the Provincial Council in Philadelphia, having had
information of "ye Indians' Willingness to sell all their Right and
Claime to the land between Upland [Chester] & Apoaquinamy
[Appoquinimink], as farr backward as they have any Claime thereunto. and
that they proposed a meeting at Widow Scalcop's [Stalcop's] on ye 29th
Inst., in order to treat about ye same", appointed certain persons to be
"at ye place aforesd, with full power to treat and compleat ye purchase
with them," (Minutes of Prov. Council of Penn.)

Of the five named sons in John Anderson Stalcop's will. dated Aug. 24,
1679, probated Feb. 3, 1685/6, three, Andrew, John and Peter, are known
to have had descendants: Charles is mentioned later in a deed as having
died without issue [New Castle County Deeds, Book M1: p. 286; there is
no further word of Jonas.

One daughter had married, before her father's will was made, Luloff (not
Lucas] Stedham, as his first wife. Luloff, or Lyloff, Stedham remarried
before Oct. 5, 1695, "Katherine" Catherina, widow of Andrew Stalcop.
[NCC Wills, B:1, p. 29, administration of the estate of Andrew Stalcop.]

Another daughter, doubtless the Mary mentioned in her father's will,
married Captain John Hance Steelman, merchant, Indian Trader and
Interpreter. [NCC Deeds, B: H-1, p. 150.] On Aug. 29. 1700, the Indian
Owechela, called "King of the Delaware", signed a treaty of friendship
with three Maryland commissioners at "John Hans Steelman's" trading
house in Cecil County. As late as Jan. 12, 1721/2, Steelman is referred
to as being form "Ceecill County" but by Oct. 8, he is "of Menawkos, in
Prince George's County". [NCC Deeds, B: G-1, pp. 161, 372.] In 1744,
John Hans Steelman, then living in Lancaster Co., PA, disposed of land
and marsh in MD [or DE, as the boundaries were still not defined]. He
died in Lancaster, now Adams, Co. in 1749 and in 1924 the PA Historical
Commission, the Swedish Colonial Society and the citizens of Adams Co.,
placed a marker on the site of his frontier home, about ten miles
southwest of Gettysburg and three miles northwest of Emmitsburg, MD.
The inscription on the marker commemorates Steelman's early appearance
as a settler west of the Susquehanna River.

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