Talk:Delaware Colony

Map of territorial claims
The following off-site maps show the various claims of the original Thirteen Colonies:, , , and. If this information could be included in a map of this province's claims, it would be great. (This request was originally made by jengod, and I moved it here.) – Quadell (talk) (bounties) 16:06, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
 * removed the map request as Delaware never claimed land beyond its current boundaries.Kmusser 17:46, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

Delaware was not a colony, just a state.
Delaware was nothing ever but a boundary dispute between Maryland and Pennsylvania--one time part of a deed to the Duke of York, but never its own geographic entity until becoming a state. There is no reason to deny its position as the first of the 13th states, but all the more reason to keep it out of the colonial category. There were only 12 colonies rebelling, with estranged Delaware's exit from Pennsylvania beginning a trend that emancipated Vermont/Kentucky/Maine etc from parent polities (New York, Virginia, Massachusetts etc). Let's not get hazy on this, but more exacting and forthright. Hasbro 00:53, 13 October 2006 (UTC)


 * I agree that there was no separate "Delaware Colony" per se but there were definitely separate legislative and judicial institutions associated with the three counties that later became Delaware. Perhaps "Lower Counties on Delaware" would be a better name for the article? --Jfruh (talk) 01:06, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

I think that this should be moved to the Province of Pennsylvania article instead. Hasbro 01:57, 13 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Or perhaps renamed something like "Colonial Delaware"? I always thought Delaware's history as New Sweden and its Dutch roots set it apart from Pennsylvania proper. Pfly 02:53, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

The simple fact remains, is that Delaware was never a colony in its own right. New Sweden was another entity entirely, while the Dutch aspect is more a New York issue anyways. Hasbro 22:50, 13 October 2006 (UTC)


 * Dutch/New Netherland settlement and influence in what is now Delaware was significant and pervasive. To dismiss it as "a New York issue" is wrong and revisionist.TheCormac (talk) 17:16, 3 October 2011 (UTC

After William Penn was granted the land that became Pennsylvania in 1682, he persuaded the Duke of York to lease him the western shore of Delaware Bay so that his colony could have an outlet to the sea. Penn’s original charter included the northern sections of present-day Delaware, which became known as” The Lower Counties on the Delaware”. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.120.111.225 (talk) 05:07, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

a link
The link to Dover links to the town in England.

82.26.188.170 (talk) 18:44, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

Gibberish
Just what is this sentence supposed to mean?

"Penn had a very hard time governing Delaware because the economy and geology was largely the same as that of the law he has ordered." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.152.199.146 (talk) 10:13, 8 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Just part of some old vandalism, now cleaned up. 139.76.224.65 (talk) 00:05, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

Gibberish 2.0 - The First State and The Forgotten Colony?
Gibberish is a good description for most of this article. There must be a way to describe all of this more clearly. On this TALK page, it becomes even more confusing because there is a debate about whether Delaware was actually a colony. It was always my understanding that Delaware was part of Pennsylvania until it was granted a degree of independence from William Penn. At that point Delaware was a colony in its own right (regardless of what labels they used for it at the time). Delaware was sending its own delegates to Philadelphia to sign the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. Doesn't that make it a colony? Or some type of de facto colony?

I have also heard it said that all land titles in both Pennsylvania and Delaware can be traced back though local county records to William Penn. How do we find out if the paper trail for every single property parcel in Delaware and Pennsylvania ends with William Penn? They teach this "fact" in real estate school. If that is documented somewhere, I think that is definitive.

Even if everything I said above is wrong, it is the locally accepted history among non-professionals. If this is wrong, this article needs to do a much better job in making the truth clear.

APatcher (talk) 09:48, 17 July 2014 (UTC)

Dutch first settled Delaware
“ The Dutch founded the first European settlement in Delaware at Lewes (then called Zwaanendael) in 1631. They quickly set up a trade in beaver pelts…” according to encyclopedia británica 2603:7000:8F00:8DC3:ED6D:74C:55C1:7F3B (talk) 20:31, 1 July 2022 (UTC)