Pieter Corneliszoon Plockhoy
Pieter Corneliszoon Plockhoy (* around 1625 in Zierikzee ; † between 1664 and 1670 in Lewes (Delaware) ) was a Dutch Mennonite who founded a colony based on utopian ideas near today's Lewes in Delaware Bay in 1663 , which was founded by the English in 1664 was destroyed.
Life
Plockhoy belonged to the liberal Mennonites in the Netherlands and was influenced by the collegiates in Amsterdam (especially Galenus Abrahamsz de Haan and in England Adam Boreel). He negotiated in 1657 and thereafter without concrete success with Oliver Cromwell in London to obtain permission to establish a colony in America. In London he published The Way to the Peace and Settlement of These Nations (1659) and A Way Propounded to make the poor in these and other Nations happy (1659) and there he probably had contacts with Samuel Hartlib's circle . By 1661 at the latest he was back in Amsterdam, where he developed utopian ideas for a new colony Nieuw Nederlands with Franciscus van den Enden . In 1661 he signed a contract with the Dutch government in Amsterdam for a settlement on Lower Delaware . His Kort en klaer ontwerp was published in Amsterdam in 1662 . The colonists should tolerate all religions that children are taught in the Bible, languages, and science, but not according to any particular sectarian opinion. The colonists worked collectively, but also had private property and could leave the colony at any time. Widows, children and the sick received shares from the results of the community work. An overseer was appointed annually and laws were passed by the community assembly with a two-thirds majority. This could also exclude members with a two-thirds majority, but the excluded received their earned share. With 41 colonists he founded a settlement in July 1663 near today's Lewes on the bay of the Delaware estuary near the former Dutch colony Zwaanendael, which was founded in 1631 and shortly afterwards destroyed by Indians.
In 1664 the English raided this and other Dutch settlements, details are not known. Plockhoy may have died in the process or a few years later. His wife and his blind son Cornelis survived and the latter came in 1694 after German Town ( Pennsylvania ).
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| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Plockhoy, Pieter Corneliszoon |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dutch mennonite and founder of a colony in America |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1625 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Zierikzee |
| DATE OF DEATH | between 1664 and 1670 |
| Place of death | Lewes (Delaware) |