Mennonite Handbook of Information/Chapter 7
CHAPTER VII
THE PLOCKHOY COLONY IN DELAWARE
The story of locating a colony of Waldensian and Mennonite people in the southern part of the state of Delaware suggests to the reader an interest if not an awakening in him to feelings of sympathy and compassion, equal to those held for the French settlers who were expelled to the number of seven thousand souls from their homes in Acadia on the eastern shores of Canada, and who were distributed in the British colonies along the Atlantic coast from Massachusetts to Louisiana.
Historians are able to find scanty and only disconnected accounts of the very early settlements that were made by Mennonites in Delaware. It is stated that in the year 1656, three hundred Waldensians located on the Horekill Inlet. The name is applied to the long estuary extending from Lewes Cape for five miles in a southeasterly direction to the town of Lewes, a place of 2,000 population today. Others think the name Horekill Inlet is the mouth of the stream, now marked on modern maps as Broadhill Creek.
It is also mentioned that as early as 1663, one Cornelius Plockhoy, himself a Mennonite from Amsterdam, Holland, established a settlement here with forty-one of his followers. This colony had not been established for much over twelve months before English vessels arrived, and finding that the residents were of Dutch nationality, the place was plundered and the colonists deported to English settlements in other states, and thus meeting the same fate as the Acadians, when households were broken up and members of families scattered to regions unknown to each other.
Plockhoy and his wife were the only survivors of this settlement that were definitely heard from. After some years of wanderings, in 1694, after both had become old and dependent, they reached the community at Germantown, Pa., where they were provided for and rendered comfortable during the remainder of their lives.
The fact that people of Dutch nationality settled in Virginia as early as the year 1669 suggests the strong probability that these were members of the original colony in the state of Delaware. Further evidence in proof of this being the case appears in some maps issued as early as 1687, while correspondence in possession of Dr. Julius F. Sachse of Philadelphia indicates that German settlements were located on the headwaters of the Rappahannock river and that the place is marked on the map as "Teutsche Staat."
It is shown also that this place was visited occasionally by Mennonites from Pennsylvania and that the settlement was augmented in number by families from that state who came here to secure land claims for permanent residence.
Robert Beverly, one of the early Virginian historians, relates that this settlement was located in full view of "The Blue Mountains," and that the people who resided there were thrifty and happy, and that they planted orchards and vineyards on their premises.
Some years ago the writer visited this locality and found that almost every possible trace of the community had disappeared. Where once were long lines of residences, stores, taverns, and mills there is nothing left but a few old wells, some broken down walls, and embankments to mark the spot. Cherry trees now grow wild in the woods that have overgrown the place, while the growth and size of the timber would indicate that the place has been abandoned for more than a hundred years.