Yocum Family History


Page Two


PAGE 245

The person selected was Peter Jochim, who was fluent in Dutch as well as Swedish and was also on good terms with the Indians who knew the way to Manhattan. Jochim was summoned and agreed to take on the task with an Indian named Taques to serve as his guide. They left for Manhattan on 28 May 1654. Governor Rising described Peter Jochim's mission in these words entered in his journal on that day: "There was dispatched to Manathans (Manhattan) a man of ours, Peter Jochum by name, with an Indian guide, with letters to Governor Stuvesand (Stuyvesant) giving him news of our arrival and proffering all good neighborliness, reporting that the fort on Sand Hook (Fort Casmir) was transferred to us without hostility, and that our sovereigns should be informed about it as a copy thereof (the surrender) can be certified.
There was also given to Petter Jochum an "Instruction" whereby he should govern himself during the trip and while there; also a passport and an open commission to all those who wished to send goods on the ship "Orn" to Europe, free of charge (duty-free), who should bring them here into our river (the South River); but this activity was mostly for us, that through this we could get a feeling of Stuvesand's and the Hollanders' attitude toward us.
The distance from Fort Christina to Manhattan was over 100 miles and would take about three days. The route was by canoe up the South (Delaware) River to present Crosswicks Creek, south of present Trenton, thence overland through the forest over Indian paths to the Raritan River and the North (Hudson) River. It is probable that Peter Jochim and Taques arrived in Manhattan on 31 May 1654, shortly after the landing of Coelen's yacht brought the news of the fall of Fort Casimir.
In any event Jochim's arrival was totally eclipsed by the news brought by the passengers on Coelen's yacht. The latter were summoned by Stuyvesant for written depositions on 1 June 1654 (11 June 1654 by the Dutch calendar) to testify about the "disgraceful" surrender of Fort Casimir by Gerrit Bicker. Later, Stuyvesant forwarded these depositions to Holland with a plea for military assistance to retaliate against the Swedes.
Peter Jochim and Taques spent about three weeks in New Amsterdam carrying out their instructions from Governor Rising. Jochim called upon Peter Stuyvesant and delivering Rising's letter; however, Stuyvesant declined to give him a written answer. Jochim also mingled among the New Amsterdam residents, soliciting cargo for the return voyage of the "Orn". He also became very ill and from his deathbed sent back to Rising several letters, the substance of which is reported in Rising's Journal under the date of 25 June 1654: "The Indian named Taques who had followed Petter Jokom to Manathans came back and brought with him letters (reporting) that many merchants there gladly expressed their willingness to send goods here, and indeed a few also (desired) to come here to live, but nothing could come from there.
And )Jokom further reported) that Gov. Stuvesand) had told him (that) he had nothing more to reply in writing to our letters, but would himself come here about it at his convenience, And he, Peter Jokom, had become badly ill, so that he could not return.



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Peter Jochimson died in New Amsterdam sometime between 22 June 1654, the probate date on which his guide Taques left for New Sweden, and the middle of July 1654. On 27 July 1654 Governor Rising made the following entry in his Journal:
"Hans Mansson, freeman, was dispatched from Kingsessing to Manathans to find out how conditions were there, seeing that Petter Jochim, our previous emissary, had died there and no reply had come to us from there other than the report that he had died and been buried there, with a bill of 127 florins for his burial."
Rising's Journal does not identify the date of burial or the date the bill was delivered. Probably, he received the bill on 22 July 1654 when Henry Rutherford, master of the pinnace "Swallow", arrived in New Sweden with a letter dated 06 July 1654 from Governor Theophilus Eaton of New Haven in New England. If this is the case, Peter Jochim had probably died and been buried before 15 July 1654. The age of Peter Jochim when he died is not known. Neither is there any verification of the cause of death.
Although Peter Jochimson left New Sweden on 28 May 1654, never to return, his name remained prominent in the reorganized government of the colony. After church on Sunday, 4 June 1654, Rising convened the colonists at Tinicum Island to explain his plans, including the expanded rights being granted the freeman by Queen Christina. On 9 June 1654, a day of fasting and prayer, all of the freemen were again called together at the church on Tinicum Island. An oath of allegiance was then read to them and signed by forty eight freemen or their widows. Heading the list of 19 freemen who had been in the colony before Rising's arrival was the name of Peter Jochim. Then followed the names of 29 freemen or their widows who had arrived on the "Orn". The names of two others, including Hans Mansson, were missing; they had been sent to Maryland the day before to encourage those who had deserted to return to the colony. On the same date, Rising posted a notice for the long-awaited trial of Olof Stille and Rev. Lock for their alleged role in causing the 1653 complaint or "mutiny" against Printz.
At the court day on 26 June 1654 the "greater part of our freemen" gathered at Tinicum Island. With Printz now gone, Governor Rising found it awkward to proceed to trial without the defendants' accuser being present, particularly since the Rev. Lock produced witnesses testifying that the soldier Anders Jonsson, after being shot by a firing squad of harquebuses, "had at his last breath made him free" (i.e., exonerated Lock). In addition, Olof Stille "put up personal bond and wanted to go to trial. Rising resolved the matter by postponing Stille's trial ( he apparently was never tried on Printz's charges) and deciding to send the Rev. Lock "home by ship to explain himself in the presence of Gov. Printz." Because the defense of Lock and Stille rested primarily on the grounds that the accusations against Printz were true, Rising suggested to the old residents present at Tinicum that they should reduce their charges against Printz to writing so that the accusations could be forwarded to Sweden with Lock for the Queen's consideration. This resulted on 7 July 1654 in a second, more detailed listing of grievances against Printz, signed by six old residents.





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