ABOUT
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HAZZARD LANDING is an area north of Lewes Beach along the Broadkill River named for the Hazard Family which settled that area in 1700's. This area is intertwined into my heart-every bend of the river, sway of marsh grass, from the flutter of the red wing black birds to the beach plum bushes. I have wandered this area through my childhood, by barefoot and by boat- when it was a magical island in my mind, into adulthood as it is now, a haven. Hence the name of this blog. Hazzard Landing, although not referred as that name to many and not generally considered an actual place, is a marshy part of the Delaware shoreline; a place that has a long history, heavy with seafaring tales, colonization and marine splendor. The area is part of the Broadkill River which connects to Lewes by the North, sharing the same canal, intertwined through all of time.
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Broadkill is an Anglicized version of the Dutch word for "Broad River" by which the waterway has been known since the earliest days of Dutch settlement. The first permanent landowner in the hundred was Hermanus Wiltbank who was instrumental in the affairs of Zwaanendael, after his arrival there during the second wave of Dutch settlement. Wiltbank Landing is a reference name for the marsh area that runs along Broadkill Road.
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John Clowes, established grist and saw-mills on one of the Broadkill's branches in the early 18th century and built a cotton factory. The river's bank was also the location of one of Sussex County's earliest shipyards. That enterprise was the first of many which flourished along the Broadkill until 1915, the Milton yards turned out many vessels as long as 125 feet. The river was navigable for relatively large vessels up to Milton until a storm closed the Broadkill Inlet near Oyster Rocks in the 20th century.
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Lewes
What is now Lewes, sat many different colonies and inhabitants that faced constant strife and attack for over 100 years. To outline the entire history would take some time so I have tried to compress it into the most significant moments to the best of my ability. Let's start at the beginning. The first European to discover the Delaware Bay was in 1609 when English navigator Henry Hudson of the Dutch East India Company was searching for a route to the far east. Hudson sailed into the bay and river that summer in his ship, "The Half Moon'' and his explorations established the later Dutch claims to the lands bordering upon the two rivers they named the South and North (Zuydt and Noordt) Rivers. Those claims were to play a major role in the history of Sussex for more than half a century.
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In 1609 the Delaware River was called Lenape Wihittuck by the Indians and Zuydt River by the Dutch. Then in 1610 English sailor Samuel Argalls fell into a strong storm that carried his ship as far north as Cape Cod. While he made his way south along the coast towards the colony of Virginia, he sighted Cape May and Cape Henlopen, Argalls called it Cape "De La Warr" after the first royal governor and captain general of Virginia, Sir Thomas West, Lord De La Warr.
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In 1613, Dutch navigator Cornelis May charted the New Jersey coast and gave his surname to the northern Cape (Cape May) he spied the cape across from it and gave his Christian name, Cornelis. He then designated the southern cape (Fenwick) Cape Hindlopen (Henlopen). When it became clear in later years that the southern cape (Fenwick) was not a cape at all but merely a bulge in the coastline, the name Henlopen was transferred to its present location, the cape that was first called Cornelis. This led to Fenwick being referred to as the False Cape. Confusing yes, but also very important when researching historical literature and maps.
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In 1629, the first land grants by Europeans was made by Samuel Blommaert and Samuel Godwyn who purchased land from the Indians that is believed to have included all the ocean and bay from what is now Fenwick Island to the Mahon River in Kent County. The first European colony in Delaware was an expedition aboard the ship "Walvis" or "Whale" under the command of Peter Heyes who had directions From DeVries to establish a whale and seal fishery. In April of 1631, the expedition arrived inside the bay and sailed into a stream, which Heyes named Hoerenkill. The settlement was referred to as Fort Oplandt, with the land around the fort called Zwaanendael or "Valley of the Swans". The native indians had referred to it as "Sikoness". Not long after, the entire colony, animals and all, was massacred by indians.
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It wasn't until 1659 that Zwaanendael was resettled with a second fort and trading post, called Hoerenkill by the Dutch and Whorekill by the English. In 1680 the area was called New Deale. In 1682 William Penn arrives, officially naming the area Lewes. In historical articles you can see it also referred to as Lewistown.
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Lewes was plundered with depressing frequency during the late 17th and early 18th centuries. During King William's War between the English and the French, Lewes was plundered by French Sloops. The privateers also attempted landings in August of 1703 and August of 1709 during Queen Anne's War. Those were augmented by less formal raids by pirates for decades. It was believed by many residents of the area that some pirates had influence with high ranking provincial officials. Whether or not that was the case, it is certainly true that the officials located in Philadelphia did little more than commiserate with the settlers of Lewes.
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Queen Anne Wharf - Lewes
