Horekill (Delaware, USA)
Horekill (Hoere Kill, Whorekills), the location of the Plockhoy Mennonite colony, which existed in southern Delaware for one year 1662-64. The exact location can no longer be determined. Vissher's map of the New World (ca. 1665), of which the relevant section was printed by Harder (p. 64), shows "Hoere Kill" on the west side of the estuary of the Delaware across from Cape May on the eastern shore, which would locate it about 20 miles north of the present town of Lewes. The Vissher map locates "Swanendael" along the west shore some 25 miles north of Hoere Kill. Both names are sometimes used to refer to the Plockhoy colony, but they cannot refer to the same place. The State Archivist of Delaware responded to an inquiry by Harder as follows: "The little colony was clearly in the vicinity of present-day Lewes. The Horekill, or Whorekills, is now called Lewes Creek and serves as a portion of the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal." Plockhoy later had a house and lot in Lewes.
A state highway historical marker at the edge of the town of Lewes erected in 1932 bears the following legend: "Lewes. Under orders from Peter Stuyvesant the Dutch erected a Fort at Hoorn Kil (Lewes Creek) 1659 but were soon dispossessed by the Marylanders. Here was also a communistic settlement established in 1662 by Mennonites from Holland under Peter Cornelis Plockhoy. Sir Robert Carr 1664 'destroyed the Quaking Colony of Plockhoy to a Naile.'"
Bibliography
Harder, Leland. Plockhoy from Zurih-zee. Newton, 1952.
| Author(s) | Harold S Bender |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1959 |
Cite This Article
MLA style
Bender, Harold S. "Horekill (Delaware, USA)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1959. Web. 26 Apr 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Horekill_(Delaware,_USA)&oldid=170488.
APA style
Bender, Harold S. (1959). Horekill (Delaware, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 26 April 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Horekill_(Delaware,_USA)&oldid=170488.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 4, p. 1094. All rights reserved.
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