BIOGRAPHY: Peter Jochimsson, born in Schleswig in Holstein, was enrolled in Gothenburg in September 1642 to serve as a soldier in New Sweden at a wage of ten guilders per month. He sailed to the colony on the Fama, the same ship that carried the new Governor, Johan Printz.
BIOGRAPHY: In New Sweden, Peter Jochim (as he was usually called) was first assigned to the new Fort Elfsborg near the mouth of present Salem Creek NJ. Later, when the Dutch in 1648 built Fort Beversrede at Passyunk on the Schuylkill, he was transferred to Fort Korsholm on the Schuylkill. The Dutch commander complained that in September 1648 Peter Jochim "contemptuously pulled the palisades of Fort Beversrede apart and broke through them, making use of great insolence by words as well as deeds." The Swedes built a house in front of the Dutch fort, blocking its view from the river. They also prevented Dutch freemen from settling in the area, effectively preserving the trade with the Indians for themselves.
BIOGRAPHY: Stuyvesant countered in 1651 by abandoning Fort Beversrede and Fort Nassau (on the east side of the Delaware) and building a new fort at present New Castle (Fort Casimir). To counter this move, Printz sought declarations from the Indians that the new fort was built illegally on land sold by the Indians to the Swedes. Peter Jochimsson was instrumental in obtaining the needed affidavit from the Indians, which was signed at Fort Elfsborg on 3 July 1651.
BIOGRAPHY: 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.
BIOGRAPHY: 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.
BIOGRAPHY: Peter Jochim and Ella Stille had two children:
BIOGRAPHY: 1. Peter Petersson, born in 1652, grew up in a household where his closest friend was his half-brother, John Hansson Steelman, born in 1655. Both became Indian traders with John Hans Steelman becoming a big-time operator, establishing trading posts in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Peter, however, remained at Aronameck, which became his own in 1681 when Hans Månsson, having moved to New Jersey, sold the tract to Peter Petersson Yocum, the new surname which Peter had adopted. It was derived, of course, from his father's patronymic. The new spelling can be blamed on the English clerks. Although many spelling variations are to be found, the surname became standardized as Yocum, except among descendants of Jonas, who chose the Yocom spelling.
BIOGRAPHY: Peter Petersson Yocum was married c. 1675 to Judith, daughter of Jonas Nilsson. Aside from farming and trading with the Indians, Peter also served as an Indian interpreter for William Penn in the negotiation of new treaties and owned a small gristmill on Mill Creek, a creek just south of present Woodlands Cemetery. He died in 1702 and by his will asked to be buried at Gloria Dei Church in Philadelphia. His widow Judith moved to Berks County with two of her younger sons. She died at Manatawny in Berks County in 1727 and is buried at St. Gabriels Church in Douglassville.
BIOGRAPHY: Peter Petersson Yocum and Judith Jonasdotter Nilsson had ten children:
BIOGRAPHY: > Peter Yocum, born 1677, died 1753 in Upper Merion Township; married Elizabeth; one surviving son.
> Måns Yocum, born 1678, died 1722 at Aronameck in Kingsessing; married Margaret Boon; no children.
> Catharine Yocum, born 1681, died 1723; married Swan Justis; 5 children.
> Charles Yocum, born. 1682, died 1741, Kingsessing; married Ann Supplee; one son and one daughter.
> Swan Yocum, born 1685, died 1758, Kingsessing; married Joanna Collins; two surviving sons.
> Julia Yocum, born 1687, not traced.
> Jonas Yocum, born 1689, died 1760, Douglass Township, Berks County; married Hannah Enochson; survived by two sons and three daughters.
> Anders Yocum, born 1693, died after 1734, Kingsessing; married Elizabeth Trollup; survived by one son and three daughters.
>John Yocum, born 1696, died 1727, Berks County; never married.
> Maria Yocum, born c. 1699; married William Morgan.
BIOGRAPHY: 2. Elizabeth Petersdotter, born in 1654, moved from her home as a teenager to help in the household of her uncle, Anders Stille, living on Christina River. Here she met and married John Ogle, an English soldier who had participated in the English conquest of the Delaware in 1664. John Ogle and Rev. Jacob Fabritius were indicted in 1675 for inciting the Swedes and Finns to riot in opposition to orders of the New Castle Court to build a dike and road for Hans Block, a Dutchman.
BIOGRAPHY: John Ogle and Anders Stille made their homes at Christiana Bridge, Christina River. Ogle, a big speculator in lands and tobacco, died insolvent in the winter of 1683/4. Adding to his widow's troubles was a 1684 raid by Colonel James Talbot from Maryland which resulted in the destruction of her hay and the building of a Maryland "fort" on her property. Elizabeth Ogle and Anders Stille then sold their property and moved to White Clay Creek. She lived at the "Hopyard," which had been surveyed for her husband the year before. Unable to pay all of the estate's debts, Elizabeth Ogle was discharged from all further debts of her husband on 17 June 1690 by the New Castle Court. Meanwhile, her brother Peter Petersson Yocum in 1687 had purchased the "Hopyard" to protect it from creditors. Elizabeth died before 12 Sept. 1702 when John Hans Steelman and Judith Yocum, as executors of the Yocum estate, sold the property.
BIOGRAPHY: John and Elizabeth Ogle had two sons:
BIOGRAPHY: > Thomas Ogle, bom c. 1672, died 1734 in White Clay Creek Hundred, New Castle County; married [1] Mary Crawford, [2] widow Elizabeth Graham.,
> John Ogle, born c. 1674, died 1720 in White Clay Creek Hundred; married widow Elizabeth Harris.
BIOGRAPHY: To obtain copy of following article, write to: National Genealogical Society 4527 17th Street North Arlington, Va 22207-2399 Remit $5.00 for the copy
BIOGRAPHY: The Kalmar Nyckel left Goteborg, Sweden for America in September 1639
BIOGRAPHY: "THE YOCUMS OF ARONAMECK IN PHILADELPHIA
1648-1702"
By Peter Stebbins Craig and Henry Wesley Yocum
BIOGRAPHY: Page 243
BIOGRAPHY: The fifth expedition to New Sweden on the Delaware River in 1642-43 brought the new governor, Johan Printz, to the Swedish Colony. He was a gargantuan man weighing 400 pounds and was later called "Big Belly" by the Delaware Indians. Among those who came on the ships "FAMA" and "SWAN" with Governor Printz was a soldier, a Dane from Schleswig-Holstein, named Peter Jochimson.
At the time of their arrival New Sweden had been in existance only five years. Founded in 1638 by Peter Minuit, the young colony then had only one settlement, Fort Christina (located at present Wilmington), and numbered about sixty persons. The reinforcements from Sweden tripled the population and permitted expansion of the colony in scattered hamlets northward as far as the Schuylkill.
BIOGRAPHY: PETER JOCHIM: SOLDIER, FREEMAN, EMISSARY
BIOGRAPHY: Peter Jochimson, or Jochim as he was frequently called, was stationed between 1643 and 1648 at Fort Elfsborg (called "Fort Misquito" by the soldiers), built at Printz's direction near present-day Salem, N.J., to command and control ship traffic on the Delaware, then called the South River by the Swedes and Dutch.
Peter Jochimson made some modest contributions to the history of the Swedes on the Delaware, first as Printz's loyal supporter, later as one of his chief critics and finally as his successor's diplomatic courier.
BIOGRAPHY: In 1648, after becoming a freeman and taking up residence at Aronameck on the west bank of the Schuylkill River near present day Bartram's Garden, Peter Jochimson single handedly destroyed the palisades at Ford Beversreede, s small trading post built by the Dutch across the river in Passyunk in an attempt to intercept the Swede's trade in beaver skins with the Minquas Indians. In 1651 he served as interpreter and witness to a treaty with the Delaware Indians confirming New Sweden's ownersip of land claimed by the Dutch. Soon thereafter Peter Jochimson turned against his governor. On 27 July 1653 he was one of 22 settlers who signed a petition to Governor Printz protesting his allegedly oppressive rule.
Printz considered this petition an act of mutiny. Accusing one of the signers (freeman Olof Stille), the Swedish minister (Rev. Lars Carlsson Lock) and one of the soldiers (Anders Jonsson) as being ringleaders of this rebellion, he summarily executed the soldier on 1 Aug 1653 and scheduled the other two for trial at the next court. The freeman's petition, signed by an overwhelming majority of the settler's living in present Pennsylvania, was the last straw for Printz. He had made numerous requests to Sweden to be replaced; he had pleaded for more supplies and more settlers-but to know avail. Finally, in September or October 1653, without permission from Stockholm, he packed up and, taking 25 settlers and soldiers with him, sailed for New Amsterdam (present New York City) to catch the next ship to Europe, leaving the colony, soon reduced to about 70 souls, in the of his son-in-law Johan Papegoja.
Printz's successor as governor of New Sweden was Johan Rising. Upon his arrival at the South River, Rising made what proved to be a tactical error on 21 May 1654 in capturing the recently-built Dutch stronghold at Fort Casimir (present New Castle) which he renamed Fort Trinity. Gerrit Bicker, the Dutch commander, yielded the fort without firing a shot-he had no gunpowder. Three days later the Dutch were convened at Rising's headquarters at Fort Christina and pledged their allegiance to Swedish rule. Later, however, a majority of the Dutch soldiers, the clerk, and one Dutch freeman reneged and fled on Cornelis Jansen Coelen's yacht to New Amsterdam with the news of Bicker's surrender.
Probably unaware of this defection, Governor Rising tended to the immediate problems at hand and then retired on 26 May 1654 to begin drafting a carefully written letter to Governor Stuyvesant explaining his actions in taking Fort Casimir. The letter advised that the fort had been "voluntarily surrendered" and that the Dutch colonists, upon learning the "reasonable conditions" offered them, had taken an oath of allegiance to Swedish rule. To ward off prospects that Stuyvesant might unilaterally take retaliatory action, he closed by saying: "As this is a matter of greater consequence than can be decided among servants, who must only obey orders, the sovereigns on both sides have to settle this matter among themselves." The letter pledged good neighborliness and asked Stuyvesant to confirm his peaceful intentions.
To deliver this letter to Manhattan, Rising sought a bekvamlig karl (a suitable fellow) who was known in New Amsterdam and "would know how to mix with the Hollanders to our best advantage."
BIOGRAPHY: Shortly thereafter, Peter Jochim married Ella Stille, daughter of Olof Stille. They made their home at Aronameck on the west shore of the Schuylkill. Their first child was born in 1652, and on 1 November 1652 Peter Jochim was granted his discharge and made a freeman.
BIOGRAPHY: As a freeman, Peter Jochim joined his father-in-law and 20 other freemen in filing a protest with Governor Printz on 27 July 1653, seeking relief from the Governor's oppressive treatment of the freemen, particularly the Finns. This was the last straw for the tormented Governor, who packed up his substantial belongings and returned to Sweden via New Amsterdam and Amsterdam.
BIOGRAPHY: Upon the arrival of the new Governor, Johan Rising, in May 1654, the Dutch fort surrendered to the Swedes without a shot being fired. Peter Jochim then found his services in demand once more. As one ofthe few freemen who could read and write and being well-known to the Dutch, Peter Jochim was chosen by Rising to travel overland to New Amsterdam (Manhattan) to deliver a diplomatic letter to Governor Stuyvesant and to find out his intentions towards New Sweden. Peter Jochim and his Indian guide Taques left on 27 May 1654. Taques returned on 25 June with a letter from Jochim reporting that he had become ill in Manhattan and was too sick to return. Shortly thereafter, Rising received a bill from Stuyvesant for 127 guilders for Jochim's burial.
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.
