BY
EDWIN ROBERT WALKER
Chancellor of New Jersey
SOMERVILLE, NEW JERSEY
The Unionist-Gazette Association, Printers
1917
One hundred copies reprinted from the October, 1917, number of the “Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society”
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The Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians
An Address by Edwin Robert Walker Before the New Jersey HistoricalSociety at Newark, October 31st, 1917.
In commencing this address I shall take the liberty of paraphrasing theopening of Sir Walter Scott’s charming novel “Ivanhoe,” and say:
In that pleasant district of North America formerly known as NovaCaesarea or New Jersey, and latterly as New Jersey, there extended inancient times a large forest covering the greater part of the beautifulhills and plains which lie between the Atlantic Ocean and the riverDelaware. The remains of this extensive wood are to be seen at this dayin the deciduous trees of the northern and the ever verdant pines ofthe southern section of our state. Here haunted of yore the stag andthe doe, here were fought several of the most desperate battles of theWar of the Revolution, and here also flourished in ancient times thosebands of roving savages whose deeds have been rendered so popular inAmerican story.
These aborigines are familiarly known to us as the Delaware Indians.They were known to themselves as the Lenni Lenape. I shall call themindifferently “Lenape” and “Delawares.”
The name bestowed upon New Jersey by the Indians was “Shéjachbi,”(pronounced as if spelled “Shá-ak-bee.”) They claimed the whole areacomprising New Jersey. Their great chief Teedyescung stated at theconference at Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1757, that their lands reachedeastward from river to sea.
When I was a boy I presumed that the word “Delaware” was an Indianname, evolved by the savages themselves and by them bestowed upon theriver and bay. I was well grown up before I learned that the word wasoriginally three words “De La Warr,” and that it was the name of anancient English[Pg 4] family ennobled in the time of Edward II, who reignedfrom 1307 to 1327. The particular scion of that ancient house forwhom the Delaware River and Bay and the State of Delaware were named,was Thomas West, Lord De La Warr, born July 9, 1557. He succeeded hisfather in the peerage in 1602 and interested himself in the plansfor the colonization of Virginia; became a member of the Council ofVirginia in 1609, and the next year was appointed governor and captaingeneral for life. He sailed for Virginia in March, 1610, arriving atJamestown in June following with additional emigrants and supplies,just in time to forestall the abandonment of the colony. He returned toEngland in 1611 and sailed again for Virginia in 1618, but died on thevoyage.
It was from the lordly title of this distinguished nobleman andadventurer that we get our present name “Delaware.” It is undoubtedlyof Norman origin, that is, “De La Warr” is.
I cannot claim anything original for this address. Much has beenwritten about the Indians and I have read much of what has beenwritten. What follows has, of course, been drawn from the sourcesof information in works upon the Indians to be found in most of theextensive lib