YOUNG, JACOB [SSNE 7207]
Text source
James Young was listed amongst the citizens of Gothenburg in 1639. There was no description of his occupation at that point, but he was later recorded as a book keeper. This is probably the same man who immigrated to the Swedish colony on the Delaware, New Sweden. Although it is unknown when he arrived there, he was certainly there after the colony had fallen to Dutch sovereignty in 1655. He was noted as living in Upland, and hiring a room at Albert Finne's house. He was also known for trading with the "Indians" (indigenous American people) and receiving a salary from William Beekman, governor Stuyvesant's representative to the Swedes on the Delaware. In September 1661 he disappeared with Catherine, the wife of the local priest, Lars Lock, to an unknown destination. This turned out to be New York where he had served as a policeman. Jacob and Catherine had a daughter, Hester. In the late 1670s he reappeared in the Delaware, at Wicaco. There he served as a bell-ringer and a schoolmaster, and obtained land which he cultivated. He died in 1686. His widow Catherine died at the age of 78 and was buried in Gloria Dei church in Philadelphia in August 1713.
Sources: E. Långström, Göteborgs Stads Borgarelängd 1621-1864 (Gothenburg: 1926), 18; Alf Åberg, Kvinnorna i Nya Sverige (Stockholm, 2000), pp.100-104; Steve Murdoch, Network North: Scottish Kin, Commercial and Covert Associations in Northern Europe, 1603-1746 (Brill, Leiden, 2006), pp.210-211.
Service record
- SWEDEN, GOTHENBURG
- Arrived 1639-01-01
- Capacity CITIZEN, purpose CIVIC, BOOK KEEPER
- NEW SWEDEN, DELAWARE
- Arrived 1655-01-01
- Departed 1661-09-01
- Capacity TRADER, purpose TRADE, COMMERCE
- AMERICAN COLONIES, NEW YORK
- Arrived 1662-01-01
- Departed 1675-12-31
- Capacity POLICEMAN, purpose CIVIC
- AMERICAN COLONIES, WICACO, DELAWARE
- Arrived 1676-01-01
- Departed 1686-12-31
- Capacity BELLRINGER, SCHOOLMASTER, purpose ACADEMIC