Delaware is a state in north-east USA. It was named after Lord de la Warre, governor of Virginia who entered the bay in 1610. In 1631 the Dutch from New Netherland founded a settlement in what is now Delaware, but it proved temporary. In 1638 the Swedish West India Company settled a colony on the site of Wilmington. The colony of New Sweden, lying along the shores of Delaware River and Bay, became involved in quarrels with the neighboring settlements of the Dutch, who claimed the region.
In 1655 Governor Stuyvesant conquered the region for the Dutch. In 1664 it fell, with all New Netherland, into the hands of the Bnglish. William Penn in 1682 obtained possession of what is now Delaware, and for twenty years it was governed as a part of Pennsylvania, except from 1691 until 1693. In 1703 the 'territories' or 'three lower counties on the Delaware' obtained recognition as a separate colony, with an assembly of its own, though the proprietary always appointed the same man Governor of both Pennsylvania and Delaware.
Delaware framed its first Constitution as a State in 1776. On December 7, 1787, Delaware ratified the Constitution of the United States, and was the first State to do so. The vote in convention was unanimous. In 1792 a second State Constitution was established and in 1831 a third that differed little from the second. Though a slave State, Delaware took no part in secession.
Abbreviations
Gazetteer
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