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Lewes is an incorporated city on the Delaware Bay in eastern Sussex County, Delaware. According to the 2010 census, the population is 2,747. Along with neighboring Rehoboth Beach, Lewes is one of the principal cities of Delaware's rapidly growing Cape Region. The city lies within the Salisbury, Maryland-Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area. Lewes proudly claims to be "The First Town in The First State." ==History== Lewes was the site of the first European settlement in Delaware, a whaling and trading post that Dutch settlers founded on June 3, 1631 and named Zwaanendael (Swan Valley).〔Munroe, John A.: ''Colonial Delaware: A History'': Millwood, New York: KTO Press; 1978; P.9-12.〕 The colony had a short existence, as a local tribe of Lenape Native Americans wiped out the 32 settlers in 1632. The area remained rather neglected by the Dutch until, under the threat of annexation from the English colony of Maryland, the city of Amsterdam made a grant of land at the Hoernkills (the area around Cape Henlopen, near the current town of Lewes) to a group of Mennonites for settlement in 1662. A total of 35 men were to be included in the settlement, led by a Pieter Cornelisz Plockhoy of Zierikzee and funded by a sizable loan from the city to get them established. The settlement was established in 1663, but the timing of the settlement was terrible: In 1664, the English wrested New Netherland from the Dutch, and they had the settlement destroyed with British reports indicating that “not even a nail” was left there.〔Scharf, Thomas J., ''History of Delaware, 1609–1888'', 1888〕 The area was slow to resettle, but a new settlement gradually regrew around the Hoernkills. In late December 1673, when the area was briefly held again by the Dutch, the settlement was attacked and burned down again by soldiers from the English colony of Maryland. In 1680, under the authority of James Stuart, Duke of York, who had been granted such authority by his brother, King Charles II, the village (and county) was reorganized and known for two years as New Deale, Deale County, Delaware. A log courthouse was authorized to be built at this time. A Church of England congregation was established by 1681 and a Presbyterian church was built in 1682. In 1682, the Delaware colonies were given to William Penn by English King Charles II in payment of a family debt. When Penn arrived in the New World later that year, he renamed the county as Sussex and the Hoernkills settlement as Lewes, in commemoration of sites back in England. Lewes became and remained the county seat of Sussex County until 1791, when it was moved to a more west-central county location, the current town of Georgetown.〔''History of Lewes Delaware and Vicinity'', Colonel David Hall Chapter, DAR〕 On April 5 and 6, 1813, during the War of 1812, British naval vessels led by HMS ''Poictiers'' under the command of Captain Sir John Beresford briefly and ineffectually bombarded the town. A cannonball from the bombardment is lodged in the foundation of Cannonball House, which now serves as the town's maritime museum. Lewes was incorporated by an act of the state assembly on Feb. 2, 1818. The act provided for five persons to be chosen as commissioners to be known as "Trustees of the Town of Lewes." 〔 Scharf's History of Delaware 〕 〔 Journal of the Lewes Historical Society, Vol. 1, Dec. 1998 〕 In 1941, the United States built Fort Miles on Cape Henlopen, immediately south of Lewes, to defend Delaware Bay and the Delaware River and the oil refineries and factories on its shores, as well as the city of Philadelphia. It was one of the largest and most heavily armed coastal fortifications ever built. Fort Miles never saw any major action; except for range practice, it fired its guns only once between its establishment and the end of World War II. Fort Miles ceased operation altogether in 1991 and was deeded to the State of Delaware. In addition to Fort Miles, the Cape Henlopen Archeological District, Coleman House, Cool Spring Presbyterian Church, De Vries Palisade, Delaware Breakwater and Lewes Harbor, Fisher Homestead, Fisher's Paradise, Col. David Hall House, Hopkins' Covered Bridge Farm, Lewes Historic District, Lewes Presbyterian Church, Lightship WAL 539, Maull House, National Harbor of Refuge and Delaware Breakwater Harbor Historic District, Pagan Creek Dike, Roosevelt Inlet Shipwreck, William Russell House, St. George's Chapel, Lewes, Townsend Site, and Wolfe's Neck Site are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.〔 Lightship WAL 539 is also listed as a National Historic Landmark.〕 === Mayoral history === *Theodore Becker 2014-present *James L. Ford 2004-2014 *George H.P. Smith 1994-2004 *Dr. John Adams 1992-1994 *Al Stango 1968-1992 *Otis H. Smith 1950-1968 *H. Edward Maull 1944-1950 *Thomas H. Carpenter 1940-1944 *William E. Walsh 1938-1940 *David W. Burbage 1936-1938 *Dr. Ulysses W. Hocker 1931-1936 *Dr. James T. Thompson 1927-1930 (died in office, May 20, 1930) *Willard H. Collins 1926-1927 *Dr. James T. Thompson 1914-1926 *Thomas B. Schellenger 1913-1914 *Dr. James T. Thompson 1900-1913 *Alfred L. Burton 1898-1900 〔Journal of the Lewes Historical Society, Vol. 1, Dec. 1998 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lewes, Delaware」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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