17th century New Castle was originally settled by the
Dutch West India Company in 1651 under the leadership of
Peter Stuyvesant on the site of a former indigenous village, "Tomakonck" ("Place of the Beaver"), to assert their claim to the area based on a prior agreement with the original inhabitants of the area. The Dutch originally named the settlement
Fort Casimir, but this was changed to Fort Trinity following its seizure by the colony of
New Sweden on
Trinity Sunday in 1654. The Dutch conquered the entire colony of New Sweden the following year and rechristened the fort as Nieuw-Amstel, named after the
Amstel. This marked the end of the Swedish colony in Delaware as an official entity, but it remained a semi-autonomous unit within the New Netherland colony and the cultural, social, and religious influence of the Swedish settlers remained strong. As the settlement grew, Dutch authorities laid out a grid of streets and established a common green in the town's center, which continues to this day. In 1664, the English
seized the entire New Netherland colony in the
Second Anglo-Dutch War. They changed the name of the town to "New Castle" and made it the capital of their
Delaware Colony. The Dutch regained the town in 1673 during the
Third Anglo-Dutch War but it was returned to Great Britain the next year under the
Treaty of Westminster. In 1680, New Castle was conveyed to
William Penn by the
Duke of York by
livery of seisin and was Penn's landing place when he first set foot on American soil on October 27, 1682. This transfer to Penn was contested by
Lord Baltimore and the boundary dispute was not resolved until the 1763-1767 survey conducted by Mason and Dixon, now famed in history as the
Mason–Dixon line.
18th century Prior to the establishment of Penn's
Philadelphia, New Castle was a center of government. After being transferred to Penn, Delaware's Swedish, Dutch, and English residents became accustomed to the relaxed culture of the
Restoration monarchy and grew uncomfortable with the more conservative Quaker influence, so Delaware petitioned for a separate legislature, which was finally granted in 1702. Delaware formally broke from Pennsylvania in 1704. New Castle again became the seat of the colonial government, thriving with the various judges and lawyers that fueled the economy. Many smaller houses were torn down and replaced in this era. In February, 1777,
John McKinly was elected the first President of Delaware, a title later renamed "Governor". During the
Revolution, when New Castle was besieged by
William Howe, the government elected to move its functions south to Dover in May, 1777. McKinly was captured by the British and held prisoner for several months. New Castle remained the county seat until after the
Civil War, when that status was transferred to Wilmington. Three of the 56 signers of the
Declaration of Independence were from New Castle:
Thomas McKean,
George Read, and
George Ross.
19th century The portage between the Delaware River and
Chesapeake Bay saved a trip around the
Delmarva Peninsula, so this brought passengers, goods, and business to New Castle's port. In the years following the Revolution, a turnpike was built to facilitate travel between the two major waterways. Later, New Castle became the eastern terminus of the
New Castle and Frenchtown Railroad, the second-oldest rail line in the country, launched in 1828 with horse-drawn rail cars, then converting to steam power when an engine was purchased from Great Britain in 1832. The line traversed the Delmarva Peninsula, running to the
Elk River, Maryland, from where passengers changed to
packet boats for further travel to Baltimore and points south. This helped the New Castle economy to further boom; however, by 1840, rail lines were in place between Philadelphia and Baltimore, which had a stop in Wilmington, thus leaving New Castle to deal with a substantial decline in traffic and revenue. The decline in New Castle's economy had the long-range fortunate effect of preventing most residents from making any significant structural changes to their homes. The many buildings of historic New Castle have largely not been upgraded or restored and appear much as they did in the
Colonial and
Federal periods.
20th century Since 1927, New Castle has offered tours of historical homes, churches, and gardens, which are typically held annually on the third Saturday of May. Householders dress in colonial costumes and an admittance fee, used toward the maintenance of the town's many historic buildings, is charged. Annually in June, New Castle holds its annual Separation Day celebration. On
April 28, 1961, an F3 tornado hit the north side. Although no fatalities or injuries occurred, it was the only tornado of this magnitude ever recorded in Delaware during the
Fujita scale era.
21st century A tornado rated
EF3 hit the city on
April 1, 2023. ==Geography==