Editing Gloucester City, New Jersey (section)

==History==
{{New Netherland}}
[[Image:Kartskiss över Nya Sverige.png|thumb|left|New Sweden, c. 1650]]
The name [[Fort Nassau (disambiguation)|Fort Nassau]] was used by the [[Netherlands|Dutch]] in the 17th century for several fortifications, mostly trading stations, named for the [[House of Orange-Nassau]]. The [[Fort Nassau (South River)|one built in the 1620s]]<ref>[http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nycoloni/nswdmp.html New Sweden 1638-1655 Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania], [[Rootsweb.com]]. Accessed August 31, 2015.</ref> at today's Gloucester City was for trade, mostly in beaver pelts, with the indigenous population of [[Susquehannock]] and [[Lenape]]. The region along the [[Delaware River]] and its [[Delaware Bay|bay]] was called the Zuyd Rivier and marked the southern flank of the province of [[New Netherland]].<ref>Silverman, Sharo Hernes. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080421032825/http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/ppet/morton/page1.asp?secid=31 "New Sweden and the New World: History Lessons from the Morton Homestead"], from ''Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine'', Volume XXV, Number 1 - Winter 1999. Accessed October 4, 2012.</ref>

From 1638 to 1655 the area was part of [[New Sweden]], which had been established by [[Peter Minuit]], who had been [[Director of New Netherland]], and was responsible for the famous purchase of the island of [[Manhattan]]. The location was disadvantageous since the richest fur-trapping area was on the west side of the river, where Swedish could intercept trade with the natives. In 1651, [[Peter Stuyvesant]], director-general of New Netherland, dismantled the structure and relocated to a position on the other side of the river, in part to menace the Swedish, calling it [[Fort Casimir]].{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}}

After the arrival of English [[Quakers]] on the Delaware, in 1677, a permanent settlement, at first called Axwamus, was established on the site of the present city. This was surveyed and laid out as a town in 1689. In 1868 it was [[Municipal charter|chartered]] as a city.<ref>{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Gloucester City|volume=12|page=132}}</ref>