Editing Rehoboth Beach, Delaware (section)

===Colonial era===
{{Further|Delaware Colony}}
By the time the first Europeans arrived in the area in the 17th century, the coastline was at its present location and several Native American Indian tribes lived in the area, including the [[Lenape]], the Sikkonese, the [[Assateague people|Assateague]]s, and the [[Nanticoke people|Nanticoke]]. The site was the location of what may have been the most important Native American fishing village on the [[Mid-Atlantic (United States)|Middle Atlantic coast]], including at [[Wilgus Site]], a prehistoric shell midden archeological location, which is now inundated.<ref>Jordan, Francis, Jr. 1906. ''Aboriginal Fishing Stations on the Coast of the Middle Atlantic States''. Lancaster, Penn. Press of the New Era Printing Company, p. 25</ref>

Pressure from [[Kingdom of England|English]] and [[Dutch Republic|Dutch]] settlers radiating outward from [[Cape Henlopen]] near [[Lewes, Delaware]] at the entrance to [[Delaware Bay]] forced the Lenape to migrate to upper [[New York (state)|New York]] state, eastern [[Canada]], and eventually to the west in [[Indian Territory]] (later formed [[Oklahoma]], [[Kansas]], parts of [[Arkansas]]) while the Sikkonese and Assateagues were [[Local extinction|extirpated]]; the Nanticoke, however, still exist in the general area today.

The land later came under the control of the [[Duke of York]], younger brother of King [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] who also seized and occupied in 1664 the Dutch colony further north at the mouth of the [[Hudson River]] on [[Manhattan|Manhattan Island]] and adjacent [[Long Island]] as [[New Netherland]] with [[Fort Amsterdam]] and the village of [[New Amsterdam]] followed by the previous [[Sweden|Swedish]] colony on the upper [[Delaware River]] at [[Fort Christina]] and [[New Sweden]], which the Dutch attacked and occupied several years earlier. These later became part of the English and later [[British America]] colonies/provinces of [[Province of New York|New York state]] and [[History of New York City|New York town]] along with renamed [[Wilmington, Delaware|Wilmington]] and [[New Castle, Delaware|New Castle]] along the Delaware River as part of the colonial [[Province of Pennsylvania]] and later in the future state of [[History of Delaware|Delaware]]. Later, the Duke granted holdings to various landholders who endured into the 18th century, and ultimately ascended to the English throne as King [[James II of England]] and also James VII of Scotland.

''[[Rehoboth (Bible)|Rehoboth]]'' ({{langx|he|רְחוֹבוֹת}}) means "broad spaces." It appears three times in the [[Old Testament]] as a place name&nbsp;— a well dug by [[Isaac]] (at modern Wadi er-Ruheibeh) (Genesis 26:22), a city on the [[Euphrates|Euphrates River]] (Genesis 36:37; I Chronicles 1:48), and one of the cities of [[Assur|Asshur]] (Genesis 10:11) in [[Mesopotamia]] (modern [[Iraq]]). Hence the name may have had a special appeal for the religious founders of the city, although the [[Rehoboth Bay|adjacent bay]] had already borne the name Rehoboth for at least a century before the town was founded.<ref>Leiste, Christian (1778). ''Beschreibung des Brittischen Amerika zur Ersparung der englischen Karten'', p. 312; retrieved through Google Books</ref>