Pieter Corneliszoon Plockhoy

Pieter Corneliszoon Plockhoy (also Pieter Cornelisz Plockhoy van Zierikzee or Peter Cornelius van Zurick-zee; c. 1625, possibly in Zierikzee, Netherlands – c. 1664–1670, Lewes, Delaware) was a Dutch Mennonite and Collegiant utopist who founded a settlement in 1663 near Horekill (Lewes Creek) on the banks of Godyn's Bay (Delaware Bay), near present-day Lewes, Delaware. The settlement was sacked during the English conquest of New Netherland in 1664. He was a longstanding advocate of equality and unrestricted religious toleration, and influenced Franciscus van den Enden, who taught Spinoza Latin. He is now considered a kind of proto-socialist.

Life

Almost nothing is known of Plockhoy's childhood and early life, but it is reasonable to assume he came from Zeeland and had a Mennonite background. In the early 1660s he lived at Amsterdam, where he became associated with the struggle of the liberal Mennonites, who were influenced by Collegiantism and were led by Galenus Abrahamsz de Haan, against the conservative Mennonites.

Before embarking for the New World, Plockhoy unsuccessfully petitioned English statesman Oliver Cromwell in 1658 for support in establishing various ideal settlements in England. Plockhoy published political pamphlets addressing contemporary social problems in 1658 and collaborated with Franciscus van den Enden in plans for founding a new society in New Netherland. Some contemporary writers that were critical of his views alleged that Plockhoy defended polygamy.

Literature While resident in New Netherland, Plockhoy published the 1661 poem, 't Lof van Nuw-Nederland (1661; The Praise of New Netherlands: Spurring Verses to the Lovers of the Colony and Brothership to be established on the South River of New Netherland by Pieter Corneliszoon Plockhoy van Ziereckzee" (published in 1661).

During the late 19th century, Henry Cruse Murphy, the U.S. Minister to the Netherlands in The Hague, rediscovered the poems written by Plockhoy and other Dutch poets resident in New Netherland, and had them published with English translations in the same metre.