![]() The story now had some details and color but no citations and some apparent errors. The light was discontinued from 1780 until 1792. ![]() The next day they landed, ran Hedgecock off, and burned the wooden dwelling and lighthouse steps. The keeper told them if they didn’t get away, he would give them some “bullets.” That made them mad and they told him to wait until “this time tomorrow” and they would help him. ![]() Officers from the British Fleet came ashore and visited the lighthouse and demanded that keeper give them some of his fine bullocks, as they were short of provisions. The first keeper was named Hedgecock, who was in charge from 1765 until 1780. Fifteen years later, a nearby lighthouse keeper in “a brief history” of the lighthouse told a more detailed story with no attribution. They also captured some cattle feeding on the marshes, but did no damage to life.” Since Scharf gave no date, nor any source, and given the local history context in which this statement appears, it cannot be verified and can only be assessed as hearsay or local lore. But a party from the ship landed and burned out the interior of Cape Henlopen Light-house. One hundred years later Scharf stated, “Later in the Revolution, a British man-of-war, the “Roebuck,” lay opposite Lewes for some time, but did not injure the town. The following month the magazine published the well-known picture,“A view of the lighthouse on Cape Henlopen, taken at sea, August 1780.” He helped select the location of the lighthouse. It did say, however, “that any attempt to burn or destroy it, rendered highly penal by the act of the general assembly passed in the year 1773.” Henry Fisher would have known of that act. In 1788, the Columbian Magazine had carried a “Description of the Lighthouse of Cape Henlopen.” The article made no mention of anyone burning the lighthouse. He had no one to whom to report, nor the means. The Philadelphia Committee and the Continental Congress had left. The reason was that, in September 1777, the British had occupied Philadelphia. Henry Fisher, the representative of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety on the cape, did not report the fire. 17 Light House Burning.” That is all that we know from contemporary records. The presence of Roebuck and her activities gave rise to a number of local legends.ĭuring the Revolution, a resident of Lewes named William Adair kept a diary of “Meteorological Observations” and “comments about events in Sussex County and in Delaware Bay.” His diary is most complete for 17. Andrew Snape-Hamond in the forty-four-gun ship Roebuck. The bay was blockaded by a force of British ships commanded by Capt. The historians working on the WPA Writer’s Project history of Delaware cited Scharf’s work as “The first written general history of Delaware and a compilation of Great value, notwithstanding its numerous errors.” ĭuring the Revolutionary War, Lewes, Delaware, at the mouth of Delaware Bay, the approach to Philadelphia, the colonies’ largest city and the seat of government, was on the front lines. ![]() In the second volume, however, on the local history of the cities, counties, towns, individuals and families, he must have relied on newspaper accounts, second hand sources, and interviews, thereby passing along local lore and family stories, establishing the basis for what grew into local legends. In his first volume on the general history of Delaware he provided extracts of documents, copies of letters, and information from reliable sources. He collected, assembled, and cogently presented a mass of information revealing the rich history of the state. Anyone who writes about Delaware history owes a great debt to Scharf. John Thomas Scharf, author of a two-volume history of Delaware, was one such historian. Even experienced historians who ordinarily provide citations to primary sources-documents, letters and first hand statements-or rely on the prior work of reputable experts in their principal works, often fall into that trap when relating local history. ![]() There may be some truth in what they write, but it is hard to sort out fact from fiction in local and family stories. Those who write “local history” without documenting or citing their sources may as well be writing historical fiction. ![]()
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