Colonial settlement
Primary Document: Early European Settlement
•Deposition of David Davis
•Relative to Maratanza Pond, Ulster County
•From the Cadwallader Colden Papers, Vol. 7
•Published in
•“Collections of the New York Historical Society”
•For the year 1923
•p. 55-56
•
•“David Davis being Duely Sworn Deposeth and Saith that he is 75 years of age—that in the Year 1712 he Lived at Warwick in Orange County With Captain Aske—that at that time a Great Number of Indians Lived there that he often heard the Indians Speak of a Pond on the Mountain between the Drownded Land & Minisink which they called as he thinks Camallo—that some time after being in Company with Lawrance Decker who understood the Indian Language and Some Indians & mentioning the Name of the Pond the Indians & Decker Laugh’d upon which this Deponan(t) asked Decker what they Laugh’d when Decker said it was at the Name of the Pond which Signify a Place where Young Indians & their Wives Mett & made Merry—that in Perticular an Indian Called George who Could talk English….” (further details about dispute over pond omitted)  [August 27, 1765]
This document tells us that:
1.As early as 1712 the Valley was settled and called Warwick.
2.Lenapes were still numerous here.
3.An exchange of cultures was occurring: Local settlers learned and spoke Lenape, and Lenapes sometimes used English names.
This document provides proof of
•The early settlement of Aske and others in the valley, and that it was called “Warwick” by this date.
•The oral tradition that early residents, in this case Lawrence Decker, learned and spoke the native language.
•There was still a significant population of the Minsi tribe here at time of settlement by colonists.
•The adoption of European names by some of the local Native Americans.
The document is part of the court records about a land dispute elsewhere