Cape May - History

History

The Kechemeche tribe of the Lenni Lenape were the first residents of the area that historians know of. Each summer, the Native Americans vacationed at what is now Cape May to escape the summer heat. While there, they fished, hunted, and collected fruits before the advent of autumn mandated the return to their inland villages.

The first European to catch a glimpse of Cape May was famed navigator Henry Hudson and 18 of his crew mates on the Halve Maen. On August 28, 1609, while searching for the Northwest Passage, Hudson decided to sail up the unexplored Delaware Bay. Several miles up the coast, strong tides pulled the Halve Maen to a sandbar, and the crew was stranded until thunderstorms and wind aided the ship around the Cape May peninsula. This event was recorded by Hudson's first mate, Robert Juet.

News of his discovery sparked a search for the location of a new trading post. English explorer Samuel Argall explored the bay and named it for the governor of the Virginia Colony, Lord De La Warr. Not to be outdone, the Dutch also sent some navigators to look for suitable sites for trading ventures. Among the band of explorers were Cornelis Henderson, Adriaen Block, and Cornelis Jacobsen Mey.

The recorded history of Cape May stretches back to 1620, when Captain Cornelius Jacobsen Mey surveyed and named the area for himself. It later grew from a small settlement to the large beach resort it has been since the 19th century. The City of Cape May asserts that its status as a vacation spot began in 1766, with Philadelphians coming in by stagecoaches, ships, and horse-drawn wagons, and that the Kechemeche Lenape had primarily used the land for hunting beforehand. Hotels were already on Cape May as of 1834.

In 1782 during the American Revolutionary War, the young Continental Navy Lieutenant Joshua Barney fought with a British squadron at Cape May and Delaware Bay. Barney's force of three sloops defeated a Royal Navy frigate, a sloop-of-war and a Loyalist privateer. The battle ended with the loss of two British vessels and one American sloop.