Peter Minuit Peter Minuit Peter Minuit, Pieter Minuit, Pierre Minuit, or Peter Minnewit (between 1580 and 1585 – August 5, 1638) was a Walloon from Wesel, in present-day North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, then part of the Duchy of Cleves. His surname means "midnight" in French. He was the 4th Director of the Dutch North American colony of New Netherland from 1626 until 1631, and 3rd Governor of New Netherland. He founded the Swedish colony of New Sweden on the Delaware Peninsula in 1638. Minuit is generally credited with orchestrating the purchase of Manhattan Island for the Dutch from the Lenape Native Americans. Manhattan
Jegou's Island Jegou's Island Jegou's Island or Chygoe's Island is a former island located at the junction of Assiscunk Creek and the Delaware River, on which the central portion of the city of Burlington, in Burlington County, New Jersey, is located. The Moat, a now partially filled distributary of Assiscunk Creek, formerly separated the island from the mainland. This island was named for Peter Jegou, an early settler thereof. It has been corrupted at times to Chygoe's Island, and erroneously attributed to the name of a Lenape sachem. In 1668 New Jersey Governor Philip Carteret granted land on the island to a