Revolt of the Long Swede

Marcus Jacobson, (alias John Brinckson) was either a Finn or Swede of notably large size, who while living in England, was convicted of a petty crime and sentenced to penal transportation to the Province of Maryland.

After arriving in Maryland, Jacobson escaped from indentured servitude and fled to the Swedish colonial settlement of Upland, Pennsylvania. Once having arrived in town he claimed to be the son of Hans Christoff von Königsmarck (a noted general in Sweden) and falsely claimed that a Swedish Navy fleet was lying in wait in the Delaware Bay under instructions to, at the proper time, wrest the region from the English. He claimed he had been sent to recruit Swedish settlers to take up arms against the English and spur a revolt to reclaim of the formerly Swedish colony.

Jacobson soon found a number of supporters to his cause, including a wealthy Finnish settler named Henry Coleman as well as a former Chaplain named Lawrence Lock and Armgard Papagoya, the daughter of former Governor Johan Björnsson Printz.^[2] The group managed to secure firearms and gunpowder before the English learned of the plot. Governor Francis Lovelace, of the Province of New York, issued an order for the arrest of Jacobson and his fellow conspirators on August 2, 1669.

During a dinner on September 4, Justice Peter Cock was present when a group of Swedes were persuaded by Jacobson to swear an oath of allegiance to the King of Sweden. Cock protested this and attempted to arrest Jacobson, resulting in a struggle where Cock injured Jacobson with a knife before he escaped.^[3] Soon thereafter a posse was formed to track down and arrest Jacobson.

A riverboat captain named Carr managed to capture Jacobson, who was imprisoned in New Castle, Delaware. Jacobson promptly attempted to escape his imprisonment along with a fellow Native American prisoner who had been condemned to death. The native managed to escape but Jacobson did not and was held until trial. Henry Coleman, learning of an arrest warrant issued against him fled to live among the Indians and was never heard of again. Rev. Lock and Mrs. Pappehoya paid bail and were released until trial.

The case was held at New Castle, December 6, 1669, and heard by a commission appointed by the governor and a jury. Jacobson was found guilty and sentenced to be, "publicly and severely whipped and branded in the face with the letter "R" for Rebellion, after which he be secured until he can be sent and sold to the Barbadoes or some other remote plantation".^[3]

On January 25, 1670, Jacobson was put aboard the merchant ship Fort Albany and transported to be sold into indentured servitude in Barbados, after that date nothing more was known about him.

The accomplices were sentenced to forfeit one half of their goods and chattels, while a small fine was placed upon those of lesser note.^[4] At least 80 Swedish settlers in total were fined.^[5]

In 1823, American author and future Secretary of the Navy James Kirke Paulding would write a highly romanticized novel based loosely on the events of the revolt titled, Koningsmarke, The Long Finne: A Story of the New World.^[6]