Pieter Corneliszoon Plockhoy

Pieter Corneliszoon Plockhoy (also Pieter Cornelisz Plockhoy van Zierikzee or Peter Cornelius van Zurick-zee; c. 1625, possibly in Zierikzee, Netherlands[1] – c. 1664–1670, Lewes, Delaware) was a Dutch Mennonite and Collegiant utopist who founded a settlement in 1663 near Horekill (Lewes Creek) on the banks of Godyn's Bay (Delaware Bay), near present-day Lewes, Delaware. The settlement was sacked during the English conquest of New Netherland in 1664. He was a longstanding advocate of equality and unrestricted religious toleration, and influenced Franciscus van den Enden, who taught Spinoza Latin. He is now considered a kind of proto-socialist.[2]

  1. ^ "Brief and Concise Plan Intended to be a Mutual Agreement for Some Colonists Willing to go to the South River in New Netherland". World Digital Library. 1662. Retrieved 2013-06-16.
  2. ^ Israel, Jonathan I.. Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650-1750. New York: Oxford University Press 2001, 177, 801