Deed to my 9th Great-Grandfather (Tymen Stiddem), ...Russell's 11th Great-Grandfather
Dr. Timen Stiddem (Steadham) was probably born at Hammel in Skanderborg, Denmark (near Arhus), or the Netherlands (or possibly Sweden). He was living in Gothenburg, Sweden in the 1630s. He was no doubt anxious to learn about the new world being colonized by the Swedish, known as "New Sweden" (present day Delaware). Dr. Stiddem signed on as a ship's barber-surgeon for a voyage to New Sweden. Dr. Stiddem sailed four times for North America (arriving three times). He went to New Sweden the first time in 1638 aboard the ship called the Kalmar Nyckel, the first of Sweden's attempts to establish a colony in New Sweden. The Kalmar Nyckel landed at the "Rocks" or Fort Christina (present day Wilmington, Delaware) on March 29, 1638.
Dr. Stiddem returned to Sweden and married. His first wife and children were murdered near Puerto Rico in 1649 during the ill-fated Swedish voyage to America aboard the Kattan (Cat). He returned to Sweden to remarry and sail again with his wife on Sweden's Tenth Expedition aboard the Örn (Eagle), which arrived in New Sweden on May 22, 1654. This was Dr. Timen Stiddem's last trip from his homeland, Sweden. He stayed and settled in New Sweden at Fort Christina, or what was to become Wilmington, Delaware.
Dr. Timen Stiddem (Timothy Stidham) was a prominent citizen and doctor in Wilmington. He is recorded in history as the first physician in Delaware (ref. J. Thomas Scharf, History of Delaware, p. 471).
Tymen Stiddemhttp://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~stiddem/homepage/ (Stiddem Family Webpage)
http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~stiddem/photos-htm/1-house.htm (Home of T. Stiddem in Delaware)
http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~stiddem/photos-htm/1-mill.htm (T. Stiddem's Old Barley Mill in Wilmington, Delaware... 1765
Millstone from Timen Stiddem's Old Barley Mill, Brandywine Park, Wilmington, Delaware. (Photograph by David R. Stidham)
Letter from Timen Stiddem to Axel Oxenstierna, 1651, requesting assistance following Timen's return to Sweden after the ill-fated voyage of theKattan.
Deed from From Gov. Frances Lovelace, 1671, for lands along the Brandywine River. (Courtesy of the Historical Society of Delaware)
