Fort Depuy (Shawnee on Delaware, Monroe County, Pennsylvania)

Shawnee on Delaware, Monroe County · Pennsylvania · French and Indian War

Quick BriefFort Depuy was one of many forts in Colonial Pennsylvania built in 1755 and 1756 during the French and Indian War following a series of attacks on local communities by Native Americans in December 1755. The fort never saw military action and was garrisoned from early 1756 until February 1757.

History & Significance

The fort was the fortified homestead on the farm of Nicholas Depuy, a French Huguenot who arrived in 1727 and purchased 3,000 acres from the Minsi Indians, a phratry of the Lenape tribe, including fertile land along the northwest bank of the Delaware River. Following Braddock's defeat at the Battle of the Monongahela, the Pennsylvania Legislature placed Benjamin Franklin and James Hamilton in charge to erect a chain of forts along the Blue Mountain in the Minisink region.

In December 1755, Captain John Trump and Captain Isaac Wayne were sent by the Provincial Commissioners to fortify the homestead, soon joined by Captain Jacob Wetterholt with a garrison of 26 men, and they constructed a stockade around the building, placing swivel guns at each corner. Colonel James Burd reported on March 2, 1758, that the fort was "a very fine Plantation, Situate upon the River Delaware" with "a pretty good Stockade" and "4 Swivels mounted," with a garrison of 22 men.

On May 8, 1758, Deputy Governor William Denny ordered the garrison to march to Bethlehem in preparation for the Forbes Expedition. The fort was briefly reoccupied in 1760 and again at the start of the Pontiac's War in 1763, and later that year it was returned to the family.