Mats Hansson

formerly Claus Fleming's servant Drawing no wages, only to be supplied with needful apparel because he committed an offense and must accompany the expeditioon for punishment; in 1644 a laboror, cultivating tobacco on the plantation at Upland, in 1648 a freeman.

Mats Hansson from Borgå, Finland, one of the leading freemen of the colony who had arrived in New Sweden in 1641 and served on Governor Risingh’s council.

In order to provide a home for his new family, Mats Hansson became the first settler on Minquas Island, an island to the north of Tinicum Island, later surveyed as 468 acres. By 1660, Mats Hansson had given half of this island to his new son-in-law, Anders Svensson Bonde, who had married Anna Nilsdotter. The island would later bear his name and became known as Boon’s Island. On 18 May 1663, Governor Petrus Stuyvesant granted patents to Mats Hansson and Anders Svensson Bonde for their halves of Minquas Island.

After the surrender of New Sweden to the Dutch in 1655, Mats Hansson from Borgå became one of the justices of the Upland Court and served in that capacity until at least 1663. Upon his death, his remaining half of Minquas Island went to his second son-in-law, Otto Ernest Cock, who received an English patent confirming his ownership on 7 May 1672.