Delaware Colony in the North American Middle Colonies consisted of land on the west bank of the Delaware River Bay. In the early 17th century the area was inhabited by Lenape and possibly the Assateague tribes of Native Americans. The first European settlers were the Swedes and the Dutch, but the land fell under English control in 1664. William Penn was given the deed to what was then called "the Lower Counties on the Delaware" by the Duke of York, in a deed separate from that which he held for the larger Province of Pennsylvania. Delaware was then governed as part of Pennsylvania from 1682 until 1701, when the Lower Counties petitioned for and were granted an independent colonial legislature, though the two colonies shared the same governor until 1776, when Delaware's assembly voted to br