The First Settler of Lewes: A History of the Fourth Street Preserve

Learn about efforts underway to save the historic and environmentally important Fourth Street Preserve.

IIn 1670, the first officially deeded land in Lewes was granted by the Duke of York to the town’s earliest settler, Helmanias Wiltbanck--30 of the original 104 acres of Wiltbanck’s beloved preserve remain pristine and undeveloped today, right in the heart of Lewes. Three families owned this land for 312 of the past 355 years. Their tales involve attacks by pirate ships and the British, death and survival during the ＂fever years＂ and a prominent but forgotten judge who helped write the original Delaware Constitution and fund its Revolutionary War troops.

Local author and preservation leader Michael Rawl tells these stories and unfolds the long history of this piece of the heart of Lewes.

Michael Rawl began his writing career as a copy boy for the Washington Daily News, then with two Washington, D.C. PR and advertising agencies before editing a magazine for senior officers and directors in the life and health insurance industry. He then became director of marketing for The Source, a Reader’s Digest company, and later vice-president of marketing communications for two national corporations. Rawl has spent the last thirty years as president of several community foundations and of Horizon Philanthropic, a Delaware consulting firm for nonprofit organizations. He is the author of Anacostia Flats, the story of the Bonus Marchers in Washington, D.C. Rawl resides and works in Lewes, Delaware, where he also directs the Greater Lewes Foundation.