Brandywine Creek (Christina River tributary)

Brandywine Creek (also called the Brandywine River) is a tributary of the Christina River in southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware in the United States. The Lower Brandywine (the main stem) is 20.4 miles (32.8 km) long and is a designated Pennsylvania Scenic River with several tributary streams. The East Branch and West Branch of the creek originate within 2 miles (3 km) of each other on the slopes of Welsh Mountain in Honey Brook Township, Pennsylvania, about 20 miles (32 km) northwest of their confluence.

The mouth of the creek on the Christina River in present-day Wilmington, Delaware, is the site of the New Sweden colony, where colonists first landed on March 29, 1638. The Battle of Brandywine was fought around the creek near Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, on September 11, 1777, during the American Revolution. Water-powered gristmills in Brandywine Village, near the creek mouth, and the nearby DuPont gunpowder mill were important in developing American industry before the introduction of steam power.

The headwaters of both the East Branch and West Branch of Brandywine Creek are in western Chester County, Pennsylvania, near Honey Brook. The East Branch and West Branch flow southeast for 27.4 miles (44.1 km) and 33.1 miles (53.3 km), respectively, to their confluence about 10 miles (16 km) southeast of Coatesville, between East Bradford Township and Pocopson Township. The combined drainage of the East Branch and West Branch, downstream of the confluence, is defined as Brandywine Creek and continues to flow southeast through Chester County, past Chadds Ford, Delaware County, Pennsylvania then enters the state of Delaware about 5 miles (8 km) north of Wilmington.

The creek continues south through First State National Historical Park and Brandywine Creek State Park, into Wilmington, where it flows through Brandywine Park near the city center. Brandywine Creek joins the Christina River 1 mile (1.6 km) east of downtown Wilmington and about 2 miles (3 km) upstream from the mouth of the Christina, which also includes flows from the White Clay Creek and Red Clay Creek basins, and finally discharges into the Delaware River estuary. The confluence of the Christina and Delaware rivers is the approximate dividing point between the freshwater Delaware River and the saltwater Delaware Bay.

In Pennsylvania, Chadds Ford, Elam,^{[dubious – discuss]} Downingtown, Unionville, and parts of West Chester, are all in the Brandywine Valley, as well as the Delaware towns of Centreville, Greenville, Montchanin, Hockessin, and Yorklyn. Nearby Avondale (in the White Clay Creek basin) and Kennett Square, Pennsylvania (in the Red Clay Creek basin) are often considered part of the Brandywine Valley.

Native Americans of the Algonquian-speaking Lenape (or Delaware) Nation lived in the area between the Hudson River Valley and southern Delaware before the European settlement. They lived by hunting, farming corn, beans, and squash, and by fishing. The Brandywine had an especially rich shad fishery. The Lenape called the creek Wauwaset, Wawasiungh, or Wawassan, and other Native American names for it included Suspecough and Trancocopanican.

The first European settlement on the Brandywine was Swedish. On March 29, 1638, Peter Minuit, who had earlier explored the area for the Dutch, founded the colony of New Sweden near the confluence of the Christina and Brandywine, at Fort Christina, in present-day Wilmington. About 600 Swedes, Finns, and Dutch settled in New Sweden. They tended to settle along the Delaware River rather than move inland along the Brandywine and are credited with introducing the log cabin into America. They called the creek Fiskiekylen, or "Fish Creek", and the Dutch heritage is also reflected in Fiske Creek and variant names using the Dutch word "Kill" or stream, Bainwend Kill, Brandewyn Kill, and Brandywine Kill. The creek's current name may be from an old Dutch word for brandy or gin, brandewijn, or from the Swedish word brännvin (Swedish vodka). During the colonisation of the Swedes the creek was called brännvins kilen. It has been asserted that in 1655, a Dutch vessel carrying brandy, wintered in the stream and was sunk due to ice accumulation. The name might also derive from an early mill owner, Andreas Brainwende or Brantwyn. A 1681 map labels the creek Brande wine Cr. Thomas Holme's 1687 map of Pennsylvania gives the name as simply Brandy Wine and shows it flowing into Christian Creek and then the Delaware River.

The Swedes, Dutch and English disputed possession of the area until 1674, when the English gained control. William Penn was granted a charter for Pennsylvania in 1681 and gained control over the "lower three counties," as Delaware was then known, soon thereafter. The population of New Sweden had only reached about 1,000, on the western shore of the Delaware, by the time of Penn's arrival. By 1687, a Swedish colonist, Tyman Stidham, opened the first mill on the Brandywine, near Wilmington. Holme's 1687 map shows only five land claims along the Brandywine, all near present-day Chadds Ford. Land claims of the earlier Swedish and Dutch colonists were not noted on this map.