Possible Clues:

• Derek's alive to 22
• 1776 crossing site
• State with just three counties
• Knock back beer with women in challenge in America
• State manufactured articles after New Deal?
• One of the original 13 US states
• Guided westwards, with sensitive state of the east
• English writer married off, acquiring wife in US state
• First of fifty
• The First State (to ratify the US constitution)