Part 808

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: DELAWARES, SUSQUEHANNAS, and SHAWANESE.

PENNSYLVANIA:A. D. 1629-1664. The Dutch and Swedes on the Delaware.

See DELAWARE; A. D. 1620-1631, and after.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1632. Partly embraced in the Maryland grant to Lord Baltimore.

See MARYLAND: A. D. 1632.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1634. Partly embraced in the Palatine grant of New Albion.

See NEW ALBION.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1641. The settlement from New Haven, on the site of Philadelphia.

See NEW JERSEY: A. D. 1640-1655.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1673. Repossession of the Delaware by the Dutch.

See NEW YORK: A. D. 1673.

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1681. The Proprietary grant to William Penn.

"William Penn was descended from a long line of sailor ancestors. His father, an admiral in the British navy, had held various important naval commands, and in recognition of his services had been honored by knighthood. A member of Parliament, and possessed of a considerable fortune, the path of worldly advancement seemed open and easy for the feet of his son, who had received a liberal education at Oxford, continued in the schools of the Continent. Beautiful in person, engaging in manner, accomplished in manly exercises and the use of the sword, fortune and preferment seemed to wait the acceptance of William Penn. But at the very outset of his career the Divine voice fell upon his ears as upon those of St. Paul." He became a follower of George Fox, and one of the people known as Quakers or Friends. "Many trials awaited the youthful convert. His father cast him off. He underwent a considerable imprisonment in the Tower for 'urging the cause of freedom with importunity.' … In time these afflictions abated. The influence of his family saved him from the heavier penalties which fell upon many of his co-religionists. His father on his death-bed reinstated him as his heir. 'Son William,' said the dying man, 'if you and your friends keep to your plain way of preaching and living, you will make an end of the priests.' Some years later we find him exerting an influence at Court which almost amounted to popularity. It is evident that, with all his boldness of opinion and speech, Penn possessed a tact and address which gave him the advantage over most of his sect in dealings with worldly people. … In 1680 his influence at Court and with moneyed men enabled him to purchase a large tract of land in east New Jersey, on which to settle a colony of Quakers, a previous colony having been sent out three years before to west New Jersey. Meanwhile a larger project filled his mind. His father had bequeathed to him a claim on the Crown for £16,000. Colonial property was then held in light esteem, and, with the help of some powerful friends, Penn was enabled so to press his claim as to secure the charter for that valuable grant which afterward became the State of Pennsylvania, and which included three degrees of latitude by five of longitude, west from the Delaware. 'This day,' writes Penn, January 5, 1681, 'my country was confirmed to me by the name of Pennsylvania, a name the king [Charles II.] would give it in honour of my father. I chose New Wales, being as this a pretty hilly country. I proposed (when the Secretary, a Welshman, refused to have it called New Wales) Sylvania, and they added Penn to it, and though I much opposed it, and went to the King to have it struck out and altered, he said 'twas past, and he would take it upon him. … I feared lest it should be looked upon as a vanity in me, and not as a respect of the King, as it truly was, to my father, whom he often mentions with praise.' {2499} 'In return for this grant of 26,000,000 of acres of the best land in the universe, William Penn, it was agreed, was to deliver annually at Windsor Castle two beaver-skins, pay into the King's treasury one fifth of the gold and silver which the province might yield, and govern the province in conformity with the laws of England and as became a liege of England's King. He was to appoint judges and magistrates, could pardon all crimes except murder and treason, and whatsoever things he could lawfully do himself, he could appoint a deputy to do, he and his heirs forever.' The original grant was fantastically limited by a circle drawn twelve miles distant from Newcastle, northward and westward, to the beginning of the 40th degree of latitude. This was done to accommodate the Duke of York, who wished to retain the three lower counties as an appanage to the State of New York. A few months later he was persuaded to renounce this claim, and the charter of Penn was extended to include the western and southern shores of the Delaware Bay and River from the 43rd degree of latitude to the Atlantic. … The charter confirmed, a brief account of the country was published, and lands offered for sale on the easy terms of 40 shillings a hundred acres, and one shilling's rent a year in perpetuity. Numerous adventurers, many of them men of wealth and respectability, offered. The articles of agreement included a provision as to 'just and friendly conduct toward the natives.' … In April, 1681, he sent forward 'young Mr. Markham,' his relative, with a small party of colonists to take possession of the grant, and prepare for his own coming during the following year. … In August, 1682, Penn himself embarked."

_Susan Coolidge (S. C. Woolsey), Short History of Philadelphia, chapter 2._

"The charter [to Penn], which is given complete in Hazard's Annals, consists of 23 articles, with a preamble. … The grant comprises all that part of America, islands included, which is bounded on the east by the Delaware River from a point on a circle twelve miles northward of New Castle town to the 43° north latitude if the Delaware extends so far; if not, as far as it does extend, and thence to the 43° by a meridian line. From this point westward five degrees of longitude on the 43° parallel; the western boundary to the 40th parallel, and thence by a straight line to the place of beginning. … Grants Penn rights to and use of rivers, harbors, fisheries, etc. … Creates and constitutes him Lord Proprietary of the Province, saving only his allegiance to the King, Penn to hold directly of the kings of England, 'as of our castle of Windsor in the county of Berks, in free and common socage, by fealty only, for all services, and not in capite, or by Knight's service, yielding and paying therefore to us, our heirs and successors, two beaver-skins.' … Grants Penn and his successors, his deputies and lieutenants, 'free, full, and absolute power' to make laws for raising money for the public uses of the Province, and for other public purposes at their discretion, by and with the advice and consent of the people or their representatives in assembly. … Grants power to appoint officers, judges, magistrates, etc., to pardon offenders."

_J. T. Scharf and T. Westcott, History of Philadelphia, chapter 7 (volume 1)._

ALSO IN: _T. Clarkson, Memoirs of William Penn, volume 1, chapters 16-17._

_S. Hazard, Annals of Pennsylvania, pages 485-504._

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1681-1682. Penn's Frame of Government.

Before the departure from England of the first company of colonists, Penn drew up a Frame of Government which he submitted to them, and to which they gave their assent and approval by their signatures, he signing the instrument likewise. The next year this Frame of Government was published by Penn, with a preface, "containing his own thoughts upon the origin, nature, object, and modes of Government. … The Frame, which followed this preface, consisted of twenty-four articles; and the Laws, which were annexed to the latter, were forty. By the Frame the government was placed in the Governor and Freemen of the province, out of whom were to be formed two bodies; namely, a Provincial Council and a General Assembly. These were to be chosen by the Freemen; and though the Governor or his Deputy was to be perpetual President, he was to have but a treble vote. The Provincial Council was to consist of seventy-two members. One third part, that is, twenty-four of them, were to serve for three years, one third for two, and the other third for one; so that there might be an annual succession of twenty-four new members, each third part thus continuing for three years and no longer. It was the office of this Council to prepare and propose bills, to see that the laws were executed, to take care of the peace and safety of the province, to settle the situation of ports, cities, market towns, roads, and other public places, to inspect the public treasury, to erect courts of justice, institute schools, and reward the authors of useful discovery. Not less than two thirds of these were necessary to make a quorum; and the consent of not less than two thirds of such quorum in all matters of moment. The General Assembly was to consist the first year of all the freemen, and the next of two hundred. These were to be increased afterwards according to the increase of the population of the province. They were to have no deliberative power; but, when bills were brought to them from the Governor and Provincial Council, to pass or reject them by a plain Yes or No. They were to present sheriffs and justices of the peace to the Governor, a double number for his choice of half. They were to be elected annually. All elections of members, whether to the Provincial Council or General Assembly, were to be by ballot. And this Charter or Frame of Government was not to be altered, changed, or diminished in any part or clause of it, without the consent of the Governor, or his heirs or assigns, and six parts out of seven of the Freemen both in the Provincial Council and General Assembly. With respect to the Laws, which I said before were forty in number, I shall only at present observe of them that they related to whatever may be included under the term 'Good Government of the Province'; some of them to liberty of conscience; others to civil officers and their qualifications; others to offences; others to legal proceedings, such as pleadings, processes, fines, imprisonments, and arrests; others to the natural servants and poor of the province. With respect to all of them it may be observed, that, like the Frame itself, they could not be altered but by the consent of the Governor, or his heirs, and the consent of six parts out of seven of the two bodies before mentioned."

_T. Clarkson, Memoirs of William Penn, volume 1, chapter 18._

ALSO IN: _S. Hazard, Annals of Pennsylvania, pages 558-574._

{2500}

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1682. Acquisition by Penn of the claims of the Duke of York to Delaware.

"During the negotiations between New Netherland and Maryland in 1659, the Dutch insisted that, as Lord Baltimore's patent covered only savage or uninhabited territory, it could not affect their own possession of the Delaware region. Accordingly, they held it against Maryland until it was taken from them by the Duke of York in 1664. But James's title by conquest had never been confirmed to him by a grant from the king; and Cecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, insisted that Delaware belonged to Maryland. To quiet controversy, the duke had offered to buy off Baltimore's claim, to which he would not agree. Penn afterward refused a large offer by Fenwick 'to get of the duke his interest in Newcastle and those parts' for West Jersey. Thus stood the matter when the Pennsylvania charter was sealed. Its proprietor soon found that his province, wholly inland, wanted a front on the sea. As Delaware was 'necessary' to Pennsylvania, Penn 'endeavored to get it' from the duke by maintaining that Baltimore's pretension 'was against law, civil and common.' Charles Calvert, the third Lord Baltimore, was 'very free' in talking against the Duke of York's rights; but he could not circumvent Penn. The astute Quaker readily got from James a quit-claim of all his interest in the territory included within the proper bounds of Pennsylvania. After a struggle, Penn also gained the more important conveyances [August, 1682] to himself of the duke's interest in all the region within a circle of twelve miles diameter around Newcastle, and extending southward as far as Cape Henlopen. The triumphant Penn set sail the next week. At Newcastle he received from James's agents formal possession of the surrounding territory, and of the region farther south."

_J. R. Brodhead, History of New York, volume 2, chapter 7._

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1682-1685. Penn's arrival in his province. His treaty with the Indians. The founding of Philadelphia.

Penn sailed, in person, for his province on the 1st of September, 1682, on the ship "Welcome," with 100 fellow passengers, mostly Friends, and landed at Newcastle after a dreary voyage, during which thirty of his companions had died of smallpox. "Next day he called the people together in the Dutch court-house, when he went through the legal forms of taking possession. … Penn's great powers being legally established, he addressed the people in profoundest silence. He spoke of the reasons for his coming—the great idea which he had nursed from his youth upwards—his desire to found a free and virtuous state, in which the people should rule themselves. … He spoke of the constitution he had published for Pennsylvania as containing his theory of government; and promised the settlers on the lower reaches of the Delaware, that the same principles should be adopted in their territory. Every man in his provinces, he said, should enjoy liberty of conscience and his share of political power. … The people listened to this speech with wonder and delight. … They had but one request to make in answer; that he would stay amongst them and reign over them in person. They besought him to annex their territory to Pennsylvania, in order that the white settlers might have one country, one parliament, and one ruler. He promised, at their desire, to take the question of a union of the two provinces into consideration, and submit it to an assembly then about to meet at Upland. So he took his leave. Ascending the Delaware … the adventurers soon arrived at the Swedish town of Upland, then the place of chief importance in the province. … Penn changed the name from Upland to Chester, and as Chester it is known. Markham and the three commissioners had done their work so well that in a short time after Penn's arrival, the first General Assembly, elected by universal suffrage, was ready to meet. … As soon as Penn had given them assurances similar to those which he had made in Newcastle, they proceeded to discuss, amend, and accept the Frame of Government and the Provisional Laws. The settlers on the Delaware sent representatives to this Assembly, and one of their first acts was to declare the two Provinces united. The constitution was adopted without important alteration; and to the forty laws were added twenty-one others, and the infant code was passed in form. … Penn paid some visits to the neighbouring seats of government in New York, Maryland, and the Jerseys. At West River, Lord Baltimore came forth to meet him with a retinue of the chief persons in the province. … It was impossible to adjust the boundary, and the two proprietors separated with the resolution to maintain their several rights. … The lands already bought from the Redmen were now put up for sale at four-pence an acre, with a reserve of one shilling for every hundred acres as quit-rent; the latter sum intended to form a state revenue for the Governor's support. Amidst these sales and settlements he recollected George Fox, for whose use and profit he set aside a thousand acres of the best land in the province. … Penn was no less careful for the Redskins. Laying on one side all ceremonial manners, he won their hearts by his easy confidence and familiar speech. He walked with them alone into the forests. He sat with them on the ground to watch the young men dance. He joined in their feasts, and ate their roasted hominy and acorns. … Having now become intimate with Taminent and other of the native kings, who had approved these treaties, seeing great advantages in them for their people, he proposed to hold a conference with the chiefs and warriors, to confirm the former treaties and form a lasting league of peace. On the banks of the Delaware, in the suburbs of the rising city of Philadelphia, lay a natural amphitheatre, used from time immemorial as a place of meeting for the native tribes. The name of Sakimaxing—now corrupted by the white men into Shackamaxon—means the place of kings. At this spot stood an aged elm-tree, one of those glorious elms which mark the forests of the New World. It was a hundred and fifty-five years old; under its spreading branches friendly nations had been wont to meet; and here the Redskins smoked the calumet of peace long before the pale-faces landed on those shores. Markham had appointed this locality for his first conference, and the land commissioners wisely followed his example. {2501} Old traditions had made the place sacred to one of the contracting parties,—and when Penn proposed his solemn conference, he named Sakimaxing [or Shackamaxon] as a place of meeting with the Indian kings. Artists have painted, poets sung, philosophers praised this meeting of the white men and the red [October 14, 1682]. … All being seated, the old king announced to the Governor that the natives were prepared to hear and consider his words. Penn then rose to address them. … He and his children, he went on to say, never fired the rifle, never trusted to the sword; they met the red men on the broad path of good faith and good will. They meant no harm, and had no fear. He read the treaty of friendship, and explained its clauses. It recited that from that day the children of Onas and the nations of the Lenni Lenapé should be brothers to each other,—that all paths should be free and open—that the doors of the white men should be open to the red men, and the lodges of the red men should be open to the white men,—that the children of Onas should not believe any false reports of the Lenni Lenape, nor the Lenni Lenape of the children of Onas, but should come and see for themselves, … that if any son of Onas were to do any harm to any Redskin, or any Redskin were to do harm to a son of Onas, the sufferer should not offer to right himself, but should complain to the chiefs and to Onas, that justice might be declared by twelve honest men, and the wrong buried in a pit with no bottom,—that the Lenni Lenape should assist the white men, and the white men should assist the Lenni Lenape, against all such as would disturb them or do them hurt; and, lastly, that both Christians and Indians should tell their children of this league and chain of friendship, that it might grow stronger and stronger, and be kept bright and clean, without rust or spot, while the waters ran down the creeks and rivers, and while the sun and moon and stars endured. He laid the scroll on the ground. The sachems received his proposal for themselves and for their children. No oaths, no seals, no mummeries, were used; the treaty was ratified on both sides with yea,—and, unlike treaties which are sworn and sealed, was kept. When Penn had sailed, he held a note in his mind of six things to be done on landing:

(1) to organize his government; (2) to visit Friends in Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey; (3) to conciliate the Indians; (4) to see the Governor of New York, who had previously governed his province; (5) to fix the site for his capital city; (6) to arrange his differences with Lord Baltimore.

The subject of his chief city occupied his anxious thought, and Markham had collected information for his use. Some people wished to see Chester made his capital; but the surveyor, Thomas Holme, agreed with Penn that the best locality in almost every respect was the neck of land lying at the junction of the Delaware and the Skuylkill rivers. … The point was known as Wicocoa. … The land was owned by three Swedes, from whom Penn purchased it on their own terms; and then, with the assistance of Holme, he drew his plan. … Not content to begin humbly, and allow house to be added to house, and street to street, as people wanted them, he formed the whole scheme of his city—its name, its form, its streets, its docks, and open spaces—fair and perfect in his mind, before a single stone was laid. According to his original design, Philadelphia was to cover with its houses, squares, and gardens, twelve square miles. … One year from the date of Penn's landing in the New World, a hundred houses had been built; two years later there were six hundred houses."

_W. H. Dixon, History of William Penn, chapters 24-25._

ALSO IN: _J. T. Scharf and T. Westcott, History of Philadelphia, volume 1, chapter 9._

_Memoirs of the Penn Historical Society, volume 6 (The Belt of Wampum, &c.)._

_W. C. Bryant and S. H. Gay, Popular History of the United States, volume 2, chapter 20._

PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1685. The Maryland Boundary question. Points in dispute with Lord Baltimore.