History of Delaware : 1609-1888, Part 18

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : L. J. Richards
Number of Pages: 776

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though there tuner, to doubt, have been sigue bal proceeding I war. hold ' ut au pdate town called lies on ale news ( reek, bear Down. i James's, now Kent, at Where hill, now I wastown, for the county Deal, now Sussex county." Annals of Pennsylvania, p. 11b.

WILLIAM PENN AND HIS GOVERNMENT.

son with the blessings of political and religious that he could use his rapier gallantly, and his liberty secured by emigration. As far as the father took him to sen to prove to the court, when he returned as bearer of dispatches, that he was capable of beginning the career of office. The plague of London set him again upon a train of serious thinking, and his father, to counteract this, sent him to the Duke of Ormond, at the same time giving him charge of his Irish estates, Penn danced in Dublin and fought at Carrickfergus equally well, and he even applied for a troop of horse. He was a very handsome young fellow, and armor and lace became him mightily. But at Cork he met Thomas Loe again and heard a sermon upon the text " There is a faith which overcomes the world, and there is a faith which is overcome by the world." Penn came out of this meeting a confirmed Quaker. His father recalled him, but could not break his conviction ; and then again he was driven from home, but his mother still found means to supply his needs. He now court was concerned, Charles wanted provinces to give way to his favorites, while his cabinets, both under Clarendon, the Cabal, and Danby, had strong political reasons for putting the colonies more immediately under the control of the crown in order to check their manife-t yearning for self- government and comparative independence. Thus the representatives of prerogative were compelled likewise to give an enlarged attention to colonial affairs. The Council for Foreign Plantations was given new powers and a greater and more exalted membership in 1671, and in 1674 this separate commission was dissolved and the conduct of colo- nial affairs intrusted to a committee of the Privy Council itself, which was directed to sit once a week and report its proceedings to the council. This committee comprised some of the ablest of the king's councilors, and among the members were the Duke of York and the Marquis of joined the Quakers regularly, and became the Halifax.

William Penn, who was a great favorite with the Duke of York, and the founder of Pennsylvania and Delaware, was born in London, in St. Catha- rine's Parish, hard by the Tower, October 14, 1644. His father was Vice Admiral Sir William Penn ; his mother Margaret Jasper, daughter of a well- to-do Rotterdam merchant. They were united June 6, 1643, when the elder Penn, though only twenty years old, had already received his com- mission as post-captain in the royal navy, and William was their first child. It is probable that the stories of Admiral Penn about the conquest of' Jamaica and the tropical splendors of that beauti- ful island first turned the attention of the younger Penn to our continent.

William Penn received his first education at the free grammar-school of Chigwell, Essex, where he experienced strong religious impressions and had vi-ions of the " Inner Light," though he as yet had never heard Fox's name mentioned. He was not a puny child, though he must have been a studious one. He delighted and excelled in field- sports, boating, running, hunting and athletic ex- ercises. At the age of twelve he was removed from Chigwell to receive private instruction at home, and three years later entered Christ Church College, Oxford. Penn studied assiduously, he joined the " serious set," he went to hear Thomas Loe preach the new gospel of the Society of Friends, he resented the discipline which the col- loge attempted to put upon him and his intimates in consequence, and he was expelled from the uni- versity for rejecting the surplice and rioting in the quadrangle. His father beat him, relented, and sent him to France, where he came home with the manners and dress of a courtier, but saturated with Genevan theology. He had shown in Paris

most prominent of the followers of that singularly eccentric but singularly gifted leader of men, George Fox. Penn's affection for Fox was deep and strong. He repeatedly got "the man in the leather breeches " released from jail, and he gave him a thousand acres of land out of the first sur- veys made in Pennsylvania. Penn preached in publie as Fox was doing, and so well that he soon found himself a prisoner in the Tower of London, where, when brought up for trial, he defended himself so ably as to prove that he could have become a great lawyer had he so chosen.

Penn married in 1672, his wife being Gulielma Springett, daughter of Sir William Springett, a lady of lovely person and sweet temper. Ile did not spend many weeks to his honeymoon. He was soon at his work again wrestling for the truth, and, it must be said, wrestling still more lustily as one who wre-tles for victory with the oppres- sors of the faithful. In this cause he went to court again, resumed his relations with the Duke of York and scoured that prince's influence in behalf of his persecuted seet. This semi-alliance of Penn with the duke led up directly to the settlement of Pennsylvania and Delaware. Penn realized the fact that the Friends could not escape persecution nor enjoy without taint their peculiar religious seclusion, nor could his ideal commonwealth be planted in such a society as that of Europe. It minst seek new and virgin soil, where it could form its own manners and ripen its own code. Then, in 1672, came home George Fox,' fresh from his

1 Hazan says, " This ye ir TTE the celebrated Friend, George Fox, visited this tart at the counti; he artise ! frota Jamana, in Maty laatif. and, die guez ted by John D'ouvert. Robert Withers and timore Path- yun, on their way to New Fnervel, by lind, they tou ted at New Castle, and from themes, with much media alty, crossed the Delaware On their returns, they again voit New Castle, swimming their homes by the sales of caters, and underwent many offrentos. At New Castle, they net with a handsome recep cion from Governor Carr, and had a pretty large

HISTORY OF DELAWARE.

journey through the wilderness and his visits to as many colonists did not hesitate to proclain: the Quaker settlements in New Jersey and Mary- land, in which latter province the ancient meetings of Anne Arundel and Talbot Counties were already important gatherings of a happy people entirely free from persecutions. We may imagine how eagerly and closely Penn read Fox's journals and the letters of Edmond-ton, Wenlock Christison, and others about their settlements.

In 1675, when his disgust with European society and his consciousness of the impossibility to effect radical reform there had been confirmed and deepened, Penn became permanently identified with American colonial affairs, and was put in the best possible position for acquiring a full and accurate knowledge of the resources and possi-

HOUSE OF YORK.

bilities of the country between the Susquehanna and the Hudson. As has already been stated, on March 12, 1664, King Charles Il. granted to his brother James, Duke of York and Albany, a patent for all the lands in New England from the St. Croix River to the Delaware. This patent. meant to lead dircetly up to the overthrow of the Dutch power in New Netherland, was probably also intended no less as a hostile demonstration against the New England Puritan colonies, which both the brothers hated cordially and which latterly had grown so independent and had so nearly es- tablished their own authority as to provoke more than one charge that they sought presently to abandon all allegiance due from them to the mother-country. At any rate, the New England colonies at once attempted to organize themselves into a confederacy for purposes of mutual defense against the Indians and Canadian French, as was alleged, but for divers other and weighty reasons,

meeting there, it being the first ever held in that place ; thence they returned to Maryland."-Awards of Payton.

The Duke of York secured New York, Pom. sylvania and Delaware to himself as his own pr. vate possessions. That part of New Netherland lying between the Hudson and the Delaware Rivers was forthwith (in 1664, before Nicall- sailed from Portsmouth to take New York ) con- veyed by the duke, by deeds of lease and release. to Lord John Berkeley and Sir George Carteret The latter being governor of the Channel I-land- at the time, the new colony was called New Jersey, or rather Nora Grsarea, in the original grant. In 1675 Lord Berkeley sold, for one thousand pound-, his undivided half-share in New Jersey to John Fenwick, in trust for Edward Billinge and his assigns. Fenwick and Billinge were both Quaker -. and Billinge was bankrupt. Not long after this conveyance Fenwick and Billinge fell out about the property, and, after the custom of the Friend -. the dispute was submitted to arbitration. The disputants fixed upon William Penn as arbitrator. When he made his award Fenwick was not satis- fied and refused to abide by Penn's decision, which, indeed, gave Fenwick only a tenth of Lord Berke- ley's share in the joint tenancy, reserving the re- maining nine-tenths to Billinge, but giving Fen- wick a money payment besides. Penn was offended at Fenwiek's recalcitraney, and wrote him some sharp letters. "Thy days spend on," he said, "and make the best of what thou hast. Thy grandchildren may be in the other world before the land thou hast allotted will be employed." Penn stuck to his decision, and. for that matter, Fenwick likewise maintained his grievance. H .. sailed for the Delaware at the head of a colony. landed at Salem, N. J., and commenced a settle- ment. Ilere he carried matters with such a high hand, patenting land, distributing office, etc., that he made great trouble for himself and others also. His authority was not recognized, and for several years the name of Major John Fenwick fills a large place in the court records of New Castle, Upland. and New York, where he was frequently im- prisoned and sued for damages by many injured persons.

Billinge's business embarrassments increasing he made over his interest in the territory to hi- creditors, appointing Penn, with Gawen Lawrie. of London, and Nicholas Lucas, of Hertford, two of the creditors, as trustees in the matter. The plan was not to sell, but to improve the property for the benefit of the creditors. To this end a partition of the province was made, a line bein drawn through Little Egg Harbor to a point

I This was a review of the old New England confederacy of 11.43. i.f late crippled and und ineffective by inter-colound dissensions It finally fell to pures through the destruction of local self-government and the substitution of real governors in the New England es built between 1001 and lust. See Richard Frothingham's " Rise of the He- pubhe," chap il

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WILLIAM PENN AND HIS GOVERNMENT.

near where Port Jervis now is. The part of the ernor of New York and collected at the Horekill. provinee on the right of this line, called East New The next year Penn became part proprietor of East New Jersey, which was sold under the will of Sir George Carteret, then deceased, to pay his debts. A board of twenty-four proprietaries wa- organized, Penn being one, and to them the Duke of York made a fresh grant of East New Jersey, dated March 14, 1682, Robert Barclay becoming Governor, while Penn's friend, Billinge, was made Governor of West New Jersey. Both these governments were surrendered to the erown in Queen Anne's reign, April 15, 1702. Jersey, the most settled portion of the territory, was assigned to Carteret. That on the left, West New Jersey, was deeded to Billinge's trustees. A form of government was at once established for West Jersey, in which Penn's hand is distinctly seen. The basis was liberty of person and con- seienee, " the power in the prople." local self-gov- ernment and amelioration of the criminal code. The territory was next divided into one hundred parts, ten being assigned to Fenwick and ninety to Billinge's trustees, and the land was opened for While Penn was thus acquiring knowledge of and strong property interests in America, two other circumstances oceurred to intensify his im- patience with the state of affairs in England. One was the insensate so-called " Popish plot " of Titus Oates, the other the defeat of his friend, Alger- sale and oceupaney, being extensively advertised and particularly recommended to Friends. In 1677 and 1678 five vessels sailed for West New Jersey, with eight hundred emigrants, nearly all Quakers. Two companies of these, one from York- shire, the other from London, bought large tracts of land, and sent out commissioners to quiet Indian titles and lay off the properties. At Chy- goes Island they located a town, first called Bey- erly, then Birdlington, then Burlington.1 There was a regular treaty with the Indians, and the Friends not only secured peace for themselves but paved the way for the pacific relations so firmly sealed by Penn's subsequent negotiations with the savages. The Burlington colony prospered, and was reinforced by new colonists continually arriv- ing in considerable numbers. In 1680, l'enn, as counsel for the trustees of West New Jersey, suc- MERC ceeded, by means of a vigorous and able remon- stranee, in getting the Duke of York, then pro- TICE prietary of New York, to remove an onerous tax on imports and exports imposed by the Gov- WILLIAM PENN'S ARMS.

1 The value of Indian lands at that time to the savages may be gath- Med From the price paid in HIS7 for twenty miles square on the Dela- ware between Tuuler and oldman's Creeks, to wit. 30 match- pats (m.dle of hairy woul with the rough står ont), 20 gons, .Wp kettles, 1 great kettle, 30 pair of hose, 20 fathoms of duttels Dutheld Manhet cloth, of which match coats were mariel, 30 pretty nats, # narrow hees, als of 1.v4, 15 small leures of powder, To kmves, an Inhan axe -, intrants, ulf pair of tobacco tones, au pair of sensors, 00 timshaw looking-clases, 12 awi-blades, 120 til-books, " greps of ted point, 12 noodles, fulcen-boxes, 120 papers, 200 belle, In jewscharge, and i auchors of im." The value of the -warto les probably did not exceed three hun- used pound sterling. But, on the other hand, the Indian titles were really worth nothing, except so far as they served as a seurity against Itidin hostility. It has been rand that then is not an acte of law in the eastern part of Pennsylvania the death of which cannot be tied up to an Indian title, but that in effect would be no title at all. Mr. Lawrence I. wis, ip hi learned atal luminons " Essay on Original Land Titles in Philadelphia," domes the absolutely, and says that it 14 " mi- possible to trace with Any wemary" the titles to land in P'hit ule!plus & raved from the Inhans. Not to it necessary to thaten title which is of In value. The Indians could not self bound to individuals and aise valid title for it in any of the colomes; they could sell, if they chose, but only to the government. Upon this adject the lawyer are explicit. All good titles in the thirteen orizund celoules are derived from den- . Talte, made of accented not be ter Indians, but by the Butch cross. Hoe Chalmers (Political Annals, til 415. "The Law of nations et. ruly figured the possession of the ator_mes, her ance they had not been Inatted into the society of nations. " At the Declaration of Indo- was held me lately or itmothat Is, Is grants from the crown. All our " statutions ( Wheaton, Sill. "> recognize the absolute title of the ot wi, select only to the Indian right of exemplary, and Forventer the " -Jute title of the crown to extinguish that night. An Jeliin con- Mate alot could give no tele to an individual. (The references Tto given are quoted from the accurate Frothingham + " Rise of the 1. public. ")

non Sidney, for Parliament. From the date of these events Penn began to look steadily westward, and prepared himself for his " Holy " or " Divine Experiment."

Admiral Penn at his death had left his son a property of £1500 a year in English and Irish estates. There was in addition a claim against King Charles' government for money lent, which, with interest, amounted to £15,000. The king had no money and no credit. What he got from Louis XIV., through the compliant Barillon, hardly sufficed for his own menus plaisirs." Penn being now resolved to establish a colony in America alongside his New Jersey plantations, and to re- move there himself with his family so as to be at the head of a new Quaker community and common- wealth, petitioned the king to grant him, in lieu of the claim of $15,000, a tract of country in America north of Maryland, with the Delaware on its east, its

Not to be wondered at when we hund in Charles' Junk of secret service money such entries as the following: "Much Sothe Land to Duchess Jane linh. Phad to Be hard Yates, sort of Francis Yates, who conducted Prince Charles from the hell of Worcester to Whyte lowhes after the battle, and suffered death for it under Cromwell, Ett los.'

HISTORY OF DELAWARE.

western limits the same as those of Maryland, and its Secretary of State, at Harri-burg. The name . northern as far as plantable country extended. Be- fore the Privy Council Committee Penn explained that he wanted five degrees of latitude measured from Lord Baltimore's line, and that line. at his sng- gestion, was drawn from the circumference of a cir- cle, the radius of which was twelve miles from New Castle as its centre. The petition of Penn's was re- ceived June 14, 1680. The object sought by the petitioner, it was stated, was not only to provide a peaceful home for the persecuted members of the Society of Friends, but to afford an asylum for the good and oppressed of every nation on the basis of a practical application of the pure and peaceable principles of Christianity. The petition encoun- tered much and various opposition. Sir John Wer- den, agent of the Duke of York, opposed it because the territory sought was an appendage to the gov- ernment of New York, and as such belonged to the duke. Mr. Burke, the active and untiring agent of Lord Baltimore, opposed it because the grant asked by Penn would infringe upon the ter- ritory covered by Baltimore's charter. At any rate, said Mr. Burke, in a letter to the Privy Coun- eil Committee, if the grant be made to Penn, let the deed expressly state lands to the north of Sus- quehanna Fort, " which is the boundary of Mary- land to the northward." There was also strong opposition in the Privy Council to the idea of a man such as Penn being permitted to establish plantations after his own peculiar model. His theories of government were held to be Utopian and dangerous alike to Church and State. He was looked upon as a Republican like Sidney. However, he had strong friends in the Earl of Sunderland, Lord Hyde, Chief Justice North, and the Earl of Halifax. He had an interview with the Duke of York, and contrived to win him over to look upon his project with favor, and Sir J. Werden wrote to the secretary, saying, " His royal Highness commands me to let you know, in order to your informing their lordships of it, that he is very willing Mr. Penn's request may meet with success." The attorney-general, Sir William Jones, examined the petition in view of proposed bound- aries, and reported that with some alterations it did not appear to touch upon any territory of pre- vious grants, "except the imaginary lines of New England patents, which are bounded westwardly by the main ocean, should give them a real though impracticable right to all those vast territories." The draught of the patent, when tinally it had reached that stage of development, was submitted to the Lords of Trade to see if English commercial interests were subserved, and to the Bishop of London to look after the rights of the church. The king signed the patent on March 4, 16>1, and the venerable document may now be seen by the curious, framed and hung up in the office of the

be given to the new territory was lett blank : the king to fill up, and Charles called it Penn- vania. Penn, who seems to have been needles. squeamish on the subject, wrote to his friend- t say that he wanted the territory called N. Wales, and offered the Under Secretary twent. guineas to change the name, "for I feared lost P should be looked on as a vanity in me." However he consoled him-elf' with the reflection that " it .. a just and clear thing, and my Goal, that has given it me through many difficulties, will, I believe. bless and make it the seed of a nation. I shall

EMBELLISHMENT ON THE CHARTER OF PENNSYLVA- NIA, GRANTED TO WILLIAM PENN IN 1681.

have a tender care to the government that it be well laid at first."

The charter. which is given complete in " Haz- ard's Annals," consists of twenty-three article-, with a preamble reciting the king's desire to extend his dominions and trade, convert the sv- ages, etc., and his sense of obligation to Sir Wil- liam Penn :

I. The grant comprises all that part of America, islanda included. which is bounded on the Past by the Delaware River from a point off a circle twelve miles northward of New Castle town to the 45' north Liti- tude if the Deleware extemils so far ; if not, as far as it dues extend, and thenew to the 4: by a merchant line. From this point westward five press of longundrou th . 48 parallel, the western boundary to the 4oth parallel, and thener by a straight line to the plire of beginning. II Grants Penn ments to fod map of gives, bothers, fisheries, etr

III. Creates and constitutes him 1. od Ir prietary of the Provare saving onty bis allegiance to the Kiz. Poun to hold directly ot : kings of England, "as of our castle of Win For in the comity of Bett ... in free and contact damage, by fruits only, for all services, and to ! in cupde, or by knight's a ruce, yielding and paying therefore to b- our heirs and sinceword, two beaver skills, to be delivered at our ust . of Windsor on the Ist day of Jannary every year," also one-filth et precious metals talen ont. On these terms Peun-ylvania Was i recte. into "a province *: nl emizniory."

IV. Grants Fonte and has successors, his deputies and lieutenant. " fire, full, anlat - deter power" to bithe law - for saving money for the public wwe set the Positive and for other putin porquees af then d . cretion, by aud with the advice and cotreut of the people or their reft

V Grants ju.wer to appoint officer, judges, magistrates, etc., tu par lon offenders, before jurigment of after, except in cases of treason, and to

WILLIAM PENN AND HIS GOVERNMENT.

Have charge of the entire pataldinhmont of justice, with the single pro- wow that the laws ,laptei shall be coffsumint to reason and tut conimty nor repugnant to the laws and statutes of England, and that all perwes whwould have the right of appeal to the King.

VI. Prescribes that the laws of England are to be in force in the Province until others have been substituted for them.

VII. Laws adopted for the government of the Province to be sent to Ingland for roy il approval within five years after their adoption, uu ler p nalty of becoming von.

! ! II. Livenors emigration to the new colony.

IX. Licenses trade between the colony all England, subject to the restrictions of the Navigation Arts,

X Grants permission to Penn to divide the colony into the various minor p .lite al divisions, to constitute fairs, grant immunities alt + x- +uittions, etc.

VI. Sionlar to IX , but applies to exports from colomy.

XII. Grants leave to create seaports and harbois, etc., in all of trad. and commerce, subject to English customs regulations.

XII. Penn and the Province to have hboity to levy customs duties XIV. The Proprietary to have a resident agent in London, to newer in case of charges, etc , and continued mi-feasance to vonl the charter and restore the government of the Province tor the King.

XV Proprietary forbidden intercourse or correspondence with the enemies of England.

XVI. Grants leave to Proprietary to pursue and make war on the stages of robbers, pirates, etc., and to Je vy forums for that end, and to bill and slay according to the laws of war.

XVII. Grants full power to l'enn to sell or otherwise convey lands in the Province.

XVIII. Gives title to persons holding under Prun.

XIX. Penn may eret manors, and each mayor to have privilege of court-haron and frank-pledge, holders under manor-title to be protected in their tenure.

XX. The King not to lav taxes in the Province " unless the same be with the consent of the Proprietary, or chief Governor, or Assembly, ur by act of Parliament of England."

XXI. The charter to be valid in English courts against all assump- tions or presumption- of nunisters or royal officer -.

XXII Bishop of London may send out clergymen if asked to do so by twenty inhabitants of the Province.

XXIII. In cases of doubt the charter is to be interpreted and con- stred literally in Penn's favor, provided such constructions do not interfere with or le-sen the royal prerogative.

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History of Delaware : 1609-1888, Part 18

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Philadelphia : L. J. Richards Number of Pages: 776

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898. cn
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Philadelphia : L. J. Richards
Number of Pages: 776