History of Delaware : 1609-1888, Part 20

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

USA > Delaware > History of Delaware : 1609-1888 > Part 20

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In the Constitution, which follows the preamble, Penn begins by confirming to the freemen of the province all the liberties, franchises, and proper- ties secured to them by the patent of King Charles HI. The government of the province is to consist of " the Governor and freemen of the said province, in form of a Provincial Council and General As- sembly, by whom all laws shall be made, officers chosen, and public affairs transacted." The Coun- cil, of seventy-two members, is to be elected at once, one-third of the members to go out, and their -nece-sors elected each year, and after the first seven years those going out each year shall not be returned within a year. Two-thirds of the Coun- cil are required to constitute a quorum, except in minor matters, when twenty-four will suffice. The Governor is always to preside over the session of Council, and is to have three votes " The Governor and Provincial Council shall prepare and propose to the General Assembly hereafter mentioned oll bills which they shall at any time think fit to be fois-ed into laws within the said province, . . . and on the ninth day from their so meeting, the said General Assembly, after reading over the proposed

Aside from this fatal piece of subservience there is much to praise in Penn's Constitution and something to wonder at. as being -o far in advance of his age. The executive fumetions of Governor and Council are carefully defined and limited. A wholesome and liberal provision is made for edu- cation, public schools, inventions, and useful scien- tifie discoveries. 1

The Provincial Conneil, for the more prompt dispatch of business, was to be divided into four committees,-one to have charge of plantations, "to situate and settle cities, posts, and market- towns and highways, and to have and decide all suits and controversies relating to plantations," one to be a committee of justice and safety, one of trade and treasury, and the fourth of manners, education, and arts, " that all wicked and scan-

1 In the preamble Penn lavs dowa a doctrine now universally preng- nized, and the general acceptance of which, it is believed, affords the anrest quirantee for the terjedtmity of American institutions, that vir- the and wischen, Because they descend unt with worldly tumeritiances, must be car tady proprested by a vutuens edin ation of youth, for which after-agry will use more to the rate and peopleme of fameler, and the successive wagitracy than to their parents for their private patrimo- nic. ' No great truth could be mote fully and nobly expressed than thus.

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HISTORY OF DELAWARE.

dalous living may be prevented, and that youth cultivated twenty. " and every inhabitant, artif may be successfully trained up in virtue and use- eer, or other restilent in the said province th ful knowledge and arts."

The General Assembly was to be elected yearly, not to exceed two hundred members, representing all the freemen of the province. They were to meet in the capital on " the 20th day of the see- ond month," and during eight days were expect- ed to freely conter with one another and the Couneil, and, if they chose, to make snesistions to the Council committees about the amendment ca alteration of bills (all such as the Council pro- posed to offer for the adoption being published three weeks beforehand), and on the ninth day were to vote, " not less than two-thirds making a quorum in the passing of laws and choice of such officers as are by them to be chosen." The Gen- eral Assembly was to nominate a list of judges, treasurers, sheriffs, justices, coroners, etc., two for each office, from which list the Governor and Couneil were to select the officers to serve. The body was to adjourn upon being served with no- tice that the Governor and Council had no further business to lay before them, and to assemble again upon the summons of the Governor and Council. Elections were to be by ballot, and so were ques- tions of impeachment in the Assembly and judg- ment of criminals in the Council. In case the proprietary be a minor, and no guardian has been appointed in writing by his father, the Coun- cil was to appoint a commission of three guard- ians to act as Governor during such minority. No business was to be done by the Governor, Council, or Assembly on Sunday, except in cases of emer- geney. The Constitution could not be altered without the consent of the Governor and six- sevenths of the Council and the General As- sembly. (Such a rule, if enforced, would have perpetuated any Constitution, however bad ). Fi- nally Penn solemnly declared " that neither I, my heirs nor assigns, shall procure or do anything or things whereby the liberties in this charter con- tained and expresed shall be infringed or broken ; and if anything be procured by any person or persons contrary to these premises it shall be held of no force or effect."

On May 15th Penn's code of laws, passed in England, to be altered or amended in Pennsyl- vania, was promulgated. . It consists of forty statutes, the first of which declare- the charter or Constitution which has just been analyzed to be All prison-, of which each county i- to have one, shall be work-houses for felons, vagrants, and love and idle persons. All person- shall be bailable by sufficient security, save in capital offenses " where the proof" is evident or the presumption great." Pri-on- are to be free as to fer, food, and lodging. " fundamental in the government itself." The second establishes the qualification- of a freeman (or voter or elector). These include every pur- chaser of one hundred acres of land, every tenant of one hundred aeres, at a penny an acre quit- rent, who has paid his own pas age across the All lands and goods shall be liable to pay debt-, ocean and cultivated ten acres of his holding, except where there is legal issue, and then all good- every freeman who has taken up fifty aeres and and one-third of the land only. (This is meant in

pays scot and lot to the government." All the elertors are also eligible to election both to Cours vil and A vembly.

Elections must be free and voluntary, and elev :. ors who take bribes shall forfeit their votes, whil those ofaring bribes forfeit their election, the Gren. cit and Assembly to be sole judges of the regularity of the election of their members,

". No money or goods shall be raised upon of Fait by any of the people of thi- province, by way of public tat, custom, or contribution, but by a las for that purpose made." Those violating thi- statute are to be treated as public enemies and he- travers of the liberties of the province.

All courts shall be open, and justice shall neither be soi.l, denied, or delayed. In all courts all per- sons of all (religious) persuasions may freely ap- year in their own way and according to their own manger, pleading personally or by friend ; com- plaint to be exhibitil fourteen days before trial. and summons is med not less than ten days before arial, a copy of complaint to be delivered to the party complained of at his dwelling. No com- plaint to be received but upon the oath or affir- mation of complainant that he believes in his con- science his cause to be just. Pleadings, proce-zes. and reeords in court are required to be brief, in English, and written plainly so as to be understood by all.

All trials shall be by twelve men, peers, of good character, and of the neighborhood. When the penalty for the offense to be tried is death, the sheriff' is to summon a grand inquest of twenty- four men, twelve at least of whom shall pronounce the complaint to be true, and then twelve men or peers are to be further returned by the sheriff to try the issue and have the final judgment. Thi- trial jury shall always be subject to reasonable challenge.

Fees are required to be moderate, their amount> settled by the Legislature, and a table of them hung up in every court-room, Any person con- vieted of charging more than the lawful fee shall pay twofold, one-half to go to the wronged party. while the offender shall be dismissed. All person- wrongly imprisoned or prosecuted at law shall have double damages against the informer or pro- seentor.

WILLIAM PENN AND HIS GOVERNMENT.

ense a man should die insolvent.) All wills in mies to peace and concord. Factors and others writing, attested by two witnesses shall be of the guilty of breach of trust must make satisfaction, -ame force as to lands or other conveyances, being legally proved within forty days within or without the province. and one-third over, to their employers, and in case of the fartor's death the Conneil Committee of Trade is to see that satisfaction is made out of his estates.

Seven years' quiet possession gives title, except in cases of infants, lunaties, married women, or persons beyond the seas.

Bribery and extortion are to be severely punished, but fine- should be moderate and not exhaustive of men's property.1

Marriage (not forbidden by the degrees of con- sanguinity or affinity ) shall be encouraged, but parents or guardians must first be consulted, and publication made before sole mnization ; the cere- mony to be by taking one another as husband and wife in the presence of witnesses, to be followed by a certificate signed by parties and witnesses, and recorded in the office of the county regi-ter. All deeds, charters, grants, conveyances, long notes. bonds, etc., are required to be registered also in the county enrollment office within two months after they are exceuted, otherwise to be void. Similar deeds made out of the province were allowed six months in which to be registered be- fore becoming valid.

All defacers or corrupters of legal instruments or registries shall make double satisfaction, half to the party wronged, be dismissed from place, and disgraced as false men.

A separate registry of births, marriages, deaths, burials, wills, and letters of administration is re- quired to be kept.

Witnesses must promise to speak the truth, the whole truth, ete., and if convicted of willful,false- hood shall suffer the penalty which would have been inflicted upon the person areused, shall make satisfaction to the party wronged, and be publicly exposed as false witnesses, never to be credited in any court or before any magistrate in the province,

Public officers shall hold but one office at a time; all children more than twelve years old shall be taught some useful trade; servants shall not be kept longer than their time, must be well treated if deserving, and at the end of their term be " put in fitting equipage, according to custom."

Scandal-mongers, back-biters, defamers and -preaders of false news, whether against publie or private persons, are to be severely punished as ene-

All public officers, legislators, etc., must be profe -- sorsot faith in Jesus Christ, of good fame, sober and honest convictions, and twenty-one years old. " All persons living in this province who coutess and ac- knowledge the one Almighty and Eternal God to be the Creator, I'pholder, and Ruler of the world, and that hold themselves obliged in conscience to live peaceably and justly in civil society, shall in noways be molested or prejudiced for their reli- gious persuasion or practice in matters of faith and worship ; nor shall they be compelled at any time to frequent or maintain any religious wor- ship, place, or ministry whatever." The people are required to respect Sunday by abstaining from daily labor. All "offenses against God," swear- ing, eursing, lying, profane talking, drunkenness, drinking of healths, obscenity, whoredom and other uneleanness, treasons, misprisions, murders, duels, felony, sedition, mainings, forcible entries and other violence, all prizes, stage-plays, cards, dice, May-games, pamesters, ma-ks, revels, buil- baitings, cock-fightings, and the like, "which ex- cite the people to rudeness, cruelty, looseness, and irreligion, shall be respectfully discouraged and severely punished, according to the appointment of the Governor and treemen in Council and General Assembly."

All property of felons is liable for double satis- All other matters not provided for in this code are referred to " the order, prudence, and determination " of the Governor and Legislature. faction, half to the party wronged ; when there is no land the satisfaction must be worked out in prison ; while estates of capital offenders are The most admirable parts of this code, putting escheated, one-third to go to the next of kin of the it far ahead of the contemporary jurisprudence of sufferer and the remainder to next of kin of criminal.

England or any other civilized country at the time," are the regulations for liberty of worship

: Part we must except the Cathche colony in Maryland, founded by Sir George Calvert, whose charter of 1632, and the act of toleration pa-sed Is the A-emilly of Maryland, in Inl', mader the inspiration of Sir George's son, Cavesline, must be placed alonesale of Peut'- work. Two brighter light- in an age of darkness never shone. Halvert's charter was writete during the heat of the Thity Years' pbzions war, Pen's Poh- stitution at the moment when all Dissenters were persecuted in England anl when Lotts XIV. was al out to revoke the hintof Nantes, The Vommians were esfalling the Quaker- and other sectaires. In New England the Pati'in separatists, tremelses refuses for union's sake, martyrs to the cause of religious freedom, were making laws which were the embodiment of donidy distilled intolerance and jefsrentim. Roger Williams was famished in loss, in he's the Hiptests were ent to the

baptiste, s. Berit to the evolution of desiate, and if they returned they were to be put to death. In fodr it was der rred against " the cursed sert uf herentes lately risen up in the world, which are commonly called Quakers," that & opains of ships bringing them in were to be tired of my- prisoned, Quaker books, or "writings containing their devilish of nations," were not to los ningertod, iguale is theutes lies were to be sent to the house of some ten, hope at work made to remain sile ut, and severely whipped. This was what the contemporaries of talent and Peun did. We have sou Peun . law of himty of conception, Calvert's was equally Istral. The batter of talent was not to be interpreted mais rework any din- mation of God's sacred Christian religion, ogen to all sets, Protestant and Cathe he, and the art of toleration and all preceding Pertation, official vatha, ete., brenthed the same sjarit of tulerattuin and de'e mina- tion, in the words of the path of 1:37, that none in the colony, by him-

1 "Conteuements, merchandise, and wainage," si19 the text,-the sent by which a man keeps his house, his goods, and his means of trans-

HISTORY OF DELAWARE.

and the administration of justice. Penn's code on this latter point is more than a hundred year, in advance of England. In the matter of fires. charges, plain and simple forms, processes, records, and pleadings, it still remains in advance of court proceedings and regulations nearly everywhere. The elauses about work-houses and about bailabje offenses are also far in advance of even the bes! modern jurisprudence.

Notwithstanding all these and many other heavy and pressing engagements, Peut seems to have found time to attend to his work as a preach- er and a writer of religious tracts and pamphlets. He went on a mission tour into the West of Eng- land, he wrote on " Spiritual Commission," he mediated between dissenting Friends, and bealed a breach in his church ; his benevolent endeavors were given to aid and encourage the Bristol Quakers, then severely persecuted, and he barely escaped being sent to jail himself for preaching in London at the Grace Church Street meeting.

Penn had expected to go out to Pennsylvania himself late in the fall of 1681, but the pressure of all these concerns and the rush of emigrants and colonists delayed him. He found he would have settlers from France, Holland, and Scotland, as well as from England, and few besides servants By June 1st Penn had made the extraordinary sale of five hundred and sixty-five thousand five hundred acres of land in the new province, in par- cels of from two hundred and fifty to twenty thousand acres. Penn's mother died about thi- rime, causing him much affliction. The Fre Traders Society is organized, Claypoole makes up his mind at last to emigrate, the site for Philade .- phia is determined, and Markham buys up Imlian titles and settlers' land upon it, so as to have all clear for the coming great city. August 31st tl Duke of York gives Penn a protective deed for Pennsylvania, and on the 24th the Duke finally concedes New Castle, and twelve miles about it, ail Horekill (Delaware), between New Castle and Cape Ilenlopen, to him by deed of feothinent .: This concludes the major part of Penn's business in England, and he is ready to sail Sept. 1st, 1682, in the ship " Welcome," three hundred ton -. Captain Robert Greenway, master. It is then that he writes the touching letter to his wife and children, in which he says, " remember thou wast the love of my youth and much the joy of my would be ready to go before the spring of 1682. " When they go, I go," he wrote to his friend James Harrison, " but my going with servants will not settle a government, the great end of my going." He also said in this letter that in sell ng or renting land he cleared the king's and the In- dian title, the purchaser or lessee paid the seriv- ener and surveyor. In October Penn sent out three commissioners. William Crispin, John Be- zar, and Nathaniel Allen, to co-operate with Markham in selecting a site for Penn'- proposed great city, and to lay it out. They also were given very full, careful, and explicit instructions by Penn, particularly as to dealing with the In- dians, some Indian titles needing to,be extingui-h- ed by them. He wrote a letter to the Indians themselves by these commissioners, which shows he had studied the savage character very care- fully. It touched the Indian's faith in the one universal Great Spirit, and tinely appealed to his strong innate sense of justice. He did not wish to enjoy the great province his king had given him, he said, without the Indian's consent. The life ; the most beloved as well as the most worthy red man had suffered much injustice from his countrymen, but this was the work of self cek- ers ; " but I am not such a man, as is well known in my own country, I have a great love and re- gard for you, and I desire to win and gain your love and friendship by a kind, just, and peaceable

self or other directly or indirectly, will " trouble, molest, or discoun- tetince any person protesting to believe in Jesus Christ foi or on account of his reincion."

life, and the people & send are all of the sa mind, and -hall in all things bchave themsi. arcorfiugly, and if in anything any shall off . you or your people, you shall have a full : speedy satisfaction for the same by an equal no. ber of just men on both sides, that by no na .. . you may have just occasion of being offiti. against them." This we- the initiatory step 1: that " traditional policy " of Penn and the Quata- ere towards the Indians which has been so con- sistentiy maintained ever since, to the imperish .. able honor of thei soet.

As the year 16 2 entered we find Penn reported to be " extraordinarily busy " about his provine and its affairs. He is selling or leasing a great deal of land, and sending out many servants. 1 thousand persons are going to emigrate alors with him. He gets Claypoole to write to his for- respondent in Bordeaux for grape-vines, fifteen. hundred or two thousand plants, to carry out with. him, desirmy vines that bear the best grapes, Iler the most. Claypoole has himself bought fiv thousand acres, wants to go out and settle, but doubts and fears. He don't feel sure about the climate, the savages, the water the vermin, reptile -. etc.

I It would appear from the following, that very soon after for - the charter for Pennsylvania, Will Peut was beautiful. for > Castle, and puedeady for the romanian; function of the tentary t of a "Sir John Werden wrote to Mr. Fenn, that the duke Was not yet . .. posed to put . an lines about New Beetle lie, at the same time. . . formed low the De thought las caus to the stands in the Drain. il-funded, b .. .... they will not in ho d by the widest the it und were not intended to be grunde 1. [- muitawhat Is warned Di ... (inventor of New York, Coprevent D'un's eun uchments of ise of its dependen is, giving a trasen, which shows the opthitutte of 1 who had done so much bu-rates with him, that he was very niteli his own interests in those parts, as you observe."-Chalmers, p. the

DELAWARE UNDER WILLIAM PENN.

of all my earthly comforts ; and the reason of signed by Nanne Ska, Keka Kappan, Jong Goras, that love was more thy inward than thy outward and Espon Ape, and shows that excellences, which yet were many." He embarked " Whor as, the selling of string liquida't, Infine; was protubited in Pennsylvania, and not at Nos Gusta, w. fiulit i greater ift-eun- sa teurs than before, our tales gang Ren to Now I'mthe, and there nt Deal with a large company of Quakers, and from the Downs sent a letter of " salutation to all faithful friends in England."

CHAPTER IX.

DELAWARE UNDER WILLIAM PENN.

PENN was very well represented in the new province and his interests intelligently cared for from the time that Lient-Giov. Brockholls, of New York, surrendered the colony, until he himself ar- rived and took formal possession. His cousin, Capt. William Markham, Deputy-Governor, as has been seen, arrived ont in October, 1681. Mark- ham was in New York on June 21st, but the first record we have of his appearance on the Delaware is the following :

"Obligation of Councilman : " " Whereas, wee whow hands and Seals aro bereutto Sett are Chosen by Wam Markhun (agent to Wm. Pean, E+1, Proprietor of ye Province of Pennsylvania) to be of the Councill for yest province, die hershe but ourselves by our hands and sede. that wee will neither act, nor advise, nor Conwent unto anything that shall not be a carling to our own Consciences the best for ye true and well Government of the >1 province, ani Likewise to Keep serret all ye votes and acts of us, The sh Conncell, unless Such as by the Grneral Consent of us are to be published. Dated at Vpland ye third day of August, 1681.

" Robert W.ule, Morgan Drowet, Ww. Woodmanse, (W. W. The mark of ) William Warner, This is Ffurmin, James Sindlunes, Will Clayton, Ostu Euruest Koch, and ye mark ( Li of Lacy (or Lasset Cock."

In September Upland Court appears to have been reorganized under Markham's instructions and jury trials instituted. The justices present at the meeting of this newly-organized court were William Clayton, William Warner, Robert Wade, William Byles, Otto Ernest Cock, Robert Lucas, Lasse Cock, Swen Swenson, and Andreas Rankson, five of them being members of Markham's Coun- eil. The clerk of the court was Thomas R vell, and the sheriff's name was John Test. The first jury drawn in this court-the first drawn in Penn- sylvania -- was in the case of assault and battery ( Peter Faricksen es. Harman Johns at and wife), and their names were Morgan Drewet, William Wood- manson, William Hewes, James Browne, Henry Reynolds, Robert Schooley, Richard Pittman, Lasse Dolboe, John Akraman, Peter Runbo, Jr., Henry Hastings, and William Oxley; two more of the Deputy-Governor's Council being on this jury. At the next meeting of Upland Court, in November, Markham was present, and he attended alt the subsequent sessions up to the time of Penn's arrival.

A petition to Markham, dated from " Pesienk l'as-yunk ), in Pennsylvania, sth October, 1651." would tend to show that the Indians of that day could not see the merits of' " Local Option." It is ti

the prohibition. Therefore we, whose mums are heroesfor written, do lettre that the prohibition may be tikon off, and rum and strong liquore muy be well (in the fireand proveniens is formany, until it is prohibited in New Castle, nud in that government of D . Ioware "

This petition appears to have been renewed after Penn's arrival, for we find in the minutes of the Provincial Council, under date of 10th of Third Month ( May 20, 1683), that " The Gov'r [ Penn] Informs the Councill that he had Called the In- dians together, and propred to Let them have rum if they would be contented to be punished as y' English were ; which they agreed to, provided that y' Law of not Selling them Rum be abolished." The law was in faet declared to be a dead letter, but in 1684 Penn besought the Council to legislate anew on the subject so at least as to arrest indis- criminate sales of spirits to the savages. This sub- jeet of selling rum to the Indians is continually coming up in the Colonial Records.

Penn's ship, the " Welcome," sailed from "the Downe's" (the road-tead off Deal and Ramsgate, where the Goodwin Sands furnish a natural break- water) on or about Sept. 1, 1682. Claypoole writes on September 31 that " we hope the ' Wel- come,' with William Penn, is gotten clear." The ship made a tolerably brisk voyage, reaching the capes of the Delaware on October 24th, and New Castle on the 27th, being thus fifty-three days from shore to shore. The voyage, however, was a sad one, almost to the point of disaster. The small- pox had been taken aboard at Deal, and so severe were its ravages that of the one hundred passen- gers the ship carried, thirty, or nearly one-third, died during the pa -- age. The terrible nature of this pestilence may be gathered from one striking fhet, and that is this: antiquarians, searching for the names of these first adventurers who come over with Penn,-a list of names more worthy to be put on record than the rolls of Battell Abbey, which preserves the names of the subjugators of England, who came over with William the Con- queror,-have been able to find the most of them attached as witnesses or otherwise to the wills of the well-to-do burghers and sturdy yeomen who embarked with Penn on the " Welcome " and died during the voyage. The list of passengers, derived chiefly from Mr. Edward Armstrong's address be- fore the Pennsylvania Historical Society at Ches- ter itt 1851 (his authorities being there given in full), begins with .

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History of Delaware : 1609-1888, Part 20

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