USA > Delaware > History of the state of Delaware, Volume I > Part 6
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Penn's landing at Philadelphia, and it was a weary, round- about path which led Fox from Middletown harbor to New Castle. Some information can be gathered from Vander Donck's map of 1654-55, on which we look in vain for Marcus Hook, but find a tract reaching from the Hook to Chester, and marked as Finland, the grantee being a Finn. Sweden issued comparatively few patents of land in Delaware, but this may have been granted with special formality because the grantee was not a Swede. More than two hundred and fifty years ago, Charles Springer, a native of Sweden, translated the patent, which is curious enough to bear reproduction.
"We, Christina, by the grace of God, Queen of Sweedland, Gothen and Wenden, Great Princess of Finland, Dutchess of Estland, ctc.,
Be it known that we of our favour and because of the true and trusty service which is done unto us and the Crown, by our true and trusty ser- vant, Captain Hans Ammundson Besk, for which service he hath done, and further is obliged to do so long as he yet shall live ; so we have granted and given unto him freely, as the virtue of this our open letter, is, and doth shew and specify ; that is, we have freely given and granted unto him, his wife and heirs, that is heirs after heirs, one certain piece and tract of land, being and lying in New Sweedland, Marcus Hook by name, which doth reach up to, and upwards to Upland Creek, and that with all the privileges, appurtenances and conveniences thereunto be- longing, both in wet and dry, whatsoever name or names they have, and may be called, none excepted of them, that is which hath belonged unto this aforesaid tract of land, of age and also by law and judgement maybe claimed unto it, and he and his heirs to have and to hold it unmolested forever for their lawful possession and inheritance, so that all which will unlawfully lay any claim thereunto, they may regulate themselves hereafter, so that they may not lay any further claim or pretence unto the aforesaid tract of land forever hereafter.
Now for the true confirmation hereof we have this with our own hand underwritten, and also manifested with our seal, in Stockholm, the 20th of August in the year of our Lord 1653.
Translated exactly by me CHARLES SPRINGER. NIELS TUNGELL, Secretary."
CHRISTINA, (L. S.)
In Penn's official letters he mentions the adjacent counties of New Castle, St. Jones and Whorehill, alias Deal. New Castle retains its name, but St. Jones is now Kent, and Deal has become Sussex. One of Penn's early writs called upon
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each of the adjacent counties to elect seven persons noted for their wisdom, sobriety and integrity as deputies to an assembly to be held at Upland. If he called for the same number from each of the Pennsylvania counties he desired the presence of forty-two deputies, but only twenty names are preserved in the existing records. John Vines, the Sheriff of " Whorehill, alias Deal County," gives the deputies as Edward Southrin, William Clark, Alexander Draper, John Roades, Luke Wat- son, Nathaniel Walker and Cornelius Verhoof. St. Jones or Kent elected Francis Whitwell and John Briggs. In New Castle county, no one challenged the credentials of William Sample, but some legal question arose as to the rights of Abraham Mann, whose seat was vacated and given to John Moll. Illegal voting, repeating, or some unlawful practices may have been known even in those idyllic days.
Well known as the Upland code of 1682 is, it must be spoken of once more. It forbade religious persecution, and prohibited citizens from taunting others on account of their religious faith ; yet Government employments were only to be given to those who believed in Jesus Christ to be the Son of God and Savior of the world. Sunday observance was pre- scribed, and blasphemy was a penal offence. Statutory enact- ments dealt with sexual immorality. With a humanity in advance of the age, the death penalty was only to be inflicted in case of premeditated murder. All persons were forbidden to sell liquor to Indians. There were to be no duels, prize- fights, stage plays, bull fights, cock fights, games of cards, dice, lotteries, clamors or railings with the tongue. Regulations were made for the distribution of property. Civil marriages were made lawful, but no marriage was to be performed with- out witnesses. A widower or widow could not marry or even contract marriage within one year of the death of the former wife or husband. A tavern could not be kept without per- mission from the governor, and the prices of ale and meals were fixed. The old ideas of a yearly assize to settle labor contracts, wages, prices of food and drink, the clothing of
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upper and lower classes, and other matters we now hold to be outside of judicial action, were still powerful,
Sweden had looked on Delaware partly as a colony and partly as a missionary enterprise. Holland had regarded her as a trading port. She had become the property of a Duke who was soon to rise to the throne and shortly after to fall from it. Now we behold ber as the property of the kindly yet shrewd Friend, William Penn. Early Delaware is half hidden behind the stately figure of Gustavus Adolphus and the teeming warehouses of the Dutch West India Company. The Delaware of Penn and his heirs is overshadowed by the great province to the northward which bears his name.
No one can enter into the life of Delaware under Penn with- out observing the radical difference between the Friends in England and the Friends in America. The English Friend was a Dissenter, shut out, from colleges and courts of law, denied all share in the prizes of politics, barred from all hopes of military or naval honors, practically obliged to direct his energies to farming, commerce or some mechanical occupation. On the banks of the Delaware the Friends were in a position not unlike that of the established church. They had to frame and administer laws, to look after estates, to guard against public disorders. Our English Friend might allow a riotous neighbor to tramp on his flower-beds or rob his poultry-yard, for, if he chose to endure the annoyance, it was no one else's business. But the officers of a great province had to take pre- cautions against highwaymen on shore and pirates on the sea. However strict their peace principles, they had to recognize those inexorable facts, armies and fleets. Soldiers, even in quiet Pennsylvania, must have food, and frigates, even in the Delaware, must take in water and repair damages. While the Friends who followed Penn's lead escaped many of the trials of their English brethren, they had to solve problems and bear burdens to which their English brethren were strangers. It was impossible for them to ignore politics, for they were custodians of a great public trust, scrutinized by
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every merchant who sent a cargo to the Delaware and by every captain who sailed by the Capes. While the proprietary was a member of their Society and would understand their peculiar feelings, the Duke of York outranked William Penn, and, even if the Duke were satisfied, appeals might be carried to the King of England.
On March 10, 1683, Governor Penn and his Council met ; the Assembly opening two days later. From the lower coun- ties on the Delaware, or, in the quaint old phrase, "the terri- tories," came John Cann, John Darby, Valentine Hollings- worth, Casparus Herman, John Dehraef, James Williams, William Guest, Peter Alrichs and Hendrich Williams, of New Castle ; John Briggs, Simon Irons, Thomas Hassold, Jehu Curtis, Robert Bedwell, William Windsmore, John Brinkloe, Daniel Brown, Benoni Bishop, of Kent ; Luke Watson, Alex- ander Draper, William Fletcher, Henry Bowman, Alexander Moleston, John Hill, Robert Bracy, John Kipshaven and Alexander Verhoof, of Sussex. Edmund Cantwell was sheriff of New Castle County, Peter Baucomb, of Kent, and John Vines, of Sussex.
Rules of order must have been few, but the Governor ordered those who wished to speak to do so standing, one at a time, facing the chair. Most questions could be settled by viva-voce vote, although a ballot was to be taken in the case of personal affairs. The session did not pass without some asper- ities, and Dr. Nicholas More, president of the Society of Free Traders, had to appear before the honorable legislators. More had, in a public house, denounced the Governor, the Council and the Assembly, and declared that their names would be held accursed by many. For this he was called on to apol- ogize. In England he might have been fined, set in the pil- lory, or sent to prison. More was not easily crushed. Sug- gestions for amendments to the charter were many, and Dr. More asked for an interpretation of the law of fornication as applied to servants which would be more satisfactory to the master and mistress interest. This means that he and those
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whom he represented did not want the penal code to deal severely with any servant who might be needed on the farm or in the workshop.
Councilmen and assemblymen were not tempted to sell franchises for nothing, because such franchises as were not re- tained by the Crown were in the gift of Penn, or of the Duke, and "the Duke's laws" were in some respects binding on Pennsylvania and the lower territories. The danger to the early colonists was not that their legislators would chaffer with lobbyists but that they would neglect law-making for their ploughing and reaping. Even in times of great public necessity, it was not easy to gather a working majority of men whose hearts were in the fields as surely and deeply as any Scotch rover's heart was ever in the Highlands.
Penn's first assembly considered bills for planting flax and hemp, for building a twenty-four by sixteen feet bouse of correction in each county, to hinder the sale of servants into other provinces and to prevent runaways, about burning woods and marshes, to regulate county courts, acts of oblivion, measures for dealing with "scoulds," to have cattle marked and erect bounds, seizure of goods, marriages by magistrates, limiting credit at public houses to twenty shillings, and about fencing. The agricultural interest was the leading interest, and at the outset of the colony it was evident that there would be a cleavage. Men who had been landless in England were now thriving farmers, and they wished their children to be more prosperous than themselves. To such men proprietary government was odious, and the reins, even in Penn's hands, chafed. Many speakers showed their desire for a new charter.
Even in a community ruled by Friends official insignia were necessary. The seal of Sussex was a sheaf of wheat, that of Kent three ears of Indian corn ; and a castle represented New Castle, in spite of Washington Irving's assertion that the real name is No Castle, because there is no castle there, and never was one. Already it was decided that legislators should be paid, and the rates were fixed at three shillings per day for
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members of the Council and two shillings six pence for the Assembly. Under the new charter granted by Penn, there were to be three Councilmen and six Assemblymen from each county ; the former to serve one, two and three years. Rep- resentation was to increase in proportion to population. In the concession that some of the prerogatives of the Governor were to cease with his life, the student can see the workings of the anti-proprietary spirit. Among the members of the Coun- cil this year were John Moll from New Castle, Francis Whit- well from Kent, and William Clarke of Sussex ; while James Williams of New Castle, Benoni Bishop of Kent, and Luke Watson of Sussex were on a committee of the Assembly.
Early in 1684 some residents of Kent County refused to pay taxes to Penn, and the names of John Richardson, Thomas Heather, Thomas Wilson, Francis Whitwell and John Hilliard appear among these delinquents. The Assem- bly met this year at New Castle ; and among the events of the time was a serious quarrel between Jans Jansen and Hans Petersen. After giving due attention to the crimination and recrimination, the Governor and Council advised plaintiff and defendant to shake hands and to forgive each other, ordered them to give bonds for their appearance, and directed that the records should be burned. This was easily done, while it took a long fight to get the famous Expunging Resolution through the United States Senate. Foolish speeches have been dropped from the records of Congress simply because honorable gen- tlemen did not want to see their utterances in print, but the colonial decree that the records in Jansen versus Petersen be burned was simply an act of good will. On August 12, 1684, Penn left Philadelphia in the Endeavor. During his stay in England, which he presumed would be lengthy, he wished matters to be in the hands of the Provincial Council, the president of which, Thomas Lloyd, was the custodian of the great seal. Nicholas More, despite his former humiliation, had risen to be chief justice ; but after Penn's departure he was impeached for various political misdemeanors. Ship-
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ments of wine and beer, of seed and trees, showed that Penn was constantly thinking of his colony ; but the general course of events was not to his satisfaction. Some of his closest friends were unpopular, and their acts were resented by per- sons who withheld rents and did all in their power to embar- rass the government. Penn wrote to Lloyd that these feuds had cost Pennsylvania fifteen thousand inhabitants, and there can be no doubt that they had cost Penn large sums of money.
Continuous quarreling tries the souls even of those who relish a little fracas now and then. The mild proprietary must often have felt sick of his bargain, and, in 1687, he took the Executive power from the Council and gave it to a com- mission of five persons, Thomas Lloyd, Nicholas More, James Claypoole, Robert Turner and John Echley, any three of whom might have power to act. He wrote that the Council should be dissolved or else compelled to pay more attention to its duties, and the sorely-tried Friend speaks out like Thomas B. Reed, " I will no more endure their most slothful and dis- honorable attendance." By the time Penn's letters directing the transfer of authority to a Commission were received, Nicholas More and James Claypoole were dead, but their places were filled by Arthur Cook and John Sincock. Inces- sant bickerings between the Council and the Assembly led Penn to send over a Governor, John Blackwell, son-in-law to General Lambert of Cromwell's time.
Lloyd refused to give up the great seal, and based his refusal on the plea that Blackwell was merely a deputy, not an actual governor. Blackwell knew that this argument had been advanced by John Richardson, a member of Council, and in Governor Blackwell's judgment, such a rebelling per- son ought to be expelled. As it was not possible to coax or frighten the Council into the expulsion of Richardson, the Governor dissolved the Council. Richardson was re-elected. Blackwell would not allow him to take his seat. We had a small case of John Wilkes on our side of the Atlantic. Lloyd would not recognize Blackwell's jurisdiction, Blackwell denied
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that of Lloyd, public officials refused to show their accounts to courts of doubtful authority, while settlers who naturally disliked to pay taxes found a convenient excuse in the general uncertainty of all matters of a public character.
Bradford now published "The Form of Government and the Great Law," the expenses of publication being defrayed, it is said, by Joseph Gooding, a member of the Council. Rumors declared that Penn had privately favored the publi- cation, while counter-rumors insisted that he had not. Brad- ford was summoned before the Council, every member whereof knew that he had printed the book, and that nobody else in in the colony had the facilities for printing it, but he refused to admit that he had printed it. Cromwell would have threatened Bradford with the gallows, and Printz would have beaten him, but under the mild rule of Pennsylvania, he was in no danger of any worse penalty than a brief confinement, and he bluntly refused to confess the truth of the charge brought against him. From the stubborn printer Governor Blackwell's thoughts roamed to the northern frontier, and he predicted an invasion with all the horrors of Indian warfare. He asked for generous supplies for the defence of the colony and the Council laughed at him until it adjourned.
After months of strife as to who was Governor, the more serious question arose-who was King? James had fled, William was in his place, a French fleet might bring back James and hang all William's Dutch favorites, William might triumph, and every Tory nobleman who had survived the Cromwellian days might lose his estate, if not his head. Through all the previous troubles there had been at least one settled point : William Penn was proprietary ; but now Wil- liam Penn was an object of suspicion to the Dutch monarch. There was no doubt that Penn was friendly to James; he had received his patent from James's brother, he might be obliged to choose between exile and death, and the very offi- cers who in 1683 were proud to call themselves the followers of William Penn might in 1689 be sent to prison because they
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were suspected of corresponding with their chief. Any one who recalls the uncertainties of the Presidential contest of 1876 can, in some slight degree, understand the doubts and dreads of those who feared they knew not what, who knew they did not know anything, but who were within fifty years of the execution of Charles the First, the rise of Cromwell, the succession of governments, and the restoration of the exiled line. It was not a good time for extensive land sales or whole- sale manufacturing, or anything that requires confidence.
On January 2, 1690, Blackwell was relieved and the Coun- cil elected Thomas Lloyd president and deputy governor. The counties or "territories" on the Lower Delaware were manifestly jealous of Philadelphia, Bucks and Chester, and disposed to separate from them, which they actually did. With a separate Council, with judges of their own selection, with the reluctant Penn forced in 1691 to appoint Markham as deputy governor of the territories, they accomplished the secession which, one hundred and seventy years later, when tried on a larger scale, proved a costly and mournful failure. Everything in politics and business was unsettled, and reli- gious discord complicated the situation, for George Keith headed a dissenting movement among the Friends, and the feelings of the Keithite and anti-Keithite were so bitter as to cause a stir throughout the colony.
Several generations have lived and died in the belief that William the Third was cruel, and even merciless, because he took away Penn's proprietary government, but the facts, if they do not justify the King, go far to excuse him. Penn was undoubtedly attached to King James, and he was naturally enough looked on with suspicion by King William. His prov- ince was still ruled by at least some of the laws imposed by the Duke of York. Despite the laugliter of the Council, there was serious risk that the French and Indians would swoop down on the northern frontier and a born warrior, like Wil- liam, did not wish to see outlying settlements guarded by non- resistants. Governor Benjamin Fletcher of New York was on
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October 24, 1692, made Captain-General by Royal patent. Fletcher was a man who, unless historians have terribly wronged him, was ready to shield the pirates of the Delaware from vigilant cruisers. He is said to have been on terms of friendship with Captain Kidd. Fletcher came to Philadel- phia in April, 1693, had his letters read in the market-place, and offered test oaths to the members of Council. Lloyd refused to take them, and there might have been a prolonged strife but for the necessary return of Fletcher to New York. Markham acted as his deputy during his absence, and the Executive and Legislative branches of government failed to agree on war taxes and on the election of representatives to the Assembly. Fletcher managed to raise some money, but could not secure the militia he desired.
Public opinion veered round in Penn's favor ; he was no longer regarded as a spy of the Stuarts, and King William in 1693 granted him a new patent. His wife's illness, however, detained him in England, private affairs claimed his attention, his wife died, and his return to America seemed remote, if not improbable. William Markham as deputy and John Good- son and Samuel Carpenter as assistants cared for the province. By the time the Commissions reached this country, in March, 1695, Fletcher and Markham were disgusted with the Assem- bly for its persistent refusal to raise militia. They were used to the great military establishments of Europe, and rightly argued that French and Indians might be deadly enemies to our northern settlers. Councilmen retorted that there had not been any serious trouble with the Indians, nothing worse than the larceny of a pig or a calf. Fletcher pleaded with the Friends to levy a tax to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, but they resented the idea of the subterfuge, although in later years some of them helped Franklin to buy a fire engine, said fire engine being a cannon. After a dispute of some tartness, Fletcher again dissolved the Assembly, for which the farmers probably forgave him. If he had tried to keep them in their seats when they wanted to get to their
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crops, he would have found it no easy matter to compel them to obedience.
In the fall of 1695 the Assembly passed a revenue bill coupled with a new act of settlement hostile to Penn's interest. Markham refused to sign, there was another quarrel and an- other dissolution, after which Markham for some time gov- erned without Council or Assembly. The next year brought a new Council. William was on the Continent, and Queen Mary wrote a letter complaining of trade irregularities, prob- ably in dealing with the West Indies. Supplies were wanted, and the Council granted some, provided the government would convene a new Assembly. This body declared for a new con- stitution, which Markham wanted. Under this instrument the Council was to consist of two representatives from each county, and the Assembly of four representatives from each county. No one can mistake the trend of the clause that the representa- tives of freemen should have power to propose such bills as they see fit, or the provision that the General Assembly should be indissoluble for the term for which it should be elected, and giving it power to sit on its adjournment.
In December, 1699, Penn returned to Philadelphia, to find that the Delaware was notorious for the number of pirates who sailed up the stream. He was soon to hear the complaint that the sheriff of New Castle had been culpable in not giving every voter due notice of the impending election. Birck, Collector of Customs at New Castle, sent Governor Penn a letter complaining that vessels sailed up and down the Dela- ware without reporting at New Castle. The fact should have been reported, but Birck managed to be impertinent, and brought down on himself a merited rebuke. After years of life among the Friends, Penn could still be sharp and em- phatic ; he was the son of an Admiral, and he knew how to keep his subordinates in order.
At the session of the Assembly and Council at New Castle in 1700, 104 acts were passed, many being of trifling import- ance, and many others being modifications of existing laws.
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Better provision was made for the poor ; three months in cap- tivity menaced the offender who fought a duel or sent a chal- lenge ; land was not to be bought from Indians without the consent of the proprietary ; bond servants were not to be sold without their own consent and that of two magistrates. At the expiration of their term they were to have clothes and materials given to them ; cornfield fences were to be made pig- tight and five feet high, or the delinquent who failed to prop- erly fence his lands should be liable to all damages ; counties should put railed bridges over streams, and appoint overseers of highways and viewers of fences; provision was made for quarantine of vessels. Naturally, yea, inevitably, the old question of selling liquor to Indians revived. Clandestine marriages were also a source of trouble, and annoyance was caused by those who permitted swine to run at large.
The session of 1701 showed Penn only too plainly that the lower territories did not mean to unite with the upper portions of the province. In November he sailed for England never to return; and the old jealousies continued. Governor against Assembly, peasant against proprietary, Presbyterian against Friend, tax-payer against office-holder-the party cries were not stilled, the factional murmurs never ceased, and yet the quarrels were dreary rather than sensational. They do not fire the imagination or stir the blood, they merely leave the reader with the impression that everybody was disposed to find fault. However, the soil was fertile, the land was cheap, the laws were not oppressive, the slaves were generally well treated, and many of those who grumbled loudest would have been the first to regret their departure from the provinces and to wish themselves back again. Nowhere in the world probably was bondage so mild. The Friends were, as a rule, mild in their manners, and the slave who was badly treated could easily find a hiding place in the woods. Slavery in Pennsylvania and Delaware was a light yoke compared to the slavery in a Caro- lina rice swamp or on a Louisiana sugar plantation.
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