USA > Pennsylvania > Chronicles of Pennsylvania from the English revolution to the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1688-1748, Vol. I > Part 1
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Go 974.8 K26c v.1 141891
PUBLIC LIBRARY FORT WAYNE & ALLEN CO., IND.
GENEAL ::. COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01179 3640
M
GENEALOGY 974.8 K26C v. 1
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CHRONICLES
OF
PENNSYLVANIA
FROM THE ENGLISH REVOLUTION
TO THE PEACE OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE 1688-1748
BY CHARLES P. KEITH
AUTHOR OF "THE PROVINCIAL COUNCILLORS OF PENNSYLVANIA 1733-1776" AND "THE ANCESTRY OF BENJAMIN HARRISON"
In Two Volumes
VOL. I
PHILADELPHIA 1917
1
Copyright 1917 By CHARLES P. KEITH
PATTERSON & WHITE CO. PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS PHILADELPHIA, PA.
TO MY WIFE 141891
PREFACE
The settlement of the banks of the Delaware by Dutch, Swedes, and Quakers has been sufficiently minuted not only in printed records, but in histories which are accessible. Similarly those events of the struggle for British supremacy and of the struggle for American independence which took place within the present boundaries of Pennsylvania are too well known to require fresh narration. As to the long period not covered by these subjects, not only data as to local de- velopment, but much information as to general affairs will be found in volumes devoting most space to earlier or later times. But for the valuable contribution made by such, there would be little knowledge of men and things between the arrival of the last shipload of Quakers and the first steps in the French and Indian war. The standard works on Pennsylvania in the XVIIth andXVIIIth Centuries may be described as a panegyric upon William Penn, the Acta as a wonder- worker of Benjamin Franklin, or an epic about George Washington. Much matter, less vivid, but worthy of observation, even any mention of certain years, is omitted. The complete story of successive administra- tions and their achievements or failures, of antagonistic religions, alien immigrations, relations with aborigines, and the legislature's adherence, under repeated tempta- tion, to the principle of not engaging in war, is, in con- sequence, to be hunted widely in monographs, published correspondence, and parts of a number of books, many on special lines.
V
vi
PREFACE.
A comprehensive chronicle of the most neglected period is attempted to be supplied in these volumes, de- tailing what took place in each year, but sometimes pur- suing a topic beyond the year in question, when the bringing in of other subjects would have been bewilder- ing. Not to include what other writers have well covered, two dates memorable in a large part of the world have been chosen, that of the English Revolution, for the starting-point, as not requiring further details of the founding of the colony than are necessary to ex- plain later conditions, and the date of the treaty of Aix- la-Chapelle, for closing the record, so as to shut out the contention for the Ohio, which was consequent upon that treaty. It has been necessary sometimes to over- step these limits in order to treat completely a minor subject which was important or noticeable during the course of the sixty years; and the opportunity given in a book on Pennsylvania history has been used to correct misapprehensions as to matters not chronologically within its theme.
Much of what, in histories, addresses, or editorial notes, has been published relating to those who con- trolled or inhabited Pennsylvania, has been inspired by bitter partisanship or, at least, strong predilection. As the establishment of the colony has been the just pride of the Quakers, and as the original sources of infor- mation most accessible here until recently have been the manuscripts coming from the governing family and faction, the predilection has been usually for the side of William Penn, if not of the Proprietaries in general; but in opposition the Historical Review of the Consti- tution and Government of Pennsylvania, voicing the
vii
PREFACE.
opinions held by Franklin, and the History written by Thomas F. Gordon are conspicuous. It is not easy even for the investigator, delving beneath the radical and bitter expressions, to find out what was justice in the contentions, or what was true as to the conduct, much less as to the motives, of individuals. So strong was the disposition of the men active in the politics or religion of Pennsylvania at that time to believe any- thing against their real or supposed adversaries that even such evidence as a contemporary letter can not always be depended upon. With no purpose of making an arraignment against venerated personages, but ready to find a plea for the poorer in estate, the fol- lowers of a different ecclesiastical use, and others an- imadverted upon, I have said some things which will displease, but I have tried to be impartial, and to make allowances for all parties in the clashing of interests and consciences. Investigation has led me to different conclusions from those prevalent in this part of the country, and formerly accepted by myself. I trust that no expressions, however, will be thought to indicate want of respect for the truly religious members of the Society of Friends, and it seems to me that everybody living at the present time ought to wish the world con- verted to the "peaceable persuasion" of the majority of the Assembly of Pennsylvania from 1688 to 1748.
It has been impracticable to cite authorities for every statement, and it has been undertaken only for such as may cause surprise. If the reader wishes to decide for himself the truth of any, and there is no closely preced- ing or following reference which happens to cover, he will probably find the fact mentioned in what is the best
viii
PREFACE.
evidence, viz : the printed Votes of the Assembly, the printed minutes of our Provincial or Governor's Coun- cil (called the Colonial Records), the printed Pennsyl- vania Archives, the copied minutes and documents of the Lords for Trade and Plantations, the printed ab- stracts of English State Papers, the Papers of the House of Lords published by the Historical Manuscripts Commission, and the copies of deeds &ct. in the public offices in Philadelphia. As to what, not of public rec- ord, William Penn or his representatives did, we have their own written words, published in the Penn and Logan Correspondence, or preserved among the letters and papers in the care of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; and the same repository holds for the student's inspection the correspondence, apparently complete, between the later Penns and their deputies.
It has seemed better to give all the dates as they ap- pear in the original authorities, and, if alternative, then in Old Style, and, as the difference from the New Style is not always understood, to devote a page or so in the first chapter to explanation. Perhaps it is only fair to my printers to add that the spelling, punctua- tion, &ct. are my own except usually where I am quot- ing, or, as to Indian names, spelling according to the record. I have undertaken to begin with a capital, not only titles, but such words as People, Province, &ct., when meaning the political body, and also Province, when meaning Pennsylvania proper without including Delaware; and I have placed £ before a sum in sterling and l. after a sum in provincial currency.
321 S. Fourth St., Philadelphia, November, 1916.
CHARLES P. KEITH.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I
CHAPTER I. NATIONAL ADVANCE AND ROYAL CHARTERS 1
CHAPTER II.
THE ASCERTAINMENT OF THE SOUTHERN BOUNDARY .
30
CHAPTER III.
THE ACQUISITION AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE LAND . 60
CHAPTER IV.
THE RED NEIGHBOURS
90
CHAPTER V.
THE PEOPLE
123
CHAPTER VI.
A REPUBLICAN FEUDATORY
153
CHAPTER VII.
GOVERNMENT UNDER THE FRAME OF 1683
182
CHAPTER VIII.
RELIGIOUS DISSENSION
210
CHAPTER IX.
ENGLAND
243
CHAPTER X.
FAILURE IN GOVERNMENT
281
CHAPTER XI.
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND
327
CHAPTER XII.
PENN'S SECOND MARRIAGE AND SECOND VISIT
367
CHAPTER XIII.
GOVERNMENT BY PENN'S FRIENDS
402
CHAPTER XIV.
THE ANTI-PROPRIETARY PARTY
433
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CHAPTER I.
NATIONAL ADVANCE AND ROYAL CHARTERS.
The settlement on Delaware Bay and River at the date of the English Revolution-the method of dating-Boundaries in English charters for Virginia, New England, and Maryland-Dutch and Swedes on the Delaware-English conquest and the treaties-Duke of York's control-Wil- liam Penn's parentage-His application for land -Description in the charter to him.
When the English Revolution took place, white people of various nationality, but united under one government derived from that Crown which the Revo- lution transferred, were already scattered from below Cape Henlopen to above the Falls of the Delaware, through a depth westward from the water's edge of about twelve miles. Cultivated fields were alternating with extensive forests throughout the whole region, dwelling-houses were at the borders of the owners' plantations, perhaps more sheds than barns held crops and quadrupeds, a mill had been established to grind the corn for each neighbourhood, while primitive man- ufactories for lime, glass, etc., were here and there, a few meeting-houses for Quakers had been built, and two or three structures scarcely more ornate, but for more ornate worship, may have been standing. In some places, the newer houses were close to one an- other by a township plan, and there were a few villages representing settlements which might be called old for that part of the New World, such as Lewes, or Whore-
1
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CHRONICLES OF PENNSYLVANIA.
kills, New Castle, once New Amstel, and Chester, formerly Upland. New Castle had perhaps a wharf, and certainly a fort or stockade, which however had been long unused, and was in want of repair, and there were the ruins of a governor's headquarters on Tini- cum Island. Up the river, several miles north of the mouth of the Schuylkill, and on rising ground, which was marked by recently inhabited caves, and divided by a creek or arm of the Delaware, were, however, the beginnings of a capital city, designed to cover the isthmus where the two rivers were bent again towards each other. A large wharf had been made, at which a goodly number of vessels were coming and going during eight or nine months of the year. Houses, quite a number being of brick, faced the Delaware on a street along the top of the slope towards the water, and there were others on both sides of the next street to the west, as also near the Delaware end of streets laid out from river to river. In the middle of the widest of the latter streets, near the top of the slope, were the market sheds and the little court house, the seat of authority. Miles away, near the rapids, or Falls, of the Delaware, was the manor-house of William Penn, Proprietary and Governor in Chief. One cor- rection of tradition may well be made in passing: the bricks of the old buildings of Pennsylvania were not brought from England; on the contrary, clay was most abundant in the soil, and, naturally, brickmaking was early a great industry, and it is ridiculous to suppose that freight for over 3000 miles was paid for what could be obtained at or near the spot.
The Revolution was consummated when, after James II had succeeded in his second attempt to escape from England, William and Mary, Prince and Princess of Orange, formally accepted the joint sovereignty of- fered by the Lords and Commons assembled at West- minster, and gave adherence to the Declaration of
3
NATIONAL ADVANCE AND ROYAL CHARTERS.
Right, and were proclaimed King and Queen. The day on which this took place is that with which this chronicling of events connected with the civilized part of the present extent of Pennsylvania begins, viz: a Wednesday which the English of the time reckoned as "the thirteenth day of February in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and eighty-eight," but which most of the nations of Western Europe, includ- ing Scotland, called "the twenty-third day of February in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and eighty-nine." Those nations had adopted the Grego- rian calendar, advancing the time ten days, and begin- ning the year on their first day of January, whereas England was beginning it on what the English called the twenty-fifth of March following. Under the Eng- lish system, January and February were the eleventh and twelfth months respectively, and March was called the first month, although twenty-four of its days were at the end of a year. The Quakers numbered, instead of naming, the months, and this was directed by an Act of Assembly of Pennsylvania, interpreted incor- rectly by the editor of Volume I of the Minutes of the Provincial Council as directing that the year start with the first day of March. As was usual in private let- ters, the records of the colony from January 1st to March 24th both inclusive, while giving the day of the month according to the local calendar, generally give the year according to both English and French style, the last figure of the year looking like a fraction with the English figure as numerator and the French figure as denominator, as, for instance, 1688, or else there being added with a hyphen after the English year the last figure of the French year, as in 1688-9. England and, following her, Pennsylvania adhered to the old, or Julian, calendar, and to the twenty-fifth of March as New Year's day, throughout the whole period of this history. Each date in this book being given as
4
CHRONICLES OF PENNSYLVANIA.
stated in the authority for it, the reader may assume, un- less it is otherwise declared, that it is according to that "Old Style." The only difference in the length of the months in the two calendars during the period was that the old had a twenty-ninth of February in the year 1700, while the new had not: so that the English first of March, 1700, was the French twelfth of March, 1701, and so on, the discrepancy of ten days becoming eleven days.
The year of our Lord according to the Old Style will be found in this book in parenthesis when a docu- ment dated by the year of a king's reign is mentioned; a mode of dating which would puzzle the reader, par- ticularly as to the acts of Charles II, who dated his reign from the execution of Charles I, January 30, 1648-9, although Charles II was not restored to power until May 8, 1660, when proclaimed King, or May 29, 1660, when he entered London, in what was called the twelfth year of his reign. It may be useful to state that, counting the day of accession as the first day of the first year of the reign,
the first year of James I ended on March 23, 1603-4, O. S.,
the first year of Charles I ended on March 26, 1626, O. S.,
the first year of Charles II ended on January 29, 1649-50, O. S.,
the first year of James II ended on February 5, 1685-6, O. S.,
the first year of William III ended on February 12, 1689-90, O. S.,
the first year of Anne ended on March 7, 1702-3, O. S.,
the first year of George I ended on July 31, 1715, O. S.,
the first year of George II ended on June 10, 1728, O. S.
5
NATIONAL ADVANCE AND ROYAL CHARTERS.
Although by the time with which these Chronicles start, the dream of a Scandinavian world-power had vanished, the furs of America had been diverted from Amsterdam, and the Europeans on the western shore of Delaware Bay and River had accepted the status of tenants of William Penn, it is necessary, even before studying the people, the proprietaryship, and the gov- ernment, to take a retrospect as far as before the reign of Gustavus Adolphus and the voyages of Henry Hud- son, in order to explain the boundary dispute which overhung a large part of the present extent of Pennsyl- vania during the whole period chronicled.
When there were no white people on the Atlantic Coast between Maine and Florida, King James I of England authorized two settlements to be made within certain limits by a number of his subjects in two com- panies, or colonies, as he called them. After one of these companies had made an establishment on the James River, the King, by charter dated May 23rd in the seventh year of his reign over England (1609), granted to those contributing, called "The Treasurer and Company of Adventurers and Planters of the City of London for the first Colony in Virginia," the Atlantic coast for 200 miles northward and southward of Point Comfort with a depth inward to the Pacific Ocean, which was not then supposed to be very far off. This . charter, which was annulled in 1625, before any lots were sold north or east of the Chesapeake, is only men- tioned here because this disposal of land, nearly, if not quite, up to the latitude forty degrees north, was in force when the other company also received a separate charter from the same King. The Stuart kings person- ally transacted the affairs of their realm: the policy during a reign was as continuous as that under a party Cabinet in later times, either changing as exigencies arose; and the theories of James I or the carelessness of Charles II affected history. James I incorporated
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CHRONICLES OF PENNSYLVANIA.
in 1620 those who had been expected to make the other settlement, calling them "The Council established at Plymouth in the County of Devon for planting, ruling, and governing of New England in America." The charter to this Council recited the depopulation of the coast "between the degrees of forty and forty-eight," and gave the name New England to all the territory in America lying and being in breadth from forty de- grees of northerly latitude from the equinoctial line to forty-eight degrees of said northerly latitude, and in length by all the breadth aforesaid throughout the main land from sea to sea. In the granting clause, but nowhere else, the word "inclusively" occurs after the words "to forty-eight degrees of said northerly lati- tude," but this can hardly be thought so to enlarge the description as to cover anything south of what is just forty degrees north of the equator. The parallels of latitude used by geographers mark the end or com- pletion of just so many degrees as the number attached to them on the map, in other words the completion of just that many, starting from the equator, of the ninety parts into which the surface of the earth from the equator to the pole is divided. There has been some confusion in such expressions as "the fortieth degree," "the forty-eighth degree," etc., some persons meaning the parallels marking forty degrees, forty- eight degrees, etc., and some even meaning the space north of the parallels marking so many degrees. Early instances of the use of the expression with one or other of these meanings can be found, but, what is much in point, William Penn and Lord Baltimore, sixty years after the granting of the New England charter, were speaking of the parallel marking forty degrees as "the fortieth degree." In strictness, the later Penns were right in saying that the fortieth de- gree is the fortieth of the ninety spaces from the equator to the pole, the space beginning at the equa-
7
NATIONAL ADVANCE AND ROYAL CHARTERS.
tor, and running to parallel marked 1°, being the first; in other words, that the fortieth degree is the space between the parallel marked 39° and that marked 40°. A description, however, like that of New England, "from forty degrees to forty-eight degrees" is obvi- ously from where you count forty degrees complete from the equator to where you count forty-eight de- grees complete. Against an interpretation that this region was to start northward from the parallel 39º, is the fact that it would then have covered a consider- able part of the southern colony's 200 miles north of Point Comfort, and this could not have been intended. Although in the charter an exception was made of all land actually possessed or inhabited by other Christian princes or states, or within the bounds of the southern colony, it is most likely that the description was meant to run from as near as possible just where the southern colony ended. Therefore, the southern termination of what was meant by New England for many years after 1620, must have been the parallel marked 40°, the completion of forty degrees north of the equa- tor.
This parallel, which will be spoken of in these pages as "the fortieth parallel," will be seen in modern maps to strike the New Jersey coast at Chadwick, about two miles south of Mantoloking, and the western side of the Delaware River at Bridesburg, and to cross Broad Street, in Philadelphia, below Clearfield Street, and the city line below Bala, and to pass through Downing- town, and south of, but not far from, Lancaster, Columbia, Shippensburg, Bedford, and Brownsville.
In the same year that James I made the aforesaid grant for the southern colony, Henry Hudson, while sailing in the employ of the Dutch East India Com- pany, gave to the sovereign of that company by explor- ing both the Delaware Bay and the Hudson River a claim from the first authenticated discovery to the
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CHRONICLES OF PENNSYLVANIA.
shores of each; and at the time when James I made the aforesaid grant of New England, citizens of Hol- land, etc., were trading on what they called the North River, and perhaps on the Delaware, which they called the South River. It was not long afterwards that those acknowledging allegiance to the Netherlandish Estates General came into undisputed possession of the valley of the Hudson and a large part of Connecti- cut and some part of New Jersey, having forts on the east side of the Delaware River, buying land in 1629 on the west side of Delaware Bay, and for a short time keeping a fort there, and even, in 1633, erecting a fort on the Schuylkill.
About 1630, Sir George Calvert, first Baron Balti- more in the peerage of Ireland, who had been one of the Virginia Company, and one of James I's secre- taries of state, sought from Charles I a tract of land north of the settled part of Virginia. It is not neces- sary to go into the question of the King's right to con- vey or set off what had been granted to the dissolved company; for this did not affect the Penn and Balti- more controversy. Cecil Calvert, the second Baron, pre- sented after the first Baron's death a further petition, describing the region desired as "uncultivated and oc- cupied in parts by barbarians having no knowledge of Divine Inspiration." In the charter's recital of the petition the words are "hactenus inculta et barbaris nullam divini numinis notitiam habentibus in partibus occupata." Under date of June 20th, in the eighth year of the reign (1632), King Charles granted to the said second Baron and his heirs and assigns, according to transcript of the enrolment of the charter, printed, with its bad spelling, etc., with the Report of Commis- sioners of 1872 on Boundary of Maryland and Vir- ginia: Totam illam partam Peninsule sive Cherson- nessus jacentem in partibus Americe inter Oceanum ex oriente et Sinum de Chesopeake ab occidente a
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NATIONAL ADVANCE AND ROYAL CHARTERS.
residuo ejusdem per rectam lineam a promontorio sive Capite terre vocato Watkins' Point juxta sinum pre- dictum, prope Fluvium de Wighco situatum ab occi- dente, usque ad magnum Oceanum in plaga orientali ductam, divisam, Et inter metam illam a meridie usque ad partam illam estuarii de De La Ware ab Aquilone que subjacet quadrigesimo gradui latitudinis Septen- trionalis ab equinoctiali ubi terminatur Nova Anglia: Totum que illum terre tractum, infra metas subscriptas videlicit transeundo a dicto Estuario vocato Dela- ware Baye recta linea per gradum predictum usque ad verum meridianum primi fontis fluminis de Pattow- mack deinde vergendo versus meridiem ad ulteriorem dicti fluminis ripam et eam sequendo qua plaga occi- dentalis et meridionalis spectat usque ad locum quen- dam appellatum Cinquack prope ejusdem Fluminis ostium scituatum ubi in prefatum Sinum de Chesso- peak evolvitur ac inde per lineam brevissimam usque ad predictum Promontorium sive locum vocatum Wat- kins' Point."
As this makes the northern boundary "ubi termi- natur Nova Anglia," it seems unnecessary to give any further reason why the only fair construction is that the words "quadrigesimo gradui latitudinis" mean the fortieth parallel, marking the completion of forty degrees, not the beginning of the fortieth space from the equator, and that the word "estuarii" covers river as well as bay. Thus this charter, under which the Lords Baltimore were Proprietors of Maryland until the American Revolution, relates to all land beginning at Watkin's Point on the Chesapeake, then along a line drawn to the Atlantic as the southern boundary line, then up the Atlantic coast and the shore of Delaware Bay and River to where it is crossed by the fortieth parallel, where New England terminated, and west- ward along said parallel-" per gradum predictum"- to the meridian of the furthest source of the Potomac,
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CHRONICLES OF PENNSYLVANIA.
then due south to the Potomac, and along its southern bank to Cinquack near the mouth, and thence by the shortest line to Watkin's Point. We are confident that, had the original grantee soon put a town on the Dela- ware River anywhere not supposed to be above the fortieth parallel, say at League Island or the mouth of Dock Creek, all England would have thought him act- ing within his rights. When his heirs, notwithstanding matters to be hereafter mentioned, had persisted in claiming what is now the state of Delaware and Dela- ware County and a great part of other counties in Pennsylvania, the Penns found lawyers to argue for various interpretations of the charter. The Penns finally insisted that "subjacet quadragesimo gradui" means "lies south of the beginning of the fortieth de- gree," i.e. south of the thirty-ninth parallel. Were there no other reasons against this, it could scarcely have been Charles I's actual intention to give such a small part of the wilderness to the heir of an old pub- lic servant like George Calvert, who had spent large sums in colonial enterprises, and had asked for this grant to reimburse him. At the time the description was written, Capt. John Smith's map was the author- ity as to the country around the Chesapeake, and that map made Watkin's Point, the starting-place, about 38° 10' north. To put the northern boundary at the par- allel 39°, was to give only about fifty miles of width, degrees being then computed at sixty statute miles. The general notion of the English government when William Penn asked for a grant of land was that Lord Baltimore had two degrees of latitude, and it was to such dimensions that Penn desired to hold him. Watkin's Point being 38° 10', made the tradi- tional northern boundary at least forty degrees north. William Penn, instead of claiming that the "fortieth degree" or "the beginning" meant the parallel 39º, argued to the third Lord Baltimore that when the
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