USA > Pennsylvania > Chronicles of Pennsylvania from the English revolution to the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1688-1748, Vol. II > Part 1
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GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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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. II
PHILADELPHIA 1917
Copyright 1917 By CHARLES P. KEITH
PATTERSON & WHITE CO. PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS PHILADELPHIA, PA.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME II
141892
CHAPTER XV.
THE FUNDING OF PENN'S DEBTS
457
·
CHAPTER XVI.
AGREEMENT TO
SELL THE
GOVERNMENT TO
THE
CROWN
487
CHAPTER XVII.
THE GERMANS
511
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE FINAL STRUGGLE FOR JUDICIAL RIGHTS
552
CHAPTER XIX.
THE IRISH AND THEIR KIRK
589
CHAPTER XX.
CONFUSION AT THE DEATH OF PENN
632
CHAPTER XXI.
PAPER MONEY
665
CHAPTER XXII.
FRONTIER AND METROPOLIS
702
CHAPTER XXIII.
JOHN, THOMAS, AND RICHARD PENN
739
CHAPTER XXIV.
QUAKER CONTROL OF THE ASSEMBLY
780
CHAPTER XXV.
UNITAS FRATRUM AND ATTEMPTED CHURCH UNITY .. 813
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE WAR OF THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION
848
CHAPTER XXVII.
FINAL CHAPTER
886
ADDENDA AND CORRIGENDA
916
INDEX
923
CHAPTER XV.
THE FUNDING OF PENN'S DEBTS.
The Fords condemned by Friends' Meeting- Penn not benefited by the appropriation for his Deputy-Cost of living in Pennsylvania-Evans's rigorous treatment of Biles-The scare-Evans's immorality-The Assembly kept ignorant of the prospect of Penn's surrendering the government- Law establishing courts disallowed, because abol- ishing ejectment suits as "fictitious" proceedings- Quarrel over reestablishment of courts-Opponents of Penn carry election of 1706, and contend for judicial reforms-Assembly censures Logan, and . appeals to Whitehead-Question as to nominations for Sheriff-Must the Speaker remain standing at conferences with the Governor ?- Courts created by the Governor's ordinance-Impeachment of Logan-Failure to pass laws-Legislative rights of the Delawareans-Attempt to stop a Philadelphia sloop at New Castle-Silence of the Charter of 1701 as to trying of impeachments- Indian affairs -Further proceedings towards a sale of the gov- ernment to the Crown-Penn thinks of removing Evans, and censures him-Penn's financial pros- pects brighten-Course of William Jr .- Renewed appeal to English Quakers by the Assembly-Wil- liam Mead takes a stand-Evans prorogues new Assembly-Verdict for rent due the Fords, and imprisonment of Penn-Unsuccessful application to put Philip Ford Jr. in possession of the govern- ment-Whitehead, Mead, and Lower force the removal of Evans-"Penn Charter" school in Philadelphia-Assembly refuses money to defend against privateers-Claim that Evans should apply
30
458
CHRONICLES OF PENNSYLVANIA.
receipts to the public service-The Fords accept £7600, and relinquish claim-Mortgage to Gould- ney et al., advancing £6600-Short session of Assembly chosen in 1708 for each part of the dual colony-Evans marries-He prosecutes to im- prisonment the surety on a marriage license bond, because marriage was not solemnized according to Church of England.
Penn appealed to the Friends' Meeting at Devon- shire House, which the Fords attended; and the Meet- ing, in December, 1705, after several adjournments, caused by young Ford's illness, decided, that, by refus- ing arbitration, and persisting in proceeding in the law, Bridget Ford and her children, Philip, Ann, and Susanna, had acted contrary to Christian principles and the established good order, and that the Meeting could have no unity with them until they complied with the advice and judgment of the Meeting, and that William Penn was free to make his defence at law. Penn brought a cross bill in Chancery, and employed counsel "esteemed the top of that court" to have the amount cut down to about £4000: but, even if the debt were so reduced, the prospect of having to pay it with his other obligations was sufficiently appalling.
As assistance to Penn, which was probably the chief object, the voting of money to his Lieutenant-Governor was worse than useless. In the first place, the new tax to provide the money was as much as the inhabitants would bear at one time, and, notwithstanding the act for collecting the arrears of the tax imposed in 1700 for the Proprietary, the collection thereof in addition to this new tax was found impossible, and was not en- forced; so that this source of revenue for the embar- rassed Governor-in-Chief was shut off for the time being. He had hoped to have part of the proceeds of any taxation by this Assembly paid to him directly ; instead of which Evans under the Act received 8001.
459
THE FUNDING OF PENN'S DEBTS.
down, and half of the balance of the tax, and half of the 600l. or 700l. expected to come annually for three years from the impost. Moreover the Assembly of the Lower Counties voted 2001. to him. Penn thought that Evans, particularly if he kept the fines payable to the Governor, and took perquisites, ought to hand over everything else in excess of the sum which Penn first allowed him. Penn saw no need for his Lieutenant- Governor to entertain all strangers, or, when a bachelor, even to keep house. The original agreement had been vague, perhaps unavoidably, but rather strangely vague even as to whether the allowance until provision by the Assembly was to be in sterling or money of the Province. Logan thought that it would be fair for Evans to get, through Penn or otherwise, fully 300l. Penna. money of the office, and even 500l., if the re- ceipts, including everything, amounted to that, any sur- plus to be Penn's. The joint housekeeping had been paid for by Logan out of Penn's money. Logan said that they had lived as cheaply as possible, with only two dishes of meat a day, except on a few occasions, with one man, as caterer and butler, and one girl, as cook. The whole expense for the two years had been 600l. Penna., running highest, of course, during the five months of William Penn Jr's stay. Evans now com- ing into funds by the Assemblies' appropriations, Logan asked him for reimbursement to the extent of his share of said past expense. Evans insisted that such share could only be a credit against Penn's debt to him of 200l. per annum for two years, that the As- semblies' appropriations were not to be deemed to in- clude a provision for any part of that time, and that the license fees, ship's register fees, &ct. should not be brought into the account. We can not say that Evans's contention was unjustifiable. Thinking of what he had paid or released at the time of his appointment, he or his cousin Peter Evans declared him yet out of pocket
460
CHRONICLES OF PENNSYLVANIA.
£500 by the Lieutenant-Governorship, and he withdrew from the Clark house, and took up his residence at an old log house near Shackamaxon. After he had been Deputy four years and a half, getting no further ap- propriation, he stated his receipts to have been less than 1800l., in other words less than 400l. for each year.
Another indication of the cost of living is given in Logan's letter of 9ber, 1705, saying that all things were dear in Philadelphia, and forwarding the complaint of the incognito daughter of an earl (see chapter on the People) that she could not keep a maid on the allow- ance of £40 stg. a year, paying about 30 pounds (cur- rency or sterling not stated, but probably currency) for her own board and lodging at Robert Assheton's. So "Mary Phillips," i.e. Lady Newcomen, asked that her note to Capt. Finney for £40 stg., he having lent . her 60l. Penna. money, be paid over and above her allowance, and that the allowance be raised to £50 stg., to which she would confine her expenses. The state- ments of Evans in August, 1708, that, by the rate of exchange, 400 Pennsylvania pounds were only 250 pounds sterling, and that all European goods cost nearly twice as much, even in sterling, in Pennsylvania as in England, are probably true for several years before and afterwards.
Having very docilely, during two years, followed in public acts the judgment of those upon whom Penn relied, Evans, contemporaneously with the preference given to the Lieutenant-Governor's tax over that for the Proprietary, and the disagreement with Logan as to the expenses, began to be independent and, more- over, secretive and plotting. Evans's conduct during a recess of the Assembly chosen in 1705 turned against him most of the colonists, at least of Pennsylvania proper, his Councillors as well as the other faction.
Biles having been called before the Yearly Meeting of 1705, and induced to acknowledge his fault in speak-
461
THE FUNDING OF PENN'S DEBTS.
ing disrespectfully of the Lieutenant-Governor as a mere boy, and so forth, it was felt that Evans could well forego the collection of the damages judicially awarded: and this Assembly, controlled, as it was, by Penn's friends, and of which Biles was not a member, asked Evans to be satisfied with the submission made by Biles, and to desist from further proceedings. Shippen, Carpenter, Hill, and Norris were the persons sent to intercede, and they obtained Evans's assurances that nothing would be done without prior notice to them. So Biles came one day into town. Evans, meet- ing him in a tavern, shook hands with him, but at once got a writ to arrest him for the debt, and, although writing to Shippen and others in ostensible pursuance of the promise, had Biles in custody before they could receive the letter. They and Logan pleaded with Evans in vain: Biles was put in prison. Quaker women of Philadelphia undertook to see that he was wanting nothing; but he was in durance a month. Only upon Logan giving notice that he was writing to Penn, and would lay the matter before him, and, moreover, con- vincing Evans that Biles would never pay the sum, and that the People's representatives would never grant another penny to Evans, if he persisted, did Evans take Biles out of prison, doing so when going with the Judges of the Provincial Court to New Castle, and giv- ing Biles the honor of accompanying on horseback the party as far as the ferry over the Schuylkill. This amends to him did not greatly appease the public.
The scare concocted by Evans, although claimed by him to have been similar to what was frequently done in the West Indies, would have been unworthy of even a younger man, and certainly justified Biles in his dis- respectful remarks aforesaid. Evans concocted-per- haps we may say forged-a letter purporting to come from Gov. Seymour of Maryland, announcing the ap- pearance of a French fleet off the coast, and also ar-
462
CHRONICLES OF PENNSYLVANIA.
ranged that the Sheriff of New Castle should send the letter by express messenger to Philadelphia, and that the Secretary's clerk, receiving any pack- age from New Castle, should bring it out at once to George Roche's house across the Schuylkill, where the Lieutenant-Governor was dining. The dinner was about the middle of the day. The shrewd Secre- tary, Logan, suspected that a hoax was being perpe- trated, but Evans positively denied this, and brought the dinner company to town, where, having had a simi- lar message come ostensibly from East Jersey, he held a meeting of the Council, and issued a proclamation for all persons to furnish themselves with arms and ammunition. The militia, to the number of about forty, kept guard for two nights. Meanwhile, John French, Sheriff of New Castle, was raising the alarm through- out that county. On Thursday morning, May 16, French and Tonge, Clerk of the New Castle Courts, arrived in Philadelphia about 9 o'clock, in great haste, and apparently in great consternation, saying that, at about 2 that morning, six brigantines passed the fort at New Castle, firing about forty or fifty shots at the town. A letter from Sussex was read, saying that Lewes had been burnt. The Lieutenant-Governor mounted on horseback, and rode up and down the streets of Philadelphia, with sword drawn, directing all combatants to Society Hill (Pine above Front Street). The horrors of slaughter and pillage, if not destruction, seemed imminent. Some persons started to drive or sail with their goods away from the city, but were detained by the volunteer soldiers, who, in the excitement, fired, luckily without hitting anybody. Some persons threw their goods into wells. Women were taken ill. Quakers who adhered to their principle of abstaining from war, were insulted and threatened. If, as is supposed, the design was to test the Quakers' sincerity, they stood the test. It was Meeting day, and
463
THE FUNDING OF PENN'S DEBTS.
the Meeting was attended. Scarcely any Quakers, only about a half a dozen, including Shippen's son Edward Jr., were betrayed into taking arms. Logan decided to investigate, got a boat with four oarsmen, and went down the river. Meeting a shallop coming up, he learned that nothing had happened; so he returned, and undeceived the citizens. A few days later, the Councillors who were not Quakers waited upon Evans, and urged the calling of an Assembly, to pass a militia law obliging all non-Quakers to serve, and everybody to contribute. Otherwise, an address to the Queen might be sent. When Evans proposed to a formal Council the calling of the Assembly to provide for de- fence, the Quaker Councillors declared, that, as the only effect would be to get a refusal from that body, the design must be to throw blame, and to effect a change in the constitution. The Assembly, when called, pleaded the poverty of the country.
Evans's immorality, in the most common and re- stricted sense of the word, seems to have been great about this time, although perhaps not well known until later. In the midst of his more private or less inter- national offences, an official trip to Conestoga in Sep- tember, made for the purpose of strengthening friend- ship with the Indians, was marked by such conduct with the Indian women on the part of the Lieutenant- Governor, as well as other members of the party, as, in the words of the Assembly, was "to the great scandal of Christianity."
What was probably a transcript of the written ob- jections of the Lords for Trade and Plantations (printed in Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania from 1682 to 1801, Vol. II, p. 464) to certain of the laws of 1700 and 1701, was sent to Logan, who received the same on Dec. 10, 1705, when some of the bills obviating the Attorney-General's objections had been presented to the Lieutenant-Governor, but when there were a
464
CHRONICLES OF PENNSYLVANIA.
number of bills still in the House's control. The Lords' objections referring in some places to the contingency of a surrender of the government by Penn, those Coun- cillors who were members of the Assembly deemed it injudicious to let the other Assemblymen see the paper ; so it was not disclosed to them until after the formal disallowance of all the laws against which the Lords had endorsed the Attorney-General's objections, or made their own objections. This concealment, which may have prevented the supply bill from being with- held, was unfairly blamed upon Logan, rather than upon the suggesters.
Penn himself brought about the royal disapproval of the law of October 28, 1701, enacted by him in person, for establishing courts. It contained an unfortunate direction that the county courts avoid "all fictions and color in pleadings." This gave to David Lloyd, as counsel for the defendant in an ejectment case, the means of stopping proceedings, an ejectment being based upon a legal fiction. Such abolition of a con- venient way of trying a title to land, made the law obstructive of justice. The disallowance by the Queen took place on Feb. 7, 1705-6. The communication of the news that so the judiciary had fallen, was made to the Assembly at its meeting held on Sep. 19 by special call. In an attempt to frame quickly a new act to establish courts, the Lieutenant-Governor and Council failed to obtain the agreement of the Assemblymen, who, while being in favor of a Court of Equity at Philadelphia over the whole Province for matters not within the common or statute laws, and even assenting to such Court being composed of the Governor and a number of his Councillors, yet insisted upon the other courts being held in the respective counties, viz : special courts for capital felonies, county courts for civil and lesser criminal pleas, and a Supreme Court for appeals. The Assemblymen from Bucks and Chester did not
465
THE FUNDING OF PENN'S DEBTS.
dare to surrender local convenience, and then face their constituents ; so the matter was postponed until the next Assembly. The old law about resurveys &ct. having been repealed by the Queen, a new bill relating to prop- erty was proposed, but fell through.
The possession of the Assembly by the Proprietary's friends was short-lived. Some of those chosen in 1705 declined re-election, disgusted with the Lieutenant- Governor. Logan mentions as contributing to the gen- eral disgruntlement of the voters in the summer of 1706, a law passed on January 12, 1705-6, which he him- self thought good, providing for the rate at which for- eign coin was to be paid for debts contracted before the day when the Queen's proclamation as to foreign coin went into effect. Members who had been displaced by the election in 1705, or persons equally or more aggressively inimical, were chosen with Lloyd in 1706, and Lloyd was put back in the Speaker's chair. In place of a bill for courts drawn up by practitioners of law, and submitted by the Lieutenant-Governor, a widely different one was presented, although there had been the concession that the Supreme Court sit twice a year in Bucks and Chester, if there were occasion. These Assemblymen, unlike those whom they had suc- ceeded, were unwilling to give the powers of a Court of Equity to the Lieutenant-Governor and his Coun- cillors, the very agents of the Proprietary, but were willing to have Judges in equity appointed, while also unwilling to secure Mompesson by a good salary for head of the court dealing with appeals in law. Four reforms were, moreover, urged by the House, viz: the Judges to be removed, not at the Governor's pleasure, but upon request of the House alleging misconduct; the Prothonotaries and Clerks to be appointed by the Judges of their respective courts; the fines to go to the expenses of the judiciary ; and the licensing of the drink- ing-houses to be done by the county Justices, instead
466
CHRONICLES OF PENNSYLVANIA.
of by the Governor on their recommendation, as in the Frame. Evans and his Councillors, as to these four reforms, did not feel justified in abating rights vested in the Proprietary, and not yet granted away by him- self personally. The Assembly wished to enlarge the civil and criminal jurisdiction of the Mayor's Court. In vain did Evans, by concessions and scolding, try to obtain a bill which would not impair the Proprie- tary's power and revenue. Confident of the Governor's right to establish courts by his own ordinance, the Coun- cillors were soon convinced that process could not be revived except by the legislative power, and they de- sired that the act of Assembly, thus made necessary, also provide for a salary sufficient to retain Mompesson, who had actually accepted Penn's commission as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. In the course of the long struggle which followed, the Assembly on one occasion protested against the Council being joined with him in a message, as if having legislative func- tions. On Nov. 29, the Assembly resolved, that, as one who had advised the acting Governor to insist upon an opinion that he could reestablish courts without the concurrence of the Assembly, and as having given per- nicious advice, and as having concealed the Board of Trade's objections to the laws, James Logan was an enemy of the Governor and government; and, accord- ingly, the Assembly asked the Governor to remove him from his Council and presence. Nearly contemporane- ously with a request to the Proprietary by the City Corporation for a new charter enlarging its powers, which, however, was not granted, the House, on 10mo. 3, resolved unanimously to send an address to the Pro- prietary laying before him the grievances of the People, including the grievances formerly complained of. George Whitehead and other English Quakers had written a letter, read that day, signifying their readi- ness to join with the Proprietary in any application to
467
THE FUNDING OF PENN'S DEBTS.
the British government for the good of the Province. It was resolved to ask the assistance of the writers, and an address to the Proprietary and a letter to them were both adopted unanimously on 10mo. 4.
The Act making the term of Sheriffs and Coroners one year, said that no elections, i.e. nominations of two for the Governor to choose from, should be made "be- fore the time limited for those who are at present in those offices respectively shall be expired." Benjamin Wright was Sheriff of Philadelphia County at the pass- ing of the Act, having been appointed in October, 1705, for three years, but was soon removed, and John Budd prior to the next election was appointed by Evans, by virtue of so much of the general power in Penn or his Deputy to fill offices as had not been restricted by the Frame or other laws. In October, 1706, the freemen of the county expressing themselves at the election voted for Budd and Henry Flower as nominees for the office : but, it being claimed that this could not be done before October, 1708, Budd was induced to hold the office as a gift from the Governor. The Assembly, on 10mo. 4, resolved that Logan, by advising Budd not to insist upon the legality of the nomination, had endeav- ored to subvert the privileges of the People.
Other attempts to restrain the Governor were made. The House offered, if the Governor's power of licens- ing were transferred to the Justices, to allow him upon each license a larger fee than, by an Act of the last Assembly, he could charge on issuing one. For the reform, as established in England, of making Judges continue in office during good behavior, the advocates fell back upon Penn's original promises to the immi- grants, as evidenced by the Frame of 1682. When Evans, in argument, spoke of the difference between the republicanism of the Massachusetts charter, and the distribution of powers between the Proprietary and his People in King Charles's patent to Penn, these un-
468
CHRONICLES OF PENNSYLVANIA.
armed freemen-for they were Quakers or such as had called themselves Christian Quakers-boldly repre- hended any idea that their rights were at the will of any Prince, and declared the privileges of native born Englishmen their inheritance. At a conference between the Lieutenant-Governor and the Assembly, the Speaker, after talking several times standing, retained his seat while he spoke, and, when, at last, the Lieu- tenant-Governor desired him to rise, the Speaker said that he was "the mouth of the Country," and was to take his orders from the House. On his keeping his seat afterwards, when answering Evans's points, Evans told him to stand, otherwise no notice would be taken of what he said. The Speaker, declaring himself affronted, broke up the conference, and departed, tak- ing with him all the members of the House. A regret at the interruption of the conference was sent back, with a request that the Speaker have leave to sit at any further proceedings, or, if the Governor could not agree to this, that the Council, without him, meet the Assem- bly. Evans insisted that he was the Queen's repre- sentative and obliged to require deference; Lloyd dis- claimed any intention to be rude, but the House argued for his equality and his freedom in speech and gesture in conferences as to legislation, and would not require him to make any further acknowledgment to the Lieu- tenant-Governor than a repetition of the acknowledg- ment made to the House: so when, for the opening of a new conference, Evans had insisted upon a submis- sion by Lloyd, no members attended. Further com- munication was through messages.
The Lieutenant-Governor issued an ordinance on Feb. 22 establishing a Supreme Court, consisting of a Chief and two other Judges, any one to act, to hear ap- peals in law or equity, also County Courts, held by three of the Justices for each county, to hear cases in law or equity, and to try criminal cases except of capi-
469
THE FUNDING OF PENN'S DEBTS.
tal offences, for which special commissions were to be granted. On the same day, a short bill for reviving process was sent to the Assembly. This failed to pass, as the bill desired by the Assembly provided for such revival.
On Feb. 23, 1706-7, the Assembly, following the cus- tom in monarchies of holding the supposed adviser re- sponsible for the acts of the government, exhibited fourteen articles of impeachment against Logan. Ex- cept as to some alleged arbitrary acts in the matter of quit rents, resurveys, and patents, and even somewhat as to these, all the charges were a means of hitting Penn or Evans or the Land Commissioners or the Coun- cil. None set forth high crimes, loose living, corrup- tion, or extortion for himself.
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