USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Chester > An address, delivered at Chester, before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, on the 8th of November, 1851 > Part 3
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seven years preceded him, under whose hospitable roof they are received and sheltered. The faithful Markham was doubt- less there to welcome him ; he had already served, and lived still longer to serve, with satisfaction and fidelity.
It was upon Sunday, the 29th* day of October, O. S.,
a member of first Assembly held at Philadelphia, and of subsequent Assem- blies. (1 Votes, 7, 34, 46.) A writer in defence of the Quakers, and emi- nent minister in his Society. (Whiting's Catalogue, 160.) Died, 1688. (1 Proud, 237.)
JOHN STACKHOUSE and Margery his wife, of Yorkshire. (Certificate of Settle Meeting.)
GEORGE THOMPSON. (Witness to wills of Heriott, Barber, Ingram, and Wade.)
RICHARD TOWNSEND, wife Anne, and son James " born on Welcome," in Del. River. (Abingdon Records.) "A person of an approved character." (1 Proud, 228.) Of London. (List of first purchasers.) An eminent min- ister in his Society, and died in May, 1737. (Collec. Mem. 102.)
WILLIAM WADE, of parish of Hankton, Sussex. (See will made 20th Sep- tember, 1682, on " Welcome," A, p. 13.)
THOMAS WALMESLY, " Elizabeth his wife and six children," of Yorkshire. (Certificate of Settle Meeting.) Died, October, 1754, aged about 80. (Comly's Byberry, 183.)
NICHOLAS WALN, of Yorkshire. (Certificate of Settle Meeting.) A mem- ber from Bucks of first Assembly held at Philadelphia, and of subsequent Assemblies ; prominent in early history of province; a first purchaser ; died August, 1744.
JOSEPH WOODROOFE. (Witness to will of John Barber.)
THOMAS WRIGHTSWORTH "and wife," of Yorkshire. (Certificate from Settle Meeting.)
THOMAS WYNNE, " Chirurgeon," of Caerwys, Flintshire, North Wales. (Witness to will of Thomas Heriott.) Speaker of the first two Assemblies held at Philadelphia ; afterwards a member in 1687 and 1688. A magistrate for county Sussex. Wrote several tracts in defence of his Society, (Whit- ing's Cat. 206,) and was, says Proud, (vol. 1, p. 237) " a person of note and character." Chestnut street, in Philadelphia, was originally named after him; died March, 1691-2.
* The authority for this is Penn's letter to Herman, dated " Upland, 20th of 8th month, 1682;" Hazard's Annals, 599. But since the above was written, the writer, through the kindness of Mr. Benjamin Ferris, has received a copy of the following memorandum from a MIS. book of Evan Oliver, a pas- senger in the Welcome: " Wee arrived at Upland in Pensilvania, in America, ye 28th of ye 8th month, '82." There is no proof that Penn landed at Up- land on the 28th, it is possible that Oliver, by land or otherwise, at once proceeded there, and did not remain at Newcastle. With, however, a favorable wind and tide, if the formalities of the surrender at Newcastle
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1682, the first day of the week, that they landed; when, with hearts full of gratitude, the little band at once proceeded to the house of Wade, where the religious meetings of the Society had been held, and gave thanks for their safe deli- verance from sickness, death, the perils of the deep, and the persecutions of their native land.
The feebleness of the Dutch and Swedish colonies, after an existence of more than half a century, as compared with the rapid increase and prosperity of the settlement of Pennsyl- vania, was owing to several causes. Both were military colo- nies, both were engaged in continual disputes, and both wanted a steady and vigorous administration. The growth of the Dutch was impeded by the slightness of the accessions to their number, by their dependence on New Amsterdam, and by the unwise policy of the Dutch West India Company. The want of a cordial support from home, at the period when they most needed it, retarded the advancement of the Swedes. In justice let it be said, however, that the rapid progress made under the Proprietary was, in some measure, owing to the pre-existence of these colonies. They peopled the country. The shore from some distance above Bristol to the Capes had been purchased of the Indians, and was, in many parts, under cultivation. And as to the Swedes, a pious and industrious people, advocates of religious liberty, and friends of the Indian, they had done much to prepare the way for our founder .*
permitted, it may have been in the power of Penn to have reached Upland, and as he probably did, during the afternoon or evening of the 28th. As the next was the first day of the week, it would have been natural that he should have felt the wish to have done so. It is to be hoped, since many unpublished letters of Penn and his companions must yet exist, that this note may elicit the desired information.
* At the period of the acquisition of the province by Penn, the region from Chester to the Neshaminy, and still further northwards to an undefined extent, was called the " Upland jurisdiction." The whole number of tax- ables within its limits, and which included every male inhabitant of twenty- one years, amounted, in November, 1677, to 126 souls, who were, with but few exceptions, all Swedes. The country from the mouth of the Schuylkill, northwardly was called Taoconink, (Tacony, ) and contained 65 taxables.
The tax levied was twenty-six gilders on every freeman, and was, we pre- sume, principally devoted to the support of the Courts, and the extinction of
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He came, and soon won the confidence and affection of Indians, Swedes, and Dutch. They gathered around him- he brought the scattered elements into union, and the little colony became an infant nation. They saw in him a ruling spirit-they felt safe in his hands-they looked up to him as to a father, and were profoundly impressed with the humanity, the goodness, the wisdom, and the greatness of his character. Having, almost immediately after his arrival, called the peo- ple together, the first Assembly within our borders was held in this place, and in a building which we regret should have perished.
To our mind there is something sublime in this prompt ac- knowledgment by the Proprietary of the fountain of all power -the people. He presents his body of laws, some of which were derived from the Duke's Laws, and some had doubtless been suggested by Sidney. All, however, were marked by a spirit of wisdom and humanity. The preamble is, in our
wild animals, as the cost of opening roads appears to have been a charge on all; for, by an order of Court, " every person" was "required to make good and pas able roads, with bridges where needed, from neighbor to neighbor, so that neighbors may come together." All notices of the description just referred to, as they had no Court House at that period, were published by being posted on the doors of the only two churches in this region-the Swedish churches at Tinicum and Wicaco. In 1693, and it is to be regret- ted we have no earlier enumeration of the people under the Proprietary, the Swedish population had considerably increased, for at that time there were in the province 188 Swedish families, composed of 907 individuals. So that counting from the year 1700, and allowing thirty years as a generation, there are, at this moment in our midst, according to the usual compu- tation of descents, nearly 300,000 persons of Swedish ancestry.
In 1693 the entire tax levied for the Province and the three lower counties was £760 16s. 2d., Pennsylvania currency. This was a tax of a penny in the pound, on the clear value of real and personal estate, and of six shillings upon every freeman not owning real estate, and was devoted to the sup- port of the government of the Province. It was distinct from the tax levied for county purposes by the Court, upon presentation by a grand jury, the assessment for which was placed at one pound per acre, Pennsylvania cur- rency, and £10 per hundred acres, for untilled land " by the river," and £5 for that "in the woods," upon which valuation was levied one penny in the pound. This was taxation when an infant, and all must wish it had remained such, instead of becoming the giant which it has.
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opinion, one of the noblest compositions on record ; condensed, yet comprehensive, it sets forth, in nervous language, the ori- gin and objects of governments, and points out the true source whence power proceeds, and for what ends it should be ex- ercised.
Chester can never make a nobler boast, than that within her limits was first proclaimed, upon the soil of Pennsylvania, this great declaration of republican liberty. Here are the words :
" Whereas, the glory of God Almighty, and the good of mankind, are the reason and end of government, and there- fore government itself is a venerable ordinance of God, and forasmuch as it is principally desired and intended by the Pro- prietary, and governor and freemen of the province of Penn- sylvania, and the territories thereunto belonging, to make and establish such laws as shall best preserve true Christian and civil liberty, in opposition to all unchristian, licentious, and unjust practices, whereby God may have his due, Cæsar his due, and the people their due, from tyranny and oppression on the one side, and insolency and licentiousness on the other ; so that the best and firmest foundation may be laid for the present and future happiness of both the governor and the people of this province and territories, and their posterity. Be it enacted," &c.
The stay of the Proprietary at this time was too brief for his own interests, and those of his colonists. But he remained long enough to leave the impress of wise legislation.
His devotion to the principles of peace with all men-his hatred of superstition and religious persecution-and his hu- manity to the Indian, were in grateful contrast with the con- duct of other colonies. As to his uniform treatment of the Indians, we regard the fact that not one of that race was ever known to shed, within our borders, the blood of a member of the Society of Friends, except in two instances, where there was reason to suppose they had forsaken their peaceful prin- ciples, as a signal proof of the soundness of his policy towards them.
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The poet writes no less truly than touchingly, when he says :-
"Oft, Pilgrim Land ! thy rock-bound coast, Echoed the sound of fears.
Hudson ! thy savage heeded not Thy blue-eyed maiden's tears. And Powhatan's oft sorrowing eyes Gazed on thy purpled flood ; But never Indian death-shaft drank One drop of QUAKER blood."
Penn's regard was not confined to the prosperity of his own province, but was manifested for the welfare of all. In 1697, in one of the most remarkable papers on record, and which is attributed to him, he proposed an union of the colonies for their common peace and safety. We are aware we trench upon an embarrassing question, with regard to his sentiments as to defensive war, but whatever they may have been at any other period than at the date of this plan, no prouder testi- mony of comprehensiveness of intellect, and far-reaching sa- gacity could be presented than to have been its author.
The original,* which is referred to by Chalmerst as the scheme of Penn, and which, he says, was not favorably re- ceived by the ministers, the peers, or the public, is in the State Paper Office, at London .* Many of the phrases, and some of the objects which, one hundred years afterwards, were set forth in our present Constitution, will arrest the at- tention of the student of our history.
"A brief and plain scheme, how the English colonies in the north parts of America, viz., Boston, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsyl- vania, Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina, may be made more
* We are indebted to Mr. John Cadwalader for a copy of this document. t Vol. i. p. 272.
¿ In the "Catalogue of Papers Relating to Pennsylvania and Delaware, deposited at the State Paper Office, London," published in the Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, vol. iv. part 2, p. 265, it is noticed as follows: "1696-7, February 8, Mr. Penn's Scheme for rendering the Northern Colonies of America, more useful to England." (Original not signed.)-Plant. Gen. B. T. V. 4. A. 40. (6 folios.)
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useful to the Crown, and one another's peace and safety, with an universal concurrence.
"1st. That the several colonies before mentioned, do meet once a year, and oftener, if need be, during the war, and at least once in two years in times of peace, by their stated and appointed deputies, to debate and resolve of such measures as are most advisable for their better understanding, and the public tranquillity and safety.
2. That in order to it, two persons well qualified for sense, sobriety and substance, be appointed by each Province, as their representatives or deputies, which in the whole make the Congress to consist of twenty persons.
3. That the King's Commissioner for that purpose spe- cially appointed, shall have the chair and preside in the said Congress.
4. That they shall meet as near as conveniently may be, to the most central colony for ease of the deputies.
5. Since that may in all probability be New York, both because it is near the centre of the colonies, and for that it is a frontier and in the King's nomination ; the governor of that colony may, therefore, also being the King's High Com- missioner, preside during the session, after the manner of Scotland.
6. That their business shall be to hear and adjust all matters of complaint or difference, between Province and Province.
As 1st, where persons quit their own province and go to another, that they may avoid their just debts, though they may be able to pay them.
2d. Where offenders fly justice, or justice cannot well be had upon such offenders in the provinces that entertain them.
3d. To prevent or cure injuries in point of commerce.
4th. To consider of ways and means to support the union and safety of their provinces against the public enemies. In which Congress, the quotas of men and charges, will be much easier and more equally set, than it is possibly for any estab-
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lishment made here to do. For the provinces knowing their own condition, and one another's, can debate that matter with more freedom and satisfaction, and better adjust and balance their affairs in all respects for the common safety.
7th. That in times of war, the King's High Commissioner shall be General or Chief Commander, of the several quotas upon service against the common enemy, as he shall be ad- vised for the good benefit of the whole."
Such was the sagacious plan, by which he proposed to bind the colonies together. He was nearly a hundred years in advance of his age. When the prophet, in a vision of the night, read the dream of the King of Babylon, he saw the import of that great Image, whose " brightness" was excel- lent, and form terrible, but which with all its strength of iron, of brass, and of silver, was to be broken into pieces, and become as the chaff of the summer threshing floor, while that which was to destroy it, was to become a great mountain, and fill the earth, emblematic of a nation that should spring up, "never to be destroyed nor left to other people," but which should consume kingdoms, and stand forever.
But it could not be vouchsafed to Penn, to a mere mortal, to behold the crumbling of a mighty power upon this conti- nent, from whose ruins should arise, that colossal figure of symmetry and strength, which now overshadows a hemisphere !
Let it be our fervent prayer, that it, too, "may stand for- ever !"
Nearly a century and a half after common consent had assigned Penn, the position of a good, wise, and great man, it is suddenly demanded, that we should reverse the decision of history. The records of the past are so thinly scattered with the names of those who have done honor to their race, that we cannot agree to blot them out without a struggle. He whose life had been a series of virtuous actions, and whose noble nature, imprisonment could not terrify, privations un- nerve, ingratitude provoke, nor temptation, greater than that to which it is alleged he yielded, entice, it would be supposed
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had laid up a character upon earth that could not easily be assailed. But he has not lacked defenders.
The errors and the prejudice of the brilliant historian, have been signally proved and rebuked.
The history of the Province, in its relation to the interests and happiness of Penn, is a melancholy one. It touches the heart. The strife between his deputies and the Assembly- the ingratitude, unjust and grasping spirit of the people-the misrepresentation of his best intentions and most prudent measures-the machinations of his enemies, Quarry, Lloyd, and their adherents-his difficulties with Lord Baltimore- the consequences of his misplaced confidence in his fraudulent agents, the Fords-his distressing pecuniary embarrassments- the constant threats of taking his government from him-the political persecutions which he underwent in England-in short, the incidents of his troubled career from the day on which he landed here, until a merciful Providence clouded his intellect, and dulled the sharpness of his sorrows, form as painful a picture as was ever presented to the eye of sympa- thizing humanity.
Would that history recorded another story.
When Sir Christopher Wren beheld the result of his con- ceptions, as the last block found its resting place, and the glorious fabric of St. Paul's rose before him in all its majesty of column, entablature, and dome, his proud heart swelled within him as he gazed and wept, and gazed and wept. But how much purer and more exalted must have been the emo- tions of Penn, as he traced the last lines of his immortal charter, and made sure the liberties of millions then and yet unborn; and which when the great master work of the British architect will have sunk into the dust, shall cause civilized man in ages and in lands remote to rise and call him blessed. Let us, therefore, forget his sorrows, and feel assured that had it, by some miraculous interposition been permitted, that he should have seen his trials in sad array before him, but at the
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same time, in the brighter and more distant future, the great- ness, prosperity and peace of his beloved Pennsylvania, his self-denying nature would have submitted not only without a murmur, but with joy.
And in conclusion, allow me to express the hope, that the commemoration of this day, once so regularly observed, will never again be permitted to pass without some expression on our part, of the regard we feel for the virtues and the wisdom of our Founder.
In the eloquent lines of a fellow member,* uttered upon an occasion similar to the present, let me invoke you to-
" Rekindle your ancestral fires; 'Tis mind that crowns your natal place ; 'Twas virtue hither brought your sires, And virtue shall protect their race. Then oft revive the inspiring thought, . And make the glorious blessing sure ; And freedom thus, by justice bought, From age to age shall still endure."
* Dr. Benjamin H. Coates.
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1067196 APPENDIX.
THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA having re- solved to celebrate the one hundred and sixty-ninth anniver- sary of the Landing of Penn at Chester, met for the pur- pose at that place, on the 8th of November, 1851, when MR. ARMSTRONG delivered the foregoing address, in the Methodist Episcopal Church; after which, having visited the spot where the Founder landed, and also the site of the "Essex House," the Society dined together at "Price's Hotel," where MR. WILLIAM RAWLE took the head of the table as President of the day, assisted, as Vice President, by ALFRED LANGDON ELWYN, M.D.
The Rev. Dr. Balch and Mr. John M. Broomall of Ches- ter ; Henry R. Schoolcraft, LL.D. of Washington; Hon. William Huffington and Mr. Benjamin Ferris of Wilmington, Delaware ; and Mr. John F. Watson of Germantown, were present as invited guests.
After the removal of the cloth, the following regular toasts were drunk, which were responded to by several of the invited guests and members of the Society.
1. The Memory of William Penn.
2. The Pilgrim Fathers of Pennsylvania, men of clear heads and sound hearts, who granted to others the religious . liberty which they sought for themselves.
3. "Upland"-Prosperity to the ancient borough, the spot where first our Founder set his foot upon the soil of Penn- sylvania.
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4. The State of Delaware. The memory of our common origin must ever endear to us the inhabitants of the " Three Lower Counties."
5. The Swedish and Dutch settlers upon the Delaware. The memory of their virtues is part of the heritage of Penn- sylvania.
6. The Treaty under the Elm-unsanctioned by an oath and never broken.
7. Our beloved Commonwealth. May community of prin- ciples and feelings unite all her sons, from Delaware to Erie, and Wayne to Green.
8. The Founders of the Society. Honor to the memory of those who are gone ; health and prosperity to the living.
9. Our sister Historical Societies throughout the Union.
10. The health of Mr. William Hepworth Dixon, of Lon- don, who has, with the light of truth, dissipated the Scotch mist of prejudice.
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MS" Since this Address went to press, the writer, through the kindness of Mr. Joshua Francis Fisher, has been placed in posses- sion of a " Registry of Arrivals," in which the names of the fol- lowing additional persons are recorded as having sailed in the " Welcome," making ninety-five of the one hundred who embarked; and as two individuals are mentioned in the foregoing note at p. 22, as having sailed with their "families," the list is probably complete.
BARTHOLOMEW GREEN.
NATHANIEL HARRISON,
THOMAS JONES.
JEANE MATHEWS.
DENNIS ROCHFORD, of Emstorfey, county of Wexford, Ireland, and wife Mary, daughter of John Heriott of Hurst-Pier-Point ; daughters Grace and Mary died at sea.
WILLIAM SMITH.
HANNAH, daughter of Richard Townsend.
ERRATA.
At page 23, for " Gilphin," read "Gilpin." 24, for " Ratherton county, Chester, read " Ratherton, county Chester.
25, for " thy savage," read " the" savage.
" Powhatan's," read "Powhatan."
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