USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Annals of Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania in the olden time; being a collection of the memoirs, anecdotes, and incidents of the earliest settlements of the inland part of Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 3
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* The late aged and respectable Levi Hollingsworth, Esq., informed me that his an- cestor, Henry Hollingsworth, who was assistant to the surveyor general, Thomas Holme, had kept a journal, in which he had read, that Wil iam Penn caused his first observa- tion to be taken at Chester, with the intention of fixing the city there; but ascertaining it was not far enough north for the 40th degree, the boundary line of Lord Baltimore, he changed his mind, and afterwards made choice of the city where it now stands. That journal was extant until it was taken, or destr ved, in 1777, by the British at Elkton.
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to supply his place, and also to make needful buildings and prepa- rations for the reception of the founder when he should arrive. To this end the finer parts of the frame work required for the construction of " Penn's Cottage" in Lætitia Court, and for " Pennsbury Palace," were freighted from England, together with Penn's workmen, (called " servants," in the parlance of that day,) to set them up .*
The founder set sail from England in August, 1682, with Captain Greenway, in the ship Welcome, of 300 tons :- a propitious name, and peculiarly so to those before arrived colonists who were anxiously waiting his arrival. The passage was good, and the ship well filled with additional passengers, mostly Friends. But having had the misfortune to get the small pox on board, it proved fatal to nearly one third of the original hundred ! What a calamity in the outset ! Poor adventurers !- how these evils must have depressed their spirits and embittered their voyage! What a spectacle, to see such num- bers of their endeared relatives and companions in peril cast daily into the deep! The recitals of this voyage were dwelt upon by the aged, and listened to by the young, in many succeeding years.
" They told their marvelling boyhood, legends store, Of their strange ventures happ'd by ship or sea."
They arrived first at New Castle on the 27th of October, 1682,- a day hereafter to be devoted to commemorative festivals, by those who venerate the founder and his primitive associates .; Here the
* The oaken capital of the Pilastre of Penn's door at Pennsbury is in my possession, showing a vine and cluster of grapes.
+ Proud had assigned the 24th of October, (perhaps a typographical error of a 4 for a 7,) as the arrival day, but on consulting the record at New Castle lately, it was found that they arrived on the 27th of October. The record saying,-" On the 27th day of Octo- ber, 1682, arrived before ye Towne of New Castle from England, William Penn, Esqe., whoo produced twoo deeds of feofment for this Towne and twelve myles about itt, and also for ye twoo Lower Counties, ye Whoorekills and St. Jones's-wherefore ye said William Penn received possession of ye Towne ye 28th of October, 1682."
The arrival, or landing day of Penn, as a commemorative occasion, is but a modern institution, originally got up in 1824, by a few gentlemen, with whom the present writer had the honour to be associated. Our first meeting was celebrated in an Inn in Lætitia Court-the same locality where Penn once had his residence. There the influence of hallowed associations were strongly felt, and duly appreciated.
On one of these commemorative occasions, we were gratefully entertained by the speech of the Vice President, Mr. Duponceau, to the following effect, viz :-
" In ancient times States and Cities loved to ascribe their origin to fabled Gods, or at least, to consider themselves as under their special protection. Thus Athens was the city of Minerva-Heraclea, of Hercules, &c. Modern nations, in imitation of such examples, have placed themselves under the patronage of the legendary Saints of the Roman Calendar. England has adopted St. George, Scotland St. Andrew, &c. Our brethren of New York, for want of a Wm. Penn, have adopted St. Nicholas.
" But we are not to look to ancient mythology for a name on which to rest our claim to national honour. If we wanted a Saint, we could have had a holy, just and true christian in our founder :- All the earth has canonized him. It is the man himself, whom we celebrate-a man, who, as often has been said, had not his like among the founders of empires. Honoured as we are, by being the only people that bear the name of their first legislator, we are bound in duty, to keep alive the remembrance of his vir- tues, and to express thus annually, our sense of the immense benefits we have received et his hands.
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founder was hailed with acclamations by the Swedes and Dutch then there. He forthwith made a call of the people at the Court-house, to address them on the business of his government. The ship, with the passengers, proceeded further up the river to the general rendez- vous or settlement.
In the full vigour of manhood and manly beauty, as Penn then was, he being but 38 years of age, all his actions and deportment among those honest foreigners were such as entirely won their love and regard. They forthwith besought him, in most earnest entreaty, to unite their territory also, and so become their Chief and Go- vernor. Fancy need not invent fiction to adorn the scene which must have there occurred among the rustics of the then rustic "De- laware Town." The picture is already drawn to the hand,
" While all tongues cried,-God bless the Governor! You would have thought the very windows spake- So many greedy looks of young and old Through casements darted their desiring eyes Upon his visage !"
Won by their entreaties he was induced the same year to declare them united, by an act of union passed at Chester. It must be added, however, that at a later period the members of Assembly from those counties, headed by David Lloyd, a leading member, insisted upon, and finally procured their separation from, and inde- pendence of, his government.
William Penn soon left New Castle, and went thence to hold the first assembly at Upland. Nicholas Moore. a lawyer from England, was made Speaker. In three days, having much unanimity and cordiality, they passed all the laws previously constructed in Eng- land, consisting of sixty-one subjects, called the Great Law of Penn- sylvania. Some of them, framed for a professedly religious com munity, and having for their object the leading into religious affec .. tions by civil checks and restraints, may seem sufficiently peculiar in our modern lax conceptions to deserve some mention-such as, " A law against drinking of healths," another against spreaders of false news, one against clamorous persons, scolders and railers ; finally. these laws, intended to have been permanent, and to have had a perpetual moral tendency, were to have been read as occasional reading lessons in the schools. Ah, what would our boys think of our modern statute books if read in lieu of Æsop's Fables ! Another peculiarity of the "Frame of Laws," was, "that all persons, in all courts, might plead by themselves or friends in their own way and manner freely,-the complainant to swear that his complaint is just,
" What! shall we suffer in this noble city, its foreign inhabitants annually to celebrate their St. George, their St. Andrew, and their St. Patrick, merely because their ancestors, come from the countries where those saints are venerated,-and shall the sons of Wm. Penn, the descendants of his honoured followers, permit his name not to receive at least an equal tribute. We will perpetuate his name and fame-to us is committed the cus- tody of the sacred fire ; let our motto be alere flamman, and let us by no means ever suffer it to be extinguished."
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and to give it in writing into court, and a copy to the accused, (to enable him to prepare for trial,) to be delivered to him or her ten days before the trial." It might perhaps please some, bent on sim- ple justice, and who have seen the rapacity of the law in some cases, if these tokens of primitive simplicity were restored, "and every man within the reach of right!"* It is not a little curious as a sequel to the whole, that none of those sixty-one primitive laws have now any force, being all made obsolete, or superseded by other enact- ments in after years. t
The Assembly aforesaid, which only sat from the 4th to the 7th of December, being dissolved at the close of its business by the Governor in person, he thenceforth proceeded on a visit to the ruling authorities at New York, and soon after, on the 19th of December, he made his visit to Lord Baltimore, to confer on the subject of boundary lines, &c.
By the close of the year 1682, such had been the tide of emigra- tion, induced by the popularity of Penn's character as a mild, gene- rous, and wise Governor, that as many as 23 ships had arrived with passengers since the spring. None of them miscarried; all had short passages,-some of them 28 days. A few, however, say two or three, had the affliction to have some small-pox on board. In those ves- sels several children were born without accident to themselves or mothers. Sadly inconvenient and embarrassing situations for some of their descendants now to contemplate, who dwell in sumptuous elegance! But their ancestors were nerved with undaunted resolu- tion to breast and brave every emergency. One of those sea-born accessions received the name of Sea-mercy.
In those times the Indians and Swedes were kind and active to bring in, and vend at moderate prices, proper articles of subsistence. Provisions, says Penn, were good and in vast quantities. Wild fowl was in abundance. Wild pigeons, says another, were like clouds, and often flew so low as to be knocked down with sticks. Wild turkeys sometimes were so immoderately fat and large as to have weighed 46 lbs. Some of 30 lbs. sold at one shilling, deer at two shillings, and corn at two shillings and sixpence. They also soon got up a seine for fishing,-the waters abounded with fish. “Six alloes, or rocks," says Penn, "are sold for twelve pence, and salt fish at three farthings a pound. Six hundred of those alloes (rocks) have been taken at one draught!" A similar display of the natural abundance of the country is exhibited in the letter of Mahlon Stacy from Jersey. "We have," says he, "peaches by cart loads. The Indians bring us 7 or 8 fat bucks of a day. Without rod or net we
* At a later period it was once attempted as a refinement on the above privilege, that no attorney should be allowed to plead except gratuitously,-" that none should lengthen simple justice into trade." Such a bill was once before the Assembly, but rejected, as not compatible with our complicated machinery of law and justice.
+ It will be seen under the article of Chester history, that the Assembly house and the Speaker's chair still remain.
VOL. I _~
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catch abundance of herrings, after the Indian manner, in pinfolds. Geese, ducks, pheasants, are plenty." Swans then abounded. Oysters were excellent, six inches long.
The first Assembly ever held in Philadelphia consisted of 72 persons, and was convened at the Friends' meeting house, on the 10th of 1st mo., 1683,-at which place, and at several private houses afterwards, when their number was diminutive, they were accustom- ed to meet, until the court-house was built and prepared for their better reception in 1707. The only peculiar law then enacted was one to prevent law suits,-one which has its voluntary associations to the same effect in the present day,-that is, the institution of "Three peace makers, after the manner of common arbitrators, to be chosen by each county court, that they might hear and end all differences." At the same time the fastidious notions of some went so far as to move for a bill or resolution, "that young men should be obliged to marry at a certain age," and also, as a sumptuary regula- tion to repress extravagance, that "only two sorts of clothes should be worn ;- one kind for summer, and one for winter." It is suffi- cient to say the propositions failed by the prevailing good sense of the Assembly; too many of whom were then beyond the spell of the contracted feelings of the "Blue Laws." In this year the first sheriff of Philadelphia was created, to wit: John Test .*
The first Grand Jury was called the 2nd of 3d mo., 1683. The Petit Jury which succeeded it, found one Pickering guilty of coin- ing and passing base money. He was condemned to make restitu- tion, and to pay £40 towards building a court-house. What a wietch he must have been to have commenced such a vile employ at a time when honest business of every kind so well rewarded the diligent!
The truth was as in days of yore, "When the sons of God came 'ogether, Satan came also,"-for the facts of criminal cases (which will be shown in their appropriate places,) show that vicious persons soon got intermixed with the good,-" a mingled web of good and ill!" Although the Friends and their excellent morals were long predominant and widely diffused, yet some vile persons (probably from the older colony of New York, and from the malefactors of the Maryland transportation list,) urged their way into the mass of the Philadelphia population. Soon tippling houses and their consequen. abuses were introduced into the caves and huts, left vacant by the removal to better residences of those first settlers who first constructed them.
In the year 1683-4 the emigration was very great. They came from England, Ireland, Wales, Holland, and Germany. Few 01 none of the French took any fancy to us, although it was the opinion of Penn that they would, and that they would much profit here by the cultivation of the grape, which then every where abounded in
* I once knew some of his descendants, but have lost sight of the family for many years.
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surprising excellence and profusion. The Germans from Cresheim, near Worms, were nearly all of them Friends, and all of them made their settlement at Germantown. By this emigration, says Sewall, they providentially avoided the desolation of a French war, which soon after laid waste their former possessions. The Welsh made a very respectable emigration at this time. They bought up 40,000 acres of land, in 1682, and formed their settlements after the names of their native homes,-in Merion, Haverfield, Radnor, Newtown, Goshen, and Uwechland.
Penn's letter to Lord North, of 7th mo., 1683, saith, " Twenty- two sail more have arrived since I came. There are about 300 farms (of the new comers,) settled as contiguously as may be. Since last summer we have had about sixty sail of great and small ship- ping, which is a good beginning." To the Marquis of Halifax, under date of 12mo. 9th, 1683, he says with much truth, "I must, without vanity, say that I have led the greatest colony into America that ever any man did upon a private credit, and the most prosperous beginnings that ever were in it are to be found among us!" Such self-gratulation was honest and well merited. Indeed we cannot forbear to expatiate a little on the superior tact and talent which he manifested for a founder, by comparing his rapid success with the slow progress of those who preceded him. For, when we consider how long the Swedes were in possession before Penn came,-say half a century,-we cannot but feel astonished at the very little ability they manifested in producing any thing great or important, commensurate with their opportunities. We neither see nor hear of any public acts, by any of their leading men, to bring themselves or country into notice. Not unlike our present frontier squatters, they seem to have set down contented in their log and clay huts,- their leather breeches, jerkins and match coats for their men,-and their skin jackets, and linsey petticoats for their women. But no sooner has the genius of Penn been enlisted in the enterprise, than we see it speak a city and commerce into instant existence. His spirit animated every part of his colony; and the consequence was, that the tame and unaspiring Swedes soon lost their distinctive cha racter and existence as a separate race.
Well might the city of Philadelphia, which imports brotherly love, be so called, when we contemplate the benevolent motives of its founder, and the religious and good intentions of his coadjutors and compatriots. "Our view (says A. Soules' publication of 1684,) was to have freedom of worship, and to live in greater simplicity and innocency on a virgin elysian shore, and to give thousands of dark souls to civilization and piety." Penn solemnly declares he came into his charge of the province "for the Lord's sake." He hoped, under the divine aid, to have raised a people who should have been a praise in the earth for conduct, as well as for civil and religious liberty. "I wanted," says he, "to afford an asylum to the good and oppressed of every nation. I aimed to frame a governmen,
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which might be an example. I desired to show men as free and happy as they could be. I had also kind views towards the Indians." " I am night and day (says he, in his letter from Chester,) spending my life, my time, my money, without being a sixpence enriched by my greatness. Had I sought greatness only, I had stayed at home, where the difference between what I am, and was offered, and couid have been there in power and wealth, is as wide as the places are." Under the influence of a proper credence to such strong expressions of disinterested patriotism and good will, it seems impossible to avoid the confession that a more disinterested public servant and benefactor the world never saw, preceding our own great Washington. Each was peculiarly and emphatically the father of his country-Pater Patric.
Penn's views respecting his improved system of government, as he himself intended it, are strongly expressed in his letter of 1681, to R. Turner and others, saying :- " As my understanding and inclina- tions have been much directed to observe and reprove mischiefs in governments, so it is now put into my power to settle one. For the matters of liberty and privilege, I propose that which is extraordinary, and to leave myself and successors (a noble design!) no power of aoing mischief ;- so that the will of one man may not hinder the good of a whole country!"* Think of this moderation, ye ambi- tious Chiefs! Such was the worthy and noble spirit of him, whom we are proud to call our generous founder ! But the secret was,-a holy religion regulated his life; - yea more,-to those who can ap- preciate spiritual premonitions as held among Friends,-he was "sky guided" and "heaven-directed" in his scheme of mercy to our race, even twenty years before this government began! For in this same letter he emphatically declares,-"This I can say, that I had an opening of joy as to these parts in the year 1661, at Oxford !"- meaning of course, that when he was then but a student of only 17 years of age, he had some peculiar and sensible intimation of this, his eventual country. In another letter to the same R. Turner (a year before the government began,) he also says, "My God, that has given it me through many difficulties, will, I believe, bless and make it the seed of a nation !"
General opinion has been that the proprietor of twenty millions of acres must have become speedily and immensely rich,-but it was not so. His liberal advances for his province, and necessary expenses at court, to cultivate favour for his people, made great inroads upon his private estate, and kept him in continual pecuniary straits. He presented means to his people to enrich themselves ;- but his returns from quit rents, &c., which at first was the business of the county sheriffs to collect, were so tardy and so reluctantly given, as to have been to him a cause of perpetual embarrassment and uneasi- ness. Many were found who justified their non-compliance by the
* As late as the year 1704-5, in his letter to Judge Mompesson, then in Philadelphia, he declares, " I went thither to lay the foundation of a free colony for all mankind."
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pretext, that the quit rents should be reserved in the country to defray the expenses of government.
A man like Penn, familiar with the great, and even honoured with travelling with king James in his tour through his kingdom, could not be expected to live on any small revenue. And it is equally clear he could not leave such society at his pleasure, to come and dwell entirely in his province,-because of the frequent efforts that were made by enemies to the province, to get it all restored again to the direct government of the crown. This was even accomplished for part of two years; and Penn himself exiled from court, under the new reign of William and Mary.
It is painful to generous natures, to see so noble minded a gentle- man perpetually harassed with so many cares. It might well be said of him, "Ill rests the head that wears a crown." We feel an influence of tender sorrow when we enter into sympathy with his troubles,-we want to see such a great benefactor enjoy felicity without alloy. But from the time he became a public friend, he seemed appointed to struggle through " evil report," as well as through " good report ;"-as "often cast down, but never destroyed." In his letter to R. Turner, and others, of 1681, he says,-"I have been these thirteen years the servant of truth and Friends, and, for my testimony sake, lost much :- not only the greatness and preferments of this world, but £16,000 of my estate,-that had I not been what I am, I had long ago obtained :- but I murmur not." He was im- prisoned in the year 1668-9, for his religion, as often as four times in London,-and in later life, whilst the Great Proprietor of Penn- sylvania, he was a short time on prison limits for debts, and actually had to mortgage his province! "And is this all! cried Cæsar, at his height disgusted !" Who may not " sigh at such success, and weep at such renown!"
William Penn had scarcely fulfilled two years as a patriarch among his colonists, before he was imperiously called to return back to England. Lord Baltimore had made such influence at court against Penn's title to Pennsylvania limits, as threatened to impair his claim :- he therefore, in the 6th month of 1684, embarked in the ketch Endeavour, (another ominous name!) for England. In No- vember, 1685, he succeeded with king James, to have the line of Delaware equally divided, through the Delaware and Chesapeake peninsula. His words at parting were very pathetic and affectionate, saying,-" and thou Philadelphia,-the virgin settlement, named before thou wert born,-what love, what care, what service, and what travail, has there been to bring thee forth, and preserve thee from such as would abuse and defile thee; I long to be with you, and hope to see you next fall." But earnest as were his wishes for return, it was fifteen years before he could accomplish the wish above expressed !- to wit, in 1699.
* He was also entitled to a proportion of duties on imports and exports, as Lord Baltimore received. but which in a short time was withheld.
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While Penn remained abroad, he was perpetually engaged in devising schemes of kindness and benefit for his people,-at the same time endeavouring to make his way clear for his return, and to bring out his family to abide with us for life. So his people wished,-so his friends expected. By the year 1690, he thought he had at length attained his object; but just as he was ready to em- bark with a great colony, he was arrested on a groundless suspicion of being disaffected to the new Sovereigns, William and Mary, who had come in by the expulsion of his old friend, King James. He was constrained thereupon to live two years in privacy, and his government two years afterwards was given over to the rule of Gover- nor Fletcher, of the New York government. Penn estimated this damage to himself to be equal to £30,000-a monstrous sum in his day, and especially in his need! Penn, however, so far from acting unworthily, speaks the truth, when he says,-" Would I have made my market of the fears and jealousies of the people, when the King (James) came to the throne, I had put £20,000 into my pocket, and £100,000 in my province."
Penn's desire to return to his colony, and his great disappoint- ments from his people, are thus strongly expressed by him in the year 1686, -- " Unkindly used as I am, no poor slave in Turkey more earnestly desires deliverance than I do to be with you." But one cause, which hindered his return, was his great expense for Penn- sylvania. "I must say my expenses is the ground of my present in- cumbrance." His quit rents, he says, "were at least £500 per annum, but he could not get one penny."
I had several MS. letters in my possession, of the above period of time, from Penn to his confidential friend and steward, James Harri- son, at Pennsbury, which sufficiently evidenced that Penn was much hindered from a speedier return, by the strange indisposition of the colony to provide suitably for his maintenance as Governor : from the same cause I think I can discern that his wife was not favourably dis- posed to a residence among us,-she had probably heard so much of unkindness and ingratitude towards her husband, as soured the feel- ings of both herself and her daughter Lætitia. From different letters I quote as follows,-to wit : 1685, " I will be with you as soon as ever I can,-I hope in the spring,-but if the country will not think of considering me as Governor, I have little encouragement."-1686, "The country thinks not about my supply, and I resolve never to act the Governor and charge my private estate. If my table, cellar, and stable, may be provided for, with a barge and yatch for the use of the Governor and Government, I may try to get hence ;- for in the sight of God, I may say, I am £5000 and more behind hand, than ever I received or saw for land in the province,-and to be so baffled by the merchants is discouraging and not to be put up with."* " There is
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