USA > Pennsylvania > Chronicles of Pennsylvania from the English revolution to the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1688-1748, Vol. I > Part 14
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tals, were to continue in force until the publication of the laws of the first session of the next Assembly.
On 2mo. 2, 1683, with the unanimous consent of these representatives of the people, a new charter was substi- tuted, whereby the freemen of each county were to elect, on the 10th day of every first month thereafter, one Councillor to serve for three years, and six As- semblymen to serve for one year, the treble vote was not given to the acting Governor, and he was prohibited from performing any act of state relating to justice, trade, treasury, or safety, without the consent of the Council, but, as a sort of compensation for some of the powers taken from William Penn, there was a post- ponement until after his death of the Provincial Coun- cil's participation with the acting Governor in the erec- tion of courts, and of the Council's nomination to him for Judges, Treasurers, and Masters of the Rolls, and of the Assembly's annual nomination of Sheriffs, Justices, and Coroners. As in the former charter, the Governor and Council had the preparation of all laws : the quorum of the Council in this and certain other business was two thirds, and a two thirds vote of that quorum was required. The Assembly had in legislation mere assent or rejection, for which, as well as the nomination of Sheriffs, Justices of the Peace, and Coroners for ap- pointment by the Governor, a quorum of two thirds was necessary. The Assembly had the power of impeach- ment; the Provincial Council, the trial of the officials impeached.
In Penn's letter of 12mo. 1, 1686, hereafter men- tioned, when he was much irritated, particularly by the Councillors' neglect to attend the meetings of the Coun- cil, he threatened, as if he were a modern Czar, to dissolve the Frame of Government. Nevertheless, it remained the written Constitution of Pennsylvania and Delaware until April, 1693, and, after an interim of about two years, may be deemed to have continued such
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until 1700, although for a time the tentative Frame of 1696 was followed.
Before we enter upon the story of administration, there should be noted certain of the Laws Agreed upon in England as early enacted and made fundamental, establishing the principles and judicial arrangements long followed in the colony. Carrying out Penn's great idea, his dominion was made a place of opportunity for the ecclesiastically oppressed. No person who con- fessed one Almighty God to be creator, upholder, and ruler of the world, and professed to be obliged in con- science to live peaceably and justly in civil society, was to be in any way molested or prejudiced for religious persuasion or practice, or to be obliged to frequent or maintain any religious worship, place, or ministry ; any person abusing or deriding another for different per- suasion or practice in religion being punishable as a disturber of the peace; but all persons were to abstain from labor on the Lord's day, and not to swear or curse in conversation, and not to speak loosely and profanely of Almighty God, Christ Jesus, the Holy Ghost, or the Scriptures of truth : the officers under the government, the members of Council and Assembly, and all who had a right to elect such members, were to be such as pro- fessed faith in Jesus Christ "to be the son of God, the Saviour of the world." In contrast to the breadth of this eligibility, the tests required in England, and in- sisted upon by the opponents of James II, included, as to members of both Houses of Parliament, by statute of 30 Car. II st. 2: "I do solemnly and sincerely in the presence of God profess, testify, and declare that I do believe that in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper there is not any transubstantiation of the elements of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ at or after the consecration thereof by any person whatsoever; and that the invocation or adoration of the Virgin Mary or any other saint, and the sacrifice of the Mass,
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as they are now used in the Church of Rome, are super- stitious and idolatrous." When, by the English act of 1 W. & M., c. 18, Dissenters were tolerated, such as would not take an oath were required, besides making the aforesaid declaration, to profess faith in the Trinity, and to acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given by divine inspiration. Under the laws passed at the inauguration of Penn's government, process in civil actions was to be by summons on the complainant declaring that he believed his cause just; judgment was to be given for want of an appearance. Certain rights to bail and trial upon criminal accusations were established. Court proceed- ings were to be in English. As dictated by Quaker scruples, witnesses from the first were to qualify simply by solemnly promising to speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. This method seems to have been observed by non-Quakers and Quakers alike until the coming of Fletcher. He reenacted it, changing the word "shall" to "may," thus permitting the Quakers and Mennonites to give testimony in that way, but restoring apparently the use of the oath by Swedes and the few others who preferred it. Not until 1696 could testimony without oath be accepted in England : the Statute of 7 & 8 Wm. III, c. 34, permitting this, ex- pressly limited it to civil actions. Even in such matters, there was a distinction between the early Pennsylvania law and the English statute, for, by the latter, the affirmant was obliged to acknowledge that he spoke "in the presence of Almighty God the witness of the truth of what I say."
The laws made before and for some time after 2mo. 2, 1683, were not laid before the King, but, apparently treated as tentative only, were usually reenacted with amendments at each Assembly, to stand in force until the end or twenty days after the end of the first session of the next Assembly. A short period to permit pub-
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lication, ultimately fixed at twenty days, after the end of the Assembly was allowed before new laws went into effect. The Assembly of 1686 and that of 1687 failed to continue the laws or enact new ones.
Penn claimed one strange right, not meeting with expostulation in the early days, but declared unfounded by lawyers in later times. By the letter of 12, 1, 1686, before mentioned, of which Edward Blackfan was bearer, Penn directed those named in the commission mentioned in the letter, to declare to the Assembly his abrogation of everything done since his leaving, and of all the laws except the fundamentals, and then to dismiss the Assembly, and call one again, and pass the laws afresh with any alterations. He also enclosed a proclamation exercising the power in the King's Charter of making ordinances. These instructions seem to have been disregarded, owing to the non-arrival of the commission spoken of; but, in a letter dated 4mo. 6, 1687, they were inferentially confirmed by the Pro- prietary's remark that he had little more to say than he had communicated of his mind already "in a former letter by Edward Blackfan." In 1688, a law was passed that all the laws formerly passed continue in force until twenty days after the end of the first session of the. next Assembly, and no longer, except the fundamental laws, and certain additional laws were passed to last during the same or a shorter time.
The first visit of the Founder of Pennsylvania to the shores of the Delaware lasted twenty-one months and a half, and the only other visit twenty-three months. During the ninety and more years of rule by the Penns except during those visits, and even during the visits of the Founder's sons, John and Thomas, the power left by the subsisting frame of government to the chief executive was in the hands of the Council of the Province or of Commissioners or of a Deputy with the title of Lieutenant-Governor selected by the Governor-
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in-Chief. The Lieutenant-Governors were seldom equal to the requirements of the position, and were never fully empowered to speak for their principals : so, even when the person holding the Proprietaryship was not missed for his abilities, there was always a great disadvantage in his being three thousand miles away.
Under date of 6mo. 7 ( ?), 1684, William Penn, saying that he was "not knowing how it would please God to deal with him on the voyage" back to England, ap- pointed Thomas Lloyd, James Harrison, and John Simcock, of whom the first named was to preside, guardians of the heir, Springett Penn, and, if he died under age, then of his successor, until of age, the sur- viving guardians to fill any vacancy happening by the death of a guardian.
At the end of William Penn's first visit, he left the whole Provincial Council to act in his place, excepting, however, in his commission to the body, which was read on 6mo. 18, 1684, any power to make laws dimin- ishing his interest. Thomas Lloyd was made President. He also was appointed by Penn Master of the Rolls and Keeper of the Great Seal during good behavior. Probably not paternally related to David Lloyd, spoken of in a preceding chapter as a lawyer, who had not yet arrived in the province, Thomas Lloyd was a younger brother of Charles Lloyd of Dolobran in Wales, one of the few gentlemen of landed estate who joined the So- ciety of Friends. Thomas had matriculated at Oxford, and was probably the person of the name at Jesus College, who was graduated B. A. on Jany. 29, 1661. The President had practised medicine in England, and did so somewhat in America. To the position accorded to him of a minister among Friends, he had the further claim upon their consideration of having lain in prison many years for the cause, and he was credited with some share in bringing about the repeal of the ancient law for burning heretics, with the execution of
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which law some persons had threatened the Quakers. When Lloyd's term as a Councillor was about to expire, Penn signed a commission authorizing Lloyd, Dr. Nicholas More (before mentioned as owning 10,000 acres), James Claypoole (brother of Oliver Cromwell's son-in-law), Robert Turner (before mentioned), and John Eckley, under the title of Commissioners of State, or any three of them, to represent the Governor-in- Chief, but reserving to himself the confirmation of what they might do, as well as his peculiar royalties and ad- vantages. This was the commission, which seems never to have arrived, or at least not until superseded, as mentioned in Penn's letter dated 12mo. 1, 1686. A com- mission of later date appointed as Deputy or Lieutenant of the Proprietary : Lloyd, Turner, Arthur Cooke, John Simcock (name eventually so spelt, although one signa- ture is Simcocks), and Eckley or any three of them. These were serving at the arrival of Blackwell. When Penn was looking about for somebody to make sole Deputy in their stead, Lloyd and other Quakers de- clined. This was perhaps on account of the military duties contemplated in the King's Charter. After Blackwell, Lloyd, as will be mentioned, was Lieutenant- Governor of Pennsylvania, the only Quaker ever ap- pointed such by the Penns.
It was a pity both for Penn's colony and for himself that, after his first coming to America, he could not stay the rest of his life. Even if the colony did not need his wisdom, his influence would have smoothed away difficulties in government, where his representatives showed want of tact. Except when he sent Markham as aforesaid to take possession, and even including the latest commissioning of Markham, every appointment of a Lieutenant-Governor by William Penn was unfor- tunate. The support of such an official was an item of the Founder's heavy expenditure, and, when it was borne by the taxpayers, it was hard upon them. For the
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Founder himself, residence in his colony would have saved him money, liberty, and a better name than stern critics have allowed.
William Penn had not been brought up a business man, but a knight's son, to be courtier and soldier, while bailiffs, solicitors, and agents drew up his papers, and handled his money. The usual means of livelihood or of increasing an estate for persons of his class were public office and marriage with an heiress. From the former, William Penn debarred himself by his ecclesiastical attitude. His first wife, Gulielma Maria (Posthuma was an additional part of her Christian name), was not without patrimony. She was the only child of Sir William Springett of Sussex, and came of knighted ancestors on the maternal side as well, her mother, who married, secondly, Isaac Pennington (name then so spelt), being the daughter of Sir John Proude by his wife Anne Fagge (since Fagg). Al- though connected rather closely with Lord Culpepper and Sir John Fagg (created a baronet in 1660), and others of worldly station, William Penn's wife, being a Quakeress, avoided the superfluous expenditure of the fashionable, which might have made her relatively poor. After Penn's death, somebody in the family employ swore that he had heard that Gulielma had brought Penn an estate of £20,000, which he put into the Penn- sylvania venture. One or the other part of the story is an exaggeration. Worminghurst, which is spoken of as descending from her to her son, appears to have been bought for her by Penn with £4500 of her money. She also had the property worth about £3000 which was mortgaged at the time of his first coming to America. In part recompense for this, some land in Pennsylvania was granted by Penn to her younger children.
Penn's father left him a good estate, without count- ing the money claim against the English government; but William Penn, instead of husbanding his property,
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followed the career of a minister among Friends, which, involving trials and punishment and travelling and put- ting forth books, engrossed his attention, and devoured his income as much perhaps as the diversions of the worldly would have done.
From the day, or before the day, when Pepys speaks of Admiral Penn's coach being better than the King's, until the careful John and Thomas Penn grew up, the Penns were extravagant; but free expenditure in re- ligious work, or in maintenance of a Quaker family, would not have piled up indebtedness for William Penn. His great real estate speculation and his part in Eng- lish public life, with what grew out of both, brought him to such financial straits as changed him from a philanthropist to a spoilsman and at times a lobbyist.
In the matter of principal business agent, or steward, William Penn was very unfortunate. He employed about the time of the Admiral's death, a Quaker named Philip Ford to look after the Admiral's affairs. Ford, who may have been the Philip Ford of Buckingham- shire in 1666, as well as the Philip Ford of Mary Le Bow Parish, London, in 1677, mentioned in Joseph Besse's Sufferings of the Quakers, was subsequently styled as of London, merchant, and became in fact until his death banker to the first Proprietary.
When the sales to the "first purchasers" were in progress, practically all the cash was paid by them to Ford: it amounted by Aug. 23, 1682, to £5652 9s. 11d. Ford bought the goods to be sent to America, and paid other expenses of the undertaking, with probably sums to Penn and the officers under him, until, as Penn was at Deal, about to set sail the first time for America, Ford appeared with an account making Penn in debt to him £2851 7s. 10d. Penn, having no time to look into this, marked it correct. Then, to secure Ford, he gave him, intended as a mortgage, a lease and re- lease, dated Aug. 23 and 24, 1682, for 300,000 acres
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in Pennsylvania, and a bond, dated Aug. 24, to pay £3000 on Aug. 26. These and the subsequent instru- ments executed by one to the other were not to interfere with Penn's making sales, and his giving good title to surveyed lots, but were merely to protect Ford, and were accordingly kept secret during his life.
Over and above the debt which Penn relinquished to the Crown, the actual expenses of starting the colony, including Penn's living there two years, took all the money from the sales until after his return from his first visit; and then, for a long period, the sales were few. He had secured as quit rents an annual income for the future of about £400, exclusive of what the Swedes and other old inhabitants would pay. The quit rents were not promptly paid, and in many cases were years in arrears. The Assembly had, in March, 1682-3, been so complaisant as to grant him 2d. per gallon on all rum, wine, brandy, and strong waters imported, 1d. per gallon on all cider, and 20s. on every £100 on all merchandise except molasses. How much was ever collected, we do not know : but, although intended to be permanent, and so reenacted until 1690, this aid to him was repealed in that year.
On Penn's return from his first visit, Ford said that £1000 were owing to the latter, while the account, or the copy of it preserved by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, has a further credit of £1858 12s. 4d. received by Ford for lands to 1mo. 21, 1684-5. Ford's wife was not satisfied with the security, and, although £518 12s. more came from sales, Penn was continuing to get advances; so, under date of June 10, 1685, he made, in place of the lease and release, a long term lease to Ford, following a method at one time much in vogue in England to make land disposable as if not real estate. This lease from Penn to Ford was for 5000 years, and covered all quit rents and 300,000 acres, including the manors of Pennsbury, Springton, and Springfield and
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city lands, making exceptions, it appears, of what had been already sold. There was a clause for annulment on repaying the consideration expressed, viz. £5000. On 2, 24, 1686, before going to Holland, Penn wrote to friends in Pennsylvania that to raise money was hin- dering his return to the province-perhaps the King contributed to the journey to Holland. Penn told these friends that he had spent £3000 since he saw London, besides paying some bills drawn before leaving Amer- ica. So the long term lease to Ford was replaced two years after its date by one covering also the town of New Castle, and representing £6000.
Brought by the Baltimore claim into closer inter- course not only with the court officials, but with James, who was Duke of York at Penn's return to England, but succeeded as King a few months later, William Penn, until the authority of that monarch was at an end, had great prominence and power in the realm as one of the King's personal friends. Attached to him by gratitude, and seeing in his endeavors to break down the Established Church a chance for general religious toleration, Penn pursued a political course, which, how- ever beneficial to the Quakers and to others, has not made him popular with English historians. The Quakers should rather revere the memory of the Stuart, who, in his attempt to reconcile England to Rome, re- lieved their early co-religionists and other Dissenters. His "merry" brother, Charles II, although at first inclined to toleration, had yielded to the party insisting upon conformity to a Protestant liturgy, and had relin- quished an idea of reestablishing Romanism, and had not stirred himself to interfere with the prosecution of the "Children of the Light:" at least he left at his death about 1200 of these non-militant persons in jail for not taking an oath, or not attending their parish church. James, by proclamation dated March 15, 1685-6, released them, and remitted their fines, and he
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stopped further process and indictment. It is not strange, therefore, that, as a messenger from James, William Penn, about two months later, on a religious visit to Holland, sought William of Orange, who, fail- ing the Princesses Mary and Anne, was heir to the British throne, to get his support for James's proposal to abolish the religious test for holding office. William would not agree, although expressing himself opposed to penal laws against faith and worship. Penn is said to have thought that a declaration of indulgence founded on a royal claim to dispense with statutes would be a mistake; but, after James, on April 4, 1687, issued his famous declaration suspending the laws against non-conformity, and dispensing with the tests which had excluded all but members of the Established Church from seats in Parliament and offices, the Yearly Meeting, on 3, 19, 1687, adopted an address thanking the King, and praying God to preserve him and those under him in so good a work, and assuring him that it was well accepted in the counties from which the attendants came, and hoping that its good effects would produce such a concurrence from the Parliament as would secure it to posterity; and Penn, at the head of a delegation for the purpose, presented the address.
Penn's right to make laws for more than Pennsyl- vania proper, being of even greater doubtfulness than his title to the soil of the Lower Counties, and a patent for the latter being in preparation after James II as- cended the throne, a suggested form for the patent, which is preserved by the Historical Society, relieved Penn from all liability for allowing religious toleration in those parts.
When James II, by headlong disregard of the advice of Penn and other loyal and honest observers, had lost his hold upon his subjects, and nearly every one was serving the plans of the Prince of Orange, Penn did not even go to the country, and assume an appearance
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of neutrality. On the day preceding that on which James, throwing the great seal into the Thames, made the first attempt at flight, Penn was walking in White- hall, and the Lords of the Council sent for him, and took security in £6000 for his appearance to answer any charge which might be made against him. Thus, hav- ing overspent so much, he was, at the accomplishment of the Revolution, poor, in debt, and under suspicion. On Feb. 20, 1688-9, the Committee for Trade and Plan- tations, having called him and Lord Baltimore before them, ordered the two Proprietaries to proclaim William and Mary in Pennsylvania and Maryland respectively, and both Penn and Lord Baltimore prom- ised to obey any order of the Committee. Three days afterwards, a letter from the Privy Council, dated the 19th, with the form of a proclamation to be used in Pennsylvania, was handed to Penn. By the infrequent, slow, and perilous communication with America in that century, this did not reach Pennsylvania until a year and six months all but a few days had elapsed. Before the end of February, 1688-9, the Council ordered Penn's arrest, he being then at his seat, Worminghurst; but, writing to the Earl of Shrewsbury, Penn protested his innocence of any part in any conspiracy against the new government, and his not knowing of any, and re- quested that the new King allow him to remain at his house in the country, and attend to pressing business relating to America, being under the aforesaid heavy bail. The King allowed this. At Easter Term, nothing being alleged against Penn, he was cleared and dis- charged by the Judges.
CHAPTER VII.
GOVERNMENT UNDER THE FRAME OF 1683.
Insignificance of the acting Governors of Penn's colony and the explanation-John Blackwell- Quakers hard to manage in political affairs-His high notions of government-Control of the press -Penn partly responsible-Obstruction of busi- ness by Thomas Lloyd and others-Assembly con- tends for member's privileges-Question of any laws being in force-White's arrest-All laws passed before Penn's departure declared in force until he could be heard from-William and Mary recognized, and debate in Council upon arming the colony for defence against France-Blackwell re- lieved of the governorship, the Council succeeding with Lloyd as President-Impost for Penn discon- tinued-The people of the Lower Counties dissatis- fied with the Pennsylvania Councillors-Failure of justice in Lower Counties-Split in Council on choice of new commissions for the Deputyship- Lloyd chosen Lieutenant-Governor-Delawareans choose Cann as President-The borough Philadel- phia chartered as a City-Capture of a river pirate -Penn commissions Lloyd, and makes Markham Lieut .- Governor of the Lower Counties.
While the Governorship of some of the colonies, being a rulership directly under the Crown, was often, even in pioneer days, held by a person distinguished by title of nobility, by family relationship, or by the command of expeditions, the reader will look in vain for such, unless one baronet will answer, among those who before 1776 administered the affairs of Pennsylvania
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and Delaware. They with the exception of William Penn himself and Benjamin Fletcher were merely Lieu- tenants of a Governor-in-Chief, and so of lesser dignity. As a rule, the Penns appointed some inhabitant of the colonies or an inferior military officer. Without the prestige of a Governor-in-Chief, or "King's Governor," or "Royal Governor," and involving practically ban- ishment from civilization, and with a stipend providing for mere daily living, the office long was what no resi- dent of the Old World in good circumstances would accept. Edward Randolph, in 1695, making objections to all Proprietary governments, pointed out that the actual governors in such were mere stewards of the Proprietaries, and were persons of indifferent quali- fications, parts, and estates, with inconsiderable main- tenance and precarious tenure. The dominions of the Penns and the dominions of the Calverts alone re- mained subject to rule by Proprietaries after pioneer days, being in fact so subject until the American Revolution. Occasionally, matching the said Lieuten- ant-Governors in inferiority of designation, the actual governors of some colonies under Crown rule, as Robert Dinwiddie in Virginia, were only Lieutenant- Governors, an absentee being titular Governor. The earliest Governors of Virginia were knighted upon ap- pointment, if not already knights or higher in pre- cedency. The dullness of Philadelphia to a non-Quaker has been spoken of: the parsimony of those who were expected to pay the stipend will appear in the early part of this history. These respective characteristics were slow in yielding to the influence of neighbouring example. Besides all this, the task of conducting the affairs of Pennsylvania was, as will be seen, peculiarly difficult; and, even when the colony equalled or ex- ceeded some of the Royal ones in population and wealth, and furnished to a satisfactory official a good income, the situation of the Lieutenant-Governor, who
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