USA > Pennsylvania > Chronicles of Pennsylvania from the English revolution to the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1688-1748, Vol. I > Part 19
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Either before or after aligning themselves with Keith, certain Friends about Frankford and in Lower Dublin built a meeting-house on land belonging to Thomas Graves. Among them was John Wells, a signer of the answer to the judgment of Lloyd and others. Wells on Sep. 27, 1697, became a Baptist. Davis, upon his expulsion from the Pennypack Baptist Church, joined the Keithians of Lower Dublin, who before long began to separate rapidly. In 1699, David Price and wife, Abraham Pratt and wife, Richard Wells, Richard Sparks, and others were baptized, and formed a congregation with Davis as minister. Davis adopted Sabbatarian views, in which he was joined by a number, including Pratt, at whose house meetings were at some time held, and it appears that others seceded. In 1703 and 1704, there was a dispute, men- tioned in the records of the Sabbatarians of Westerly, Rhode Island, before whom appeared Davis and Pratt- Sachse quotes the record "Abraham Davis went in 1710 to take charge of the Sabbatarians at Westerly. Richard Sparks, above mentioned, died in 1716, having left a lot in Philadelphia on the east side of 5th below Market as a burial-place for himself and other Seventh Day Baptists. It is now included in the pavement in front of the Bourse, the remains that could be found having been removed to the Cemetery of
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Seventh Day Baptists at Shiloh, Cumberland Co., N. J.
It is claimed, however, that most of the "Christian Quakers" of Frankford and Lower Dublin, including Graves, as the fruit of Anglican preaching, and inde- pendently of Keith, went over to the Church of Eng- land in 1699 or 1700. Graves conveyed the meeting- house and lot of three acres by deed dated Dec. 30, 1700, to Joshua Carpenter and John Moore "for the use and service of those in communion with our holy mother the Church of England and to no other use or uses whatsoever." The congregation since known as Trinity Church, Oxford, worshipped for a time in the meeting- house, and before Nov. 5, 1713, erected on the lot its pres- ent church edifice, the meeting-house becoming a stable, and afterwards being taken down. Before our civil courts undertook to enforce theological trusts, there were several instances, where, as a result of change in religious opinion or the impracticability of keeping to the old design, the majority of a congregation or the holders of title to church property took it into another ecclesiastical connection. These instances seem to us, where they were not the nearest possible carrying out of the trust, fraudulent conversions to new uses : but the persons who gave the ground, or built the edifice, may have said to themselves that their primary in- tention was to provide a place for themselves to wor- ship in, and that they were not to lose the use of it, because of some obstinate associate, or of somebody with whom they once agreed in opinion.
There is a tradition mentioned by Sachse, but not by Edwards, that Abel Noble, visiting Jersey, had been baptized by Killingworth. Perhaps it was in Rhode Island by Stephen Mumford of Newport. Noble had devoted himself very much to the Keithians of Upper Providence. When these became impressed with the obligation of baptism and the Lord's Supper, and were left to their liberty by those in association with them
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in Philadelphia, Thomas Martin was selected to baptize them, but first to be baptized himself by Abel Noble, who had been already baptized. Edwards gives the date of Noble's baptizing Martin as June 28, 1697. Afterwards, the members nominated Thomas Budd, Thomas Martin, and William Beckingham, and, lots being drawn, the choice fell on Martin to administer the Lord's Supper. Edwards says that Martin did so on Oct. 12. An offer was made to receive such friends in Philadelphia as thought their baptism when infants sufficient, provided there was nothing else against them, but these refused, and the others soon felt relieved, the record saying: "we account it a providence, and ac- knowledge our shortness in giving away the Lord's cause." This Upper Providence congregation split on the question of the Sabbath, and dissolved. How- ever, those who favored keeping Sunday were gathered together about 1715 by Rev. Abel Morgan, and, in 1718, built a meeting-house in Birmingham Township. In 1742, a second place of worship for part of the same congregation was built in Newlin Township, bearing the name of Brandywine Baptist Church. The Sabba- tarians, on the other hand, united at Newtown. In 1717, a number took up considerable land between the Brandywine and French Creek, and, reinforced by some seceders from the Great Valley Baptist Church, this congregation, called Nantmeal, became a strong one.
The Keithians in the City of Philadelphia had a wooden meeting-house on the west side of Second below Mulberry (Arch) street. The lot had been conveyed to Thomas Budd, Thomas Peart, Ralph Ward, and James Poulter in trust for the use of the Christian people called Quakers subscribing the articles of faith, for a meeting-house or place of worship, and such other uses as the major part of the Meeting should appoint, and to convey to such persons as the major part of the
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Meeting should appoint. The meeting-house was lent to the Church of England congregation, while its build- ing was in course of erection.
Thomas Budd died, his burial being on 12mo. 15, 1697-8. His antecedents or inclination, at least the ecclesiastical destination of his family, was Presby- terian.
Rutter baptized nine persons, among whom was Thomas Peart, and these nine, with Rutter as Minister, united for meetings on June 12, 1698, and they con- tinued apparently to be included under the name of Keithians, and doubtless, through Peart being a trustee, occupied the meeting-house, or perhaps shared it, even at first, with those who attended a different preacher. The chapter on the Church of England will mention the removal thither of the regular Baptists. Rutter re- sided a while in Germantown, and then at Manatawny, where he began making iron in 1716 or 1717, being the first to start an iron works within the limits of Penn- sylvania.
We learn, from the statement prepared in 1730 in favor of Christ Church's claim to the Keithian meeting- house property (Penna. Archives 1st Series, Vol. I), that those who paid nearly two thirds of the original purchase money, including Thomas Peart and Ralph Ward, joined Christ Church congregation, but, as be- fore said, they were not among its earliest members. Logan speaks in 1702 of some Keithians, including McComb, greatly opposing Keith at that time: but either before or later, as their Society died out, Nicholas Pearce and Thomas Tresse were among those who became Churchmen. The tombstone of the former is in the floor of the present edifice of Christ Church. The statement tells that in 1723 Thomas Peart, as surviving trustee, conveyed the meeting-house property to certain Churchmen in trust for a school for all Christians with- out any violence to their consciences. About this time,
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Joan Lee, who, with her husband, William Lee, had joined Christ Church, forsook it for the Baptists: She and two other Baptist women, former members of the Keithian Meeting, and John Budd, heir of Thomas Budd, and William Betridge and his wife Frances, heiress of James Poulter, as representatives of de- ceased members, made a deed to the Baptists in 1725. After some years dispute, Christ Church surrendered to the Baptists all claim in consideration of 501.
For some time, the name "Lloydians," after Thomas Lloyd, was given to those Quakers who had adhered to him. The word is misprinted as "Hoytians" in the letter of Rev. Thomas Clayton published in Perry's Collections, as will be shown in the chapter on the Church of England.
In the remnant of the Society of Friends on the Delaware remaining after the Keithian secession and the subsequent propaganda of various denominations, Orthodoxy triumphed; perhaps because of the death of certain radical opposers of Keith, perhaps because of the influence of the positive teaching of the religious bodies surrounding-but there is here no intention to deny that it was the work of the Spirit. There was early a readiness in prominent adherents to profess their faith in the Trinity, and to acknowledge the Scriptures to be divinely inspired. Within four years after the Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting's condemna- tion of Keith, five signers of the declaration against him, viz: Waln, Maris, Simcock, Blunston, and Biles, and prominent men like David Lloyd, Richardson, Shippen, Morris, and Carpenter, and also Caleb Pusey, who then or afterwards wrote against Keith, had sub- scribed the declaration and acknowledgment set forth in the English Act of Toleration. The Frame of Gov- ernment of 1696 was not designed to exclude the leading Friends from office, nor was it objected to as having such effect; yet it prescribed the making and signing of
16
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such profession and acknowledgment as the alternative for taking a certain oath for qualifying to serve as Councillor, Assemblyman, or any officer, and the As- sembly chosen in 1705, composed almost entirely of Quakers, passed bills, which became the permanent law of the Province, not merely requiring that profession and acknowledgment for eligibility to office, but also insuring liberty of conscience only for those whose belief was represented in the Parliamentary phrase- ology. It is not likely that there were at the time any number of Pennsylvania Quakers left unprotected by such curtailment of toleration. Going, however, beyond this outline of faith, the following, under date of 3mo. 20, 1696, signed, in a petition to King William III, their recognition of Jesus conceived miraculously by the Holy Ghost, born of a Virgin, giving his life on the cross a sacrifice for man's sins, rising again, ascending into glory, and living to make intercession for men, as the Son of God and Saviour of the World, viz:
David Lloyd
Samuel Preston
William Harwood
Jno. Symcocke
Thomas Makin
Hugh Roberts
Nathan Stanbury
Samuel Carpenter
Edward Shippen
Alexander Beardsley
Samuel Richardson
John Linam
Isaac Norris
Caleb Pusey
Abra. Hardiman
Robert Ewer
James Fox
Walter Faucett
Antho. Morris
George Gray.
Following this lead, it came to pass and continued throughout the rest of Colonial times and into the Nine- teenth Century that American Quakerdom in the greater notes, if with some minor elisions, joined in chorus with Rome, Geneva, Augsburg, Constantinople, and Canterbury.
CHAPTER IX.
ENGLAND.
Position of England among European powers in 1688-War-Opposition to William and Mary in the British Isles-James II's invasion of Ireland- Attitude of Penn-Directions to proclaim William and Mary in Pennsylvania and Maryland-Pro- ceedings against Penn-The Preston Conspiracy -Penn's frustrated plan to sail-Forbearance of William III, and insufficiency of evidence of overt acts by Penn for James-Foolishness of Charles II's grant of Pennsylvania-The Province and Territories placed under the Governor of New York-Fletcher's commission, arrival, and early proceedings-His debate with the Quakers as to money for the war-Promise it should "not be dipt in blood"-Confirmation of laws named in a Peti- tion of Right-Vote of money "towards the support of this government" "as a testimony of our dutiful affections" to the King and Queen-Post Office- Fletcher advises union of Pennsylvania with New York, the Jerseys, and Connecticut under one Assembly-The Philadelphia market place-The Pennsylvania Assembly of 1694-Penn's friends among English public men-Royal permission to go and come-Restoration of the government- Markham appointed Governor with Goodson and Carpenter as Assistants-The customs-England's regulation of Trade.
The throne, calling the headship over England and Scotland one throne, which William and Mary as- cended, had not then the exalted position in the World which the throne of Great Britain and Ireland had at
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the accession of George V, when the millions upon mil- lions of Hindus were recognizing it as an imperial seat, when the continent of Australia, half of North America, and the lower end of Africa were bowing before it, when Gibraltar and Malta and Weihaiwei were garrisoned by its soldiers, when Egypt was administered by its agents, when the politics of Europe awaited the casting voice uttered in its name. When the fourth Stuart King of England was superseded, and his infant son passed over, the Hapsburger at Vienna was still called the successor of Augustus and Charlemagne, the Haps- burger at Madrid was still the greatest beneficiary of Columbus. Besides the suzerainty over Germany, powerful and unrestrained and rebellious as some of its greater princes were, and besides the direct control over Austria as Archduke, and over Bohemia as King, Leopold I held the kingdom of Hungary: Carlos II, who was also King of the Two Sicilies, and lord of what is now Belgium, ruled, as King of Castille, Aragon, &ct., over California, Texas, Mexico, Central America, Cuba, and practically all of South America except Brazil. The Sultan of Turkey had the most extensive dominion in the Old World. France, control- ling Canada and much of what was recently called by people in the United States "the Great West," was the greatest nation of Christendom. Portugal was a
world-power, owning Brazil, and being one of the Euro- pean nations having considerable foothold in Asia and Africa. Poland and Lithuania, united under an elected king, played an important part in European politics, and had just stemmed the tide of Ottoman advance in coming to the relief of Vienna. Sweden, while possess- ing no colonies, bid fair by conquest to hold a great realm southeast of the Baltic. Whatever promise of being the equal or superior of any of these powers England had given under the Tudors, or when it came under one king with Scotland, however widely the
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British people had been extended by colonies planted under James I, Charles I, and Cromwell, or by the ac- quisition of New York and Tangiers and Bombay, England sank into a contemptible position in the latter years of Charles II, and exerted little influence on the main Continent of Europe. The short reign of his successor was taken up with a domestic struggle.
In one of the intervals when Charles II had not been under French control, he had bound himself, in one of the treaties made at Nimeguen in 1678, to aid the United Netherlands, if, after the peace then about to be made, they should be attacked by France. So that England was already burdened with the support of the independence of that small confederacy, and was more securely fastening that burden upon herself when she accepted the Stadholder, William, as her king. There was very little net gain in the contribution which he brought, viz: the co-operation, if not merely friendship, of the United Netherlands, rich in colonies, but not as powerful as before the loss of supremacy at sea and the loss of possessions in North America. There was an alliance, which had been entered into in 1685, be- tween the Estates General, the supreme authority, and the Elector of Brandenburg and the King of Sweden; and the latter, still possessor of Pomerania and Bremen, had united with the Emperor and various rulers of the German states in the League of Augsburg, signed June 21, 1686, for the purpose of maintaining certain treaties, which Louis XIV seemed preparing to violate. Louis conquered the Palatinate in 1687, and it was apparently to support Germany that William gathered the army with which, the next year, he in- vaded England. Before William reached London, Louis declared war against the Netherlands, and so England, under the treaty of Nimeguen, became liable to furnish aid to them.
Thus, as soon as England and the Netherlands had
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been brought together under a master mind,-for, at the transfer of the English Crown, William was desig- nated as the actual ruler,-they were embroiled in a Continental war. A league was concluded at Vienna on May 12, 1689, between the Estates General and the Emperor, binding them to prosecute the war until France had been driven back to the boundaries fixed by treaty in 1659.
Very powerful would have been the whole combina- tion, or even England and the Netherlands without others, if the population of the British Isles had been unanimous, as William and Mary's bloodless triumph in England seemed to indicate. But a great number of Englishmen, including many of the higher clergy of the National Church, still believed James to be their lawful king, while with others there was before long some reaction against William and Mary, and a jealousy of the Dutch. Scotland, the ancient kingdom of the Stuarts, had been brought, largely by its Presby- terian party, to accept the new sovereigns; but there were great lords and fierce clansmen attached by inter- est, nationalistic sympathy, or a common religion to James (the seventh James Stuart who had been king of that country) : while throughout Ireland the Roman Catholics, greatly in the majority, rose against the Protestants, drove them to seek shelter in certain towns, and asked James to leave his place of retirement, St. Germain-en-Laye near Paris, and to come and reign at Dublin. Provided by Louis XIV with a French fleet, with arms, ammunition, and money and some French officers, commanded by Lieut .- Gen. Conrad de Rosen, Comte de Bolweiller, and with De Mesmes, Comte d'Avaux, as French Ambassador, James landed at Kinsale on March 12, 1688-9, and entered Dublin on March 16 (O. S.).
There is no reasonable doubt that William Penn, while unresisting to the powers in possession, and not
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following James to France, or joining him in Ireland, wished him restored to the throne: a different senti- ment in Penn would have involved not only the dis- regarding of his interests, but also an ungrateful hard- ening of his heart: nor was it likely that he saw, far beyond the contemporary scattering of his friends and glorification of a liturgical and title-taking Church and participation in a foreign war, that withal, under in- truding sovereigns, England would be ultimately better off. What he did towards the fruition of his wishes, or in line with his feelings, is a subject of dispute. When examined as to the letter about to be mentioned, he said that he had never had any correspondence with -i.e. had never written to-King James since the latter left England. This plea does not cover any later date than July or August, 1689.
Certainly James had a high opinion of the abilities of his Quaker favorite, and would have liked to use him in the project of a restoration. By some authorities it is said that the letter from James to Penn with which Penn was confronted, which is spoken of as having been intercepted, but which may have been received and lost or stolen, was written before James left France for Ireland. It asked Penn to come to James's assistance, and to express the resentments of (the ser- vices possible in return for) his favor and benevolence. It certainly did not contradict Penn's denial by con- taining an acknowledgement of the receipt of any letter from Penn, or confer any authority upon him, from which those finding the letter could prove his previous undertaking to perform any acts. Yet there is evidence for an historian, even if it does not amount to proof, that, subsequent to the writing of the letter, and before Penn's examination concerning it, two things happened which were inconsistent with Penn's neutrality. About two months after James's arrival in Dublin, Comte d'Avaux, saw a letter from "M. Pen," possibly with-
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out signature, but of which the writer must then have been mentioned truthfully but perhaps indistinctly to Avaux. The letter gave news which Avaux copied or translated for "le commencement" of "Memoire des Nouvelles d'Angleterre et d' Escosse," which he sent to Louis XIV, with a letter dated June 5, 1689, printed in full with the "Memoire" in W. Hepworth Dixon's History of William Penn Founder of Pennsylvania. The beginning of the "Memoire" is: "Le prince d'Orange commence d'estre fort dégoutté de l'humeur des Anglois, et la face des choses change bien viste selon la nature des insulaires, et sa santé est fort mauvaise." The "Memoire" goes on to speak of "Un nuage qui commence à se forme au nord des deux royaumes," where "le Roy" had many friends, and of the anxiety of William's partisans, who apprehended an invasion from France and Ireland, in which case the dethroned King would have more friends than ever, also of the jealousy which the English had of the Dutch, and of the belief that if James would arrive with an army, even Parliament would declare for him. Macaulay, when he wrote his much attacked History of England, believed that "M. Pen" was the author of most of this encouragement of civil war, and was identical with the eminent disciple of peace, our Founder: but, if more than the opening sentence of the "Memoire" came from "M. Pen," and if our Founder's sweeping denial of having communicated with James is not deemed conclusive, there is the great improbability that a shrewd man, already put under heavy bail, took such a risk, probably before his dis- charge from bail in Easter Term, as writing to the exiled monarch at all, and particularly any seductive matter. Dixon has made the excellent suggestion that "M. Pen" was Neville Payne, the well known plotter. His activity a few months later, if not that early, is stated in the Account by the Earl of Balcarres, or his
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letter to King James, known as Balcarres' Memoir. Dixon's identification is strengthened by Dr. Brom- field's connection with a trial of Payne some years afterwards. There still remains, accounting also for the other fact for which there is evidence, the hy- pothesis that our Founder, with what may be called his mania for putting pen to paper, wrote the aforesaid letter, not to James or any officer acompanying him, but innocently to Dr. Bromfield, who was reputed to be a Quaker. John Lunt, whose information, given in 1694, appears in Part IV of Appendix to 14th Report of the Historical MSS. Commission, swore that about the end of May, 1689, Dr. Bromfield came over to Dub- lin from England, and brought an account of condi- tions there and the readiness of his friends, Papists and Jacobites, and desired from King James commis- sions for persons of quality with blanks for inferior officers, which accordingly the King caused to be issued, and which Lunt carried across the Irish Sea, arriving near Lancaster about beginning of July, 1689; that Lunt gave to one Jackson two bundles of commis- sions with a royal declaration and two other papers sealed up with each, one of which bundles was to be delivered to "Sir William Penn the Quaker" (in other copies of the information it is "Mr. William Penn the Quaker") ; and that Lunt supposed that Jackson de- livered them, for he took coach in Lunt's presence. Lunt figures in Macaulay's History with reference to statements as to others as a betrayer betrayed, and may be discredited, but the corroborative force of Lunt's story could not have been known to persons concocting it, for the people of England in 1694 were unaware of Avaux having quoted any Pen, and there was no object in inventing a lie against William Penn, when his friend Trenchard was Secretary of State and the actual examiner of Lunt. No notice was then taken of the reference to Penn. In The Jacobite Trials at Man-
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chester in 1694, published by the Chetham Society in 1853, the date of Lunt's landing in England in 1689 is proved to have been June 13. Under date of June 22, 1689, a warrant was issued (see Calendar of State Papers) for apprehending William Penn, suspected of high treason. It is possible that the alleged letter en- trusted to Jackson for Penn, which Lunt supposed to have been delivered, fell into the hands of William III's officials before Penn's appearance under this warrant, and that such letter was indeed the one upon which Penn was examined, but, if so, it certainly gave him no directions, and was not found accompanied by blank commissions. Narcissus Luttrell in his Diary, printed as A Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs, says after the date June 29, 1689, "William Penn the famous Quaker and one Scarlet another busy fellow pretendedly a Quaker have been lately taken into cus- tody for some practices against the government." The examination of Penn upon a letter from the exiled King to him is mentioned in General History of Europe compiled in 1692 from Monthly Mercuries. Under date of August, 1689, or taken from the Mercury then issued, is the statement that several persons had been released that were suspected of holding correspondence with King James, but Mr. Penn, who had been under the same suspicion, was still under restraint, that he denied ever having any correspondence with King James after he left England, confessed himself greatly beholden to the latter, and willing to be serviceable to him so long as it was not to the prejudice of the Protestant religion or present government, and justified that King James's writing to Penn could not make Penn a criminal, be- cause it was not in his power to hinder it. From the Quaker historians, we learn that he was asked why the dethroned King had written to him, and that he made the obvious answer that is was impossible for him to prevent any man from writing. Questioned as to what
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