USA > Pennsylvania > Chronicles of Pennsylvania from the English revolution to the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1688-1748, Vol. I > Part 2
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patent of 1632 was granted, Watkin's Point was supposed to be "in the thirty-eighth degree," Penn thus using the popular language, by which the degree is beyond the parallel marking that many degrees. Of the two lines, that at the beginning, and that at the completion of the true fortieth degree, only by using that at the completion can the figure be drawn accord- ing to Smith's map, which delineates the Potomac as having its first source about as near the fortieth paral- lel as the bend of that river at Hancock actually is; so that a line running south to reach the source could never start from the thirty-ninth parallel. In fact, Smith had gone up the Potomac to 39º 30', and re- ported the river as extending further many miles northwestwardly; so it would have appeared nonsense to talk about land at the sources of the river in a grant reaching no further north than 39º. The sug- gestion, once made, that Baltimore's land could not extend further north than the head of Delaware Bay would have made the description contradictory, as an east and west line therefrom would shut out the upper Potomac. In the charter for Connecticut, about thirty years later, a certain body of water is called a river, and described as being commonly called a bay. The truth seems to be that, as Argall, the English dis- coverer of Delaware Bay, who visited it the year after Hudson, described it as extending inwards thirty leagues, the English thought that the head of the bay might be further north than forty degrees, twenty marine leagues being a degree. To be sure, Argall said "lying in westwardly," and made the latitude of the southern cape 38° 20' north, but Hudson had more accurately made that of the northern cape 38º 54'. The Penns' final contention, from the use of the word subjacet, even excluded from this grant the northern part of the shore along the salt water, as not lying "under the fortieth degree." Lord Chancellor Hard-
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wicke, in enforcing the compromise agreed upon by the Penns and Lord Baltimore, said that there was an ambiguity as to whether the grant extended to or through the degree. It would seem that any such am- biguity should have been solved according to the pro- vision which the charter itself contained, that, in case of doubt as to the true meaning of any word, clause, or sentence, the interpretation should always be "benignior, utilior, et favorabiliter" for Lord Balti- more and his heirs and assigns.
There are publicists who would have settled all con- flicting claims upon the broad principle that grants of political power are revocable by the supreme authority of the State, and that the latest grantee-in this case William Penn-is to supersede those prior to him. This principle, however just, and how much soever followed in reality by Councils of State and courts of law, was too dangerous to the heirs of the latest one favored to be urged by them. A solution similarly dangerous to them could be found also in treating the grants of the American wilderness, when greatly ex- ceeding the needs or services of the recipients, as mere licenses to occupy with colonists, and as lapsing with non-user. No attempt to send colonists to the Dela- ware River under this charter of 1632 was made until the shores had passed under another flag, and had been afterwards freshly acquired by conquest. The main assertion of the Penns in opposition to the Lords Baltimore was that the charter of 1632 was, as to what the Penns wanted, invalid or inoperative, or had be- come so. Original invalidity would be recognized if some other civilized power, instead of the king who made the grant, had the rightful title. As excepted from the operation of the charter would be all land as to which the recital of its being occupied only by sav- ages was untrue; for that recital amounted to a con- dition annexed to the gift, as it expressed the informa-
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tion on which it was based, and a royal gift based on untrue information was void. The Crown of England had claimed title by discovery to the whole region granted to the Virginia and New England companies, but James I rather appealed to early possession or a right to occupy what was vacant, and neither he nor Charles I was interfering with actual colonies of other civilized powers. Of course there was a limit to the possessions of such colonies. Unless the whole of North America was to be included in Mexico, or the northern part of the present United States was to be included in Canada, one European nation could not be deemed owner of territory beyond its effective control. Therefore the force of the charter to Lord Baltimore on the Susquehanna and Delaware respectively is to be distinguished. No European outpost had been es- tablished in that part of the region described in the charter which lay west of the watershed between the two rivers: and it was the merest pretence of Dutch influence or the boundaries of deeds to the Dutch from certain Indians which could impeach the Calverts' right in that part. Moreover, as will be shown further on, the claim had been duly prosecuted there.
As to the land drained by Delaware River and Bay, however, while it is not clear that such settlements as the Dutch had made by 1632 amounted to an occupa- tion, the English did not really acquire the region until more than thirty years after that date. Not only did the Estates General of the United Belgic or Nether- land Provinces-Holland, Zeeland, Friesland, etc.,- soon take additional points under their sovereignty, but, moreover, pursuant to the design of Gustavus Adolphus, his successors on the throne of Sweden, being also Princes of Finland, etc., sent over their sub- jects to both the eastern and the western shores of the Delaware. In the course of years, various English- men independent of Lord Baltimore, made unsuccess-
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ful attempts to trade or plant there: meanwhile the two other nations lived side by side with unsettled boundaries. William Penn very reasonably thought that, even if Lord Baltimore's patent was originally good, he had lost his right to that region by never ac- quiring possession, and the region had become the property of the Dutch by the treaty between Cromwell and the Estates General in 1653, yielding to the latter the land of which they were possessed at the beginning of the war. The restored English monarchy, keeping Jamaica, which was acquired through that treaty, was bound by it. Sweden, by the capture of the Dutch fort in May, 1654, secured the dominion of the Delaware basin from below Cape Henlopen to miles above the fortieth parallel; but the Dutch reconquered it in Sep- tember, 1655.
Except to state title in sending commissioners to agree upon a boundary, Lord Baltimore and his repre- sentatives seem to have acquiesced in the possession by the Swedes and Dutch until 1659, when he sent an officer to New Amstel to demand the withdrawal of the settlers who were below the fortieth degree or an ac- knowledgment of tenure. The Dutch officials refused, and their superiors on Manhattan Island sent ambassa- dors asserting title under the King of Spain's right by Columbus's discoveries, and the assignment of that right to the United Republic of the Seven Provinces by the treaty of Munster in 1648, recognizing their inde- pendence, and giving up all countries conquered and seated by them. The ambassadors claimed in general New Netherland, extending along the ocean from 38° to 42°, bounded on the west by Maryland on Chesapeake Bay, as one of those countries, and in particular the South River, as having been possessed by the settlement of Hoorekill (the early spelling of Whorekill), and by various forts. A just title to the whole river and espe- cially the western shore was furthermore claimed from
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purchase from the natural proprietors, the native Indians. Baltimore subsequently had an agent press his cause in Holland, but without success.
Although James I and Charles I had tried to avoid any conflict in regard to colonies with other civilized nations, Charles II in fact offered the Netherlandish possessions in North America to any Englishman who would conquer them. It has been said that he never forgave the Estates General for sending him, when an exile, away from the Hague, at the demand of Crom- well. The restored monarch did not wait for a declara- tion of war. Under date of April 23rd in the fourteenth year of his reign (1662), in chartering the Governor and Company of Connecticut, he granted to them a depth or extent in longitude to the Pacific Ocean, with no ex- ceptions as to the possessions of other civilized nations. This may have been merely a careless copying of the charter for Massachusetts, or designed by the grantees to enable them to absorb the rival colony of New Haven, in which they succeeded; but such a document could have been construed as a license to seize under the old claim of the Crown of England the southern part of the Hudson Valley, and what lay west of it. The extent of the grant southward was not mentioned clearly, the description being "all that part of the King's dominions in New England in America"-as before mentioned, the land from the fortieth parallel to the forty-eighth parallel had received the name New England in 1620-bounded on the east by Narragan- sett River "commonly called Narragansett Bay where the said River falleth into the Sea; and on the north by the line of the Massachusetts Plantation; and on the south by the Sea and in longitude as the line of the Massachusetts Colony running from east to west that is to say from the said Narragansett Bay on the east to the South Sea"-i.e. the Pacific Ocean-"on the west with the islands thereunto belonging." Had
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there been no Europeans above the fortieth parallel, we may admit that, under this description, Connecticut could have sent colonists to and possessed what became Bucks County, Pennsylvania, as well as Manhattan Island, and been ultimately the greatest state in the American Union. We need not stop to examine the claim of Connecticut to the Wyoming region; for it was not brought forward until after the time at which this history closes. The recipients of the aforesaid charter of 1662 not having evicted the Dutch, King Charles, under date of March 12, 1663-4, executed a patent to his brother, who was his heir presumptive, James, Duke of York, etc., for the land from the west side of the Connecticut River to the east side of Dela- ware Bay. Under date of April 25th, in the sixteenth year of the reign (1664), and with a recital that com- plaints had been received from New England of dif- ferences and disputes as to the bounds of the charters and jurisdictions, a commission was given to Col. Richard Nicolls, Sir Robert Carre, George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick to visit the colonies and other plantations within the tract known as New England, and hear and determine all complaints and appeals, and to provide for and settle the peace and security of the country according to their discretion and in- structions. The instructions were to reduce the Dutch "anywhere within the limits of our [Charles II's] dominions to an entire obedience to our government," no man to be disturbed in his possessions who would yield obedience, and live in subjection, with the same privileges as other subjects.
The Commissioners sailed from England with a con- siderable force, and overawed the Dutch garrison on Manhattan, obtaining a surrender of that region with- out the shedding of blood; and a detachment under Sir Robert Carre was sent to summon the Governor and inhabitants on the Delaware to yield obedience to
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their "rightful sovereign," who was pleased to have them enjoy their real and personal property and lib- erty of conscience. The Swedes among the people were to receive congratulation on "their happy return under a monarchial government"! Carre was in- structed to declare to Lord Baltimore's son and all Englishmen concerned in Maryland that Carre was only employed to reduce the region to obedience to the King, for whose own behoof Carre was to keep posses- sion : if Lord Baltimore's right under his charter was asserted, Carre was to say that he was keeping the place only until the King was "informed and satisfied otherwise." Carre went up the Delaware, passing the fort at New Amstel on the last day of September; and, in the course of three days, gaining the Swedes to his side, he entered into an agreement, which was dated October 1st, with the burgomasters, who declared them- selves acting in behalf also of all the Dutch and Swedes of Delaware Bay and River, that they submitted to the King's authority, and were to be protected in their per- sons and property. The commander of the fort, however, was true to his charge, and refused to surrender; so, on Sunday morning, the detachment under Carre opened fire, and then stormed the fort without loss, killing three of the garrison, and wounding ten. On October 24th, Nicolls was authorized by the Commis- sioners to go to the region thus conquered, and take care of the government, and depute such officers for the same as he should see fit.
In none of these proceedings do we find the western shore of Delaware River and Bay declared the prop- erty of the Duke. Nicolls, in various patents of 1667 and 1668 for lands there, describes himself as Principal Commissioner from the King for New England, Gov- ernor-General under the Duke of York of his territories in America, and Commander-in-Chief of the King's
2
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forces to reduce the "usurped" plantations of the Dutch to his Majesty's obedience.
By the treaty of Breda, made in 1667, the Dutch left the English in possession of these conquests, included among the places held by the English on the 10th of May of that year.
In 1668, the English officers at New York, in provid- ing for certain persons to be Councillors at Delaware, ordered them to take an oath to the Duke of York, and established for matters of difficulty an appeal to the Governor and Council at New York. Thus the Governor commissioned by the Duke over his possessions in America took jurisdiction over what had been the southern colony or province of the Dutch, which came to be often called Delaware more than a century before that name was reassumed for the state embracing the greater part of the district. Magistrates looking to New Castle, as New Amstel was called, refused to allow Marylanders to make surveys near the bay or river, and when, in 1672, the Marylanders seized goods at Whorekill, and talked of a stronger expedition to pos- sess the land up to forty degrees north, the commander at New Castle prepared, by order of the New York Governor, to resist what was deemed an invasion.
In the summer of 1673, the Dutch and English being again at war, the former captured New Netherland, and the people on the Delaware made submission. The treaty signed at Westminster on February 9, 1673-4, restored to each party the possessions taken by the other since the beginning of the war. William Penn spoke of this arrangement as an exchange of Surinam, which the English were actually holding, for the North American conquests of the Dutch.
Doubts could be raised whether the former grant to the Duke of York by a king not actually in possession had been valid. Apparently to set the question at rest, Charles II issued a new patent under date of June 29,
.
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1674, to the Duke of York, again using the description running only to the east side of Delaware River and Bay. As the Duke, down to his accession to the Eng- lish throne as James II, received no express grant of the region west of that river and bay, some color of title thereto was sought in the words added, as usual, in the patent: "together with all the lands, islands, soils, . with their and every one of their appur- tenances." It would seem, on the contrary, that the patent was prepared with care not to conflict with the old grant to Lord Baltimore. However, the officers of the Duke of York assumed authority over the western shore of the Delaware in November, 1674, upon the transfer of New Netherland to the English under the treaty; and not only was this command preserved until 1681, but rents were reserved to the Duke and his heirs.
While the Lords Baltimore were losing land on the Delaware, there was a different state of affairs a few miles west of it, neither the Dutch nor the Swedes dwelling far from that water. Before the English con- quest of New Netherland, those deriving title under the patent of 1632 had peopled the eastern shore of the Chesapeake, and supplanted Clayborne's Virginia colony on Palmer's Island, and perhaps elsewhere at the mouth of the Susquehanna, and the government of Maryland, by assisting the Indians in war, had ex- tended the sphere of influence, if not the actual planta- tion, of its Proprietary, as far north as the limit men- tioned in the patent. In 1661, troops of the Province, in accordance with a treaty of alliance with the Susque- hannocks, went to Susquehanna Fort to help to defend it, and, although the English garrison stipulated for was not maintained, the Marylanders for a number of years, as appears in the records, had communication with that tribe's stronghold, which the contemporary Jesuit rela- tions and some data collected by Eshleman indicate to have been at one time above the Great Falls of the
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river. Marylanders must have been familiar with the fort's location. Augustine Herman (name variously spelt), a native of Bohemia, who had decided to remove from New Amsterdam to Maryland, made a contract with the second Lord Baltimore in 1661 or 1662 to pre- pare a map of his province in consideration of a large grant of land. The work took long, and was very ex- pensive, and, when finished, gave what was claimed to be a delineation of Maryland as inhabited in the year 1670. The map was published in London in 1673. It marked the boundary line as running through a large circular enclosure called "The present Sasquahana Indian fort" on the west side of the Susquehanna, at or south of "Canoage," and just below "the greatest fall," or, in other words, what is known as the Cone- wago Falls, at the mouth of the Conewago Creek, which also is depicted on the map. The location is actually about five miles north of the fortieth parallel, a re- markable approximation, but no parallels are shown. In carrying the line, intended to run due east and west, as far as the Delaware, in accordance with Baltimore's claims, it is inaccurately made to strike that river above where Bristol now is. The most accessible re- print of the map is in Clayton Colman Hall's book, The Lords Baltimore and the Maryland Palatinate. Many years afterwards, persons serving the interests of the Penns endeavored to discredit Herman's map as hav- ing been prepared and paid for in the prosecution of Lord Baltimore's claims against the Dutch and the Duke of York; and, in the lawsuit of the Penns against the fifth Lord, there was an attempt to prove that the only fort ever reached by the Marylanders was at the mouth of the Octorara, but testimony to that effect was duly contradicted by witnesses brought by the de- fendant. The impression received from Indians about 1700 that no white man had gone north of the mouth of the Octorara before 1682 is, at most, only additional
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evidence that, prior to 1632, there were no Christian colonists dwelling in the valley of the Susquehanna . between the fortieth parallel and Clayborne's settle- ment, except possibly an isolated trader, and that down to 1680 there were none claiming possession adverse to the Baltimore grant.
There were various actions of William Penn, even connected with the boundaries, which may be con- demned, but we must not think him guilty, when he applied for land, of seeking to have other people's property taken from them. He had then no intention of encroaching upon the rights of the Calverts. No- body knew where the fortieth degree lay, but it was supposed that the parallel completing it, and marking the furthest extent northward of the claims of that family, was south, rather than north, of where modern observations have located it. As presented before the eyes of every inquiring Englishman, there was up the Susquehanna and on the western side of the Delaware a large region practically uncultivated, and to which neither Lord Baltimore's patent nor the Duke of York's patent did extend. If the great depth westward which the charter of Connecticut called for had ever been taken seriously, it was probably thought to have been legally curtailed, so that it could not embrace any part of this region.
The founder of Pennsylvania (see Howard M. Jenkins's Family of William Penn) was the son of an English admiral of the same name, who, after serving under the Commonwealth, favored the restoration of Charles II, and was knighted, and was the commander- in-chief under, and chief adviser of, the aforesaid Duke of York, when, in 1665, the Duke had the glory of signally defeating the Dutch; so that the Admiral and his son, both before and after the latter became a Quaker, were in close contact with the royal brothers. Charles II, after the useful Admiral died, felt regard for the self-
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denying son, very possibly from a similar appreciation of virtue to what that King evinced in insisting upon giv- ing a bishopric to the prebendary, Thomas Ken, "the little black fellow that refused his lodging to poor Nelly," Ken having declined to let the King's mistress occupy the prebendal house at Winchester on the occa- sion of a royal visit. Admiral Penn was the son of a captain in the navy, who was at one time consul for the Mediterranean trade, and the Admiral's monument, set up by his widow, declared the family to be a branch of the Penns of Penn in Buckinghamshire. The mother of the Founder is called in Pepys's Diary a "Dutch- woman;" and, in Granville Penn's Life of Sir William Penn, her father, John Jasper, is described as a mer- chant of Rotterdam. This is doubtless correct as to a part of his life, and as to his origin. W. Hepworth Dixon, in A History of William Penn Founder of Pennsylvania, romantically narrates the courtship of the Bristol boy, afterwards Admiral, with the "rosy Margaret," who waited for him until after he received a commission, and he "ran over to Rotterdam, and claimed his bride;" but Dixon would have curbed his imagination if he had seen certain records, which, moreover, Jenkins does not notice. Margaret was a widow, and had been married to the former husband in or before 1631, the year of the date of his will, and, while we do not know about her rosy cheeks, we learn, from compensation paid her after her second marriage, that she had property. A certificate dated August 28, 1643, in the Dutch Reformed Church, Austin Friars, London, from Rev. Andrew Chaplin, who before the Irish Rebellion was minister of the congregation of Six Mile Bridge, County Clare, Ireland, tells that John Jasper of Ballycase, County Clare, lived there with Marie his wife, and that Margaret, daughter of John Jasper of Ballycase, was lawfully married according to the rites of the Church of England unto Nicasias
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Vanderscure, some time of the parish of Kilrush in said County, and that said Nicasias and Margaret lived in parish of Killconrie before the Irish Rebellion. On June 6, 1643, Capt. William Penn and Margaret Van der Schuren, widow, were married at St. Martin's, Ludgate. Her former marriage does not appear to have been known to Jenkins when he wrote the gene- alogy. The Admiral set up a claim for money advanced to the Crown, and this, at his death, September 16, 1670, came to his executor, the Founder, who had been moved by Quaker preaching at various times, and, after en- gaging in various careers having no connection with Quakerism, had joined the Society of Friends about 1668, in the course of, or between, two sojourns in Ireland. A story published anonymously in London in 1682 of his immorality just before becoming a Quaker was heard by William Byrd in a twisted version, and appears in Byrd's History of the Dividing Line [be- tween Virginia and North Carolina] rather as an ex- planation of Penn's receiving a royal grant. As such it is utterly silly, particularly when, as in Byrd's ver- sion, the mistress of the Duke of Monmouth is made to figure as the woman in the case, which certainly would never have endeared Penn to Monmouth or King Charles II (Monmouth's father) or the Duke of York. A daughter is given to Penn, of whom Byrd says that she "had beauty enough to raise her to be a duchess, and continued to be a toast full thirty years." This was Monmouth's recognized daughter, Henrietta Crofts, who married Charles, Duke of Bolton, in 1697, and died on February 27, 1729-30. Quakers, with more logic, have viewed Penn's success in obtaining royal favor as a miracle.
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