USA > Pennsylvania > Chronicles of Pennsylvania from the English revolution to the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1688-1748, Vol. I > Part 29
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came into possession of the building which was its main hall until removal to Ninth Street.
Whitefield's stay in Philadelphia in the Fall of 1740 was for about a fortnight, at the end of a visit to New England and New York.
Two houses had by that time been built at Nazareth, as he named the place for the negro school. Now came a dispute between him and those employed by him. Reichel says that Whitefield, disapproving of one of Böhler's doctrinal opinions, and unable in an argu- ment conducted in Latin to convince him, discharged the Moravians, closing the interview with the words : "Sic jubeo; stet voluntas pro ratione." The Morav- ians were allowed to stay on the property for some months by Allen's agent; and the whole project fail- ing, largely through Seward's death, Whitefield, after taking title, was glad to assign it to the Moravians. This he did when in England. The further history of the property and an account of the religious people aforesaid and some reflections on the difference between the work of Whitefield and Zinzendorf will appear in a chapter on the Unitas Fratrum and Church Unity. Whitefield was absent from America during the whole time of Zinzendorf's visit. Zinzendorf, after return- ing to England, declared the opposition of the Morav- ians to Whitefield, unless he would recant his doctrine of reprobation, and openly preach free grace. This estrangement of two bodies once so sympathetic ex- plains Benjamin Franklin's story of the unwillingness of the trustees of Whitefield's building in Philadelphia to elect any Moravian as successor to the Moravian member who had died.
Dr. Cummings, Rector of Christ Church, Philadel- phia, having died on Apr. 23, 1741, Peters, although he warned his friends of the "evangelical" feeling against him, was favored for the Rectorate by the majority of the Vestry, although not by the older
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members. His stand against Whitefield was portrayed as a merit by Lieut .- Gov. Thomas in a letter of recom- mendation. Thomas Penn, still a Quaker, tried, out of friendship, to influence the Bishop of London. On the other hand, Peters was opposed by those who wished to keep clear of the Proprietaries, and, in the interests of peace, the neighbouring clergymen pro- tested against such an appointment. Bp. Gibson, to whom on a former occasion, his Quaker kinsman Jere- miah Langhorne had written in favor of Peters, was now as much against Whitefield as formerly, and might have been expected to be glad to reward Peters, but did not yield to such considerations. Watson tells us that in 1741 the Churchmen of Philadelphia manifested some disaffection at the alleged supremacy of the Bishop of London, saying that, as the Bishop declined to license Mr. Peters after they had chosen him (alleg- ing as a reason his living by his lay functions), they would not accept any person whom he might license, claiming that his diocese did not extend to this Prov- ince, and Mr. Peters himself alleging that a right of presentation lay in the Proprietaries and Governor. That they came to a better frame of mind was probably due to the policy of the prelate in not filling the vacancy immediately and to the satisfaction given by Rev. Æneas Ross, who devotedly served in the interim, but it argues something for the conscientiousness of Peters, who became a useful member of the Vestry and a liberal contributor under Rev. Robert Jenney. Twenty years later, on Jenney's death, Peters was unanimously ap- pointed Rector by the Vestry, and in 1763 received the approval of Gibson's successor.
Whitefield's early bent towards the doctrine of elec- tion &ct. had been strengthened before his first coming to Pennsylvania. The time from which he can be called a Calvinist is fixed by Tyerman as about June, 1739. Whitefield's letter to John Wesley of the 25th of that
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month, although starting with disapproval of Wesley's encouraging convulsions and other signs in his hearers, goes on to declare the writer shocked by a report that Wesley was about to print a sermon against predesti- nation. Whitefield, as he knew that his opinion of it would be asked, thought silence on both sides desirable. Wesley drew lots, and, as the result was affirmative, printed; moreover he sent at least one copy to America. Whitefield's intercourse with Dissenters, while it never induced him to leave the Church of England, confirmed him in the theology then generally accepted by Ameri- can Presbyterians and Congregationalists. By the
time, in the year 1741, when he went back to England, he was strongly Calvinistic, and deemed it his duty vigorously to oppose the Wesleys, and was printing an answer to John Wesley's sermon on free grace. On March 6, five days before Whitefield arrived, oc- curred the split in the Kingswood Society, from which John Wesley dates the division of the Methodists. John Cennick, a layman in charge of the school, had preached Calvinism; Wesley told the people that they must choose between him and Cennick, whereupon about one third decided to go with the latter. White- field's friends, chiefly Dissenters, built a frame preach- ing-hall for him in London, close to the Foundry, where John Wesley preached. This Tabernacle, as White- field called it, became the headquarters of those who agreed with him. Three Church of England clergymen besides himself, one being a Welsh rector, and three lay preachers held on Jany. 5, 1743, at Waterford, Wales, the first Calvinistic Methodist Conference, and arranged that the ordained clergymen should visit dis- tricts as they were able, and that there should be lay preachers as district superintendents and public and private exhorters, and that Howell Harris, a lay preacher, should be their overseer. At the second Conference it was arranged that Whitefield was to be
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Moderator whenever in England, there were to be Quarterly Associations, and in every county of South Wales a Monthly Association consisting of an ordained minister and the superintendent of the district or circuit and his exhorters, and all who thought they had a call to be exhorters should be examined by some Monthly Association, and by it appointed to a district. Thus was started a body which became separated from the Church of England, and which has still consider- able strength in Wales.
Whitefield, after spending three and a half years in England, and about a year in New England, passed through Philadelphia in the Fall of 1745. He was then offered 800l. to preach there six months in the year, but declined and went on to Georgia. He was back, but only for a few days, in August, 1746, but, in the following year, spent part of May and June and a few days of September in Philadelphia. He visited the city several times later at considerable intervals, the last time being a few months before his death, arriving on May 6, 1770, as we learn from the newspaper, and, after a week's trip in the interior, finally leaving on June 15. He wrote during his stay: "To all the Epis- copal churches, as well as to most of the other places of worship, I have free access :" and besides the Second and Third Presbyterian, the Methodist, the Swedish at Kingsessing, and St. Paul's, Third Street, he preached in both Christ Church and St. Peter's, then united under the rectorate of his old opposer, Peters. Whitefield died on September 30, 1770, at Newburyport, Mass.
CHAPTER XII.
PENN'S SECOND MARRIAGE AND SECOND VISIT.
Penn's continued financial distress-Death of his first wife and his second marriage-False con- veyancing between him and Ford-Opposition to Penn among English Quakers-The Regents' orders to him when about to sail-Logan and the voyage to Pennsylvania-Birth of John Penn "the American"-Quary, Morris, and David Lloyd -Assembly passes laws against pirates and forbid- den trade-Proceedings against suspected pirates -The trials in England, and hanging of Kidd- Quaker traders provoked at Penn not curbing the Admiralty court-Tobacco-Election for Council- lors and Assemblymen-Lloyd suspended from the Council-Tax for debts of government and impost for Penn-Old Charter surrendered: Penn rules under powers granted by King Charles II-Coun- cillors appointed by Penn-Water Bailiffs-Oaths -Mixed judiciary attempted-"Sweet Singer of Israel"-Assembly at New Castle in October and November, 1700-20001. voted to Penn-Law fix- ing right to vote and eligibility for Assemblymen -Marriage law-Assembly refuses to contribute to erecting forts on frontier of New York-Bill in Parliament to unite Proprietary governments to the Crown-New Assembly confirms laws passed at New Castle-Modified marriage law-Courts of law and equity-New Frame of Government- New charter for the City-New Council for the Governor-Proposed Charter of Property-Penn returns to England.
William Penn had been unable to extricate himself from the financial embarrassment in which the Revo-
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lution of 1688 found him, and which was marked by a change in the secret title to his possessions on the western side of Delaware River and Bay with certain exceptions. The change was effected by a release dated Aug. 30, 1690, of his equity of redemption of the lease held by Ford, and an assignment, dated Sep. 1, of that lease to Thomas Ellwood, in trust to hold it to attend the freehold and inheritance, and a conveyance, by lease and release of Sep. 2 and 3, from Penn of the fee simple to Ford. The right to redeem and annul this was dependent upon the word of Ford. Towards hav- ing any money to use in redemption, Penn, since then, was saving nothing out of his income. He estimated in 1705 that, on an average, in the fifteen years between his first and second visits to Pennsylvania, he had spent £400 annually in London "to hinder much mischief against us if not to do us much good." During some years of the time, his Shanagarry estate, by reason of King James's war in Ireland and other causes, was unproductive. Penn, when requesting the following loan, spoke of £450 per annum (probably the rent-roll approximately) totally laid waste (his word was "wasted") in Ireland.
The request for a loan by Pennsylvanians, made under date of 12mo. 4, 1693, mentioned in the chapter on England, was that one hundred persons should lend Penn each on an average 100 pounds (probably sterling in London net above exchange) without interest for four years, on Penn's bond, to draw interest on what- ever might remain unpaid at the end of four years. As mentioned, the £10,000 were not raised.
Resuming the project of a secondary settlement on the Susquehanna front, Penn made some sales to per- sons in London of land to be laid out between the Delaware and Susquehanna. To secure equal oppor- tunities with the Londoners, a number of Pennsylva- nians entered into an agreement to buy Susquehanna
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lands to the value of their respective subscriptions at the same rate as sold or intended to be to the Lon- doners, and to pay for the pieces, after survey and confirmation, half the price in the March following Penn's arrival in the province to manage the purchase from the Indians, and the other half of the price in the March next following. If Penn came not within two years from date, the agreement was to be void. The date of the articles was the 1st of 1st month, 1696 (1695-6), and on 3, 20, 1696, it was certified that 28241. had been subscribed, Carpenter having subscribed the largest sum, viz: 100l., Shippen 80l., Morris and Ewer and David Lloyd each 50l. Markham afterwards sub- scribed 50l., and later the sum was brought up to 39741., but this was not sufficient to enable Penn to prosecute the undertaking, or even to comply with the condition of leaving the British Isles under the circumstances in which he was, or had caused himself to be.
Losing his first wife on Feb. 23, 1693-4, Penn, after declaring his intention to the Bristol Men's Meeting as early as November 11, 1695, married again, when over fifty-one years of age, and having three children. As he was practically a reigning prince under an emperor, this event was a turning-point in the history of Pennsylvania and Delaware, and is not to be dis- missed from consideration, as in the case of a private, even distinguished, man, with the statement that his subsequent home life was happy, and that certain chil- dren were born of the union. This adroit politician seems to have taken this step without calculation, and showed no discernment except for personal qualities. Romance would have been more natural in a younger man, or at a longer time after Guli's death. The less sentimental reason often adduced for the seeking of a wife, of being all alone, or of having young children needing a mother, did not exist in his case. His finan- cial circumstances made it so desirable for him to re-
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main single, and practise economy, unless he could get somebody with a great fortune, which benefit to his family and tenantry he was not securing, that we are inclined to believe that he found the justification to him- self in the amorous nature which there is evidence for attributing to him. The choice which he made for a second wife has been commended as judicious, and would have been such for a Quaker burgher, but not for an impoverished lord palatine. Hannah Callowhill, whom he married on 1mo. 5, 1695-6, had all the virtues, even in after years inconveniencing herself in kindness to her step-son's family, and she developed very con- siderable business capacity. She was the only child of Thomas Callowhill, a respected Quaker of Bristol, England, successful as a dealer in linens. As he lived long after her marriage, and left his property to his grandchildren, no direct financial advantage was de- rived by William Penn, except Callowhill's taking a large share in the mortgage of 1708, and perhaps other Quakers would have made that up. Hannah's family did not belong to the gentry, and she had no influential connections to strengthen Penn with the officials of the Crown, nor did she ally him to any of the great leaders of the Society of Friends, among whom the regard for him was none too strong. Could he have gone to Penn- sylvania, and there selected a bride, and made the home for his family among the people whom he had led thither, there would have been at least retrenchment in the cost of living, and, one would have expected, a renewal of popularity with the taxpaying tenantry. If, indeed, he was impelled to what he did by being terribly in love with the lady, the disastrous consequences could call to mind the remark of the ancient chronicler "Thus all the trouble in the world from Eve in the garden and Helen of Troy down to the conquest of Ireland has come from a woman."
Penn's second marriage lowered the prospects in
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life of his three children then living, carried him into greater expenditure and deeper embarrassment, dragged his friends and taxpayers into the hardship of assisting him, and finally placed Pennsylvania under a new family with relatively no other wealth than what could be gotten out of it. The three children, over whom a step-mother was placed, were, in order of birth, Springett, Lætitia, and William. The eldest alone was then grown up, but was still single. He was a very satisfactory heir-apparent, serious minded, very much "after his father's heart." Springett died a month after the change in his home. The second son, two years later, married at the age of nineteen. Of the object of young William's "impetuous inclination," his father writes in 1707: "I wish she had brought more wisdom, since she brought so little money, to help the family." The young man, by 1703, when he came to Pennsylvania, jealous of his step-mother and her children, and emancipated from his father, had raised his own set of creditors. Lætitia, who was born in 1678, lived with her father and step-mother until her own marriage, Aug. 20, 1702, with William Aubrey, afterwards seeing her dowry delayed, and her legacy made small. By Hannah Callowhill, William Penn had seven children, being sixty-four years old when the youngest was born.
Unable to meet the interest charges made by Ford, and furthermore obliged to borrow from him, Penn made a new conveyance, dated Sep. 29, 1696, of all right to Ford in fee clear of equity of redemption, Ford making thereupon a separate instrument covenanting to reconvey on payment of £10657. This sum was the balance shown due to him by an account, to which Penn did not object, but which charged Penn with heavy com- missions, and compounded the interest on advances every six months or oftener at six per cent, and fre- quently at eight per cent.
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Penn's liberality to the needy, his expenses in soliciting, and the extortion suffered by him were esti- mated in 1707, in his codicil to his will of 1705, to have lessened his estate £50000. Some of the trouble taken for individuals was pecuniarily profitable; for the custom of the time was for those who had access to kings, cabinet ministers, members of parliament, and officials to exert influence or powers of persuasion for men or measures, and to receive, not wages or sal- ary, but presents if successful. Penn, who on another page has been called a "lobbyist," complained in 1707 that John Hamilton, whom Penn upon promise of a present had helped in England to £1650, would merely deduct forty odd pounds of Penn's debit to Governor Andrew Hamilton, John's father. Much, however, that Penn did was without tangible, at least without worldly, reward, or the hope of it: and this willingness to do a favor, or habit, as we may say, of doing one, seems to have been what led him in April, 1697, to deviate so far from the straight moral course as to take part in pro- ceedings to deceive the English government in the mat- ter of Ford's taxes. Without such excuse as the alter- native of spoiling the province would have been for quibbling, or as danger to Penn's life would have been for prevarication, this is after all the worst thing that is proved against Penn, every accusation equally grave being the proper subject for the decision "not guilty" or the Scotch verdict "not proven." The proceedings in question, which saved Ford £300, probably a years' support of his family, must be mentioned, as they in- volved the final conveyancing between Penn and Ford, and the settlement of the title to what Penn had in Pennsylvania and Delaware so as to give rights which were never intended, but were afterwards pressed, turning this episode of our history into something like a fable, say by Æsop, about trusting those who would cheat others. Subsequent to the release and covenant
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of Sep. 29, 1696, which made Penn owner subject to a mortgage, an Act of Parliament had levied a tax upon real and personal estate in England. To make it ap- pear to the taxing officers that Ford was owner of land in America, which was taxable only there, instead of holder of bonds or other personalty or creditor of money due, which was taxable at his residence in Eng- land, as the loan to Penn certainly was, Penn, after hesitation, consented to convey to Ford in fee the soil of the Province and Territories, and to let it be sup- posed that the conveyance was an absolute one, it being agreed between them that the transaction should con- stitute a mortgaging, that the money owed by Penn to Ford should be paid as the former raised it out of the land, and that meanwhile a paper enabling Penn to de- mand a reconveyance should be executed by Ford in a form "the better to blind the business upon his affirma- tion." To carry out the plan, Penn by a writing dated April 1, 1697, released the premises covered by the document of Sept. 29, 1696. Eight days intervened be- fore Penn had anything to show that he longer had any interest in the land, and Penn supposed, as he after- wards wrote, that within that time the officers made the examination. Ford made a lease, under date of April 10, of the Province and Lower Counties to Penn for four years from April 1, 1697, at £630 per annum (the interest on £10500, to which the debt of Sep. 29 had been reduced) ; and in this lease was a stipulation that Ford would convey the premises to Penn in fee, if he paid him £12714 5s. at the end of three years. A re- ceipt for £159 of that sum was appended.
Penn's bills of exchange drawn on his America col- lectors and debtors in 1697 were not honored. The 6001. promised to him in consideration of relinquishing the impost were not paid in; nor had any quit rents been forwarded to him in England since 1686. Hoping to get to America in the Summer of 1698, he meanwhile,
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in 3rd month of that year, went to Ireland, combining with the inspection of his estate there, a preaching tour among Friends' meetings. Thomas Story, who had studied law, and been converted to Quakerism, and who had made Penn's acquaintance about a year before, attended him. As Story tells us in his printed Journal, they arrived in Dublin from England on 3mo. 6, 1698. After three months' stay, they returned, and, in the latter part of the Autumn, Story sailed for America, Penn bidding him farewell at Deptford.
Story tells us that while they were in Ireland, "Satan was busy in evil work in London," in that about that time some Quakers, including ministers "setting up in the Society as no small dictators," "being filled with envy" of William Penn, "made unworthy attempts against his character and even in the Yearly Meeting." What was the particular subject of the concern mani- fested against him in that Meeting, is not mentioned. It may be inferred that William Mead, Penn's old com- panion in trial, and Thomas Lower had become dis- pleased with him; as Logan, about eight years later, spoke of them as known to be inimical.
At last Penn complied with the imperative call for his presence in America, and followed his often ex- pressed wish to be there.
The Regents of England, commonly called the Lords Justices, at the last interview he had with them before his departure, extracted a promise from him to punish David Lloyd, and to notify them of the fact and char- acter of the punishment. They further, by letter of July 25, 1699, to the Proprietary and Governor of Pennsylvania, required him to see that the Acts of Parliament relating to trade and navigation were put into execution in the country governed by him, and therefore to give constant protection and encourage- ment to the officers of customs and of the Admiralty. On August 4, the Commissioners for Trade recom-
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mended that Markham be removed from the Lieutenant- Governorship, that David Lloyd be superseded as At- torney-General, and removed from all public employ- ment, and that Anthony Morris be removed from his judgeship; and, on August 10, it was further recom- mended that all pirates seized in Pennsylvania and West Jersey be sent to England for trial, together with the "evidences"-witnesses as well as record of exami- nations? The Lords Justices, on Aug. 31, formally dis- allowed the appointment of Markham as Lieutenant- Governor, and gave orders in accordance with these recommendations, and declared void the Pennsylvania law for preventing frauds and other laws on the subject of the customs and the Admiralty contrary to the known laws of England.
Meanwhile Penn had succeeded in making a big sale, by means of which he could transport his family, his deeds of lease and release to the "London Company," mentioned in the chapter on the People, being dated respectively August 11 and 12, 1699; and he had se- cured as secretary a Quaker then in Bristol, twenty-five years of age, James Logan, who had been a school teacher, and more recently in mercantile business, son of Rev. Patrick Logan, a Scotch clergyman converted to Quakerism. Having prepared a voluminous address to Friends, which was dated at Cowes, Isle of Wight, "weighing anchor," 7mo. 3, 1699, Penn sailed for Penn- sylvania in the "Canterbury," accompanied by his wife and his daughter Lætitia and the secretary. Whether the secretary then or afterwards had any thoughts of marrying Lætitia is a matter of conjecture, not of his- tory. The secretary showed himself more of a knight than a Quaker on the voyage. One day a vessel which was not recognized, bore down upon the "Canterbury." and the crew of the latter prepared to make resistance. As Penn retired below, Logan went to the guns. The vessel turned out to be friendly. Logan rejoining Penn,
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the latter reproached Logan for his readiness to shed blood. Logan retorted, that if Penn had indeed disap- proved, he, being Logan's master, should have ordered him below. They landed at Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon, Dec. 10, a crowd, including Quary and Moore, receiving them at the wharf, from whence the Proprietary went to call on Markham, thus superseded, who appears to have been as usual too unwell to leave his house. After addressing a large gathering at the Friends' meeting, concluding with a prayer, Penn took his family and his secretary to Edward Shippen's. There they stayed about a month-apparently board- ing, as money was subsequently paid for Shippen's "entertainment" of the Proprietary on his arrival.
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