USA > Pennsylvania > Chronicles of Pennsylvania from the English revolution to the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1688-1748, Vol. I > Part 30
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Penn secured for a city residence the house, built by Samuel Carpenter, long known as the "slate roof house," at the southeast corner of 2nd and the present Sansom Street. There Hannah Penn had a son, born on January 29, 1699-1700, named John, the only male of the Penn family born in the New World. He was sometimes referred to by his father as "the Ameri- can," and is distinguished in history as "John Penn the American" from his two nephews named John. Most of the second visit of the first Proprietary to Pennsylvania, however, was spent at Pennsbury manor, Bucks County, Logan being left in the "slate roof house." No wages to Logan were paid at the time, and perhaps the additional housekeeping by Logan was overlooked, when Penn spoke later of having spent in Pennsylvania £1000 per annum, having a wife, child (Lætitia), nurse (the baby not mentioned), three maids, and three or four men.
We learn from two accounts hereafter quoted, a Churchman's "Brief Narrative" and Logan's letter to William Penn Jr., that, a few days after the Proprie- tary's arrival, he received Colonel Quary and perhaps others of the Churchmen, and, admitting that there
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were grounds for complaint, declared that it should be his own chief care and endeavor to administer justice impartially without favor or affection in relation to opinions, and to make "everything as even as his two eyes." Quary, when he saw the steps taken by Penn and the change brought about by him in the attitude towards the Crown officers, wrote strongly in com- mendation of Penn.
Anthony Morris was willing to sacrifice himself to enable Penn to comply with the desire or requirement of the English government; but David Lloyd, "ex- tremely pertinacious and somewhat revengeful," had no consideration for the Proprietary's difficulties, and stoutly opposed the course essential to the latter's in- terests, apparently on December 21, 1699-1700, when Penn met the Council for the first time after his arrival. Penn answered with much warmth, and enforced his will. On Dec. 22, Morris brought before the Council the papers in the matter of the replevin, and resigned his judgeship, and Penn reprimanded him for issuing the writ, and delivered to Judge Quary, who appeared by request, the inventories of the goods replevied and the bonds given by Adams and his sureties. Penn asked Quary to suggest any expedients for discouraging and punishing piracy and illegal trade, and expressed a hope that the Admiralty and the Proprietary author- ities would work hand in hand for that purpose. A month later, Quary reported that the surety refused to hand over the value of the replevied goods, and, the Sheriff who took the bond being no longer in Office, Quary asked for an order that Morris restore the goods. It was unreasonable, Quary said, that the Crown be put to the expense of a suit to recover them. Morris made answer that he had acted in ignorance, not in malice, and had no interest in the goods or in their owner, and, in a similar case, would not again act as he had done. Penn then
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told Quary that the Admiralty officers should be put in possession of the value without trouble or expense. Quary was asked what further satisfaction he wished from Morris. He replied, that, having no personal animosity, he was satisfied with Morris's sub- mission, in view of the Proprietary's promise. More than this, after making charges against Lloyd, Quary was willing to let them drop, as will be seen.
For passing a sufficient law against piracy and illegal trade, Penn called an Assembly. With a proviso that he was not bound by the Frame of Government of 1696, he issued a writ to the Sheriff of New Castle to supply the omission to choose Councillors and As- semblymen the year before, and summoned the Assem- blymen already elected to meet on the 25th of January those to be so chosen. The Sheriff of New Castle on that day returned Richard Halliwell and Robert French as chosen for Councillors, and John Healy, Adam Pieterson, William Guest, and William Houston as chosen for Assemblymen. It happened that the people along Brandywine Creek had no notice of the election, and twenty-nine petitioners asked that there be a new election, but the Proprietary induced all to acquiesce in the choice, by his promising to punish the Sheriff for his neglect, and to pass no other laws than against pirates and illegal trade, and by declaring that the acceptance of the return should not be deemed a precedent. After earnest debate for two weeks, the spe- ical session passed a law against piracy and also a law against illegal trade, the Proprietary consenting to a clause indemnifying all persons who had traded with such pirates as had surrendered themselves under the Jamaica proclamation, and the Assembly consenting to a prohibition of the trade to Madagascar and Natal for three years.
Among the members of Assembly elected in 1699 from Kent County was Markham's son-in-law, the sus-
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pected Brown. He was, however, arrested before the special session. Markham having offered to go bail, but objecting to the bond being so worded as to bind his executors, Penn wrote a note on January 27, 1699-00, reminding him that, if he or his estate were to lose anything by Brown running away, it would be the only money paid out as any marriage portion for Markham's only child. A few days later Markham is mentioned as having gone bail in 300l. The old pirates who came before Every's crew, Penn had bound over to answer any charges which might be made within one year. Bradinham and Evans and, afterwards, Brown were sent to the Earl of Bellomont, and were taken to England by a man-of-war, with Eldridge and five others, viz: Nicholas Churchill and James Howe, who had both sailed with Kidd, Robert Hickman, Derby Mullens (or Mullig), and Turlagh O'Sullivan, the last named having gone aboard Every's vessel after all the prizes had been taken, and being at the time of arrest occupied in farming in New Jersey. Although Penn, on April 12, examined some of those accused of having dealt with and received goods from Kidd, and some of them were sent to New York, they appear to have been let off. In England, Brown and Evans were ac- quitted; and let us trust that O'Sullivan was. Perhaps O'Sullivan and Hickman, as to neither of whom has there been mention found in our records, were never indicted. Evans soon afterwards died. Brown may be identical with the "Captain James Brown" selected with others to command ships which the promoters of the South Sea enterprise-later called "Bubble"- were to send against Spanish localities and shipping : at any rate, Brown rejoined his wife, having later three children, instead of an only child, as when sent prisoner : but he did not manage to leave his family provided for at his death. To convict Kidd, it was necessary to get the testimony of some of his compan-
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ions. So Bradinham received a pardon. Largely on his testimony, Kidd, Churchill, Howe, Mullens, and others were found guilty of piracy. Kidd was also found guilty of murder, and, sentenced for both crimes, was hung. The rope broke, and he was picked up alive, and spoke to the officer, and was hung again, that time effectually. Eldridge was also convicted.
The Quaker traders had welcomed William Penn as a deliverer from a party among the colonists which was building "steeple-houses"-although probably there were no steeples-and enforcing English laws; a party which, moreover, was inimical to himself. When he was seen not to suppress, but to compromise with such a "faction," lending his Proprietary author- ity and personal influence to the strengthening of the Crown officials, there was disappointment, want of in- sight into his circumstances, and coldness towards him. Instead of thinking of what he had done for Quakers in general and those in Pennsylvania in particular, the latter were thinking how they were injured in reputa- tion and unsafe, and were probably blaming him for not taking better care of them by means of his supposed influence at Court. Nor was their situation favorable: there was the impossibility of a Quaker making the statement to register a vessel; and the Admiralty juris- diction on the Delaware was being extended by its officers to every private cause relating to a vessel, even as to charter-parties, wages, bread, beer, sails, smith work, carpenter work done at the quay or dock, &ct .; and in such courts not only were the papers in Latin, but there was simply a decision by Quary, and no jury trial, and the expenses were four times greater than in the courts of common law.
About this time, a change was made in the agricul- ture of Penn's dominions. The people had been ac- customed to wearing English woolens, and the paying for such had caused an exportation of money, as the
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products of the region were not in sufficient demand by England. To raise an article which would be required, the planters, possibly at Penn's suggestion, began to raise tobacco in considerable quantity.
It was agreed that the Council and Assembly to meet in 1700 should be chosen according to the old Frame of 1683, and should prepare a new Frame of Govern- ment. Once more the Councillors were to start with terms of three, two, and one year.
We can conclude that there was a rumor that some member of the Church of England would be a candidate at the election in Philadelphia County, and perhaps the suggestion had been made in Penn's hearing that so important a part of the community was entitled to a seat. This is not told us; but that he bestirred him- self to have a body friendly to him chosen, we learn from a contemporary paper among the MSS. of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, entitled a "Brief Narrative of the Proceedings of William Penn," printed in Perry's Collections, Vol. II. The writer, we learn from Logan's letter of 3mo. 2, 1702, was Quary. He says that Penn appeared at the place of election, exhorted the voters to elect only such as were friends of his government, asserted that no one could vote or be voted for who would swear,-an am- biguous word, as the "Narrative" well says,-and even told those present that there were not over two dozen Churchmen at most. Penn's speech on meeting the new Councillors on April 1, instead of reproving Quak- ers for narrow-minded sectarianism, as it appears to do, may have referred to the Churchmen, in saying that he was grieved to hear some at the last election at Philadelphia "make it a matter of religion." Logan two years after the election procured certificates of non- Quakers that Penn did not speak about swearing, and inferentially that he did not influence the election. Carpenter, Shippen, and Dr. Griffith Owen, Quakers
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friendly to Penn, were chosen for three years, two years, and one year respectively by Philadelphia County. In Bucks and Chester, it would have been hard to find a non-Quaker fit to send. Bucks chose Growdon, Biles, and Richard Hough; Chester chose Lloyd, Pusey, and Simcock. Of the Delaware members of the Council, viz: Halliwell, Donnaldson, and Yeates from New Castle, John Walker, Henry Molleston, and Thomas Bedwell from Kent, and Samuel Preston, John Hill, and Thomas Fenwick from Sussex, we know that Preston was a Quaker. Every Assemblyman chosen from the Upper Counties was a Quaker; and perhaps three or four of those chosen by the Lower. The new Assembly organized on May 13, with Blunston again Speaker.
On May 15, Penn and the Council, by unanimous vote, suspended Lloyd from that body, pending his trial on the charge of making the remarks about the great seal, the King's picture, and the Court of Admiralty. Such trial did not take place: for Quary, to whom Penn re- ferred the prosecution of Lloyd before the Quarter Sessions, became disposed, in the absence of orders from England, to overlook Lloyd's offence, and hoped to receive no orders, remarking what a loss it would be if the colony were deprived of its only lawyer except John Moore.
On May 24, a committee composed of all the Coun- cillors and Assemblymen presented to the Proprietary the draft of such a charter as they desired for a Frame of Government. On June 4, he submitted to a sub- committee such a one as he was willing to grant. This the Assembly amended in some particulars; but there was a conflict between the Upper and Lower Counties as to the number of representatives. On the last day of the session, eight laws were passed, one of them levying 1d. per l. and 6s. per head for the debts of the government. Penn had called the attention of his
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friends to the "worsting" of his estate by his main- taining his Deputy,-that must mean Blackwell and Markham,-and protested, that, although some said that he, Penn, came to get money, and be gone, he hoped that he or his while they lived would dwell with his people, for his absence had been disastrous to him as well as to the colonists. He broadly hinted that as they treated him, so would he serve them in return. An attempt was made by his friends to secure for him from the Assembly money to be raised by a general tax, but this was voted down, and, instead of it, an impost was laid for his benefit on imported wine, beer, ale, &ct. This, continued during two years, would, it was said, yield him 1000l. per an., but Isaac Norris, member from Philadelphia County, thought it to amount to an "un- handsome" gift of less than half of that sum. On June 7, after approving of the laws carried, Penn, despairing of inducing an agreement upon a new charter, put the question to the Assemblymen, with the consent of the Council, would they be ruled by the old Charter? This was carried in the negative. He then asked, should he resume the government as it was after the Act of Union under the letters patent from Charles II. All who voted except four or five of the whole number of Councillors and Assemblymen answered in the affirma- tive: evidently the necessary six sevenths of the free- men's representatives agreed not merely to amend, but to destroy. It was then unanimously declared that all the laws passed at Chester, and embodied in the Peti- tion of Right of 1693, and all since made, and the one just passed for confirming the laws, should, except as repealed, altered, or supplied, continue in force until twenty days after the rising of the next session. Then the Speaker, on behalf of the Assembly, and Biles, on behalf of the Councillors from the Upper Counties, and Hill and Rodeney, on behalf of those from the Terri- tories, took the old Charter of 1683, constituting the
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Frame, and, with the unanimous consent of those pres- ent, returned it to the Proprietary, who, in undertaking to rule by the royal letters patent and Act of Union, and bidding farewell to those present, said that he would endeavor to give them satisfaction, and advised them not to be easily displeased one with another, to be slow to anger, and swift to charity.
On June 25, the Proprietary, thus untrammelled as Governor, sent for Shippen, Carpenter, Moll, Turner, Owen, Clark, Pusey, and Growdon to come to his house in Philadelphia. To those appearing, he said that it was not fit that he should be without a Council, and he had chosen them to belong to one. They then signed a qualification, which he had prepared. Those who were absent that day signed subsequently, and Thomas Story was admitted and qualified on the 26th, Penn making him also Master of the Rolls. Of these nine, Moll alone represented the Swedish or Dutch element; all the others belonged to the Society of Friends, except Turner, the Keithian.
A few days before this, one of the commissions being dated June 20, 1700, the Proprietary undertook to appoint Water Bailiffs, commissioning two of the Sheriffs as such, authorizing them to execute upon the river or waters of the Delaware from end to end of their respective counties all writs and other process upon any person or ship or goods from any court of record. The occasion was that a vessel in port had fired through a house in the middle of the quay. Quary was absent, but Moore called the Proprietary's atten- tion to the affair, but the Proprietary found it an acci- dent; nevertheless he perceived the danger of there being no one to enforce law upon the river. Quary, on his return, complained to Penn: if the latter could take the rivers, Quary must lose all authority; for his com- mission as Judge of Vice Admiralty did not extend to the high seas. Penn told the Sheriffs, one of whom
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had served only two writs as Water Bailiff, and the other had served none, to forbear acting in such capac- ity until further order, but Penn contended for his right to make the appointment, offering to have the same decided by the Admiralty in England. This not being taken up, the Proprietary, on leaving, granted the same powers to the Corporation of the City, and in July, 1702, the Attorney-General and Advocate-General in England gave their opinion that the commissioning of a Water Bailiff to act upon the rivers within a county, but not on the high seas, was in fact appointing a Sher- iff, and not an interference with the Admiralty. The ab- sence of Quary for months at a time upon private busi- ness, besides his attention to duties away from Phila- delphia, kept him rather clear of the clashing of the other Churchmen with the Quakers, and, while irritated at times by Penn's meddling with the exercise of Ad- miralty power, Quary kept on civil terms with Penn throughout the latter's stay.
Randolph, in "Articles of High Crimes and Mis- demeanors charged upon the Governors of several Proprieties [Proprietary provinces]," read to the Commissioners for Trade on Mch. 24, 1700-1, says that not long before he wrote, two persons had been tried and condemned in the Lower Counties, the Judges and juries not being sworn, and the condemned had been executed, while in Pennsylvania proper one person had been tried, condemned, and executed, the Judge and jury not being sworn. All this seems to have taken place before the arrival of Penn.
The great change which had taken place within ten years in the character of the immigration made the question of oaths of more practical importance than merely enabling Randolph to pick a flaw, or embarrass- ing the punctilious Quary, or letting anti-Quakers pre- tend that they as a class were in greater danger than the other inhabitants. When so moral a community
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as the Quaker settlers filled at least the Upper Coun- ties, it was safe to take the word of a neighbour solemnly promising to speak the truth; in fact even the promising provided for by the law of 1682 seemed a superfluous formality, for a good Quaker or any right-minded man would, when justice was involved, tell the truth without promising to do so: but there were now coming men of inferior conscience, of indif- ference to justice and virtue, and glad to find in their not being under oath an excuse for helping an asso- ciate. The customs officers, dependent, as they neces- sarily were, upon the testimony of just such men, doubt- less were having increased difficulty in the enforcement of the severe laws, when the testimony was not sworn to : and all citizens might well feel themselves in danger from the animosity of future witnesses who were not reminded of their accountability to God. When a man's liberty or property, and particularly when his life de- pends upon the story told by some low character, it is necessary to take great precautions against falsehood, and some persons who can not be terrorized by human laws against false witness can be controlled by relig- ious, perhaps what the reader may call superstitious, fears. The "hot Church party" would doubtless have liked to see, mainly, perhaps, for the strangulation of Quakerism, the abolition of all affirmations, but, this being impossible, wanted, for individual protection, the affirmations to have the form and limited use men- tioned in the English statute of 7 & 8 Wm. III allowing Quakers to affirm : while, on the other hand, the extreme Quakers in Pennsylvania set themselves against any mention of God in the attestation.
We learn from the aforesaid "Brief Narrative" in Perry's Collections that, after the Assembly had ad- journed, Penn declared it his pleasure that some of the Churchmen should have a share in the government, and induced three of the Vestry of Christ Church to accept
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seats on the bench for the County of Philadelphia, the other Justices then appointed being "six strong Foxian Quakers, one Swede, and a sweet Singer of Israell." It can be made out from Logan's letter of 3rd mo. 2, 1702, that Andrew Bankson was the Swede, and that John Moll was the Sweet Singer of Israel. Moll, from Amsterdam, after residing at the Delaware settlement for a number of years, was one of the Labadist grantees of part of Herman's Bohemia manor in 1684, and was mentioned with others in 1692 as living on Bohemia River "peaceably and religiously." The Labadists were the flock of Jean de Labadie, a native of France, who had been a Jesuit, and favored by Richelieu, but became a Reformed minister, and emi- grated to Holland after inculcating pietism and mysti- cism, and ultimately established himself at Altona. Transferring themselves to the region between Dela- ware Bay and the Chesapeake, some members of his congregation lived together some years as an industrial religious fraternity. The application of the name "Sweet Singers of Israel" to the Labadists is not otherwise known, but seems in line with the fact that Jasper Danckaerts, their leader in Maryland, had trans- lated the Psalms into rhyme in Low Dutch.
When the first quarter session after the appointment of these Justices was held, the first person called upon to give evidence asked that he be sworn. Some may question whether this was done in good faith, but the "Brief Narrative" meets the objection by the state- ment that oaths had been administered in such court ever since Penn received the government from King Charles II, Judges qualified to administer them being appointed, but the statement that these very Quakers had been on the bench may be incorrect as to Shippen, who was not an old resident. It is more likely that the administration of oaths, since the grant to Penn, had started upon the enacting of Fletcher's law, which had
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not been repealed, and which, by using the word "may" instead of "shall," had altered the requirement of qualifying by merely promising into a permission to qualify in that manner. On the present occasion, the Episcopalian Justices said that the demand was reason- able, and that they supposed themselves appointed for the purpose of administering oaths to those who were willing to take them. The Quakers interposed, declar- ing that they could not conscientiously remain where an oath was being taken. The Churchmen urged that it was only fair that others as well as Quakers should have the liberty of giving evidence according to their own way; and finally proposed that the affirmation al- lowed to the Quakers in England by Act of 7 & 8 William III be used, viz: "I. A. B. do declare in the presence of Almighty God the witness of the truth of what I say." The Quaker Justices declared that this naming of God made the affirmation objectionable, and that, as was perfectly true, the Act of Parliament gov- erned only in the places it named, England, Wales, and Berwick. Penn "outwardly," says the "Narrative," but surely with a sincere wish for harmony, endeavored to induce the Quakers to recede from their position, telling them that he had taken the affirmation in Eng- land, and that they could sit on the bench while an oath was being taken, without being concerned in it. The fact was that these of his co-religionists had more radical ideas and stronger wills than his. He could not control them, but was compelled to fight on their side. He had accomplished much in inducing the Quakers in power in the Province, men not at all amenable to fear, and little to expediency, to comply with the require- ments of the home government that Morris and Lloyd should cease to hold office. It is clear that the Proprie- tary had pressed his influence as far as it would go. The attitude of the Assembly further warned him that he was not master of the money-voting power. The
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"Narrative" says: "The scene was presently changed by making his personall appearance in the courte lay- ing the whole blame upon the Churchmen, . in so much that he must be constrained to ride up & down the country, and shew his letters patent to satisfy the people of his authority Possibly, as we have not heard Penn's side in the affair, there was something to call for this in the Churchmen's argument. Declaring that he had palatine powers, which was cor- rect, and claiming that the province had been given to him to relieve his people from oaths, he caused a new commission to be read appointing the six Quakers, the Swede, and the Sweet Singer, and leaving out the Churchmen. Two years later, when the charges em- bodied in the "Narrative" were heard of in Pennsyl- vania, four of the Quakers concerned made an affidavit, spoken of in Logan's letter before mentioned, as an answer about turning out the magistrates. The other Quakers were John Jones, who in 1702 was in Barbados, and John Bevan, who, residing in another county, never served. The certificates and affidavits contradicting the "Narrative" have not been found, and their scope and force can not be observed.
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