USA > Pennsylvania > Chronicles of Pennsylvania from the English revolution to the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1688-1748, Vol. II > Part 14
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Dickinson of New Jersey, were not allowed to use the platform erected on the Hill.
In the Synod of 1740, a proposition was made to refer the question of the examination of candidates to the highest tribunals of the Scottish or Irish Kirk, or the associated divines of London, or the divines of Boston, but the Whitefield party refused to agree, de- claring the proposed referees dead formalists. Then the rule was continued. A renewal of the protest was joined in by John Cross and Alexander Creaghead, Pastor of Middle Octorara, and by James Cochran of Fagg's Manor, Richard Walker of Neshaminy, Daniel Henderson of Forks of Brandywine, William Emmitt of White Clay, and other elders. Later in the session, Gilbert Tennent and Samuel Blair, then Pastor at Fagg's Manor, without collaboration, delivered to the Synod violent animadversions on the state of the min- istry, not merely an insulting picture of the spiritual deadness of the majority, that is of those not revival- ists, but declarations that many of those present were guilty of error and considerable offences. The recep- tion of all this must enhance our respect for the mem- ory of the veterans attacked. Instead of being inter- rupted, Tennent and Blair were told to spare no man. Then they were relegated to making in the prescribed manner specific charges, if they had proofs; and a vote was passed admonishing all ministers to take care to approve themselves to God, and, furthermore, recom- mending the Presbyteries to take care of their members in the particulars. Newtown and Tinicum congrega- tions were, on their request, put under the New Bruns- wiek Presbytery.
The Scotch-Irish did not all run after Whitefield. Donegal Presbytery was controlled by the other side, and executed the resolution of the Synod by disciplin- ing sympathizers with Tennent and Blair. Charges were made against Creaghead and David Alexander,
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Pastor at Pequea; and the Presbytery, whose visiting members were driven away from Middle Octorara by a tumult, and whose Moderator was excluded from the pulpit at Pequea, suspended the accused. New Castle Presbytery, against the protest of Blair and Charles Tennent, allowed queries against Whitefield to be printed.
A number of persons withdrew from Andrews's con- gregation in Philadelphia, and met in Whitefield's New Building. Gilbert Tennent, who, by Whitefield's ap- pointment, made a tour of New England in the Winter of 1740, afterwards preached to these seceders. A new house of worship was built for them, and ultimately they became the Second Presbyterian Church of the City.
When the Synod of 1741 was in session, a counter protest was presented on June 1 against the participa- tion of the former protesters. It was contended that they should be excluded for denying the power of Synod to bind dissenting members, for licensing and ordain- ing in opposition to Acts of Synod, for persuading persons to believe that a call of God to the ministry does not consist in being regularly ordained, and for denying the benefit of the preaching of "unconverted" ministers, and for preaching so as to cause men to cry out, or fall in convulsion-fits &ct. It was claimed, that, if such persons without giving satisfaction continued to vote, the acts passed by them against the judgment of the signers should not be binding upon the latter, and, if such persons and those who adhered to them continued to act as during the past year, they would be guilty of schism, and the signers would be the true Presbyterian church in the "province." The signers were Revs. Robert Cross, assistant in Philadelphia, John Thomson, Francis Alison, Robert Cathcart, Richard Zanchy, John Elder, John Craig, Samuel Caven, Samuel Thomson, Adam Boyd, James Martin,
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and Robert Jamison-nearly every one an Irishman- and elders Robert Porter, Robert McKnight, William McCulloch, John McEwen, Robert Rowland, Robert Craig, James Kerr, and Alexander McKnight. The former protesters claimed that whichever party was the majority composed the true Synod. A roll was called. No one was in attendance from the New York Presbytery, and three other ministers and one elder were absent. Gillespie did not vote. A majority, in- cluding Andrews, who was Moderator, voted to exclude the former protesters. Revs. William Tennent and his three sons, and Treat, Blair, Creaghead, Alex- ander, and Wales and the elders accompanying most of them, were all that the New Brunswick party could muster. They withdrew, followed by a great crowd of spectators.
The majority continued in session, and passed unanimously an acknowledgment of the Westminster Confession and Longer and Shorter Catechisms as the confession of each minister's and elder's faith. Those forming the majority and their adherents came to be called the "Old Side," and continued to be represented in a Synod.
In June, 1741, the excluded ministers of the New Brunswick Presbytery met, attended by the six minis- ters who adhered to them, and decided that those brethren who had left New Castle and Donegal Pres- byteries should meet at White Clay Creek on June 30, and form the Presbytery of Londonderry, and that such Presbytery and that of New Brunswick should meet in August as a Synod. Thus was started the "New Side," with its rival Presbyteries and Synod. The Presbytery of New York united with this Synod in 1745, and the Synod became known as that of New York.
The breach was not closed until after the period of these Chronicles.
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The "log college" being affiliated with the New Brunswick ministers, certain Presbyteries loyal to the Old Side Synod undertook in November, 1743, the establishment of a school in New London Township, Chester Co., for higher education. It was taken under the care of the Synod in May following. Rev. Francis Alison was the first teacher. There was a project in 1746 for candidates for the ministry at this school to have certain privileges granted to them by Yale Col- lege. Afterwards the school was removed to Newark, Delaware, and became known as the Newark Academy.
CHAPTER XX.
CONFUSION AT THE DEATH OF PENN.
Date of death-Later honors paid or attempted -Circumstances under which will was drawn- Its provisions-Ultimate injustice to William Jr. and Lætitia-Their other property in Pennsyl- vania-William Jr. becomes a member of the Church of England-Disputes the will, and claims the government at the Founder's death-Commis- sion to Keith and instructions-The Lieutenant- Governor's continuance under Act of Assembly- Action under the new commission postponed- Order from the Regents of Great Britain-Keith's actions in the Lower Counties-Suspension of Assheton from the Council-Neglect to submit Pennsylvania laws to the Crown-Courts commis- sioned-Death of William Penn Jr .- Hannah Penn's petition to the Regents, and bill in equity -The law of party-walls-Keith succeeds to a baronetcy-Deterioration of Pennsylvania flour- Hard times-Law as to leather and shoes- Changes in Assembly-Restraint of liberty of the press-Real estate affairs-Keith interferes to ac- quire a mine-Legislation as to flour and other products-Keith restores Assheton, and appoints Assheton's son, to the Council-Surveys 75520 acres for Springett Penn-Lætitia Aubrey's Tul- pehocken tract-Hard times continued through 1722-Keith has laws passed ameliorating legal process.
William Penn breathed his last on July 30, 1718 (O. S.), and, on the 5th of August, in the yard adjoin- ing Jordans Meeting, his body was interred.
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About a century and a half later, there was an effort made to remove it to America, and to give it, doubtless with great pomp, a more signal resting-place, under the new building for the city government in Philadel- phia; and a public-spirited private citizen, George L. Harrison, accredited with letters from the Governor of the Commonwealth, went to England for that purpose : but the trustees of Jordans ground, perhaps because true to Quaker sentiment for quietness and simplicity, refused permission. Penn's statue, 37 feet in height, was placed on top of the tower of the City Hall, which was thus made the tallest building in the world at that time. From an unfortunate selection of historic set- ting, his property rather than his plan is suggested, a hand of the figure resting upon the King's patent, and Charles the Second's name shown thereon is the only one cut in the bronze. By an excess of sentiment, the figure does not stand square with the building, but looks towards the supposed place of the Great Treaty. A better memorial is the name of the second state in population in the American Union.
Penn, like most men of property, made a number of wills. The first that is known to the present writer is mentioned in Samuel M. Janney's Life of William Penn, Chapter XXXI, as made in 1701, and left in the hands of Logan at Penn's departure from America. This will confirmed the freedom given in writing to Penn's slaves, and left 100 acres of land to one of them. Another will of the Founder is among the MSS. of the Historical Society. This is in his own hand- writing, and bears date 8, 8, 1705. His eldest son, by its terms, was to be styled Chief Proprietary, and to have two thirds of the Pennsylvania estate, if he would let his half brethren, the second wife's children, into the Admiral's estate in Ireland; certain lands west of Cork being mentioned, apparently as to be given to those children, and they were to have one third of the
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estate in Pennsylvania and Counties Annexed set off to them. If William Jr. would not settle said estate upon them, the aforesaid interests in Pennsylvania were to be reversed. John Penn was to have a double share in what was to come to the children of the second marriage. By a codicil dated 6, 21, 1707, written on the same paper, Lætitia Aubrey's estate which she already had from the testator was to be made up to equal that of each of the younger children. She was also to have a gold piece of Ferdinand and Isabella which Penn's mother had given to Lætitia's mother, and which Penn had worn about his neck ever since her death. When the debts were paid, there was to be an almshouse for six poor sea captains built near Ratcliff Hill in Bristol, in memory of the Admiral.
The making of what was Penn's final will and testa- ment has been mentioned in the chapter on the Agree- ment to Sell the Government to the Crown. It is not surprising that then outside philanthropy and solici- tude for his first-born disappeared. Although the im- mense volume of indebtedness hanging over the Founder had been reduced, he had been disappointed in the sums obtainable for his property, and, instead of great future wealth, he saw, it would seem, the con- tingency of the American estate amounting to little. What in such case would be the bulk of the family property, and what many persons, wishing to be fair, probably thought a sufficient provision for any one of his children, had been settled upon the eldest son. The will of 1712 was not approved of by Logan, or by Hannah Penn's uncle by marriage, Simon Clement : but their objections appear to have been to the cumber- some arrangement for managing the American prop- erty, and, perhaps, to the silence on certain points, rather than to the distribution. Clement wrote of the will as a hasty act. In the possibility of the testator's death by the fever which he then had, there was a ne-
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cessity to provide for the carrying out of the agree- ment to sell the government; and he was aware that Hannah Penn might be without enough money to live on. Intestacy, which could easily be brought about by the cancelling of former wills, would either put the government entirely in the hands of the heir at com- mon law as an inheritable jurisdiction, or would give shares of it to minors as an appurtenance to the land. The real estate in Pennsylvania would be liable to a sale for payment of debts and bringing up of children, and what might not be sold, would, by the local law, be divided equally among the widow and children, William getting a share. Hannah Penn would get, under English laws, one third of what would remain, after paying Penn's debts, of his bonds, rents accrued at his death, and other funds and goods. Under the pressure of these circumstances, Penn dictated a will to the lawyer, Robert West, who probably made it conform to legal phraseology.
Penn devised the government to two noblemen, Robert Harley, who bore the double title of Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer, and who was then Lord Treasurer, and John Poulett, whose title was Earl Poulett, and who was then Lord Steward of the House- hold, both of whom retired from those offices before Penn died. This devise was in trust to sell the govern- ment to the Queen or anybody else. The proceeds of such sale, although not specially mentioned, would seem to be included in the personalty, which, with special mention of rents in arrear, was all given to Hannah Penn, who was appointed executrix, for the equal benefit of her and her children.
She was one of the trustees named in the will to sell land &ct. Besides her father, Thomas Callowhill, who died in 1712, and Penn's sister, Margaret Lowther, who died in 1718, the other trustees were Gilbert Heathcote, Samuel Wildenfield, John Field, and Henry Gouldney,
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making altogether seven living in England, and also Samuel Carpenter, Richard Hill, Isaac Norris, Samuel Preston, and James Logan, making only a minority residing in Pennsylvania. All lands, tenements, and hereditaments, rents, or other profits in America were devised to these twelve and the survivor, to sell suffi- cient to pay debts, and then to convey 10000 acres to each of William Jr.'s three children, and 10000 acres to Lætitia Aubrey, the locations being chosen by the said trustees, and all the rest of the said American property was given to the children of the second wife. She was to decide in what proportions, and for what estates, the division among them was to be made. She could practically disinherit all but a favored one.
When Penn signed the will, he uttered, as he after- wards said, "some unworthy expressions belying God's goodness to me, as if I knew not what I did." After getting to his home at Ruscombe and recovering from that illness, Penn, to preclude any question of his sanity at the signing aforesaid, reexecuted the will on 3, 27, 1712, seven witnesses subscribing, he having by postscript, or codicil, given £300 a year out of the rents of Pennsylvania to his wife during life, for the care and charge over the children in their education.
The ultimate distribution of the property was what might have been expected from a man who felt himself afflicted beyond measure, and saw not the prosperity in store for his family, and was in haste to provide for his wife and younger sons. Rather appropriately, it can be said that "he did it with a vengeance." Only 40000 acres out of about 40,000,000 which he had, or to which he had the right of preemption, were to go to the descendants of his first wife. William Jr. was de- clared well provided for by a settlement of the estate of his mother, and of that of the Admiral, meaning as much of each as was intact; and, although this was esti- mated in the pleadings between Hannah and Springett
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Penn as from £1200 to £1500 a year, it would seem to those who compare it with what Thomas Penn ulti- mately came into, that the first Proprietary had wished to punish his eldest son. This is not to be thought. The first Proprietary's business transactions were at loose ends ; and so was his will.
There has been much talk about the extravagance of that son: he and his family certainly spent more than his father liked to see them spend; but their station in life and his father's example besides must be con- sidered in judging them. The father's debts as well as his own had diminished the estate which he could expect independently of any will of the father. What William Jr., expectant or in possession, had at the date of the will, directly or indirectly, from his mother, must have been little besides certain lots or acres in the prov- ince, where so many unsold lots and millions of acres were not thought too great an inheritance for another son. By Springett's death, William Jr. had inherited Worminghurst, and, when he agreed to a sale of it, he is said to have received compensation, probably noth- ing but being allowed to retain Pennsbury. From the Admiral had come Shanagarry, apparently by an en- tail. It would seem that the expenses of the Founder of Pennsylvania had even cut down this Irish estate, and some of it remaining was jeopardized to make up Lætitia Penn's marriage portion. William Jr. joined in mortgaging it for that purpose, and perhaps other parts for other debts of the Founder, and never re- ceived Spingettsbury Manor, Philadelphia County, re- ported to Logan as to be given in compensation. Logan speaks in 1705 as if the mortgaged land was already gone. In a volume of Miscellaneous MSS. of the Founder is a rough draft of a financial agreement be- tween him and his son, perhaps near in date to the sale of Worminghurst, mentioning that the settlement previously made on the son and his wife, perhaps one
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made at their marriage, was to yield them £170 per an. clear of quit rent, and that it had turned out to be £60 short. This was then to be made good out of the estate mortgaged to Aubrey. The elder Penn was to release his life estate, so that land in the occupation of Daniel Savill (in Ireland?) could be sold, and the value of said life estate was to be allowed by the younger Penn out of the £2500 "taken up on ye lands in Ireland." It seems therefore, but is not clear, that the elder Penn owed the younger £2500 before the sale of Worming- hurst. John Page's affidavit of 1742 says, that, after the sale of Worminghurst, the elder Penn sold con- siderable real estate in Ireland, his son joining him, to Mr. Bernard, then Solicitor for Ireland, for paying debts.
There would have been a prospective equalization between all the children of the Founder, had Lætitia Aubrey received by will or otherwise a large estate from him. She was childless, and her landed property, if not sold, could have been expected to go to her brother of the whole blood, or to his family. Mean- while, she had no Irish possessions, nor any likelihood of inheriting his. Vindictive as the will appeared, although not intended, against William Jr., its allow- ance of only 10000 acres to Lætitia was even more un- just, but yet in accordance with a discrimination, com- mon in old times, against daughters.
William and Lætitia had had certain land in the "province," using that word to cover both the Prov- ince proper and the Territories, some of which land these children had bought, but all of which was nothing compared with what their half-brothers got. Had there been a valuation and schedule for equalizing, there would have been some offset against the younger children's share as well. John, who, at the date of his father's will, was expected to receive an estate from his grandfather Callowhill, and for whom Callowhill had
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designated 5000 acres at Manatawny, had, by the father's designation, 7000 acres there and 9840 acres called Bilton, in Chester Co., and about 10000 called Perkasie, in Bucks. Hannah Penn's children other than John do not appear to have had any lots granted to them by their father. As the private property of Wil- liam and Lætitia is scheduled below, with what became of it, it will be seen, that, through bad management or necessary haste to realize the value at some given time, many pieces had already gone when their father made his will, others followed before his death, and the rest too soon for this elder branch of the family to have the wealth which might have been expected, inferior as it would have been to that of the younger, or Propri- etary, branch.
In the list of first purchasers, prepared before 3, 22, 1682, William Penn Jr. and Lætitia Penn appear for 10000 acres in common, perhaps representing a part of their mother's advance to their father. At that time, Springett was the heir apparent of both father and mother. By warrant of 7mo. 13, 1683, William Jr. had surveyed to him the tract now covered by Norris- town and Norriton Township, called in Holme's map William Penn Jr.'s Mannor of Williamstadt, found on a resurvey, under warrant of May 2, 1704, to contain 7480 acres. His debts and the sale of this tract to Norris and Trent at the end of 1704 have been men- tioned elsewhere. The city lot for William Jr. as a first purchaser was from Delaware Front to Schuyl- kill Front in the block next to South Street. Parts of this remained in the possession of his posterity until about the end of the XVIIIth Century. Gaskell Street is named after a branch. Lætitia had the tract on which was made the Valley Forge encampment in the Revolu- tionary War, called Manor of Mount Joy, marked for her on the map, found on a resurvey, under warrant dur- ing Penn's second visit, to cover 7800 acres. Above one
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third of the best of the land within the limits really be- longed to others, to whom Penn confirmed it by patents, he excepting such pieces out of the patent of Oct. 24, 1701, to Lætitia. The right was expressly given to her to hold a court baron and view of frankpledge. Lætitia had patented to her on Mch. 29, 1701, the south side of Market from Delaware Front to Second, 172 ft. deep. On this was situated the town house built and occupied by Penn during his first visit, and with which the "Penn Cottage" now reerected in the Park has been identified. She undertook to sell her land even before her marriage, and some sales were made. This manor and the residue of this city lot were put into the hands of trustees to raise a marriage portion for her, her father agreeing to make up the proceeds to £2000, and meanwhile to pay 6 per cent. interest on the deficiency : and he was to have any proceeds over the £2000 and all the land remaining unsold after the £2000 were raised. Perhaps rather fortunately, those in charge were unable, for several reasons, to make early sales; so her father paid some money to her husband. Penn animad- verts in letters upon Aubrey's impatience; but there is something to be said on Aubrey's side : a parent with property was expected to give a dowry to his daughter, a capitalized allowance towards the maintenance, and Aubrey, towards the end of 1711, having failed to re- ceive the amount due, complained that he was a loser by matrimony; a fate which will bring him less pity from our more romantic age and country, than it prob- ably did from his sordid or practical contemporaries. Aubrey, although mortgaging his own land for his father-in-law's benefit,-from which, however, there was no loss,-did not fulfil an obligation to add £4000 of his own to the marriage settlement, or even to invest for the purposes what Lætitia or her father had paid. Aubrey lost or spent most of what he had. Lætitia and her husband on July 10, 1730, conveyed what they had
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left of Mount Joy to Sir Alexander Grant, and, by some intermediate conveyances, it was vested in 1736 in her nephew William Penn.
William and Lætitia were also entitled to 50000 acres conveyed to Sir John Fagg in trust for them in equal moieties, and probably also representing part of their mother's advance to their father. Under a warrant of Feb. 17, 1699, 30000 of these acres were surveyed, partly in Chester County, and partly in New Castle County. The tract was named after Steyning, a place in Sussex, England, where there was a Friends' Meeting. The tract was divided. By patent of Oct. 23, 1701, Lætitia or her trustee received in severalty, as her half, 15500 acres, the lines covering some lots previously granted to others, and the said moiety, al- though often spoken of as Brandywine, from nearness to that Creek, was erected into the manor of Steyning, with manorial rights. Part is in the present township of Pennsbury, Chester Co. William Jr.'s residue called for by the warrant, being 14500 acres, was mostly within Kennett and New Garden townships. Through Logan, as attorney, he sold part of Steyning, and, per- haps without Logan's aid, he sold 500 acres of it to Rev. Evan Evans, the Rector of Christ Church: the rest of the 14500 acres, William Jr., by lease and re- lease of Sep. 19 and 20, 1715, granted to ex-Lieutenant- Governor Evans, who, upon a settlement of accounts between them, reconveyed all but 2000 acres.
Towards making up the rest of the 50000 acres, 5000 acres in Chester County were laid out to William Jr., and 7175 adjoining these to Sir John Fagg as trustee for Lætitia. William Jr.'s were sold by his family in 1742 to John White of London. Lætitia's tract was reduced to 5000 acres and allowances, and became known as Fagg's Manor. It was not profitable to her, owing to encroachments of settlers. Although the war- rant of 7, 15, 1701, ordered the laying out of 10000
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