USA > Pennsylvania > Chronicles of Pennsylvania from the English revolution to the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1688-1748, Vol. II > Part 18
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41
Apart from Keith's creation and keeping alive of paper money and his representing the enforcement of Parliamentary government, he was not formidable in the local political arena. Even Lloyd, who was re- ported in the Summer of 1726 to be angry with him, may have for some time had misgivings about support- ing him. The inhabitants of the Upper Counties prob- ably resented his attempt to make New Castle a rival
44
682
CHRONICLES OF PENNSYLVANIA.
of Philadelphia, nor had it received cooperation in the Lower Counties. He had, in 1724, given New Castle a charter as a city, extending the limits five miles beyond what had been recognized as the town, and, also, grant- ing the right to send two representatives to the Dela- ware Assembly. That body, however, would not admit them. Perhaps by an inadvertence, qualifying for at least some offices under this charter was to be by oath, and he had appointed no Quakers as Justices for Kent County; facts which were used against him with the Quakers, and would scarcely have been overlooked by Lloyd. If some ambiguous expressions by Logan are to be interpreted that Keith was unchaste, despite his having a wife and family, this may have caused Lloyd, who had laid stress upon Gov. Evans's immorality, to be disgusted or righteously indignant against this in- cumbent of the same position. We are rather sur- prised that in this colony, founded by religious men not so long before, and with esteemed Quakers so active in civic affairs, little point seems to have been made since Penn's death of a public man's private morals; so that silence on the subject, or success in ob- taining office, is no testimonial as to character, and Keith, if guilty, could not have lost many supporters on such account. Yet, even if no voter was shocked, and if Keith's financial dilatoriness was not enough to dampen enthusiasm, particularly as he was seen in his various enterprises to have lost money, there was noth- ing but the approval of his political stand to tie the voters to him. He was a stranger until he came among them as an officeholder; he belonged rather to the Court than to their class; he was a Churchman, although Franklin classified him as a freethinker, while those opposing him belonged to the Meeting; he, at the same time, had provoked some of the congregation of Christ Church by not permitting Talbot to continue minister- ing there, and was laying himself open to a charge of
683
PAPER MONEY.
disloyalty to King George in tolerating Welton (see chapter on the Church of England) ; and, as was inevi- table, Keith had, when he did his duty as Chancellor, or in another capacity, hurt somebody, some important person in the small colony. Finally, Sir William's could not be the winning side, unless, indeed, the gov- ernment were assumed by the Crown, when he might be commissioned Governor: and, although Hannah Penn and her sons wanted the money promised by the Crown, the fear of losing chartered privileges made some conservative Pennsylvanians unwilling for the abrogation of the authority of the family under which the privileges were held. Sir William's strength lay with the mass of the voters, those without interests or ambition, and also some personal friends and depen- dents, and those foolishly counting upon a turn of affairs in England in his favor.
Notwithstanding the difficulties in the way of put- ting somebody in his place, particularly the dispute as to the Governorship-in-Chief, and the refusal of the sur- viving Trustee for selling the government to act in the matter of appointing or commissioning without a Chancellor's direction, so troublesome and slow to ob- tain, Hannah Penn determined not to compromise with Spotswood, but to get rid of Keith. Major Patrick Gordon was decided upon as his successor. Hannah Penn forestalled any objection that she was only one side of the family, by securing the assistance of Springett Penn, the heir-at-law and adverse claimant. He, with her joining, made representation to the King, reciting that Sir William's conduct had greatly dis- satisfied the family, and nominating Gordon to be Lieutenant-Governor, and asking for the royal appro- bation. The representation, being referred to the Board of Trade on February 12, 1725-6, was met by a petition by Spotswood on Keith's behalf, asking his continuance until the controversy in the Penn family
684
CHRONICLES OF PENNSYLVANIA.
were settled, or at least his remaining as the King's Governor of the Lower Counties, until, by report on the Earl of Sutherland's petition, some right of ap- pointment over said Counties were shown to be in the Penn family : and there was also a petition by Micajah Perry, Robert Carey, John Gray, and Edward Jeffreys of London, merchants, and Mr. John Baskett, on behalf of themselves and other creditors of Sir William, ask- ing that he be left where he was, earning a salary by compliance with the wishes of the People; these peti- tioners asserting that they had lent to him considerable sums to enable him to carry over his family, and to take charge of the government, and that, reserving only the perquisites of the office to live upon, he had made over the salary for the payment of his debts. The Representation of Springett Penn et al., the peti- tions, and the Case of the Heir at Law and Executrix in reply are printed in Penna. Mag., Vol. XXXIX, p. 201 &ct. It being demanded what malfeasance was charged to justify the removal of Keith, the Penn lawyers, in their long "Case," brought forward his taking upon himself, contrary to the Proprietary com- mission and the usages, to survey lands to himself (see last preceding chapter), and to settle a number of Pala- tinates on the Proprietor's lands (see chapter on the Germans), and his passing the Acts for issuing paper money. Lies were told by both sides to the Lords Com- missioners. Spotswood said that he had good grounds to believe that the removal of Keith was to frustrate an inquiry then being made by the revenue officers at New York as to the amount due to the Crown on ac- count of Delaware quit rents. The lawyers for the Penns must have provoked an incredulous smile by attempting to turn the tables on Spotswood by saying that one reason for the family's wishing Keith out of the office was to enable the Crown to collect the large sum paid over to him as part of the 2000l. for the late
685
.
PAPER MONEY.
Queen's use. The Quaker element in the constituency represented in the British House of Commons being large enough to be feared, the influence of this element was enlisted; leading members of the Society of Friends were induced to sign a letter against the Gov- ernor who had done most for the generality of Friends in Pennsylvania, the letter saying that he was inimical to the Quakers. Gordon probably had some patron to cast some small weight into the balance. However much inclined to favor Spotswood, Keith, or Keith's creditors, the Commissioners recognized, that, as Gor- don, the nominee, appeared to be fit for the Governor- ship, there was no excuse for withholding from the Penns the enjoyment of the authority which still be- longed to them. To the point that only the Trustee under the will to make sale of the government could commission, the Lords said, that, as Earl Poulett, the survivor, had not appeared in opposition, his consent was to be presumed. This presumption seems a violent one. On Apr. 18, 1726, Gordon received the royal ap- probation without any exception as to the Lower Coun- ties; but the usual declaration was exacted that the approbation should not prejudice the King's right to those Territories.
The Lords Commissioners for Trade, having con- sidered the original Act for issuing paper money, the two supplements thereto, and the Act for issuing 30,000l., decided, out of tenderness for those persons into whose hands the bills of credit had passed, not to lay the Acts before the King for disallowance. A letter dated May 11, 1726, was written to Major Gor- don, explaining this, and warning that any more bills of credit would be opposed.
The "Case of the Heir-at-Law and Executrix of the Late Proprietor of Pennsylvania" was printed in London, and called forth a pamphlet, printed in Phila- delphia, entitled A Just and Plain Vindication of Sir
686
CHRONICLES OF PENNSYLVANIA.
William Keith, Bart., late Governour of Pennsilvania
from the Untruths and Aspertions It was written by him, but ostensibly by one of his friends. After this came a clever reply, taking ironically the ground that a man born and bred a gentleman was slandered in being supposed to be guilty of writing anything so false and vainglorious in his own behalf as the former paper. This bore the title A more just Vindication of the Honorable Sir William Keith, Bart., Against the unparalleled Abuses put upon him, in a Scandalous Libel call'd, "A just and plain Vindication of Sir William Keith &ct."
Among the last Acts passed by Keith was one of March 5, 1725-6, for reemitting on loan all bills of credit returned between Jany. 17, 1725, and January 16, 1731, repayment to be made in instalments during the balance of the twelve years and a half allowed in the Act for emitting 300001. There was a contempo- raneous Act regulating the conduct of negroes, one provision imposing 100. penalty for performing a marriage ceremony between a white and a negro.
After a voyage of seven weeks, Patrick Gordon, aged about sixty-two years, apparently without much civic experience, a martinet, ready to follow orders, easily prejudiced, and of vindictive temperament, arrived in Philadelphia on June 22, 1726, and took the oaths. Like his predecessor, he sprang from a well known Scotch family, and, although little has been said upon the subject, was probably restricted in means. There have been many titles among the Gordons, and he was descended, according to Burke's Peerage and Baronet- age, from Alexander Gordon, Laird of Strathaven, third son of the third Earl of Huntly. Patrick Gordon had married Isabella, née Clarke. Her patronymic, not given in the obituary notice of her in the Pennsylvania Gazette, has been learned by finding that Father Clarke, a strong Jacobite, became Confessor to the
687
PAPER MONEY.
King of Spain about 1726. The obituary notice says that she was descended from an honorable family in the southern part of Scotland, which had suffered much from attachment to James II, that her father had brought up her and her brothers as Protestants, and she became attached to the Church of England, but that her brothers became Roman Catholics, one hold- ing before 1734 high office under the Duke of Tuscany, and the other being in that year confessor to his Catholic Majesty. Gordon brought with him his wife and five of at least six children then living and also a private secretary, Robert Charles. For a few days at least, two of the children stayed at Assheton's, and the new Lieutenant and his wife and three of the children stayed at Logan's, beginning an intimacy between the families illustrated by Miss Harriet Gordon years afterwards addressing William Logan, a boy of nine at her arrival, as "my son." Keith agreed to let his successor take the city dwelling house no longer neces- sary for the former. Logan, pursuant to Hannah Penn's order, was restored to the office of Secretary of the Province on June 24, 1726.
On June 27, 1726, Gordon and several of the Coun- cillors rode down to New Castle, being met at the sup- posed border of the Lower Counties by the New Castle magistrates and public officers and several of the in- habitants of the neighbourhood, and, at the court house in New Castle, his commission and the royal approba- tion were again published. John French was on the 28th allowed temporarily to retain the Great Seal of the Lower Counties.
Gordon quite pointedly reflected on his predecessor in the first speech to the Assembly of Pennsylvania, August 2, accounting for the choice of himself from the knowledge that he "had been bred to the camp, remote from the refined Politicks which often serve to perplex mankind, and that an honest Plainness free
688
CHRONICLES OF PENNSYLVANIA.
from Art or Disguise made up the main" of his char- acter, from which "the Proprietaries rightly judged that such a Person could form no views, but what would be openly avowed, and therefore be understood by every Man they could effect." This may have been the provocation to Keith with which Gordon showed duelling proclivities like Gookin's, if tradition has not confounded the two. It has been said that Gordon sent word to Keith, that, if he would go somewhere out of the jurisdiction, where they would be on an equal footing, he would meet him. The story is put in the shape that Gordon was exasperated by the other, who then failed to do what was expected of a man of metal : but the present author has not found contemporaneous evidence of a direct affront or challenge. The Assembly passed a resolution resenting the reflection upon Keith in Gordon's aforesaid address, but granted to Gordon 4001. towards his support.
Keith began circulating petitions in the Lower Coun- ties for taking the government thereof away from the Penns' appointee, but in his plan to have himself elected a member of the Assembly from New Castle County, he was defeated. Supposed to have in con- templation assertion of privileges for the People of the Upper Counties, and framing of remonstrances and re- fusal to give money by their representatives, and as a result the resignation of Gordon, and a surrender to or seizure by the Crown, Keith ran successfully in 1726 for Assemblyman from Philadelphia County. His organized friends, called "the electing club," had fur- thermore determined to defeat Anthony Morris, Evan Owen, Matthias Holstein, and all who gave "the least suspicion of moderation." The Proprietary party, thinking such a result in Philadelphia County likely, but confident of controlling Bucks, had determined to pre- vent Keith's elevation to the vantage point of the Speakership, at which he aimed; and so there was ar-
689
PAPER MONEY.
ranged a combination with David Lloyd and his sup- porters to carry Chester County, and to make him, for- merly head of the anti-Proprietary party, the Speaker, as a choice of evils. While the campaign was in pro- gress, Gordon, with the assent of the Council, removed Baird from the Clerkship of that body, because, al- though appearing "fully capable of discharging that Trust," he lay "under deep Engagements to that Party manifestly endeavouring to disturb the Repose of the Publick." Robert Charles was appointed to the position. He married one of Gordon's daughters. Keith's friends, who included several persons rather distinguishable by social degree, or by education, are represented as mainly those of the rougher callings of life, and a mob of them burnt the pillory stand and some market stalls on election day; so that Gordon issued a proclamation under the Riot Act of Parliament. Keith appeared subsequently at one of their disorderly clubs, and prevented a suggested burning of the proclamation, whereupon the volatile fellows turned to giving cheers for Governor Gordon ! The political machine of the new administration had worked well in Chester. Along with Lloyd, John Wright, "the best" of the old members, was reelected; while William Webb, "the worst," was defeated, with George Asheton, not much liked. Al- though Thomas Charlton, "too uncertain," was re- turned, probably Richard Hayes and Joseph Pennock could be counted upon. On the day that the Assembly met, Sir William rode into the little city at the head of eighty men on horseback, in triumph at his election as a member: but he was not even proposed as Speaker, Lloyd getting all the votes but two or three. Keith served actively as a member, even on committees to address the Lieutenant-Governor; and, while Keith's colleagues may have controlled Keith, it is to be no- ticed that the addresses were perfectly courteous, with- out the least trace of a sting.
.
690
CHRONICLES OF PENNSYLVANIA.
There was an act of violence in the latter part of Keith's administration as Lieutenant-Governor, and a further interference with or obstruction of the customs, for which he was blamed as Assemblyman. About August, 1724, a ship belonging to a Rotterdam merchant arrived at Philadelphia, bringing Palatinate settlers. Collector Moore, then in the 86th year of his age, went on board, and, searching the ship, found a large quan- tity of East India and Continental goods, the carrying of which to the American plantations by foreigners' vessels was prohibited. He made formal seizure of the ship and cargo, and left six tide-waiters in charge. The following night, about seventy persons, disguised, boarded the vessel, cut her away from the wharf, took her down the river five miles below the town, and car- ried ashore the greater part of the goods, four of the terrified waiters having jumped overboard, and the re- maining two being locked up. In a few days, Lieu- tenant-Governor Keith went aboard the ship, and made a fresh seizure, and induced "a creature of his," as Fitzwilliam, Surveyor-General of the Customs, de- scribes him, to file in the County Court an information against the ship and some goods remaining in it. The captain appeared in court, and confessed to the infor- mation, and, the Collector's claim being rejected, the ship and goods were sold for a little over £600, although the cargo had been reported to be worth £20000. The Collector sent a representation to England, and, al- though opposed by one from Keith, obtained from the Lords Justices Regents permission to prosecute suit upon vessel and cargo in the proper court in Pennsyl- vania, without designating what court. On the advice of the Attorney-General and Solicitor-General of Great Britain, who deemed the words of the Provincial Act of 1722 broad enough to give to the Supreme Court the jurisdiction of the King's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer at Westminster, the Collector sued in the
PAPER MONEY. 691
Supreme Court. A condemnation was obtained, and the Collector also brought suit in that court against Lawrence Lawrence of Philadelphia for £20000 on his bond, as principally concerned in carrying off and con- cealing the goods. Having failed to obtain bail, he was in jail on Nov. 24, 1726, when he petitioned the Assem- bly for relief, being informed that the Supreme Court had no power to issue original process. Merchants and others took the same ground. Besides voting unani- mously that the Supreme Court ought not to take cog- nizance of any suit or information for breach of penal bonds, being a tribunal only for reforming errors of inferior courts, the Assembly framed a new law for courts superseding that of 1722, and, in this, gave juris- diction on informations and actions on penal statutes to the County Courts, and prohibited the issuing of any original writ or process by the Supreme Court in such cases. The Collector and Governor Gordon tried to have a clause inserted giving the latter court original jurisdiction where the King was a party, the inferior courts being more likely to incline to the defendant. Failing to have the new bill so amended, Gordon, how- ever, passed it as a law. Notwithstanding the ill feeling between Gordon and Keith, Moore attributed this legis- lation to Keith's influence over Gordon, as well as over the Assembly. The suit against Lawrence, necessarily, was discontinued, and he left the country, and his bail was discharged, and the Collector was obliged to pay the costs. The new law was disallowed by the King on Aug. 12, 1731, although the Penns denied that it had been passed by influence or interest, or to injure the officials, and spoke of it as a reasonable settlement of the jurisdiction.
The discount on the bills of credit actually falling one half in the course of six months, Gordon became a convert to the money policy as far as adopted before his arrival. After receipt of the letter, before mentioned,
-
692
CHRONICLES OF PENNSYLVANIA.
from the Lords for Trade, warning against further issues, he wrote a reply, under date of Dec. 15, 1726, that he was convinced of the benefit of what had been issued, and found the general inclination of people of all degrees to the same view; and he accordingly asked for a recommendation for the King's approval of the law of the preceding March for reemitting the bills in circulation. The Lords referred the law to Francis Fane, and there the matter ended.
Hannah Penn, who had been in bad health for con- siderable time, died on December 20, 1726 (according to letter from her son John, dated Feb. 2, 1726-7) : the date of her burial is misprinted in Penna. Mag. Hist. &ct. Her will was dated Sep. 11, 1718, and probated Feb. 16, 1726, letters c. t. a. being granted to her son John Penn. By this will, and by a deed of Nov. 18, 1718, she had undertaken to appoint the shares of her children; but, after the death of the youngest child, Dennis, she made, on Jany. 7, 1725, a deed of appoint- ment, which, with other items of the "General Title of the Penn Family to Pennsylvania," appears in Penna. Mag., Vol. XXIII. It is interesting to find that she either failed, like William Penn, to foresee the value of the estate, or was guilty of as great meanness in providing for her own daughter, as he had been in the case of Lætitia. Margaret Penn was to have £500 prin- cipal and 500 acres in fee, with a life annuity of £40, and at her death her children were to divide among them £1000 (in other words, the principal of the annu- ity). John Penn, upon whose share the money for Margaret and her family was charged, was to have in fee one half of the residuary estate, and the other half was to go to Thomas and Richard as joint tenants in fee, which meant with survivorship.
On July 4, 1727, the British Court of Exchequer heard the case of Penn v. Penn, Hamilton appearing for the plaintiffs, and the answers of the defendants
693
-
PAPER MONEY.
and of the Attorney-General being read. The testi- mony for the will and codicil of the first Proprietary was received, and the same were declared duly proved. No indication coming from the Crown as to whether it would carry out the agreement to purchase the gov- ernment, the Court did not make any decree or decision concerning the government; so Springett Penn was not debarred from claiming it, and until his death received jointly with his step-uncle John official letters from Lieutenant-Governor Gordon.
As regards the soil or Proprietaryship, Hannah's children had already made their own arrangement by the time the decision in the Exchequer was given, and, by indenture bearing date the next day, they, with Thomas Freame, Margaret's intended husband, agreed that she should have £500 from John, and, in place of the 500 acres, £300 from Thomas and Richard. John was to have the half of what residue there might be after payment of debts, and Thomas and Richard were to have the other half as tenants in common.
A trouble in which the ancient Collector of the Port, John Moore, was a participant, and one in which his son Daniel Moore, Collector at New Castle, was a par- ticipant, received in 1727 Gordon's attention as Chan- cellor : but, in both cases, Gordon made common cause with them against the Judge of the Vice Admiral's Court, Joseph Browne, a lawyer by profession, who had been appointed in Sir William Keith's time, and was a sympathizer with the latter. On a certain seizure and condemnation, Gordon, being entitled as Governor to one third, and John Moore, being entitled as informer to another third, had been afraid, Gordon explained, to trust the goods to be sold by the Marshal, who was Judge Browne's bought servant, wearing his livery, and, for all they knew, an ex-convict, as many a bought servant was; so Moore had claimed the right to have his third delivered in kind: but the Judge's order, fol-
694
CHRONICLES OF PENNSYLVANIA.
lowing the usual practice and the practice of the Ex- chequer, was to sell the goods, and to bring the money into court for payment of the costs and division of net proceeds. Besides certain costs (including, at least in New York, informant's counsel fees), the Judge usu- ally received 7} per cent on decision of any case, and there would be 5 per cent commission for selling, which the Marshal in this case would hand over to his master. Browne was as anxious for these two sums as Gordon and Moore were to save them, and Browne was more in need. Upon the petition of Moore, Gordon, as Chancellor of the Court of Equity, issued an injunction against executing the Judge's order to the Marshal to sell the goods. The injunction was followed by a man- date, under which the actual goods were divided into three parts by appraisers, and two parts delivered to the Governor and the informer by a blindfolded boy drawing lots, and the remaining part sold for the King by the Vendue Master. Gordon allowed Browne 3} per cent for the Judge's fee of condemnation, as done recently in New York, but Browne, in June, declared that he was not concluded, and, accordingly, he taxed a fee of 33 per cent. Meanwhile, wishing to be able to leave the Province, if debtors became threatening, and selling the aforesaid Marshal, Judge Browne, under date of March 25, 1727, deputed Isaac Miranda to act as Judge. Miranda is said to have been in England when Gordon was confirmed as Governor, and to have worked, as a creditor, for Keith's continuance in office. Robert Byng, Receiver of the Admiralty's Rights for the Plantations, appointed Miranda as his deputy for Pennsylvania, and sent him over with a letter to Gor- don, dated Oct. 28, 1726. In July, 1727, at New Castle, as Deputy Judge in Browne's absence, Miranda heard pleadings as to a vessel seized by Collector Daniel Moore. Browne wrote to Miranda, calling the seizure unjust, and offering to allow him the fees, if he would
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.