USA > Pennsylvania > Chronicles of Pennsylvania from the English revolution to the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1688-1748, Vol. II > Part 9
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certain, and, at best, he could not expect half a year's collections before Winter, and must then wait until Spring for the next Assembly to reimpose the tax. He told the House's messengers that he would be obliged to get particular members to bind themselves to pay to him a certain sum, in lieu of what was expected to be raised, if he must pass any laws : but this he afterwards said was a joke, and he told the messengers not to re- port it to their fellow-members; but it was repeated, and caused an adjournment to the end of the legisla- tive year. On the 16th of April, however, he summoned the body to meet on May 2. At the special session, the Assembly asked the Lieutenant-Governor to proceed with the bills already before him as amended, and de- clared that the circumstances of the Country would not allow any other provision for him than the impost offered; but, the Lieutenant-Governor refusing to pass any law, unless he received a more satisfactory sup- port, the Assembly offered a land tax as well as some changes in the imposts, if he would pass the bills. To this, he replied that he would pass all the bills together when that for his support was ready. The Assembly then took a recess for two weeks, at the end of which a quorum failed to appear: whereupon he again sum- moned a special session, which a quorum attended on one day's notice. Very quickly a tax of 1d. per l. and 4s. per head was voted: the law as passed gave him 400l. out of the first proceeds, and, after the discharge of debts incurred by preceding Assemblies, 200l. more. It was passed on May 28 with the measures desired by the representatives somewhat modified. Among the other acts, was one, noted elsewhere, imposing a duty of 5l. on every negro imported, and one laying an im- post for three years on imported liquors and hops, the cider and hops produced in the Lower Counties and West Jersey excepted. These two acts were repealed
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by the British government, but that imposing a tax on real estate &ct. was allowed to stand.
It was also enacted that no freeman should be taken or imprisoned, disseized of his freehold or liberties, out- lawed, exiled, or otherwise hurt, damnified, or de- stroyed, or tried or condemned, but by the lawful judg- ment of his twelve equals, or by the laws of this Prov- ince. Although this was almost in the phraseology of Magna Charta, and was by a proviso not to obstruct the Court of Admiralty in any matter properly cog- nizable by it, the Lord Justices Regents of Great Britain repealed the act, as by the general words possibly in- terfering with the laws of Parliament. Confirmation of sales, gifts, and grants of land to religious societies for burial grounds, houses of worship, schools, and hos- pitals, as well as authority to purchase for such uses, was refused by said Regents, as, by the retrospective provisions, probably injurious to purchasers, creditors, and others. The Assembly reestablished, and the Re- gents permitted, for those who for conscience sake re- fused to take an oath, the form of affirmation, viz: "Dost thou in the presence of Almighty God, the wit- ness of the truth of what thou sayest?" By another act passed on the same day, those who conscientiously scrupled to take such affirmation were to be allowed to answer yea or yes to simply "Dost thou solemnly de- clare?" This privilege was repealed in England on July 21, 1719.
Under certain acts, a judicial system was established, the first new Quarter Sessions Court for Philadelphia County being held on the first Monday of June, 1715. The acts were not repealed until after being in force more than four years.
The Church of England in the Province, or at least in the city, was disrupted at the close of the year 1714 by reports that Rev. Francis Phillips, temporarily in charge of Christ Church, Philadelphia, had told or
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rather boasted of, among other immoral acts, dishonor- ing certain ladies of the highest social standing in that congregation. One faction believed that he had indeed so heinously slandered spotless innocence; but Gookin, who was a vestryman, and with him the great majority of the congregation, took the part of Phillips, who claimed that he was the victim of the spite of one of the persons who pretended to report his statements. Writs being obtained against Phillips by Collector John Moore, the father of one lady, and by Councillor Trent, the husband of the other, the Sheriff, the aforesaid Peter Evans, who wished to marry Miss Moore, and was accordingly bitter against Phillips, arrested him as he was going to bed on Saturday night, Feb. 22, 1714-5, not allowing him, it is said, to put on his stockings, but taking him with legs bare to jail, half a mile off, and re- fusing to let him send for bail. The next day, Sunday, two or three hundred young men and boys, partisans of Phillips, gathered around the jail, and threatened to pull it down, if he were not set at liberty. They extorted a promise that he would be let out that night. Immediately afterwards, he was allowed to go home by an order from the prosecutors. The mob, in retiring, attacked the residence of the chief informer against Phillips, but was dispersed by the Governor. The next day, the mob broke Trent's and Moore's windows. Balked of making Phillips uncomfortable in jail, Peter Evans determined to show himself the champion of Miss Moore, his suit for whom was not favored by her family; so, on March 10, he challenged the minister to fight with swords. Phillips did not appear at the time and place given in Evans's note, viz: between seven and eight in the morning on the west side of Joshua Carpenter's garden (7th and Chestnut). Evans was indicted for sending a challenge: but the trial jury returned an alternative verdict, leaving to the Judges to say whether a demand to come "cinctus
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gladio" was a challenge! The court took it into con- sideration, and the decision is not known. The neigh- bouring clergy were satisfied that Phillips was guilty of slander, but were unable to induce him to leave the province; so they wrote, on March 17, to the Bishop of London to have him removed. Pending action by that far away prelate, Phillips and a good congregation held Christ Church: and the friends of the Moores and Trents went for Divine service to the court house, where Rev. Robert Jenney, afterwards Rector of Christ Church, ministered to them. Peter Evans married Miss Moore without her father's permission, and found it hard to support a wife, the repeal of the law for Courts having reduced the revenue of the Shrievalty: but her father became reconciled. Meanwhile, Gookin, perhaps to some extent inspired by his dislike of Trent, inter- posed to shield Phillips, and to establish clerical im- munity or privilege, wholly obnoxious to the principles upon which the colony was founded. While private in- dividuals wanted to punish or get rid of Phillips for his lies, the Quakers in office wished to try him for various offences which he was said to have confessed: but to three actions at least the Lieutenant-Governor entered a nolle prosegui. A letter written by John Newberry, published in Perry's Collections, says, that, when the Quakers brought Phillips to their court, the Governor stood by him, and bid him sit by him within the bar. The Mayor bid the accused stand up, but he refused, saying that he belonged to the Bishop's court, not to theirs. The Mayor forced him to give bail until next court, at which he was fined 20l., but the Governor said : "Mr. Phillips, you may go home if you please, I'll for- give you your fine." At the next court, a constable, and then the Sheriff, was sent to bring him; but the Lieu- tenant-Governor with his cane drove the Sheriff away, and went to the court, which then cleared the accused by proclamation, and discharged his bondsmen. Yet
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Gookin promised to support the Proprietary's powers of government and the magistrates, when the Assembly had, on June 9, expressed disappointment that, instead of the opening of the courts putting a stop to the tu- mults, some of those who occasioned the tumults were endeavoring to bring the Governor to the opinion that there was no power to try a clergyman for fornication, which, although elsewhere of ecclesiastical conusance, was in this Province triable in the court of Quarter Ses- sions. The Assembly insisted that the Governor ex- ecute the laws, and countenance the magistrates and officers in discharge of their duties. The Bishop of London sent an order, delivered to Gookin and Phillips in October, that the latter vacate Christ Church. On the Sunday when Rev. John Talbot, by arrangement of the Anglican clergy, officiated there, Gookin went off to the Swedish Church. Logan on 10, 2, 1715, speaks of "the parson who has so long tormented this place" going passenger on a vessel to sail in two or three days for London.
Troublesome, expensive, and in its result unsatis- factory as every appointment of a new Governor had been, such a thing, moreover, seemed for a while pre- cluded by the condition of Penn's health and the uncer- tainty about the surrender; and those who appealed to the Proprietary family against Gookin were told, about the beginning of 1715, that they must make the best of him. They endeavored to do so, Logan and Norris accepting seats on the bench of Philadelphia County in June, 1715, at the request of the other Councillors. It seems that during that year, Gookin in his house with Bermingham had an altercation with Joseph Wood, a Quaker, one of the Justices of the Supreme Court for the Lower Counties, about the judicial pro- ceedings, and kicked him. In September, leading citi- zens of the Lower Counties, including Halliwell and Rev. George Ross, the S. P. G. missionary at New
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Castle, and others by no means attached to the Pro- prietary interest, appealed to the Councillors to relieve them from the jeopardy they were in so long as Gookin remained in power. This letter was forwarded to Hannah Penn, with one from the Commissioners of Property, saying how imperative a change was for the Proprietary interest in those Counties. The Delaware Assembly set forth on Oct. 14, 1715, an enumeration of grievances, Yeates being Speaker.
Gookin himself was disgusted with his occupation and surroundings, and would have jumped at another office instead. When the Pennsylvania Assemblymen chosen in 1715 met him, and presented Growdon as Speaker, Gookin advised them to pass whatever laws might seem to them necessary, as he had made a request to the Proprietary for leave to go home in the Spring, and to some persons of note to procure the King's leave of absence for twelve months, and there was the possi- bility of there being another Governor instead of his own return. Gookin also called attention to the land tax being ineffectual. A law for extending the time for putting this in execution and a law reviving process and curing defects were accordingly enacted.
William Keith, ex-Surveyor-General of Customs, visiting Penn's dominions, an opportunity for getting a new Lieutenant-Governor seemed to present itself in the influence which Keith thought would be exerted in his favor in England by the Duke of Argyll, on whom King George put much dependence. As Keith's man- ners were pleasing, and his conduct as Surveyor had been irreproachable, the Councillors in a letter to Han- nah Penn of 2 mo. 27, 1716, recommended him, in some apprehension, however, that his Jacobite affiliation might cause his rejection, and their favoring a sus- pected person redound to their injury. Possibly all that they knew as likely to make some officials distrustful of him was that he had been appointed Surveyor by a Tory
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Ministry, and been removed by the Whigs whom the new dynasty put in charge; and that the nobility and gentry of the neighbourhood where he was born, were attached to the Stuarts. He was son of the third baronet of Ludquhairn in Aberdeenshire, and had been Commis- sioner of Supply for that shire, and had been selected about 1702 to carry to Queen Anne, and to read and de- liver to her personally, an address from certain Tory noblemen, an address which she, however, refused to receive. One of his maternal uncles, Moray, had been an active partisan of James II, and Keith himself spent some time at the exile's court at St. Germain, and even hoped, it is said by Burnet's History of his own Times, to be Under Secretary for Scotland after a restoration of James. When visiting London, Keith had been arrested and examined in Feb. and Mch., 1703-4, as in the secrets of the so-called "Scottish Plot" of 1703, and some years later had been again under arrest as a "dangerous person;" and Keith's father and probably his brother had been in arms for the Pretender. The wary Pennsylvanians asked, that, pending considera- tion, their letter be not shown outside of the circle of Penn's close friends. The Assembly had on 2 mo. 3, 1716, adopted an address to King George expressing joy at his accession, horror at the "unnatural" rebellion, and thankfulness to God for its suppression. Keith pre- sented this to the Prince Regent, the King being in Hannover, and received the assurance that the Quakers were looked upon as loyal subjects, and that the King had a great regard for them. Keith, in his Just and Plain Vindication, gives an amusing account of the court he had to pay in England to the mortgagees, and perhaps conveys an exaggerated notion of his expense for their "good comfortable eating and drinking," after which he was nominated Lieutenant-Governor by Penn "with the advice and consent of his Friends and Trustees under written," the paper being signed by
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Penn himself and Henry Gouldney, Silvanus Grove, and Joshua Gee. The royal approbation was secured on Dec. 17: it was without limit of time as to Pennsyl- vania, but during pleasure as to the Lower Counties.
The people of Chester County had been terrorized by some desperadoes, who, after murdering Jonathan Hayes, continued their rioting and fighting, boasting that it was not in the power of the government to punish any capital crime. An Act of Parliament had been passed in 1 George I making perpetual in England, and extending for five years to the plantations, the Act of 7 & 8 William III authorizing the acceptance of the affirmation therein prescribed for the Quakers : but this often mentioned Act had provided that no Quaker should by virtue thereof be qualified to give evidence in criminal cases, or to serve on juries, or to bear office or place of profit. Certain men charged with the murder of Hayes were arrested, but Gookin doubted whether the laws of the Province authorizing the qualification of Quakers as Judges, jurors, or witnesses in criminal cases had not been suspended by this Act. The As- sembly, meeting in May, 1716, on special summons for legislation on other subjects, expressed uneasiness at criminals not being brought to trial. He replied that he must be very cautious how he proceeded in matters touching the life of a man. In the succeeding months, while he appointed Churchmen to hold court, he took the position that Quakers were not competent in the case. About this time, he made Hamilton a violent enemy, possibly procuring the institution of the suit for which Hamilton on Sep. 21, 1716, gave bond in 1000l., with Clement Plumsted and Israel Pemberton as sureties, to appear at the next court of record. Hamil- ton soon afterwards so expressed himself as to be in- dicted, as appears in Wharton's Precedents of Indict- ments and Pleas, p. 961, the grand inquest presenting that Hamilton, on Oct. 10 in the 3rd-the insertion of
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"first" is clearly a misprint-year of George (1716), "of the honorable Charles Gookin, esquire, lieutenant- governor of the province of Pennsylvania then and still being, the wicked, opprobrious, and reproachful words following did speak, utter, and pronounce viz. Damn him (the said lieutenant-governor meaning) If he (the said Hamilton himself meaning) ever met the damned dog Gookin out of the Province in which the said Gookin had command, or any other convenient place, that by the eternal God he (the said Hamilton himself meaning) would pistol him, and that he (the said lieu- tenant-governor again meaning) deserved to be shot or ript open for what he (the said lieutenant-governor again meaning) had done already, and swore by God he (himself again meaning) could find the heart to do it, and would, if he ever had him (the said lieutenant-gov- ernor again meaning) in a convenient place." The pro- ceedings in the lawsuit or under this indictment are not known. Similarly Gookin attacked Richard Hill and James Logan, accusing them of disaffection to King George. This being known to the Assemblymen elected in 1716, by whom, moreover, Hill was chosen Speaker, they asked for proofs, and also took up the cause of Quaker competency in criminal trials, Trent and Roche, Churchmen, and Dickinson, a Quaker, having as Jus- tices declared it imprudent to act in opposition to the view of the Governor who had commissioned them. In vain was notice served upon Gookin that no laws would be passed, nor support granted. In vain in the course of a representation dated 9, 3, 1716, addressed to him, and of which a copy was sent into each county, and also to England, the Assembly tried to frighten Gookin with the specious argument, that, if he were right, William Penn was disqualified from the Governorship-in-Chief, and the Deputy's office would fall with Penn's. The other side had been more frightened when Gookin, re- fusing to bring proof against Hill and Logan, said that
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he would do so in England. On the main question of the construction of the law, the Assemblymen were right, the Quaker Councillors, as a rule, and even Robert Assheton concurring with them. Gookin had further discouraged the preservation of peace and administra- tion of justice. Judgment having been given in the Common Pleas in September against Hugh Lowden, the latter vowed revenge upon Hill and Logan, who were Judges, and, arming himself with pistols, way- laid both at their doors, and, meeting Hill the same night, levelled the loaded pistol at him. When Lowden had been indicted, the Lieutenant-Governor had a nolle prosequi entered. In the following March, in expecta- tion of Gookin being superseded, the Assembly at his request made him a parting gift of 2001.
About two years and a half after Gookin went out of office, he petitioned the King, in view of many years service in the army, loss of rank by accepting the Gover- norship, and expenditure of small savings in supporting such dignity, to grant him the islands in the river Dela- ware, as not being included in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, and they being small and barren, but capable of improvement by banking out the tides, clearing, and planting corn. Among other testimonials, Earl Cado- gan, who succeeded the Duke of Marlborough in the command of the army, wrote that Gookin was a very honest man, and reduced to such circumstances as to be an object of compassion. The Attorney-General's and Solicitor-General's opinion being asked, they said that no part of the Delaware river or islands therein was included in the provinces bounding on that river, but suggested that the settled or improved islands be ex- cepted from the grant, and the occupiers allowed to con- tinue, that Gookin be required to settle in a certain time whatever he received, and that the government of the same be annexed to New Jersey. Gookin supplemented his petition by asking for all the islands on condition
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of allowing to the improvers their improvements. The King ordered the Board of Trade to particularize what islands had been improved, and to decide whether the settlers be quieted in possession or compensated. The grant was never made.
It is said that in the final twelve months that Gookin served, the people of the Lower Counties were upon the point of insurrection against him. While so many were exasperated by his behavior, the Rev. George Ross and others at New Castle started a new movement to have the Crown take the control of those territories from the Proprietary of Pennsylvania. Yeates and John French declined to sign an address to that end to the King, but did not tell Penn's friends about the address until it had been sent over. Kenneth Gordon, who had recently arrived in the colony, was meanwhile working to smooth the way for himself as Governor, or as Lieutenant- Governor under the Earl of Sutherland, or perhaps for any other deputy whom that Earl might appoint. John Gordon, Earl of Sutherland in the peerage of Scotland, had been Lieutenant-General of the forces of George I in Scotland, and had taken Inverness from the rebels in 1715. After Gookin's successor as Lieutenant- Governor had been approved by the Crown, but before his arrival in Pennsylvania, the Earl petitioned the King, that, as there were arrears due to the Earl since the Revolution amounting to more than £20,000, a grant be made to him of the soil and government of the Lower Counties. The lawyers for Penn strenuously main- tained the latter's right before the Attorney-General and Solicitor-General; but those officers reported against such right, at the same time suggesting that the King's right should be established by a court of Chancery before a grant be made to anybody, and that, if a grant were made, the claims of purchasers under Penn who had made improvements, be established. They added, that, if Mr. Penn had title, there had been
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no cause shown why he should not account for the rents in accordance with the deed for the land below the circle around New Castle. The attorney for the Earl of Sutherland had already asked, that, if he could not re- ceive the grant, he be allowed the benefit of Penn's accounting. No movement was made to have the title passed upon judicially, and no accounting for the quit rents by the Penns took place: the Earl, setting forth that the government was satisfied with the Crown's right, renewed the application in 1725, and declared his willingness to confirm the claims of the purchasers under Penn, and a fresh reference to the Attorney- General and Solicitor-General was made on Nov. 18.
It is a strange case of one's sins finding one out, of private actions coming to notice, and being expiated in the reputation of historical characters, that Gookin's successor, whose public acts were so important, is chiefly known for his broken promises to a printer's runaway apprentice, eighteen years old-who was not a very nice young man-who might never have been heard from. But for the great fame to which Benjamin Franklin rose, and the entry of the following story in his widely read Autobiography,-there is no other record of it,-all the conduct otherwise known of Sir William Keith which is indefensible-the present author holds no brief for him-might have been disre- garded in the verdict of history, and the animadver- sions upon him by contemporaries with whom he inter- fered would be challenged, and he would stand upon a pedestal in the view of many Americans as a champion of the People's cause. In an exuberance of affability, being impressed with a letter written by young Benja- min to the latter's father, and shown by Benjamin's brother-in-law, who was captain of a sloop, Sir William sought Benjamin, suggested his going into business for himself, and, on the father's refusal to advance the money, promised to give a letter of credit and introduc-
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tion for obtaining tools and materials in London. Franklin's Autobiography does not explain that be- tween the first promise and the embarkation, the would be patron's circumstances changed; the whole episode occurring in 1724, when a different turn of affairs might have caused a fulfilment. However, nothing justifies the expectation of help being kept before the trusting youth, and his being permitted even to sail to England upon the supposition that the equivalent for a bill of exchange was in the ship's bag. Thinking that a letter found therein addressed to Baskett, "King's printer," might be Keith's, Franklin presented it, but it turned out to be from Riddlesden, the lawyer, and the stationer handed it back, saying that Riddlesden was a rascal, with whom he would have nothing to do. The letter has not been preserved. The scheme against Hamil- ton, the lawyer, to which it is said to have referred, and in which Keith is said to have been concerned, may have had reference to Clark's house, as to which Keith appears to have turned against Hamilton, and as to which the Lord Chancellor of England subsequently deemed Hamilton in the wrong.
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