USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial records of Pennsylvania, Vol. IV > Part 20
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will abundently Discover the Occasion with the Necessity we have mentioned.
"Some other parts of your Letter we are content to pass over, our sole view, if you will allow us to use your own Words, being to bring you to some reasonable measures to putt a Stop to the Vio- lences & disorders you have mentioned, & shall now proceed to con -. sider the Parts that more immediately relate to the Grand & mo- mentuous Point before us.
"You are pleased on this Head first to load us with Blame for not accepting & then express your great Satisfaction on our now acceeding to your former Proposals, which you have thought fitt to cause to be copied at length into your Letter; and on viewing the use you make of them we cannot forbear expressing our Admiration. It might be thought impertinent in us to transcribe them here again were it not that on your laying so very great a Stress on them it may be proper, by inserting them, to give you a readier Opportunity of reading them again. As they stand in your Letter they are thus : ' That both Governments should immediately joyn in an Application to His most Gracious Majesty, with our humble and dutiful Request that he would be pleased to take into his just and wise Considera- tion the Mischiefs arising from the Uncertainty of the Boundaries of our respective Governments, and determine and fix the same as in his Wisdom & Justice he should be graciously pleased to order & direct. And further, that both Governments should by their joint Endeavors not only remove and discourage any new Settle- ments on the Borders which had been made since your Adminstra- tion of the Government, but also by Proclamation in each Govern- ment forbid and deter any Person within our respective Govern- mennts from making any other new Settlements on the Borders till His Majesty's Pleasure should be known.'
"Now we beseech you on this Review to make an impartial Use of your own clear Understanding to find out how any thing there proposed can contribute to the present Peace of His Majesty's har- ass'd Subjects in or near those Borders. Surely an Application to His Majesty 'to take the Uncertainty of our Boundaries into his just & wise Consideration' can give no immediate stop to the Violences that were then on all Occasions committed by Cressap, and are now daily committing by those Banditti (for we can find no Term more proper for them) who profess they act by your Authority. Or again, how the removing of great Numbers from their Settlements 'who had made them since your Administration' could give them Peace, for 'tis those very People who make up the Bulk of the Inhabitants now under Consideration, & the Thing they want is the peaceable Possession of their Labours, while what you proposed is to turn them out of House & Home, the greatest Calamity their Families in general could be subjected to, tho' 'tis too true many of the Per- sons themselves have otherwise grevously suffered. That those
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Proposals of yours are conceived in very clear terms (were but the word Borders duly explained) is readily owned ; but while you are pleased to say you must acknowledge your own Incapacity to explain by clearer & more significant words that Practicableness which is contained so exceedingly plain in the proposed Terms, we shall as freely own that the meaning of that Expression no less surpasses our Understanding. The Unreasonableness of the first part of those Proposals, as it directly infers a Voidance of the Agreement between the Proprietors in 1732, now in Chancery, and the Impractica- bleness of the latter, we find have been so fully spoke to, and so clearly demonstrated in our late Governor's Letters, that since those may so easily be referred to it would truly be a Repetition to bring the same in again here. We must, therefore, crave your Leave to express our Wonder at the Use you would endeavor to make of those Proposals, when at the same time you neither now advance, nor that we can find have ever advanced any thing to shew either the Reasonableness of the one or the Practicableness of the other, tho' so often objected to, save what you are now pleased to say of the Clear- ness of their Expression, in which we hope you will excuse us if we say we can scarce believe it possible for a Gentlemen of your very good Sense to be serious, since it plainly implies no less than that a Thing unreasonable or impracticable in its own Nature be- comes reasonable or practicable by being expressed in clear, intelli- gible Terms, as if the Reality and Nature of Facts depended on? words or Expression.
" But what most sensibly affects us, & appears to us, as we con- ceive it must to all others, astonishing, is that while in yours of the: 24th of December you expressed, & still continue to express, so' ardent a Desire of giving Peace to the People, yet you should from. that time, now near three months since, support & countenance by your authority those horrid Barbarities by a sett of Fellows who having no Character nor certain Habitation, are for meer Want gathered together to insult, abuse, and plunder Numbers of His Majesty's peaceable Subjects, on which we cannot but again observe; that it is not in the Power of Words to alter Facts or to change their intrinsic Nature.
" It will ever be true and can be incontestably proved, for you. oblige us to repeat it, that T. Cressap, whom, tho' a Person well, known to have been of an infamous Character, you are pleased to. dignify with the Title of Captain, was supported by you in com- mitting many horrid Outrages on His Majesty's peaceable Subjects, in violently seizing and tying them as the most criminal Malefac- tors, & sending them into cruel Confinement into your loathsome Goals, tho' chargeable with no other Offence than their disowning- the Lord Baltimore's Right to the Possessions they had peaceably- entred into under this Government; in killing one Man, who with; VOL. IV .- 12.
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some others told him they were come with a Warrant to apprehend him for those facts ; and lastly, in being appointed the Chief Com- mander in a projected Scheme to oust a great Number of most peaceable People from their Plantations, only for declaring their Conviction in themselves that they neither were, in their Situation, nor could be Inhabitants of Maryland. These repeated Violences, . & unsufferable Abuses, laying the Inhabitants of those parts under a Necessity of putting a Stop to them, by apprehending so egregious a Malefactor, the Sherif proceeded to execute a Warrant that had for a considerable time been issued against Cressap, & nothing but absolute Necessity, after a whole day spent in the deliberate Use of other Measures, put the Sherif and his Assistants on those they found themselves at last obliged to, which the Law, as the skilfull in it positively assert, will justify in all such Cases, and after his Apprehension no other Person was molested; Yet on the part of your Government, Higginbotham & his Associates were furnished from your Magazines with large Quantities of Arms & Amunition, not as you are pleased to alledge for Self-Defence, but as their Ac- tions evidently show, in order to ruin other People, and of some of their late Outrages we took particular Notice in our last of which you have not thought fitt to take even the least in yours.
" But what is yet more astonishing is, that even after our Receipt of your last, proposing an Accommodation, we had immediately a further Account of their continuing the same cruel Practices in seizing the Men, abusing their Families, & robbing them of, or destroying their Provisions laid up for the Support of themselves and their Creatures. This Rage and those Cruelties obliged us to direct the Sherif of that County, with a proper Assistance, to pro- tect Our People from such Villanies; but as we are very sensible it is inconsistent with the Duty we owe to Our Gracious Sovereign to make War on any of His Subjects, who act even under the Colour of an Authority derived under the same Crown, we laid our Sherif, and all others acting by his Authority, under an absolute Restraint from offering any Act of Violence that might endanger Life or occasion Bloodshed-a Caution vastly different from that of those Ruffians who have not only made no Scruple, as we have shewen before, violently to break open the Houses of People perfectly in- nocent, and firing at divers others to the manifest Danger of their Lives, & even upon Women flying from their Rage.
" These particulars of your inlisted People's Conduet we should even here have omitted to mention, were it not absolutely necessary once more to represent to your view the Miseries, the Calamities, & Desolation of His Majesty's distress'd Subjects, brought on them solely by those new unjustifiable extended Claims made by your Authority since the last Agreement, while both Governments lie under the highest Obligations to preserve His Majesty's Peace, &
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secure & protect His Subjects in their Lives, Liberties, and Pos- sessions.
" We do, therefore, here assure you that it is not from an Opinion of the Reasonableness of any of these Proposals you have hitherto made to this Government, but from the Consideration of that Duty we indispensably owe to Our Sovereign, which most certainly is or ought to be the same on your part, and of the Distress of those afflicted People, that we made our last Concession, in which we had solely a view to the Subject's Peace, exclusive of all Considerations of Proprietary Rights or Claims, till such time as these shall by a due Authority be adjusted.
" And now to speak more fully to the Point before us, you could not but observe we ushered in that Concession with a Proviso 'that you could propose any rational Measures to render the Thing prac- ticable,' for we clearly saw it attended with Difficulties that we thought could be no ways so speedily & effectually remedied as by a personal Conference; & therefore well knowing the matter would require much more to be said on it, we proposed a meeting, but since you object to this unless there appears a Necessity for it, that no Time may be lost, we will here shew you what we have thought must prove the safest & best expedient for reducing what is pro- posed to Practice; After we had spoke to the Limits of Civil Ju- risdiction, we proceeded to say that so ardent was our Desire to pro- cure Peace to His Majesty's Subjects, that on the Condition above mentioned of your proposing rational Measures, &ca., we should not oppose but that all those who first took up Lands under Maryland may be allowed to acknowledge that Government, only those, &ca., and with that Exception of only those, &ca., you are not satisfied ; Now to render the whole more clear, & particularly to mention those Expedients, we shall here in full Terms express our Meaning, which is, that those Inhabitants who at first entred on their Possessions under the Government of Maryland, should till such time as the Boundaries shall be settled, or till we shall receive Orders & Direc- tions from a Superior Authority for establishing Peace, be allowed to acknowledge that Government, and all such others as entred on their Possessions under this Government should in the same man- ner be allowed to acknowledge it; but the more effectually to give Peace & quiet the People's Minds, as well as to prevent future Misunderstandings, we take it to be necessary & accordingly propose that all those -Inhabitants who with their Possessions have been the Subject of the late Contentions or disputes, should in the mean time be exempted from the Payment of all Taxes & other Duties ; Yet that each Government may, if they think fitt, assess their yearly Taxes, & keep an Account of them, to be discharged to that Government under which they shall be found to fall, or till the Re- ceipt of further Orders from a proper Authority; but that in the mean time no further Settlements shall be made in those Parts,
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otherwise than according to the Exception in our last Proposal, that is by the same Families on the same. Tracts they were possessed of before the Commencement of these Differences, viz., August last ; and further, that all force shall be immediately removed, & no Per- son whatever be put to any Trouble, or molested on any Cause or Pretence arising from the past Disputes, or any Proprietary Claims, as in the Preliminary in our last, with the further Proviso follow- ing it, by these Words in which (for the Purposes they are now intended) we neither meant, nor as we conceived could be supposed to mean any thing further than the Agreement now in Treaty be- tween us.
"Our Reason for making the Exception of 'Those who coming into this Province to inhabit & going over Sasquehannah,' &ca-, was that because the Germans you mention may have rendred them- selves obnoxious to your Censure by making a Step they conceived to be their incumbent Duty, Such Provision ought to be made for them as that all the Inhabitants in those parts may, without Dis- tinction, equally enjoy that Tranquility His Majesty has ever been desirous all His Subjects should be blest with, and accordingly we expect they shall all be treated equally with others.
"Thus we have in the plainest Terms we can conceive proposed the most effectual means we can possibly think of for accommo- dating these Difference's, which however occasioned, are undoubtedly a Dishonour to both Governments, & to which it is equally our Duty, without Delay, to put an End. 'Tis for this solely that we make these Concessions, however unreasonable to be expected of us; & on your agreeing to them we hope we may without much Difficulty find, as there shall be Occasion, Means for preserving Peace amongst the People themselves; for as the Term for which this Agreement is proposed cannot probably be long, we may hope, from the In- junctions to be laid on them respectively by both Governments, they may live in such amicable Neighbourhood & preserve so good an Understanding as to give us very little Trouble.
" We shall add, that if there should yet appear a Necessity for a Conference, which we with good Reason thought might prove the most expeditious Method for effectually compassing what was mu- tually proposed by us, yet as we have now been so full and clear in giving you our Sentiments, we shall hope that with the same hearty Disposition for Peace on your Part, that we again assure you we have ever most sincerely had on ours, the whole may without Loss of Time be accommodated, if otherwise, tho' our President by his great bodily Infirmities is rendred very unfit for the Fatigue of a Journey, yet we doubt not but his Zeal for the publick Good will give him both Inclinations & Resolution to submit to it.
" This by some unavoidable Circumstances has been delayed two or three days, but for the greater Dispatch we again, as before, send
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it by Express, & request you would give your Answer by him all you can on your part. It may not be unnecessary, for preventing all Objections, further to add, that as we have endeavoured to ex- plain ourselves with the utmost Clearness, & to avoid all Ambiguity of Expression, we desire our words in these Proposals may be con- strued according to their plainest & most explicite Sense, for so we truly intend them, & are
" Sir, "Your Friends and humble Servants, "In behalf of the Council, "JAMES LOGAN, Presidt.
" Philadelphia, March 22d, 1736-7.
"P. S .- Since the foregoing, we have received Advice of the 18th instant, that your People at their Garrison or Camp, as we hear they call it, went the preceeding day to the House of one Martin Schultz & stole or took out of it by force a Cask of eighty Gallons of Rum & two of his Horses to convey it to their place.
"J. L.
"For His Majesty's Service.
" To the Honble. Samuel Ogle, Esq", Governor of Maryland."
At a Council held at Philadia., March 24th, 1736-7.
PRESENT :
The Honble JAMES LOGAN, Esqr., President. Samuel Preston, Samuel Hasell,
Thomas Laurence, Thomas Griffitts,
Esqrs.
Upon reading this day at the Board a Return of the Road laid out by Order of Council of the twenty-third of January, 1735-6, from John Harris' ferry, on Sasquehannah, to Edward Kennison's Plantation, in the County of Chester, in these words :
" To his Excellency Patrick Gordon, Esq"-, Lieutenant Governor of the Province of Pensilvania, Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex, and to his Honourable Council, &ca.
" Pursuant to an Order from a Council holden at Philadelphia, January the twenty-third, 1735-6, to us directed, We have laid out a Road from the River of Sasquehannah, near the House of John Harris', in in the Township of Pextan, in the County of Lancaster, and from thence through the said County and part of the County of Chester, falling into the High Road leading from the Town of Lan- caster, at (or on) the Plantation of Edward Kennison, in Whiteland, in the County of Chester, according to the several Courses and Dis-
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tances specified in the Draught hereunto annexed, In Witness, our hands this seventeenth day of June, Anno Domº 1736.
" Hans Graff,
" Edward Nicholas,
" Jo". Davies,
" James Eldridge,
" John Foster,
" Rice Price,
" Samuel Osborne,
" James Armstrong,
" John Fredrick,
" John Mendenhall,
" Richard Buffington.
" A Draught of a Road from the Township of Pextan, in the County of Lancaster, and from thence through some part of Chester County, and falling into the great Road leading from Lancaster Town to the City of Philadelphia, at the Plantation of Edward Kennison, in the Township of Whiteland, in the County of Chester, whose several Courses and Distances are as followeth (viz“) : Be- ginning in the River of Sasquehannah, near a Locust tree standing on the Shore of the said River, nigh the Ferry of John Harris, in Pextan aforesaid, thence north eighty-five Degrees Easterly one hundred & twenty-six Pches, to Pextan Creek, then South eighty- seven Degrees Easterly fifty-six pches, South eighty-two Degrees Easterly eighteen pches, South sixty-nine Degrees Easterly eighty pches, North eighty-eight Degrees Easterly three hundred & thirty-
seven, East one thousand four hundred & thirty-one pches, South seventy Degrees Easterly one hundred & seventy-four pches, East twenty-eight pches, South sixty-three Degrees Easterly forty pches, South fifty three Degrees Easterly eighty-eight pches, North eighty Degrees Easterly two hundred & thirty pches, near Sweet arroe Creek, then North sixty-three Degrees Easterly thirty-four pches, North eighty-six Degrees Easterly forty-nine pches, East four hun- dred & twenty pches, North seventy-three Degrees Easterly twenty- four pches, East one thousand one hundred & five pches, North seventy-four Degrees Easterly seventy pches, East two hundred & fifty pches, South eighty-three Degrees Easterly one hundred & seventy-eight pches, East two hundred & sixty pches, to a small run, North fifty five Degrees Easterly twenty-four pches, East six hundred & eighty-six pches, North Eighty-one Degrees Easterly twenty-four pches, to a small run, East one thousand & fifty-six pches, South sixty-five Degrees Easterly seven hundred & sixty pches, South eighty Degrees Easterly one hundred & twenty pches, to Frederick's run, North eighty-three Degrees Easterly eighty-six pches, South fifty-seven Degrees Easterly fifty-two pches, South twenty-two Degrees Easterly fourteen pches, South five Degrees Westerly fifty-four pches, South four Degrees Easterly fifty pches, to a pine Tree on the side of Charity Hill, South nineteen Degrees Easterly ten pches, South thirty-five Degrees Easterly thirty-six pches, South seventy-two Degrees Easterly thirty-four pches, North eighty-eight Degrees Easterly seventy pches, South sixty-two De- grees Easterly sixteen pches, South fifty-five Degrees Easterly
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twenty-two pches, South fifty Degrees Easterly fifty-two pches, South six Degrees Easterly fifty-two pches, to a small run, South eighty Degrees Easterly ten pches, South fifty-four Degrees Easterly fifty-six pches, South eighty-one Degrees Easterly twenty pches, South eighty-three Degrees Easterly twenty-two pches, South thirty-six Degrees Easterly thirty-six pches, South forty-eight De- grees Easterly one hundred pches, South seventy Degrees Easterly forty-six pches, South sixty-seven Degrees Easterly sixteen pches, South forty-eight Degrees Easterly one hundred pches, South sixty Degrees Easterly forty pches, South nine Degress Easterly ninty pches, South fifty-four Degrees Easterly thirty-six pches, South sixty-two Degrees Easterly thirty-four pches, South seventy-two Degrees Easterly twenty-four pches, South eighty-two Degrees Easterly thirty-eight pches, North sixty-six Degrees Easterly ninty- two pches, North sixty-nine Degrees Easterly sixty pches, South eighty-five Degrees Easterly fifty-two pches, South sixty Degrees Easterly forty-eight pches, South forty-eight Degrees Easterly seventy-four pches, South twenty-nine Degrees Easterly thirty-six pches, South thirty-nine Degrees Easterly fifty pches, South thirty- four pches, South twenty Degrees Easterly eight pches, South one Degree Easterly forty pches, South twenty Degrees Easterly fifty pches, South East thirteen pches, South sixty Degrees Easterly fifty-four pches, South fifty-four Degrees Easterly one hundred & seventy-four pches, South eighty Degrees Easterly one hundred & eighty-four pches, East sixteen pches, South forty Degrees Easterly forty pches, South forty-eight Degrees one hundred & forty-six pches, South sixty-three Degrees Easterly thirty-four pches, South seventy-one Degrees Easterly two hundred & six pches, South eighty-five Degrees Easterly seventy-nine pches, North eighty-two Degrees Easterly eighty pches, South eighty Degrees Easterly twenty-eight pches, South seventy-seven Degress ninety-four pches, South fifty-five Degrees Easterly forty pches, South thirty-seven Degrees Easterly thirty-four pches, South seventy-seven Degrees Easterly eighteen pches, South seventy Degrees Easterly sixty pches, to midle Creek, South sixty-one Degrees Easterly one thou- sand & twenty pches, South East three hundred & forty pches, to Colico-Creek, South fifty-four Degrees Easterly forty pches, South fifty Degrees Easterly eighty-two pches, South forty-eight Degrees Easterly one hundred & thirty-two pches, South nineteen Degrees Easterly sixty pches, South forty-eight Degrees Easterly one hun- dred & eight pches, South fifty Degrees Easterly fifty pches, South fifty-eight Degrees Easterly one hundred pches, South sixty-eight De- grees Easterly seventy-two pches, South forty-nine Degrees Easterly ninety pches, South fifty-eight Degrees Easterly ninety-two pches, South seventy-fixe Degrees Easterly one hundred & forty pches, South forty-six Degrees Easterly eighty pches to Conestogo Creek, South forty Degrees Easterly one hundred & sixty-eight pches, South forty- nine Degrees Easterly eighty-four pches, South East by East nine
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hundred & eighty p., South sixty-five Degrees Easterly seven hun- dred and twenty pches, South eighty-four Degrees Easterly eighty- two pches to Cedar run, North eighty-nine Degrees Easterly one hundred and twenty pches, North eighty Degrees Easterly two hundred & nineteen pches to Evans's run, South eighty Degrees Easterly eighty-nine pches, South seventy-four Degrees Easterly seventy pches, South sixty-three Degrees Easterly seventy-eight pches, East forty pches, South seventy-seven Degrees Easterly twenty pches, South eighty Degrees Easterly one hundrod pches, South sixty-seven Degrees Easterly eighty-six pches, South eighty- eight Degrees Easterly twenty-four pches, South sixty Degrees Easterly one hundred & thirty-six pches, South seventy-one De- grees Easterly twenty-six pches, North eighty-two Degrees Easterly ninety pches, are the County Line, South seventy-seven Degrees Easterly sixty-eight pches, South sixty Degrees Easterly one hun- dred & forty pches, South sixty-five Degrees Easterly two hundred & forty pches, South East thirty-two pches, South eighty-eight De- grees Easterly one hundred & thirty-eight pches, South twenty- three Degrees Easterly one hundred & seventy-two pches, South sixty Degrees Easterly one hundred & ninety-six pches, South forty- nine Degrees Easterly ninety-four pches, South seventy-four De- grees Easterly eighty-six pches, South eighty-five Degrees Easterly ninety-four pches, East eighty pches, South eighty-seven Degrees Easterly thirty-two pches, South seventy-seven Degrees Easterly eighty-four pches, South East by East twenty-eight pches, South sixty Degrees Easterly fifty pches, South seventy-nine Degrees & an half Easterly one hundred & ninety two pches, South seventy- one Degrees Easterly one hundred & seventy-six pches, South sixty Degrees Easterly one hundred pches, South fifty-three Degrees Easterly three hundred & ninety-six p., near the presbyterian meet- ing House, North eighty-six Degrees Easterly two hundred & twelve Pches to a Spring, South eighty-eight Degrees Easterly one hundred & fourteen pches, South sixty-seven Degrees Easterly forty- six pches, South seventy-one Degrees Easterly fifty pches, North seventy-seven Degrees Easterly ninety-eight pches, South eighty- eight Degrees Easterly two hundred & twenty pches, South seventy- five Degrees Easterly one hundred & fourteen pches, South seventy- one Degrees Easterly one hundred & fourteen pches, South forty- four Degrees Easterly twenty-six pches, South two Degrees Easterly forty-two pches, South fifty-three Degrees Easterly thirty pches, North sixty-five Degrees Easterly twenty-two pches to Brandywine Creek, North sixty-six Degrees Easterly thirty-eight pches, South eighty-eight Degrees Easterly eighty pches, South Eighty-five De- grees Easterly thirty-eight pches, South eighty-one Degrees East- erly forty pches, North eighty-one Degrees Easterly sixty pches, South sixty-five Degrees Easterly seventy-two pches to another Branch of Brandywine-Creek, South thirty-two Degrees Easterly twenty-six pches, South fifty Degrees Easterly twenty pches, South
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