History of Erie county, Pennsylvania. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, villages schools, churches, industries, etc, Part 7

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902; Whitman, Benjamin, 1940-; Russell, N. W. (Nathaniel Willard); Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Weakley, F. E; Warner, Beers & Co. (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : Warner, Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1280

USA > Pennsylvania > Erie County > History of Erie county, Pennsylvania. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, villages schools, churches, industries, etc > Part 7

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Sir Robert Carr, with two frigates and an ample force, was dispatched to the Delaware to reduce the settlements there to English rule. The planters, whether Dutch or Swedes, were to be insured in the peaceable possession of their property, and the magistrates were to be continued in office.

Sailing past the fort, he disseminated among the settlers the news of the surrender of Stuyvesant, and the promises of protection which Nicholls had made use of. But Gov. D'Hinoyossa was not disposed to heed the demand for surrender without a struggle. Whereupon Carr landed his forces and stormed the place. After a fruitless but heroic resistance, in which ten were wounded and three were killed, the Governor was forced to surrender. Thus was the complete subversion of the State's General in America consummated, and the name of New Amsterdam gave place to that of New York, from the name of the English proprietor, James, Duke of York.

The resistance offered by D'Hinoyossa formed a pretext for shameless plunder. Carr, in his report which shows him to have been a lawless fel-

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

low, says, " Ye soldiers never stoping untill they stormed ye fort, and sae con- sequently to plundering; the seamen, noe less given to that sport, were quickly within, and have gotton good store of booty." Carr seized the farm of D'Hinoyossa, his brother, John Carr, that of Sheriff Sweringen, and Ensign Stock that of Peter Alrichs. The produce of the land for that year was seized, together with a cargo of goods that was unsold. "Even the inoffensive Men- nonists, though non-combatant from principle, did not escape the sack and plunder to which the whole river was subjected by Carr and his marauders. A boat was dispatched to their settlement, which was stripped of everything, to a very naile."

Nicholls, on hearing of the rapacious conduct of his subordinate, visited the Delaware, removed Carr, and placed Robert Needham in command. Pre- vious to dispatching his fleet to America, in June, 1664, the Duke of York had granted to John, Lord Berkeley, Baron of Stratton, and Sir George Carteret, of Saltrum in Devon, the territory of New Jersey, bounded substantially as the present State, and this, though but little settled by the Dutch, had been in- cluded in the terms of surrender secured by Nicholls. In many ways, he showed himself a man of ability and discretion. He drew up with signal success a body of laws, embracing most of the provisions which had been in force in the English colonies, which were designated the Duke's Laws.

In May, 1667, Col. Francis Lovelace was appointed Governor in place of Nicholls, and soon after taking charge of affairs, drew up regulations for the government of the territory upon the Delaware, and dispatched Capt. John Carr to act there as his Deputy Governor. It was provided that whenever complaint duly sworn to was made, the Governor was to summon "the schout, Hans Block, Israel Helm, Peter Rambo, Peter Cock and Peter Alrichs, or any two of them, as counsellors, to advise him, and determine by the major vote what is just, equitable and necessary in the case in question." It was further provided that all men should be punished in an exemplary manner, though with moderation; that the laws should be frequently communicated to the counsellors, and that in cases of difficulty recourse should be had to the Gov- ernor and Council at New York. .

In 1668, two murders were perpetrated by Indians, which caused consider- able disturbance and alarm throughout the settlements. These capital crimes appear to have been committed while the guilty parties were maddened by liquor. So impressed were the sachems and leading warriors of the baneful effects of strong drink, that they appeared before the Council and besought its authority to utterly prohibit the sale of it to any of their tribes. These re- quests were repeated, and finally, upon the advice of Peter Alrichs, "the Governor (Lovelace) prohibited, on pain of death, the selling of powder, shot and strong liquors to the Indians, and writ to Carr on the occasion to use the utmost vigilance and caution."

The native murderers were not apprehended, as it was difficult to trace them; but the Indians themselves were determined to ferret them out. One was taken and shot to death, who was the chief offender, but the other escaped and was never after heard of. The chiefs summoned their young men, and in presence of the English warned them that such would be the fate of all offend- ers. Proud justly remarks: "This, at a time when the Indians were numer- ous and strong and the Europeans few and weak, was a memorable act of jus- tice, and a proof of true friendship to the English, greatly alleviating the fear, for which they had so much reason among savages. in this then wilder- ness country."

In 1669, a reputed son of the distinguished 'Swedish General, Connings-

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA,

marke, commonly called the Long Fin, with another of his nationality, Henry Coleman, a man of property, and familiar with the language and habits of the Indians, endeavored to incite an insurrection to throw off the English rule and establish the Swedish supremacy. The Long Fin was apprehended, and was condemned to die; but upon reconsideration his sentence was commuted to whipping and to branding with the letter R. He was brought in chains to New York, where he was incarcerated in the Stadt-house for a year, and was then transported to Barbadoes to be sold. Improvements in the modes of administering justice were from time to time introduced. New Castle was made a corporation, to be governed by a Bailiff and six associates. Duties on importations were laid, and Capt. Martin Pringer was appointed to collect and make due returns of them to Gov. Lovelace.

In 1673, the French monarch, Louis XIV, declared war against the Neth- erlands, and with an army of over 200,000 men moved down upon that de- VOted country. In conjunction with the land force, the English, with a power- ful armament, descended upon the Dutch waters. The aged Du Ruyter and the youthful Van Tromp put boldly to sea to meet the invaders. Three great naval battles were fought upon the Dutch coast on the 7th and 14th of June, and the 6th of August, in which the English forces were finally repulsed and driven from the coast. In the meantime, the inhabitants, abandoning their homes, cut the dikes which held back the sea, and invited inundation. Deem- ing this a favorable opportunity to regain their possessions wrenched from them in the New World, the Dutch sent a small fleet under Commodores Cornelius Evertse and Jacobus Benkes, to New York, to demand the surrender of all their previous possessions. Gov. Lovelace happened to be absent, and his representative, Capt. John Manning, surrendered with but brief resistance, and the magistrates from Albany, Esopus, East Jersey and Long Island, on being summoned to New York, swore fealty to the returning Dutch power. Anthony Colve, as Governor, was sent to Delaware, where the magistrates hastened to meet him and submit themselves to his authority. Property in the English Government was confiscated; Gov. Lovelace returned to England, and many of the soldiers were carried prisoners to Holland. Before their de- parture, Commodores Evertse and Benkes, who styled themselves " The honora- ble and awful council of war, for their high mightinesses, the State's General of the United Netherlands, and his Serene Highness, the Prince of Orange," commissioned Anthony Colve, a Captain of foot, on the 12th of August, 1673, to be Governor General of "New Netherlands, with all its appendences," and on the 19th of September following, Peter Alrichs, who had manifested his subserviency and his pleasure at the return of Dutch ascendancy, was ap- pointed by Colve Deputy Governor upon the Delaware. A body of laws was drawn up for his instruction, and three courts of justice were established, at New Castle, Chester and Lewistown. Capt. Manning on his return to En- gland was charged with treachery for delivering up the fort at New York with- out resistance, and was sentenced by a court martial "to have his sword broken over his head in public, before the city hall, and himself rendered incapable of wearing a sword and of serving his Majesty for the future in any public trust in the Government."

But the revolution which had been affected so easily was of short duration. On the 9th of February, 1674, peace was concluded between England and Holland, and in the articles of pacification it was provided " that whatsoever countries, islands, towns, ports, castles or forts, have or shall be taken, on both sides, since the time that the late unhappy war broke out, either in Europe, or elsewhere, shall be restored to the former lord and proprietor, in the same con-

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

dition they shall be in when the peace itself shall be proclaimed, after which time there shall be no spoil nor plunder of the inhabitants, no demolition of fortifications, nor carrying away of guns, powder, or other military stores which belonged to any castle or port at the time when it was taken." This left no room for controversy about possession. But that there might be no legal bar nor loophole for question of absolute right to his possessions, the Duke of York secured from the King on the 29th of June following, a new patent cov- ering the former grant, and two days thereafter sent Sir Edmund Andros, to possess and govern the country. He arrived at New York and took peaceable possession on the 31st of October, and two days thereafter it was resolved in council to reinstate all the officers upon Delaware as they were at the surrender to the Dutch, except Peter Alrichs, who for his forwardness in yielding his power was relieved. Capt. Edmund Cantwell and William Tom were sent to occupy the fort at New Castle, in the capacities of Deputy Governor and Sec- retary. In May, 1675, Gov. Andros visited the Delaware, and held court at New Castle " in which orders were made relative to the opening of roads, the regulation of church property and the support of preaching, the prohibition of the sale of liquors to the Indians, and the distillation thereof by the inhab- itants." On the 23d of September, 1676, Cantwell was superseded by John Collier, as Vice Governor, when Ephraim Hermans became Secretary.

As was previously observed, Gov. Nicholls, in 1664, made a complete di- gest of all the laws and usages in force in the English-speaking colonies in America, which were known as the Duke's Laws. That these might now be made the basis of judicature throughout the Duke's possessions, they were, on the 25th of September, 1676, formally proclaimed and published by Gov. Lovelace, with a suitable ordinance introducing them. It may here be ob- served, that, in the administration of Gov. Hartranft, by act of the Legislature of June 12, 1878, the Duke's Laws were published in a handsome volume, to- gether with the Charter and Laws instituted by Penn, and historical notes covering the early history of the State, under the direction of John B. Linn, Secretary of the commonwealth, edited by Staughton George, Benjamin M. Nead, and Thomas McCarnant, from an old copy preserved among the town rec- ords of Hempstead, Long Island, the seat of the independent State which had been set up there by John Scott before the coming of Nicholls. The num- ber of taxable male inhabitants between the ages of sixteen and sixty years, in 1677, for Uplandt and New Castle, was 443, which by the usual estimate of seven to one would give the population 3,101 for this district. Gov. Collier having exceeded his authority by exercising judicial functions, was deposed by Andros, and Capt. Christopher Billop was appointed to succeed him. But the change resulted in little benefit to the colony; for Billop was charged with many irregularities, "taking possession of the fort and turning it into a stable, and the court room above into a hay and fodder loft; debarring the court from sitting in its usual place in the fort, and making use of soldiers for his own private purposes."

The hand of the English Government bore heavily upon the denomination of Christians called Friends or Quakers, and the earnest-minded, conscientious worshipers, uncompromising in their faith, were eager for homes in a land where they should be absolutely free to worship the Supreme Being. Berke- ley and Carteret, who had bought New Jersey, were Friends, and the settle- ments made in their territory were largely of that faith. In 1675, Lord Ber- keley cold his undivided half of the province to John Fenwicke, in trust for Edward Byllinge, also Quakers, and Fenwicke sailed in the Griffith, with a company of Friends who settled at Salem, in West Jersey. Byllinge, having

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

become involved in debt, made an assignment of his interest for the benefit of his creditors, and William Penn was induced to become trustee jointly with Gowen Lawrie and Nicholas Lucas. Penn was a devoted Quaker, and he was of that earnest nature that the interests of his friends and Christian devotees were like his own personal interests. Hence he became zealous in promoting the welfare of the colony. For its orderly government, and that settlers might have assurance of stability in the management of affairs, Penn drew up " Con- cessions and agreements of the proprietors, freeholders and inhabitants of West New Jersey in America" in forty-four chapters. Foreseeing difficulty from divided authority, Penn secured a division of the province by " a line of par- tition from the east side of Little Egg Harbor, straight north, through the country to the utmost branch of the Delaware River." Penn's half was called New West Jersey, along the Delaware side, Carteret's New East Jersey along the ocean shore. Penn's purposes and disposition toward the settlers, as the founder of a State, are disclosed by a letter which he wrote 'at this time to a Friend, Richard Hartshorn, then in America: "We lay a foundation for after ages to understand their liberty, as men and Christians; that they may not be brought into bondage, but by their own consent; for we put the power in the people. * * So every man is capable to choose or to be chosen; no man to be arrested, condemned, or molested, in his estate, or liberty, but by twelve men of the neighborhood; no man to lie in prison for debt, but that his estate satisfy, as far as it will go, and he be set at liberty to work; no man to be called in question, or molested for his conscience." Lest any should be in- duced to leave home and embark in the enterprise of settlement unadvisedly, Penn wrote and published a letter of caution, "That in whomsoever a desire to be concerned in this intended plantation, such would weigh the thing before the Lord, and not headily, or rashly, conclude on any such remove, and that they do not offer violence to the tender love of their near kindred and relations, but soberly, and conscientiously endeavor to obtain their good wills; that whether they go or stay, it may be of good savor before the Lord and good people."

CHAPTER V.

SIR EDMUND ANDROS, 1674-81-EDMUND CANTWELL, 1674-76-JOHN COLLIER, 1676- 77-CHRISTOPHER BILLOP, 1677-81.

W ILLIAM PENN, as Trustee, and finally as part owner of New Jersey, became much interested in the subject of colonization in America. Many of his people had gone thither, and he had given much prayerful study and meditation to the amelioration of their condition by securing just laws for their government. His imagination pictured the fortunate condition of a State where the law-giver should alone study the happiness of his subjects, and his subjects should be chiefly intent on rendering implicit obedience to just laws. From his experience in the management of the Jerseys, he had doubtless discovered that if he would carry out his ideas of government suc- cessfully, he must have a province where his voice would be potential and bis will supreme. He accordingly cast about for the acquirement of such a land in the New World.

Penn had doubtless been stimulated in his desires by the very roseate ac- counts of the beauty and excellence of the country, its salubrity of climate, its

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

balmy airs, the fertility of its soil, and the abundance of the native fish, flesh and fowl. In 1680, one Malhon Stacy wrote a letter which was largely circu- lated in England, in which he says: "It is a country that produceth all things for the support and furtherance of man, in a plentiful manner. * I * have seen orchards laden with fruit to admiration; their very limbs torn to pieces with weight, most delicious to the taste, and lovely to behold. I have seen an apple tree, from a pippin-kernel, yield a barrel of curious cider; and peaches in such plenty that some people took their carts a peach gathering; I could not hut smile at the conceit of it; they are very delicious fruit, and hang almost like our onions, that are tied on ropes. I have seen and know, this summer, forty bushels of bold wheat of one bushel sown. From May till Michaelmas, great store of very good wild fruits as strawberries, cranberries and hurtleberries, which are like our billberries in England, only far sweeter; the cranberries, much like cherries for color and bigness, which may be kept till fruit comes again; an excellent sauce is made of them for venison, turkeys, and other great fowl, and they are better to make tarts of than either gooscberries or cherries; we have them brought to our houses by the Indians in great plenty. My brother Robert had as many cherries this year as would have loaded several carts. As for venison and fowls, we have great plenty; we have brought home to our countries by the Indians, seven or eight fat bucks We went into the river to catch herrings after the Indian fashion.

in a day.

* * * We could have filled a three-bushel sack of as good large herrings as ever I saw. And as to beef and pork, here is great plenty of it, and good sheep. The common grass of this country feeds beef very fat. Indeed, the country, take it as a wilderness, is a brave country."

The father of William Penn had arisen to distinction in the British Navy. He was sent in Cromwell's time, with a considerable sea and land force, to the West Indies, where he reduced the Island of Jamaica under English rule. At the restoration, he gave in his adhesion to the royal cause. Under James, Duke of York, Admiral Penn commanded the English fleet which descended upon the Dutch coast, and gained a great victory over the combined naval forces led by Van Opdam. For this great service to his country, Penn was knighted, and became a favorite at court, the King and his brothor, the Duke, holding him in cherished remembrance. At his death, there was due him from the crown the sum of £16,000, a portion of which he himself had ad- vanced for the sea service. Filled with the romantic idea of colonization, and enamored with the sacred cause of his people, the son, who had come to be re- garded with favor for his great father's sake, petitioned King Charles II to grant him, in liquidation of this debt, "a tract of land in America, lying north of Maryland, bounded east by the Delaware River, on the west limited as Maryland, and northward to extend as far as plantable." There were con- flicting interests at this time which were being warily watched at court. The petition was submitted to the Privy Council, and afterward to the Lords of the committee of plantations. The Duke of York already held the counties of New Castle, Kent and Sussex. Lord Baltimore held a grant upon the south, with an indefinite northern limit, and the agents of both these territories viewed with a jealous eye any new grant that should in any way trench upon their rights. These claims were fully debated and heard by the Lords, and, being a matter in which the King manifested special interest, the Lord Chief Justice, North, and the Attorney General, Sir William Jones, were consulted both as to the grant itself, and the form or manner of making it. Finally, after a careful study of the whole subject, it was determined by the highest authority in the Government to grant to Penn a larger tract than he had asked

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

for, and the charter was drawn with unexampled liberality, in unequivocal terms of gift and perpetuity of holding, and with remarkable minuteness of detail, and that Penn should have the advantage of any double meaning con- veyed in the instrument, the twenty-third and last section provides: "And, if perchance hereafter any doubt or question should arise concerning the true sense and meaning of any word, clause or sentence contained in this our present charter, we will ordain and command that at all times and in all things such interpretation be made thereof, and allowed in any of our courts whatsoever as shall be adjudged most advantageous and favorable unto the said William Penn, his heirs and assigns."

It was a joyful day for Penn when he finally reached the consummation of his wishes, and saw himself invested with almost dictatorial power over & country as large as England itself, destined to become a populous empire. But his exultation was tempered with the most devout Christian spirit, fearful lest in the exercise of his great power he might be led to do something that. should be displeasing to God. To his dear friend, Robert Turner, he writes. iu a modest way: "My true love in the Lord salutes thee and dear friends that love the Lord's precious truth in those parts. Thine I have, and for my business here know that after many waitings, watchings, solicitings and dis- putes in council, this day my country was confirmed to me under the great seal of England, with large powers and privileges, by the name of Pennsylvania, a name the King would give it in honor of my father. I chose New Wales, be- ing, as this, a pretty hilly country; but Penn being Welsh for a head, as Pen- manmoire in Wales, and Penrith in Cumberland, and Penn in Buckingham- shire, the highest land in England, called this Pennsylvania, which is the high or head woodlands; for I proposed, when the Secretary, a Welshman, refused to have it called New Wales, Sylvania, and they added Penn to it; and though I much opposed it, and went to the King to have it struck out and altered, he said it was past, and would take it upon him; nor could twenty guineas move the Under Secretary to vary the name; for I feared lest it should be looked on as a vanity in me, and not as a respect in the King, as it truly was to my father, whom he often mentions with praise. Thou mayest communicate my grant to Friends, and expect shortly my proposals. It is a clear and just thing, and my God, that has given it me through many difficulties, will, I be- lieve, bless and make it the seed of a nation. I shall have a tender care to the government, that it be well laid at first."

Penn had asked that the western boundary should be the same as that of Maryland; but the King made the width from east to west five full degrees. The charter limits were " all that tract, or part, of land, in America, with the islands therein contained as the same is bounded, on the east by Delaware River, from twelve miles distance northwards of New Castle town, unto the * * three and fortieth degree of northern latitude. * *

The said land to extend westward five degrees in longitude, to be computed from the said eastern bounds; and the said lands to be bounded on the north by the beginning of the three and fortieth degree of northern latitude, and, on the south, by a circle drawn at twelve miles distance from New Castle northward and westward unto the beginning of the fortieth degree of northern latitude; and then by a straight line westward to the limits of longitude above mentioned."

It is evident that the royal secretaries did not well understand the geogra- phy of this section, for by reference to a map it will be seen that the begin- ning of the fortieth degree, that is, the end of the thirty-ninth, cuts the District of Columbia, and hence Baltimore, and the greater part of Maryland

HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

and a good slice of Virginia would have been included in the clear terms of tho chartered limits of Pennsylvania. But the charters of Maryland and Vir- ginia antedated this of Pennsylvania. Still, the terms of the Penn charter were distinct, the beginning of the fortieth degree, whereas those of Maryland were ambiguous, the northern limit being fixed at the fortieth degree; but whether at the beginning or at the ending of the fortieth was not stated. Penn claimed three full degrees of latitude, and when it was found that a contro- versy was likely to ensue, the King, by the hand of his royal minister, Con- way, issued a further declaration, dated at Whitehall, April 2, 1681, in which . . the wording of the original chartered limits fixed for Pennsylvania were quoted verbatim, and his royal pleasure declared that these limits should be respected "as they tender his majesty's displeasure." This was supposed to settle the matter. But Lord Baltimore still pressed his claim, and the ques- tion of southern boundary remained an open one, causing much disquietude to Penn, requiring watchful care at court for more than half a century, and until after the proprietor's death.

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History of Erie county, Pennsylvania. Containing a history of the county; its townships, towns, villages schools, churches, industries, etc, Part 7

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902; Whitman, Benjamin, 1940-; Russell, N. W. (Nathaniel Willard); Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Weakley, F. E; Warner, Beers & Co. (Chicago, Ill.) Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago : Warner, Beers & co. Number of Pages: 1280

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902; Whitman, Benjamin, 1940-; Russell, N. W. (Nathaniel Willard); Brown, R. C. (Robert C.); Weakley, F. E; Warner, Beers & Co. (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago : Warner, Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 1280