History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 23

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534

USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania > Part 23

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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

William Penn was now in his twenty-fourth year, and fearless in the advocacy of the principles he cherished ; as a public speaker and author, he an- nounced to princes, priests, and people that " he 1 was one of the despised, afflicted, and forsaken Qua- kers, and repairing to court with his hat on, he sought to engage the Duke of Buckingham in favor of liberty of conscience, claimed from those in au- thority better quarters for Dissenters than stocks and whips and dungeons and banishments, and was urging the cause of freedom with importunity, when he himself, in the heyday of youth, was consigned to a long and close imprisonment in the Tower. His offense was heresy ; the Bishop of London menaced him with imprisonment for life unless he would re- cant. ' My prison shall be my grave,' answered Penn. The kind-hearted Charles II. sent the humane and candid Stillingfleet to calm the young enthusiast. ' The Tower,' such was Penn's message to the king, 'is to me the worst argument in the world.' In vain did Stillingfleet urge the motive of royal favor and preferment; the inflexible young man demanded freedom of Arlington, 'as the natural privilege of an Englishman.' Club-law, he argued with the minis- ter, may make hypocrites; it can never make con- verts. Conscience needs no mark of public allowance. It is not like a bale of goods that is to be forfeited un- less it has the stamp of the custom-house. After losing his freedom for about nine months, his prison-door was opened by the intercession of his father's friend, the Duke of York ; for his constancy had commanded the respect and recovered the favor of his father. The Quakers, exposed to judicial tyranny, were led by the sentiment of humanity to find a barrier against their oppressors by narrowing the application of the com- mon law and restricting the right of judgment to the jury. Scarcely had Penn been at liberty a year when, after the intense intolerance of ' the Conventicle Act,' he was arraigned for having spoken at a Quaker meet- ing. 'Not all the powers on earth shall divert us from meeting to adore our God who made us.' Thus did the young man of five-and-twenty defy the Eng- lish Legislature, and he demanded on what law the indictment was founded. 'On the common law,' answered the recorder. 'Where is that law ?' de- manded Penn. 'The law which is not in being, far from being common, is no law at all.' Amidst angry exclamations and menaces he proceeded to plead earnestly for the fundamental laws of England, and as he was hurried out of court still reminded the jury that ' they were his judges.' Dissatisfied with the first verdict returned, the recorder heaped upon the jury every opprobrious epithet. 'We will have a verdict, by the help of God, or you shall starve for it!' 'You are Englishmen,' said Penn, who had been again brought to the bar, 'mind your privilege, give not away your right.' 'It never will be well

with us,' said the recorder, 'till something like the Spanish Inquisition be in England.' At last the jury, who had received no refreshments for two days and two nights, on the third day gave their verdict, 'Not guilty.' The recorder fined them forty marks apiece for their independence, and amercing Penn for contempt of court, sent him back to prison."

The trial was an era in judicial history. The fines were soon afterwards discharged by his father, who was now approaching his end. "Son William," said the dying admiral, "if you and your friends keep to your plain way of preaching and living, you will make an end of the priests." Inheriting a large for- tune, he continued to defend publicly from the press the principles of intellectual liberty and moral equal- ity ; he remonstrated in unmeasured terms against the bigotry and intolerance, "the hellish darkness and debauchery" of the University of Oxford; he exposed the errors of the Roman Catholic Church, and in the same breath pleaded for a toleration of their worship; and never fearing openly to address a Quaker meeting, he was soon on the road to New- gate, to suffer for his honesty by a six months' im- prisonment. "You are an ingenious gentleman," said the magistrate at the trial, "yon have a plenti- ful estate, why should you render yourself unhappy by associating with such a simple people ?" "I prefer," said Penn, " the honestly simple to the ingeniously wicked." The magistrate rejoined by charging Penn with previous immoralities. The young man, with passionate vehemence, vindicated the spotlessness of his life. "I speak this," he adds, "to God's glory, who has ever preserved me from the power of these pollutions, and who from a child begot a hatred in me towards them. Thy words shall be thy burden. I trample thy slander as dirt under my feet!" From Newgate Penn addressed Parliament and the nation in the noblest plea for liberty of conscience, a liberty which he defended by arguments drawn from experi- ence, from religion, and from reason. If the efforts of the Quakers cannot obtain "the olive-branch of toleration, we bless the providence of God, resolving by patience to outweary persecution, and by our con- stant sufferings to obtain a victory more glorious than our adversaries can achieve by their cruelties." On his release from imprisonment a calmer season fol- lowed. Penn traveled in Holland and Germany, then returning to England, he married a woman of extraordinary beauty and sweetness of temper, whose noble spirit "chose him before many suitors," and honored him with "a deep and upright love." As persecution in England was suspended, he enjoyed for two years the delights of rural life and the ani- mating pursuit of letters, till the storm was renewed, and the imprisonment of George Fox on his return from America demanded intercession. What need of narrating the severities which, like a slow poison, brought the prisoner to the borders of the grave? Why enumerate the atrocities of petty tyrants in-

1 Bancroft's Hist. U. S., vol. i. p. 114.

WILLIAM PENN.

vested with village magistracies, the ferocious pas- sions of irresponsible jailers? The statute book of England contains the clearest impress of the bigotry which a national church could foster and a parliament avow; and Penn, in considering England's present interest, far from resting his appeal on the sentiment of mercy, merited the highest honors of a statesman by the profound sagacity and unbiased judgment with which he unfolded the question of the rights of con- science in its connection with the peace and happi- ness of the state. It was this love of freedom of conscience which gave interest to his exertions for New Jersey.

The summer and autumn after the first considerable Quaker emigration to the eastern bank of the Dela- ware, George Fox and William Penn and Robert Barclay, with others, embarked for Holland to evan- gelize the continent, and Barclay and Penn went to and fro in Germany, from the Weser to the Main, the Rhine and the Neckar, distributing tracts, dis- coursing with men of every sect and every rank, preaching in palaces and among the peasants, rebnk- ing every attempt to enthrall the mind, and sending reproofs to kings and magistrates, to the princes and lawyers of all Christendom. The soul of William Penn was transported into fervors of devotion, and in the ecstasies of enthusiasm he explained "the universal principle" at Herford, in the court of the Princess Palatine, and to the few Quaker converts among the peasantry of Kirchheim. To the peas- antry of the highlands near Worms the visit of William Penn was an event never to be forgotten. The opportunity of observing the aristocratic institu- tions of Holland and the free commercial cities of Germany was valnable to a statesman. On his re- turn to England the new sufferings of the Quakers excited a direct appeal to the English Parliament. The special law against papists was turned against thie Qnakers. Penn explained the difference between his society and the papists, and yet, at a season when Protestant bigotry was become a frenzy, he appeared before a committee of the House of Commons to plead for universal liberty of conscience. "We must give the liberty we ask,"-such was the sublime language of the Quakers,-" we cannot be false to our princi- ples though it were to relieve ourselves, for we would have none to suffer for dissent on any hand." Wil- liam Penn was an enthusiast with a benevolent heart ; he despised the profligacy of the church that nnited the unholy offices of a subtle priestcraft with the despotic power of a warlike state. His study of English law intensified his love of tolerance and in- spired him with the hope of liberalizing the govern- ment that had persecuted him; as late as 1679 he took a prominent part in the elections for that year. He was a persuasive speaker, and met with generous receptions in a canvass made especially in the interest of Algernon Sydney, who, he said, was now "em- barked with those that did seek, love, and choose the

best things." He grew eloquent before the electors of England, invoking them to a consciousness of their own strength and authority. "Your well-being," he said, "depends upon your preservation of your rights in the government. You are free! God and nature and the constitution have made you trustees for pos- terity. Choose men who will by all just ways firmly keep and zealously promote your power." But the truly Christian patriot was doomed to bitter disap- pointment when confronted with the defeat of his favorite and the popular will by false and perverted election returns. It was in this discouraging period of his noble manhood that he conceived of the " Holy Experiment" and a " frec colony for all mankind."

The possibilities of the North American continent, and especially that portion watered by the Delaware 1

1 But the Proprietors of Western New Jersey being of the people called Quakers, their part of the province consequently, through their influence, became settled principally by the sadie kind of people; but to prevent any of their religious society from rashly or inadvertently re- moving into this new country, or without due consideration, and contrary to the mind of their parents and dearest relatives, three of the princi- pal persons among the Proprietors, viz., W. Peoo, G. Lawrie, and N. Lucas, wrote an epistle of caution to their friends, the Quakers, which, as it further shows their rights to this part of the province, the care of that people over one another at that time, and their concern for ao or- derly settlement io it, that none might be deceived and have occasion lo repent of such an important undertaking, is not unworthy of the pe- rusal of the posterity and descendants of those early adventurers, set- tlers, and cultivators of the conotry. The epistle was as follows, viz. :

"DEAR FRIENDS AND BRETHREN : In the pure love and precioue fellow- ship of our Lord Jesus Christ we very dearly salute you, forasmuch as there was a paper printed several months ago, entitled 'The description of New-West-Jersey,' in which our names were mentioned, as Trustees for one uodivided moiety of the said province, and because it is alleged that some, partly oo thie account, and others appreliendiog that the paper, by the manoer of its expression, came from the body of Friends ae a religions society of people, and uot froos particulars, have, through these mistakes, weakly concluded that the said description, io matter and form, might be writ, printed, and recommended on purpose to prompt and allure people to dissettle aud plant themselves, as it is also hy soole alleged, and because we are informed that several have, on that account, taken encouragement and resolution to transplant themselves and fani- ilies to that province ; and lest any of them (as is feared hy some) should go out of a curions and nusettled miod, and others to shut tbe testimony of the blessed Cross of Jesus, of which several weighty friends have a godly jealousy upon their spirits, lest ao nowarrantable forwardness should act or hurry any beside or beyond the wisdom or counsel of the Lord, or tho freedom of his light and spirit in their own hearte, and not upon good and weighty grounds; it truly laid upon us to let friends know how the matter stands, which we shall endeavor to do with all clearoess and fidelity.

"1. That there ie such a place as New Jersey is certain.

"2. That it is reputed of those who have lived and traveled in that country to be wholesome of air and fruitful of soil, and capable of sea- trade, is also certain, and it is not right io any to despise it or dissuade those that find freedom from the Lord and necessity put npoo them on going.

"3. That the Duke of York sold it to those called Lord Berkeley, Baron of Stratton, and Sir George Carteret, equally to be divided hetween them, is also certain.

" 4. One moiety, or half part, of the said province, being the right of the Lord Berkeley, was sold by him to Joho Fenwicke, in trust for Ed- ward Byllinge and his assigne.

"5. Forasmuch as Edward Billinge (after William Peon had ended the difference between E. Byllinge and J. Fenwicke) wae willing to present his interest in the said province to bie creditors, ae all that he had left him, towards their satisfaction, he desired W. Penn (though every way uaconcerned' and Gawen Lawie and Nicholas Lucas, two of his cred- · itors, to be trustees for performance of the same, and because several of

HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.

and its confluents, were well known to him and his associates, resulting in some measure from his official connection with the settlement of " West New Jer- sey" and the division of that province in the year

his creditors particularly and very importunately pressed W. Penn to ac- cept of the trust, for their sakes and security we did all of us comply with these and the like requests and accepted of the trust.

" 6. Upon this we became trustees for oue mnviety of the said province, yet uudivided, aud efter no longer labor, trouble, and costa division was obtained between the said Sir George Carteret aod us, as trustees ; the conutry is situated and bounded as is expressed in the printed descrip- tion.

"7. This now divided moiety is to be cast into one hundred parts, lots, or proprietaries, ten of which, upon the agreement made betwixt E. Bellinge and J. Feowick, his exsentors and assigns, with a consider- able enm of money by way of satisfaction, for what he became con- cerned in the purchase from the said Lord Berkeley, and by him after- wards couveyed to John Edridge and Edmond Warner, their beirs and assigns.

"8. The ninety parts remaining are exposed to sale, on behalf of the creditors of the said Edward Byllinge, And forasminch several friends are concerned ae creditors, as well as others, and the disposal of eo great a part of this country being in our hands, we did in real tenderness and regard to frienda, and especially to the poor and necessitous, make friends the first offer ; that if any of them, though particularly those, who being low iu the world, and under trials about a comfortable livelihood for themselves and families, should be desirous of dealing for any part or parcel thereof, that they might have the refusal.

"9. This was the real and honest intent of our hearts, and not to prompt or allure any out of their places, either by the credit our names might have with our people throughout the nation, or by representing the thing otherwise than it is in itself.

" Aa to the printed paper, some time since set forth by the creditors aa a description of that province, we say, as to two passages init, they are not so clearly and safely worded as ought to have been ; particularly in seeming to hint, the Winter season to be ao short a time ; when, on further information, we hear it is sometimes longer, and sometimee shorter, than therein expressed ; and that the last clause, relating to liberty of conscience, we would not have any to think that it is prom- ised or intended to maintain the liberty of the exercise of religion by force of arms, though we shall never consent to any the least violence on conscience ; yet it was never designed to enconrage any to expect by force of arma to bave liberty of conscience fenced against invadere thereof.

"And be it known unto you all in the name and fear of Almighty God, his Glory and Honor, Power and Wisdom, Truth and Kingdom, is dearer to us than all visible things ; and as our eye has been single, and our hearts sincere in the living God in this as in other things, so we desire all, whom it may concern, that all groundless jealousies may be judged down, and watched againet; and that all extremes may be avoided, on all hands, by the power of the Lord; that nothing which hurta or grieves the holy life of truth in any that goes or stays, may be adhered to, nor any provocation given to break precious unity.

" This am I, William Penn, moved of the Lord to write unto you, lest any bring a temptation upon themselves or others ; and, in offending the Lord, alay their own peace. Blessed are they that can see and behold them their Leader, their Orderer, their Conductor, and Preserver in going and staying ; whose is the earth and the fullness thereof, and the cattle upon a thousand hills; and, as we formerly writ, we cannot but repeat our request unto you that, iu whomsoever a desire is to be con- cerned in this intended plantation, euch 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; the unity of friends where they live, that whether they go or stay it may be of good favor before the Lord and good people, from whom only can all heavenly and earthly blessings come.

"This we thought good to write for the preventing all misunderstand- iogs, and to declare the real truth of the matter, and so we recommend you all to the Lord, who is the watchman of his Israel. We are your real friends and brethren.

" WILLIAM PENN,

" GAWEN LAWRIE,

"' NICHOLAS LUCAS."

1676.1 No preparation could have more thoroughly fitted Penn for the subsequent work of his life than his experience up to 1680-81. Checkmated and re- pulsed in his efforts of reform by the brutal element

1 In 1675, when his disgust with European society and his conscious- ness of the impossibility to effect radical reform there had been con- firmed and deepened, Penn became permanently identified with Amer- ican colonial affairs, and was put in the best possible position for acquiring a full and accurate knowledge of the resources aud possibili- ties of the country between the Susquehanna and the Hudson. This, which Mr. Janney calls "an instance in which Divice Providence seemed to open for him a field of labors to which he was eminently adapted," arose ont of the fact of his being chosen as arbitrator in the disputes growing out of the partition of the West Jersey landa. Aa has already been stated, on March 12, 1664, King Charles II. granted to his brother Janes, Duke of York and Albany, a patent for all the lande in New England from the St. Croix River to the Delaware. This patent, meant to lead directly up to the overthrow of the Dutch power in New Netherland, was probably also intended no less as a hostile demonstra- tion against the New England Puritan colonies, which both the brothers hated cordially, and which latterly had grown so independent and had 80 nearly established their own autonomy as to provoke more than one charge that they sought presently tu abandon all allegiance dne from them to the mother-country. At any rate, the New England colonies at once attempted to organize themselves into a confederacy for pur- poses of mutual defense against the Indians and Canadiso French, as was alleged, but for divers other and weighty reasons, as many colonists did not hesitate to proclaim). The Duke of York secured New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware to himself as bis own private possessione. That part of New Netherland lying between the Hudson and the Dela- ware Rivere was forthwith (in 1664, before Nicalls sailed from Ports- mouth to take New York ) conveyed by the duke, by deeds of lease and release, to John Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. The latter being governor of the Channel Islands at the time, the new colony was called New Jersey, or rather Nova Cæsarea, in the original grant. In 1675, Lord Berkeley sold for one thousand pounds his nndivided half- share iu New Jersey to John Fenwick, in trust for Edward Billinge and bis assigns. Fenwick and Billinge were both Quakers, and Billinge was bankrupt. Not long after this conveyance Fenwick and Billinge fell ont ahont the property, and, after the custom of the Friends, the dispute wae submitted to arbitration. The disputanta fixed upon William Peun as arbitrator. When he made bis award, Fenwick was not satisfied and refused to abide hy Penn'e decision, which, indeed, gave Fenwick only a tentli of Lord Berkeley's share in the joint teoancy, reserving the re- maining nine-tenths to Billinge, but giving Fenwick a money payment besides. Penn was offended at Fenwick's recalcitrancy, and wrote him some sharp letters. " Thy days spend on," he said, "and make the best of what thou hast. Thy grandchildren may he in the other world be- fore the land thou hast allotted will be employed." Penn atuck to his decision, and, for that matter, Fenwick likewise maintained his grier- ance. He smiled for the Delaware at the head of a colony, landed at Salem, N. J., and commenced a settlement. Here he carried matters with such a high hand, patenting land, distributing office, etc., that he made great trouble for himself and others also. Ilis authority was not recognized, and for several years the name of Maj. John Fenwick fille a large place in the court records of Upland and New York, where he was frequently imprisoned aod sued for damages by many jujured per- sona.

Billioge's business embarrassments increasing, he mads over hie interest in the territory to his creditors, appointing Penn, with Gawen Lawrie, of London, and Nicholas Lucas, of Hertford, two of the cred- itors, sa trustees in the matter. The plan was not to sell, but improve the property for the benefit of the creditors. To this end a partition of the province was made, a line heing drawn through Little Egg Harbor to a point where Port Jervis now is. The part of the province on the right of this line, called East New Jersey, the most settled portion of the territory, was assigned to Carteret. That on the left, West New Jer- aey, was deeded to Billinge's trustees. A form of government was at once established for West Jersey, in which Penn's haud is distinctly seen. The basis was liberty of person aod conscience, "the power iu the people," local self-government, and amelioration of the criminal code. The territory was next divided into one hundred parts, ten being assigned to Fenwick and ninety to Billinge's trustees, and the land was opened for sale und occupancy, being extensively advertised and

WILLIAM PENN.

always conspicuous in British politics, he accepted the consequences of defeat, and faced the religious bigotry and tyrannical statecraft of the period with manly courage and unbroken will; thenceforth, de- spairing of success in his native land, he addressed his energies to the establishment of a free govern- ment in the New World. England's unfriendly his- torians have never borne willing testimony to the merits of the distinguished colonist who left her shores under the favor of Charles II. in 1682, but it is in pleasing contrast to know that American commentators pay deserved tribute to the founder of the Keystone State, and among them none more truthfully and impartially than Bancroft.

" Possessing an extraordinary greatness of mind, vast conceptions remarkable for their universality and precision, and ' surpassing in speci lative endow- ments,' conversant with men and books and govern- ments, with various languages, and the forms of political combinations as they existed in England and France, in Holland and the principalities and free cities of Germany, he yet sought the source of wisdom in his own soul. Humane by nature and by suffering, familiar with the royal family, intimate with Sunderland and Sydney, acquainted with Rus- sell, Halifax, Shaftesbury, and Buckingham, as a member of the Royal Society the peer of Newton and the great scholars of his age, he valued the prompt- ings of a free mind above the awards of the learned, and reverenced the single-minded sincerity of the Nottingham shepherd more than the authority of colleges and the wisdom of philosophers; and now, being in the meridian of life, but a year older than was Locke when, twelve years before, he had framed a constitution for Carolina, the Quaker legislator was come to the New World to lay the foundations of States. Would he imitate the valued system of the great philosopher ?

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History of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, Part 23

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck Number of Pages: 1534

Author: Bean, Theodore Weber, 1833-1891, [from old catalog] ed; Buck, William J. (William Joseph), 1825-1901
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Peck
Number of Pages: 1534