USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania, colonial and federal : a history, 1608-1903, Volume One > Part 23
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county ), were appointed by the Crown of Sweden until long after the American Revolution, when the vestries began calling presby- ters of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America. There was no congregation of the Church of Eng-
White feld
Clergyman; orator; born 1714; died 1770. From an old engraving
land within the limits of Pennsylvania, notwithstanding the stip- ulation in the charter for allowing such, until 1695; nor of the Presbyterians until later. Outside of the Swedes there was for a long time no ecclesiastical organization but the Society of Friends. The colony may be said to have been composed of its members. Their theology, except when following the Apology of Robert Barclay, was rather latitudinarian, while their demeanor
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was most precise. The laws of William Penn, while mild in the penalties, were decidedly "blue" in the prohibitions. The respect due to magistrates was insisted upon to the point of forbidding a word of criticism. With some feeling of gratitude to Penn, there was a strong sense of equality. A body of husbandmen and mechanics, one or two merchants, and a few school teachers and apothecaries, were establishing an Utopia away from the pomps and vanities, tyranny and injustice of the world. The persons who might claim to be the patricians of the new province were Penn's kindred and connections and his father's companions in arms, but when, in after years, something like a local aristocracy took shape, it was not made up of the descendants of these, and, too, it was not Quaker.
By birth, education, and service with suffering in the cause of the Quaker religion, Thomas Lloyd had a prominence among the settlers next to Penn and Markham, and soon after arriving was appointed Master of the Rolls, and on the Ioth of I mo., 1683-4. was elected a Provincial Councillor. Markham was already in England upon Penn's business when, in August, 1684, Penn, desirous of using his influence at Court to stop the persecution of the Quakers, left the province, commissioning the the Council to act in his stead, with Lloyd as President. He also appointed Lloyd Keeper of the Great Seal, and Lloyd, Robert Turner, and James Claypoole (brother of John Claypoole, who married Oliver Cromwell's daughter), Commissioners of Prop- erty, to grant warrants for surveying land, and to issue patents on the survey being duly made and returned. These commis- sioners acted only two years.
The Colony witnessed an impeachment trial as early as May, 1685. The Assembly presented a declaration against Nicholas Moore, who had been appointed prior or first judge of the Pro- vincial Court, and was also a member of Assembly ; that he, among other offenses, assuming "an unlimited and arbitrary power be- yond the prescription or laws of this government had presumed"
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to appoint the time of the provincial circuits without the direction of the Provincial Council, whereby the several counties were sur- prised by the short notice, and juries, witnesses, etc., could not be duly summoned ; that he had refused to receive a verdict, and sent back a jury with threats many times, until they brought in a different verdict ; that in a civil action for trover and conversion he gave judgment of felony, and condemned the defendant to be whipped ; that he by perverting the sense of a witness condemned him for perjury, and fined him, and by proclamation rendered him incapable of being rectus in Curia; that he censured in open court the decisions of preceding judges; that he reversed the judgment of county justices in a matter not regularly before him ; that he declined going to the two lower circuits, although the law obliged the judges to go spring and fall; and that he declared that he was not accountable to the President and Provincial Coun- cil, by despising their orders and precepts : therefore, the Assembly prayed his removal. This declaration, Patrick Robinson said, was drawn "at hab nab;" so the Assembly deemed itself insulted, and in a body complained to the Council, which unanimously de- clared the expression "indecent, unallowable, and to be dis- owned!" The managers of the impeachment, in proof of the first charge against Moore, showed that the sheriff of Chester county had only five days time to get the freemen to court. In regard to sending back a jury, the jury had given £8 to the plaintiff, whose declaration was for £500; Moore, who was a doctor, not a lawyer, thereupon said,"What is £8 in comparison of £500? find according to evidence or you are all perjured." So the jury went out, and the next day found for the defendant with costs! It rather seems as if Moore overreached himself. The witness con- victed of perjury was John Harrison. Moore asked him what he knew concerning the taking of a hog. Harrison said he knew nothing of the taking of it, for he was in Philadelphia. Moore, after several other questions, asked if he had seen or eaten any of it. He said he had both seen and eaten. Moore told the jury that this
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was perjury. Moore had called the Provincial Council fools and loggerheads, and said it were well if all the laws had dropped, and there would never be good times as long as Quakers had the administration. Before Moore's impeachment trial was finished he was very ill, and a new set of Provincial Judges were com- missioned.
Whitefield House or Nazareth Stockade
George Whitefield commenced the erection of this building in 1741, to be used as a Methodist school for negroes; the same year he sold the unfinished building to Bishop Spangenberg of the Moravian church. In 1743 work was re- sumed and the building finished. From a sketch made especially for this work.
Lloyd, desiring to be relieved of office, the government by the Council was terminated on 12 mo. 9, 1687-8, when there was re- ceived from Penn a commission to five persons, Lloyd, Turner, John Simcock. Arthur Cook, and John Eckley to exercise the powers of a deputy-governor. This arrangement lasted about ten months. Penn offered the lieutenant-governorship again to
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Lloyd, but he refused, and, no other Quaker fit for it being willing to accept, Penn conferred it upon Capt. John Blackwell, then in New England, who had been treasurer of the army in the time of the Commonwealth, a man of high reputation for integrity, who had refused a great office in Ireland under Charles II and James II because it depended upon perquisites. He was a Puri- tan, and had married a daughter of General Lambert. Nathan- iel Mather ( Mass. Hist. Coll.) wrote of him in 1684, "For serious reall piety & nobleness of spirit, prudence, etc., I have not been acquainted with many that equall him." He arrived December 17, 1688, his first act, strange to say, being the setting apart of a day "for solemn thanksgiving to Almighty God for His inesti- mable blessing to his Majesty's kingdoms and dominions by the birth of a Prince" (James II's unfortunate son, who had come so unwelcome to Protestant England that his parentage was im- pugned).
Loyd, still Keeper of the Great Seal and Master of the Rolls, was very troublesome to Blackwell throughout his whole term of office. First, he refused to pass certain commissions under the seal. Afterwards, as he was going to New York, he was requested to leave the seal with the Council, that public business might not be obstructed, but he declined, declaring it out of its power to deprive a man of an office which he held for life. He refused to hand over the official communications received during his presidency, although the Council resolved that all letters of in- struction should be delivered to the secretary, and such parts of other letters as gave any instructions should be copied for public use. He refused to seal the commission for a Provincial Court, declaring the document "more moulded by fancy than formed by law." Moreover, he undertook to appoint as Clerk of the Peace, David Lloyd, whom the Lieutenant-Governor and Council had just suspended for refusing to produce papers. In March, 1689, Thomas Lloyd was by Bucks county again elected a mem- ber of the Council, but the Lieutenant-Governor proposed articles
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of impeachment. The councillors objecting to take part in this measure, Blackwell adjourned that meeting. But when they next inet, Lloyd very coolly entered the room, saying that he had come to take his place. The Governor said there was nothing expected of him until he answered the charges. Lloyd replied that he had as good a right to sit there as the Governor had to be Governor. As he refused to withdraw, Blackwell adjourned to his own lodgings, ordering the members to follow him. Some staid to fight it out with Lloyd; but such were the "sharp and unsavory expressions" used by the latter that Markham, the secretary, induced the Governor to return. Lloyd was again commanded to depart, and the other members followed Black- well. A similar scene was enacted at a subsequent meeting.
Blackwell was continuously opposed by the most important Quakers, to the chagrin of William Penn, who had thought that the high character of Blackwell would make his government sat- isfactory to Friends, while his not being of that sect would leave him free to obey the Crown. Penn wrote to Blackwell on 7 mo. 25, 1689 : "I would be as little vigorous as possible; and do desire thee, by all the obligation I and my present circumstances can have upon thee to desist ye prosecution of T. L. I entirely know ye person both in his weakness and accomplishment, and would thee end ye dispute between you two upon my single request and command and that former inconveniences be rather mended than punished. Salute me to ye people in generall, pray send for J. Simcock, A. Cook, John Eckley, and Samuel Carpenter, and let them dispose T. L. and Sa. Richardson to that complying temper that may tend to that loving and serious accord yt becomes such a government."
In November, 1689, Blackwell received a letter from the Earl of Shrewsbury, dated April 13, announcing that war with France was expected, and directing that care be taken for opposing any attempt upon Pennsylvania. On this being read to the councillors, half of whom were Quakers, Simcock said, "I see no danger but
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from bears and wolves. We are well and in peace and quiet. Let us keep ourselves so. I know not but a peaceable spirit, and that will do well. For my part, I am against it clearly, and Gov- ernor, if we refuse to do it, thou wilt be excused." Griffith Jones asked that they wait a little longer, for the country would not be able to bear such a charge without necessity, and added, "Every one that will may provide his arms. My opinion is that it be left to the discretion of the Governor to do what he shall judge neces- sary." Samuel Carpenter was not against those who put them- selves in readiness for defense, but as it was against his judgment he could not advise it. The King of England knew the judg- ment of Quakers in such a case when he granted Penn his patent. Quakers would rather suffer than do this thing; in which latter statement Bartholomew Coppock agreed. At the next meeting, Simcock, Coppock, Carpenter, Jones, and John Bristow declared that they could not vote on the question at all. They did not take it upon themselves to hinder others. They did not think the Governor need call them together in the matter. So Blackwell declared that he would do what was his duty, without further pressing them.
In response to letters from both Blackwell and his enemies, Penn relieved him of the government, and, that the councillors should have no occasion for grumbling, submitted to their choice two commissions duly signed, one authorizing the whole body to act as Blackwell's successor, they choosing a president, and the other permitting them to name three persons in the province or lower counties, from whom Penn would choose one as Lieutenant- Governor, and until his mind should be known the one hav- ing the most votes or being first chosen should act as such. On II mo. 2, 1689-90, the Council unanimously accepted the com- mission appointing the whole body as Penn's deputy, and elected Thomas Lloyd President. Under Lloyd's presidency, the lower counties became discontented. After long complaint of the delay of justice, six of their councillors, in November, 1690, undertook
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to appoint new judges : an act which the Council at large repudiat- ed. promising however to appoint others, of whom a Delaware man should be president in Delaware. On I mo. 30, 1691, there were submitted for the Council's choice two new commissions, one for the Council to name three persons from whom Penn would appoint a Lieutenant-Governor, the person having most votes to act until Penn's pleasure should be known, the other for Lloyd, Markham, Turner. Jennings, and John Cann, or any three of them, to exercise a lieutenant-governor's powers, and if neither commission were accepted, the government to remain in the whole Council. The councillors from Philadelphia, Bucks and Chester were unanimous for a single executive, but those from Delaware, seeing that Lloyd would be chosen, declared against it. Ten members being present, Lloyd in the chair, Growdon called out, "You that is for Thomas Lloyd, Arthur Cook and John Goodson to be nominated Deputy-Governor stand up and say yea." Where- upon the Delawareans, protesting that the charter required two- thirds as a quorum and a two-thirds vote in "affairs of moment," left the meeting. Three days later, six of them, claiming that the government was still in the Council, met at New Castle, and chose Cann president. Lloyd, made Lieutenant-Governor until Penn's appointment should be known, accepted at the importunity of friends, and tried to win back the Delawareans, but in vain. Penn was grieved at his acting upon this "broken choice," and urged a reunion, but finally commissioned Lloyd as Lieutenant- Governor of Pennsylvania, and Markham as Lieutenant-Governor of the Lower Counties. This arrangement lasted until the ar- rival of Governor Fletcher.
The first charter to the city of Philadelphia was granted on 3rd mo. 20, 1691, Humphrey Morrey being named as Mayor, John Delavall as Recorder, and David Lloyd as Town Clerk.
It was during Lloyd's administration that George Keith caused a schism in the Society of Friends, resulting in the growth of the Baptist denomination and the establishment of most of the
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The English Settlement
oldest Episcopal churches in the Middle States, Keith finally taking orders in the Church of England. He had studied at Aberdeen, and had been one of the great champions of the Society, had appeared at several disputations, and written many books in support of its tenets, travelled with Penn and Barclay on the Continent in its service, and suffered long imprisonment and much pecuniary loss in its cause. He came to America embit- tered by persecution, and practiced in controversy, was some time Surveyor-General of East Jersey, and for a year taught the Friends' School in Philadelphia, but relinquished such occupation to travel to other colonies to preach and to challenge the opponents of Quakerism. He justly deemed himself the greatest man in the Society in America. He contended for greater plainness of dress, objected to Quakers acting as magistrates giving sentence for corporal punishment, proposed rules of discipline and gov- ernment, and importuned for a confession of faith. A theologian inferior only to Barclay of all whom the Society had produced, he was quick to detect the erroneous doctrine in the loose preach- ing of those around him, and he attacked the preachers in the strongest words. He accused Fitzwater and Stockdale before the Meeting for having declared that "the light of Christ was sufficient for salvation without anything else," thereby inferring that there was no need of the coming of Christ. The Meeting, which could not refuse to censure Stockdale, blamed Keith for violating Gospel order in not first communicating with Stockdale, and for his rancorous expressions. Stockdale and Fitzwater brought charges of bad doctrine against Keith, and Bowden, in his His- tory of Friends in America, says there is no doubt that he had departed from the views of the Quakers on the efficacy and uni- versality of Divine grace. Keith's friends, remaining at a monthly meeting after the clerk had left, adjourned to the school- house, and there, mustering a great force, condemned his accus- ers, and suspended them from the ministry. The Quarterly Meeting set aside these proceedings. Keith, unable to carry his
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proposals as to the time of meetings for worship, at last started a separate meeting, the attendants on which assumed the name of Christian Quakers. In the severest language he denounced his former comrades, who, he said, came together "to cloak heresies and deceit." Keith declared that Lloyd was not fit to be Governor, and "his name would stink," and Keith told the Quarterly Meeting of Ministers in Ist mo., 1692, that there were "more damnable heresies and doctrines of devils among the Quakers than among any profession of Protestants." At the next Quar- terly Meeting, a declaration of disunity with him was issued, headed by Lloyd's signature; and for his slanderous words against Lloyd and Samuel Jennings, one of the justices, he was tried before the county court at Philadelphia, and fined, and Bradford, the printer, who was publishing his address to the Quakers, was deprived of his tools, and thrown into prison, as were John Macomb, who circulated it, and Thomas Budd, who wrote a pamphlet on Keith's side. The Quakers alleged, and perhaps justly, that the pamphlets tended to sedition, but these proceedings were the grounds of a charge that the Quakers, as well as other religious bodies, could persecute, as though this mild correction for intemperate language was to be classified with the fires of Smithfield, or the lashings on the Quakers' backs- and putting three Quakers to death-in New England.
It was for only about a dozen years in the history of Penn- sylvania prior to 1790 that there were an upper and lower house participating in legislation. Under the frame of government dated April 25, 1682, and that of the next year, which was carried out until the time of Fletcher, the Provincial Council proposed all laws, and the Assembly in a few days' session accepted or rejected them. It may be interesting to know the names of some of those early legislators whom their neighbors chose to represent them in either the Council or Assembly. William Markham was the first cousin of William Penn, being son of Admiral Penn's sister. The name is found at an early period among the gentry of old
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DITID RITTENHOUSE
Ftened for this work by Albert Rosenthal from the painting by Charles Willson Peale In Independence Hall, Philadelphia omial and Federal
ings for worship, at last starte 1 rik cu which assumed the name of weres language he denounced his s cane together " to cloak heresies What Tout was not fit to be Governor und Keith fold the Quarterly 1, 1592, that there were "more of devils among the Quakers Protestants " At the next Quat- AFamily with him was issued, wij for his slanderous words high, one of the justices, he was Philadelphia, and fined, and wit publishing his address to the vous and thrown into prison, as tel it, and Thomas Pudd, who ide The Quakers alleged, and oblety iended to sedition, but these Mof a charge that the Quakers, as i could persecute, as though this nie language was to be classified with de laclings on the Quakers backs- in death-in New England
I vores years in the history of Pen- ar that there were an upper and lower house Under the Frame of government filet of the next year, which was Girried hawker, the Provincial Commeil proposed all Tn & few days' session accepted or rejected Ils novu lo know the names of some of those sunt Sigir weekbors chose to represent them ils Tapint or Asemith William Markham was the WillAu Penn, boirug con of Admiral Penit's sister. Task of an early perual among the gentry ni old
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England, or that class which in Continental Europe would be called the lesser nobility. There was a Sir John Markham, Judge of the Common Pleas from 1396 to 1407, from whom two fam- ilies descended, both seated in Nottinghamshire, bearing the same arms, which also the William Markham who came to Pennsyl-
Old Franklin Press
Photographed especially for this work by J. F. Sachse from the original in possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania
vania used as a seal impaled with the arms of Thomas of Dublin. He is described as "Captain Markham" at the time when Penn intrusted him with the inauguration of a government over his newly acquired territories. It is a mere conjecture, but we hazard it, that he was son of the Henry Markham who was colonel in Ireland in Cromwell's time, during which Admiral Penn received lands there. William Markham died poor in 1704, and sixty
1-2I .
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years later his granddaughter was receiving a pension from the Proprietaries.
Christopher Taylor is said to have been a Puritan minister prior to conversion by George Fox, and was a schoolmaster in England, and the author of a compendium of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, published in 1679. Thomas Holme, who succeeded Captain William Crispin as Surveyor-General of the province, and in a few years published a map of all the lots, bore the title of captain as no mere compliment or local rank, for he was such in the army of Oliver Cromwell. Holme became a member of the Society of Friends in 1659, and in April, 1682, was a resident of the city of Waterford, Ireland. One of his daughters married in 1683 Captain Crispin's son Silas, who in some way, probably maternally, was a cousin of William Penn. John Simcock, of humbler antecedents, was called by the Quakers "a nursing father in Israel." The career in Pennsylvania of Ralph Withers, Francis Whitwell, John Songhurst, and William Stockdale, min- isters among Friends, was cut short by early death. William Biles will appear later in these pages. His son William married the daughter of Thomas Langhorne, assemblyman, who had been a preacher in England. Langhorne's son became Chief Justice of the province. James Harrison, a shoemaker, who had trav- elled much as a preacher, acted as Penn's steward at the manor which was surveyed for the Proprietary in Bucks county, and called Pennsbury. Harrison's son-in-law, Phineas Pemberton, a grocer from Lancashire, was one of the most important office- holders in the province. The ancestor of the Confederate general who surrendered to Grant at Vicksburg, he is to be classed as one of the patriarchs from whom the more important people of Phila- delphia have descended. His son Israel, a merchant, sat in the Assembly, and a second Israel, called "junior" prior to 1754, was sometimes called "King of the Quakers," while his brother James was one of the Quaker assemblymen who could not be brought to vote for military measures. William Yardley was Phineas
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Pemberton's uncle. He and Thomas Janney left large families, the latter's name being widely spread also in Virginia. Thomas Wynne was a Welsh surgeon, also preacher and writer ; his name still survives, while his daughter, who married Edward Jones, another Welsh physician, was grandmother of Thomas Cad- walader, whom we shall note as a councillor to later Lieutenant- Governors, and great-grandmother of John Dickinson, who be- came head of the government of the State. John Eckley, an- other preacher, dying in 1690, left an only daughter, who ran off from the Quakers, and was married over in New Jersey by a Church of England missionary to Colonel Daniel Coxe, who had large proprietary interests in that province and was son of the physician to Charles II., who was at one time patentee of Carolina. The Coxes of Drifton, Pa., are descendants. Samuel Carpenter was the rich man of the early day, but lost considerable property. One of his grandsons removed to Salem county, New Jersey ; a granddaughter was ancestress of an extensive branch of the Wharton family of the present day, including Joseph Wharton, William Wharton, Wharton Barker, and Bromley Wharton, pri- vate secretary to Governor Pennypacker, and also of John M. Scott, now President pro tem. of the State Senate; while Samuel Richardson, at one time fellow member with Carpenter of the Provincial Council, was ancestor of Governor Pennypacker. Robert Turner had been a merchant in Dublin : one of his daugh- ters married Francis Rawle, who was an important man at an early date. James Claypoole was the ancestor of the present Cornelius Vanderbilt of New York. The names of Newlin, Maris, Pennock, Levis, Waln and Kirkbride are yet extant among us. The male line of Caleb Pusey, a preacher and a writer against George Keith, is extinct. Griffith Owen, another preacher, was a Welsh physician. Joseph Growdon, when of Anstle in the county of Cornwall, gentleman, joined his father, Lawrence Growdon, of Trevose in said county, gentleman, as one of the "first purchasers," they buying from William Penn before his first
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