USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania, colonial and federal : a history, 1608-1903, Volume One > Part 26
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Evans forged a letter from the Governor of Maryland an- nouncing that privateers were off the Virginia capes, and some days afterward arranged that John French of New Castle should come up to Philadelphia in great haste and apparent alarm to
James Hamilton
Member Provincial Assembly, 1734; mayor of Philadelphia, 1745; member Provincial Council, 1746; lieutenant-governor, 1748-1754, and again 1759-1763; president of the Council in 1771; also acting governor about two months in 1773
frighten the citizens with a tale that Lewes had been burnt and six French brigantines had bombarded the fort at New Castle, and were making up the river, it being hoped that sufficient Quakers would lose their presence of mind and respond to a call to arms to make apparent forever the inconsistency of the members of the Society of Friends. French fulfilled his part, and Evans spread the report, summoning those who would defend themselves. Some
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persons tried to send their goods out of town, and were actually : fired upon by the militia. Half a dozen young Quakers shoul- dered their guns ; but it being a Meeting day, the Meeting was held as usual, and the Quakers generally trusted in the Lord. Logan took a row boat down the river where he learned the truth, and, returning, quieted the people. Evans soon afterwards decided to call a special session of the Assembly, the councillors who were not Quakers declaring that he should throw upon it the respon- sibility for not defending the province. The Quaker councillors, themselves members of the House, expostulated ; as those of their persuasion could only send a negative answer, there would be no other result than to injure them: they believed it a preliminary step to deprive the people of the constitution. The Assembly, of course, did not take any belligerent measures ; the reply said, "We hope we are not in much danger, considering our remoteness from the sea and difficulty of access. * the Queen's colonies of Virginia and Maryland, which are far more ancient settlements than ours, have no fortifications we know of this day; therefore we hope that nothing shall prevail to render us more obnoxious to the Queen than our neighbors." Evans found the Assembly of the lower counties more to his mind. He permitted fines to be imposed upon those residing there who had scruples against mil- itary service, but were in the minority ; which course was natural- ly resented by the majority in Pennsylvania. There was a fort at New Castle, and Evans consented to a law that every vessel go- ing down the river should pay powder-money. The Quaker trad- ers declared they would not comply, and gave orders to that ef- fect to the masters of their vessels. In the spring of 1707 a sloop bound for Barbados was about to sail when the Lieutenant-Gov- ernor told the master that if he did not stop at New Castle, the ves- sel should be fired upon, and he made prisoner. The master re- ported this to Hill, the principal owner, who indignantly remon- strated with the Governor-a Lieutenant-Governor was popu- larly called "Governor"-and then went aboard the vessel, and
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in it proceeded down the river. The Governor had hurried to New Castle on horseback. and set a watch in the fort for the sloop. When the vessel came within range, the fort opened fire, but the sloop escaped uninjured, and, hotly pursued by boats, in one of which was the Governor, put over to Salem, New Jersey, carrying along John French, who had boarded it. There Hill placed him- self under the protection of the Queen's flag ; and Lord Cornbury, Governor of the Jerseys, arriving, and resenting the invasion of his jurisdiction as Admiral over Delaware bay and river, insisted upon the sloop being allowed to proceed on its voyage. This signal bravery of Richard Hill, who dared to stand fire, although he could not conscientiously return it, brought to the Quakers freedom from the imposition of which they complained. By not mentioning the Proprietary's design of selling the government, Logan had added to the ill will felt for him as the Proprietary's steward, and in the long course of contention on a bill to establish courts, when Logan advised that courts be re-established by Evans under the right granted to Penn by charter, the House declared Logan an enemy of the Governor and government and on Febru- ary 26, 1706-7, presented articles of impeachment against him, which the Lieutenant-Governor decided he could not try.
After the death of Philip Ford, his widow and three children claimed the province and territories under the old deed to him, maintaining that since April 1, 1700, Penn had been only tenant at will, and they brought suit for £2,000 arrears of rent, filed a bill in chancery. and petitioned the Queen to put them in posses- sion and take to herself the government. Penn offered the pay- ment of one-half with security for the other half of what should be found on adjusting accounts, and proposed a reference to mem- bers of the Society of Friends mutually chosen. This being re- fused he appealed to the Meeting which the family attended, which on 10 mo. 26, 1705, admonished and disowned them. Isaac Nor- ris went to England the next year, and labored for a compromise, while attempts were made to raise money for Penn, who wrote
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that if friends in Pennsylvania would give £5,000, he would come and live among them. William Penn Jr., agreeing to have the estate at Worminghurst sold, it brought enough to clear all debts but that to the Fords; and the son was reconciled to his father, who, looking for a new Lieutenant-Governor, thought of appoint- ing him, but Norris advised against it. A verdict was obtained against William Penn for the rent, etc., £3,000, which his friends insisted that he should not pay, as certain members of the Society had, on examination, reported that the Fords were entitled only to £4,303 instead of £14,000. On II mo. 7, bailiffs came for him at Meeting, but Henry Gouldney and Herbert Springett induced them not to take him out of the gallery by promising that he would come in a few hours, which he did, and then turned him- self over to the Fleet. The Lord Chancellor, to whom the Queen referred the petition, said that Penn had an equity of redemption in the land, and that his powers of government were not pledged. Finally a compromise was effected. The Fords accepted £7,600, and executed a release, Penn leaving the Old Bailey. Henry Gouldney and seven other Englishmen, among them Penn's fath- er-in-law Callowhill, furnished £6,600 of the money, and to them Penn and his heir apparent executed a mortgage dated Oct. 7, 1708, of Pennsylvania and the lower counties, and all purchase money due and quit rents in arrears or to fall due, Pennsbury and some tracts being excepted, and with power in the mortgagees to sell land if the principal were not repaid in two years with 6 per cent. interest, meanwhile Penn and his son to have power to con- vey clear.
Charles Gookin, a respectable army officer, assumed the duties of Lieutenant-Governor on February 2, 1708-9, instructed by Penn not to pass any laws without the approbation of the Council. The Assembly urged him to disregard this, as he was acting in place of William Penn, who with the Assembly had all the powers of legis- lation, and it furthermore blamed Logan for most of the disagree- ment between the Lieutenant-Governors and the people, and more
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than once remonstrated against Logan's continuance in the Coun- cil. Logan replied in an exposure of Lloyd. Upon receipt of an order from the Queen for the province to furnish 150 men as part of a force of 1,500 against Canada, and for which Gookin asked 4.000l., the Assembly refused to pay "money to hire men to fight and kill one another," but out of gratitude to the Queen
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Old Shawanee Church Site of Fort Dupui, about five and one-half miles from Stroudsburg, on the Delaware river. The fort was probably built earlier than 1755. From a sketch made especially for this work
voted to her 500/. and appropriated 300l. for all necessary ex- presses and other public charges. In October, 1709, Hill was chosen mayor of the city, and the influence of the corporation was turned in favor of the Proprietary. As to Logan's charges against Lloyd, an investigating committee reported to the Assembly that Logan had refused to bring proof. He was then preparing to embark for England, but on the 25th of November, the House ordered the sheriff of Philadelphia county to attach his body, and detain him
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in the county jail until he should make satisfaction for his reflec- tions on sundry members. The sheriff refused to obey, but it was feared that some of the members themselves would make the ar- rest ; so the Governor was obliged to interpose his protection, and Logan sailed a few days afterwards. The next election sent an entirely new set of men to the Assembly. It voted 2,000l. to the Queen's use. Hill was Speaker during the session and the next. as also in 1716, and was in the Assembly continuously until 1721. We must recognize him as a political leader who did most to pre- serve Quaker and Proprietary ascendency in his day. During his last term as mayor and Speaker, Lieutenant-Governor Gookin charged him with disaffection to King George, and said the only occasion of difference between them was that Gookin would not agree to Hill's project of proclaiming the Pretender. The Assem- bly went into committee of the whole on this charge, and commu- nicated with the Lieutenant-Governor, and held several meetings; but Gookin, whose conduct on many occasions betokened a dis- ordered mind, replied that he was not obliged to render to the House any reasons for his accusation, but would do so to the Board at home. He said he believed in his conscience that the Speaker was in favor of the Pretender ; but further than this gave the mem- bers no satisfaction. The House accordingly declared the charges without foundation, adding that the Lieutenant-Governor, having approved of Hill to be Speaker, should in justice to the Assembly give grounds for the charge, or clear him of the imputation. After William Keith became Lieutenant-Governor, Gookin was again asked for his reasons, the new official being unwilling to have any one in his Council who was believed disloyal, but nothing further was elicited. Logan, too, was included in the charge, the investigation, and the acquittal. His real sentiments were ex- pressed in a letter to Hannah Penn, urging that Gookin be re- moved and his place filled by Colonel Keith, who, he says, might labor under the suspicion of being a Jacobite, and so fail to be com- missioned : "But as these distinctions cannot affect us, who want
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nothing but peace under the Crown of England, and have no pow- er either to advance or retard any interest, all our views, or rath- er wishes, are to have a person over us who may truly pursue the interest of the country."
William Penn finally in 1712 came to an agreement with the Crown for the sale to it of his rights of government for £12,000, of which £1,000 were paid to him on account.
Keith was not closely, if at all, related to the ex-Quaker George Keith, but was the son of a Scotch baronet, and succeeded to that rank, but to no estate, while Lieutenant-Governor. This admin- istration began May 31, 1717, and lasted nine years.
On May 31, 1718, while the enlightened legislator William Penn was still alive, but having been for about six years mentally unfit for business, although occasionally signing his name, the Assembly passed "an act for the advancement of justice and more certain administration thereof," extending the severity of certain acts of Parliament to the colony; for instance, any person com- mitting a robbery by assaulting another on or near the highway, putting him in fear, and taking from his person money or other goods to any value whatsoever, and even the counsellors, aiders, comforters, and abettors of such robber, should suffer as felons according to the statutes in such cases provided in Great Britain ; any person cutting off or disabling a limb or member, or counsel- ling, aiding, or abetting such act, should suffer death ; any person breaking into a dwelling house at night to commit a felony should suffer death ; any person burning a barn or an out-house having corn or hay therein should suffer death. The act, being approved by the King in Council, confirmed finally the right of judges, jury- men, and witnesses to qualify themselves according to their con- scientious persuasion respectively by taking either a corporal oath or the affirmation allowed by act of Parliament for Quakers.
At this time, the white population of Penn's dominion was, it is estimated, about 40,000, one-fourth of whom lived in Phila- delphia. About one-half belonged to the Society of Friends.
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CHAPTER XI.
THE CLAIM OF THE HEIR-AT-LAW
U PON the death of William Penn, July 30, 1718, various legal questions arose as to the governorship. His will, dated in 1712, had devised it to two noblemen in trust to sell to the Crown or other person ; and his own agreement for its sale to the Crown was still undisposed of. Subject to these ar- rangements, and except so far as required for these purposes, to whom did the powers of government go? All lands, tenements and hereditaments in America, after sale of sufficient to pay debts, and with the exception of 40,000 acres, were to be conveyed by cer- tain trustees, Hannah Penn, Thomas Callowhill, Margaret Low- ther, Gilbert Heathcote, Samuel Waldenfield, John Field, Henry Gouldney, Samuel Carpenter, Richard Hill, Isaac Norris, Samuel Preston, and James Logan, to the children of his second wife in such shares and for such estates as she should appoint. She, in November, 1718, reserving a power to revoke and alter, appointed one-half in fee to her son John Penn, he paying £1,500 to his sister Margaret, and the other half in fee jointly to the younger sons, Thomas, Richard, and Dennis. The heir-at-law, however, was William Penn Jr. child of the first wife, and provided for by the estate in Ireland, but now raising the question, could the gov- ernorship, being of the nature of an hereditary title and jurisdic- tion be assigned or devised away from the heir-at-law? William Penn Jr. therefore issued a new commission to Keith, which ar- rived in April, 1719, and which Keith and the Council were will-
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ing to publish, but the Assembly thought this unnecessary, as a law of the province authorized the Lieutenant-Governor to hold over. The Crown sent an order to Keith to continue until the Proprietor and the trustees should adjust their differences.
The muse of history has not taken the heir-at-law under her protection, certainly not the muse recognized by the Quakers. The son of a great father often figures as the latter's antithesis. William Penn Jr. may not have been great ; he is to be classified among the unfortunates, rather than the unworthy. About the time he came of age, his father's circumstances required the first wife's children to consent to the sale of property which came to them from her. The conduct in Pennsylvania which enabled the father's enemies to speak of "the disorders of young William Penn" and his "gang of loose fellows" is not proved by such strong language to have included any moral delinquencies. He had kept "top company," that is, associated with his equals in worldly rank, before he came, and he unsuccessfully ran for Par- liament after he went back to England. The following words in the instructions which he sent with his commission do not sound like those of an irreligious, dissolute, or narrow minded lordling : "If you can procure a militia to be settled by law, slip not the oc- casion of doing it, but as that country was chiefly at first settled by Quakers I would not have them oppressed on any account. Protect the people under your care in all the rights, privileges, and liberties my father granted them by charter or otherwise or that they ought to enjoy as Englishmen. Observe the law for liberty of conscience, which I take to be a fundamental one in Pennsyl- vania, and was one great encouragement for the Quakers to trans- port themselves thither, and to make it what it now is, for which they merit the favor of my family as well as on many other ac- counts, and shall always have it when in my power; and this I desire you will let the people know. But as I profess myself to be a member of the Church of England, therefore I recommend it to you to be careful of her interest, and that you encourage and
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protect the clergy and employ where you can deserving members of that communion, for I think they ought to have at least an equal share in the administration of public offices with their neigh- bors of other persuasions. Discountenance all Anti-Trinitarians and libertines. Protect in their possessions such strangers as are
Richard Penn
Proprietary and titular governor of Pennsyl- vania and the counties of New Castle, Kent and Sussex, on the Delaware river; born 1706; died 1771. From an old painting
settled amongst us, for the public faith is concerned in it." His career was cut short by death at the age of thirty-nine from con- sumption. He left three children, Springett, William, and a daughter. It was the claim of Hannah Penn, the first Proprie- tary's widow and executrix of his will, that the right to the gov- ernment should be deemed legally converted into cash and there- fore personal estate, of which after payment of the debts she was legatee for her and her children's benefit.
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In the fall of 1718, Sassoonan, king of the Delaware Indians, with a number of his followers, came to Philadelphia with the idea that they had not been paid for their lands, but Logan pro- duced to them in the presence of the Council, a great number of deeds by which they were convinced; accordingly, Sassoonan and six chiefs executed a release, dated September 17, all but two making their marks before Lieutenant-Governor Keith, and after- wards the two making theirs before Logan. Acknowledging that their ancestors and predecessors had conveyed to William Penn in fee all the land, and had received the price, and in further con- sideration of a free gift of two guns, etc., from his commissioners, these Indians released all the land between the Delaware and the Susquehanna from Duck creek (in Delaware) to the mountains (the South mountain) on this side of Lechay (by the Lehigh river ).
Much trouble arising between the northern and southern In- dians, involving, moreover, injuries to the traders among them, the authorities of Pennsylvania endeavored to restrain the four tribes between the colony and the Alleghanies, viz. : the Susque- hannas, Shawanees, Conoys, and Delawares, and made the hard request of them not to go to war on the first or second provocation of their people being killed, but only after the third provocation ; and, moreover, told them not to receive the Five Nations, whose habitations were north and west of the Alleghanies, if coming to them on the way to or from war; and then expatiated upon how shameful a thing it was to torture prisoners-that it was not manly for people to use all their contrivance of torture and pain to put an unfortunate creature of their own shape and kind to death, whereas, if the English in a just ( !) war killed their ene- mies, it was like men in the battle, and, if they took prisoners, they treated them kindly, until the King gave orders to send them back to their own country ; they did not burn, pinch, or slash a poor man who could not defend himself, and the Indians must stop doing so. The Five Nations. however, generally forced the
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young bucks to accompany them on their raids, and some of the Cayugas asserted that all the land on the Susquehanna belonged to them and intimated that they might come to Philadelphia and demand possession. To meet deputies of the Five Nations, Keith went to Conestoga in the summer of 1721, and in their presence informed their tributaries, the Indians east of the Alleghanies, of the condition he had made for the latter with the Governor of Vir- ginia, viz. : not to hunt on the eastern side of those mountains south of the Potomac; upon which terms the Governor of Virginia had agreed that his Indians should not cross the Potomac or the Alleghanies. Keith told the deputies of the Five Nations, whose speaker was Ghesaont, a Seneca, that the English had now, by peace among themselves, become a great nation in America, far exceeding in number the Indians, who were continuing to make war upon one another, as if they intended that none of their race should be left alive; if the Five Nations would still go out to de- stroy and be destroyed for nothing, let them take another path ; the Indians of Pennsylvania would not be allowed to go out. Then he gave Ghesaont a gold coronation medal of George I, to take as a token of friendship to the greatest chief of the Five Na- tions, Kannygoodk. To James Logan, who continued the con- ference after Keith left, Ghesaont acknowledged the Susquehanna country to have been conveyed to William Penn. Owing to the kiling of a Seneca, who, when drunk and applying for rum, was knocked down, there were sent calico shirts, silk stockings, silk garters, and silk handkerchiefs to the sachems of the Five Nations, and Keith, with four of his councillors, went to Albany, and made a treaty of peace, in September, 1722, the Five Nations acknowl- edging that Penn's Governors and people had always honestly kept his treaties of love and kindness, and finally asking that those concerned in the death of the Seneca be set at liberty, and, moreover, surrendering the lands about Conestoga, desiring them to be settled by Christians. At the same time, Governor Spots- wood, of Virginia, made a treaty, and secured the assent of the
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Five Nations and the Tuscaroras to the proposed boundary within which the Virginia Indians should be safe. Any of the Five Na- tions, or any Tuscarora, Conestoga, Shawanee, Octatiguanann- kroon, or Ostagle passing without a passport from the Governor of his province southward of the Potomac, i. e., its southern branch, or eastward of the mountains, should be put to death or transported into slavery.
During Keith's administration the Scotch-Irish and the Ger- mans began to pour into Pennsylvania. The former, whose his- tory is given in Hanna's work on the subject, first settled in the southern part of what was then Chester county, which the boun- dary dispute made no man's land, and which was so near the port of New Castle; then they advanced to the regions marked by the oldest Presbyterian churches south of the Schuylkill. The first company of Germans were invited by Keith to come from Æsopus, in New York State, and establish themselves at Tulpehocken. In Gordon's time others, including Conrad Weiser, made the same migration.
In the difficult position of choosing between two masters, viz. : the Proprietary, represented chiefly by Logan, and the people, rep- resented by the Assembly, Keith determined to serve the latter, the power which voted the money for his support; therefore he was better paid than his predecessors, and succeeded, where they had failed, in establishing a Court of Chancery, held by the Lieutenant- Governor and the six senior councillors. This was the only sepa- rate court of chancery which Pennsylvania has ever had. Two important laws enacted by him survive, that of the party wall and that of the feme sole trader. The rate of interest on money was reduced from 8 to 6 per cent. In 1723 the first paper money was issued in Pennsylvania, and purely as an expansion of the cur- rency demanded by the populace in the face of the few rich men. The method of emission was a novel one. often subsequently re- sorted to. The bills, made legal tender, were issued to applicants as a loan upon mortgage of their real estate, to be repaid in annual
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instalments, with 5 per cent. interest. Certain persons appointed in the act passed by the Assembly, and styled Commissioners of the Loan Office, attended to this, lending not more than 200l., nor less than 20l. The interest was applicable to the expenses of govern- ment. Although the experience of other colonies with paper money had been unhappy, the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, out of consideration for those holding the bills, al-
Relics from Dunbar's Camp, 1775
Engraved for this work from the originals in Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh
lowed the act and one subsequently passed for issuing 30,000l. to remain unrepealed by the King. When Sir William Keith's administration closed the colony was in a flourishing condition, and the discount on the bills diminishing. For twenty years after- wards the expenses of government required no direct tax, the interest on the mortgages and an excise being sufficient.
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