USA > Pennsylvania > Pennsylvania, colonial and federal : a history, 1608-1903, Volume One > Part 29
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It may be doubted whether the members of the Pennsylvania Assembly, ruling their conduct by their conscience, and taking care of the interests of their constituents, did not do about all they could in a war started by the question scarcely important to them, who should be German Emperor. When their King command- ed that the colonies should carry out the requisitions of Commo- dore Peter Warren, and the latter asked for men armed and victualled for at least seven months to garrison the recently cap- tured Louisburg, the Assembly on 5 mo. 24, 1745, voted 4.0001. for the King's use, to be laid out by John Pole and John Mifflin "in the purchase of bread, beef, pork, flour, wheat, and other grain or any of them within this Province, and to be shipped from hence for the King's service as the Governor shall think most fit." When this resolve was communicated to Thomas in due form by
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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
two of the members, he told them that since the House had par- ticularized for what the money should be spent, the mere putting of the shipping of it under his charge was no compliment to him. A little later he invented the interpretation, which Franklin would have us suppose was intended by the Quakers, that "other grain" meant gunpowder. So the forces were supplied with ammuni- tion as well as victuals, the Lieutenant-Governor could claim that his province had satisfied the King, and the Quaker assemblymen said to their consciences that the matter had passed out of their hands. The next year, on receipt of the royal order for troops to join Governor Gooch's command at Albany for the campaign against Canada and for the provisions and part of the arms and clothing for them, the Assembly offered to vote money for the King's use by issuing bills of credit ; but there had been previously received a royal instruction that no act for that purpose should be passed without a clause suspending it until approved of by the King, and the Lieutenant-Governor urged that the money be raised by a loan on the security of the excise or the income accru- ing from the mortgages given to the loan office. The Assembly replied that there was a deficiency in these sources of income, and any additional tax would be inconvenient. The Lieutenant- Governor thought that a population which for over twenty years had not paid a tax on estates could afford to pay off in a short period what should now be borrowed in excess of what the As- sembly voted ; but on June 24, 1746, he consented to an act grant- ing 5.000l. to the King's use out of the bills of credit remaining to be exchanged for torn and ragged bills, and for striking the like sum to replace them. The 24th of July was a thanksgiving day for the Duke of Cumberland's victory over the Pretender's Scotch forces at Culloden. The Lieutenant-Governor's proclama- tion ordered the magistrates to prevent all immoralities and riot- ous disorders, "that the day may be observed with a solemnity becoming our Christian profession, and not as has been too often the practice, with drunkenness and other kinds of licentiousness."
400
NAMOM T3 7800
ROBERT MORRIS
Etched for this work by Albert Rosenthal from the painting by Gilbert Stuart In the possession of the family
Federal
Ut shtec The Ileuse had par afd be spent the mere puithig ge wal no compliment to him. pretation, which Franklin would the (jonkers, That "other grain" Faces vete supplied with ammuni- Dien ak Governor could chum that King movi the Quaker assemblynien o the worter had passed out of their ai receipt of the royal order for troops server Their commamit at Albany for the campaign The pros ons and part of the arms and no ther Assemble offered to vote money for the of crolà : but there had been previously ron this so act for that purpose should c shaping it until approved of by the it-Goremor urged that the money be curly of the excise or the income accru1- given Me the lean office. The Assembly wehrieu in these sources of income, and NI be Mconvenient. The Lieutenant popyt' Hor which for over twenty years tates wold afford to pay off in a short De bouwer in excess of what the As- 44- mayo, he consented to an act grant- ne ww of the hills of credit remaining w foggel bills, and for striking the The aob of July was a thanksgiving Rtlane victory over the Pretender's The Lasttenant-Governor's proclama- 1& Tiremos 501 immoralities and rint- mme le observed with a solemiity 1000, not as has been ton offen mail pour kinds of licentiousness."
befogright by The Pennsylvania Haleroad Publishing Association . Thata, I'M%.
John Penn the American
Four companies from Pennsylvania went to Albany, the Lieu- tenant-Governor procuring them clothing, arms, and ammunition on his own credit, in expectation of remittances from Lieutenant- General St. Clair, who was to go from England to Louisburg as commander-in-chief. But St. Clair and the money not arriving, Thomas applied to the Assembly for a loan to His Majesty to pay for those articles and discharge the arrears due to the soldiers and provide subsistence for the time being. The House answered that there was no money to lend to the Crown, but he could use his own judgment about applying what was left of the 5,000l. to the present exigencies. Four months subsistence from the time of the arrival of the companies at Albany was secured from Gen. Gooch, and Thomas applied to the Assembly to continue this. The Assembly then thought that as the time for the campaign had elapsed, the troops could come home.
On October 25, 1746, John Penn, "the American," died un- married at Hitcham, Co. Bucks, England. Thomas, in condol- ing with the Assembly upon the event, spoke of his humanity, good nature, and affability.
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I-26
401
CHAPTER XIII.
THOMAS PENN AND RICHARD PENN
T HE Penn estates in Pennsylvania and what is now Delaware were of four kinds. First, the millions of unoccupied and unappropriated acres, vast in future value, although their mineral wealth was not then dreamed of; as to these millions of acres, there were two sets of claims to be satisfied, those of the Indians and those of white purchasers whose rights had not been surveyed; the Indians, as we have seen, had by this time relin- quished all the land southeast of the Blue mountains, and the "first purchasers" from William Penn had nearly all secured the war- rant, the survey, and the patent whereby their indefinite property of so many acres "in Pennsylvania" had been located, and the sub- sequent purchasers took up their lands rapidly, some making bar- gains for definite tracts, the whole matter of granting warrants and making surveys as well as fixing price being in the hands of the Proprietaries and the officers who were their private servants. Then, secondly, were the quit rents, originally a shilling annually for every one hundred acres taken up by purchasers, higher on later grants; but as to the lots in Philadelphia these rents were larger, and as to the "bank lots," i. e., those on the east side of Front street running down the bank to the water, these rents were to be increased at the end of every fifty years to a rent equal to one-third of the value then to be ascertained of both lot and im- provements thereon. The quit rents were not easily, and never promptly, collected : they were vexatious in the country, and in
402
Thomas and Richard Penn
the city, being more considerable, were often extinguished like any ground rent. Thirdly, under the original plan that William Penn should take a tenth of the land as his private property, he and his sons and in fact his grandsons had large tracts surveyed for them- selves as manors. Within these they let at will, from year to year, or for years, or sold at rent or prices according to special agree- ment, or their servants followed agriculture. Lastly, there was
Rocking Family Meat-Cutter
Used by the early German settlers. Photo- graphed especially for this work from the orig- inal in possession of J. F. Sachse
the private property which had come to the Penns in other ways than by virtue of being Proprietaries, for instance that devised by Thomas Callowhill. The "Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania," printed in 1759, gives in the appendix an estimate of the Penn estates exclusive of the unoccu- pied and unappropriated lands which we first mentioned, prepared by Thomas Penn in John Penn's lifetime. After stating the value of quit rents reserved and the unpaid purchase money due as 188,278l. IOs., Pennsylvania money, including 1,000l. as the value of the ferry franchises leased at 40l. per annum, he enumer- ates the private lands, etc., as follows, the estimated value being also in Pennsylvania money :
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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
MANORS
I Conestogoe, 65 m. from the city, 13.400 acres at 40l. per H. 5,360
2 Gilbert's 25
3,200
70 2,240
3 Springfield 1,600 12 1,200 75
4 Highlands 35 2,500 30
750
5 Springtown 37 10,000 35
3,500
6 Vincent's 40 20,000 35 7,000
7 Richland's 35
10,000 15
1,500
9 About 20 tracts in the several counties, mostly 500 acres each, reckoned 10,000 at 40l.
4,000
Springetsbury 207 acres at 5l. 1,035
8 On the north side of the town 50
30
1,500
Back of the said land 15
IO
150
9 Lot in the bank at north end of the town, 200 feet at 3l.
600
IO A front and back lot between Vine and Sassafras street, 102 feet, at 6l. 612
II Bank lot between Cedar and Pine 204 feet at 3l. 612
12 Front lot on the side of Cedar street I02 3
306
13 Ditto between Cedar and Pine I60 2
320
14 Bank lot between the same streets 40 2
80
15 Marsh land near the town, 600 acres at 3l. 1,800
16 Ditto 200 acres at Is. sterling rent, and 165 per cent. is 330 Lands within the draft of the town, at least 500 acres, 250 nearest Delaware at 15l. per acre 3,750
250 nearest Schuylkill at Iol. per acre 2,500
17 Omitted-Streeper's tract in Bucks Co. 35 miles, 5,000 acres at 25l. 1,250 18 The rents of the above manor and lands being 77,072 acres at a halfpenny per acre. 20 years purchase at 165 per cent. exchange 5,298.12S.
45,6931.12S.
Value of quit rents reserved and unpaid purchase money due including value of ferry franchise as 1,0001. 188,278/.IOS.
233,9721.25.
The Government to be calculated at no less than was to have been paid for it, viz .: £11,000 at 165 per cent. is 18,150
404
252,1221.25.
Thomas and Richard Penn
In this calculation no notice is taken of the thirds reserved on the bank lots (a copy of the patents J. Penn has by him to shew the nature of them) and nine-tenths of the Province remains undisposed of.
Three-fifths of all royal mines is reserved in the grants, and in all grants since the year 1732 one-fifth part of all other mines delivered at the pit's mouth without charge is also reserved.
No value is put on the Proprietor's right to escheated lands ; and besides these advantages, several offices are in the Proprietor's gift of considerable value.
Register-General about
200l.
Naval officer
300l.
Clerk of Philadelphia
400l.
Chester 300l.
Bucks 2001.
Lancaster 200l.
Besides several other offices of less value. These are only guessed at."
The will of John Penn, in accordance with his covenant to leave his estate to one or both of his brothers, gave his moiety of Pennsylvania and the Lower Counties to Thomas Penn for life, with remainder to his sons in the order of birth successively in tail male. Therefore during the twenty-nine years that Thomas survived, he had three times as much share as the youngest brother, Richard, or the son who succeeded the latter.
Of Richard Penn, who never came to Pennsylvania, the chief thing to remark is that at an early date he forsook the Society of Friends, and if he did not sacramentally join, otherwise con- formed to the Church of England, his children receiving infant baptism. His children who lived to grow up, were John, Han- nah, and Richard, of whom Hannah married James Clayton, and died without issue; John figures in our history as Councillor, Lieutenant-Governor, and Proprietary; and Richard was also Lieutenant-Governor, and alone left children, but these died with- out issue, the last in 1863. Of Lieutenant-Governor Richard Penn's brilliant son William, who made a derogatory and unlucky
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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
marriage, when on a visit to Pennsylvania, George IV. said : "He was a Pen often cut (drunk) but never mended." Richard Penn the Proprietary died Feb. 4, 1771.
Thomas Penn, at John's death, took the direction in the gov- ernment and business of property to which his share and senior- ity entitled him, and for which ability and experience fitted him. He was master over his weak nephew John, whom he sent away and kept away from the girl, objectionable in herself or her sur- roundings, perhaps only because they were humble, whom as a schoolboy John had married. He himself remained a bachelor until 1751, when he entered a family of the nobility by marrying Lady Juliana, daughter of Thomas Fermor, first Earl of Pom- fret, second Baron Lempster, etc. From a mercer's apprentice, as Jenkins has supposed, at the death of the Founder of Penn- sylvania, the middle-aged bridegroom had risen to be one of the rich gentry of England, ruler of an American principality larger than Ireland. He ceased to be a Quaker, regularly attending church after his marriage, and in 1760 purchased the historic seat of Stoke Park at Stoke Pogis, where he established his fam- ily. His sister Margaret's child, Philadelphia Hannah Freame, married in 1770 Thomas Dawson, Baron Dartrey, afterwards Viscount Cremorne, whose first wife was Lady Juliana's sister. Thomas Penn died March 21, 1775. Although he left sons, and one of them had children, the only descendants now living in male or female line of the Founder's second wife are through Thomas's daughter, who married, in 1796, Rev. Dr. William Stuart, afterwards Archbishop of Armagh.
John Penn, the American, had not thought well of a sugges- tion to make Thomas Penn the Lieutenant-Governor, perhaps be- cause of the latter's want of popularizing manners, perhaps be- cause he had already entered upon a life offensive in morals. An anecdote of his want of cordiality or effusiveness is worth repeat- ing. When the Rev. Hugh David of Gwynedd called on him, having prepared a poem of welcome referring to the descent which
406
Thomas and Richard Penn
William Penn had claimed from the Welsh Tudors, Thomas Penn spoke three sentences : "How dost do?" "Farewell." "The other door." Mr. David did not hand him the poem. Watson, in the "Annals of Philadelphia," tells us how the hunter who made the Walk of 1737 received such small pay that he "damned Penn and his half wife to their faces." Watson further relates that when Thomas Penn was leaving Pennsylvania, some fellows raised a gallows across the road over which he had to pass. We may say that all through as a general rule in the conduct of affairs con- nected with Pennsylvania he showed the acquisitiveness of the land speculator with the selfishness of the aristocrat. Yet he had some public spirit, giving money or lots to certain institutions as well as to private individuals, and perhaps to reprobate his making the most of his property would be to demand of him the self- abnegation of a philanthropist or the proverbial, yet seldom found, generosity of a prince.
We will now proceed to a narration of the events of the earlier years of Thomas and Richard Penn's governorship and proprietaryship.
George Thomas, in his message announcing the death of John Penn, also notified the House of his own intended relin- quishment of the lieutenant-governorship and departure for Eng- land, on account of his health. After the conflict between him and the Assembly, there was now harmony, and the House declared that his continuance in the exercise of the government would have been most agreeable to the members, and that nobody doubted his skill or abilities, and they believed that he had been regardful of both the King's service and the honor and reputa- tion of the province.
At the last meeting of the Council presided over by Thomas, May 29, 1747, James Logan's resignation was accepted, he not having considered himself a member since Thomas's accession ; and it was unanimously agreed that the following only were members, and in the following order of precedency, viz. : An-
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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
thony Palmer, Thomas Lawrence, Samuel Hasell, William Till, Abraham Taylor, Robert Strettell, James Hamilton, Benjamin Shoemaker, Joseph Turner, Lawrence Growdon, and Thomas Hopkinson. William Logan, son of James, was then appointed, to take a seat at the next meeting. This was held on June 6, Thomas having meanwhile embarked, and Anthony Palmer as eldest councillor became President. He had come from Bar- bados forty years before, having been a merchant there, and, it would appear, a sea captain. He was a Churchman, and lived in considerable style. On his plantation in the Northern Lib- erties, from which, it is said, he came to the city in a barge, he started a town, to which he gave the name of Kensington.
At this time the dominion of the Penns was the granary of America; Philadelphia the supply port for provisions for any fleet operating above the Spanish Main. So whenever there was a war, an embargo was laid, from which the traders suffered. But now the trade with the other British possessions was nearly at a standstill from privateers in the bay. Landing parties burned plantations in the Lower Counties, and the city was in terror lest some French or Spanish man-of-war would make its way up the unprotected river, and have the place at its mercy. The Assembly was appealed to in vain to do something for de- fence. No militia law could be passed, had the Assembly been ever so willing, for, with no Governor, there was no power of leg- islation. Money, it had not, and while controlled by Quakers, it would not undertake obligations for such purposes. Benjamin Franklin, who for some years had been Clerk of the Assembly, and also Deputy Postmaster-General under ex-Governor Spots- wood, of Virginia, wrote a pamphlet called Plain Truth, and sug- gested an association for defense at a town meeting. About 1,200 persons present enrolled themselves. Altogether about 10,000 names came in from the whole province. A battery was estab- lished where, sixty years afterward, the United States started its navy yard ( foot of Prime street, Philadelphia). Franklin and
408
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Thomas and Richard Penn
other prominent citizens went over to New York with a request from the Council, and induced Governor Clinton to let them have eighteen cannon. Franklin started a lottery for the battery; and James Logan spent 6ol. in tickets, ordering any prizes that he might draw to be devoted to the cause. A motion was carried in the fire company, in which were many Quakers, to appropriate money for a fire engine, and the mover of the motion and the rest of the committee bought a fine cannon, that being what the war- like members meant by a "fire engine." The 7th of January, 1747-8, was a day of fasting and prayer. Application was made to the Admiralty for a British man-of-war to cruise in the bay. The Otter sloop, Capt. Ballet, was sent, through the endeavors of the Proprietaries in London, but met with a very large vessel on the way, fought for four hours, and was so much weakened as to have to be repaired before attempting any service. Although the plan of the military association, whereby, among other fea- tures, the men elected their officers, and these were not under the command of the acting Governor, was irregular, the attendance was so constant and the drilling so careful that it was the opinion of most strangers that Pennsylvania had the best militia in America and one of the best furnished batteries of its size on the continent.
By a treaty held at Lancaster in July, 1748, the Twightees dwelling on the Wabash were brought into alliance with Penn- sylvania, and the Shawanees no longer with Chartier were re- ceived back into favor.
A preliminary treaty of peace was signed at Aix-la-Chapelle on April 19, 1748, acceded to by Spain on June 17, and a defini- tive treaty at the same place on October 7, subsequently acceded to by Spain, Austria, etc.
James Hamilton, of Bush Hill, in the Northern Liberties, who had been mayor of Philadelphia, and was a member of the Governor's Council, a son of the former Attorney-General, re- ceived, while sojourning in London, the Proprietaries' commis-
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Pennsylvania Colonial and Federal
sion as Lieutenant-Governor, and arrived at home in November, 1748. He was the only inhabitant of the province appointed to that office after the death of Penn, in whose lifetime, moreover, Lloyd and Markham at his second appointment were the only ones. So the new Lieutenant-Governor was hailed with pleasure ; but he had a dispute with his first Assembly. It passed a bill for the issuing of 20,000l. in bills of credit. The instructions sent in 1740 by the British Ministry having forbidden the Governor to pass any act for that purpose without a clause suspending its operation until the royal assent should be given, Hamilton pro- posed an amendment to that effect; whereupon the Assembly unanimously resolved that it would be "destructive of the liberties derived to them by the royal and provincial charters," the charter of Charles II having expressly authorized the legislature of the province to enact laws which should remain in force five years or until the King repealed them. Hamilton remained firm, consid- ering that these instructions were contemplated in the bond of £2,000 which he had given on his taking office; and Ryder, ex- Attorney-General of England, afterwards gave an opinion sus- taining him.
On August 22, 1749, Hamilton purchased for the Proprie- taries from the Six Nations a tract bounded by the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers, extending from the Blue mountains to a line running from the mouth of Lackawaxen creek to the mouth of Mahanoy Creek. York county, including what is now Adams, was formed in 1749, and Cumberland, lying west and southwest of it, in 1750, Berks and Northampton in 1752.
On May 15, 1750, Lord Chancellor Hardwicke decided the case brought by the Penns against Lord Baltimore in 1737, say- ing that from the mighty interests involved "it was worthy the judicature of a Roman Senate rather than of a single judge." He found that, in making the agreement of 1732 for settling the boundaries. Lord Baltimore was neither surprised nor imposed upon nor ignorant. There was no mistake as to the intention of
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Thomas and Richard Penn
the parties. The settlement of boundaries was a sufficient consid- eration to both. It was not necessary for the court to go into the question of the original right of the parties, it being sufficient that the right was doubtful. The clearest point, the Chancellor said, was as to the circle around New Castle; it was to be twelve miles in radius, with the center of the town for its center. So he de- creed specific performance without prejudice to any right of the Crown.
This decision, disposing of one boundary question, left others looming up about this time. That with Connecticut was scarcely thought of. Charles II granted on April 23, 1662, nine- teen years before the charter to Penn, a charter to Connecticut, bounding it as follows : "On the east by Narragansett river, com- monly called Narragansett bay, where the said river falleth into the sea; on the north by the line of the Massachusetts Plantation, and on the south by the sea, and in longitude as the line of the Massachusetts colony running from east to west, that is to say from the said Narragansett bay on the east to the South Sea on the west part." As was well pointed out by Provost William Smith, D. D., if this description was to be literally followed, the south line of Connecticut would run down the whole Atlantic coast line of America to Cape Horn and up the Pacific coast line, where it would coincide with the western boundary, the Pacific Ocean, or South Sea. As between Connecticut and New York a bound- ary line was fixed, which in Penn's time was supposed to be as far west as the former would ever claim. Over thirty years after his death some of the inhabitants of that crowded colony took up the notion that although New York was to be excepted from the op- eration of their old charter, any land west of New York was not, and that the jurisdiction lawfully, jumping New York, ran across , Pennsylvania and any other region where Europeans were not in possession at the date of the charter. The southern line of their claim was the latitude of the southernmost point of Connecticut east of New York. Unreasonable as we think this claim, yet if it
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