USA > Pennsylvania > The history of Pennsylvania : from its discovery by Europeans, to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 > Part 17
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At his decease, his province was encumbered by his mort- gage of 1708, and his contract with the crown for the sale of the government. His will, dated 1712, was made antece- dently to, but in contemplation of, this contract. He pro- vided for the issue of his first marriage, by the devise of his English and Irish estates; which, producing fifteen hundred pounds sterling per annum, were estimated of greater value than his American possessions. From the latter, he made provision for the payment of his debts, and for his widow and her children. The government of the province and ter- ritories he devised to the earls of Oxford, Mortimer, and Pawlet, in trust, to sell to the queen, or any other person. His estate in the soil he devised to other trustees, in trust, to sell so much as should be necessary for the payment of his debts; to assign to his daughter Letitia, and the three chil- dren of his son William, ten thousand acres each, and to convey the remainder, at the discretion of his widow, to her children, subject to an annuity to herself of three hundred pounds sterling per annum. He appointed her sole execu- trix, and legatee of his personal estate.
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Three questions arose on his devise of the government: 1, Whether it was valid against the heir-at-law, who claimed by descent? 2, Whether the object of the trust had not been already effected, by the contract of the proprietary with the queen? 3, Whether, by consequence, his interest was not converted into personality? In which case it passed in absolute property to the widow. From their doubts on these points, the trustees refused to act, unless under a decree of the court of chancery, whose interposition was also required by the commissioners of the treasury, before payment of the balance due on the purchase, to the executrix. A suit in this court was accordingly instituted, which kept the family property in a state of great uncertainty for many years; during which Mrs. Penn, as executrix and trustee, assumed the su- perintendence of provincial affairs. In the year 1727, the family disputes, the proprietary's will having been established in the exchequer, were compromised; and the crown lawyers and ministry concurring in opinion, that the proprietary's agreement was void, from his inability to make a proper sur- render of the government, it devolved, on the death of Wil- liam Penn the younger and his son Springett, to John, Tho- mas, and Richard Penn.
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CHAPTER X.
Popular principles of Sir William Keith ···· Favourable dispo- sition of the assembly .... Fiscal concerns .... Inspection laws .... Court of Equity .... Militia .... Change in the assembly .... Increase of Foreigners ···· Indian disputes .... An Indian mur- dered .... Servants ···· Want of a circulating medium .... Re- medies proposed .... Paper currency .... Committee of Griev- ance .... Gratitude of the assembly to Keith .... Fugitives from justice .... Further emission of paper .... Counterfeit bills .... Impediments by the crown to the passage of private acts of assembly ···· Indian complaints ···· Proprietaries dis- approve Keith's conduct .... Logan divides the council against him .... Pretensions of the minority. ... Logan removed from council ···· Hannah Penn reprehends Keith ···· Letters from Gouldney and Gee .... Keith's reply .... Communicates his instructions and correspondence to the assembly .... Is removed ···· His character.
IF governor Gookin were unfortunate in the general dis- affection of the people he governed, governor Keith was happy in their esteem and confidence. He was the son of Sir William Keith, of the north of Scotland, and had for some time held the office of his majesty's surveyor of the customs for the southern provinces, yielding a salary of five hundred pounds sterling per annum. He occasionally visited Philadelphia, interested himself in the political discussions of the province, and acquired the good will of Messrs. Logan and Norris, and other respectable inhabitants. In London he had rendered the province and proprietary family considerable services. The illness of William Penn had deprived both of an agent at court;' the laws of the province sent for the appro- bation of the crown, moved languidly through the offices, and the insinuations and scandals of those who desired to strip the
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proprietary of his political power, and there were still many of this character in the province and territories, were fre- quently undetected and unrepelled. Keith aided the passage of the provincial laws, and supported the proprietary inte- rests. He solicited the appointment of lieutenant-governor at some considerable expense; the fees in the offices, on ob- taining the king's confirmation of such appointments, being large, and every attempt to reach the throne requiring expen- diture of money. He was recommended to the proprietary family (whose interest in the province was managed by Mrs. Hannah Penn and her uncle Clements, assisted by Henry Gouldney, and his fellow trustees, in the mortgage,) by the provincial council and chief inhabitants, by their friends in London, and by the influence, at this time not very service- able, of William Penn, Jun. who formally addressed letters in his favour to the council, the commissioners of property, and secretary Logan. Mrs. Penn assented to his appoint- ment, cheerfully, she said, from a conviction of his capacity, although she lost thereby the sum of two hundred and fifty pounds, which was offered her to appoint another .*
The deputy governors of the province had heretofore taken little pains to conciliate the people. Dependent upon the proprietary for their office, and on the crown for future em- ployment, they considered themselves as bailiffs for the one, and were place-hunters from the other. Hence, the gover- nors were exacting, and the governed jealous and reluctant to give. The governor had to elaborate his maintainance from a people barely disposed to yield him a frugal support, but without sympathy for wants generated by dignity of place or the pomp of power. Hence the high tone which the instructions of the proprietary occasioned, was frequently followed by ill-timed humility; and the respect of the people was exchanged for pity or contempt. No governor had yet ventured to embrace the popular party, or to support its in- terest with the proprietary and the crown, on disputed sub- jects. This was reserved for Sir William Keith, who
Logan MSS.
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thoroughly studied the errors of his predecessors. He arriv- ed at Philadelphia on the thirty-first day of May. In a few days afterwards he met the assembly of the territories at Newcastle, and succeeded in obtaining from them a memo- rial to the king, in favour of the proprietary's claim to their government, although the conduct of Gookin had induced the inhabitants to solicit the appointment of a royal gover- nor. Their discontents were excited by James Coutts, an ambitious and wealthy inhabitant, who desired that office for himself, and by Kenneth Gordon, a Scotch adventurer, who had the like ambition, and who was attached to the interest of lord Sutherland; that nobleman, availing himself of the doubts which hung over the proprietary's political rights in the territories, and some informality in the grants from the crown to the duke of York, having earnestly solicited the king for a grant of the soil and government of the territories. But he was successfully opposed by the earl of Sunderland, who supported the interests of William Penn .*
Keith displayed the policy he meant to pursue in his first address to the assembly. "His tender regard for their inte- rest," he said, " they being engaged in harvest at his arrival, had induced him to postpone the satisfaction he proposed to himself in meeting the assembly; and he should always endeavour to make the time they must necessarily bestow on the public service as easy and pleasant to them, as he hoped it would be profitable and satisfactory to the country. If an affectionate desire to oblige and serve the people could qualify him for his station, he might expect that his and the country's interest would be effectually united, as those who sincerely desired to serve either, must necessarily serve both. The warmth of his inclination towards them might be inferred from his expensive application during the last year, to intro- duce to the prince regent the humble address of the assembly to the king, which had been so graciously received by his exertions; by the diligence and expense with which he had
* Logan MSS.
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obtained his commission, without other prospect or advantage than that of serving them; and by the fatigue he had already undergone to promote their service. But these things were trifles, compared with their indispensable obligation to sup- port the dignity and authority of the government, by such a reasonable and discreet establishment as the nature of the thing and their own generosity would direct; and whatever they might be disposed to do of that kind, he hoped might no longer bear the undeserved and reproachful name of a burthen on the people; but that they would rather enable him to re- lieve the country from real burdens, by empowering him to introduce a better economy and more frugal management in the collection of taxes, which were then squandered by the officers appointed to assess and collect them."*
The assembly testified their satisfaction with this speech, and his kind and conciliatory manners, by an immediate grant of five hundred and fifty pounds, payable from the first monies received in the treasury, which they replenished by an additional bill of supply.t In return, Keith framed an address to the throne on the interesting subject of affirma- tions, which had the good fortune to please the house in all respects, save that the plural number was used instead of the singular .¿
In consequence of the death of the proprietary, governor Keith entertained doubts of the continuance of his powers; but these were speedily dissipated by the opinion of his council and the assembly, that the event of the proprietary's death was fully provided for, by the " act for further securing the administration of the government," passed on the seventh of June, 1711. He also received from William Penn the younger, a renewal of his commission, with a letter of in- structions, recommending the continuance of the existing council, the enactment of a militia law, so framed as to avoid the oppression of the Quakers, and a strict observance of the rights and liberties of the people, especially of the law pro- tecting liberty of conscience. Professing himself a member
Votes. + Votes. Logan MSS.
+ Votes.
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of the Church of England, Mr. Penn directed Keith to en- courage and protect the clergy, to employ deserving members of that communion, and to discountenance all anti-trinitarians and libertines. Keith, believing the commission from the son to be illegal, apprized the secretary Craggs of his intention not to act under it, but to rely upon that of the father. This determination was approved by the lords of trade and plantations, and by the then lords regent, and his continuance in office confirmed .* These circumstances proved offensive to the Penn family, and perhaps caused Keith to believe that his office was independent. of their powers.t William Penn also addressed himself to Mr. Logan, inclosing him a commission of secretary of the province, soliciting a renewal of their former friendly intercourse, and proffering his services in the agency of the province in London. He died at Calais or Leige, from disease brought on by dissipa- tion and intemperance, in March, 1720. His proprietary rights passed to his son Springett, who did not long survive him. į
The industry and politic conduct of the governor contri- buted greatly to the regularity and facility of the public labours. The wants of the government were timely ascer- tained, and regularly and properly supplied. The public charges may be classed under the following heads: 1. Legis- lative; consisting of the wages of the members of assembly, their servants and attendants, and the sums paid to counsel for drawing bills. The principle of a per diem compensation had been adopted by the early assemblies, and varied from six to eight shillings; the former sum was paid during the greater part of Keith's administration. 2. The executive; embracing the governor's salary, which, for eight years, averaged nine hundred and fifty pounds perannum;§ the com-
* Penn. Records. Logan MSS. + Hamilton Papers MSS. # Lo- gan MSS. § Keith received in the first year sixteen hundred pounds, and his receipt in the subsequent years of his administration averaged eighteen hundred pounds. The difference between these sums, and the amount received from the assembly, was paid from tavern licenses, fines, and other perquisites. Hamilton MSS.
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missions of the collectors of the customs and excise, and of the treasurer; the former at ten, and the latter at five per cent. ; and the salary of the attorney-general, fixed at sixty pounds per annum. 3. The judiciary: In this department, for many years, the chief justice only received compensation from the treasury ; the other judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, were remunerated by bench fees. This mode was oppressive to the people, and yielded but a miserable pittance to the officer. In 1725, on the petition of the jus- tices of the supreme court, the puisne judges were also allowed a salary, but the whole sum paid to the court did not exceed one hundred and fifty pounds per annum, of which the chief justice received two-thirds, though before that time he had received the whole for his own use. It was part of the labour of the judges of the supreme court to prepare bills upon resolutions adopted by the house, for which they re- ceived a separate remuneration. 4. Incidental; composed chiefly of presents and other charges of Indian treaties, and the maintainance of a provincial agent in London. The mean provincial expenditure for eight years of Keith's administra- tion, was fifteen hundred pounds per annum, defrayed by an impost on the nett value of real and personal estate, a poll tax, duties on the importation of wines, spirits, cider, flax, hops, and negroes, and by the interest on loan office bills.
The agricultural produce becoming superabundant, and the foreign demand insufficient to draw off the excess, the enter- prise of the planter was discouraged, and many labourers, whose number was daily increased by the emigration from Europe, were unemployed. The remedy for these evils lay in increased consumption and export; and the exertions of the legislature were directed to both with distinguished suc- cess. An act was passed, forbidding, under heavy penalties, the use of molasses, sugar, honey, or other substances, save grain and hops, in the manufacture of beer; and distillers were encouraged to supply the consumption of ardent spirits from domestic materials. But to the improvement of the manufacture of flour, which now claimed great attention, Pennsylvania is mainly indebted for her increase of popula-
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tion and wealth. The inspection laws, now adopted, esta- blished the character of her flour and her salted provisions in foreign markets, and gave her a valuable part of the trade of the West Indies.
The confidence of the province in Keith was almost with- out bounds. His influence sufficed to establish two measures, hitherto repugnant to the assembly; an equity court, de- pendent on the governor's will, of which he was chancellor, and a militia organized by like authority. The public opi- nion had been long declared in favour of a court of equity; the common-law courts had an equity side, but, either from the diversity of judgments rendered in different counties, or from want of learning in the judges, the people became dis- satisfied with the administration of law and equity by the same persons. Keith dexterously availed himself of these
discontents. He informed the house of the public wishes, and that "he was advised by lawyers and others, that neither the assembly, nor the representatives of other colonies, had power to erect such a court; that the office of chancellor could legally be executed by himself only, who, by virtue of the great seal, was the representative of the king: yet he sub- mitted this opinion with great deference to the house, by whose judgment he was desirous to be guided." The assem- bly cheerfully granted to this humility what they had refused to the arrogance of Evans. They requested Keith to open a court of equity, to appoint the necessary officers, and to establish the proper forms. Accordingly, he, by proclama- tion, directed such courts to be opened on the twenty-fifth of August, and to continue open, for the relief of the subject, in the determination of all matters regularly cognizable before a court of chancery, agreeably to the laws of England.(1)*
(1) See Note F 2, Appendix.
* Whilst presiding in this court, in 1725, sir William Keith took offence at the conduct of John Kinsey, an eminent lawyer, and a Quaker, subse- quently chief justice of the province, who appeared before the court, in the transaction of business, with his hat upon his head. Keith ordered it to be taken off; which was accordingly done. The Quakers took this af- fair under consideration, and, at their quarterly meeting, appointed a com- mittee to wait upon the governor, and to request the continuance of the
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The militia was permitted with great readiness, under & recommendation from the house, that the governor, in per- forming what he deemed his duty, would, with his wonted prudence, take care that the militia service should be volun- tary, and that the peace of the inhabitants towards each other should be preserved. The popularity of the governor with the people, alarmed the friends of the proprietary family, who entertained suspicions of a design, on his part, to over- throw their power. William Ashton, a member of the coun- cil, and nearly related to the Penn family, wrote to William Penn, jr., and sent verbal messages, cautioning him to beware of the governor, and to rank him among his enemies. Keith, for this offence, expelled him from the council board, from which he was excluded for more than two years .*
But, though Keith was courteous, nay, sometimes servile, towards the assembly, he had sufficient firmness to resist measures which were not sanctioned by his judgment. The influx of foreigners had become so great, as to alarm the as- sembly, who dreaded their settlement upon the frontier. Keith had turned the attention of the house to this subject, in the first year of his administration, but had prevailed upon them to postpone definite measures, until the sense of the royal council could be obtained. In the meantime, every at- tempt to naturalize foreigners was received with coldness. Even the Germans, whose industry and utility were prover- bial, could not remove the prevailing jealousy. Many pala- tines, long resident in the province, applied for naturalization
privilege, to which they conceived themselves legally entitled, of appear- ing in courts their own way, according to their religious persuasion. The address of the committee was filed in the court, with the order thereon, making it a standing rule of the court of chancery, that any practitioner of the law, or other person, being a Quaker, might speak or otherwise officiate in the said court, without being obliged to observe the usual ceremony of uncovering their heads, by having their hats taken off."
The following persons were masters in chancery, during the chancellor- ship of sir William Keith, viz: James Logan, Jonathan Dickenson, Samuel Preston, Richard Hill, Anthony Palmer, William Trent, Thomas Masters, Robert Ashton, William Ashton, John French, Andrew Hamilton, Henry Brooke, William Fishbourne, Thomas Græme, and Evan Owen.
* Minutes of council.
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in 1721. The consideration of their petition was procrasti- nated until 1724, when leave was granted them to bring in a bill, provided they should individually obtain from a justice of the peace a certificate of the value of their property, and nature of their religious faith. The petitioners do not ap- pear to have been satisfied with this condition; still the as- sembly of the following year sent a bill to the governor, embracing the offered terms. But he returned it instantly, objecting, that in a country where English liberty and law prevailed, a scrutiny into the private conversation and faith of the citizens, and particularly into their estates, was unjust, and dangerous in precedent. The house yielded to the force of his reasons,* and did not insist upon their bill, but it was some time before the subsiding of their jealousy permitted them to confer the privileges of subjects upon the palatines. Indeed, the timidity of the assembly induced them to check the importation of foreigners, by a duty on all coming to re- side in the province ;f and, if there were any just cause to dread an increase of population, the numbers continually ar- riving might palliate the present policy. In one year from December, 1728, there were six thousand two hundred Ger- mans and others imported.į
A disagreement relating to hunting-grounds, between the southern and Pennsylvania Indians, threatened to disturb the peace of the province. To avert this, Keith paid a visit to the governor of Virginia, with whom he framed a convention, confining the Indians resident on the north and south of the Potomac, to their respective sides of that river; which the Pennsylvania and Five nation Indians, at a general confe- rence, held at Conestoga on the sixth of July, 1721, fully ratified. This visit was made with much state. Keith was attended by a suit of seventy horsemen, many of them well armed, and was welcomed on his return, at the upper ferry on the Schuylkill, by the mayor and aldermen of the city, accompanied by two hundred of the most respectable citi- zens. §
Votes. + Mod. Hist.
# Ibid, Minutes of council.
§ Proud.
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The governor of Maryland prepared at this time to make surveys on the Susquehannah, within the bounds claimed by Pennsylvania, and within the present county of York. Keith resolved to resist this attempt by force, and ordered out a militia company from Newcastle. His council, however, dis- couraged every resort to violence, even should the Mary- landers employ force to effect their object. The Indians became alarmed at the proposed encroachment from Maryland, and, after much hesitation, consented to convey to Keith, that he might have a better title to resist the Marylanders, a large tract of land, for the use of Springett Penn, the grandson of William Penn, afterwards known by the name of Springett- bury manor. *
The fears of the province were, soon after, again awakened, by a quarrel between two brothers, named Cartledge, and an Indian near Conestoga, in which the latter was killed, with many circumstances of cruelty. The known principles of revenge, professed by the Indians, gave reason to apprehend severe retaliation. Policy and justice required a rigid inquiry, and the infliction of exemplary punishment on the murderers. The assembly commanded a coroner's inquest to be holden on the body, though two months buried, in the interior of the country, and the arrest of the accused. Messengers were despatched to the Five nations, to deprecate hostility; and, to prevent further irregularities, the prohibition of the sale of spirituous liquors to the Indians was re-enacted, with ad- ditional penalties. The Indians invited Keith to meet them, with the governors of Virginia, New York, and the New England colonies, in council, at Albany; where, with great magnanimity, they pardoned the offence of the Cartledges, and requested they might be discharged without further punish- ment. The address of the king merits a place here. "The great king of the Five nations," said the reporter, " is sorry for the death of the Indian that was killed, for he was of his own flesh and blood: he believes the governor is also sorry ; but, now that it is done, there is no help for it. And he de-
* Minutes of council.
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sires that Cartledge may not be put to death, nor that he should be spared for a time and afterwards executed; one life is enough to be lost; there should not two die. The king's heart is good to the governor, and all the English." The governor was attended, on his journey to Albany, by Messrs. Hill, Norris, and Hamilton, of his council. *
A part of the emigration to the colonies was composed of servants, who were of two classes. The first and larger, poor and oppressed in the land of their nativity, sometimes the victims of political changes, or religious intolerance, submit- ted to a temporary servitude, as the price of freedom, plenty, and peace: The second, vagrants and felons, the dregs of the British populace, were cast by the mother country upon her colonies, with the most selfish disregard of the feelings she outraged. From this moral pestilence the first settlers shrunk with horror. In 1682 the Pennsylvania council proposed to prohibit the introduction of convicts, but the evil was then prospective to them only, and no law was enacted.t But an act was now passed, which, though not prohibitory in terms, was such in effect. A duty of five pounds was imposed upon every convicted felon brought into the province, and the importer was required to give surety for the good behaviour of the convict for one year; and to render these provisions effectual, the owner or master was bound under a penalty of twenty pounds, to render, on oath or affirmation, within twenty-four hours after the arrival of the vessel, an account to the collector of the names of the servants and passengers. But such account was not required when bond was given conditioned for the re-exportation of such servants within six months.
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