USA > Pennsylvania > Welsh settlement of Pennsylvania > Part 22
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It is true that as a class the Indians were peaceable when the Welsh removed here, and were not murderers and scalpers, but yet there were some "bad Indians" then, as well as nowadays. There is evidence that some of these roamed the forests of Haverford and Radnor, apparently on innocent wild game hunting, but, at the same time, were frightening the Welsh so they were obliged to complain to the Council, for there is a minute 16. mo. 1686 of "The Complaint of ye friends Inhabitants of Hertford against the Indians, for ye Rapine and Destruction of their Hoggs." Thereupon, the Provincial Council ordered that "Ye respec- tive Indian kings with all speed" should be summoned to ap- pear before it, and "be made to desist" the raids on farm live stock.
During the French and Indian war, some outlying fam- ilies, apparently, had to abandon their plantations, and come into the more thickly settled part of Merion. For in- stance, the following entry of a burial at the Merion Meet- ing, 5mo. 4, 1756, "Joseph, son of Joseph Conlin, who left their plantation for fear of the Indians."
In the early books about America we find many state- ments that are silly, or amusing, as we may look at them from our point of view, and with our experience and knowl- edge. For instance, the Rev. John Campanius, a Swedish Lutheran minister, who was here for six years, 1641-46, and was the first missionary of religion among the Dela- ware Indians, took notes from which he hoped to write a book, but died in 1683, aged 83 years, without doing so. His son, Thomas, who was here when a lad with his father, re-wrote his father's notes on America, and added much information, and is the one responsible for their exaggera- tions, and printed the whole in Swedish, in 1702, the title translated being, "Brief description of the Province of New Sweden, now Pensylvania."
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What is particularly interesting to us, is the information recorded of the country about the Falls of the Schuylkill, where the minister had been to visit the Indians. He tells of the abundance of walnut, chestnut, peach, and mulberry trees, of wild plums, wild grapes, and hemp and hops every- where. And of that wonderful gourd, "calabash," which, when dried hard, is fashioned into dishes and cups, tipped with silver, some being so large they hold a gallon.
But what is recorded of our familiar fire-fly is news in- deed. "There is a kind of fly, which the Indians call 'cuo- uye,' which in the night gives so strange a light that it is sufficient, when a man is travelling, to show him the way, one may also write and read the smallest print by the light which they give. When the Indians go in the night a hunt- ing, they fasten these insects to their hands and feet, by which they can see their way as well as in the daytime. One night these flies frightened all the soldiers that were on guard at Fort Christiana [Wilmington, Del.]; they thought they were enemies advancing towards them with lighted matches!" "There is also," about the Falls, "a large and terrible serpent, which is called a rattle-snake. It has a head like a dog, and can bite off a man's leg as if cut with an axe ! * * These snakes are three yards long, and thick as the thickest part of a man's leg." What a life of wonder, and anxiety the ladies of Dr. Jones's settlement at these Falls must have led !
It is a well known fact that the Quakers never proselyte, but a few years after the first settlements were made "out of town," the Welsh who then removed to Pensylvania were generally "Church of England" people, for when the annoy- ances ceased in Wales, the well-to-do Friends stopped com .. ing over. These "Churchmen" from Wales, having acquired the habit at home, resumed it here, and made attempts to proselyte the Quakers of Radnor, but there is no evidence that they made any remarkable headway.
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William Penn, in his "Agreement" with these later emi- grants promised them they should be at liberty to worship as they wished, and, if a body of settlers desired a minister, they were at liberty, as far as he was concerned, to ask the Bishop of London to send them one. The Churchmen in the Welsh Tract had been visited by missionary ministers; but imagining the influence a regular congregation, and a "steeple-house," would have in the community, about a hun- dred Welsh Episcopalians, in Radnor, Haverford, and Mer- ion, petitioned the Bishop of London for a permanent min- ister, one who could speak both Welsh and English, and par- ticularly one "who could be sober," "hoping to recover to the Church the non-conforming Quakers."
Their petition was granted, and the congregation was united, and the church erected in Radnor, and called St. David's. It may have been only a small log building, as the present little stone church was not erected till 1717. The records of this earliest Episcopalian Church, West of the Schuylkill, begin only with the baptism, on 8 June, 1706, of Elizabeth, child of Morgan and Elizabeth Hughes, but there were regular services held here before this. It is estimated that about fifty families attended this church in 1707-8-9, but it is not until 1721-2 that there was recorded a list of members, when we find that among the communicants were David Howell and Evan Harry, the wardens, and Thomas Edwards, James Price, Thomas James, David Thomas, George Lewis, Francis Lewis, Owen Hugh, Philip David, John David, William Owen, Evan Jones, Richard Hughes, &c.
In the "North Wales," or Gwynedd settlement, was an- other Church of England congregation, holding services at Oxford and Evansburg. The Rev. Evan Evans, of Christ Church, in town, included all the little out-of-town churches in his parish, and visited them at stated times, holding serv- ices and preaching in both Welsh and in English, but the
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Quaker were not disturbed, and their meetings were held regularly in the Welsh Tract proper, at three, or four meet- ing houses, and at Plymouth, Oxford, Gwynedd, &c.
At Gwynedd, where the majority of the early Welsh were "Churchmen," and met at the home of Robert Evans, where his brother, Cadwalader Evans, 1664-1745, conducted the services as lay-reader. The prominent Welsh Quakers in that neighborhood at that time were John Hughes, John Humphrey, and Thomas Evans.
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WELSH TRACT AFFAIRS. I.
Now, as did these Welshmen, we, too, will look back on the conditions on which this land, the great Welsh Tract, was purchased and seated by them, for we have reviewed the reasons for their removal, and see that promises ver- bally made by grantor to grantees had no recognition subsequently by the proprietary and deputies, since they were not "so nominated in the bond."
That William Penn promised to these Welsh gentlemen, his peers, that their individual purchases each should lie in one body; that they so understood him; (that these farm lands were divided in halves by miles of waste, or sparsely settled territory, we have seen) ; that he repudiated his ver- bal agreements with them, this we will see.
That their great, joint tract of land was to be exclusively to their use; that it was to be controlled and governed by themselves, and through laws of their own enacting; that such was their understanding and expectation from promises made by Penn; that this claim was ultimately denied and refused by him, that we will also see.
Unfortunately for the Welsh Friends there could be no appeal from Penn ; his word in such matters was final.
When William Penn received from Charles the Second the royal charter for the American territory, which his father had tried and failed to get, conditions for William's success being more favorable, dated at Westminster, 4 March, 1681, for which William, as his father's heir, had petitioned the previous year, in lieu of a debt of £16,000, and interest thercon, due his father from the Crown for disburse- ments in the Victualling Office, and over which granted territory he was constituted "absolute proprietary," captain- general, and lord high admiral, with only allegiance to the
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Crown, and to hold the same forever by fealty only, on a trivial, or nominal annual payment, this territory was erected into a scigniority, and named the Province of Pensylvania .*
But it still continued to be territory of the kingdom, and : bject to provisions set forth in the royal charter, yet Penn's power within it was virtually feudal, though subject to these limitations, which defined his authority and legal status. His province he was to govern by the general laws of England; but he could form a constitution for it, with such scope he thought necessary for his domain, and enact laws for it covering peculiar cases or that were necessary under different conditions, with the assent of the freemen and land owners, if he saw fit to ask and consider their wishes, which did not conflict with those of the kingdom. That is, he had full power to form a government to suit his ideas. (With his inexperience in such matters, it is not sur- prising that when Fletcher superceded Penn as Governor, he declared, after investigation, "the constitution of their Majesties's government, and that of Mr. Penn are in direct opposition, one to the other.")
Penn in full control was more than "absolute pro- prietary," in the sense that every freeholder is, as he appointed his courts and officers for the proper government of his territory, or province, and was authorized to erect counties and townships, incorporate boroughs and towns, and establish ports in his province. His deputy, residing in the province, ruled in his name the same as the king's lord lieutenant, or governor-general, and Penn was virtually his
*See the Pensylvania Colonial Records, vol. I. for the full text of the principal papers relating to the beginning of Pensylvania, namely, the Royal Charter of Charles II. to Penn; Penn's "Condi- tions and Concessions to Adventurers for Land"; Penn's "Frame of Government," for his province, in its several shapes, as he would like to have had it, and as he had to have it, in the years 1681, 1683, and 1696, and the "Laws agreed Upon." Also Pa. Archives, fourth series, vol. I.
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sovereign, for it was in his name couneils and assemblies were called and dissolved, and these had no power to initiate legislation for his minature kingdom, and existed only to see that his laws, his wishes; his whims, were carried out in his domain, which he thought to govern from London, as a monarch did his outlaying territory, or as his king then did Virginia, New York and Georgia. Or as he expressed the conditions, "out of my great love and kindness," he had granted the people a charter * * to ratify his bills.
Penn deriving his authority over his province from the Crown, and, fortified by the Royal Charter, ordered his sub- jects, the freemen and freeholders, to choose from them- selves delegates to an assembly, to make them appear like men of affairs; but they were for a time, only by courtesy "an advisatory body" to him, and really only voiced the wishes of their constituancy, for the province was palatine, even regal, in its nature, and William Penn, the Proprietary, was the petty king, the sovereign count-palatine of feudal times, and he fully expected his dignity would be supported by the revenue from rentals, quit-rents, customs, and taxes, paid into his treasury, willingly, or if not, forcibly, by his subjects, for he is on record under his own hand, that he "must be supported in state and proper magnificence," when residing in his Province, else he would not live here! While Penn may have been sometimes a good Quaker, he certainly "put on airs," and was at first, a stickler for style and pomp he supposed due his exalted position as a minor monarch. However, Quakers in his domain thought differently, and as mild as was the tribute he exacted, arrows, roses, skins, grain, shillings, etc., incorporated in his land patents, very little was willingly paid him, so he is found everlastingly writing that he got no income from his investment, and that his speculation, grandly conceived, but poorly considered, was his ruination. "Prepare the people," he wrote his agent once, "to think of some way to support me. So I may not consume all my substance to serve the Province." But when
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his "ungrateful assembly" would make no provision for him, he wrote in disgust: "I will sell the shirt off my baek before I will trouble them any more." His idea, which he backed with his fortune,-and lost, be it considered only a chimera, was a great "experiment," as he called it, if not a grand scheme, and he had all possible liberty from the Crown to carry it through, and may be would have done so with con- fiding Quakers, in an entirely Quaker colony, but he never took into consideration the possibility of a mixed population in his province, and that he could not keep it exclusive, or have the "Meeting" paramount.
Some other man, with the backing and freedom he had, might have done better, and made the province into a pay- ing concern, which was his dream, for, although it may in charity be claimed he was "far removed from mercenary consideration in founding Pensylvania," yet there are many instances to the contrary. "Though I desire to extend religious freedom, yet I must have some recompense for my trouble" he wrote. But this "province business" was a new one, in the way he proposed to carry it through, and he had no training to carry through such an undertaking. Other American proprietaries did business on different plans not better. But the chances against Penn's winning were like theirs in a measure, and none won out. Each could lay their undoing and loss to different causes. One of Penn's was, his humanitarian projeet in mind, that he carelessly, or unwittingly made promises to grantees, that subsequently were urged vigorously, and caused his agents much trouble, and him nearly the cancellation of his royal grant, which he frequently forgot was still in the power of the Crown to do under certain circumstances.
Penn always an idealist, was certainly to be pittied, for with all sorts of claims, "trumpt-up" and legal, coming with every day, the general and necessary confusion of a new settlement, made up of many sorts of settlers and specula- tors; defective titles, and lapping grants to be straightened out ; his money going out in a steady stream, and no cor-
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responding in-flow, were a few of the causes of daily occur- ence that could have made a less warm hearted and "longer headed man" than William Penn "the greatest Englishman of his time," break under his responsibility. But if Penn had not been so vacillating in his promises, or forgetful of them, when not "so nominated in the bond," his Welsh grantees would have had a higher opinion of him, or have retained their respect for him, and we will see the reasons for their loss of faith. Even his agent here had to remind him he had better carry out his contracts with the grantees, and avoid further troubles.
His career has been more studied than any other man of his day, and because he was no ordinary man, many of his deeds arouse inquiry, therefore, from some points of view, it looks as if Penn had particular spite against the Welsh Friends, and we can believe this to be a fact from the records preserved to us of his treatment of them. His unfair treatment of them, and his pretended ignorance of verbal promises, till he succeeded in humiliating them, and through sundry devices recovered without payment much of the lands they purchased or engaged in good faith from him, are matters so interwoven that they can hardly be classed for separate consideration, so we will only consider the main features of what might be called his persecution of or his unfair dealing with his Welsh settlers.
Even though Pen- held to the opinion that the Welsh purchasers had no privileges different from his other grantees, he did not accord them equal rights. Their grant was made to them for a valuable and sufficient consideration and conditions embodied in the lease and release were satis- factory, but this was not all there was to the transaction. We have seen they bought in blocks of 5,000 acres, and under his plan their property as "first purchasers," was "a propriety," subject to a nominal quit-rent, with his free-gift deed, given with each uch purchase, of a promise of a cer- tain amount of extra land in the city liberties, or suburbs, and a varied number of lots in the city, and this was a part
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of the bargain he made with the Welsh "first purchasers" one they could understand very well, as under a gwarthal, it was a Welsh custom.
But Penn tried to annul this gratuity, claiming that the Welsh gentlemen who bought in 1681-2, were only "trustees," and, although they individually may have engaged to take 5,000 each, yet, he learned subsequently, they were only agents and trustees for the real buyers, or co-partners in the purchase, whose purchases out of these "allotments" were at best only a few hundred acres to each, therefore, these "trustees" had no claim to gifts of liberty lands and city lots, as no one of them bought whole tracts of 5,000 acres, there being always two or more concerned in *such purchases. There was no appeal. Purchasers held immediately of William Penn, not of the king. They had to accept the fact that the grant of 40,000 acres was not to one man, or to a corporation, but in fee to a number of individ- uals, some of whom represented themselves only, while others were trustees for themselves and others, as we have seen, all by separate deeds of conveyance. This hair-split- ting in the case of the Welsh purchasers was more evidence of Penn's unfairness to the Welsh Quakers, and they thought him diwyneb.
*It appears from the minutes of the Board of Property (Book G), 14, 7mo, 1709, the "The Swedes, who presented that abusive Petition in the Assembly, concerning their lands, having desired a meeting with the Commissioners, divers of them met at the secretary's office, and it being demanded what it is they complain off, they Said that the Prop'ry, at his first coming Into this Province, Promised them that he would be as a Father to Them, and that he Came not to Lessen or Take away their Rights, but to confirm Them to them, but that soon after he demanded a Sight of all their Pat's, which were delivered to him, that these had been detained from them, and that many of them had lost a Considerable Patent of the lands they hold of these Pat's taken from them. & that they were obliged To Pay for the Lands they held Greater Q't Rent than they had formerly Paid, which they Con- ceived to be greatly to their Wrong".
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In another way Penn showed unfair treatment of the Friends from Wales wlien he exacted more quit-rent from them than he was justified either by his agreement with them, or by the terms of his deeds to them .* The title to the land were not alloidial, for the land was held of Penn by socage tenure, or payment of quit-rent annually, which was a well known fact.
But Penn raised the question inadvertently, particu- larly with the Welsh Friends, when he was hard pushed for cash, years after they were settled in their new homes, as to when the payment of quit-rent should begin. He insisted it should start from the date of the original grant, to enlarge his revenue, but it was evident to the grantees that the pay- mient was due only after full and legal possession of pur- chases was had, which could not be till after the final survey of the land, confirmation of title, and receiving of the deed, and this was a matter of several years difference, and, of course, larger payment.
Penn had decided the first surveys were only prima- tive ; made only to approximate the locality and extent of the purchases, and that the final surveys, which he ordered, when he suspected there was much overplus land, (which he took to himself, and sold at great advantage, for prices had advanced because of the settlement and improvement of the "country lots"), constituted the completion of the titles. That is, he would have it supposed that he ordered the final survey only to perfect the title, when, in fact, he made the order only to gather to himself the excess land, which he was entitled to.
But this subterfuge re-acted on him, for when the quit- rent question came up, the Welsh, who had by this time considerable "inward light" on such matters, reminded him of his former decision, and held that not till the "final sur- vey" was made did they have legal possession of the lands
*See Reed's "Explanation of the City and Liberties," also Shep- herd's "Proprietory Government in Pensylvania."
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standing in their names, and from that date the assessment and payment of quit-rent should begin. However, they had to pay from the time of the date of the grant, for the "law," that is Mr. Penn, so decided, for he held it was a matter of indifference to him whether they paid from the date of a grant and called it quit-rent, or paid him ordinary rental of his land, the overplus they used, from the date of the grant up to the time of the "final survey," and then com- menced paying quit-rent on their holdings. Being Quakers, there were no suits at law in this matter, and there could be no appeal, for Penn's word was the last.
Still another example of Penn's unfair dealing with the Welsh Friends was when he made the date of the original, the approximating survey, as the date to reckon from when he enforced his "Condition" that "in three years" the pur- chaser must seat his land, otherwise, Penn could confiscate it, and sell it again. He made the concession; the then holding grantee, however, should have the refusal of it for a "short time," to arrange to buy it over! This rule was particularly aimed at the Welsh Tract land holders.
His "condition," to which many Welsh gentlemen sub- scribed, 11 July, 1681, was that "a family must be seated in three years," in each purchase of 1,000 acres in the "country lots." This was when he verbally declared to his interviewers from Wales, that no one could purchase more than 1,000 acres, excepting under this condition, and with this understanding.
The question was raised by the Welsh Friends, when Penn notified them of his intention of enforcing this par- ticular "condition," as to when it was proper to begin to reckon the "three years" time. Penn ruled, as in the quit- rent case, "the three years must be reconned from the time of the survey."
"Which survey?" the Welsh inquired, for there had already been several, one of which was the "final survey,"
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"certainly not the first one, nor the second, Friend William, for thee declared the 'final survey' was the only legal one, and we think the three years previlege should be reckoned from the date of it."
"From the first and original one," was Penn's laconic reply.
As in the previous instance of the arbitrariness of Penn, there could be no appeal from his last word in this matter, so the Welsh had to hustle for tenants, or lose their pur- chases, which had increased much in value, for we have learned from John Jones' letter that "there was no land to be bought [in 1685] within twelve miles of the city," and Dr. Edward Jones, in 1682, wrote that there was "a crowd of people [in Philadelphia] striving for ye Country land."
Another grievance the Welsh Friends felt was theirs, a thing much to their chagrin; but not pecuniary loss, how- ever; was when Penn divided the great Welsh Tract into three parts, or the townships of Merion, Haverford, and Radnor, and subsequently erected others.
Penn certainly had authority, under the Royal Charter, to erect townships by patents, describing the bounds, num- ber of acres in each, locations, and names, which should be recorded, (which, however, was never done), and grant power to the inhabitants of each "to chuse anealy a Con- stable, Overseer of ye Poor, and Overseer of ye highways for the Township." It seems the Welsh were not allowed "to chuse anealy" their township officers, which was their right, as they understood it, as they were appointed by the County Court.
In this connection, it is of interest to hear what Penn wrote "at Worminghurst Place, 12. 10mo. 1685," in his "Further Account" of his sumoirous province. "Our Town- ships lie Square, generally the Village in the center; the Houses either opposit, or else opposit to the middle, betwixt two Houses over the way, for near neighborhood. We have another Method, that tho the Village be in the Center, yet
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after a different manner; 500 acres are allotted for the Vil- lage, which, among ten families, comes to 50 acres each. This lies square, and on the outside of the Square stand the Houses, with them 50 acres running back, where, ends meeting, make the center of the 500 acres as they are to the whole. Before the Doors of the Houses lies the Higli- way, and across it, every man's 450 acres of land, that makes up his complement of 500, so that the Conveniency of Neighborhood is made agreeable with that of the Land. I said nothing in my last of any number of Townships, but there are at least 50, settled before my leaving those parts, which was in the Moneth called August, 1684. I visited many of them." "We do settle in the way of Townships, or Villages," he also wrote, at another time, "each of which contains 5,000 acres, in Square, and at least Ten Families ; the regulation of the Country being a Family to each 500 acres. Some Townships have more."
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