HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

CHAPTER I.

1681-1682.

Charter to William Penn-Name given to Province-Colonel William Markham and Lord Baltimore-Purchases from Indians-Terms to Settlers-Philadelphia-Religious Liberty-Fundamental Constitutions Charter to the Colony-Laws agreed upon in England.

THE charter of Charles II. to William Penn was dated March 4, 1681. It was largely drawn up by Penn himself, who partly copied from a similar charter granting Maryland to Lord Baltimore. The draught was revised by the Attorney-General and other crown advisers, and its final form was liberal and just to all parties. The power to grant was assumed to involve the power to modify at pleasure and the English government was not restrained in after years, when the charter provisions became in certain particulars inconvenient, from annulling them.

Penn was made absolute owner of the soil, to occupy, sell, or dispose of as he saw fit. The consideration for this princely domain, besides the sixteen thousand pounds of royal indebtedness extinguished, was "two beaver skins to be delivered at our said castle of Windsor on the first day of January of every year, and also the fifth part of all the gold and silver ore" found in the province.

He could also frame the government subject to the consent of the majority of the colonists, and in an emergency, without them. Practically, all details, the kind of people he would sell to, the price to be asked, the amount and kind of political power he would retain for himself and grant to the people, were for the time in his own hands.

The imperfect knowledge of the geography of the country and of the position of the parallels of latitude gave great difficulty in interpreting the grant. The boundaries were given as follows: "On the east by the Delaware river from twelve miles distant north from Newcastle town unto the three and fortieth degree of northern latitude, if the said river doth extend so far northward. . . . The said land to extend westward five degrees in longitude to be computed from the eastern bounds; and the said lands to be bounded on the north by three and fortieth degree of northern latitude, and on the south by a circle drawn at twelve miles distance from Newcastle northward and westward unto the beginning of the fortieth degree of northern latitude, and then by a straight line westward to the limits of longitude above mentioned."

The evident intention of the king was to give Penn a tract three degrees in latitude and five in longitude. But the circle about New Castle, which was then supposed to lie on the fortieth parallel, made indefinite trouble, and nearly a century elapsed before the difficulty was finally adjusted. Pennsylvania never got her three degrees of latitude; indeed, she could not, without encroaching on land previously granted to Lord Baltimore.

Penn desired control over the Delaware River to its mouth. Hence he asked the Duke of York, afterwards James II., to give him the territory now constituting the State of Delaware. Sir William Penn on his death-bed had commended his son, the founder, to the care of the duke, and he readily assented. The three lower counties, as they were commonly called, became thus a part of Pennsylvania, and for about twenty years were embraced within its government. After this there was a separate legislature; but the authority of the Penns prevailed over both colonies till the Revolution, and close political bands drew them together.

Within this princely domain Penn was to have, besides the fee of the soil, the free use of all ports, bays, rivers, and waters, and the produce of all mines; he could appoint judges and other officers; he could pardon crimes, except

murder and treason; he could incorporate cities and towns; he could levy duties, reserving such to the king as an act of Parliament might designate; he was captain-general, and could levy troops and make war against pirates and other enemies, but could not hold correspondence with any nation at war with England.

It was decided (and the following two provisions were probably added by the crown officers and contained the germs of much trouble to the colony): (1) that all colonial laws should be transmitted to the Privy Council within five years after their enactment, and if not disapproved within six months after delivery should remain in force; and (2) that the king could impose no tax without consent of the proprietor or assembly, unless by an act of Parliament of v Great Britain.

Finally, at the urgency of the Bishop of London, a clause was added, permitting a minister of the Church of England to perform his functions whenever twenty of the inhabitants desired it.

The charter of Pennsylvania, being one of the latest framed, was devised to avoid some of the supposed evils of the preceding ones. The control of the English Parliament was more definitely recognized, and hence the disputes which had continually arisen with the colony of Massachusetts were avoided. The coinage of money, the control of navigation, and the right to prohibit Episcopal worship had been assumed by the northern colonies and were now guarded against, while the necessity of a quinquennial reference to England, though sometimes evaded by the repassage of offending laws, was a limitation on provincial freedom which the proprietary government of Maryland did not know. The right of Parliament to tax the colony, though not exercised till towards Revolutionary times, was distinctly asserted. On the whole, the imperial idea was broadly stated ; but under this idea almost perfect liberty of action was accorded the proprietor, and he in turn passed it on to the people.

The Privy Council, however, left the name blank, to be

filled by the king, and Penn writes in a private letter,"This day (5th of 1st mo.-March), my country was confirmed to me under the great seal of England, with large powers and privileges by the name of Pennsylvania; a name the king would give it in honor of my father. I chose New Wales, being as this a pretty, hilly country, but Penn being Welsh for a head. . . . (we) called this Pennsylvania, which is the high or head woodlands; for I proposed, when the secretary, a Welshman, refused to have it called New Wales, Sylvania, and they added Penn to it; and though I much opposed it and went to the king to have it struck out and altered he said it was past and would take it upon him; nor could twenty guineas move the under secretary to vary the name; for I feared lest it should be looked on as vanity in me and not as respect in the king, as it truly was, to my father whom he often mentions with praise."

The king having issued a proclamation requiring all persons in the province to yield obedience to the new governor and proprietor, William Penn addressed the Swedes and Dutch and the few Quakers that had drifted over from New Jersey:

"My Friends,-I wish you all happiness here and hereafter. These are to let you know that it hath pleased God in His providence to cast you within my lot and care. It is a business that though I never undertook it before, yet God hath given me an understanding of my duty, and an honest mind to do it uprightly. I hope you will not be troubled at your change and the king's choice, for you are now fixed at the mercy of no governor that comes to make his fortune great; you shall be governed by laws of your own making, and live a free and, if you will, a sober and industrious people. I shall not usurp the right of any, or oppress his person. God has furnished me with a better resolution and has given me His grace to keep it. In short, whatever sober and free men can reasonably derive for the security and improvement of their own happiness I shall heartily comply with, and in five months resolve, if it pleases God, to see you."

To take possession of his territory, Colonel William Markham was made his deputy. He reached New York on the 21st of June, 1681, and obtained from the government there a legal surrender of Pennsylvania. Then he proceeded to the province and called a council of nine inhabitants to provide for affairs of government; two of these were Swedes and the others were recent English settlers.

His next business was to settle his boundaries with Lord Baltimore. An attack of sickness prevented anything being done in the fall, besides, they had no instrument capable of determining latitude, and Markham desired to send to Colonel Lewis Morris, of New York, for "a sextile of six or seven foot radies." Suspicions that the fortieth parallel was north of New Castle were already existing, but nothing definite was determined till September, 1682, when the "sextile" being produced at Upland, Baltimore was delighted and Markham thunderstruck to ascertain that its latitude was only 39° 47′ 5′′, as they determined it.

Baltimore immediately claimed all the country to a line far above Upland. Markham could only point to the king's patent, which said that the province should start twelve miles north of New Castle. Baltimore said he cared nothing for this. His own charter antedated Penn's nearly fifty years, and settled the question; besides, he asked triumphantly how they expected to run the twelve-mile circle around New Castle and strike the fortieth parallel. Markham could only refuse to acknowledge anything, hold his ground, and refer the Marylanders to Penn and the king.

Prior to the final interview with Baltimore, Markham had met a number of Indian "Sachamakers," and as the agent of Penn bought the first piece of land. It included that part of what is now Bucks County lying between Neshaminy Creek and the Delaware River. He gave the Indians a miscellaneous assortment of wampum, blankets, guns, ammunition, garments, combs, pipes, tools, fish-hooks, tobacco, rum, and beer, besides some Dutch money. The Indians were satisfied and never questioned the sale.

Penn was now ready to offer terms to settlers. He issued