and extortion and oppression here." Up to about 1710 the province, under the leadership of David Lloyd, may fairly be accused of ingratitude and selfishness; afterwards the people awoke to the true situation. Penn's troubles arose largely from a careless, confiding disposition in money matters. In 1669 he made one Philip Ford his agent in managing his Irish estates. He appears to have attended to this faithfully at a small salary till Penn became so deeply interested in Pennsylvania affairs that he left the entire management to Ford. When about starting to his colony in 1682, Ford presented to him a bill for about £2850, which he said he had incurred in his stewardship. A few days later Ford asked him to sign a deed covering some 300,000 acres of land in Pennsylvania as a security, and at the same time a bond for £6000 to pay the £3000 mentioned in the deed. All of these Penn carelessly signed. The fraud was so easily accomplished, Ford concluded to try again. The account grew at a marvellous rate. A large commission for receipts, compound interest every six months at the rate of eight per cent., salary, and other expenses had brought up Penn's indebtedness, by the time of his return in 1684, in excess of all receipts, to about £4300, and Ford, with his wife, who was really the greater rascal of the two, demanded another three hundred thousand-acre security. This included Pennsbury and several of Penn's reserved manors. The account still grew, and the demands of the Fords became more insatiate. In 1689, the proprietor being in disfavor at court, Ford prevailed upon him to convey to him the entire province and territories in lieu of the payment of a claim of about £7000. When Penn

came out of his solitude in 1694 he earnestly desired to go to his province, but this claim was held over him as a club till he was bled all that he would bear: The matter went so far that Penn in 1697 conveyed to Ford the whole of his American property with the royal charter, and leased it of him so as to carry out the business of the sale Of course, in order

of land and the reception of quit-rents.

not to discourage immigration, the whole matter was kept

secret. Just as he was sailing, in 1699, Ford threatened to stop the voyage unless he would sign a paper releasing Ford from any obligation on account of errors in the previous accounts. Penn was in a dilemma and consented.

After his return he laid the case before his meeting, the Fords being themselves Quakers, and asked a settlement by arbitrators. This Mrs. Ford, her husband being dead, refused, and the meeting disowned her and her son, who was a party. The matter came into the courts, but no settlement was for a long time effected. The legal decisions were generally in favor of the Fords, but the friends of Penn, who now thoroughly aroused, fought the case on the grounds of the flagrant frauds in the accounts. Isaac Norris came from Pennsylvania to aid. It was found that the Fords had received of Penn's money one thousand pounds more than they had paid out, and yet had a claim against him of about fourteen thousand pounds. They offered to pay what any disinterested men might award, but advised Penn not to meet Ford's claim. He therefore, in 1707, went to the debtors' prison, on Fleet Street. After remaining there about nine months the Fords were forced to a compromise, and agreed to accept seven thousand six hundred pounds. Some of Penn's friends raised the money, securing themselves by the future receipts from the province, and Penn shook off his shackles.

Another perennial subject of trouble was the dispute with the Baltimores concerning their boundary line. We have seen that Penn's title to the three lower counties, the present state of Delaware, came from the Duke of York. After he became James II. he had the deed confirmed, and this would have settled this part of the difficulty, but in the hurry of his exit in 1688, he neglected to have the great seal attached. By virtue of his charter of 1632 Baltimore claimed the whole peninsula between the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays. The conveyance, however, contained, in describing the land granted, the words "hitherto uncultivated," and it was claimed that the prior settlements of the Swedes and Dutch would invalidate the Maryland

title to the eastern portion of the peninsula. The matter was brought before the Board of Trade in London in 1685, and the decision was that the central point of the line running east and west between the two bays at the latitude of Cape Henlopen be found, and from this point a line be run northwardly. East of this line the property was to belong to his Majesty (which would make the deed to William Penn legal), and west to Lord Baltimore. Baltimore tried in various ways for a number of years to reverse this decision, but the Penn influence was successful in maintaining it, and it determines the boundary of the State of Delaware to-day.

But the more difficult question of the line between Pennsylvania and Maryland still remained unsettled. The Baltimores claimed to the fortieth parallel, embracing Philadelphia. The Penns' demands went southward to the thirty-ninth parallel, embracing Baltimore. In the mean time each was practically exercising jurisdiction to about the latitude of New Castle, where the crown evidently intended William Penn's possessions to begin. Warnings were given to the settlers in the disputed territory to look for their titles to each of the contesting proprietors. The Maryland government colonized by force certain lands along the division line, and ejected the Pennsylvania colonists. Many conferences were held, and much money spent in London on law-suits. Finally, in May, 1732, an agreement was reached as follows: The line up the centre of the peninsula was to be continued in a northerly direction till it touched a circle drawn with a radius of twelve miles around New Castle as a centre, and from thence due north to a parallel of latitude fifteen miles south of the southernmost point of Philadelphia. From this point a line was to be run due west to the limits of Penn's grant.

But, while this settlement seemed satisfactory on paper, the contest continued. Where was to be the centre in New Castle? Was the radius to be measured on a level or up

* Probably not the present Cape Henlopen.

and down the hills? The Marylanders even claimed that "the circle of twelve miles" mentioned in the terms meant a circumference of this length. Much difficulty was met

in finding the centre of the east and west line across the peninsula. Numerous other objections were raised, requiring a new London decision, in 1750, to remove. It was not till 1767 that two expert surveyors, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, located the northern boundary of Maryland at 39° 44', and set up mile-stones along it.

CHAPTER V.

1701-1712.

Condition of Province-Andrew Hamilton-James Logan-David Lloyd-Colonel Quarry-Differences between Council and Assembly-Attack of Lloyd on Penn-Governor Evans-His MistakesGovernor Gookin-War Supplies-Reaction towards Penn-Projected Sale of Province to Crown-Penn's Letter to His Colonists.

NOTWITHSTANDING the various political contentions, the colony during Penn's visit was prosperous. A Swedish clergyman writes: "The country is delightful and overflows with every blessing, so that the people live well without being compelled to too much or too severe labor. The taxes are very light. The farmers after their work is over live as they do in Sweden, but are clothed as the respectable inhabitants of the towns."

The population was still mainly English and Welsh. The great streams of German and Protestant Irish immigration had not yet set in, though their advance-guards had come. The Swedes were rapidly losing their nationality, though they still maintained their Lutheran worship.

Religiously, the Quakers were by far the most numerous. In 1702 Logan writes that the population of the city was about equal to that of the country, and one-third of the former and two-thirds of the latter were Quakers. This is probably an underestimate of the Quaker population of the country. The Church of England members had so increased, mainly in Philadelphia, that they had formed an organization, and in 1697 built a church, the predecessor of Christ Church. There were three Quaker meeting-houses in Philadelphia, and a large number in the country. The old Swedes Church, still standing at Wicaco, was begun in 1698. Trade was good; yearly a large number of vessels carried the produce of the country to England, usually by way of