CHARTER

OF THE GERMAN LUTHERAN CONGREGATION,
IN AND NEAR THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA,

IN THE

PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA.

THOMAS PENN and RICHARD PENN, Esquires, true and absolute proprietaries of the province of Pennsylvania and counties of New-Castle, Kent and Sussex on Delaware; To all unto whom these presents shall come, Greeting.

SECTION 1. WHEREAS, divers members of the German Lutheran Congre gation, His Britanic Majesty's liege and naturalized subjects, residing in and near the city of Philadelphia, have at a great expence purchased four lots of ground, and have erected thereon a large church, called St. Michael's Church, with a school house and parsonage house, and have set apart the remainder of the said lots for a burial place and other public uses of the said Congregation.

SECT. 2. AND whereas, it hath been represented to us by the Reverend Henry Muhlenberg, the present rector of the said church, Henry Keppele, David Sickle, Lawrence Bast, Jacob Graeff, Adam Weber, David Schaeffer, Andrew Boshart, Daniel Grub and Adam Krebs, the present trustees of the said church, Martin Rauh, John Kuhn, Henry Krauss, Peter Draess, Mar. tin Rees and Jacob Fox, the present vestrymen of the said church, and Adam Phister, Andrew Bertch, Andrew Mayer, Philip Hall, Siegmund Reily and Nicholas Weber, the present church wardens of the said church, that they, and all the communicating members of the said Congregation amounting to above five hundred heads of families, have made and signed fundamental articles, tending to the orderly and good government of the said church, the advancement of true piety and the forming good christians, faithful subjects to His sacred Majesty, and useful and peaceable members of the government under which they live; but, that for want of being a body corporate, they, the said rector, trustees, vestrymen and church wardens find many difficulties in the execution of the said wholesome ordinances, as well as in the management and preservation of lots, burying ground, and other estate. or appurtenances, with which the providence of God, through the common charity of their fellow christians and members, has been pleased to bless the said church, and the said rector, trustees, vestryinen and church wardens declaring their grateful sense of the uninterrupted enjoyment of their inestimable civil and religious privileges in our said province, have prayed us to incorporate them, by the name of the rector, vestrymen and church wardens of the German Lutheran Gongregation in and near the city of Philadelphia in the province of Pennsylvania,-And that they and their successors, by such name may be erected and constituted a body corporate and politic. and have perpetual succession, with a particular provision, for erecting one church more within the said city or the Liberties thereof, for the further accommodation of the members of the said Congregation, which are already become too numerous to be conveniently seated in one house of worship.

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SECT. 3. NOW KNOW YE, that We, favouring the prayer of the said rector, trustees, vestrymen and church wardens, and willing, as much as in us lies, to encourage virtue, piety and charity, and for other good causes and considerations, us thereunto specially moving; have granted, ordained, consti tuted and appointed, and by these presents do, for us, our heirs and successors grant, ordain, declare, constitute, and appoint, that the said Henry Muhlenberg, rector, Henry Keppele, David Sickle, Lawrence Bast, Jacob Graeff, Adam Weber, David Schaeffer, Andrew Boshart, Daniel Grub, Adam Krebs, Martin Rauh, John Kuhn, Henry Krauss, Peter Draess, Mar tin Kees, Jacob Fox, Adam Phister, Andrew Bertch, Andrew Mayer, Philip Hall, Siegmund Reily, and Nicholas Weber and their successors, duly elected and nominated in their stead, in the manner hereinafter mentioned, be and they are hereby created one corporation and Body politic, to have continuance for ever, by the name of, the rector, vestrymen and church wardens of the German Lutheran Congregation, in and near the city of Philadelphia, in the province of Pennsylvania.

SECT. 4. AND WE do hereby for us, our heirs and successors, grant, or dain and declare, that the said rector, vestrymen and church wardens, and their successors, by the name aforesaid, shall for ever hereafter be persons able and capable in law, to purchase, have, receive, take, hold and enjoy in fee simple or any other lesser estate or estates, any lands, tenements, rents, annuities, liberties, franchises, and other hereditaments, within the said province of Pennsylvania or the three lower counties of New-Castle, Kent, and Sussex on Delaware, by the gift, grant, bargain, sale, alienation, enfeoffment, release, confirmation or devise, of any person or persons, bodies politic or corporate, capable to make the same.

SECT. 5. AND further, that the said corporation and their successors, may take and receive any sum or sums of money, and any kind, manner or por tion of goods and chattels, that shall be given or bequeathed to them by any person or persons, bodies politic or corporate, capable to make a gift or be quest of the same, which gifts and bequests or the monies produced by the same, to be laid out by them in a purchase or purchases of lands, tenements, messuages, houses, rents, or hereditaments, to them and their successors for ever.

SECT. 6. AND WE will and require, that the rents and revenues of the said rector, vestrymen and church wardens, and their successors be from time to time applied by the said rector, vestrymen and church wardens and their successors, for the maintenance and support of the rector, ministers and officers, duly settled and officiating in the said Lutheran Congregation, putting in good order and keeping in repair, the burying-ground, school and parsonage houses and other houses, which do now or hereafter shall belong to the said Congregation, and for supporting, repairing or rebuilding the said St. Michael's church, and erecting and supporting one church more within the said city of Philadelphia or Liberties thereof, for the better ac commodating the said Congregation, and that the said rents, revenues or other estate of the said corporation, shall not be appropriated to any other use or purpose whatsoever.

SECT. 7. AND WE do further will and require, that the said rector, vestrymen and church wardens and their successors, shall not by deed, fine or re covery or by any other ways or means, grant, alien, or otherwise dispose of any manors, messuages, lands, tenements or hereditaments in them and their successors to be vested, nor charge or incumber the same to any per. son or persons whomsoever.

SECT. 8. AND WE do further for us, our heirs and successors authorize and empower the said rector, vestrymen and church wardens and their successors, or the majority of them, met from time to time, the rector always being one to make rules, bye-laws and ordinances, and to do every thing needful for the good government and support of the said Congregation; Provided always, that the said rules, bye-laws and ordinances be not repug mant to the laws and statutes in force in the kingdom of Great Britain or in

-the province of Pennsylvania, and be duly entered and registered in the vestry-books of the said Corporation.

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SECT. 9. AND WE do hereby give and grant unto the said rector, vestry-men and church wardens and their successors, full power and authority, to make, have and use one common seal, with such device and inscription as they shall think proper, and the same to change, break, alter and renew at their pleasure.

SECT. 10. AND We do further grant and ordain that the said rector, vestrymen and church wardens and their successors, by the name before mentioned, shall be able in law to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, in any court or courts, before any judge, judges or justices, within the said province of Pennsylvania or said counties on Delaware, in all and all man. ner of suits, complaints, pleas, causes, matters and demands, of whatsoever kind, nature or form they be, and all and every other matter and thing therein, to do in as full and effectual a manner, as any other person or persons, bodies politic or corporate, within that part of Great Britain, called England or within the said province of Pennsylvania, or the said counties on Delaware, in the like case may or can do.

SECT. 11. AND We do further for us, our heirs and successors grant, ordain and declare, that the said Corporation shall always consist of nineteen persons, that is to say, the rector for the time being, twelve vestrymen and > six church wardens, which vestrymen and church wardens shall continue in their respective offices for the space of three years, and shall be chosen by the contributing members, being communicants of the said Congregation, that is to say, the first election to be on the first Monday, which shall be in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and sixty six, and the next election to be on the first Monday, which shall be in the year of ou Lord, one thousand seven hundred and sixty nine, and so on the first Monday of every succeeding third year forever.

SECT. 12. AND further at the special request of the said Congregation, and in conformity to certain fundamental articles by them agreed and settled upon, on the eighteenth day of October one thousand seven hundred and sixty-two, We do will, ordain and declare, that the beforementioned Henry Keppele, David Sickle, Lawrence Bast, Jacob Graeff, Adam Weber, David Schaeffer, Andrew Boshart, Daniel Grub and Adam Krebs, or the survivors' of them, who have been principal founders of the said St. Michael's Church, and have taken the utmost pains to promote the welfare of the Congregation, shall without any election be and continue among the number of the vestrymen, so long, as they behave agreeable to the said fundamental articles, and only so many vestrymen and church wardens shall be chosen every third year as shall make up the number of eighteen, together with and including the said nine persons or such of them, as shall be surviving at the time of such election, or not removed by the Congregation agreeable to the articles aforesaid.

Sect. 13. And We do further give and grant to the rector with the church wardens and vestrymen so chosen or continuing in office, full power to elect their own officers; Provided always nevertheless, that in case of the death or removal of a rector of the said Congregation and until another rector shall be duly appointed, agreeable to former method and usage, the church wardens for the time being with the consent of the major part of the whole vestrymen, in vestry met, shall have the same powers and authorities, relating to the disposition of the rents and revenues of the said corporation, as is hereinbefore vested in the rector, church wardens and the vestrymen.

SECT. 14. AND LASTLY, We do, for us, our heirs and successors, grant declare and ordain, that these our letters patent, and charter, and every ar ticle herein contained, shall be in all things firm, valid, sufficient and effectual in the law, unto the said rector, vestrymen and church wardens, community and corporation and their successors for ever, according to the purport and tenor hereof, without any further grant from us, our heirs and

successors to be procured or obtained; Provided always, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the clear yearly value of the messuages, houses, lands, tenements, rents, annuities or other hereditaments and real estate of the said corporation, shall not exceed the sum of three hundred pounds sterling, till one other church, besides the said St. Michael's church shall be by the said Congregation erected, agreeable to the tenor hereof. And after such church shall be erected, for their further benefit and use, that then the clear yearly value of such the whole real estate of the said community and corporation, shall not exceed five hundred pounds sterling, which yearly estate of three hundred pounds sterling in the former case, or of five hundred pounds sterling in the latter case, shall be taken and estimated, ex clusive of the monies arising from the letting of the pews of the said churches, or for opening the ground for burials in the church-yards, belonging to them, and also exclusive of the voluntary contributions of the members for the support of the rector and ministers, duly officiating to the said Con gregation, which yearly real estate and income, ascertained and limited as aforesaid, shall be disposed of by the rector, vestrymen and church wardens for the time being towards the purposes hereinbefore mentioned.

IN TESTIMONY whereof, We have caused these our letters to be made patent, and the great seal of our said province to be hereunto affixed. Wit ness JOHN PENN, Esquire, Lieutenant-Governor and Commander in Chief in and over our said province of Pennsylvania and counties of New-Castle, Kent and Sussex on Delaware, the twenty-fifth day of September, in the fifth year of the reign of our sovereign lord George the 3d, king of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. and in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and sixty five.

JOHN PENN.

Recorded in the office for recording of Deeds for the city and county of Philadelphia, in Commission Book A. vol. 3. page 31, &c. the 16th day of October, 1765. Witness my hand and seal of office aforesaid.

C. BROCKDEN, Recorder.

In order that the public should have a correct knowledge of every thing relating to the preceding trial the publication of it has been delayed until the verdict of the Jury on the information in the nature of a writ of Quo Warranto had been given, that the result might be communicated in this appendix.

By this information the persons chosen at the election for officer's of the corporation held on the 6th of January 1816, to wit: George G. Woelper and seven others, (three of whom were convicted of the conspiracy, described in the preceding pages of this book) were called upon to shew by what authority they exercised the offices of vestrymen and church wardens of the German Lutheran Congregation; the advocates of English preaching contending that their election was illegal, and that a free exercise of the elective franchise had been prevented by menaces and force. The evidence on the trial for conspiracy giving a full account of the events of the election day, and the following charge of his Honor Judge Gibson exhibiting an accurate view of the whole case, the reporter thinks it unnecessary to make a more explicit statement.

Charge of the Honorable

Gibson, one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the State of Pennsylvania, upon the Quo Warranto delivered at a Nisi Prius Court held at Philadelphia in November 1816.

THIS is an information in the nature of a Quo Warranto, by which the Defendants are called upon to shew by what right they exercise the offices of church wardens and vestrymen of the German Lutheran Congregation in and near the city of Philadelphia. They answer by their plea that they were duly elected to these offices on the sixth day of January 1816, pursuant to the charter of the corporation. The Commonwealth by her replication denies that they were so elected, and this is the fact you are sworn to try. It is incumbent on the Defendants to prove the affirmative part of this issue, and for this purpose they produce the return of an election held at the school house in Cherry street, belonging to the corporation, on the 6th of January, 1816, by which it appears, that the Defendants had respectively a majority of the votes given at that election.-This is sufficient for their purpose in the first instance; for the law will presume that every thing was rightly transacted 'till the contrary appear.

To rebut this presumption and to raise a contrary one; the Counsel for the commonwealth contend that it appears in evidence, the inspectors who superintended this election, adopted a set of rules, wrong in themselves with respect to the qualification of voters-1st, That they admitted aliens to vote. And 2d, That they etsablished these rules also, viz. that a seat in one of the churches of the congregation, having contributed and communicated within a particular period of time, and having been a regular attendant on divine service in one of the churches were requisite qualifications, &c. that a seat held in any other church disqualified.

1st. With respect to Aliens I am of opinion and I lay it down to you as the law, that an alien is not entitled to vote under the fundamental articles and the charters of this corporation.-The charter granted by Mr. Penn, in 1765, recites, "that divers members of the German Lutheran Congregation, his