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CHAPTER I.

NATIONAL ADVANCE AND ROYAL CHARTERS.

The settlement on Delaware Bay and River at the date of the English Revolution-the method of dating-Boundaries in English charters for Virginia, New England, and Maryland-Dutch and Swedes on the Delaware-English conquest and the treaties-Duke of York's control-William Penn's parentage-His application for land -Description in the charter to him.

When the English Revolution took place, white people of various nationality, but united under one government derived from that Crown which the Revolution transferred, were already scattered from below Cape Henlopen to above the Falls of the Delaware, through a depth westward from the water's edge of about twelve miles. Cultivated fields were alternating with extensive forests throughout the whole region, dwelling-houses were at the borders of the owners' plantations, perhaps more sheds than barns held crops and quadrupeds, a mill had been established to grind the corn for each neighbourhood, while primitive manufactories for lime, glass, etc., were here and there, a few meeting-houses for Quakers had been built, and two or three structures scarcely more ornate, but for more ornate worship, may have been standing. In some places, the newer houses were close to one another by a township plan, and there were a few villages representing settlements which might be called old for that part of the New World, such as Lewes, or Whore

kills, New Castle, once New Amstel, and Chester, formerly Upland. New Castle had perhaps a wharf, and certainly a fort or stockade, which however had been long unused, and was in want of repair, and there were the ruins of a governor's headquarters on Tinicum Island. Up the river, several miles north of the mouth of the Schuylkill, and on rising ground, which was marked by recently inhabited caves, and divided by a creek or arm of the Delaware, were, however, the beginnings of a capital city, designed to cover the isthmus where the two rivers were bent again towards each other. A large wharf had been made, at which a goodly number of vessels were coming and going during eight or nine months of the year. Houses, quite a number being of brick, faced the Delaware on a street along the top of the slope towards the water, and there were others on both sides of the next street to the west, as also near the Delaware end of streets laid out from river to river. In the middle of the widest of the latter streets, near the top of the slope, were the market sheds and the little court house, the seat of authority. Miles away, near the rapids, or Falls, of the Delaware, was the manor-house of William Penn, Proprietary and Governor in Chief. One correction of tradition may well be made in passing: the bricks of the old buildings of Pennsylvania were not brought from England; on the contrary, clay was most abundant in the soil, and, naturally, brickmaking was early a great industry, and it is ridiculous to suppose that freight for over 3000 miles was paid for what could be obtained at or near the spot.

The Revolution was consummated when, after James II had succeeded in his second attempt to escape from England, William and Mary, Prince and Princess of Orange, formally accepted the joint sovereignty offered by the Lords and Commons assembled at Westminster, and gave adherence to the Declaration of

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Right, and were proclaimed King and Queen. The day on which this took place is that with which this chronicling of events connected with the civilized part of the present extent of Pennsylvania begins, viz: a Wednesday which the English of the time reckoned as "the thirteenth day of February in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and eighty-eight," but which most of the nations of Western Europe, including Scotland, called "the twenty-third day of February in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and eighty-nine.' Those nations had adopted the Gregorian calendar, advancing the time ten days, and beginning the year on their first day of January, whereas England was beginning it on what the English called the twenty-fifth of March following. Under the English system, January and February were the eleventh and twelfth months respectively, and March was called the first month, although twenty-four of its days were at the end of a year. The Quakers numbered, instead of naming, the months, and this was directed by an Act of Assembly of Pennsylvania, interpreted incorrectly by the editor of Volume I of the Minutes of the Provincial Council as directing that the year start with the first day of March. As was usual in private letters, the records of the colony from January 1st to March 24th both inclusive, while giving the day of the month according to the local calendar, generally give the year according to both English and French style, the last figure of the year looking like a fraction with the English figure as numerator and the French figure as denominator, as, for instance, 1688, or else there being added with a hyphen after the English year the last figure of the French year, as in 1688-9. England and, following her, Pennsylvania adhered to the old, or Julian, calendar, and to the twenty-fifth of March as New Year's day, throughout the whole period of this history. Each date in this book being given as

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