puted to these early Commissioners. They could resurvey lands back of five miles from the navigable rivers, and were to keep for the Proprietary's use and disposal all overplus found by resurvey, where there had not been a final grant or a patent.

Under date of 2mo. 16, 1689, Penn appointed Markham, Turner, Goodson, and Samuel Carpenter as "Commissioners of Propriety (sic)," and to act in the nature of a court of exchequer for collecting rents, and auditing the Receiver's accounts. James Harrison, as steward, had collected the rents, but Blackwell, the Governor, was made Receiver. Besides the forfeiture for not putting people on the land, and that for wrong measurement, there was, until the passage in 1693 of an act of confirmation, a forfeiture for not recording deeds. There was little complaint against these Commissioners or Penn, who superseded them by his second visit, either as to the distribution of lots or the forfeitures; but the alteration of metes and bounds by resurvey, even when fairly conducted, was deemed a hardship. In 1700, Penn and his freemen in Assembly agreed upon a law not only for quiet enjoyment of lands seated by virtue of patents and warrants under the Crown of England before Penn's charters, but also that all lands duly taken up by warrants pursuant to purchases from the Proprietary, or issued under any commission or power granted by him, except when obtained by fraud or deceit, or when interfering with others' just claims, were to be enjoyed by the possessor and his heirs and assigns according to the warrants, and that, even where no patent had been granted, peaceable possession for seven years after peaceable entry under the warrant was to give a title to such lands in such quantity as they had been taken up for. It was also enacted that future grants from the Proprietary were to be under the great seal, and to give an absolute title not to be shifted by resurvey: former grants under broad

or lesser seal were to be good for the quantity of land named therein, but the land could be resurveyed within two years after the publication of the law, and the excess over the stipulated number of acres, after allowing four per cent for difference of surveys, and six per cent for roads, should belong to the Proprietary, the possessor having the refusal at reasonable rates, to be agreed upon by two arbitrators chosen by each side, any three fixing the price, or saying where the excess should be taken off, and any deficiency should be made up by the Proprietary according as he received overplus land.

The legislation, again passed in 1701, was not sufficient to satisfy the people. When the last Assembly chosen during Penn's second visit had convened, and he, in his speech, had offered to join in some suitable provision for the safety of the people in privileges and property, a number of citizens of Philadelphia presented a petition calling attention to grievances, and in a few days the House appeared before him with a request that twenty-one items be embodied in a charter. He protested that some of these concerned matters not cognizable by an Assembly, being matters between him and the individuals with whom he had dealt; and, standing on his rights, he explained that he must avoid making a precedent for control of his property by the law-making power, lest there be a Governor distinct from and independent of the Proprietary, as was threatened by a bill in Parliament.

However, he substantially satisfied the Assembly on some points; for instance, he allowed hunting and fishing on one's own land, and on that of the Proprietary not taken up, and that fees, if such as would relieve the Proprietary of the support of the Surveyor, Secretary, and other officers, be fixed by law, or left to an action of quantum meruit. On his promise to allow the ten acres in one hundred only for the purposes mentioned

in the law, the Assembly pressed for a clearing up of misunderstanding, so that the allowance for roads and highways be made whether the lands had been already or were yet to be taken up. In a Bill of Property subsequently sent up by the Assembly, there was a clause making him supply deficiencies found on resurvey. He objected that he had never intended to be debtor where the ground was not to be had; but, as it was thought unfair that those who had ten per cent more than the deeds called for could keep it, while those who had only two per cent overplus might have to be content with that, he was willing to make up six per cent overplus to all. This the House rejected; and the law of 1700 and 1701 on the subject was not amended. He ultimately included in the charter which established a new Frame of Government the 5th item requested, viz: that no person be liable to answer in any matter of property before the Governor and Council, or elsewhere than in the ordinary courts. In one of the messages on this subject, the Proprietary said that he alone was to decide disputes about unconfirmed properties. The 8th item of the request, reciting that he had given the purchasers to expect their lots in the city of Philadelphia as a free gift, asked that they be cleared of the rents and reservations. To this he replied that the first purchasers present at the allotment seemed readily to agree to what was done, and had received more than double the frontage first promised: if those who had signed the petition to the Assembly would return the difference between 50 ft. and 102 ft., he would "be easy in the quit rents." The 9th item was that the city back of the built up portion remain open as common until the respective owners be ready to build, and the islands and flats near the city be left for the inhabitants to gather winter fodder. He said that it was a mistake to think the fourth part of the city reserved for such as were not first purchasers belonged

to anybody but himself, but he was willing temporarily to lay out some land for the accommodation of the residents; yet the islands and flats had nothing to do with the city. Similarly he agreed that the bay marshes be as common until disposed of; this being in answer to the 16th item, that such marshes be commons, which proposal he took as "a high imposition," and which the Assembly did not press: whereas the Assembly adhered to the 8th and 9th items. The 13th item went so far as to ask that the land not taken up in the Lower Counties be disposed of at the old rent of a bushel of wheat a hundred. He justly replied that it was unreasonable to limit him in what was his own, or deprive him of the benefit of an advance in value which time would give to other men's property. Yet the Assemblymen thereupon voted that they "humbly move the Proprietor would further consider it as proposed." To the 20th item, that the quit rents be redeemable, he said: "If it should be my lot to lose a public support, I must depend upon my rents for a supply, and therefore must not easily part with them; and many years are elapsed since I made that offer that was not accepted." The Assemblymen unanimously adopted a retort that they humbly moved that "he would further consider it in regard to his former promises and their dependence thereon." On all these points, notwithstanding some conferences, he did not yield: the power being in his hands, the disposing of land was not changed.

On leaving the Province, at the end of that visit, Penn commissioned Edward Shippen, Griffith Owen, Thomas Story, and James Logan or any three of them to grant lots, and make titles &ct.

The law of 1701 was repealed by the Queen in Council on February 7, 1705-6, before the business of resurveying and settling for errors could be finished. Another act on the subject, passed in 1712, was repealed at the close of the following year. Very little more legislation

followed, and the disposal of all unsold land was practically in the hands of the Commissioners appointed by the Penns until the oversight was taken by one of the family coming to Pennsylvania. Except when those managing the Proprietaries' property were acting under letters of attorney from the mortgagees or under the powers conferred by William Penn's will, a regular course of procedure was followed, and rules precluding favoritism were observed. In later times, the Lieutenant-Governor presided over the Board of Property, exercising any discretion usually according to the advice of the Secretary. Under that title, the chief managers from 1701 until the American Revolution were successively James Logan, Rev. Richard Peters, William Peters, and James Tilghman. As the business increased, the various executive duties were divided among a Secretary, Surveyor-General, Receiver-General, Auditor-General, and Keeper of the Great Seal, and the deputies or clerks of one or more of them, all being known as the Land Office.

The holding by one or two men of not merely the quit rents on land sold, but of the entire unsold land within the boundaries of Pennsylvania was perceived to conflict with or threaten the government of the people, for the people, and by the people inaugurated for the State at the American Revolution. So, on Nov. 27, 1779, the legislature of the new Commonwealth passed what is known as the Divesting Act, taking away or transferring to the State from the Proprietaries all unsold land except what had been acquired by them otherwise than as Proprietaries, and except what had been surveyed to them as manors or parts of manors prior to July 4, 1776; and also abolishing all quit rents except those reserved out of land within the manors. The Assembly had a free hand to confiscate or destroy. The treaty of peace with Great Britain had not been made: it prohibited for the future confiscations of the