Chapter XII: The Founding of Pennsylvania (2)

Under the constitution and laws thus formed, the government was administered until 1696. The chief features of local government which had existed under the Duke of York were lost sight of in the new order of affairs, the authority being vested in the provincial or county officers in place of those of the township. True to the doctrines which they had preached, and to the demands which they had made of others, the Quakers accorded to all a perfect liberty of conscience, intending, however, “that looseness, irreligion, and Atheism” should not creep in under pretence of conscience. The observance of the Sabbath was provided for. On that day people were to “abstain from their usual and common toil and labor, ... that they may better dispose themselves to read the Scriptures of truth at home, or frequent such meetings of religious worship abroad as may best suit their respective persuasions.” Profanity, drunkenness, health-drinking, duelling, stage-plays, masques, revels, bull-baiting, cock-fighting, cards, dice, and lotteries were all prohibited. Clamorous scolding and railing were finable offences. The property of thieves was liable for fourfold the value of what they had taken; and if they should have no estates, they were to labor in prison until the person they had injured was satisfied. A humane treatment of prisoners was insured. The poor were under the protection of the county courts. Peacemakers were chosen in the several counties to decide differences of a minor character. Malt liquors were not to be sold at above two pennies sterling for a full Winchester quart. The court records were to be kept in plain English characters, and laws were to be taught in the schools.

“All judicial power, after Penn’s arrival, was vested in certain courts, the judges of which were appointed by the Proprietary, presiding in the Provincial Council.[781]

“The practice in these courts was simple but regular. In criminal cases an indictment was regularly drawn up, and a trial by jury followed. In civil cases the complications of common-law pleading were disregarded. The filing of a simple statement and answer put each cause at issue, and upon the trial the rules of evidence were not observed. Juries were not always empanelled, the parties being frequently content to leave the decision of their causes to the Court. In equity proceedings the practice was substantially that in vogue in the Court of Chancery, simplified to suit the requirements of the province.

“Large judicial powers were also vested in the Provincial Council,—a state of things not infrequently observed in the early stages of a country’s growth, before the executive and judicial functions of government have been clearly defined. Prior to the establishment of the Provincial Court, all cases of great importance, whether civil or criminal, were tried before the Council. The principal trials thus conducted were those of Pickering for coining, and of Margaret Mattson for witchcraft. The latter terminated in a verdict of ‘guilty of having the common fame of being a witch, but not guilty in manner and form as she stands indicted.’ This is the only regular prosecution for witchcraft which is found in the annals of Pennsylvania. Prior to the establishment of the Provincial Court, the Council also entertained appeals in certain cases from the inferior courts. Subsequent to 1684, however, the extent of its judicial power was limited to admiralty cases, to the administration of decedents’ estates, which, although more properly the business of the Orphans’ Courts, was often neglected by those tribunals, and to the general superintendence and control of the various courts, so as to insure justice to the suitors.[782]

“The legal knowledge among the early settlers was scanty. The religious tenets of the Society of Friends rendered them very averse to lawyers, and distrustful of them. There was, therefore, comparatively little demand for skilled advocates or trained judges. John Moore and David Lloyd were almost the only professional lawyers of the seventeenth century. Nicholas More, Abraham Man, John White, Charles Pickering, Samuel Hersent, Patrick Robinson, and Samuel Jennings, with some others, however, practised in the courts with some success; but by insensible degrees, as population increased and the commercial interests of the community grew more extensive and complicated, a trained Bar came into existence.”[783]

Markham not having agreed with Baltimore, 1681, regarding the boundaries of Pennsylvania and Maryland, the two met again in September of the following year at Upland, and Penn visited the latter at West River, Dec. 13, 1682. In May, 1683, Penn again met Lord Baltimore at New Castle, on the same business, but nothing was decided upon. This dispute was a consequence of the lack of geographical information at the time their grants were made. Baltimore’s patent was for the unoccupied land between the Potomac and the fortieth degree of latitude, bounded on the east by Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, with the exception of that part of the Delaware peninsula which was south of a direct line drawn from Watkin’s Point on the Chesapeake to the sea. The southern boundary of Penn’s province was the fortieth degree and a circle of twelve miles around New Castle. When both patents were issued, it was supposed that the fortieth degree would fall near the head of Delaware Bay; but it was afterward found to be so far to the northward as to cross the Delaware River at the mouth of the Schuylkill. If the letter of the Maryland charter was to interpret its meaning, Penn would be deprived of considerable river frontage, which it was clearly the intention of the Lords of Trade to grant him; and he insisted that the boundary-line should be where it was _supposed_ the fortieth degree would be found. This was resisted by Baltimore, who claimed ownership also to that part of the peninsula on the Delaware which Penn had received from the Duke of York. To enforce his claims, Baltimore sent to the Lords of Plantation a statement of what had taken place between Penn and himself. He also ran a line in his own interest between the provinces, and offered to persons who would take up land in the Delaware counties under his authority more advantageous terms than Penn gave. In 1684 Baltimore sent Colonel Talbot into the disputed territory to demand it in his name, and then sailed for England to look after his interests in that quarter.

Penn, when he learned all that had been done, wrote to the Lords of Trade, giving his version of the transaction; but before long he found the business would require his presence in England. Having empowered his Council to act in his absence, he sailed August, 1684.

The Lords of Trade rendered a decision Nov. 7, 1685, which secured to Penn the portion claimed by him of the Delaware peninsula, but which left undefined the southern boundary of Pennsylvania. The Maryland boundary was finally settled in 1760, upon an agreement which had been entered into in 1732 between the heirs of Lord Baltimore and those of Penn.[784] By this a line was to be drawn westward from Cape Henlopen[785] to a point half way between the bays of Delaware and Chesapeake. From thence it was to run northward so as to touch the most western portion of a circle of twelve miles radius around New Castle, and continue in a due northerly course until it should reach the same latitude as fifteen English statute miles directly south of the most southern part of Philadelphia. From the point thus gained the line was to extend due west. These lines were surveyed by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon. They commenced their work in 1763 and suspended it in 1767, when they had reached a point two hundred and forty-four miles from the Delaware River.

The Indians who inhabited Pennsylvania were of the tribe of the Lenni Lenape. Some of them retained the noble characteristics of their race, but the majority of them, through their intercourse with the Dutch, the Swedes, and the English, had become thoroughly intemperate. Penn desired that his dealings with them should be so just as to preserve the confidence which Fox and Coale had inspired. Besides the letter written by his commissioners, he had sent to them messages of friendship through Holme and others. In all the agreements he had entered into with purchasers, the interests of the Indians had been protected; and he was far in advance of his time in hoping to establish relations with them by which all differences between the white men and the red should be settled by a tribunal wherein both should be represented. The possibility of their civilization under such circumstances was not absent from his mind, and in his first contract with purchasers he stipulated that the Indians should have “the same liberties to improve their grounds and provide for the sustenance of their families as the planters.” Following the just precedent which had been laid down by settlers in many parts of the country, and the advice of the Bishop of London, he would allow no land to be occupied until the Indian title had been extinguished. To obtain the land which was required by the emigrants, a meeting with the principal Indian chiefs was held at Shackamaxon June 23, 1683. The territory then purchased was considerable; but what was of equal importance to the welfare of the infant colony was the friendship then established with the aborigines. Poetry, Art, and Oratory have pictured this scene with the elevating thoughts which belong to each; but no more graphic representation of it has been made than that which is suggested by the simple language of Penn used in describing it. “When the purchase was agreed,” he writes, “great promises passed between us of kindness and good neighborhood, and that the Indians and English must live in love as long as the sun gave light. Which done, another made a speech to the Indians in the name of all the Sachamakers, or kings: first, to tell them what was done; next, to charge and command them to love the Christians, and particularly live in peace with me, and the people under my government; that many governors had been in the river, but that no governor had come himself to live and stay here before; and having now such an one that had treated them well, they should never do him or his any wrong,—at every sentence of which they shouted and said _amen_ in their way.”[786]

“On the 6th of October, 1683, there arrived in Philadelphia, from Crefeld and its neighborhood, a little colony of Germans. They were thirteen men with their families, in all thirty-three persons, and they constituted the advance-guard of that immense emigration which, confined at first to Pennsylvania, has since been spread over the whole country. They were Mennonites, some of whom soon after, if not before, their arrival, became identified with the Quakers. Most of them were linen-weavers.

Among the first to purchase lands upon the organization of the province were several Crefeld merchants, headed by Jacob Telner, who secured fifteen thousand acres. The purchasers also included a number of distinguished persons in Holland and Germany, whose purchase amounted to twenty-five thousand acres, which became vested in the Frankfort Land Company, founded in 1686. The eleven members of this latter Company were chiefly Pietists and people of learning and influence, among whom was the celebrated Johanna Eleanora von Merlau. Their original purpose was to come to Pennsylvania themselves; but this plan was abandoned by all except Francis Daniel Pastorius, a young lawyer, son of a judge at Windsheim, skilled in the Greek, Latin, German, French, Dutch, English, and Italian languages, and carefully trained in all the learning of the day. On the 24th of October, 1683, Pastorius, as the agent for the Crefeld and Frankfort purchasers, began the location of Germantown. Other settlers soon followed, and among them, in 1685, were several families from the village of Krisheim, near Worms, where more than twenty years before the Quakers had made some converts among the Mennonites, and had established a meeting. In 1688 Gerhard Hendricks, Dirck op den Graeff, Francis Daniel Pastorius, and Abraham op den Graeff sent to the Friends’ Meeting a written protest against the buying and selling of slaves. It was the first public effort made in this direction in America, and is the subject of Whittier’s poem, _The Pennsylvania Pilgrim_.”[787]

The progress made in the settlement of the Province between 1681 and 1689 was remarkable, and was largely owing to Penn’s energy. On the 29th of December, 1682, he wrote from Chester: “I am very well, ... yet busy enough, having much to do to please all.... I am casting the country into townships.” On the 5th of the next month he wrote: “I am day and night spending my life, my time, my money, and am not a sixpence enriched by this greatness.... Had I sought greatness, I had stayed at home.” The English were the most numerous among the settlers; but in 1685, when the population numbered seven thousand two hundred, in which French, Dutch, Germans, Swedes, Finns, and Scotch-Irish were represented, Penn did not estimate his countrymen at above one half of the whole.

Twenty-three ships bearing emigrants arrived during the fall of 1682 and the winter following, and trading-vessels soon began to frequent the Delaware. The counties of Philadelphia, Chester, and Bucks were organized in the latter part of 1682, but were not surveyed until 1685. Philadelphia, named before she was born, and first laid out in August or September, 1682,[788] contained in the following July eighty houses, such as they were, and by the end of the year this number had increased to one hundred and fifty. The founders of the city lived in caves dug out of the high embankment by the river, and the houses which succeeded these primitive habitations were probably of the very simple character described in Penn’s advice to settlers.[789] In July, 1683, a weekly post was established. Letters were carried from Philadelphia to the Falls of Delaware for 3_d._, to Chester 2_d._, to New Castle 4_d._, to Maryland 6_d._ Notices of its departure were posted on the Meeting-House doors and in other public places.

On the 26th of December of the same year the Council arranged with Enoch Flower, who had had twenty years’ experience as a teacher in England, to open a school. Four shillings per quarter was the charge for those who were taught to read English; six shillings, when reading and writing were studied; and eight shillings, when the casting of accounts was added. For boarding scholars and “scooling,” he was to receive “Tenn” pounds per annum.

[This was the house in Philadelphia in which Penn lived after his return to the colony in 1699. It stood on the southeast corner of Second Street and Norris’s Alley, and was demolished in 1868. A view of it taken just before its demolition is given in Gay’s _Popular History of the United States_, iii. 171, with an earlier view, ii. 496. There is an account of it by Mr. Townsend Ward, with a view, in the _Pennsylvania Magazine of History_, iv. 53; but the most extended account is in _Lippincott’s Magazine_, vol. i. pp. 29, 191, 298, by General John M. Read, Jr. For other views, see Egle’s _Pennsylvania_, p. 1016, and Day’s _Historical Collections of Pennsylvania_, p. 556. The above cut is a fac-simile of one given by Watson in his _Annals of Philadelphia_, 1845 edition, p. 158; 1857 edition, p. 158. It is lithographed in his 1830 edition, p. 151. Drawings of the interior are in the possession of the Hist. Soc. of Pennsylvania.—ED.]]

The demand in trade at first was for articles of the greatest utility, like mill and “grindle” stones, iron kettles, and hardware. One of the women ordered shoes, and stipulated that they should be stout and large. James Claypoole sent his silver-hafted knives to his brother in Barbadoes, and consigned to him some beaver hats for which he could find at home no sale. But in less than a year a trade sprang up with some of the West India Islands, and rum, sugar, and negroes were ordered, in exchange for pipe-staves and horses. The silver from a Spanish wreck and peltries furnished the means of an exchange with Europe, and soon word was sent out to send “linnen, serges, crape, and Bengall, and other slight stuffs; but send no more shoes, gloves, stockings, nor hats.” Before Penn sailed for England in 1684, Philadelphia contained three hundred and fifty-seven houses, many of them three stories high, with cellars and balconies. Samuel Carpenter, one of the most enterprising of the early merchants, had a quay at which a ship of five hundred tons could lie. Trades of all kinds flourished; vessels had been built; brick houses soon began to be seen; and shop windows enlivened the streets.

In 1685 William Bradford established his printing-press in Philadelphia, the first in the middle colonies of North America. Its earliest issue was an almanac entitled the _Kalendarium Pennsilvaniense_, printed in 1685 for the succeeding year.

By 1690 brick and stone houses were the kind usually erected, while only the poorer classes built of wood. Manufactures also began to flourish. That year William Ryttenhouse, Samuel Carpenter, William Bradford, and others built a paper mill on the Schuylkill. The woollen manufactures offered such encouragement that there was “a public flock of sheep in the town, and a sheepheard or two to attend them.” The rural districts were also prosperous. The counties were divided into townships of about five thousand acres, in the centre of which villages were laid out. In 1684 there were fifty such settlements in the colony. At first the cattle were turned loose, and the ear-marks of their respective owners were registered at the county courts. Roads were surveyed and bridges built. The first mill was started in 1683 at Chester by Richard Townsend and others. The reports regarding the crops show them to have been enormous for the labor bestowed, and the development of the whole country seems to have been correspondent to the increased wealth of Philadelphia, where, in 1685, the poorest lots were worth four times what they cost, and the best forty-fold. At the beginning of the year 1684 Penn wrote: “I have led the greatest colony into America that ever any man did upon a private credit, and the most prosperous beginnings that ever were in it are to be found among us.”

The early ecclesiastical annals of Pennsylvania are meagre. The wave of religious excitement which swept over England during the days of the Commonwealth spent itself on the banks of the Delaware. Men and women with intellects too weak to grasp the questions which moved them, or possibly instigated by cunning, wandered through the country prophesying or disputing. One declared “that she was Mary the mother of the Lord;” another, “that she was Mary Magdalen, and others that they were Martha, John, etc.,—scandalizers,” wrote a traveller in 1679, “as we heard them in a tavern, who not only called themselves, but claimed to be, really such.”

The Swedish congregations, neglected by the churches in Sweden, were in 1682 falling into decay. The congregations at Tranhook, near Upland, and at Tinnicum, were under the charge of Lars Lock, that at Wicaco under Jacob Fabritius. The former was a cripple, the latter blind. Their salaries were scantily paid, and they were miserably poor. The Dutch had but one church, which was at New Castle.

The first meeting of Quakers for religious worship in Pennsylvania was no doubt held at the house of Robert Wade, near Upland. William Edmundson, the Quaker preacher, speaks of such meetings in 1675. It was then that Wade came to America with Fenwick. In Bucks County meetings are said to have been held as early as 1680 at the houses of Quakers who had settled there. The first meeting near Philadelphia was at Shackamaxon, at the house of Thomas Fairman, in 1682; but it was soon removed to Philadelphia, where one was established in 1683. Early in that year no less than nine established meetings existed in Pennsylvania.

As early as 1684 or 1685 the Baptists established a church at Cold Spring, in Bucks County, about three miles above Bristol. The pastor was the Rev. Thomas Dungan. In 1687 they established a second congregation at Pennepeck, in Philadelphia County, of which the Rev. Elias Keach was the first minister. The Episcopalians and Presbyterians did not own places of worship until a later date.

The early political annals of the colony show a condition of affairs perfectly consistent with the circumstances under which the constitution was formed. While Penn remained in the country his presence prevented any excess such as might be expected from men inexperienced in self-government. In 1684, however, Penn was obliged to return to England, and he empowered the Provincial Council to act in his stead. Thomas Lloyd was the president of that body, and was also commissioned Keeper of the Seal. He was a man of prudence, and seems to have justified the confidence placed in him by Penn. Arrogance on the part of some of the other officers of the government soon awakened feelings of jealousy among the people, who were prompt to resent any violation of their rights. Nicholas More, the Chief-Justice, was impeached by the Assembly for gross partiality and overbearing conduct. He was styled by the Speaker an “aspiring and corrupt minister of state,” and the Council was requested to remove him from office. He was expelled from the Assembly, of which he was a member, for having thrice entered his protest against a single bill. Patrick Robinson, the clerk of the Court, refused to submit to the House the records of the Court in the case of More, and was restrained for his “divers insolences and affronts.” When brought before the Assembly, he stretched himself at full length on the ground, and refused to answer questions put to him, telling the House that it “acted arbitrarily” and without authority. The Council was also requested to remove him; but neither in his case nor in that of More were the prayers granted. “I am sorry at heart for your animosities,” wrote Penn, when he heard of these troubles; “cannot more friendly and private courses be taken to set matters to rights in an infant province whose steps are numbered and watched? For the love of God, me, and the poor country, be not so _governmentish_, so noisy and open in your dissatisfactions.” It was the love of government, the seeds of which Penn had himself planted, which caused these troubles, and he it was who was to suffer most in that period of political growth. Hundreds, he said, had been prevented from emigrating by these quarrels, and that they had been to him a loss of £10,000. His quit-rents, which in 1686 should have amounted to £500 per annum, were unpaid. They were looked upon as oppressive taxes, for which the Proprietary had no need; but the year previous he wrote: “God is my witness.... I am above six thousand pounds out of pocket more than ever I saw by the province.”

The want of energy shown by the Council in managing his affairs caused Penn to lessen the number in which the executive authority rested. In 1686 he commissioned five of the Council, three of whom were to be a quorum, to attend to his proprietary affairs. By the slothful manner in which the Council had conducted the public business, the charter, he argued, had again fallen into his hands, and he threatened to dissolve the Frame of Government “if further occasion be given.” Under these commissioners but little improvement was made, and in 1688 Penn appointed Captain John Blackwell his lieutenant-governor.

* * * * *

CRITICAL ESSAY ON THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION.

THE EARLIEST TRACTS AND BOOKS.—During the first thirty years after the granting of Penn’s charter (1681), there were various publications of small and moderate extent, which are the chief source of our information.

The first of these is Penn’s own _Some Account_,[790] issued in 1681, soon after he received his grant. “It is introduced by a preface of some length, being an argument in favor of colonies,” which is followed by a description of the country, gathered from such sources as he considered reliable, and by the conditions on which he proposed to settle it. Information for those desiring to emigrate, and extracts from the royal charter, are also given.

This tract appeared at once in Dutch[791] and German[792] editions. The latter edition contains also letters of Penn to Friends in Holland and Germany prior to his receiving his grant, which fact tends to show that the relations he had established by his travels there attracted the attention of persons in Germany to his efforts in America.

In the same year (1681) appeared César de Rochefort’s account,[793] which is usually found joined to his _Description des Antilles_. Next year (1682) Penn published, under the title of _A Brief Account_,[794] a short description of his province, giving additional information. Of the same date is William Loddington’s _Plantation Work_,[795]—a tract, however, by some attributed to George Fox. It was written in favor of Quaker emigration at a time when many Quakers feared that such action might be prompted by a desire to escape persecution. In it we have the earliest descriptions preserved of Pennsylvania after it was given to Penn. These are presented in letters of Markham, written soon after his arrival, the date of which is also indicated. The extracts from Markham’s letters are printed in _Pennsylvania Magazine of History_, vi. 175.

The constitution which Penn proposed for his colony, together with certain laws which were accepted by purchasers in England as citizens of Pennsylvania, were issued the same year as _The Frame of Government_.[796] Both constitution and laws underwent considerable alteration before going into effect; although this fact has been frequently overlooked. A little brochure, of probably a like date, _Information and Direction_,[797] covers a description of the houses which it was supposed would be the most convenient for settlers to build.

The Free Society of Traders purchased of Penn twenty thousand acres. The Society was formed for the purpose of developing this tract, which was to be known as the Manor of Frank. Nicholas More was president, and James Claypoole treasurer. The letter-book of the latter is in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The charter of the Society will be found in Hazard’s _Annals_ (p. 541), with other information regarding the Society; and in the same volume (p. 552) a portion of a tract[798] which is printed in full with a reduced fac-simile of titlepage in _Pennsylvania Magazine of History_, v. 37.

_A Vindication of William Penn_, by Philip Ford, in two folio pages, was published in London in 1683, to contradict stories which were circulated after Penn had sailed, to the effect that he had died upon reaching America, and had closed his career professing belief in the Church of Rome. It contains abstracts of the first letters written by Penn from America.[799]

The most important of all the series is a _Letter from William Penn_,[800] printed in 1683. It was written after Penn had been in America over nine months (dated August 16), and may be considered as a report from personal observation of what he found his colony to be. It passed through at least two editions in London; one of which contains a list of the property-holders in Philadelphia, with numbers affixed to their names indicating the lots they held, as is shown on a plan of that city which accompanies the publication, and of which a heliotype is herewith given. The letter appeared the next year (1684) in a Dutch translation[801] (two editions). Of the same date is a new description of the province, of which we have a German[802] and a French[803] text. The pamphlet contains an extended extract from Penn’s letter to the Free Society of Traders, the letter of Thomas Paschall from Philadelphia, dated Feb. 10, 1683 (N. S.), and other interesting papers, many of which were published in _A Brief Account_. All information in it that is not readily accessible has been lately translated by Mr. Samuel W. Pennypacker from the French edition, and is printed with fac-simile of title in the _Pennsylvania Magazine of History_, vi. 311.

A small tract, giving letters from a Dutch and Swiss sojourner in and near Philadelphia, was printed at Rotterdam, in 1684, as _Twee Missiven_.[804] The only copy of this tract which we know of is in the Library of Congress, and will be shortly published by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The copy at Washington, we are told, contains but one letter. Another, or possibly the same, copy is catalogued in Trömel’s _Bibliotheca Americana_, Leipzig (1861), no. 390.

The _Planter’s Speech_[805] (1684) and Thomas Budd’s _Good Order established in Pennsylvania, etc._ (1685),[806] which have been referred to in another chapter, are of like importance to Pennsylvania history. What is called “William Bradford’s Printed Letter” (1685) is quoted in the first edition of Oldmixon’s _British Empire in America_, p. 158. We have, however, never met with the original publication.

Another Dutch description of the country was printed the same year (1685) at Rotterdam, _Missive van Cornelis Bom_,[807] and has become very rare.

In 1685 Penn also printed _A Further Account_ of his grant, signing his name to the tract, which appeared in quarto in separate editions of twenty and sixteen pages, followed the same year by a Dutch translation.[808] After Penn’s letter to the Free Society (1683) this is the most important of these early tracts.

In 1686 the series only shows a brief Dutch tract;[809] but in 1687 we derive from _A Letter from Dr. More_,[810] _etc_., partly the work of Nicholas More, president of the Free Society of Traders, an idea of the growth of the province at that date. Of a similar character is a tract printed four years later (1691), _Some Letters_, etc.[811] In the following year (1692) we have a poetical description[812] of the province, which contains many interesting facts. Little is known of the author, Richard Frame. It is said that he was a teacher in the Friends’ School of Philadelphia. He was certainly a resident of Pennsylvania, and the first of her citizens to give his thoughts to the public in the form of verse. The first four lines will suffice to show its merits as a poem:—

“To all our Friends that do desire to know
What Country ‘t is we live in—this will show.
Attend to hear the Story I shall tell:
No doubt but you will like this country well.”

The pamphlet was a colonial production. It appeared on paper which was possibly made here, and was printed by William Bradford.

Soon after the appearance of Frame’s verses, the poetic fever seized upon John Holme, and he wrote “A true Relation of the Flourishing State of Pennsylvania.” The poetic taste of the community was either satiated by the effort of Frame, or Holme shrank from the honors of authorship, for his poem did not see the light until published by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in the thirteenth number of its _Bulletin_ in 1847.

In 1695 one of the party who emigrated with Kelpius gave the public an account of his voyage and arrival,[813] under the pseudonym of “N. N.” He dated his letter “from Germantown, in the Antipodes, Aug. 7, 1694.”

In addition to Mr. Whitehead’s remarks regarding Gabriel Thomas’s _Account of Pennsylvania_ (see chap. xi.), we will add that the portion relating to Pennsylvania covers fifty-five pages, besides eight pages which are devoted to the preface and title. A person by the name of the author, probably the same, was in America in 1702, and was then solicitous of a commission as collector of quit-rents, etc., within the county of Newcastle. In 1698 he inveighed against George Keith and his followers, and in 1702 sided with Colonel Quarry in his disputes with Penn. Most of the statements in his book can be relied on, but some passages are marked by exaggeration and others by satire. As some of the buildings in Philadelphia mentioned by Thomas were not erected until after he wrote, Mr. Westcott, in his _History of Philadelphia_, suggests that possibly there was more than one edition of the work bearing the same date.[814]

In 1700 was printed a _Beschreibung der Provintz Pennsylvaniæ_,[815] the work of Francis Daniel Pastorius, agent of the Frankfort Land Company, and the most active and intelligent of the first German settlers, which is of great interest, as it contains the views of one thoroughly identified with the German movement to America. The descriptions of the country and of the form of government, the advice to emigrants, etc., which it contains, are gathered from letters written to his father. A translation of portions of the work by Lewis H. Weiss is given in _Memoir of Historical Society of Pennsylvania_, vol. iv. part ii. p. 83. The original edition is generally found bound up with a German edition of Thomas’s _Pennsylvania_, printed in 1702, and the tract by Falkner hereafter mentioned. While the works bear different dates, there appears to have been some connection in the series. The information in Thomas, originally printed in 1698, supplements to a great extent what will be found in Pastorius, printed in 1700. The titlepage of the German edition of Thomas (1702) speaks of it, therefore, as a continuation of Pastorius, and the same shows Falkner’s tract to have appeared as a supplement to the German edition of Thomas.

An agent of the Frankfort Company, who was in Pennsylvania in 1694 and 1700, issued at Frankfort in 1702 a little book, _Curieuse Nachricht_,[816] which gives some information in the form of questions and answers, one hundred and three in number. The subjects touched upon are the country in general, its soil, climate, etc; the inhabitants, their manners, customs, and religions; the Indians; how to go to America, etc.

The last of the works to be considered as original authority is J. Oldmixon’s _British Empire in America_, as it is known that the author got some of his information from Penn himself.[817] It was first issued at London in 1708, and again in 1741. The editions differ materially in the sections on Pennsylvania, so that both need to be consulted.

THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE QUAKERS.—As we have traced the history of Penn’s colony from the origin of the religious society which had such an influence on the formation of his character, and to which Pennsylvania owes its existence quite as much as to Penn himself, a few references must be made to the chief sources of information from which a history of the Quakers can be gathered. The most prominent of these is the _Journal of George Fox_,[818] the founder of the Quaker Church. It relates, in passages of alternate vividness and ambiguity, the experiences of his life. So different, however, are the opinions entertained, that while Macaulay says that “his gibberish was translated into English, meanings which he would have been unable to comprehend were put on his phrases, and his system so much improved that he would not have known it again,” Sir James Mackintosh, on the contrary, calls the _Journal_ “one of the most extraordinary and instructive narratives in the world, which no reader of competent judgment can peruse without revering the virtues of the writer, pardoning his self-delusions, and ceasing to smile at his peculiarities.”

W. Edmundson made three voyages to America before 1700, the first with Fox, in 1671; his _Journal_[819] has been often printed.

Penn’s own statements about the sect’s origin were given in his _Brief Account of the Rise and Progress of the People called Quakers_, published at London in 1695, and in his _Primitive Christianity Revived_, 1696 and 1699.

Robert Barclay is considered the most able exponent of the Quaker belief among early writers of that sect, and his _Apology_[820] is his chief work. He was the son of “Barclay of Ury,” of whom Whittier has sung, and was governor of East Jersey (see chap. xi.).

_The Sufferings of the People called Quakers_,[821] by Joseph Besse, is, as its title indicates, an account of their persecutions in various parts of the world. It is written from a Quaker standpoint, but its accuracy can seldom be questioned. It has passed through two editions.

Sewel’s _History of the Quakers_[822] is a work which possesses great value, not only on account of its freedom from error, but because it was written at an early period in the history of the Society of Friends. Its author was a native of Amsterdam, and was born about 1650. His history was written to correct the misrepresentations in _Historia Quakeriana_,[823] by Gerard Croese, which had been largely circulated. Sewel’s work was published in Dutch at Amsterdam in 1717, and a translation by the author was issued in London, 1722. Gough’s _History of the Quakers_ is a compilation of nearly all that was accessible at the time of its publication. The _Portraiture of Quakerism_,[824] by Clarkson, treats of the discipline and customs of the Society. The _History of Friends in the Seventeenth Century_, by Dr. Charles Evans, contains nearly everything that most readers will require. It is an excellent compilation, and presents the subject in a compact, useful form. The same can be said of a _History of the Religious Society of Friends from its rise to the year 1828_,[825] by Samuel M. Janney. The author was a follower of Elias Hicks, and his work contains a history of the separation of the meetings caused by the doctrines preached by the latter. In Barclay’s _Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the Commonwealth_[826] the attempt has been made to trace the origin of the Society of Friends to an earlier period than the preaching of Fox. The author of the work was Robert Barclay, of the same family as “the Apologist.” The work, which is an able one, was reviewed by Dr. Charles Evans.[827] A terse criticism was lately made on the book by a Friend, who in conversation remarked, “Robert Barclay seemed to know more of what George Fox believed than George himself.”

The chief manuscript depository of the Friends is in Devonshire House, Friends’ Meeting-House, 12 Bishopsgate Street Without, London, E.C., England, where what is known as the Swarthmore manuscripts are preserved. The collection was made under the direction of George Fox, and many of the papers are indorsed in his handwriting. It consists “of letters addressed to Swarthmore Hall from the Preachers in connection with Fox, giving an account of their movements and success, to Margaret Fell, and through her to Fox. Up to 1661 Swarthmore Hall was secure from violation, and these letters range over the period from 1651 to 1661.”

John Whiting’s _Catalogue of Friends’ Books_, published in 1708, is the earliest gathering of titles concerning the Quakers. The work, however, has been fully done in our own day by Joseph Smith, who published, in 1867, at London, _A Descriptive Catalogue of Friends’ Books_, in two volumes, with critical remarks and occasional biographical notices; and in 1873, his _Bibliotheca Anti-Quakeriana; or, a Catalogue of Books adverse to the Society of Friends; with Biographical Notices of the Authors: with Answers_.[828]

In following the history of the Quakers, particularly in America, the recorder of their career in Pennsylvania must leave unnamed some of the most important books, because their contents concern chiefly or solely the story of their persecutions and progress in the other colonies, particularly New England.[829] Bowden’s _History of Friends in America_, as it is the most important of the late works, must also be mentioned. Its author enjoyed great advantages in preparing it, having the manuscripts deposited in Devonshire House at his command. In it many original documents of the greatest interest are printed for the first time, among which we may mention a letter of Mary Fisher to George Fox, from Barbadoes, dated Jan. 30, 1655, regarding Quaker preachers coming to America, and of Josiah Coale to the same person, in 1660, in relation to the purchase of a tract of land, now a portion of Pennsylvania. The work is spirited and readable, and while it is written in entire sympathy with the Quakers, its statements are so carefully weighed that but little exception can be taken to them, and then only in cases where the fundamental views of the author and of his readers are at variance.

A defence of the early Friends in America will be found in _Colonial History of the Eastern and some of the Southern States_, by Job R. Tyson; see _Memoirs of Historical Society of Pennsylvania_, vol. iv. part ii. p. 5. For the colonies other than New England, a few references will suffice. For New York, O’Callaghan’s _History of New Netherland_ and Brodhead’s _New York_ can be consulted. For those at Perth Amboy, 1686-1688, see _Historical Magazine_, xvii. 234. The _Annals of Hempstead_, by Henry Onderdonk, Jr., treats of the Quakers on Long Island and in New York from 1657 to 1826; cf. also the _American Historical Record_, i. 49; ii. 53, 73. _The Early Friends (or Quakers) in Maryland_, by J. Saurin Norris, and _Wenlock Christison and the Early Friends in Talbot County, Maryland_, by Samuel A. Harrison, are the titles of instructive addresses delivered before the Maryland Historical Society, and included in its Fund publications; compare also E. D. Neill’s “Francis Howgill and the Early Quakers,” in his _English Colonization in North America_, chap. xvii., and his _Terra Mariæ_, chap. iv. Henning’s _Statutes at Large_ give the laws passed in Virginia to punish the Quakers. The _Journals_ and _Travels_ of Burnyeat, Edmundson, and Fox should also be consulted. A far from flattering picture of the Quakers living on the Delaware shortly before the settlement of Pennsylvania, will be found in the _Journal_ of Dankers and Sluyter, two followers of John Labadie, who travelled in America in 1679-1680. Their account of the condition of the country on the Delaware at that time is very interesting.[830] _A Retrospect of Early Quakerism: being Extracts from the Records of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, etc._, by Ezra Michener, Philadelphia, 1860, is also a useful work, as it gives the dates when meetings were established.

WILLIAM PENN.—The collected works of William Penn have passed through four editions;[831] these contain but few of his letters in relation to Pennsylvania.[832] The biographical sketch which accompanies the edition of 1726 is attributed to Joseph Besse. It appeared but eight years after Penn’s death, and has been the groundwork of nearly everything which has since been written concerning him. The _Memoirs of the Private and Public Life of William Penn_, by Thomas Clarkson,[833] was for many years the standard Life. Later evidence has shown that in some particulars the author erred; but it is generally accurate. It however treats more of William Penn the Quaker than of William Penn the founder of Pennsylvania. The same criticism is applicable to _The Life of William Penn_ by Samuel M. Janney.[834] It also is a trustworthy book. All that was in print at the time it was written was used in its preparation, and it is to-day, historically, the best work on the subject. It contains more of his letters regarding the settlement of Pennsylvania than any other work we know of, and they are given in full. The “Life of William Penn,” by George E. Ellis, D.D., in Sparks’s _American Biography_, second series, vol. xii., is an important and spirited production, the result of careful thought and study.

_William Penn: an Historical Biography_,[835] by William Hepworth Dixon, is probably the most popular account that has appeared. Its style is agreeable, and it is full of interesting facts picturesquely grouped. In some cases, however, the authorities quoted do not support the inferences which have been drawn from them, and the historical value of the book has been sacrificed in order to add to its attractiveness. Those chapters which speak of the interest taken by Algernon Sidney in the formation of the constitution of Pennsylvania are clearly erroneous. These views are based on the part which Penn took in Sidney’s return to Parliament, and in a letter of Penn to Sidney, Oct. 13, 1681. Without this last, the argument falls. No reference is given to where the letter will be found. It was first printed as addressed to Algernon Sidney, in vol. iii. part i. p. 285 of the _Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania_. In vol. iv. ibid. (part i. pp. 167-212) other letters of Penn are printed, one of which is addressed to Henry Sidney, the brother of Algernon. To this a note is appended, stating that the letter in the former volume was undoubtedly written to the same person. As Mr. Dixon used extracts from these letters, it was, to say the least, unfortunate that he should have overlooked the importance of the note. _La Vie de Guillaume Penn_,[836] par J. Marsillac, is a meritorious compilation, but its chief interest centres around its author, who styles himself “Député extraordinaire des Amis de France à l’Assemblée Nationale, etc.” He was of noble birth, and an officer in the French army. He joined the Friends in 1778. Being convinced of the unlawfulness of war by the arguments in Barclay’s _Apology_, he determined “to change his condition of a destroyer to that of a preserver of mankind,” and studied medicine. During the French Revolution he took refuge in America, and resided in Philadelphia. He afterward returned to France, “and threw off at the same time the garb and profession of a Friend. He devoted himself in Paris to the practice of his profession, and obtained under Napoleon a situation in one of the French hospitals.”

Chapters in Janney’s _Life of Penn_ and in Dixon’s _Biography_ are devoted to a refutation of the charges of worldliness and insincerity brought against Penn by Macaulay in his _History of England_. We append below the titles of other publications of the same character, as well as of additional works which can be consulted with profit by students of his life.[837] The _Penn Papers_, or manuscripts in the possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, relate chiefly to the history of the province while under the governorship of Penn’s descendants. There are, however, in the collection some papers of personal interest in relation to Penn, and some of his controversial writings and documents connected with the history of the province at the time of its settlement. The history of this collection presents another instance of the perils to which manuscripts are exposed. After having been preserved for a number of years by one branch of the Penn family with comparative care, subject only to the depredations of time, they were sold to a papermaker, through whose discrimination they were preserved. They were catalogued and offered for sale by Edward G. Allen and James Coleman, of London, in 1870.[838] The collections were purchased by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, but not until some papers had been obtained by persons more favorably situated. The general interest of the whole, however, was but little lessened by this misfortune. From 1700 until the Revolution the series is remarkably complete, and there are but few incidents in the colonial history of Pennsylvania that cannot be elucidated by its examination. A portion of the papers (about twenty thousand documents) have been bound and arranged, and fill nearly seventy-five folio volumes.[839]

GENERAL HISTORIES OF PENNSYLVANIA.—The first historian of Pennsylvania was Samuel Smith, author of the well-known _History of New Jersey_; but his work up to the present time has not appeared in a complete form. It is a history of the Society of Friends, or Quakers, in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Smith’s manuscripts are in the Library of the New Jersey Historical Society. What appears to be a duplicate of the Pennsylvania portion is in that of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Hazard printed the latter in his _Register of Pennsylvania_, vols. vi. and vii.[840]

Robert Proud’s _History of Pennsylvania_[841] has long enjoyed a high reputation, but no more so than its merits entitle it to. For years it was the only history of the State. In its preparation the manuscript of Smith’s _History_ was used, and in it extracts are given from pamphlets that have since been printed in full. Nevertheless, there is much in it that cannot be found elsewhere. Passages are quoted from letters of Penn which have never been printed entire, and the notes regarding the early settlers are of especial value. The care taken in the preparation of the book is so evident that its statements can as a rule be accepted. The author, a native of England, was a teacher of the classics in the Friends’ School, Philadelphia.[842]

Professor Ebeling’s volume on Pennsylvania in his _Erdbeschreibung und Geschichte von America_, Hamburg, 1793-1799, in five volumes, is another valuable contribution. Portions of it, translated by Duponceau, will be found in Hazard’s _Register of Pennsylvania_, i. 340, 353, 369, 385, 401.

Thomas F. Gordon’s _History of Pennsylvania_[843] gives the history of the colony down to the Declaration of Independence. That part which treats of the eighteenth century does so more fully than any other work. It has never enjoyed much popularity. Its style is labored. The author was one who thought that “the names of the first settlers are interesting to us only because they were first settlers,” and that nothing could attract the public in men “whose chief, and perhaps sole, merit consisted in the due fulfilment of the duties of private life.” There is a tone of antagonism to Penn in some parts of the book which lacks the spirit of impartiality. It was reviewed by Job R. Tyson. See “Examination of the Various Charges brought by Historians against William Penn,” etc.,—_Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania_, vol. ii. part ii. p. 127.

The second volume of Bowden’s _History of Friends in America_[844] is the best Quaker history of Pennsylvania that has appeared.

Sherman Day’s _Historical Collections_ (1843) and _An Illustrated History of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania_,[845] by William H. Egle, M.D., both give the history of the State down to the time of their respective publications. In them the histories of the counties are treated in separate chapters, general histories of the State being given by way of introductions,—that by Dr. Egle being very full.

_The Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania, from its Origin_, which is attributed to Franklin, belongs properly to a later period of the history of the province than we are now considering, and, as it was written to serve a political purpose, has but slight historical claims. In it, however, the attempt is made to trace some of the alleged abuses of power back to the foundation of the colony. It was published in London in 1759, and is included by both Duane and Sparks in their editions of Franklin’s writings.

Bancroft’s chapters on the Quakers in the United States and on Pennsylvania are excellent. Grahame’s _Colonial History of the United States_ is less flattering in the estimate given of Penn and his followers, although far from unappreciative of their efforts. Burke’s _Account of the European Settlements in America_[846] gives nothing that is new in connection with the settlement of Pennsylvania; but the opinions of its distinguished author in regard to William Penn as a legislator will be read with pleasure by Penn’s admirers. The remarks on the settlement of Pennsylvania in Wynne’s _General History of the British Empire in America_,[847] are copied bodily from Burke; but no quotation marks are given, and nothing indicates their origin. Douglass’s _Summary_ gives nothing on the subject that will not be found in the charter and a few documents of similar character. From William M. Cornell’s _History of Pennsylvania_, 1876, nothing new will be gathered regarding the settlement of the province. It is a mere compilation, in which Weems’s _Life of Penn_ is quoted as an authority.