Area History: The Primative Settlement - Watson's Annals of Philadelphia And Pennsylvania, 1857 Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by EVC. USGENWEB NOTICE: Printing this file by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. ____________________________________________________________ ***************************************************** PART ONE ***************************************************** Chapter 1. Epitome of Primitive Colonial and Philadelphia History Our country having been successively possessed by the Dutch, the Swedes, and the English, at periods preceding the colony of Penn and Pennsylvania, it will be a useful introduction to the proper history of Philadelphia and the pilgrim founders, to offer such notices of the early colonial history as may briefly show the times, places and manner of the several attempts at dominion or colonization within our borders. When this is accomplished, articles of more general acceptance and more varied and agreeable reading will follow. The Dutch were undoubtedly the first adventurers who endeavoured to explore and colonize the countries contiguous to our bay and river. So far as precedence of time could confer supremacy, the Dutch had it by actual occupance. But although they so aspired to possess and rule the country in the name of their "High Mightinesses", it was not conceded by others; for the Swedes in 1631, and the English from New Haven in 1640, severally essayed to become colonists under their own laws. These based their claims on their actual purchases from the Indian Sovereigns; of whom they alleged they had each acquired their titles. That the Sachems did so sell to them is perhaps pretty good evidence that the Dutch had not so acquired their title before them, unless for special places where they designed to settle; --- so they certainly procured their title for Cape May, the deed for which is still extant in the archives of state at Albany. Captain Kornelis Jacobus Me'y, a Dutchman, must be regarded as the first explorer of our bay and river, because it is recorded of him that, as early as 1623, he was among those first settlers who formed a village at Gloucester point, and there built Fort Nassau for its defence. From him, thus pre-eminent at least by precedence of name, our prominent points of port entrance derived their names. Thus our Cape May retains his surname; and the inner cape of the southern side of the bay once bore his baptismal name --- Cornelius. The name of Hinlopen was at the same time bestowed upon the outer cape, in honour of a Dutch navigator of the name of Jelmer Hinlopen. The bay itself was called Zuydt baai, but oftener Goodyn's bay; --- the latter in honour of Samuel Goodyn, one of the partners of the purchase of Cape May county, from the Indian chieftains, in 1630. The Indian name of the bay was Poutaxat. The river they called Lenape Wihittuck; which means --- the rapid stream of the Lenape. It also bore the names of Mackerish Kitton, and Arasapha. The name of Delaware bay and river, conferred by the English, is manifestly derived from Lord Delaware, (i.e. Sir Thomas West), but whether from his arrival at it on his way to Virginia in 1610, or because of his death off the place on his return home in 1618, is uncertain, as both causes have been assigned. The Swedes called it New Swedeland stream, and the country Nya Swerige, or New Swedeland. The year 1630 must ever be regarded as the year peculiarly fruitful in expedients with the Dutch to colonize and engross the advantages of our river Delaware. Several merchants of Amsterdm, including Samuel Goodyn , sent out in this year Captain de Vries with two vessels to execute their projects. They designed to raise tobacco and grain, and to catch whales and seals. The little colony of about three dozen persons, with their cattle and implements of husbandry, made their settlement up a creek* two leagues from Cape Cornelius, which they named Swaenendael (Swandale), or the Valley of Swans, because they were then numerous there. The ill-natured conduct of an inferior officer in command in De Vries' absence having caused the destruction of the colony by the Indians, and the whalery not being sufficiently encouraging, we hear little more of the Dutch on the Delaware until several years afterwards, when, being grown into power and consequence at New York, they made their approaches as conquerors, to the occasional terror of English or Swedish settlers. *Presumably, now Lewistown creek. From the absence and long silence of Dutch incidents on the borders of the Delaware, subsequent to the loss of De Vries' colony and abandonment, we are the readier prepared to believe the report of some of the historians, that when the Dutch on the South River perceived the superior advantages gaining by their countrymen on the North River, they abandoned the little possessions they had acquired near the Delaware. We think too, the general absence of Dutch settlers among us is strongly corroborated by the fact of so few names of Dutch origin in our earliest land titles and records, except that several occur in Bucks County, near the Delaware, whereas the names of swedish settlers are numerous, and their descendants are plentiful among us even to this day. The Swedes claim our notice from and after the year 1631, as the time of their arrival assigned by their historian, Campanius. At that time they laid out the present New Castle, under the name of Stockholm. They also built their first fort for another settlement at Christiana, [the present Wilmington] on Minquas creek, called also Suspecough. At the island of Tenecunm, they built a fort called New Gottenburg. With it they connected several of the best houses, a church, and the governor's house, called Printz's hall. Numerous are the other places named or held by the Swedes, as set down in the old maps of Campanius and Lindstrom; such as Mocoponaca --- the present Chester; Manaiung --- a fort at the mouth of the present Schuylkill; Chincessing, (now Kingsessing township); Korsholm fort --- a fortress in Passaiung supposed to be the same originally at Wiccacoa, (now Swedes' church neighbourhood) where Sven Schute was in command. They had other names not far from the present Philadelphia, such as Nyawasa, Gripsholm, Finlandt, Meulendael, Karakung, Lapananel, &c. --- not to omit the settlement of Olof Stille's place, ancestor of a present wealthy city family of that name, at a place called Techoherassi. The numerous forts, so called under the government of the Swedes, very probably often mere block houses, indicate the state of their apprehensions from enemies. Whether their Dutch neighbours gave significant signs of intentions eventually to supplant them is not now so obvious; but it is matter of record that the Dutch, as early as 1651, built Fort Kasimir, and called the place Nieu Amstel, at the present New Castle. As it had before been a Swedish town under the name of Stockholm, the Swedish governor, Printz, did what he could to prevent it by solemn protest, &c. The fort being but small, the Swedish commander, Risingh, succeeded some time afterwards to make it his own by stratagem. Mutual jealousies being thus fully awakened, and their "high mightinesses" sufficiently powerful at New York to sustain an expedition, we see, in 1655, that Governor Stuyvesant, with half a dozen vessels and 700 men, embarked from the then New Amsterdam, to subdue the power of the Swedes on the Delaware. Such a force in that day was too imposing to be successfully resisted, and the consequence was the entire surrender, after some resistance, to the Dutch conqueror. They destroyed all the public buildings, including the fort on Tenecum island, and carried off the chief people to New York, and afterwards to Holland. But the common people and such as were not subjects of jealousy remained in the country, under the dominion of the Dutch laws. But whatever was the triumph or the severity of the Dutch at their success, whatever were their projects and dreams of hope, from the future employment of their control and resources on the Delaware, they were but of short enjoyment; for they in turn were doomed to be for ever set aside by the conquest of the British power ! In 1664, King Charles II., whose claim to New England gave him powers to claim to the southward, being unwilling to sanction the prosperity of the Dutch as a separate community, granted a patent to his brother James, duke of York and Albany, of lands in America, including all the Dutch then held as their New Netherlands. As this was doubtless a most unjust pretension on the judgement of the officers of their "high Mightinesses" at New Amsterdam, it required all the usual "logic of kings" to enforce it; wherefore, a force was thenceforth sent out from England to put the duke in possession. To such arguments the Dutch reluctantly submitted, and thenceforth New Amsterdam was named, after the conquering duke, "New York", and the Jerseys and the western shores of the Delaware were forthwith transferred to the British rule. (The Swedes and Dutch on the Delaware, in 1683, numbered 3000.) The Duke of York, thus possessed of the Jerseys, granted it to Sir George Carteret, with an intention to call it Nova Caesaria, in honour of Sir George's family, which came from the isle of Jersey; but the people, more attached to the name which they could read and understand, soon abandoned the classical appellation, and adopted the thing intended, to wit, --- the Jerseys. (The Indian name of the Jerseys was Scheyichbi.) In 1675, the west part of Jersey was sold out to one Edward Byllinge, a Friend, to whom William Penn, the founder, soon afterwards became a trustee. This seemingly unimportant and incidental connexion became the "primum mobile" or fulcrum, to a lever whose force may continue to operate on our destinies as long as Pennsylvania shall endure ! Penn, in his efforts to settle the estate of Byllinge, became so well acquainted with the region of Pennsylvania and colonial settlements, as to be afterwards induced to purchase that for himself, by receiving it as an equivalent for claims due to his father, Admiral Penn. The leading facts concerning New Jersey, bordering on the Delaware, are so blended with the proper history of the settlements on that river, that it may be deemed appropriate to notice such. The first English colony that came out under the sale to Byllinge went into Salem creek, which they so named, and there began the present existing town of Salem. The neighbourhood had been previously settled by the Swedes, who had near there a fort which they called Elsingburgh. In 1677, the ship Kent arrived at New Castle with 230 passengers, mostly Friends of good estates. They landed at Raccoon creek, where they found some Swedish houses; but not being well accommodated, they with the commissioners who came in the ship, went up to Chygoe's island, (now Burlington), so called then after the name of the Indian Sachem who dwelt there. The town plot was purchased and called New Beverly. Directly afterwards a fresh supply of inhabitants went there from Wiccacoa. The first ship that ever visited Burlington was the Shield, of Stockton, from Hull, in 1678. Then the site of the present Philadelphia was a bold and high shore called Coaquanock. The ship in veering there, chanced to strike the trees with her sails and spars. It was then observed, (as the historians have preserved the tradition), that the passengers were induced to exclaim, "what a fine place for a town !" A fine coincidence considering that none then purposed a Philadelphia city there ! Other vessels continued to follow to Jersey. In 1682, as many as 360 passengers came out in one vessel. Thus Burlington and the adjacent country settled rapidly, the settlers fully believing it would "become a place of trade quickly", none then foreseeing the possibility of an overwhelming rival in the future of Philadelphia. It appears from the records of Friends' yearly meetings, that some Friends were settled on the western side of the Delaware before Philadelphia was laid out. Some are named as at Shackamaxon, the present Kensington, where they also held meetings at the house of one Fairlamb, most probably Thomas FAIRMAN, who built at the Treaty Tree. The titles of several Swedes in that neighbourhood, derived from the British Governors at New York, are as early as 1665-6, and of those at Tacony as early as 1676. The sons of Sven, (i.e. Sven Sener), holding the southern part of the site of Philadelphia, had their original title of 1664 confirmed to them by Sir Frances Lovelace. Besides these facts, we know that as early as 1642, the Dutch Governor, William Keift of New Amsterdam, fitted out two sloops to drive the English out of Schuylkill. These were properly Marylanders, who, it may be observed, early pretended to claim Pennsylvania as a part of their patent, --- a dispute which was not settled with Pennsylvania till 1732. In 1675, some Friends settled at Chester, probably from the Jersey colony. At Robert Wade's house there, (a distinguished Friend, often afterwards in the Assembly), they held their Meetings. So too, some Friends from Jersey or from New York were settled near the Falls of Delaware, called Sankicans by the Indians. There they had regular Meetings. Their titles they derived from Sir Edmund Andros, the Governor of New York. But of all the settlers prior to Penn, I feel most interested to notice the name of Jurian Hartsfielder, because he took up all of Campington, 350 acres, as early as March 1676, nearly six years before Penn's colony came. He settled under a patent from Governor Andros. What a pioneer, to push on to such a frontier post ! Bur how melancholy to think, that a man, possessing the freehold of what is now cut up into thousands of Northern Liberty lots, should have left no fame, nor any wealth, to any posterity of his name. But the chief pioneer must have been Warner, who, as early as the year 1658, had the hardihood to locate and settle the place, now Warner's Willow Grove, on the north side of the Lancaster road, two miles from the city bridge. What an isolated existence in the midst of savage beasts and men must such a family have then experienced ! What a difference between the relative comforts and household conveniences of that day and this ! Yea, what changes did he witness, even in the long interval of a quarter of a century before the arrival of Penn's colony ! To such a place let the antiquary now go to contemplate the localities so peculiarly unique ! It was a signal and blessed providence which first induced so rare a genius, so excellent and qualified a man as William Penn, to obtain and settle such a great tract as Pennsylvania, say 40,000 square miles, as his proper domains. It was a bold conception; and the courage was strong which led him to propose such a grant to himself, in lieu of payments due to his father. He besides manifested the energy and influence of his character in court negotiations, although so unlikely to be a successful courtier by his profession as a Friend, in that he succeeded to attain the grant even against the will and influence of the Duke of York himself, --- who, as he owned New York, desired also to possess the region of Pennsylvania as the right and appendage of his province. This memorable event in history, this momentous concern to us, the founding of Pennsylvania, was confirmed to William Penn under the Great Seal on the 5th of January, 1681. The cause of the name, and the modesty of the founder, in finding it imposed on him as a family distinction and honour, is so characteristic of that great and good man as to deserve a few lines of extension to explain it. It is expressed in the simplicity and frankness of private friendship, saying, (vide his letter to Robert Turner), "This day my country was confirmed to me by the name of Pennsylvania, a name the King would give it, in honour of my father. I chose New Wales, being, as this, a pretty hilly country; but Penn, being Welsh for a head, --- as Penmanmoire in Wales, and Penrith in Cumberland, and Penn in Buckinghamshire, the highest land in England, --- they called this Pennsylvania, which is the high or head woodlands, for I proposed, (when the Secretary, a Welshman, refused to have it called New Wales), Sylvania, and they added Penn to it; and though I much opposed it, and went to the King to have it struck out and altered, he said, 'twas past, and would take it upon him; nor would twenty guineas move the under Secretaries to vary the name, --- for I feared lest it should be looked on as a vanity in me, and not as a respect in the King, as it truly was, to my father, whom he often mentions with praise." If the cause was thus peculiar in its origin, it is not less remarkable in its effect, it being at this day perhaps the only government in existence which possesses the name of its founder. Penn, being thus in possession of his province, forthwith proceeded to allure the good people of Europe to its settlement and improvement. He published terms, at 40 shillings per 100 acres, and one shilling per 100 acres for quit rent. He did not sell such small parcels himself, but in "shares" of 5000 acres each for £ [pounds]100. How little this seems for lands now bringing from 100 to 500 dollars an acre, and yet how great is the consideration that he possessed 26 millions of such acres ! These generous terms soon caused many purchases in Europe. Thus was formed in London, Bristol, &c., the "Free Society of Traders", of which Nicholas Moore, Predt, and J. Claypoole, were conspicuous members and also residents of Philadelphia. They bought at first 20,000 acres; and their appurtenant city lots "was an entire street, and on one side of a street from river to river", comprising therein 100 acres, exclusive of 400 acres besides in the Liberties. Contemplate the value of all this ground now, in comparison of its original cost of only £ 400 then ! What a result in 160 years ! They set up a glass-house, a tan-yard, a saw mill, and a whalery. A society of Germans was also formed at Frankfort, in Germany, with a view to send out settlers. These took up Germantown township, Manatawny, &c. In consequence of his numerous applications for sales, he, in July, 1681, gave out his "Deed of Settlement", wherein he states at large the terms of their residence, and their privileges as his colonists. The first colony, the venturous pioneers to this new State, left England in August, 1681, in three ships; and the first arrival was the ship John and Sarah, from London, Captain Smith ! The name of this vessel, and of this captain, and of those who were passengers therein, became memorable in the future city, --- as they came in time to be designated as "the first landers", &c., by the succeeding generations. When they had lived to see the rising importance of the growing city they must have felt themselves ennobled by their identity with its primitive existence. Among those primitive names was Nathaniel Allen, (a name conspicuous in the Annals of Philadelphia), John Otter, Edmund Lovett, Joseph Kirkbride, &c. This little colony was the more memorable, because the other two ships were prevented for some time from increasing their population. For one, the Amity, Captain Dimon, from London, was blown off to the West Indies, and did not land her disappointed passengers in Pennsylvania until the next spring; and the third ship, the Factor, Captain Drew, from Bristol, having made as high as Chester on the 11th of December, was frozen up the same night, and so made their winter there. What a cheerless winter it must have been ! How different too from their former comforts and homes ! --- There several of them had to crowd into little earthy caves and huts constructed for the emergency. It is a prevailing and general mistake to suppose that the primitive emigrants made their way direct to Philadelphia. Such a place was not known before their departure from England. Therefore, those who arrived first and did not propose to locate as farmers in the country had to wait the choice of a site and a survey. This we learn from several incidental facts, such as these, viz. --- Penn's letter of February, 1861, to Robert Turner, says, "care is taken already to look out a convenient tract of land for a first settlement", and "they who first go will find inhabitants able to yield them accommodation there". Penn's "instruction to his commissioners," of the 14th of October, 1681, designating the natural advantages to be sought after in their selection of a city plot, is evidence that the choice was left to their discretion after arrival. That the city was not surveyed and laid off as soon as some of the emigrants needed, is indicated both by tradition, and the fact that the first intended surveyor, William Crispin, died in England, and that Thomas Holme, his successor as surveyor general, did not arrive in the province until the end of June, 1862. Penn's letter, written when at Philadelphia in 1683, speaks thus exultingly of the site at length chosen, as if it had been before a matter of much anxiety and search, saying, "Philadelphia, the expectation of those concerned in this province, is at last laid out to the great content of those here ". Then the pre-eminent local advantages are thus strikingly portrayed, saying, "Of all the many places I have seen in the world, I remember not one better seated; so that it seems to me to have been appointed for a town, --- whether we regard the (two) rivers, or the conveniency of the coves, docks, springs, the loftiness and soundness of the land and the air,"&c. I infer from the premises, that as the primitive comers knew not of such an appointed plot as Philadelphia, but were aware, through Penn's previous correspondence with Jersey, that the then existing small village of Upland (now Chester) was peopled by Swedes and some Friends from Jersey, they therefore would be predisposed, to make their first landings at that place. So, in fact, Mrs. Sarah Shoemaker, who died in 1825, at the age of 92, assured me she was expressly told by her grandfather, James Lownes, who was one of the emigrants who so tarried for a time at that place. As we know that many vessels arrived with passengers during the year 1682, (say 23 ships), we must conceive the great influx into Upland of the earlier part of them, and how very natural it should have been to many of them then, who had begun to make it a kind of home, to wish the intended city to be located there. We suppose from this cause, though we have no records to that effect,* that the tradition, so often repeated, has come down to us, that Chester was once proposed as the great emporium of our State. *The late aged and respectable Levi Hollingsworth, Esq., informed me that his ancestor, Henry Hollingsworth, who was assistant to the surveyor general, Thomas Holme, had kept a journal, in which he had read, that William Penn caused his first observation to be taken at Chester, with the intention of fixing the city there; but ascertaining it was not far enough north for the 40th degree, the boundary line of Lord Baltimore, he changed his mind, and afterwards made choice of the city where it now stands. That journal was extant until it was taken, or destroyed in 1777, by the British at Elkton. The town and borough of Philadelphia was located we know in the latter end of 1682, "having a high and dry bank next to the water, with a shore ornamented with a fine view of pine trees growing upon it.". The way the first purchasers or adventurers made their settlements was, first to make their caves or shelter in which to place their families and effects, --- then to get warrants of survey, and go out and wander about for their choice of localities. In doing this they had no paths or roads to direct them, save near the river side. All was a wilderness, and without the marks of travellers, except occasional Indian paths from their abodes. Old inhabitants, who have conversed with their grandparents, have told me, that the intercourse from Germantown to Philadelphia was only a foot or horse path for some time after the first settlement there. The very name of Philadelphia is impressive, as importing in its original Greek sense --- brotherly love: thus giving to the original place the peculiar characteristic trait of unity of interests and purposes, i.e., the "CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE". Long may its society constitute a brotherhood never to be broken, --- clinging together in mutual interests and combined efforts for the general and enduring good ! If it had in its origin that love among its members, which so distinguished the fraternal regard of Attalus and Eumenes, as to give the name of Philadelphia to the place honoured by their mutual attachment, --- so may it also be blessed, with the ancient church of its name, in ever having its civil and religious privileges inscribed in divine sanctions as free as hers, to wit: "I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it !" William Penn did not embark with his first colonists, but he sent out his cousin, captain William Markham, as his first deputy governor, to supply his place, and also to make needful buildings and preparations for the reception of the founder when he should arrive. To this end the finer parts of the frame work required for the construction of "Penn's Cottage" in Laetitia Court, and for "Pennsbury Palace", were freighted from England, together with Penn's workmen, (called "servants", in the parlance of that day), to set them up. The founder set sail from England in August, 1682, with Captain Greenway, in the ship Welcome, of 300 tons: --- a propitious name, and peculiarly so to those previously arrived colonists who were anxiously waiting his arrival. The passage was good, and the ship well filled with additional passengers, mostly Friends. But having had the misfortune to get the small pox on board, it proved fatal to nearly one third of the original hundred ! What a calamity in the outset ! Poor adventurers ! --- how these evils must have depressed their spirits and embittered their voyage ! What a spectacle, to see such numbers of their endeared relatives and companions in peril cast daily into the deep ! The recitals of this voyage were dwelt upon by the aged, and listened to by the young, in many succeeding years. They arrived first at New Castle on the 27th of October, 1682, --- a day hereafter devoted to commemorative festivals, by those who venerate the founder and his primitive associates. Here the founder was hailed with acclamations by the Swedes and Dutch then there. He forthwith made a call of the people at the Court-house, to address them on the business of his government. The ship, with the passengers, proceeded further up the river to the general rendezvous or settlement. In the full vigor of manhood and manly beauty, as Penn then was, he being but 38 years of age, all his actions and deportment among those honest foreigners were such as entirely won their love and regard. They forthwith besought him, in most earnest entreaty, to unite their territory also, and so become their Chief and Governor. Fancy need not invent fiction to adorn the scene which must have there occurred among the rustics of the then rustic "Delaware Town". Won by their entreaties he was induced the same year to declare them united, by an act of union passed at Chester. It must be added, however, that at a later period the members of Assembly from those counties, headed by David Lloyd, a leading member, insisted upon, and finally procured their separation from, and independence of his government By the close of the year 1682, such had been the tide of emigration, induced by the popularity of Penn's character as a mild, generous, and wise Governor, that as many as 23 ships had arrived with passengers since the spring. None of them miscarried; all had short passages, --- some of them 28 days. A few, however, say two or three, had the affliction to have some small-pox on board. In those vessels several children were born without accident to themselves or mothers. Sadly inconvenient and embarrassing situations for some of their descendants now to contemplate, who dwell in sumptuous elegance ! But their ancestors were nerved with undaunted resolution to breast and brave every emergency. One of those sea-born accessions received the name of Sea-mercy. In those times the Indians and Swedes were kind and active to bring in, and vend at moderate prices, proper articles of subsistence. Provisions, says Penn, were good and in vast quantities. Wild fowl was in abundance. Wild pigeons, says another, were like clouds, and often flew so low as to be knocked down with sticks. Wild turkeys sometimes were so immoderately fat and large as to have weighed 46 lbs. Some of 30 lbs. sold at one shilling, deer at two shillings, and corn at two shillings and sixpence. They also soon got up a seine for fishing, --- the waters abounded with fish. "Six alloes, or rocks," says Penn, "are sold for twelve pence, and salt fish at three farthings a pound. Six hundred of those alloes (rocks) have been taken at one draught !" A similar display of the natural abundance of the country is exhibited in the letter of Mahlon Stacy from Jersey. "We have," says he, "peaches by cart loads. The Indians bring us 7 or 8 fat bucks of a day. Without rod or net we catch abundance of herrings, after the Indian manner, in pinfolds. Geese, ducks, pheasants, are plenty." Swans then abounded. Oysters were excellent, six inches long. The first assembly ever held in Philadelphia consisted of 72 persons, and was convened at the Friends' meeting house, on the 10th of 1st mo., 1683, --- at which place, and at several private houses afterwards, when their number was diminutive, they were accustomed to meet, until the court-house was built and prepared for their better reception in 1707. The only peculiar law then enacted was one to prevent law suits, --- one which has its voluntary associations to the same effect in the present day, --- that is, the institution of "Three peace makers, after the manner of common arbitrators, to be chosen by each county court, that they might hear and end all differences." At the same time the fastidious notions of some went so far as to move for a bill or resolution, "that young men should be obliged to repress extravagance, that "only two sorts of clothes should be worn; --- one kind for summer, and one for winter". It is sufficient to say the propositions failed by the prevailing good sense of the Assembly; too many of whom were then beyond the spell of the contracted feelings of the "Blue Laws". In this year the first sheriff of Philadelphia was created, to wit: John Test. The first Grand Jury was called the 2nd of 3d mo., 1683. The Petit Jury which succeeded it, found one Pickering guilty of coining and passing base money. He was condemned to make restitution, and to pay £ 40 towards building a court-house. What a wretch he must have been to have commenced such a vile employ at a time when honest business of every kind so well rewarded the diligent ! The truth was as in days of yore, "When the sons of God came together, Satan came also", --- for the facts of criminal cases show that vicious persons soon got intermixed with the good, --- "a mingled web of good and ill" ! Although the Friends and their excellent morals were long predominant and widely diffused, yet some vile persons (probably from the older colony of New York, and from the malefactors of the Maryland transportation lists), urged their way into the mass of the Philadelphia population. Soon tippling houses and their houses and their consequent abuses were introduced into the caves and huts, left vacant by the removal to better residences of those first settlers who first constructed them. In the year 1683-4 the emigration was very great. They came from England, Ireland, Wales, Holland, and Germany. Few or none of the French took any fancy to us, although it was the opinion of Penn that they would, and that they would much profit here by the cultivation of the grape, which then every where abounded in surprising excellence and profusion. The Germans from Cresheim, near Worms, were nearly all of them Friends, and all of them made their settlement at Germantown. By this emigration, says Sewall, they providentially avoided the desolation of a French war, which soon after laid waste their former possessions. The Welsh made a very respectable emigration at this time. They bought up 40,000 acres of land, in 1682, and formed their settlements after the names of their native homes, --- in Merion, Haverfield, Radnor, Newtown, Goshen, and Uwechland. Penn's letter to Lord North, of 7th mo. 1683, saith, "Twenty-two sail more have arrived since I came. There are about 300 farms (of the new comers), settled as contiguously as may be. Since last summer we have had about sixty sail of great and small shipping, which is a good beginning". To the Marquis of Halifax, under date of 12mo. 9th, 1683, he says with much truth, "I must, without vanity, say that 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" ! Such self-gratulation was honest and well merited. Indeed we cannot forbear to expatiate a little on the superior tact and talent which he manifested for a founder, by comparing his rapid success with the slow progress of those who preceded him. No sooner has the genius of Penn been enlisted in the enterprise, than we see it speak a city and commerce into instant existence. His spirit animated every part of his colony. Well might the city of Philadelphia, which imports "brotherly love", be so called, when we contemplate the benevolent motives of its founder, and the religious and good intentions of his compatriots. "Our view (says A. Soules' publication of 1684), was to have freedom of worship, and to live in greater simplicity and innocency on a virgin elysian shore, and to give thousands of dark souls to civilization and piety". Penn solemnly declares he came into his charge of the province "for the Lord's sake". He hoped, under the divine aid, to have raised a people who should have been a praise in the earth for conduct, as well as for civil and religious liberty. "I wanted", says he, "to afford an asylum to the good and oppressed of every nation. I aimed to frame a government which might be an example. I desired to show men as free and happy as they could be. I had also kind views towards the Indians". "I am night and day (says he, in his letter from Chester) spending my life, my time, my money, without being a sixpence enriched. Had I sought greatness, I had stayed at home, where the difference between what I am, and was offered, and could have been there in power and wealth, is as wide as the places are." Under the influence of a proper credence to such strong expressions of disinterested patriotism and good will, it seems impossible to avoid the confession that a more disinterested public servant and benefactor the world never saw, preceding our own great Washington. Each was peculiarly and emphatically the father of his country --- PATER PATRIAE. General opinion has been that the proprietor of twenty millions of acres must have become speedily and immensely rich, -- but it was not so. His liberal advances for his province, and necessary expenses at court, to cultivate favour for his province, made great inroads upon his private estate, and kept him in continual pecuniary straits. He presented means to his people to enrich themselves; --- but his returns from quit rents, &c., which at first was the business of the county sheriffs to collect, were so tardy and so reluctantly given, as to have been to him a cause of perpetual embarrassment and uneasiness. Many were found who justified their non-compliance by the pretext, that the quit rents should be reserved in the country to defray the expenses of government. [He was also entitled to a proportion of duties on imports and exports, as Lord Baltimore received, but which in a short time was withheld.] It is painful to generous natures, to see so noble minded a gentleman perpetually harassed with so many cares. It might well be said of him, "Ill rests the head that wears a crown". We feel an influence of tender sorrow when we enter into sympathy with his troubles, --- we want to see such a great benefactor enjoy felicity without alloy. But from the time he became a public friend, he seemed appointed to struggle through "evil report", as well as through "good report"; as "often cast down, but never destroyed." William Penn had scarcely fulfilled two years as a patriarch among his colonies, before he was imperiously called to return back to England. Lord Baltimore had made such influence at court against Penn's title to Pennsylvania limits, as threatened to impair his claim: --- he therefore, in the 6th month of 1684, embarked in the ketch Endeavor, (another ominous name!) for England. In November, 1685, he succeeded with king James, to have the line of Delaware equally divided, through the Delaware and Chesapeake peninsula. His words at parting were very pathetic and affectionate, saying, --- "and thou Philadelphia, --- the virgin settlement, named before thou wert born, --- what love, what care, what service, and what travail, has there been to bring thee forth, and preserve thee from such as would abuse and defile thee; I long to be with you, and hope to see you next fall". But earnest as were his wishes for return, it was fifteen years before he could accomplish the wish above expressed ! --- to wit, in 1699. While Penn remained abroad, he was perpetually engaged in devising schemes of kindness to benefit his people, --- at the same time endeavoring to make his way clear for his return, and to bring his family to abide with us for life. So his people wished, --- so his friends expected. By the year 1690, he thought he had at length attained his object; but just as he was ready to embark with a great colony, he was arrested on a groundless suspicion of being disaffected to the new Sovereigns, William and Mary, who had come in by the expulsion of his old friend, King James. He was constrained thereupon to live two years in privacy, and his government two years afterwards was given over to the rule of Governor Fletcher, of the New York government. Penn estimated this damage to himself to be equal to L 30,000 --- a monstrous sum in his day, and especially in his need ! Penn, however, so far from acting unworthily, speaks the truth, when he says, -- "Would I have made my market of the fears and jealousies of the people, when the King (James) came to the throne, I had put £ 20,000 into my pocket, and L 100,000 in my province". Penn's desire to return to his colony, and his great disappointments from his people, are thus strongly expressed by him in the year 1686, --- "Unkindly used as I am, no poor slave in Turkey more earnestly desires deliverance than I do to be with you". But one cause, which hindered his return, was his great expense for Pennsylvania. "I must say my expenses is the ground of my present incumbrance." His quit rents, he says, "were at least £ 500 per annum, but he could not get one penny". I had several MS. letters in my possession, of the above period of time, from Penn to his confidential friend and steward, James Harrison, at Pennsbury, which sufficiently evidenced that Penn was much hindered from a speedier return, by the strange indisposition of the colony to provide suitably for his maintenance as Governor. From the same cause I think I can discern that his wife was not favourably disposed to a residence among us, --- she had probably heard so much of unkindness and ingratitude towards her husband, as soured the feelings of both herself and her daughter Laetitia. >From different letters I quote as follows: --- 1686, "The country thinks not about my supply, and I resolve never to act the Governor and charge my private estate. If my table, cellar, and stable, may be provided for, with a barge and yacht for the use of the Governor and Government, I may try to get hence: -- for in the sight of God, I may say, I am £ 5000 and more behind hand, than ever I received or saw for land in the province, --- and to be so baffled by the merchants is discouraging and not to be put up with". [The case of "the merchants" is explained in Penn's letter to James Logan, 1705. He had indulged them, as a favour, with an exemption from duties on exports and imports, for a year or two while he was present; but when he was gone, they refused compliance, as their right. --- He had required the rates as paid at New York and Maryland. His letter of the 8th of April, 1681, to the inhabitants, expressly says, "pay my deputy those duties you formerly paid to the Governor of New York".] Another letter of 8th of 11 mo., 1686, final on this subject, is very energetic, saying, As to a supply, I will sell the shirt off my back before I will trouble them any more. I will never come into the province with my family to spend my private estate to discharge a public station, and so add more wrongs to my children. This is no anger, although I am grieved, --- but a cool and resolved thought". Republics have been reproached as "proverbially ungrateful", but is there not better evidence that colonies are unthankful? Is it not the general history of colonies, to whine and fret like wayward children: -- to give immeasurable trouble and expense to rear them up to maturity; --- and then to reward the parental care with alienation ! Is it not the present history of all we know as such, who feel themselves able to begin independence for themselves ! We speak these things as lookers-on. During so long a period of Penn's absence, it was impossible to govern by his deputies with such weight and influence as if personally present. His absence naturally weakened his authority, while it could better enforce the projects of cabals, and prevent the due reception of his pecuniary dues. William Markham, his first deputy, was but 21 years of age when he arrived. He had an excellent deputy in Thomas Lloyd, Esq., a scholar and a Christian. He always served reluctantly, and, in 1688, resigned his place as governor, but continued in the council till his death, in 1694, at the age of 54 years. William Penn, in 1699, again set himself to embark for his province, after an absence of fifteen years. He came with a full purpose to make his stay permanent, and brought his family with him. But the voyage of the vessel (like the former names) was ominous. They were three months at sea ! and when they arrived they found an unexpected and an unwelcome guest. The yellow fever, which had been raging in the West Indies, had been communicated, it is supposed, in Philadelphia. Thomas Story, the recorder and a public Friend, described it as a time when "Great was the fear that fell on all flesh. I saw no lofty or airy countenance, --- nor heard any vain jesting: --- but every face gathered paleness, and many hearts were humbled". Penn arrived in the 10th of the month, and he and his family were received with universal joy, on account of his known intention to stay for life. James Logan, writing of that event says, "Friends' love to the Governor was great and sincere --- they had long mourned for his absence, and passionately desired his return". His arrival being on a first day, he went forthwith to the Meeting, thronged all the way with a crowd, where he spoke to the people. But desirable as was his stay, he was in time again compelled to leave his "wilderness retreat", after a stay of but two years, --- never to return ! While he remained, there were about 100 laws enacted, chiefly at New Castle, where they as often legislated, to please the low counties, as they did at Philadelphia. He also attended at Philadelphia, in 1701, a great Indian treaty, with forty Indian chiefs, who came from many nations to settle the friendship. The same year, he had also a great Indian council at Pennsbury Mansion, to take leave of him, and to renew covenants, &c. Penn's stay, for a time, seemed to promise permanency, and he governed with more than usual satisfaction to himself; but there seemed no more of peace and repose for him than for Moses of old ! --- for perplexities were gathering. About this time the crown officers began to fear the colonies might grow too powerful under the proprietary governments, and they therefore showed desires of buying them out, so as to bring them more immediately under the direct control of government. The records of the "Board of Trade", it is believed, would show much on this subject if investigated. They began to take measures to curtail their liberties; --- and, in 1701, they brought the alleged "better regulation and surer defence". {Parson Duche's account of Pennsylvania is very express, --- he says, the persons in England who were jealous of colonial privileges, under pretence of securing the royal prerogative, got up a bill for that purpose in the House of Commons. Penn's friends there did what they could to impede its passage, and obtained an indulgence to stay proceedings until Penn could return and defend himself. Penn therefore summoned his Assembly on the 15th of September, 1701, and declared his reasons for quick departure.] At this crisis the owners of land in Pennsylvania, dwelling in England, became very importunate for Penn's return to prevent those measures. He therefore said "he must go back with great reluctancy, although he desired the quietness of our wilderness". In his letter of 1701, to James Logan, he says, "no man living can defend us or bargain for us better than myself". Still it may be questioned if this necessity was really so absolute. In truth, the cause of his going was removed even before he arrived there, for king William had died, and queen Anne was his friend. I think I can discern domestic reasons, from expressions made by himself and family, (which probably import even more than was uttered), which go to show that there were grounds enough of personal dissatisfaction to make a residence in England preferable to one here, under the circumstances under which his family was placed. In a letter which Penn wrote to James Logan, in July, 1701, (preserved in the Logan collection), he says, "I cannot prevail on my wife to stay, and still less with Tishe. I know not what to do", --- and, as if fearing some would demur to his going, he adds, "to all that speak of it, say, I shall have no need to stay (in England) and a great interest to return". In a letter of 1704, he says, "had you settled a reasonable revenue (on him) he would have returned and laid his bones there, --- also his wife too, after her mother's death", then expected. From the whole the inference is unavoidable, that however urgent was the business - call of his leaving the country, and the dissatisfaction of the female part of his family here, he would nevertheless have gladly come back to us if adequate provision had been made for his support in the style of a public officer. We cannot forbear the belief, that if he, like Lord Baltimore, had confided his interests in England to such good agents as he could have employed at court, he might have raised with least trouble a more solid and lasting superstructure to his fame and profit in this province, than he could possibly have attained by a residence in England. It had always too much the character of such ill-managed business as results when principals go abroad, in search of novelties or pleasures, and commit their trusts to clerks and irresponsible agents. When the principal omits personal presence, all take the liberty to manage as may suit their self-indulgence. In Penn's case it surely was not more difficult to find men for occasional services in England, than it was to keep up the government of a whole province by agents, which served at three to four thousand miles from the principal. One of the last public acts of Penn in the province was to present the city, on the 28th of October, 1701, with a last charter of privileges. By this he constituted the town of Philadelphia a city. Edward Shippen was the first mayor, and Thomas Story the first recorder. Shippen was also a judge, and, as president of the council, he was for a time ex-officio Governor. Although the city so received its charter, it appears to have had in effect the name and character of a city before, --- for as early as 1691 it had a mayor, named Humphrey Murrey, signing its official acts. A new deputy governor arrived in 1704, in the person of John Evans, Esqr., a young man of ability --- but of free life, and of such occasional dissipation as to give umbrage to many serious persons. With him came William Penn, jun'r, the only son by the first wife. Although he also was volatile, beyond his education, he was made a member of the council as an intended respect. Evans remained only five years, being removed by a petition for his recall. He had so little respect for Friends' principles, that it is rather strange that he should have been appointed at all. In 1704, he, for the first time known in our annals, made a call for a militia, by public proclamation, "to assist Queen Anne." It did not succeed. Indeed, the very name of militia, for a long time afterwards, was a measure which quickly roused the religious scruples of the Friends. It would appear, however, from an incidental fact prior to this time, that there was some kind of voluntary association which occasionally used firearms, because we read in the Logan MS. papers, that the Governor, (Markham) when he died in Philadelphia, "was buried, by the militia, with the honours of war". It seems that Governor Evans did not credit the sincerity of Friends, in their alleged aversion to war and war measures. He therefore endeavoured by stratagem to surprise them into a desertion of their avowed pacific principles. To this end, he plotted with some of his friends in New Castle to send up an express, to say, "twelve French vessels were arrived, and were committing depredations, and soon would be up at Philadelphia itself !" On the receipt of this intelligence he rode through the streets with his sword drawn, calling on the inhabitants for defence. The panic was great, especially among the women, --- but none of the Friends resorted to arms. Plate and other valuables were cast into their wells. Several took to the boats and canoes, and went up the creeks, &c. This was an undignified and even cruel experiment, which only tended to make his rule extremely unwelcome. The whole scene, such as it was, might afford subject for the poet's and the painter's skill. Nothing like such an alarm had before disturbed the repose of the inhabitants since the false alarm of 1686, when an idle tale found afflictive currency --- that the Indians were proposing their massacre. It was about the year 1708 that Penn's perplexities and troubles fell upon him in more than common measure. He had received the petition for Evans' removal, and a successor was requisite. His debts, through the mal-conduct of a corrupt steward (Ford) became so ponderous and unmanageable, (although he had a patriony of £ 1500 a year), that he was obliged to mortgage his province for £ 6600, and to give it in trust to James Logan, Isaac Norris, and others. There began about this time to appear a more than common selfishness in some of the people, even to cabals and factions and to a virtual resistance, in some cases, of the proprietary's right. David Lloyd, Esqr., of Chester, an attorney and a Friend, Speaker sometime of the Assembly, was the visible head of the opposition. There was much bickering from such causes between the Assembly -- headed as it then was --- and the Secretary, James Logan. There was certainly a very rude and disrespectful manner of resistance in the Assembly, and their being re-elected was a painful indication to Penn's real friends that the temporary disaffection was too prevalent among the people. [It is to the credit of the mass of the people, that when they came to know the merits of the case, they manifested far better feelings to the proprietary, by displacing, at the next election, all the former Representatives, and supplying their places with kindlier spirits.] Their ill-natured disputations with Governor Gookin, who had succeeded Evans, in 1709, (written in the plain style of Friends, which had hitherto prevailed in the public acts of the colony), however provoked by the admitted strange temper of the Governor, are rather burlesque compositions than otherwise, to our sober judgements in this day. Under the force of their excited feelings they proceeded to such extremities as to impeach and try to arrest the devoted and excellent public servant, James Logan, on pretexts which he readily and ably refuted. The scandal of these measures reached England, and much use was made of them there to disparage and reprobate colonial proprietary governments, and to set forth by those opposed to Penn's interests, that such were not capable of any stable self-government and good conduct. All these things combining, tended eventually to sap and alienate the affections and confidence of Penn to his people; and when, with the increase of his debts for his colony, and their poor returns, he also fell into an occasional defect of mind by a stroke of apoplexy, it became more and more a measure of necessity that he should yield to the wish of the crown (and I might add, of his friends also) by selling out his province for £ 12,000, --- reserving to himself the quit rents and estates. The deed was formally made, and he had received, it is said, £ 1900 in 1712, as earnest money; but he never executed it, he having, in that year, so far lost his mental faculties as made him incapable, as was supposed by the law-officers, to confer a legal conveyance. So nearly were we once to losing all that connection with the Penn family, which afterwards, for so many years of the rule of their sub-governors, united our destinies ! The MS. collections of Mrs. Logan are very ample in facts on this sale and arrest of execution. It is but due to the honour of the founder to cite, from some of his letters, his own expressions of the feelings and embarrassments which urged him thus to dissever his interests from the people whom he had benefitted so essentially by the colony he had procured them. In 1710, he writes and says, "the undeserved opposition I meet from thence sinks me in sorrow, and I cannot but think it hard measure, that while that proved a land of freedom and flourishing to them, it should become to me, by whose means it was made a country, the cause of trouble and poverty". Oh, what an inconsiderate requittal ! Penn hints too, direct enough, at his meditated sale, as well as at the cause of it, saying, "the opposition I have met with must at length force me to consider more closely of my own private and sinking circumstances." Respecting this meditated surrender to the crown I am enabled to add some facts, derived from the use of the MS. collections of Mrs. Logan, kindly lent to me for general use. There I ascertained that James Logan and the friends of William Penn in Philadelphia often suggested this measure as a dernier resort. It appears to have been made as early as the year 1701, by some of the crown officers, as a necessary security to the crown in case of a war. Penn appears all along to have deprecated and resisted this. From 1702 to 1707 it is spoken of to Penn by his Philadelphia friends in their letters and in his replies. In 1704, Penn says it will depend on the kindness of the next Assembly to him. --- "I shall see this winter's session, and take my measures accordingly". In 1705, he says, "whether I surrender or not, shall make no difference as to my coming and laying my bones among you". All these, so far, were secret confidential views on both sides. In 1707, James Logan is very strenuous in his advice, saying, "If the thing I have so often mentioned can carry any weight, it is that thou wilt get a consideration from the crown for the government. 'Tis what I advise; for thou wilt really find it impossible to hold the government here, so refractory as things are conducted. Depend upon it, there is a constant plot here against thy interest,&c". To this I might add, that Isaac Norris, in 1711 says, "I cannot be against it --- he is now old, and the best terms may be had in his life-time. I only hope he will make good terms for Friends, --- on oaths, ministers' pay, and militia". Penn himself, on one occasion, writes, "I believe it repents some that they began it, (by requesting or urging the crown to retake it per force), for now, 'tis I that press it upon good terms, as well for the people as self, --- in the judgement of the wisest and best of my friends". Finally, it may be seen, as the proper sequel to the whole, what moving causes of complaint and dissatisfaction Penn really possessed, by consulting his long and very able expostulatory letter "to the inhabitants of Pennsylvania", of the 27th of 4th mo.1710 --- Vide Proud, vol. 2, page 45. It might well be called his patriarchal and farewell address. It is full of pathos and sensibility, and produced much effect in kindlier feelings from his people after its publication among them, but too late expressed by them in their elections and public measures to prevent his proposed bargain with the crown ! Every true Pennsylvanian, imbued with due good feelings to our honoured founder, should make that paper his manual. So his real friends of that day regarded it; and on page 507 of my MS. Annals, in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, is preserved one of those primitive printed letters, kept in one family "with pious care" even down to the present day ! "It is (says he), a mournful consideration, and the cause of deep affliction to me, that I am forced, by the oppression and disappointments which have fallen to my share in this life, to speak to the people of that province in a language I once hoped I should never have occasion to use." --- "I once had reason to expect a solid comfort from the services done so many people, and I have not been disappointed in their prosperity." --- "Did the people really want any thing of me in the relation between us that would make them happier, I should readily grant it." After showing his grounds of grievance, he says, "When I reflect on all those heads, of which I have had so much cause to complain, I cannot but mourn the unhappiness of my portion, dealt to me from those of whom I had reason to expect much better; nor can I but lament the unhappiness that too many of them are bringing upon themselves; who, instead of pursuing the amicable ways of peace, love, and unity, which I at first hoped to find in that retirement, are cherishing a spirit of contention and opposition, and oversetting (by party violence) that foundation on which your happiness might be built". Finally, he adds, --- "If I must continue my regard for you, manifest the same to me, by showing, in a fair election, more than I have for some years met with; or else, without further suspense, I shall know what I have to rely on." William Penn's valedictory, as it in effect proved, from the good old patriarch, was prompted, I am satisfied, in a good degree by the correspondence and subsequent presence of John Logan. When it arrived, Isaac Norris writes, that it "extremely pleased; --- it is so tender and soft where it touches others; --- it is so suitable, that we wish it public as possible. Had it arrived before the election it would have given great support to Friends. As it is, the party is lessened, and the mask of the designers and troublers is half off ". Under such a sense of wrongs, and the superadded pressure of accumulated debts, he probably so far pursued his negotiations for surrender with the ministry, that when the good news of a change of conduct occurred, he had gone too far to recede. Certain it is, that, in 1712, he concluded his sale for £ 12,000 --- a sum full £ 4000 less than had been before expected. In this year his disease got so much the ascendency of his mental faculties, that he was deemed inadequate to any active or public business. As other facts concerning him, in this his last and interesting crisis, will be told in another place, it may suffice here to say : --- He still showed himself a sensible and conversable man, -- his chief defect was found in the obliteration of his memory. Religion was always predominant. His very failings, in this last extremity, "leaned to virtue's side". In this state he continued six years, going abroad, to Meetings, &c., till 1718, when he died, --- having probably passed, in these last secluded years, the most tranquil period of his eventful, busy, care-crazed life. --- "The memory of the just is blessed". From the facts which have just passed in review, we arrive at the conclusion, --- that however Penn once saw "an opening of joy as to these parts", it was but too manifest, it was such only "for another, and not for himself !" However we may palliate the jealosies of liberty inherent and cherished in our forefathers, by which small or fancied grievances were sometimes magnified even by men intending honest opposition, yet, as ambition or blind zeal will either of them mislead party leaders, and acerbity of feelings will excite wrong doings, we cannot but regret, that so distinguished a benefactor should not have been less equivocally requited; so that the honest exertions of the best years of his life had not been rewarded with the cares of straited circumstances, by the disheartening opposition of refactory children. Ah ! "how sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child !" But although providence had so overruled the closing events of Penn's eventful life, the reasonable expectation of cheering prosperity, so long withheld from himself, fell largely upon his posterity. His possessions in this country, as we all know, became of immense value to his succeeding generations. When Penn made his will, in 1712, six years before his death, it was estimated that his estate in Europe was worth more than all his province in point of actual product. In that will he left his son William heir of all his estate in England and Ireland. This was his only surviving son by his first wife, Gulielma Springett. His estate in Pennsylvania he left to his sons by his second wife, Hannah Callowhill, to wit: --- John, Thomas, Richard, and Dennis, all then minors. His wife, Hannah Penn, having been made his sole executrix, (a great woman in the management of business) she became in effect our governor, ruling us by her deputies, or lieutenant governors, during all the term of her children's minority. In tracing downward the succession of events, it falls in order to mention, that in 1717, Sir William Keith superseded governor Gookin. Sir William continued in office till the year 1726, and was very successful in cultivating and winning the popularity at which he chiefly aimed. Hannah Penn, however, was displeased with him, because he chose rather to please the people, by compliances of dubious propriety, than to adhere to the interests and wishes of his principal. His deceptive and flattering pretensions to young Benjamin Franklin are well known. Governor Gordon succeeded Governor Keith in 1726, and continued in place till the year 1736. In 1732, the country was gratified with the arrival of Thomas Penn, the second son by the second wife, and in 1734, his brother, John Penn, eldest son by the second wife, also arrived. He was called "the Pennsylvania born", and "the American", --- having been born in Philadelphia at the time of Penn's second arrival, in 1699. He never married, and died in 1746. After his death, his youngest brothers, Thomas and Richard, (Dennis being dead), became sole proprietaries. In 1763, John Penn, (the son of Richard, last above named), was made Governor for the interests of his father and uncle Thomas. In this office he continued till 1775, when the war of independence dissevered this link of union with the founder in the person of his grandson. His brother, Richard Penn, was also in this country at that time; and not being under official obligations (like his brother, the Governor), to keep a seal upon his lips, he showed his wit among our whigs by telling them "they must now hang together, or expect to be hung up by others !" The foregoing recitals, as the instructed reader will readily perceive, have only been designed as a brief outline - portrait of our general history. The object was to give some leading features, in their consecutive order of incidents in our domestic history of Philadelphia and adjacent country, never before published or known. To a considerate and reflecting mind it must be a matter of just surprise, that Pennsylvania, and the other colonies, should so rapidly and progressively attain to riches, independence, and renown, notwithstanding the numerous and successive disastrous events; such as might be regarded as quite sufficient to cripple and prevent the growth of the infant Hercules. We can scarcely look into any period of colonial history where we cannot find them struggling with what they deemed adverse circumstances; --- such as, low markets, want of currency, slow returns for debt, and loud contentions abour deficiencies of public funds for national purposes. In New England, they had Indian wars to sustain. The colonies generally had to make large appropriations in Canada, and on the western frontiers, &c., --- not to forget the expensive and "glorious" expedition to Cape Breton. To these succeeded the waste and ravages of the war of the revolution. In all these measures the waste of treasure was immense; and yet the nation as a whole has gone on in quick and full bodily vigour to full grown manhood, --- even, as if none of those evils had ever existed to impede the growth ! Nor are these all the disasters they encountered: --- they actually lost, by depreciation, immense sums in a depreciated paper currency; (for their practice was to issue a paper medium for almost every pressing emergency). Our frequent commercial failures too, since the year 1800, have nearly ruined all the old and firmest houses of the country, and yet trade survives and flourishes, and the nation, as a whole, is in prosperity ! Such a phenomenon might be imputed to a special providence, resolved thus to exalt and establish us against probabilities and against hope ! But it may not be amiss to suggest such causes as appear to have been natural --- such as may in some degree account for our surmounting so many apparent obstacles. They are generally these, to wit: --- the seeming waste of money in furnishing supplies for the wars of the crown, as it never went out of the country still enriched such classes of the community as are usually the operatives for those who merely live to fight. Even the money often paid was of the paper emission, and usually depreciated beyond redemption, which of course was a relief of the national treasury. If fortunes were indeed lost to some by a sinking of paper money in their hands, it also aided others to pay great purchases with small means, in the form of debts incurred. The rich sometimes sank, and the poor sometimes rose. There was a change of relative condition, --- but the usual required proportion of the sons of toil to "be hewers of wood and drawers of water" to the self-indulgent and the dainty, was still the same. The whole transaction having been an entire family affair, although the sign of money often changed its character and produced changes in the relations of the members of the family, still the land and its improvements were theirs, and could not be alienated from the whole as an entire people. In the mean time, real substantial coin in great sums* flowed into the country for the purposes of paying off the crown officers and army, and these being expended in the country for the commodities of the consumers, left a real wealth among us. * [The tory paper, called "Pennsylvania Ledger", printed at Philadelphia, under the auspices of General Howe, contains in No. 122, of January 28, 1778, a detailed account of all moneys expended by the crown for colonial purposes from 1714 (the time of the Hanover accession) to 1775, making the same 34 1/2 millions of pounds sterling --- Vide Folio, No. 304, in the City library.] The very Indian wars too, although expensive to the State, at the same time enriched the men who ministered to the campaigns. The lands too, so acquired by conquest, enriched the colonies by furnishing them the means to sell lands to the numerous emigrants arriving with coin and substance from abroad. The constant influx of population as it gave a constant call for lands in the country, or for lots and houses in the cities and towns for their accommodation, not to omit the consideration also of our own natural increase, so it naturally tended to enhance all real estate; and therefore, so many as have been holders of estates in town and country have seen themselves enriched from year to year even while they held only the same numerical quantities. The causes why we so rapidly rose against so many untoward circumstances, to national and individual wealth, is chiefly imputable to our facilities in providing places for a rapidly increasing population, and their skill and industry in improving and enhancing their value by agriculture, manufactures, and traffic. An older country whose population was full, and whose improvements were at their utmost already, could not have sustained our successive disasters, or have surmounted them triumphantly as we have done. These remarks, already over long, have been elicited by so often noticing the terms of despondency in which the early settlers of Philadelphia were accustomed to speak of their condition and prospects. There was a constant cry of want of money, where little existed, --- of bad markets, -- where heaven had most "blest their store", --- of little value of lands and improvements, --- where so much abounded, &c. They feared to invest capitals if they had them, even while the properties they actually held were progressively rising in value to their zenith. Thus, as late as the year 1700 to 1705, &c., we such a man as Samuel Carpenter, who made the first and most numerous important improvements in Philadelphia and the country, selling them out in vexation and disappointment. James Logan's letters too, abound with remarks of dissatisfaction at things as he found them: -- especially in managing William Penn's affairs, --- in collecting rents, --- disposing of lands, --- and in being deferred the pay for them. "They make my life (says he), so uncomfortable, that it is not worth the living", and again, "I know not what any of the comforts of life are". As late as 22 years after the settlement (say in 1704) James Logan thus states the perplexities of things, to wit: "Money is so scarce that many good farmers now scarce ever see a piece-of-eight of their own throughout the year", but although this could not prevent their fields to yield, and their cows to calve, and abundance of children to be warmly clothed and well fed ! the sad story is continued: "What little there is of money is in town, and wheat for two years past has been worth very little". On another occasion he complains that "pay for land sold near New Castle to amount of £ 3000 is due, and I have received but £ 200 and that in produce, nor will one half of it ever be paid unless times should mend; for the land, as in many other cases, will be cast back on our hands". "The Susquehanna lands (says he) are much in the same state; and I could have wished it had been a lake, rather than it should have ever been purchased for thee". In another place, he says, "last night William Penn, Jun'r., sold his manor on Schuylkill (now Norrington) to William Trent and Isaac Norris for £ 850. They were unwilling to touch it, --- for without a great prospect none will now meddle with land, --- but in his case he was resolved to sell and leave the country". At the same time, William Penn exclaims, in bitterness of soul, "Oh, Pennsylvania, what has thou cost me ! --- surely above £ 30,000 more than ever I got from thee !" But notwithstanding such discouraging feelings and prospects, the country, even while they slept, went on prospering, and the interest which any of them retained in the land and its improvements, enriched their families. Labour produced fruitful fields, and that produced commerce, --- these united, enriched all; so that what was sown in bitterness, brought forth a fruitful and honeyed harvest to the reapers. In this was verified: "One hath sown and another hath reaped" --- Yea, even we of this day are the happy partakers ! Seeing things so prosperous as we now do, --- and the march of empire such as we behold and enjoy, --- we thus apostrophise our sires: --- " Ye who toil'd Through long successive years to build us up A prosperous plan of state, behold at once The wonder done! " "Here cities rise amid th' illumin'd waste, O'er joyless deserts smiles the rural reign: -- Far distant flood to flood is social join'd, And navies ride on seas that never foam'd With daring keel before !" *****************************************************