School history of Pennsylvania, from the earliest settlements to the present time online

for services rendered. In 1680 William Penn petitioned
King Charles 11. for a grant, in payment of this sum, of a
tract of land in America lying west of the Delaware river.

2. The Province of Maryland had been successfull}^ founded
in the year 1634, and was, therefore, at the date of Penn's
petition, 46 years old. On the northern boundary of the tract
asked for by Penn was the Province of New York. It was
proper, therefore, that Lord Baltimore, proprietor of Mary-
land, and the Duke of York, proprietor of New York and
Delaware, should be consulted before the lands lying between
their possessions were conveyed to Penn.

Chapter III. — 1. Why was the territory on the" Delaware given
to Penn ?

2. Whose possessions bounded this territory?



PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA FOUNDED. 21

3. The petition was referred to the '' Committee of the Privy
Council for the Affairs of Trade and Plantations." Notices
were sent to the agents of Lord Baltimore and the Duke
of York, in order that they might report whether the pro-
posed grant would be an infringement on their rights. The
agents for the proprietors of Maryland and New York wrote
letters to the committee, in which they defined the extent
and boundaries of their respective grants.

4. The claim to the territory, now the State of Delaware,
was purchased from the Duke of York by Penn, and the
limits set to Maryland on the north were allowed. Thus all
points, as to boundary, having been satisfactorily adjusted,
the patent for the grant was drawn up with scrupulous care,
so as to define exactly the rights conveyed to the new
proprietor, and to express fully the powers reserved to the
Crown and to Parliament; and on the 4th of March, 1681,
it received the signature of the king.

5. The articles of the grant were written in Old English
style, on strong parchment, each line underscored with red
ink, and the borders elaborately decorated with heraldic de-
vices. This document is still preserved, and is hung up in
the Executive Chamber at Harrisburg.*

* The territory conveyed to Penn was "bounded on the east by
Delaware river from twelve miles distance northward of New Castle
towne, unto the three and fortieth degree of northern latitude; the
said land to extend westward five degrees in longitude, to be com-
puted from the said eastern bounds, and the said land to be bounded
on the north by the beginning of the three and fortieth degree of
north latitude, and on the south by a circle drawn at twelve miles

3. Why were Lord Baltimore and the Duke of York consulted?

4. How did Penn gain possession of the territory now the State of
Delaware ? When was the charter of Pennsylvania signed?

5. How were the articles written and what was done with them?



22 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

6. The boundaries of the lands named in the charter, were
intended to be substantially what those of the State now
are. The province was named by King Charles II., who
called it Pennsylvania, in honor of Admiral Penn, the dis-
tinguished father of the new proprietor. Within a month
after the date of the charter, the king issued a proclamation
setting forth the terms of the grant made to Penn, and re
quiring all persons settled in the Province to yield obedience
to him as absolute proprietor and governor.

T. On the 10th of April, Penn appointed his cousin, Wil-
liam Markham, deputy governor of the Province. He wrote a
letter to the people residing in the territory described in his
charter, v/hich, together with the king's proclamation, he
sent to America by Markham, who arrived in New York on
the 21st of June. He there procured from the commander
and the council a letter addressed to "the several people,
justices of the peace, magistrates, and other oflQcers inhabit-
ing within the bounds and limits" of the territory included
in the grant, notifying them of the change that had been
made in their government. Within a few days after receiving
this letter, Markham arrived in the Province of Pennsylvania,
and at once assumed the administration of public affairs.

8. A report of the transactions in England, whereby a new
province had been created, had reached America before the

distance from New Castle, northward and westward, unto the begin-
ning of the fortieth degree of north Latitude, and then by a straight
line westward to the limits of longitude above mentioned."

6. What were intended to be the boundaries of the Province?
Who named the Province? What did the king command the people
to do? Who lived in the Province at this time?

7. Who did William Penn appoint governor? What did he send
over with Markham? When did Governor Markham arrive in
Pennsylvania ?

8. Did the people on the Delaware know beforehand that their



PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA FOUNDED. 23

arrival of Markham ; almost immediately the Quakers, who
had many years before settled in western New Jersey, began
to move to the west bank of the Delaware, so as to be under
the government of Penn, whom they had already learned to
regard as a wise ruler and a just man. A few families of
these people had settled near Upland as early as 1675, and
now persuaded their friends to seek homes on the rich lands
of that neighborhood.

9. Penn published in England a short description of the
Province, together with some valuable information and sugges-
tions to persons who might be disposed to become colonists
under his government. This document, and the liberal pro-
visions contained in the Royal Charter, attracted public atten-
tion, and directed the minds of many religious sects through-
out England and the Continent of Europe to the goodly land
beyond the Delaware. The Quakers were especially joyful
over the prospect opened to them by the founding of a great
province under one of their own sect as governor and pro-
prietor. •

10. While the public mind in Europe was thus directed to
Pennsylvania, Governor Markham was administering the affairs
on the Delaware very much after the systems in use before his
arrival. Sudden and great changes were unnecessary, and
the new governor was not disposed to show his authority by
the introduction of new forms.

11. The instructions issued to Markham directed him to call



country had been ceded to Penn? What did the Quakers in New
Jersey do?

9. What did Penn do in England? What effect had these pub-
lications ?

10. How did Governor Markham administer the government?
Did he make any sudden changes ?

11.- What was Governor Markham instructed to do?



24 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

a council, consisting of nine citizens of the Province ; to read the
king's proclamation and Penn's letter to the people ; to settle
boundary lines ; to survey and rent, or sell lands ; to estab-
lish courts ; appoint sheriffs and trustees of the peace ; and to
administer generally the affairs of government.

12. In his letter to the people, Penn said:

"I hope you will not be troubled at your change, and the
king's choice, for you are now fixed at the mercy of no governor
that comes to make his fortune great ; you shall be governed by
laws of ijour own making, and live a free, and if you will, a
sober and industrious people. I shall not usurp the right of
any, or oppress his person. God has furnished me with a
better resolution, and has given me his grace to keep it. In
short, whatever sober and free men can reasonably desire for
the security and improvement of their own happiness, I shall
heartily comply with, and in five months resolve, if it please
God, to see you."

13. The first court held in the Province under Penn's charter
convened at Upland, on the 13th of September, the same day to
which the old court under the former governor had adjourned-
The second session was held on the 8th of November, when
Markham presided in person. One of the first acts of this
tribunal was the prohibition of the sale of intoxicating liquors
to the Indians.

14. During the year 1681, three ships, carrying emigrants,
sailed from England for Pennsylvania. One of these vessels,
the "Bristol Factor," arrived in the Delaware on the 11th of
December; the "Sarah and John" arrived earlier, but no



12. "What did Penn say in his letter to the people?

13. When and where did the first court, under Penn's charter,
assemble? What was one of its first acts?

14. How many emigrant ships came to the Province in J.681?
What were their names ?



PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA FOUNDED. 25

re^corcl of the day is preseryed; the other ship, called the
"Amity," reached the Province in the spring of 1682.

15. Three commissioners, appointed by Penn, came in these
ships. They were instructed to prepare the Province for the
reception of colonies of emigrants. They were to survey the
land, to sound the river, and examine the ground, so as to find
the most favorable location for a great commercial and manu-
facturing city, which Penn had promised to lay out and estab-
lish for his people. Should the building of the city be begun
before his arrival, he directed the commissioners to have the
people place their houses in the middle of the plots, "that
there may be ground on each side for gardens, or orchards,
or fields, that it may be a green country town, which will
never be burnt and always wholesome."

16. These commissioners brought with them a letter from
Penn to the Indians living on the Delaware, in which he
said: "I have great love and regard toward you, and de-
sire to win and gain your love and friendship by a kind,
just, and peaceable life; and the people I send are of the same
mind, and shall in all things behave themselves accordingly;
and if in anything they shall offend you or your people, you
shall have a full and speedy satisfaction."

17. The Swedes had lived for more than forty years in peace
and friendship with the children of the forest. Other colonies
and settlements had treated the natives harshly, and had pro-
voked them to acts of violence, and hence were frequently

15. "Who came in these ships? "What were the commissioners in-
tended to do? How were the houses in the city to be built?

16. What did Penn write to the Indians?

17. How long had the Swedes lived in peace with the Indians?
How were the Indians treated in other colonies? "What was the
etfcct of the different modes of treating the Indians?

3



26 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

engaged in war. But on the Delaware, the white and the
red man dealt with each other upon principles of equity and
justice, and thus perfect peace and good order were always
preserved in the settlement.

18. When, therefore, the new proprietor and governor of the
territory sent messages of good will to the native inhabitants,
they were received with great joy. The wise policy estab-
lished on the Delaware by the generous Swedes was to be
maintained; the new settlers, like those who had preceded
them, promised to treat the Indian as a brother, to be in-
structed, civilized, and Christianized; and not as a savage to
be defrauded, enraged, and destroyed.

19. The population of the Province, exclusive of Indians,
at this time (1682) numbered about 2000 men, women, and
children. These were mostly Swedes, though a number of
Dutch families remained in the country after the withdrawal
of their government, and small settlements of English were
located at Upland, Shackamaxon (now Kensington), and the
Falls of the Delaware.

20. There were six churches in the settlements: three
erected by the Swedes, one at Christina, one at Wicacoa (now
the southern part of Philadelphia), and one at Tinicum ; these
were of the Lutheran denomination, and the services were
conducted in the Swedish language. The other three were
established by the Quakers, and the services were in the
English language; one was at Upland, one at Shackamaxon,
and one at the Falls of the Delaware.



18. How did the Indians receive the kind words of Penn? What
was the established policy on the Delaware?

19. What was the population of the Province at this time? What
people lived on the Delaware?

2p. How many churches were there? Where were they and of
what denominations?



G VERNMENT EST A BL I SHED .



2t




TREATY MONUMENT.



CHAPTER lY.



Government established. — Philadelphia laid out.
Great Treaty.



The



1. After William Penn had received his charter from the
king, he spent a year and a half in England, during which
time he was engaged in devising a frame of government and
a code of laws for his Province ; he also wrote many letters
to his friends in England and in other countries, and pub-
lished descriptions of the country on the Delaware, which
were circulated among the Quaker settlements in England,
Wales, and Holland.

2. On the 30th of August, 1682, he embarked in the ship
Welcome, at Deal, and sailed for America in company with



Chapter IV. — 1. What did Penn do after he received his charter?

2. When did he sail for America? What was the name of the
ship he sailed in? How many passengers were there and what hap-
pened on the voyage ? Where did he land ? How was he received ?



28 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

about one hundred emigrants, mostly members of the Society
of Friends. During the voyage the small- pox broke out
among the passengers, and thirty of the emigrants died.
Otherwise the voyage was prosperous; the vessel arrived
at New Castle, on the Delaware, on the 27th of October.
The inhabitants of the town came forward to welcome the
new proprietary, and to signify their willingness to accept
his government and to obey his laws.

3. On the day of his arrival Penn commissioned justices for
New Castle, and instructed Markham to complete the transfer
of the territory between the town and the mouth of the bay,
in accordance with the terms of his purchase from the Duke
of York. After the exercise of these governmental functions,
he continued his journey to Upland, where it is supposed he
landed on the 28th of October; on the 29th, he directed a
court to be summoned, to be held at New Castle on the 2d
of November. This w^as Penn's first official act in Penn-
sylvania of which there is any record.

4. Upon his arrival at the town of Upland, turning to his
friend Pearson, who had accompanied him in the ship Wel-
come, Penn sai4: ''What wilt thou that I should call this
place?" Pearson said, "Chester," which was the name of
his home in England; and thus Upland lost the name its
founders and builders had given to it, and assumed one fool-
ishly suggested at the whimsical request of its new proprietor.

6. In pursuance of the summons issued from Chester, the
court convened at New Castle on4he 2d of November At
this court Penn. made a speech to the justices and the inhab-
itants, in which he told them that he had called the court chiefly

3. What did Penn do on the day of his arrival at New Castle?
When did he go to Upland? Where was Upland sitviated? What
was Penn's first official act in Pennsylvania?

4. How was the name of Upland changed?



PHILADELPHIA LAID OUT. 29

to settle their claims to lands and other possessions. He di-
rected them to bring into the next court all their patents, sur-
veys, grants, and claims, in order that he might confirm them.
He invited all who desired to make any petition to him, or tc
request anything of him, to present them, so that they might
be considered and acted upon ; and assured the inhabitants
of Delaware that they should enjoy the same privileges with
those of the Province of Pennsylvania, and that for the
future they should be governed by such laws as they them-
selves, by their representatives, should consent to.

6. The commissioners had already selected the location for
the city of Philadelphia, and had partially laid out the plan
between the Delaware and Schuylkill, in accordance with
the proprietor's instructions.

T. It is not definitely known how^, or on what day Penn
went to Philadelphia. Tradition relates that he went up the
river from Chester in an open boat, accompanied by some of
his friends. There is an old record of a meeting held at
Shackamaxon, on the 8th of November, which says: "At
this time Governor Penn and a number of Friends arrived
here and erected a city called Philadelphia, ^bout half a mile
from Shackamaxon." Penn must have landed at Philadel-
phia only a few days before this date, as he was at New
Castle on the 2d of November.

8. The Indians, as well as the settlers, had prepared the
best entertainment the place and circumstances would afford

5. When and where did Penn 's first court convene? "What took
place at this court?

6. "What had the commissioners done?

7. "When and how didTenn visit Philadelphia?

8. How was he received? How did he endear himself to the
Indians?

3*



30 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

for the reception of their new governor. Penn soon endeared
himself to the Indians by engaging in their sports and grant-
ing the Httle favors they chanced to ask. He walked with
them, sat with them on the ground, and ate with them
their roasted acorns and hominy. At this they expressed
very great delight, and soon began to show him how they
could hop and jump; at which Penn sprang to his feet and
soon taught the astonished natives that he could hop further
and jump higher than the best of them.

9. Though the city of Philadelphia had been laid out by
the commissioners, Penn found it necessary, in order to carry
out his plans, to make some changes in the position and the
names of the streets. The streets running from the Dela-
ware to the Schuylkill were named after the forest trees, as
Pine, Spruce, Locust, Walnut, Chestnut; and the streets
crossing these at right angles were named according to their
numbers, as Front, Second, Third, etc., until the highest
ground between the rivers was reached, where a wide street
was laid out, and was called Broad Street. Running through
the middle of the city east and west, there was also a wide
avenue which was named High Street; but is now called
Market Street. In the center of the city, where Broad and
Market Streets cross each other, Penn reserved a large
square for public buildings and for parks. A meeting-house
was afterward built on this ground; but it has long since
disappeared, and the ground is now laid out into four public
parks, and is called Penn Square.

10. After the plan of the city had been completed, Thomas
Holme, the surveyor-general, made a survey of the surround-
ing country, which Penn divided into three counties, and
named them Philadelphia, Chester, and Bucks counties. The

9. How did Penn name the streets of his city?



THE GREAT TREATY. 31

territory now comprised in the State of Delaware was also
divided into three counties.

11. In order to establish the government in the shortest
possible time, Penn appointed judges, sheriffs, magistrates,
and recorders for these counties, and then issued writs of
election, wherein he instructed the people to elect persons
to represent them in the assembly which he had ordered to
convene at Chester on the 4th day of December.

12. Thus the preliminary work of organizing a government
for the Province and the territories had been accomplished ;
the city, which was to be the great commercial and manufac-
turing emporium of Pennsylvania, had been laid out on the
most suitable grounds. The pioneer settlers, who had come
from Sweden and from Holland to found homes and free in-
stitutions for themselves and their posterity, had been assured
that everything, a sober and industrious people could reason-
ably expect to make themselves happy and their homes desir-
able, should be guaranteed to them. The title to their lands
should be respected; the laws by which they would be gov-
erned should be enacted by themselves ; and the perfect reli-
gious liberty, already established in the country, should be
maintained.

13. The next duty awaiting the attention of the proprietary
was a conference with, and a pledge to, the natives of the
forests, that he would adopt and continue the policy of
friendship, maintained by justice and equity, which during
nearly half a century had preserved peace on the Delaware.



10. How was the country divided? What were tlie counties
named ?

11. "What did Penn do to establish his government?

12. What had now been accomplished?

13. What was Penn's next duty? What was necessary to secure
the friendship of the Indians ?



32 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

The Indians trusted the Swedes, and held their friendship
in great esteem ; it was only necessary, therefore, in order to
secure their confidence, that the new governor and his friends
should pledge themselves to preserve these happy relations.

14. Penn was eminently qualified for a work of this nature.
He had already written several friendly letters to the Indians,
which had been delivered through an interpreter, by Mark-
ham and by the commissioners. The brotherly affection that
characterized all these epistles, and the simple manners of
the people who represented Penn, taught the aborigines to
hold the governor of the Province in very great respect long
before they had seen him.

15. There were at this time at least three distinct and sep-
arate tribes in the wilderness of Eastern Pennsylvania : the
Delawares or Leni Lenape, living on the river; the Min-
goes, living on the Conestoga ; and the Shawanese, on the
Susquehanna. To each of these tribes Penn sent invitations
to meet him on the bank of the Delaware at Shackamaxon.
This was selected as the most appropriate treaty ground, be-
cause it was the place where for many generations the Indians
had been accustomed to meet in council. It was, as the orig-
inal name " Sachemexing " signifies, the place of kings or
sachems.

16. The tribes assembled under the wide-spreading branches
of a large elm-tree. The chiefs sat in the front with their
councillors; behind them, arranged in the form of a semicircle,



14. "What had already been done? What effect had this on the
Indians ?

15. What tribes occupied the eastern parts of the Province?
Where did Penn invite these tribes to meet in council ? Why was
this place selected? Where is Shackamaxon?

16. Where did the tribes assemble? How did they arrange them-
selves? Who was the chief person?



THE GREAT TREATY. 33

sat tlie young men and warriors ; and beyond these sat the
women. The Great Sachem Taminend, the most royal-looking*
of them all, was the center of the vast assembly, and was the
leader and spokesman.

IT. When Penn, accompanied by a few of his friends, all
unarmed, approached the council fire, which had been kindled
in front of the assembled tribes, Taminend put on his chaplet
surmounted by a small horn, the emblem of kingly power;
then, through an interpreter, announced to Penn that the
nations were ready to hear him.

18. In reply to this invitation, Penn said: "The Great
Spirit, who made me and you, who rules the heavens and the
earth, and who knows the innermost thoughts of men, knows
that I and my friends have a hearty desire to live in peace
and friendship with you, and to serve you to the utmost of
our power. It is not our custom to use hostile weapons
against our fellow- creatures, for which reason we have come
unarmed. Our object is not to do injury, and thus provoke
the Great Spirit, but to do good.

19. "We are met on the broad pathway of good faith and
good will, so that no advantage is taken on either side, but
all to be openness, brotherhood, and love." Then the governor
unrolled a parchment containing stipulations for trade, and
promises of friendship, which, by means of an interpreter, he
explained to them, article by article, and placing it on
the ground, he said : " The ground shall be common to both
people. I will not do as the Marylanders did, that is, call
you children or brothers only; for parents are apt to whip
their children too severely, and brothers sometimes will differ;
neither will I compare the friendship between us to a chain,

17. How did Penn approach? How was he received?
18 and 19. What did Penn say?



34 HISTORY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

for the rain may rust it, or a tree may fall and break it; but I
will consider you as the same flesh and blood as the Chris-
tians, and the same as if one man's body were to be divided
into two parts."

20. This speech was listened to by the Indians in perfect
silence, and with much gravity. They took some time to de-
liberate, and then the king ordered one of his chiefs to speak
to William Penn. The Indian orator advanced, and in the
king's name saluted him; then, taking him by the hand, in a
few words gave him pledges of friendship, and assured him
that the '* Indians and the English will live in love as long