river to river, containing near an hundred acres, not easily valued, which is, besides your one hundred acres in the city liberties, part of your twenty thousand acres in the country."

A post was established to Maryland this year (in July, 1683). Henry Waldy of Tekonay had authority to run one, and supply passengers with horses from Philadelphia to New Castle or the Falls. The rates of postage were-letters from the Falls to Philadelphia, 3d.; to Chester, 5d.; to New Castle, 7d.; to Maryland, 9d. From Philadelphia to Chester, 2d.; to New Castle, 4d.; to Maryland, 6d. It went once a week, notice having been placed on the meeting-house door and at other public places. Communication was frequent with Manhattan or New York, the road starting on the eastern side of the Delaware at about Bordentown, New Jersey.

On account of claims pressed upon Penn and upon the home government by Lord Baltimore, Penn sent Lieutenant-Governor William Markham to England to have the matter settled by the Lords of Plantations, and to have the boundaries of the two provinces more clearly defined. Penn wrote a letter to them (July 14th, 1683), detailing the whole dispute, with the arguments against Lord Baltimore's claim. The trouble arose from the imperfect knowledge of the geography of the country at the time the two grants were made.

Lord Baltimore claimed all the land upon the Delaware up to the 40th degree of latitude, which would have taken in the city as far as the present Port Richmond. His grant from Charles II. of 1632 gave him "unto that part of Delaware Bay on the north which lieth under the fortieth degree of northerly latitude"

"in certain parts of America not yet cultivated and planted, though in some parts thereof inhabited by a certain barbarous people having no knowledge of Almighty God." The Dutch had been settled here before 1632, as early as 1623, and afterward the Swedes. Though claims had been made by Baltimore against the Dutch, he had not disturbed the authority of the duke of York.

Penn's patent in 1681 gave him the land "from twelve miles northward of New Castle town unto the three-and-fortieth degree of northern latitude," . . . "and on the south by a circle drawn at twelve miles' distance from New Castle town northward and westward, unto the beginning of the fortieth degree of northern latitude." The fortieth degree was evidently intended to be the northern limit of Maryland, and, as evident by the patent of Penn, supposed to be twelve miles north of New Castle.

In September, 1683, Baltimore sent Colonel George Talbot to demand of Penn all the land south of the fortieth degree. Penn being in New York, his deputy, Nicholas More, delayed answer till Penn's reply in October. Talbot then made, with armed men, demand upon owners and renters in the Lower Counties for obedi

ence and rent to Baltimore. Lord Baltimore himself addressed a petition to the king that no further grants should be made to Penn until he should be heard as to his rights; it, as well as Penn's petition, was investigated by the Lords of Plantations.

At the next session of the Assembly at New Castle (in May, 1684) these disputes were brought before them. At this session the following measures were under discussion: to license tavernkeepers; to preserve the life and person of the governor from treasonable designs; a bill of excise for support of the government. It was determined to create a provincial court with five judges" to try all criminalls and titles to land, and to be a court of equity to decide all differences upon appeals from country

courts."

In July, 1684, the project of making a borough of Philadelphia was again revived. Thomas Lloyd, Thomas Holme, and William Haige were appointed to draw up a charter providing for a mayor and six aldermen, with power to call to their assistof the Council.

ance any

The time had now arrived when Penn felt desirous, for various reasons, of returning to England. He had been hard at work laying out the city, establishing the government, making sales and perfecting titles of land, visiting different parts of Pennsylvania and the adjoining country, laying out counties and subdividing them into townships and manors, making treaties with and purchases of the Indians, starting various industries, building houses, and attending to many other matters necessary; so that the twentytwo months spent in this country were very busy ones. He thus had got matters into such shape that he felt the more able and willing to return for a short time-as he supposed it would be-to England to look after his interests in the grants of land given to him, which were now being assailed by other parties as well as Lord Baltimore, and to endeavor to repair his fortunes, which, notwithstanding his sales, rents, and receipts, were, on account of the heavy expenses he had been under, now much impaired and encroached upon. His long absence from his family, to a man of his nature, must have been also a powerful motive for leaving his colony. The visit was intended to be of short duration, but events thickened around him so upon reaching England that his second visit to this country was delayed for seventeen years.

To provide for the administration of the government during his absence, he authorized the Provincial Council to exercise the executive power in his stead, and commissioned their president, Thomas Lloyd, as keeper of the Great Seal; Nicholas More, William Welch, William Wood, Robert Turner, and John Eckley provincial judges for two years; Thomas Lloyd, James Claypoole, and Robert Turner to sign patents and grant warrants as commissioners of the land office; William Markham was secretary of the Province, and Thomas Holme surveyor-general.

Having arranged matters to his satisfaction, he sailed in the ketch "Endeavor" on the 12th of August, 1684, and stopped at Sussex and held a council there. He addressed a farewell letter from on board the vessel to his friends Thomas Lloyd, James Claypoole, J. Simcock, Charles Taylor, and J. Harrison, to be communicated in meetings, breathing sentiments of friendship and true piety. In this letter occurs the sentence-" And thou, Philadelphia, the virgin settlement of this Province-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!"

Penn, after a pleasant voyage of seven weeks, landed within seven miles of his own residence, at Worminghurst.

CHAPTER IX.

PENN ABSENT IN ENGLAND; THE GOVERNMENT UNDER THOMAS

LLOYD, 1684-1688.

WHEN Penn left Philadelphia the management of the Province was deputed to the Council and Thomas Lloyd, who was president of it as well as acting governor. The first session was held at New Castle in August, 1684. It issued commissions as justices to William Clayton, Robert Turner, and Francis Daniel Pastorius. By the minutes we find it regulating a ferry across the Schuylkill at High street; rearranging the boundaries of several of the counties; making purchases from the Indians; establishing the first watchmen; regulating tavern licenses; and clearing out, according to orders from Penn, the caves in the river-bank, which had become a nuisance from the character of the people living in them.

In May of this year news was received of the death of Charles II. and the accession of James II. The latter was publicly proclaimed-" to whom wee acknowledge faithfull and constant obedience, heartily wishing him a happy Raign in health, peace, and Prosperity, and so God save the King."

In August, Major Dyer and his deputy "sercher and waiter," Christopher Snowden, arrived with a commission from the king as collector of customs.

Dissensions sprang up between the rival authorities, and Nicholas More, the chief-justice, was accused of malpractices and misdemeanors in office. The Assembly drew up articles of impeachment, and requested the Council to remove him from office. The Council treated the matter coldly, but ordered him to desist from acting in any place of authority or judicature. His clerk, Patrick Robinson, refused to produce the records of the court. The Council decided he could not be removed until VOL. III.-D

5

convicted, but after such conviction he should be dismissed from any office of trust. Penn was much grieved at these dissensions, and named several to endeavor to make peace, as it was, besides preventing emigration, bringing reproach on the Friends, though neither More nor Robinson were members of the Society. Notwithstanding these quarrels, Penn appointed More one of the commissioners of government, which office he held until his death; Robinson also continued to hold office.

In the mean time, Penn in England was prosecuting his claims against Lord Baltimore, and with success, as the Lords of Plantations, "after three full hearings," decided against Lord Baltimore, and "he was cast, and the lands of Delaware declared to be not within his patent," because before his grant they were inhabited by Christians, his grant including only those that were inhabited by savages. The line was therefore decided to be one drawn from the latitude of Cape Henlopen to the fortieth degree of north latitude; and that one half of this tract of land, lying between the Delaware River and Bay and the Eastern Sea on one side and Chesapeake Bay on the other, should belong to King James, under whom, as duke of York, Penn was grantee, and the other half south of that line to Lord Baltimore. The lord objected for years to this decision, but the final settlement of the dispute was made by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, who defined the boundaries between Pennsylvania and Maryland in the line famous as (6 Mason and Dixon's line."

Penn, being thus firmly fixed in his possessions, published another pamphlet describing the merits and advantages to purchasers and settlers. With his usual shrewdness he omits no attractive particulars, yet with his firm honesty he advises them to "be moderate in Expectation, Count no Labor before a Crop, and Cost before Gain."

He stated that ninety ships with passengers since the beginning of 1682 to the end of 1685 had sailed, and arrived safely, and estimated them, at eighty passengers to each vessel, to amount to seven thousand two hundred persons, which added to a thousand there before, and other accretions from other settlements, and births, would probably swell the amount to about ten thousand persons. These were composed of "French, Dutch, Germans, Sweeds, Danes, Finns, Scotch, Irish, and English; and of the last equal to all the rest."

He described Philadelphia, "our intended Metropolis," as two miles long and a mile broad, "with High and Broad streets of one hundred feet in breadth, and eight streets parallel with High street, and twenty cross streets parallel with Broad street, all of fifty feet breadth. The names of those streets are mostly taken from the things that spontaneously grow in the country; as Vine, Mulberry, Chesnut, Wallnut, Strawberry, Cranberry, Plumb, Hickery, Pine, Oake, Beach, Ash, Popler, Sassafrax.

and the like." Many of these names are still preserved, but not applied to streets in the same position as those of Penn's time.

In the first ten months after his arrival fourscore houses had been erected, and up to the time of his coming away, which was about a year more, "the Town advanced to three hundred and fifty-seven houses; divers of them large, well built, with good cellars, three stories, and some with Belconies." "There is also a fair Key of about three hundred foot square, built by Samuel Carpenter, to which a ship of five hundred Tuns may lay her broadside, and others intend to follow his example. We have also a Ropewalk made by B. [Benjamin] Wilcox." This ropewalk was on the north side of Vine, above Front street, and gave the name to Cable Lane, a street running north, afterward called New Market street, and the northern portion of it Budd street.

He stated, also, that nearly every useful trade was represented; that there were two markets every week and two fairs every year; seven ordinaries, where a good meal could be had for sixpence; "after nine at night the officers go the rounds" and empty the bars of "Publick Houses;" some vessels had been built, and many boats; divers Brickeries going on; convenient mills; and, with their "Garden Plats," "Fish of the river, and their labor," the countryman "lives comfortably.”

"The advance of Value upon every man's Lot. . . . the worst

without any improvement upon it, is worth four times more than it was when it was lay'd out, and the best forty."

He describes the country settlements of townships or villages, each of five thousand acres in square, and of ten families, one family to each five hundred acres; the village in the centre, the houses either opposite or opposite to the middle betwixt two houses over the way, for near neighborhood. Before the doors of the houses lies the highway, with his land running back from it. Before he left he had settled fifty, and visited many of them, and found many farms with substantial improvements.

His accounts of the "Produce of the Earth, of our Waters, and of Provision in Generall," were most glowing, showing great plenty and consequent cheapness. Grain produced from thirtyto sixty-fold; the land required less seed; all the corn and roots of England would grow, including the Spanish potato, which we now call the sweet potato; cattle were fed easily; grass-seed would grow as well as at home; as also all English fruits, as well as peaches, melons, and grapes.

Of the fish, "mighty Whales roll upon the coast, near the mouth of the Bay of Delaware;" sturgeon play continually and plentifully, and are much liked; "Alloes, as they call them in France, the Jews Allice, and our ignorants Shads, are excellent fish and of the bigness of our largest Carp," and "so plentiful;" "Rock