**** Several years before the arrival of Penn, the upper Swedish settlement on the Delaware erected a blockhouse at Wicaco, now the district of Southwark. The block-house was converted into a church for the convenience of the settlement, the port-holes serving for windows. The first sermon was preached in it in 1677. This edifice stood upon a pleasant knoll sloping to the river. North of it, where Christian Street is, was an inlet, and beyond this was another knoll, on whieh was ereeted the house of three Swedish brothers, Sven, Oele, and Andries Swenson [Swanson], from whom Penn purchased the site of Philadelphia. This building was noticed by Kahn in 1748; and Mr. Watson, in his Annals of Philadelphia, (i., 148), says, "the original log-house was standing until the British occupied Philadelphia, when it was taken down and converted into fuel." A brick church was built upon the site of the old block-house in 1700, and is still standing on Swanson Street, a little distance from the navy yard.
Secession of Delaware.—Penn's Difficulties.—His liberal Concessions.—Pennsylvania Charter.—Penn's Heirs.
counties on the Delaware" already mentioned, withdrew from the Union on account of some dissatisfaction with the proceedings of a majority of the council. With the reluctant consent of Penn, a deputy governor was appointed over them. Charles the Second died in 1685, and his brother James, the Duke of York, ascended the throne. The bad private character of James, his duplicity, and his known attachment to the Roman Catholics, made him detested by a majority of the people of England, and, three years after his accession, he was driven into exile. His scepter passed into the hands of his daughter Mary and her husband William, prince of Orange.
William Penn was suspected of adherence to the cause of the fallen monarch, and of secret efforts to effect his restoration. For this he was imprisoned; and in 1692 his provincial government was taken from him by Gov. Fletcher, of New York, under a royal commission. These suspicions were speedily removed, and in 1694 Penn's proprietary rights were restored to him.
Penn again visited his colony in 1699, but he did not find that prevailing peace which gladdened his heart when he left it. Discontents had arisen among the people, and they were clamorous for further popular concessions. Ever intent upon the happiness of the people, he presented them with a more liberal charter than the former ones. It conferred greater powers upon the people, and the Assembly declared, in signing it, that "they thankfully received the same from the proprietor and governor, this twenty-eighth day of October, 1701." This charter remained unaltered until the separation of the province from Great Britain, and the adoption of a constitution in 1776. The delegates from the lower counties had withdrawn from the general Assembly, and refused allegiance to the new charter of the Union with Pennsylvania. Penn labored to bind them harmoniously together, but without success, and in 1703 a total separation was agreed upon. From that period, Pennsylvania and the "three lower counties," or Delaware, had separate Legislatures, although the same governor continued to preside over both. A scheme was now elaborating in the British cabinet to abolish all of the proprietary governments in America, and Penn hastened back 1701.to England to oppose it. **
He never returned to America, but died in England in 1781, leaving his interest in Pennsylvania and Delaware to his three sons, John, Thomas, and Richard Penn (then minors), who
* This is a representation of the seal and signature of William Penn attached to the Pennsylvania charter. The names of the subscribing witnesses to the instrument are James Claypoole, Francis Plumsted, Thomas Barker, Philip Ford, Edward Pritchard, Andrew Soule, Christopher Taylor, Charles Lloyd, William Gibson, U. More, George Rudyard, Harbt. Springett.