Daily stories of Pennsylvania

by Frederic Antes Godcharles

King Charles II was at once willing to grant the petition of William Penn because he could thus pay the debt owed Sir William. Some of his counselors objected, saying, that it would be ridiculous to suppose that the interests of the British nation were to be promoted by sending a colony of people that would not fight, that would have nothing to do with gin and gunpowder in dealing with the Indians. But the young Quaker stood high in the favor of the Duke of York, and of Charles II, and the King gladly consented to this easy mode of discharging the obligation.

The Duke of York desired to retain the three lower counties, or the present State of Delaware, as an appendage to New York, but his objections were finally withdrawn, as were those of Lord Baltimore.

After sundry conferences and discussions concerning the boundary lines and other matters of minor importance, the committee finally sent in a favorable recommendation and presented a draft of charter, constituting William Penn, Esq., absolute Proprietary of a tract of land in America, therein mentioned, to the King for his approbation; and leaving to him also the naming of the Province.

The King affixed his signature on March 4, 1681. The original charter is in the State Library. It is written on three pieces of strong parchment, in old English handwriting, with each line underscored with lines of red ink. The borders are gorgeously decorated with heraldic devices, and the top of the first page exhibits a finely executed likeness of His Majesty, in good preservation.

Penn wished his province to be called New Wales, but the King insisted on Pennsylvania. Penn next proposed Sylvania, on the ground that the prefix “Penn” would appear like a vanity on his part, and not as a mark of respect for his father; but no amendment was accepted.

The extent of the province was three degrees of latitude by five degrees of longitude, the eastern boundary being the Delaware River, the northern boundary “the beginning of the three and fortieth degree of northern latitude, and on the south a circle drawn at twelve miles distant from New Castle, northward and westward into the beginning of the fortieth degree of northern latitude, and then by a straight line westward to the limits of longitude above mentioned.” The three lower counties on the Delaware were not included in the charter.

The charter gave title to more than 45,000 square miles of land, and was among the largest tracts in America ever granted to a single individual. This grant gave Penn no coast line for his colony; so, August 2, 1682, he purchased from the Duke of York the “Three Counties Upon the Delaware,” which now form the State of Delaware. Although these were separated from Pennsylvania in 1702, they remained a part of the domain of the Penn family until the American Revolution.

Three things moved Penn to plant a colony in the New World; first, he would get payment for the amount of £16,000 due his father; secondly, he would find a place for his brethren, the Quakers, or Friends, where they would not be openly insulted in the streets, or dragged from their meeting houses to loathsome jails and robbed of the last bed or cow to pay the fines for not attending the established church; and thirdly, he would satisfy the desire which the glowing accounts of the brethren in the present New Jersey had created in him.

The second of these motives was by far the strongest. Penn himself had been tried for preaching to “an unlawful, seditious and riotous assembly.” Penn and his people enjoyed neither religious nor civil liberty in England.

The charter to Penn sets forth three objects; a desire on the part of Penn to enlarge the English empire; to promote trade; and to bring the savage natives by gentleness and justice to the love of civil society and the Christian religion.