This association rendered conspicuous service in the French and Indian wars and preserved its organization. Many of the companies volunteered for service in the Revolution and formed the backbone of the State’s militia.
In 1756 there were in Philadelphia three of these companies, with a total of seventeen officers and 260 private men, one troop of horse with five officers and forty men and one battery of artillery with three officers and 150 men. In Bucks County there were nine companies with thirty-nine officers and 513 men; in Chester County there were several companies, under command of Captain John Singleton, Samuel West, Robert Boyd and Jacob Richardson. In York County there were eight companies with an enrollment of 642 men and in Lancaster County there were nine companies and 545 men.
It was not until Braddock’s defeat that the Assembly voted a substantial sum for the “King’s use,” but made no provision for an organized military force. November 25, 1755, the Assembly passed “an Act for the better ordering and regulating such as are willing and desirous to be united for military purposes within the province.”
This was the first act of Assembly which in any way provided for the organized defense of the province, and this was to remain in force only until October 30, 1756.
By March 29, 1757, the Quakers had become a minority in the Assembly and an act was passed which was more satisfactory. It also provided for the compulsory enrollment of all male persons between the ages of seventeen and fifty-five years. It also stated the financial responsibility required of those who would serve as officers.
One section of this act provided “that all Quakers, Menonists, Moravians and others conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms, who shall appear on any alarm with the militia, though without arms, and obey the commands of the officers in extinguishing fires, suppressing insurrection of slaves or other evil-minded persons during an attack, in caring for the wounded, conveying intelligence as expresses or messengers, carrying refreshments to such as are on duty, and in conveying to places of safety women and children, aged and infirm, and wounded persons are free and exempt from penalties of this act.” This act remained in force until the close of the French and Indian War in 1763.
There was no special control of military affairs again until June 30, 1775, when the Assembly passed an act for “the defense of their lives, liberty and property.”
At this same session there was established a Committee of Safety, of twenty-five members, which constituted the Board of War, whose powers enabled them to call into service so many of the associators as they deemed necessary or the occasion required.
The Committee of Safety was organized July 3, 1775, with Benjamin Franklin as president.
This committee exercised supreme control of the land and naval forces of the province until October 13, 1777, when its powers were transferred to the body known as the Council of Safety, this comprising the Supreme Executive Council and nine others. The Council of Safety was dissolved December 6, 1777, when the military authority was assumed by the Supreme Executive Council and the Assembly.