Daily stories of Pennsylvania

by Frederic Antes Godcharles

William Penn was financially involved when stricken and during the six years he suffered until relieved by death, July 30, 1718, did not place his affairs in more favorable condition.

The Province of Pennsylvania was encumbered by Proprietary’s mortgage given in 1708, and by his contract with the Crown for the sale of the government. His will, which was drawn in 1712, was in contemplation of this contract.

To his only surviving son, William, by his first marriage, he bequeathed all his estates in England and Ireland, which, producing fifteen hundred pounds sterling per annum, were estimated of greater value than his American possessions.

By his first wife, Gulielma Maria Springett, he had issue of three sons, William, Springett and William, and four daughters, Gulielma, Margaret, Gulielma and Letitia. From his American possession he made provision for the payment of his debts, and for his widow, Hannah Callowhill and four sons, John, Thomas, Richard and Dennis. To his wife, Hannah, whom he made the sole executrix of his estate, he gave for the equal benefit of herself and her children, all his personal estate in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, after paying all debts, and allotting[allotting] ten thousand acres of land in the Province to his daughter Letitia, by his first marriage, and each of the three children of his son William, and to convey the remainder at the discretion of his widow, to her children, subject to an annuity to herself of £300 sterling per annum.

Doubts having arisen as to the force of the provisions of this will, it was finally determined to institute a suit in chancery for its determination. Before a decision was reached in March, 1720, William Penn, Jr., died, and while it was still pending, his son, Springett, died.

During the more than nine years of litigation, Hannah Penn, as executrix of the will, assumed the Proprietary power, issued instructions to her Lieutenant-Governor, heard complaints and settled differences with the skill and assurance of a veteran diplomat. In 1727 a decision was reached that, upon the death of William Penn, Jr., and his son Springett, the proprietary rights in Pennsylvania descended to the three surviving sons, John, Thomas and Richard, issue by the second marriage.

The Province now entered upon a period of great prosperity. The almost unbounded confidence of the Province in Governor Keith enabled him, in 1720, to establish two measures hitherto repugnant to the Assembly, and equity court, dependent on the Governor’s will, of which he was chancellor, and a militia organized by like authority.

The great influx of foreigners alarmed the Assembly, who feared their settlement on the frontier. Attempts to naturalize them were treated with coldness. Even the Governor, whose industry and utility were proverbial, could not remove the jealousy.

Many Palatines, long resident in the Province, applied for naturalization in 1721, but not until 1724 was leave granted to bring in a bill, and then conditioned upon the proviso that they should individually obtain from the justice of the peace a certificate of the value of their property, and nature of their religious faith. A bill to that effect reached the Governor the following year, but he returned it on the ground that in a country where English liberty and law prevailed, a scrutiny into the private conversation and faith of the citizens, and particularly into their estates, was unjust and dangerous in precedent. The House yielded, but it was not for some time that the privilege of subjects were granted to the Palatines.