Dauphin and Luzerne were so named in thankfulness to France, the former in honor of the eldest son of Louis XVI, and the latter in tribute to the Minister of France then in the United States.
It is rather to be regretted that more of our counties, cities, boroughs and villages do not still retain their original aboriginal names such as have been retained in Allegheny, Delaware, Erie, Indiana, Juniata, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Lycoming, Susquehanna, Tioga, Venango, Wyoming and Schuylkill Counties.
Penn Obtains Deed to Province, Then
Obtains Lower Counties
August 31, 1682
Two motives operated in the early colonization of the American Continent; one was the desire of amassing sudden wealth without working for it; this tempted the adventurous to seek gold here, to trade valueless trinkets to the Indians for valuable furs and skins; the other was the desire to escape unjust restrictions of government and the hated ban of society against the worship of God according to the dictates of one’s own conscience, which incited devotees of Christianity to forego the comforts of home in the midst of civilization, and to make for themselves a habitation on the shores of the new world.
William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, had felt the heavy hand of persecution for religious opinion’s sake. As a gentleman commoner at Oxford, he had been fined and finally expelled for nonconformity to the established church; at home he was whipped and turned out of doors by his father; he was sent to prison by the Mayor of Cork, where for seven months he languished in the Tower of London, and, finally, to complete his disgrace, he was cast into Newgate with common felons.
Upon the accession of James II to the throne of England, more than fourteen hundred persons of Quaker faith were immured in prisons for a conscientious adherence to their religious convictions. To escape this persecution Penn and his followers were moved to emigrate to the New World, as they called it.
In 1680 Penn made application to Charles II for a grant of land in America. He based his claim upon moneys due to his father because of losses in the public service, where he was a distinguished officer of the British navy.
The Duke of York gave his consent and the king issued a patent to William Penn, March 4, 1681.