Captain John Blackwell, an officer and one of the heroes under Cromwell, was commissioned Deputy Governor of the Province of Pennsylvania July 25, 1688, while he was in New England, but did not present himself before the Council until the following March. He and the Council never acted in harmony, and nothing of importance was accomplished during his short and stormy term, which ended the following December.
Thomas Lloyd again became the Chief Executive. During 1691 the six Councilors from the Lower Counties, without Lloyd’s knowledge, formed themselves into a separate Council, appointed Judges for those counties and made ordinances.
The President and Council of the Province immediately published a proclamation declaring all the acts of the six seceding members illegal. The latter made counter-proposals, but they were rejected.
Penn tried to restore better understanding between the two sections of his Province and gave them the choice of three modes of executive government, viz., by Joint Council, by five Commissioners or by a Lieutenant Governor.
The members from Pennsylvania preferred the last, but those of the Lower Counties declared for the Commissioners, but they could not agree upon any plan, so the counties of Pennsylvania elected Thomas Lloyd for their Governor and three lower counties rejected him.
Penn confirmed the appointment of Lloyd and sent William Markham, who had joined with the protesting members, as the head of the government in the Lower Counties. This was done against Penn’s judgment and had the consequences he predicted.
These dissensions served to furnish the Crown with a pretext to deprive Penn of his Province. William and Mary seized this opportunity to punish him for this attachment to the late King, and they commissioned Benjamin Fletcher, Governor General of New York, also to be the Governor of Pennsylvania and the territories. The Council of the Province was officially advised of his appointment April 19, 1693.
Governor Fletcher was empowered to summon the General Assembly, require its members to subscribe to the oaths and tests prescribed by acts of parliament, and to make laws in conjunction with the Assembly, he having a vote upon their acts, etc. No mention was made of William Penn, nor of the Provincial constitution, yet, on the arrival of Colonel Fletcher at Philadelphia, the Government was surrendered to him without objection, but most of the Quaker magistrates refused to accept from him the renewal of their commissions.
William Penn condemned this ready abandonment of his rights, and addressed a letter to Colonel Fletcher, warning him of the illegality of his appointment, which might have restrained the latter from exercising his authority had it been timely received, as he was attached to Penn by many personal favors.
Trouble arose when Fletcher attempted a new form of election contrary to the laws of the Province, and the rejection of eight of the old laws, chiefly penal. The Assembly insisted that their rights should first be redressed.