The first commissioners probably sailed on the “John Sarah,” which cleared for Pennsylvania in October. She is supposed to have been the first vessel to arrive there after Penn received his grant.
On August 24, 1682, Penn acquired from the Duke of York the town of New Castle and the country twelve miles around it, and the same day the Duke conveyed to him the territory lying south of New Castle, reserving for himself one half the rents. The first of these gifts professed to have been made on account of the Duke’s respect for the memory of Sir William Penn. A deed was also obtained from the Duke (August 20) for any right he might have to Pennsylvania as a part of New Netherland.
Having completed his business in England, Penn prepared to sail for America. On the 4th of August, from his home at Worminghurst, he addressed to his wife and children a letter of singular beauty, manliness, and affection. It is evident from it that he appreciated the dangers before him, as well as the responsibilities which he had assumed. To his wife, who was the daughter of Sir William Springett, he wrote: “Remember thy mother’s example when thy father’s public-spiritedness had worsted his estate, which is my case.” To his children, fearing he would see them no more, he said: “And as for you who are likely to be concerned in the government of Pennsylvania and my parts of East Jersey, especially the first, I do charge you before the Lord God and His holy angels, that you be lowly, diligent, and tender, fearing God, loving the people, and hating covetousness.” To both, in closing, he wrote: “So farewell to my thrice-dearly beloved wife and children. Yours as God pleaseth, in that which no waters can quench, no time forget, nor distance wear away.”
On the 30th of August he wrote to all faithful friends in England, and the next day there “sailed out of the Downs three ships bound for Pennsylvania, on board of which was Mr. Pen, with a great many Quakers who go to settle there.” Such was the announcement in the London Gazette of September 4, of the departure of those who were to found one of the most prosperous of the British colonies in America.
With the exception of a narrow strip of land along the Delaware, on which were scattered a few Swedish hamlets, the tract covered by the royal grant to Penn was a wilderness. It contained, exclusive of Indians, about five hundred souls. The settlements extended from the southern limits of the province for a few miles above the mouth of the Schuylkill, and then there was nothing until Crewcorne was reached, opposite the Falls of Delaware. None of these settlements rose to the dignity of a village, unless it was Upland, at which place the Court was held. The territory acquired from the Duke of York contained about the same number of persons as did Pennsylvania. Many, however, who lived in either section were Swedes or Finns. A few Dutch had settled among them, and some Quaker families had crossed from New Jersey and taken up land.
Penn found the Swedes “a strong, industrious people,” who knew little beside the rudiments of agriculture, and cared not to cultivate beyond their needs.[779] The fertile country in which they dwelt yielded adequate supply with moderate labor, and to the English settlers it appeared to be a paradise. The reports which Penn’s people sent home encouraged others to come, and although their accounts were highly colored, none of the new-comers seem to have been disappointed. The first descriptions we have of the country after it became Pennsylvania are in the letters of Markham. To his wife he wrote, Dec. 7, 1681,—
“It is a very fine Country, if it were not so overgrown with Woods, and very Healthy. Here people live to be above one hundred years of Age. Provisions of all sorts are indifferent plentiful, Venison especially; I have seen four Bucks bought for less than 5s. The Indians kill them only for their Skins, and if the Christians will not buy the Flesh they let it hang and rot on a Tree. In the Winter there is mighty plenty of Wild Fowl of all sorts. Partridges I am cloyed with; we catch them by hundreds at a time. In the fall of the leaf, or after Harvest, here are abundance of wild Turkeys, which are mighty easie to be Shot; Duck, Mallard, Geese, and Swans in abundance, wild; Fish are in great plenty. In short, if a Country Life be liked by any, it might be here.”
Markham, after his arrival, had taken such steps as were necessary to establish the authority of Penn. On the 3d of August nine of the residents, selected by him, took the oath to act as his council. A court was held at Upland September 13, the last court held there under the authority of the Duke of York having adjourned until that time. By Penn’s instructions, all was to be done “according to the good laws of England. But the new court during the first year of its existence failed to comply with these laws in a very essential particular,—persons were put upon trial without the intervention of a grand jury. No provision was made under the Duke’s laws for the safeguard of the citizen, and the new justices acted for a time in accordance with former usage. A petit jury, so rare under the former court, now participated in every trial where facts were in dispute. In criminal cases the old practice was adhered to, of making the prosecutor plaintiff.”[780]
During 1681 at least two vessels arrived with settlers. Of the commissioners who were sent out in October to assist Markham, Crispin died at Barbadoes. April 23, 1682, Thomas Holme, bearing a commission of surveyor-general, sailed from England, and arrived about June. Already the site for Philadelphia had been selected, as James Claypoole, who was in England, wrote, July 14, that he “had one hundred acres where our capital city is to be, upon the river near Schuylkill.” July 15, 1682, Markham purchased from the Indians a tract of land on the Delaware below the Falls.