Constitutional History.—Hazard’s Annals of Pennsylvania,[855] 1609-1682, Votes of the Assembly,[856] vol. i., Colonial Records,[857] vol. i., Pennsylvania Archives,[858] vol. i., and Duke of York’s Laws[859] are the chief collections of documents relating to the constitutional history of the colony. The correspondence which preceded the issuing of the royal charter, together with the Proceedings of the Lords of Trade, etc., is in the Votes of the Assembly, vol. i. pp. vii-xiii; the same will be found in chronological order in Hazard’s Annals. The royal charter is given in Votes of Assembly, vol. i. p. xviii; Hazard’s Annals, p. 488; Colonial Records, vol. i. (1st ed.) p. ix, (2d ed.) p. 17; Hazard’s Register, i. 293. A fac-simile of the engrossed copy at Harrisburg is also given as an Appendix to vol. vii., second series, of Pennsylvania Archives, and is in the Duke of York’s Laws in the same form, as well as being printed in that volume on page 81. The paper known as “Certain Conditions or Concessions,” agreed upon in England between the purchasers of land and Penn, July 11, 1681, will be found in Hazard’s Annals, p. 516, Colonial Records, vol. i. (1st ed.), p. xvii (2d ed.), p. 26, Votes of Assembly, vol. i. p. xxiv, and Proud’s Pennsylvania, vol. ii. Appendix. Penn’s instructions to his commissioners—Crispin, Bezar, and Allen—are printed in Hazard’s Annals, p. 527. The original paper is in the possession of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. His instructions to his fourth commissioner, William Haige, are in Hazard’s Annals of Pennsylvania, p. 637. The Frame of Government and laws agreed upon in England May 5, 1682, were printed at the time. They are also given in Hazard’s Annals, p. 558, Colonial Records, vol. i. (1st ed.) p. xxi (2d ed.) p. 29, Votes of the Assembly, vol. i. p. xxvii, Duke of York’s Laws, p. 91, and Proud’s Pennsylvania, vol. ii. Appendix. There are a number of rough drafts of the Frame of Government, etc., in the Penn Papers of the Historical Society. One of these is indorsed as the work of Counsellor Bamfield; another bears the name of C. Darnall. Oldmixon says (edition of 1708) that “the Frame” was the work of “Sir William Jones and other famous men of the Long Robe.” Penn’s letter to Henry Sidney (Oct. 13, 1681) shows that Sidney was consulted regarding it; and Chalmers says (on the authority of Markham), that portions of it were formed to suit the Quakers.
THE SEAL OF PENNSYLVANIA.
The Frame of Government, passed in 1683, will be found in Votes of the Assembly, vol. i. part i., Appendix 1, Colonial Records, vol. i. (1st ed.) xxxiv, and (2d ed.) p. 42; Duke of York’s Laws, p. 155; Proud’s Pennsylvania, vol. ii. Appendix 3. There was an edition of it printed in 1689 at Philadelphia, entitled The Frame of the Government of the Province of Pennsilvania and Territories thereunto annexed in America, 8º, 16 pp. But one copy of this edition is known to have been preserved,—it is in the Friends’ Library in Philadelphia. It has no titlepage or printer’s name; but there can be no doubt that it is from the press of William Bradford; and it was for printing this that Bradford was summoned before the Council by Governor Blackwell, on the 19th of April, 1689. Sabin gives an edition printed in London in 1691, by Andrew Sowle. Cf. Sabin’s Dictionary, no. 59,697; also, Collection of Charters, etc., relating to Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (B. Franklin), 1740.
Literature relating to the Laws of the Province.—Under this head may be classed various works, the titles of which as a rule indicate their characters, and we note them below.[860]
Landing of Penn.—In 1824 a society was formed in Philadelphia for the commemoration of the landing of William Penn. Its first meeting was held November 4, in the house in which he had once lived, in Letitia Court. An address was delivered by Peter S. Duponceau, and the eighteen members of the Society dined together. In selecting the day to be celebrated, the Society was guided by the passage in Penn’s letter to the Lords of Plantation, dated August, 1683, in which he states that he arrived on “the 24th of October last.” Ten days should have been added to this date to correct the error in computing time by the Julian calendar, which was in vogue when Penn landed, and November 3 should have been considered the anniversary. Through an erroneous idea of the way in which such changes should be calculated, eleven days were added, and November 4 was fixed upon. The next year, however, the Society celebrated the 24th of October, and continued to do so until 1836, the last year that we are able to trace the existence of the organization.[861] Subsequent investigations have shown that Penn did not arrive before Newcastle until October 27 (see Newcastle Court Records in Hazard’s Annals of Pennsylvania, p. 596), and did not land until the following day.[862] It is probable, therefore, that Penn dated his arrival from the time he came in sight of land or passed the Capes of Delaware. The first evidences we have of his being within the bounds of the present State of Pennsylvania are letters dated Upland, October 29, and this day, allowing ten days for the change of time, bringing it to November 8, is the one that it is customary to celebrate.
Nov. 8, 1851, Edward Armstrong delivered before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, at Chester, an able address, which contains nearly all that is known regarding the landing of Penn. In it will be found the names of his fellow-passengers in the “Welcome;” but a more extended list by the same writer is given in the Appendix to the 2d ed., Memoirs of Historical Society of Pennsylvania, vol. i. In 1852 an address was also delivered on the same anniversary before the Historical Society by Robert T. Conrad.
Penn’s Treaty with the Indians.—This was the subject of a report made to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by Peter S. Duponceau and J. Francis Fisher. It will be found in Memoirs of Historical Society, vol. iii. part ii. p. 141. In it the opinion is expressed that the treaty which tradition says Penn held with the Indians at Shackamaxon was not one for the purchase of land, but was a treaty of amity and friendship, and was held in November, 1682. This report has been followed by historians generally, and has been accepted by nearly all the biographers of Penn. The subject, however, is one that will bear further investigation. The writer of this chapter published in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History, vi. 217, an article to show that the treaty which has attracted so much attention was that described in Penn’s Letter to the Free Society of Traders, dated August 16, 1683; that it was held on June 23 of that year; that not only “great promises of friendship” passed between Penn and the Indians, but that land was purchased, the records of which are in the Land Office at Harrisburg.[863] In connection with this subject, Mr. John F. Watson’s paper on the “Indian Treaty for Lands now the Site of Philadelphia” (see Memoirs of Historical Society of Pennsylvania, vol. iii. part ii. p. 129) should be read, as well as “Memoir of the Locality of the Great Treaty between William Penn and the Indians,” by Roberts Vaux (see Ibid., i. 79; 2d ed., p. 87). The proceedings of the Historical Society upon the occasion of the presentation to it of a belt of wampum by Granville John Penn, which is said to have been given to William Penn by the Indians at the treaty at Shackamaxon,[864] will be found in Memoirs of Historical Society of Pennsylvania, vi. 205, with a large colored lithograph of the belt. Cf. Historical Magazine, i. 177, and Gay’s Popular History of the United States, ii. 498.
Penn-Baltimore Controversy, and the Southern Boundary of Pennsylvania.—In the “Penn Papers” in the Library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania there are several volumes of documents bearing upon this subject, being the copies of those used in the suit between Lord Baltimore and John Thomas and Richard Penn, decided in 1750. Interesting papers are in the State Paper Office, London, giving accounts of the meetings between Baltimore and Markham and Penn and Baltimore in 1682 and 1683. Copies are in the Library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and will shortly be printed. The following printed volumes and essays treat of the subject:[865]
The Case of William Penn, Esq., as to the Proprietory Government of Pennsylvania; which, together with Carolina, New York, etc., is intended to be taken away by a bill in Parliament. (London, 1685.) Folio, 1 leaf. Cf. Sabin’s Dictionary, no. 59,686.