[774] The authorities cited in this paper contain, it is believed, all the facts in print concerning New Albion, although the subject is mentioned in all the general and in many of the local annals of New Jersey, as well as in several histories of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New York.
[775] See chapter ix.
[776] As early as 1658 Josiah Coale and Thomas Thurston visited the Susquehanna Indians. They were received with great kindness, and spent some weeks with the red men, travelling over two hundred miles in their company. Coale also visited the tribes of Martha’s Vineyard and others of Massachusetts. He returned to them after being liberated from prison at Sandwich, and was told by a chief: “The Englishmen do not love Quakers, but the Quakers are honest men and do no harm; and this is no Englishman’s sea or land, and the Quakers shall come here and welcome.” Of this early teacher Penn wrote: “Therefore shall his memorial remain as a sweet oyntment with the Righteous, and time shall never blot him out of their remembrance.” Fox had several meetings with the Indians, and at one he says, “They sat very grave and sober, and were all very attentive, beyond many called Christians.” After Fox’s return to England, his interest in the Indians continued, and in 1681 he wrote to the Burlington Meeting to invite the Indians to worship with them. It was thus that the way was prepared for the peaceful settlement of West Jersey and Pennsylvania.
[777] [See Mr. Whitehead’s chapter in the present volume.—Ed.]
[778] An Abstract or Abbreviation of some Few of the Many (Latter and Former) Testimonys from the Inhabitants of New Jersey, etc. London, 1681.
[779] [The history of the Swedish period is told in Vol. IV.—Ed.]
[780] History of Chester County, Pa., by Judge J. Smith Futhey and Gilbert Cope, p. 18.
[781] The courts were of three different kinds: namely, the County Courts, Orphans’ Courts, and Provincial Court. The County Courts sat at irregular intervals during the year, and were composed of justices of the peace, commissioned from time to time, the number of whom varied with the locality, the press of business, or the caprice of the government. They had jurisdiction to try criminal offences of inferior grades, and all civil causes except where the title to land was in controversy. In proper cases they exercised a distinct equity jurisdiction, which seems, however, to have been excessively irritating to the people. In many instances they were materially assisted in their labors by boards of peacemakers, who were annually appointed to settle controversies, and who performed pretty nearly the same functions as modern arbitrators. The Justices of the County Courts sat also in the Orphans’ Courts, which were established in every county to control and distribute the estates of decedents. For some cause now imperfectly understood, the conduct of the early Orphans’ Courts was exceedingly unsatisfactory, and their practice so irregular that but little can be gleaned respecting them.
The Provincial Court, which was established in 1684, was composed of five, afterwards of three, judges, who were always among the most considerable men in the province. They had jurisdiction in cases of heinous or enormous crimes, and also in all cases where the title to land was in controversy. An appeal also lay to this court from the County and Orphans’ Courts, in all cases where it was thought that injustice had been done.
[782] In 1700 the admiralty jurisdiction was done away with by the establishment of a regular vice-admiralty court in the province.