Penn Lands at Upland and Changes Name to Chester, October 29, 1682

After William Penn issued his frame of government for his new Province of Pennsylvania and had sent a description of his property throughout England, especially among the Friends, offering easy terms of sale, there were many persons from London, Liverpool and Bristol who embarked in this enterprise and the association called “The Free Traders’ Society of Pennsylvania” purchased large tracts of land.

Penn then obtained a deed for the three lower counties (now the State of Delaware), which was duly recorded in New York November 21, 1682.

Having completed all arrangements for his voyage to America, Penn wrote an affectionate letter to his wife and children and another “to 755all faithful friends in England.” Accompanied by about 100 passengers, mostly Friends from Sussex, he embarked in August on the ship Welcome, a vessel of about 300 tons burden.

After a voyage of two months they sighted the American coast about Egg Harbor, in New Jersey, on October 24, 1682, and reached New Castle, Del., on the 27th.

On the following morning Penn produced his deeds from the Duke of York and received possession by the solemn “delivery of turf, and twig, and water, and soil of the River Delaware.”

His arrival off the coast and passage up the river was a continuous demonstration of great joy by all classes—English, Dutch, Swedes, and especially by his devoted followers.

The day following his landing Penn summoned the inhabitants to the court-house at New Castle, where, says Clarkson, “he made a speech to the old magistrates, in which he explained to them the design of his coming, the nature and end of government and of that more particularly which he came to establish.”

At this time he took formal possession of the country and renewed the commissions of the magistrates.

Penn then proceeded to Upland, where he arrived October 29, 1682. This was a memorable event, says Clarkson, and to be distinguished by some marked circumstances. Penn determined, therefore, to change the name of the place, and turning toward his friend Pearson, one of his own society, who had accompanied him on the ship Welcome, he said:

“Providence has brought us here safe. Thou hast been the companion of my perils. What wilt thou that I shall call this place?”

Pearson said, “Chester,” in remembrance of the place from which he came. William Penn replied, that it should be called Chester, and that when he divided the land into counties, one of them should be called by the same name.

From Chester Penn proceeded, with some of his friends, in an open barge, in the earliest days of November, to a place about four miles above the mouth of the Schuylkill, called Coaquannock, “where there was a high bold shore, covered with lofty pines.”

Here the infant city of Philadelphia had been established, and Penn’s approach was hailed with joy by the whole population.

Immediately after his arrival in the “City of Brotherly Love,” Penn dispatched two persons to Lord Baltimore to ask of his health, offer kind neighborhood and agree upon a time of meeting. Penn then went to New York to pay his respects to the Duke, returning to Philadelphia before the close of November.

It was about this time that the “Great Treaty” took place at Shackamaxon. Tradition has persisted that a great treaty took place here under an elm tree, with William Penn, Deputy Governor Markham and 756others, and the representatives of the several Indian tribes of that and other localities.

Even if tradition errs in the details of this treaty, it is a fact that the Indians themselves alluded to “the treaty of amity and peace held with the great and good Onas” on all public occasions.

Onas was the Indian name for the Governor of Pennsylvania, and it is supposed that the “great and good Onas” referred particularly to William Penn himself.

It is also true that for a period of forty or fifty years the treaty Penn made with the Indians was not broken, and the land of Penn was preserved during all the time from the suffering of the scalping-knife, the tomahawk or the torch.

William Penn convened a General Assembly at Chester, December 4, 1682, of which Nicholas More, president of the Society of Free Traders, was chosen speaker.

During a session of four days this Assembly enacted three laws: (1) An act for the union of the Province and Territories; (2) An act of Naturalization; and (3) The great law, or code of laws, consisting of sixty-nine sections, and embracing most of the laws agreed upon in England and several others afterward suggested.

Penn, by appointment, met Lord Baltimore at West River December 19, where he was received with great ceremony, but their interview led to no solution of the vexatious question of boundary. The discussion lasted two days, but the weather became severely cold, precluding the possibility of taking observations or making the necessary surveys, so it was agreed to adjourn further consideration of the subject until spring.

The two Governors were taking measure of each other and gaining all possible knowledge of each other’s rights and claims preparatory to the struggle for the possession of this disputed fortieth degree of latitude, which case was destined to come before the home Government and give Penn a great deal of trouble.

Early in 1683 Penn divided the province and territories each into three counties—those of the former were called Bucks, Philadelphia and Chester; those of the latter were New Castle, Kent and Sussex.

Sheriffs and other officers were appointed for the several counties, writs for the election of members of Council and Assembly were issued conformable with the Constitution, and on January 10, 1683, Penn met the Council in Philadelphia and the Assembly two days later.

The Provincial Council was composed of eighteen members, three from each county, the Assembly fifty-four with nine from each county, making in all seventy-two. Thus was the Government of the province inaugurated, out of which has grown the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Penn concluded two important treaties with the Indians during June 757and July, 1683. He also visited the interior of his province, going as far west as the Susquehanna River.

The proprietary set sail for England June 12, 1684.

Penn wrote a farewell letter to his province when on board the vessel, which was couched in the most endearing terms.

After his departure the province and territories were divided into twenty-two townships. There were then 7000 inhabitants, of whom 2500 resided in Philadelphia, which already comprised 300 houses.