William Penn and Family Arrive in Province on His Second Visit, December 1, 1699

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 844him 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.

Fletcher claimed the right to alter laws without even the assent of Assembly, and to strengthen his position threatened to annex the Province to New York. The moderate party, rather than submit to this, preferred receiving the confirmation of their rights and liberties as a favor at the hands of the Governor.

Prior to his departure for New York, in 1694, Fletcher appointed William Markham, the Proprietary’s cousin, to be Lieutenant Governor. Governor Fletcher attended the second session of the Assembly and insisted upon further appropriations for public defense. The Assembly refused to comply with Fletcher’s demand and was dissolved.

The Proprietary was not wholly in accord with the resolute refusal of the Assembly, nor was he unmindful of the effects which such opposition to the wishes of the Crown might have upon his particular interests.

William Penn was now no longer under the cloud of suspicion. He had many friends among the nobles who surrounded the King, and his true character was at last made known.

He succeeded in obtaining a hearing before a Privy Council and was honorably acquitted and restored to his Proprietary rights by a patent dated August, 1694, in which the disorders in the Province were ascribed solely to his absence. Shortly before his reinstatement, William Penn’s wife, Gulielma Maria, died.

Penn appointed Markham his Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania and Territories September 24, 1694. The restoration of the former government was not happy, for Governor Fletcher had made himself unpopular, and it was not an easy matter for Markham to immediately gain their confidence, even though he had called the Assembly according to the forms prescribed by the charter.

The great bone of contention was the subsidy to be granted to the King. Finally a joint committee of the two branches of the Legislature was acceded to, when it was agreed to accept the new Constitution, and a new subsidy of £300 was granted for the support of the Royal Government and of the suffering Indians. This was raised by a tax of one penny on the pound on all assessed property.

845The new Constitution was more democratic. The Council consisted of two from each county, elected biennially. The Assembly had four members from each county, elected annually. The latter was given the right to originate bills, to sit on its adjournments and to be indissoluble during the term for which it was elected.

This instrument was never formally sanctioned by the Proprietary and continued in force only until after his second arrival, when a new and more lasting one was substituted in its place. Under it the people were content.

William Penn, accompanied by his second wife and children, sailed from England in the ship Canterbury in September, 1699, and on account of adverse winds had a tedious voyage of more than three months, arriving in the Delaware, December 1, 1699. Penn was cordially welcomed, it being generally understood that he intended to spend the remainder of his life in the Province.

The Proprietary believed the time was ripe for an entirely new form of government and labored earnestly to obtain additional legislative restrictions upon intercourse with the Indians in order to protect them from the artifices of the whites. Penn conferred frequently with the several nations of the Province, visiting them familiarly in their forests, participating in their festivals and entertaining them with much hospitality and state at his mansion at Pennsbury.

He formed a new treaty with the tribes located on the Susquehanna and its tributaries and also with the Five Nations. This treaty was one of peace. In 1701, William Penn took a second trip into the interior of the Province.