The Quaker Colony

In 1638 a colony of Swedes settled on Christiana Creek, in the present State of Delaware. Governor Kieft, of New Amsterdam, considered this an intrusion on his territory, and, as a check to their aggression, rebuilt the previously abandoned Fort Nassau, below the present Camden. The Swedes gradually extended their settlements, the territory occupied reaching from Cape Henlopen to a point opposite Trenton. Their governor built a fort and a residence on the island of Tinicum, below Philadelphia. In 1655 the Swedes were attached by the Dutch, and their forts taken. The most of them continued on their estates, under Dutch authority. The territory of New Jersey was granted in 1664 to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. Berkeley sold his share in 1674 to John Fenwick, in trust for Edward Byllinge, who subsequently assigned his claim to William Penn and two other Quakers. The province was then divided, Carteret receiving the eastern portion, and the Quaker assignees the western portion, on the Delaware. It was in this way that William Penn first became interested in the settlement of America. As two colonies, Massachusetts and Maryland, had already been formed through the desire for religious liberty, it occurred to him to establish a refuge in the New World for the persecuted sect of which he was a member. This was first attempted in West Jersey. A free constitution was given to the settlers, granting important privileges of civil and religious liberty. Quakers were specially recommended to take advantage of it, and more than four hundred emigrated to the province in 1677. In 1682, William Penn and eleven others purchased East Jersey, so that the whole province then came under Quaker control. Robert Barclay, author of the "Apology for Quakers," was appointed governor for life.

In 1681, Penn obtained from Charles II, a grant of all the lands embraced in the present State of Pennsylvania. His purpose in this was not alone to convert and civilize the Indians, as expressed in the charter, but also to form an asylum for those desirous of civil and religious liberty, in which the principles of Peace, as advocated by his sect, might be efficiently carried out. He soon after obtained a grant of the present State of Delaware, then called "The Territories." In September, 1682, he set sail for his new province, with a large number of emigrants of his own religious belief. Others had preceded him. The story of his landing and his actions in the New World we extract from John Stoughton's "William Penn," from the fact that this writer gives the true story of that celebrated "Treaty with the Indians," concerning which so little is actually known, yet which has been made the basis of so many imaginative statements, full of dramatic interest, yet with very small foundation in fact.]

CONVENIENCE, thoughts of commerce, the selection of a fitting spot for a great city, the choice of a harbor for the shipping of the world, no doubt mainly determined the site of Philadelphia. But utility and the picturesque often go together.. Whether the commissioners sent out by Penn, who marked the foundation for the noble metropolis of their new State, had much care for landscape beauty, I cannot say; but, at all events, they managed to secure it, even if aiming at far other things. Nearly forty years before, red Indians were haunting the shore about a mile from Fort Nassau, and there some Dutchmen bought land from these wild children of the west, and mounted the flag of their country on a tall boundary-mark as a sign of possession.

A quarrel ensued with the neighboring Swedes, who tore down the flag.

Between thirty and forty years afterwards the region remained infested with wolves, and the heads of these animals were brought in to be paid for by the scanty settlers at the rate of fifty-five heads for forty guilders. Some acres between "the land of Wiccaco" and "the land of Jurian Hartsfielder" were granted on petition in 1677 to one Peter Rambo, but on the complaint of a neighboring family, who laid claim to it, the grant was cancelled. This became the site of the new city.

Penn did not land there. His voyage from England lasted two months, and on its way the Welcome was scourged by the small-pox, which swept off no less than one-third of the hundred passengers who had embarked at Deal. The first point on the American coast which the vessel reached was "the Capes," on the 24th of October, 1682, and on the 28th Penn landed at New-Castle. He was "hailed there with acclamation by the Swedes and Dutch," says one authority, who informs us that the Swedes were living in log cabins and clay huts, the men dressed "in leather breeches, jerkins, and match coats," the women "in skin jackets and linsey petticoats;" but the old records of New-Castle give a more stately description of the arrival. Penn produced two deeds of enfeoffment, and John Moll, Esq., and Ephraim Hannan, gentleman, performed livery of seisin by handing over to him turf and twig, water and soil, and with due formality the act was recorded in a document signed with nine names. The inhabitants of the little settlement afterwards gave a pledge of obedience.