The adventurousness of the plan was irresistible--a home for the new faith in the primeval forest, far from imprisonment, tithes, and persecution, and to be won by effort worthy of a man.It was, however, a dream destined not to be realized for many a long year.More was needed than the mere consent of the Indians.In the meantime, however, a temporary refuge for the sect was found in the province of West Jersey on the Delaware, which two Quakers had bought from Lord Berkeley for the comparatively small sum of 1000 pounds.Of this grant William Penn became one of the trustees and thus gained his first experience in the business of colonizing the region of his youthful dreams.But there was never a sufficient governmental control of West Jersey to make it an ideal Quaker colony.What little control the Quakers exercised disappeared after 1702; and the land and situation were not all that could be desired.Penn, though also one of the owners of East Jersey, made no attempt to turn that region into a Quaker colony.
Besides West Jersey the Quakers found a temporary asylum in Aquidneck, now Rhode Island.* For many years the governors and magistrates were Quakers, and the affairs of this island colony were largely in their hands.Quakers were also prominent in the politics of North Carolina, and John Archdale, a Quaker, was Governor for several years.They formed a considerable element of the population in the towns of Long Island and Westchester County but they could not hope to convert these communities into real Quaker commonwealths.
* This Rhode Island colony should be distinguished from the settlement at Providence founded by Roger Williams with which it was later united.See Jones, "The Quakers in the American Colonies," p.21, note.
The experience in the Jerseys and elsewhere very soon proved that if there was to be a real Quaker colony, the British Crown must give not only a title to the land but a strong charter guaranteeing self-government and protection of the Quaker faith from outside interference.But that the British Government would grant such valued privileges to a sect of schismatics which it was hunting down in England seemed a most unlikely event.Nothing but unusual influence at Court could bring it about, and in that quarter the Quakers had no influence.
Penn never forgot the boyhood ideal which he had developed at college.For twenty years he led a varied life--driven from home and whipped by his father for consorting with the schismatic;sometimes in deference to his father's wishes taking his place in the gay world at Court; even, for a time, becoming a soldier, and again traveling in France with some of the people of the Court.
In the end, as he grew older, religious feeling completely absorbed him.He became one of the leading Quaker theologians, and his very earnest religious writings fill several volumes.He became a preacher at the meetings and went to prison for his heretical doctrines and pamphlets.At last he found himself at the age of thirty-six with his father dead, and a debt due from the Crown of 16,000 pounds for services which his distinguished father, the admiral, had rendered the Government.
Here was the accident that brought into being the great Quaker colony, by a combination of circumstances which could hardly have happened twice.Young Penn was popular at Court.He had inherited a valuable friendship with Charles II and his heir, the Duke of York.This friendship rested on the solid fact that Penn's father, the admiral, had rendered such signal assistance in restoring Charles and the whole Stuart line to the throne.But still 16,000 pounds or $80,000, the accumulation of many deferred payments, was a goodly sum in those days, and that the Crown would pay it in money, of which it had none too much, was unlikely.Why not therefore suggest paying it instead in wild land in America, of which the Crown had abundance? That was the fruitful thought which visited Penn.Lord Berkeley and Lord Carteret had been given New Jersey because they had signally helped to restore the Strait family to the throne.All the more therefore should the Stuart family give a tract of land, and even a larger tract, to Penn, whose father had not only assisted the family to the throne but had refrained so long from pressing his just claim for money due.
So the Crown, knowing little of the value of it, granted him the most magnificent domain of mountains; lakes, rivers, and forests, fertile soil, coal, petroleum, and iron that ever was given to a single proprietor.In addition to giving Penn the control of Delaware and, with certain other Quakers, that of New Jersey as well, the Crown placed at the disposal of the Quakers 55,000square miles of most valuable, fertile territory, lacking only about three thousand square miles of being as large as England and Wales.Even when cut down to 45,000 square miles by a boundary dispute with Maryland, it was larger than Ireland.Kings themselves have possessed such dominions, but never before a private citizen who scorned all titles and belonged to a hunted sect that exalted peace and spiritual contemplation above all the wealth and power of the world.Whether the obtaining of this enormous tract of the best land in America was due to what may be called the eternal thriftiness of the Quaker mind or to the intense desire of the British Government to get rid of these people--at any cost might be hard to determine.
Penn received his charter in 1681, and in it he was very careful to avoid all the mistakes of the Jersey proprietary grants.
Instead of numerous proprietors, Penn was to be the sole proprietor.Instead of giving title to the land and remaining silent about the political government, Penn's charter not only gave him title to the land but a clearly defined position as its political head, and described the principles of the government so clearly that there was little room for doubt or dispute.
