The Quaker Colonies | Page 5

Reports of it reached the ears of young Penn at Oxford and set
his imagination aflame. He never forgot the project, for seventeen is an
age when grand thoughts strike home. 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,