WILLIAM PENN PETITIONS FOR, AND IS INVESTED WITH THE SOIL AND GOVERNMENT: K. CHARLES IID'S DECLARATION IN CONSEQUENCE THEREOF. AN ACCO. OF THE COUNTRY, & TERMS OF SETTLEMENT. ARRIVALS OF SETLERS. WILLIAM PENNS LETTER TO THE INDIANS: PUBLISHES THE FIRST FRAME OF GOVERNMENT: SETS SAIL FOR THE NEW COUNTRY: MEETS THE FIRST ASSEMBLY. SUNDRY LAWS PASSED: HIS REASON FOR ACCEPTING THE ADMINISTRATION.
Seldom does an act of humanity and kindness go without its reward in one shape or other-sometimes it hath consequences quite unexpected. Edward Byllinge, the original proprietor of West-Jersey under purchase from lord Berkeley, had got into difficulties so as to dispose him to assign his estate for the benefit of his Creditors, and prevailing upon William Penn to be one of his trustees; in the execution of this trust it was that he became one of the principal promoters of the settlement of West-Jersey, and by his concerns there from about the year 1665 He seems to have first gained the knowledge of that more considerable tract of land, of which he afterward became the sole proprietor and which is only divided from New Jersey by the river Delaware; he had a right to claim a considerable sum of money due to the admiral his father, as well for sums actually advanced for the sea service, as for arrearages in his pay. He petitioned King Charles the second, in the summer 1680, praying that in consideration thereof, letters patent might be granted to him for a tract of land in America, lying North of Maryland, on the east bounded with Delaware River, on the west limited as Maryland, and