The Restoration Crisisand the Launching of Pennsylvania, 16/9-81

English Historical Review

Volumn 112, Issue 446, 1997, Pages 300-318

  Geiter, Mary K ^a  

^a BLOOMSBURG UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 85070594138     PISSN: 00138266     EISSN: 14774534     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/ehr/CXII.446.300     Document Type: Article

References (74)

1. Edwin Bronner, William Penn's Holy Experiment (New York, 1962); Richard Middleton, Colonial America: A History, 1607-1776 (2nd edn., Oxford, 1996), pp. 161-2; Cf. Alan Tully, Forming American Politics: Ideals, Interests, and Institutions in Colonial New York and Pennsylvania (Baltimore, 1994), pp. 27-8.
2. H. Horwitz, 'Protestant Reconciliation in the Exclusion crisis', Journal of Ecclesiastical History xv (1964), 201-17. Even if the Friends had needed a refuge in North America they could have found one in New Jersey or Rhode Island, or even in Maryland, without seeking a new colony for the purpose.
3. Filmer Mood, 'William Pcnn and English Politics in 1680-1681', The Journal of the Friends Historical Society, xxxii (1935), 3-21; Mary Maples Dunn, William Penn: Politics and Conscience (Princeton, 1967), p. 79.
4. J. Scott, Algernon Sidney and the Restoration Crisis, 1677-168} (Cambridge, 1991).
5. Mark Knights, Politics and Opinion in Crisis, 1678-81 (Cambridge, 1994), p. 11.
6. B[ritish] Lfibrary], Additional]. MS 28053, f°- 133; J- R- Jones, Charles II: Royal Politician (London, 1987), p. 140. According to Jones, it was James's approach to Shaftesbury during 1679 which led to his appointment.
7. BL Add. MS 70013, fo. 8", 21 April 1679: a note on the back of a list of names for the new Privy Council which included Shaftesbury as President.
8. Clayton Roberts, Schemes and Undertakings: A Study of English Politics in the Seventeenth Century (Ohio, 1985), pp. 78-106 (ch. 4 provides an excellent analysis of the period between 1679 and 1681); C. D. Chandaman, The English Public Revenue, 1660-1688 (Oxford, 1975), p. 249.
9. Chandaman, English Public Revenue, pp. 8-10, 33-5, 305-6.
10. B. D. Henning, The History of Parliament: The Commons, 1660-1690 (3 vols., London, 1983), ii.54-6. Chicheley was MP for Cambridgeshire in 1640, 1642 and 1661. He was then elected for Cambridge in March and October 1679, then again in 1681 and 1685, and finally in 1689. The Chicheley family was involved in Virginia, where Sir Henry was a member of the Council.
11. n e wrote to his wife that he was given two speeches by Penn to a committee in Parliament the previous March stressing their common religious principles. Conway disagreed, telling his wife 'If 1 should agree that theirs is better than ours, I think I should loose the use of my reason.' Conway is listed in attendance on the Committee for Trade and Plantations on 24 February 1680/1 when the draft of the charter was discussed. However, throughout the weeks that the Charter was under consideration, Conway appeared only once during discussions of Penn's petition.
12. John Miller, Charles II, King of Great Britain, i6jo-8; (London, 1991), pp. 307, 311-17 (Miller describes Sunderland along with the Duchess of Portsmouth as being moderate in nature). During this time Sunderland was one of the royal favourites and used his influence to head off what he saw as a revolt. However, by the end of August, he was writing to Henry Sidney at the Hague, telling him that 'I take the Duke to be undone': BL Add. MS 32681 fo. 44, Sunderland to Henry Sidney (24 Aug. 1680).
13. Dictionary of National Biography, i.n. 'Hyde, Laurence'.
14. Mary Maples Dunn and Richard S. Dunn (ed.), Pfapers ofj Wfilliam]P[enn](5 vols., Philadelphia, 1981-6) iv.327, [c. 1683], William Penn to 'My Noble Friend', most likely to the Earl of Rochester probably in the autumn of 1682. In the letter, Penn acknowledges Rochester as one of the noble persons that backed his venture, 'among whom thou wen not the least'.
15. BL Add. MS 32681 fo. 14, Leoline Jenkins to Henry Sidney (23 July 1680).
16. PRO 33/3/14j, fo. 80 (Baschet transcripts of Barillon's correspondence, hereafter cited as Barillon): Barilton to Louis XIV. Barillon wrote that the principal merchants in London did not want a civil war.
17. Mary K. Geiter, 'The Incorporation of Pennsylvania and Late Stuart Politics' (University of Cambridge, Ph.D. thesis, 1993) ch. 2.
18. Henning, The Commons, 1660-90,1.10. The percentage of merchants who were MPs rose from about 7 per cent in the 1661-78 Parliament to loand 11 per cent in the three Parliaments that followed. However, many of the country gentlemen, who made up the bulk of MPs, were also involved in trade.
19. Barillon, 33/3/144, 1 Feb. 1680.
20. Tim Harris, London Crowds in the Reign of Charles II: Propaganda and Politics from the Restoration until the Exclusion Crisis (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 226-7. Harris sums up his view on London's refusal to erupt into any real violence at the dissolution as due not only to effective policing, but also to Charles's popularity with the populace. While this is partly true, a more solid reason perhaps is the recognition on the part of the merchants of the effect of violence on business. Cf. Gary De Krey, 'London Radicals and Revolutionary Politics, 1675-1683', in The Politics of Religion in Restoration England, ed. Tim Harris et al. (Oxford, 1990), pp. 133-62.
21. Commons Journals, 1667-90, ix. 623; David Ogg, England in the Reign of Charles II (2nd edn., 2 vols., Oxford, 1963), ii.587-8.
22. Commons Journals, ix. 634. The King initially prorogued Parliament until 14 August.
23. Henning, The Commons, 1660-90,1. 106. The precise number of controverted elections cannot be ascertained: the only source is the Commons Journals which, because of the fragmented sessions, does not give a complete picture.
24. BL Add. MS 36680, fo. 889, Sunderland to Sidney (20 Aug. 1679).
25. As quoted in Scott, Algernon Sidney, p. 183.
26. Ibid., p. 156.
27. Penn's tract, England's Great Interest in the Choice of this New Parliament (London, 1680) is an effusion of country, not whig, ideology.
28. Cf. J. R. Jones, 'Representative of the Alternative Society?', in Mary Maples Dunn and Richard S. Dunn (ed.), The World of William Penn (Philadelphia, 1986), p. 6y, Historical/ Manuscripts) C[om-mission] Ormonde 6th Report (London, 1877), pp. 736-7; Mary Maples Dunn, Politics and Conscience, PP- 73-9-
29. PWP, ii.50-6, To the King Lords and Commons in Parliament Assembled [October] 1680; HMC Eleventh Report, Appendix, Part II, The Manuscripts of the House of Lords: 1678-1688, pp. 201-2. Three more tracts were published with the intention of securing relief for the Quakers from Parliament: A Particular Account of Sufferings (London, 1 j November 1680); Brief Account of Sufferings (London, 20 December 1680); Reasons Why the Oaths Should not be made part of the Tests (London, 1680).
30. [William Penn], Declaration or Test (London, 1680). Although it is not certain that Penn was the author of this text, the wording is closely comparable to, and sometimes identical with, that of his tract, One Project (London, 1680).
31. Supra, p. 302. Parliament was prorogued before an act could be passed.
32. After the prorogation of the second Exclusion Parliament in October 1680, Halifax and Sir William Temple retired from the Council in disgust.
33. It has become commonplace to assume that Penn's petition for a colony was supported by Robert Spencer, Earl of Sunderland. It is true that Sunderland and Penn had been good friends since their days at Oxford. It is usually assumed that the Earl's position at court enabled him to promote Penn's cause: Stephen Saunders Webb,' "The Peaceable Kingdom": Quaker Pennsylvania in the Stuart Empire', in Dunn and Dunn, The World of William Penn, p. 174.
34. Banllon, 33/3/144,8 January 1680. Hyde, in one of his rare meetings with the French ambassador, told Barillon that he felt confident that the King could be sustained without the help of Parliament.
35. BL Add. MS 17017, fos. 127-36, shows that Sunderland clearly thought Hyde to be the most influential person with the King during this period.
36. j . Henry Roseveare, The Treasury: The Evolution ofa British Institution (London, 1969}, pp. 78-82; id., The Treasury, 1660-1870: The Foundations of Control (London, 1973), pp. 42-4.
37. BL Add. MS 17917, fo. 70: For Penn's involvement with New Jersey, see infra, pp. 313-15.
38. I wish to express my appreciation to Mark Knights who kindly supplied me with the list of names in the petition. He discusses the circumstances surrounding it in 'London's "Monster" Petition of 1680', Historical journal, xxxvi (1993), 39-67.
39. Narcissus Luttrell, A Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs 1678-1714 (6 vols., Oxford, 1857), i.42; London Gazette, 19April 1680. When the King finally gained the upper hand after the dissolution of the Oxford Parliament, Chandos was replaced by Sir William Soames.
40. Tangier's importance to the Turkey trade was still being recognized as late as 1708: G. M. Trevelyan, England under Queen Anne (3 vols., London, 1930-4) ii.374.
41. The treaty with Spain in 1680 resulted in a temporary truce with the Moors.
42. Barillon, 31/3/14$, fos. 36", 6y, 65, 85.
43. Barillon, 33/3/146, fo. 8.
44. Ibid., fos. 8,40,95, 5;.
45. Penn was the last to receive a proprietorship. In 1682, the Privy Council recommended that 'we think it not convenient to constitute any new propriety in America nor to grant any further powers that may render the plantations less dependent on the Crown': quoted in C. M. Andrews, The Colonial Period of American History: England's Commercial and Colonial Policy (4 vols., Yale, 1934-38) iii.279; C[alendar] of S[tate] P[apers], Colonial, 1681-168), no. 696 (Sept. 1682). When, about the same time, the Earl of Doncaster applied for a grant for the area now known as Florida, he was refused for this reason.
46. Comparison of the Pennsylvania charter with that for Maryland shows that the clause in the latter giving the proprietors palatinate jurisdiction in the colony was deliberately omitted from the Pennsylvania charter.
47. PWP, ii. 103-4, Sir John Werden to William Penn(i6July 1681); CSP, Colonial, 1677-80, no. 1565, Blathwayt to Committee (Oct? 1680); ibid., no. 1544, Werden to Blathwayt (16 Oct. 1680); CSP, Colonial, i68i-8f, no. 179, Werden to Penn (16 July 1681); CSP, Colonial, 1677-1680, no. 1605, Werden to Blathwayt (23 November 1680).
48. The history of colonial New Jersey and its division into East and West before it became a crown colony in 1702 is very complex. The best guide is John E. Pomfret, The Province of West New Jersey, 1609-1702: A History of the Origins of an American Colony (Princeton, 1956).
49. William Penn, The Case of New Jersey Stated, (London, c. 1680), p. 10. This case was probably published sometime between September 1679, when the inhabitants first asked to be exempt from taxes by New York (CSP, Colonial, 1677-1680, no. 1123(19 Sept. 1679]), and August 1680, when the Duke of York accepted the opinion of Sir William Jones that New Jersey was exempt.
50. CSP, Colonial, 1677-80, no. 1123 (19 Sept. 1679); ibid., no. 1479 (6 Aug. 1680); Pomfret, The Province of West New Jersey, p. 112.
51. WP, ii.i 1 s, Robert Barclay to William Penn (23 September 1681).
52. CSP, Colonial, I6JJ~HO, no. 1409.
53. Historical] S[ociety of] Pennsylvania], MS 373, fo. 43 (Peter Lindstom's Journal, 1691).
54. PWP,i\.90-91: Barclay to Penn (April 1681). Barclay's letter confirms the Duke's decision not to grant the Delaware area.
55. PWP, ii.798, 37-8; CSP, Colonial, 1681-8), no. 2078: Werden to Sir Allen Apsely (8 Aug. 16S1). Werden strongly believed that the loss of revenue for New York was now inevitable due to the giving up of the lands on either side of the Delaware. Also, if we accept that the King 'emerged as a politician in his own right', as stated by Jones in Country and Court: England, 16)8-1714 (London, 1978), p. 204, and took the lead from that moment, then we can explain the decisions taken concerning the plantations.
56. HSP, Penn MS, i.fo. j: James, Duke of York, to John Lewin (24 May 1680).
57. Cf. J. Illick, 'The Pennsylvania Grant: A Re-evaluation,' Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 86 (1962) pp. 379-80; Mary Maples Dunn, William Penn: Politics and Conscience, pp. 78-9.
58. An Abstract, 25-26; PWP, ii.323.
59. PRO, PCR 2/68, p. 352.
60. PRO, PCR 2/69, pp. 138-222.
61. CSP, Domestic, 1680-81, p. 92, anonymous letter to MP (John Speke) (28 Nov. 1680).
62. Lords Journals, xiii. 610-11, King's speech at the opening of the session (21 Oct. 1680).
63. Commons Journals, ix. 641-55.
64. 27 Nov. 1680). Barillon 31/3/145, fo. 67 (10 June 1680). Dongan became governor of New York: Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Rawlinson A 256 (27 Oct. 1680).
65. Stafford County Record Office, D742/o/i/8.
66. Commons Journals, ix. 679 (15 Dec. 1680).
67. Ibid., 684-5; Lords Journals, xiii. 672, 684 (16, 23 Nov. 1680).
68. Commons Journals, ix. 699-703.
69. Ibid., ix. 1681. In the previous January the Common Council had voted down a petition for the sitting of Parliament by six or seven votes.
70. CSP, Domestic, 1680-81, p. 130. Charles was concerned that his councillors were not being successful in Parliament and he also needed time to consider further action.
71. There was a rumour since December, as noted in the London Gazette, 23-27 December 1680, when on the 15 th of that month Kirk arrived from Tangier with news of the six months' truce: CSP, Domestic, 1680-81, p. 125, Secretary Jenkins to Middleton (3 Jan. 1681).
72. Luttrell, A Brief Historical Relation, ii.64.
73. London Gazette, 16 February 1681, published the complete contents of the order to encourage trade in the plantations.
74. PRO, PCR 2/69, 224; CSP, Colonial, 1681-8), nos. 29, 30, 32, 2070.