Henry Wilson Storey's History of Cambria County, V.I, p.2

You are here: Cambria > Books > History of Cambria County, V.1

History of Cambria County, V.1

2 HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.

in June, 1681. Markham found Captain Anthony Brockholls, deputy governor of New York, in charge of the Duke of York's colonies. Brockholls inspected the documents which Markham presented, and in acknowledging their validity gave him a letter to the settlers in Pennsylvania, requesting them to yield obedience to the new proprietor. On August 3, 1681, Markham organized a Council, which was the formal beginning of Penn's proprietorship, and began to buy lands from the Indians.
     Penn sailed in the ship "Welcome," and landed at Upland, now Chester, about October 28, 1682, when he was about thirty-eight years of age. Markham had had the city of Philadelphia laid out before Penn's arrival, but it was under his instructions, inasmuch as two years later Penn wrote: "And thou Philadelphia, named before thou wast born."
     In the summer of 1683 Penn began to negotiate with the Iroquois chiefs of New York, who were in control of the tribes on the Susquehanna river, for that river and the lauds on both sides of it. In July he wrote to Brockholls commending two agents he was sending to treat with the sachems of the Mohawks, Senecas and their allied tribes, for a release of the Susquehanna lands. In his letter he declared his intention "is to treat * * * about some Susquehanash land on ye back of us, where I intend a colony forthwith, a place so out of the way that a small thing could not carry some people to it." It seems very clear that Penn's intentions were to secure at once the Susquehanna river to its source, and to the extreme point, or, as he expressed it so plainly, "a place so out of the way that a small thing could not carry some people to it."
     The agents, William Haige and James Graham, proceeded to Albany in August, and found that Brockholls had been superseded by Colonel Thomas Dongan, who had arrived August 25, 1683. Colonel Dongan is an important personage in the study of the history of Pennsylvania, in view of his term of service as governor of New York until 1688. He was a Roman Catholic, as was the Duke of York, and an enterprising, active and intelligent man, well qualified to manage the delicate relations then existing, especially so with the Iroquois Indians.
     When Dongan heard of Penn's negotiations for the Susquehanna river it gave him much concern, and caused his justices, who were his advisers, to become panicstricken. They feared that Penn would plant, a strong settlement on the Susquehanna, and that the Iroquois Indians, instead of bringing

Title Page

Contents

Image

2	HISTORY OF CAMBRIA COUNTY.
in June, 1681. Markham found Captain Anthony Brockholls, deputy governor of New York, in charge of the Duke of York's colonies. Brockholls inspected the documents which Markham presented, and in acknowledging their validity gave him a letter to the settlers in Pennsylvania, requesting them to yield obedience to the new proprietor. On August 3, 1681, Markham organized a Council, which was the formal beginning of Penn's proprietorship, and began to buy lands from the Indians. Penn sailed in the ship "Welcome," and landed at Upland, now Chester, about October 28, 1682, when he was about thirty-eight years of age. Markham had had the city of Philadelphia laid out before Penn's arrival, but it was under his instructions, inasmuch as two years later Penn wrote: "And thou Philadelphia, named before thou wast born." In the summer of 1683 Penn began to negotiate with the Iroquois chiefs of New York, who were in control of the tribes on the Susquehanna river, for that river and the lauds on both sides of it. In July he wrote to Brockholls commending two agents he was sending to treat with the sachems of the Mohawks, Senecas and their allied tribes, for a release of the Susquehanna lands. In his letter he declared his intention "is to treat * * * about some Susquehanash land on ye back of us, where I intend a colony forthwith, a place so out of the way that a small thing could not carry some people to it." It seems very clear that Penn's intentions were to secure at once the Susquehanna river to its source, and to the extreme point, or, as he expressed it so plainly, "a place so out of the way that a small thing could not carry some people to it." The agents, William Haige and James Graham, proceeded to Albany in August, and found that Brockholls had been superseded by Colonel Thomas Dongan, who had arrived August 25, 1683. Colonel Dongan is an important personage in the study of the history of Pennsylvania, in view of his term of service as governor of New York until 1688. He was a Roman Catholic, as was the Duke of York, and an enterprising, active and intelligent man, well qualified to manage the delicate relations then existing, especially so with the Iroquois Indians. When Dongan heard of Penn's negotiations for the Susquehanna river it gave him much concern, and caused his justices, who were his advisers, to become panicstricken. They feared that Penn would plant, a strong settlement on the Susquehanna, and that the Iroquois Indians, instead of bringing