and tions exac at 1706. the commander to go on fhore, make report, and have leave to pafs, from the commanding officer of Of the fort the faid fort, under penalty of paying five pounds, befides twenty fhillings for the first gun, thirty for Newcastle, the fecond, and forty for every gun afterwards, that fhould be fired on the occafion, in cafe of neglect, befides the forfeiture of five pounds, for contempt, &c. &c. This law was confidered as a manifeft infraction of the privileges granted by the royal charter to the fettlers and inhabitants of Pennsylvania; and still more fo, from the manner in which it was put in execution; for they had legally an undoubted right to the free ufe of the river and bay, without any interruption, obftruction or impofition from any quarter whatever; and the violent means which confequently became neceffary to enforce a law upon fuch a defective foundation, and not even countenanced by the law itself, foon became a great nuifance, and an intolerable grievance to the trading part of Pennsylvania, and others concerned in its commerce.-Befides, it was alledged, that the fort itfelf, as it was fituated and circumftanced, had it been under better management and more warrantable direction, could not poffibly be much fecurity to the river, nor protection to the veffels that might happen to be chafed, or affaulted in it. The city of Philadelphia was much concerned at these proceedings, and the trading part thereof were highly incenfed at this invafion of their juft liberties; accordingly endeavours were used to have the affair properly redreffed, but without fuccefs. At length Richard Hill, one of the Governor's Council, a bold man, and of confiderable abilities and influence in the province, together with Ifaac Norris and Samuel Preston, all Quakers, and men of the first rank and efteem, was determined to try to to remove this nuisance, by a different method from 1706. any that had been yet attempted.* *These three perfons being men of confiderable note and eminence, either at this time, or afterwards, in the province, a short sketch of their character, as I find it in M. S. here follows, viz.. Richard Hill was born in Maryland, brought up to the fea, and afterwards fettled in Philadelphia, having there married the widow of John Delaval, Hannah, the eldest daughter of the late Governor Lloyd, a woman of an excellent character, and very much efteemed and beloved. He was twenty-five years a member of the Governor's Council, divers times Speaker of the Affembly, held feveral offices of truft, was, for several years, first Commiffioner of property, and, during the laft ten years of his life, he was one of the Provincial Judges. His fervices, in the religious fociety of his friends, the Quakers, of which he was, for many years, an active member, are faid likewife to have been very confiderable. He had by nature and acquifition such a conftant firmness, as furnished him with undaunted refolution, to execute whatever he undertook. His found judgment, his great eftcem for the English conftitution and laws, his tenderness for the liberty of the fubject, and his zeal for preferving the reputable order established in his own religious community, with his great generosity to proper objects, qualified him for the greatest services, in every station in which he was engaged, and rendered him of very great and uncommon value, in the place where he lived. He died in Philadelphia, on the 9th. of September, 1729. Ifaac Norris, of Philadelphia, held many public offices, with great repution and honour; and his fervices, in the affairs of his own religious community, entitled him to very high and uncommon efteem among his friends the Quakers; in which he was a principal perfon in good offices. He is faid to have been endowed with good natural abilities; which he improved and applied to the benefit of mankind, as a man truly fenfible that one of the chief ends of man's existence is to be useful and beneficent to the human race; which he fhewed by his uniform condu&; and that to answer this end men are to be taken as they are, and their leffer failings to be endured, where they cannot be amended; the utility of his great talents was manifefted by a prudent and confiftent conduct, in which he fo much the more effectually fucceeded and excelled, and that agreeable to duty and a good confcience, by conftantly cherishing a temper and difpofition of mind, which overlooks or paffes by the many dislikes, deficiencies and ungrateful things, in others, which are so commonly incident to mankind; fo that, by preferving through life, a christian moderation, and an even hand, he was, on all occafions, qualified to use and exert his abilities to more advantage: His example in this was noble and confpicuous, and his character, in moft refpects, fo honourable among men, in general, and his conduct fo univerfally beneficial, efpecially to thofe of his own religious community, that he was an ornament to his country and profeffion, and his death a great loss to both; which was in the year 1735, when he was Chief Juftice of Pennsylvania. Samuel Prefton, likewife of Philadelphia, was, for a long time, one of the Governor's Council, and Treasurer of the province of Pennsylvania; which offices he difcharged with much honor and fidelity. He was a man of great integrity to what he believed was his duty; his conduct in life, very inftructive, and his practice a continual fcries of good offiHe was a perfon of such remarkable benevolence, and open dif ces. pofition 1706. Hill had a veffel, named the Philadelphia; then loaded and juft going out, to fea; but doubting of Account of his captain's refolution to pass the fort, without subexactions at mitting to the imposition, he, in company with the Newcastle, other two, went in the veffel down the river, and the fort and &c. dropt anchor a little before they came to the fort; pofition of mind, as rendered advice and reproof, from him, the more The worth of wife and virtuous men is ineflimable, and their loss to the community, not eafily repaired. It is to be regretted, that frequently their great value and importance are not fufficiently feen, or understood and attended to, till after we are deprived of them, and can no longer be benefited by their prefence and fociety, &c. "Virtutem incolumem odimus; Sublatam ex oculis, querimus, invidi.” HORAT. the fort and &c. Cornbury, Governor of New-Jersey, and as fuch 1706. claiming to be Vice Admiral of the river Delaware, in happened, at that time, to be at Salem, a little Account of lower down, on the Jersey side of the river; to exactions at him the prisoner was brought, to give an account Newcastle, of his conduct. In this place, after French, in a coarse manner, had been fufficiently reprimanded by Lord Cornbury, upon a fuitable fubmiffion and promifes made, he was at length difmiffed, but not without marks of derifion from fome of the attendants. This put a finishing stroke to these proceedings at the fort of Newcastle; and thus ended the enterprize; in which Hill's friends, especially his anxious wife, a perfon of note and high esteem, who, at Philadelphia, heard the report of the guns, could not but be particularly concerned, fearing left his refolution fhould be attended with bad confequences: but they were foon agreeably relieved from their apprehenfions of that kind; and his conduct in this affair, made an open way for others. But Richard Hill did not fuffer the affair to reft here; for, accompanied by a large number of the inhabitants of Philadelphia, he attended the General Affembly; and, by petition, in fuch manner, laid the affair before them, that it produced an addrefs to the Governor, from the House, without fo much as one diffenting vote, dated the 10th. of May, 1707, highly resenting these proceedings, on the river Delaware, and at Newcastle, which I do not find were afterwards continued.* *This addrefs was as follows, viz. The "To John Evans, Efquire, by the Queen's royal approbation, Lieute nant Governor of the province of Pennsylvania, and of the three lower counties of Newcastle, Kent and Suffex, on Delaware river. "The humble Addrefs of the Representatives of the freemen of the faid province, in General Affembly met, the 10th. day of the month called May, 1707, fheweth, "THAT a petition of above two hundred and twenty of the merchants and other inhabitants of the faid province, but moftly of the city of Philadelphia, having been prefented to this House, complaining of very 1 1706. The act of Affembly, for establishing courts of judicature, in the province, in the year 1701, havOf the bill ing been repealed by the crown, the Governor, in of Courts, order to fupply the intention of that act, for the regulation of courts, recommended to the confide ration great abuses and oppreffions, which fome of the inhabitants of the county of Newcastle have committed upon feveral of thefe petitioners, by colour of a certain ordinance, or act of Affembly, lately passed there by the said Lieutenant Governor, and Representatives of the freemen of the faid three lower counties, entitled "An act for erecting and maintaining a fort for her Majefty's fervice, at the town of Newcastle upon Delaware;" which act, as alfo the feveral affidavits, relating to the matter complained of, being read, we thought proper, in the first place, to confider the royal charter of the late King Charles the fecond, to the Proprietary, bearing date the fourth day of March, in the three and thirtieth year of his reign, whereby the free and undisturbed ufe and continuance in, and paffage unto, and out of, all the ports, harbours, bays, waters, rivers, iЯles and inlents, belonging unto, or leading to, or from this country, with the other powers and liberties, mentioned in the said petition, are granted to the Proprietary and inhabitants of this province, as the petitioners set forth; and we further obferve, that by the faid charter, the Queen's liege people of this province are to be fubject to no laws, but fuch as are confonant to reason, and as near as may be, agreeable to the laws, statutes and rights of the kingdom of England. In the next place we have inspected the late Duke of York's deeds of feoffment to the Proprietary, for the faid three lower counties, as alfo the late King Charles the fecond's grant to the Duke, for the fame lands; and when we call to mind how the Reprefentatives of the lower counties broke off, and refused to proceed legislatively, in conjunction with the Reprefentatives of the province, under the Proprietary`s administration; but how far they can be juftified in making laws to raife money on the Queen's fubjects in this government, we intend fhall be further confidered hereafter; in the mean time we shall infist that the liberty of the free ufe, and paffage to, and out of, the ports of this province, granted us by the above recited royal charter, is well warranted by the laws of England; and that no impofition can, by any act, or ordinance, made at Newcafle, be laid upon any veffel, bound to, or from, any port in this province, which doth not unload at fome key, or place, within the faid lower counties; and we conceive, that upon a ftrict examination of their faid act of Affembly, it will most evidently appear, that the vessels not bound to, or out of, fome port or place there, cannot legally be obliged to comply with the impofitions of the faid act. "Therefore this houfe, having fully and maturely weighed the nature of the faid act, and the use that is, and has been made of it, found themfelves obliged, in duty to the Queen, and juftice to the people they reprefent, to come to the following refolutions, N. C. D. Firft, That it is the opinion of this House, that the faid act of Affembly might be by the Governor, intended for the Queen's fervice, and fecurity of her fubjects, yet the manner of putting the fame in execution proves an apparent violation of the faid royal charter, as well as the common and ftatute laws of England, and is destructive to trade, and tends to the depopulating and ruin of this province. "Secondly, That it is the opinion of this Houfe, that the firing of fhot at the floop Philadelphia, in the several affidavits mentioned, when she was |