76 HISTORr OP 



mony, that by virtue of the agreement with William 

 Penn, and permission from the Deputy Governor, Hon. 

 Charles Gookin, they commenced making improvements 

 before a warrant had been issued, and that while some- 

 were felling trees, removing underbrush, building cabins,, 

 others went to Philadelphia to obtain a warrant for their 

 choice tract of woods. The followmg documents 

 strengthen the tradition to be correct in the main facts. 



"By the commissioners of property — ^Wliereas we- 

 havejagreed Avith John Rudolph Bundely, Martin Ken-^ 

 dig, Jacob Miller, Hans Herr, Martin Oborholtz, Hans. 

 Funk, Michael Oborholtz and one Wendel Bowman,. 

 Swissers, lately arrived in this province, for ten thousand' 

 acres of land,* situate on the northwesterley side of a 

 hill, about twenty miles easterly from Connystogoe, near 

 the head of Pecquin creek, for which said land, they are 

 to pay the sum of five hundred pounds, sterling money 

 of Great Britain, in manner folio wina:: that is to sav,the- 

 sum of one hundred pounds, part thereof in hands, at 

 ye insuing of these presents, the sum of one lumdred 

 pounds more thereof (together v/ith forty eight pounds,, 

 like money, being the interest of four hundred pounds 



*It was part of Perm's policy to sell large tracts in one 

 body, and under such restrictions as to induce families to unite 

 in settlements. In a proclamation, concerning the treaty of 

 land, dated in Old England, the 24th of the llth month, 1686, 

 Penn declares, " Since there was no other thing I had in my 

 eye in the settlement of this province, next to the advancement 

 of virtue, than the comfortable situation of the inhabitants 

 therein ; and for that end, with the advice and consent of the 

 most eminent of the first purchasers, ordained that every town- 

 ship, consisting of five thousand acres, should have ten fami- 

 lies, at least, to the end the province might not lie like a wil- 

 derness, &c." 



Those who purchased in large tracts were required by certain 



