OF LANCASTER COUNTY. 93 



skilf Illness of the pilots, or the obstinacy and distrust of the Admiral, was 

 entangled amid rocks and islands on the northern shore, and ran immi- 

 nent hazard of total destruction. Several transports, and near a thou- 

 sand men perished. Upon this disaster the remainder bore away for 

 Cape Breton, and the expedition, by the advice of a council of naval and 

 military officers, was abandoned on the ground of the want of provisions, 

 and the impossibility of procuring a seasonable supply. The admiral 

 sailed directly for England, and the colonists returned to Boston, whilst 

 Colonel Nicholson, thus deserted, was compelled to retreat from Fort 

 George. The want of skill, fortitude, and perseverance are eminently 

 conspicuous in the British commanders of this enterprise." 



In 1712, William Penn entered into an agreement with the Queen to 

 cede to her the province of Pennsylvania and the Lower Counties for the 

 sum of £12,000 sterling. But before the legal forms were completed an 

 apopletic stroke prostrated his vigorous mind and reduced him to the 

 feebleness of infancy.^ 



Queen Anne died on the first of August, 1714, and was succeeded by 

 George the First. 



Governor Gookin [1716] arrayed against himself all the Quaker interest 

 in the province in consequence of construing a provision in the statute 

 of 7 and 8 William III., "that no Quaker, hj virtue thereof^ could be 

 qualified or permitted to give evidence in any criminal case, or serve on 

 juries, or hold any place or office of profit in the Government." This 

 act had been made perpetual in Great Britain, and was extended to the 

 Colonies for five years by an act of Parliament of 1 George I. In the 

 opinion of Gookin, the extension of this act to the provinces repealed 

 the provincial law and disqualified, the Quakers from giving testimony 

 in criminal cases, from sitting on juries, and from holding any office. 

 Notwithstanding the desertion of his Council and the remonstrances of the 

 Assembly, Gookin tenaciously adhered to his construction of the statute. 

 His good genius had now entirely abandoned him, for he now charged 

 Eichard Hill, speaker of the Assembly, Isaac Norris and James Logan 

 with disloyalty to the King and devotion to the pretender. These alle- 

 gations were utterly unfounded and the Assembly, whither the parties 

 charged had carried their complaint, completely exonerated them, [1717.] 

 Expostulation with Gookin having proved vain, his Council unanimously 

 joined in an address to William Penn, praying his recall.^ He met the 

 Assembly for the last time in March, 1717, and extorted from their com- 

 passion the sum of two hundred pounds, a valedictory donation.^ 



Sir William Keith, on the first of May, 1717, superseded Governor 

 Gookin. He was the son of Sir William Keith of the North of Scotland, 

 had held for some time the office of the King's surveyor of the customs 

 1 Gordon. '^ Logan MSS. 



