OF LANCASTER COUNTY. 99 



province and territories lie devised to the earls of Oxford, Mortimer and 

 Pawlet, in trust, to sell to tlie queen, or any other person. His estate in 

 the soil he devised to other trustees, in trust, to sell so much as should 

 be necessary for the payment of his debts; to assign to his daughter 

 Letitia, and the three children of his son William, ten thousand acres 

 each, and to convey the remainder, at the discretion of his widow, to her 

 children, subject to an annuity to herself of three hundred pounds ster- 

 ling per annum. He appointed her sole executrix and legatee of his 

 personal estate. 



Three questions arose on his devise of the government: 1, AVhether 

 it was valid against tlie heir-at-law, who claimed by descent? 2, Whether 

 the object of the trust had not been already effected, by the contract of 

 the proprietary with the queen? 3, Whether, by consequence, his in- 

 terest was not converted into personality ? In which case it passed in 

 absolute property to the widow. From their doubts on these points, the 

 trustees refused to act, unless under a decree of the court of chancery, 

 whose interposition was also required by the commissioners of the 

 treasury, before payment of the balance due on the purchase, to the 

 executrix. A suit in this court was accordingly instituted, which kept 

 the family property in a state of great uncertainty for many years; 

 during which Mrs. Penn, as executrix and trustee, assumed the superin- 

 tendence of provincial affairs. In the year 1727, the family disputes, the 

 proprietary's will having been established in the exchequer, were compro- 

 mised ; and the crown lawyers and ministry concurring in opinion, that the 

 proprietary's agreement was void, from his inability to make a proper sur- 

 render of the government, it devolved, on the death of William Penn the 

 younger and his son Springett, to John, Thomas and Eichard Penn." 



The almost unbounded confidence of the province in Keith enabled 

 him [1720] to establish two measures hitherto repugnant to the Assem- 

 bly ;^ an equity court, dependent on the Governor's will, of which he Avas 

 chancellor, and a militia organized by like authority. 



The great influx of foreigners alarmed the Assembly who dreaded their 

 settlement on the frontier.^ Attempts to naturalize them were treated 

 with coldness. Even the Germans, whose industry and utility were pro- 

 verbial, could not remove the prevailing jealousy. Many palatines, long 

 resident in the province, applied for naturalization in 1721, but not until 

 1724 was leave granted to bring in a bill, provided they should individu- 

 ally obtain from a justice of the peace a certificate of the value of their 

 property and nature of their religious faith. A bill to that effect pre- 

 sented to the Governor in the following year, was forthwith returned by 

 him on the ground that in a country where English liberty and law pre- 

 vailed, a scrutiny into the private conversation and faith of the citizens,, 

 i..oi v/. 1 Gordon. 



