20 HISTOKT OP 



Pennsylvania, was made acquainted with the country, it 

 will be necessary to briefly notice a train of circum- 

 stances which led to results of so much magnitude to the 

 world, as the colonization of Pennsylvania — "the asy- 

 lum of the oppressed.'^ 



In or about the year 1675, says Proud, Lord Berkeley 

 sold his half of the province of New Jersey to a person 

 named John Fenwick, in trust for Edward Byllinge, and 

 his assigns, in consequence of which the former, this 

 year, arrived with a number of passengers, in a ship 

 called Griffith, from London, on a visit to his new pur- 

 chase. He landed at a place, in West Jersey, situated 

 upon a creek, or small river, which runs into the river 

 Delaware; to which place he gave the name Salem; a 

 name which both the place and creek still retain. This 

 was the first English ship which came to West Jersey; 

 and it was near two years before any more followed. — 

 This long interval is supposed to have been occasioned 

 by a disagreement between Fenwick and Byllinge; 

 which was at last composed by the kind offices of Wil- 

 liam Penn. 



Byllinge, having been reduced in circumstances, had 

 agreed to present his interest in New Jersey to his cred- 

 itors, by whose entreaty and importunity William Penn, 

 though, it is said, with reluctance, was prevailed upon to 

 become joint trustee with two of them,Gawen Lawrie,of 

 London, and Nicholas Lucas, of Hertford, for the manage- 

 ment thereof. These he invested with his own moiety of 

 the province ; it being all his remainmg fortune, for the sat- 

 isfaction of his creditors. Hence William Penn became 

 one of the chief instruments in settling West New Jer- 

 sey; and thereby acquired a knowledge of the adjacent 

 country of Peimsylvania, before it had that name, oi 



