1681.] HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. 125 



During the year 1G80, William Penn had been perseveringly, 

 but successfully negotiating with King Charles the Second and 

 his ministers, for a grant of the territory that no^Y constitutes 

 our great Commonwealth. The only European settlements 

 comprised within its limits, were included in Upland county, and 

 were subject to the jurisdiction of Upland Court. Though Lord 

 Baltimore, the proprietor of Maryland, was aware of every step 

 taken by Penn to secure his grant, and, through his agents, in- 

 terposed objections, it is not probable that the people in- 

 cluded within the limits of the embryo Province, had the faintest 

 idea that they were about to be transferred from the iron rule of 

 the unscrupulous Duke of York, to the mild and peaceful Govern- 

 ment of the Quaker proprietor. The patent to Penn was exe- 

 cuted on the 4th of March, 1681, while the last Upland Court, 

 under the Duke of York, adjourned on the 14th of June, " till 

 y* 2* Teusday of y" month of September," — the very last act of 

 the Judges being the appointment of a Surveyor and Overseer 

 of the Highways from Poetquessing creek to the Falls of the 

 Delaware, (Trenton,) the furthest point to which settlements 

 had then been extended. 



Information of the grant to William Penn must have been 

 communicated officially to the Government at New York very 

 shortly after the adjournment of the last session of the Upland 

 Court. Governor Andros being absent, the King's letter on the 

 subject, addressed to the inhabitants within the limits of the 

 grant, was laid before Anthony Jjrockholl, the Commander, and 

 his Council, no doubt, by William Markham, who, at the same 

 time, submitted his commission from William Penn to be his 

 Deputy Governor of the Province. On the 21st of June, the 

 Commander and Council addressed a letter " To y^ severall 

 Justices of y^ Peace, magistraets and other officers inhabitting 

 w"'in y" bounds and limits" of the grant to Penn, notifying them 

 of the change in their Government, which letter was sent by 

 Col. Markham, who, no doubt, within a few days after the date 

 of the letter, reached his Government, and entered upon the 

 duties of his office. This letter is the last entry made in the 

 book containing the Record of the Upland Court. 



Before parting with this record, which throws so much light 

 on the history of the time during which it was made, and from 

 which I have drawn so liberally, it will be necessary to make 

 some general observations. 



The territorial jurisdiction of the Court, it will have been ob- 

 served, was very extensive. Except the provisional line that 

 separated it from New Castle County, its jurisdiction at first 

 extended to the last approaches that civilization had made on 

 the home of the savage. Subsequently its jurisdiction was 



