1681.] HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. 129 



business, composed of Justices, Sheriff, and (Jlerk, holding their 

 jippointmcnts under him; and on the 80th of November the 

 Deputy Governor liimself presiding over the same court." 



Governor Markham was the bearer of a letter, dated two days 

 earlier than his commission, from William Penn, "for the inhab- 

 itants of Pennsylvania," which he was directed to read. In 

 this letter the proprietor promises his people that they shall be 

 governed by laws of their own making; that he will n<Jt u^urp 

 the rights of any, nor oppress his person; and in short, that he 

 would heartily comjjly with whatever sober and free men could 

 reasonably desire for the security and improvement of their own 

 happiness. This letter is in the well-known hand of William 

 Penn.2 



The commission to Col. Markham empowers him '' to call a 

 council, and that to consist of nine, he presiding." In pursuance 

 of this authority, he selected for that important trust Robert 

 Wade^ Morgan Drewet, Wm. Woodmanson, William Marriner, 

 Thomas Ffairman, James Sandelandes, Will. Clayton, Otto Ernest 

 Koch and Lacy Cock. Unfortunately, no part of the record of 

 the doings of this council has come down to us, except their 

 attestation, in which they say, " wee do hereby bind ourselves by 

 our hands and scales, that wee neither act nor advise, nor con- 

 sent, unto anything that shall not be according to our own con- 

 sciences the best for y" true and well Government of the s*" Pro- 

 vince, and Likewise to keep secret all y" votes and acts of us y* 

 s*" Councell unless such as by the General Consent of us are to 

 be Published. "■■' This attestation is " Dated at Vpland y' third 

 day of August 1681," the day on which a government was first 

 established for the province 'of Pennsylvania. Upland was un- 

 doubtedly the seat of that government. 



These gentlemen councillors omitted to append their ^'- seales" 

 to their signatures, and two of them did not write their own 

 names. 



Colonel Markham also bore a letter from the King to Lord 

 Baltimore, apprising him of the grant of Pennsylvania to Penn. 

 Being authorized by his commission "to settle bounds" between 

 the Proprietary and his neighbors; and as it is said the King's 

 letter rec^uired both parties to adjust boundaries, *an interview was 

 brought about between Lord Baltimore and Markham at Upland. 

 By an astronomical observation made during this interview, it 

 was ascertained that even Upland itself was twelve miles south 

 of the parallel of 40 degrees, which indicated the southern 



I The early records of this Court, which had become much worn, and were difficult 

 to decipher, have been carefully copied, and are now preserved in the office of the 

 Clerk of the Court of Quarter Sessions, at West Chester. 



'^ Haz. Reg. i. 377. ' Penna. Archives, i. 37. 



* Haz. Ann. 505, who quotes Chalmers 657, and MoMahon's Maryland. 



9 



