130 HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. [1681. 



boundary of Pennsylvania. This discovery terminated the con- 

 ference, and was the prelude to the protracted controversy 

 between Penn and Lord Baltimore and their descendants, which 

 at length resulted in the line of Mason and Dixon — a line, that 

 for its notoriety has been compared by a late writer to the 

 Equator.^ 



This discovery, it is supposed, was communicated to William 

 Penn, and he having been an applicant to the Duke of York for 

 a grant of Newcastle and the settlements below on the Delaware, 

 was thereby induced to press his application more strenuously, 

 under the apprehension that he might loose the whole peninsula, 

 in case of failure. On the 20th of August of the following year, 

 Penn obtained from the Duke a release of all claim to the terri- 

 tory embraced within the limits of his patent, and, subsequently, 

 a release of the territory now constituting the State of Dela- 

 ware.^ 



With the royal charter, Penn published in England some 

 account of his newly acquired Province, with valuable sugges- 

 tions and information necessary for persons disposed to become 

 colonists under him. This paper is drawn up with much care 

 and truthfulness. Much of it is taken up in demonstrating the 

 importance of plantations or colonies to the mother country. 

 The description of the Province is brief, and by no means ex- 

 aggerated ; valuable directions are given to those who determine 

 to emigrate, and he concludes with a desire to all who may de- 

 termine to go to those parts, "to consider seriously the premises, 

 as well as the present inconveniences, as future ease and plenty, 

 that none may move rashly, or from fickle, but solid mind, having 

 above all things an eye to the providence of God in the disposal 

 of themselves.''^ 



While the public mind in England, particularly the Quaker 

 element of it, was thus directed to the new Province, Governor 

 Markham was administering affairs here very much after the 

 fashion that had heretofore prevailed. He appears to have been 

 indisposed to make any unnecessary innovations on the esta- 

 blished order of things. It has already been mentioned that the 

 first Court under the new government was held on the day to 

 which the last session of the former Court had adjourned. The 

 first session of the new Court was not, however, at " the towne of 

 Kingsesse," but at Upland, where, no doubt. Governor Mark- 

 ham had fixed his residence. The Justices of this Court were 



1 Latrobe's Address before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, p. 1. 



^ Proud, i. 200, 202. It does not appear that the Duke of York, afterwards James 

 II., ever held any territory west of the Delaware by a positive grant. He seems to 

 have extended his government over it rather as a matter of convenience to the British 

 Crown. 



3 Haz. Reg. i. 308. 



