176 . HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. [1690. 



" S'"^ Whether you do believe it is your duty thus to proceed ? 

 they both answered — yes.'' 



"Friends said as Paul to the Church of the Romans — Chap. 

 14-1 — Him that is weak in the faith receive you, but not to 

 doubtful disputations." 



" Whereupon friends left them to proceed according to the 

 good order of truth, they having their parents consent thereunto." 



However much the people of England were benefited by the 

 accession of William and Mary to the Throne, to Penn the change 

 was the source of great trouble, serious disappointments, and, no 

 doubt, of pecuniary loss. From having been the friend and 

 favorite of the deposed monarch, James XL, he came to be a sus- 

 pected person under the new government ; and, without having 

 committed any offence, he was subjected to all the inconveniences 

 that suspicion brought upon its victims at this period of alarm 

 and distrust. He was arrested, held to bail, examined, dis- 

 charged, re-arrested and imprisoned ; and eventually driven into 

 retirement. But his private interests suifered most ; and parti- 

 cularly in having his matured arrangements for returning to 

 Pennsylvania frustrated. His interests here had been greatly 

 neglected, especially in the collection of quit-rents. As a con- 

 sequence, more stringent instructions for their collection became 

 necessary. 



The too rigid enforcement of these instructions gave rise to 

 dissatisfaction, which, in some instances, was not without reason. 

 This was particularly the case in the Welsh Tract, where the 

 Commissioners insisted that the purchasers within its limits 

 should pay the quit-rent on the whole 40,000 acres because it 

 had been surveyed, or that others than Welshmen should be 

 allowed to take up lands within the bounds of the Tract. 



The excuse offered by the Commissioners for this stretch of 

 their power, was the great damage the Proprietary had sustained 

 from the want of seating and improving the Welsh Tract, and 

 " the loss and hindrance to the well seating and strengthening 

 the province." These allegations were destitute of truth, for up 

 to this period the legitimate settlements within the Welsh Tract 

 had progressed as rapidly as in other directions ; and notwith- 

 standing the Commissioners, upon the refusal of the Welshmen 

 to pay quit-rent on the whole Tract, granted patents to others 

 within its bounds, the immigration from Wales was sufficiently 

 rapid to substantially settle the whole territory allotted to them 

 by Penn, as early as the adjoining districts were peopled. 



The pathetic appeal made by Griffith Owen and other inhabi- 

 tants of the Welsh Tract against the unwarrantable proceedings 

 of the Commissioners is worthy of particular notice, as it fully 

 explains the peculiar kind of community our Welsh ancestors 



