Sharp County record., 1885-05-28
WILLIAM PENN'S RAPACITY

example OF the cases winch nave made
every lawyer of prominence in New
Jersey an antiquarian, with all sorts Of
curious facts at his fingers ends. Ex.
Attorney General Robert Gilchrist en-.
caged in the fishery case in 1873, and
he has been associated with Cortland
Parker, John P Stockton, ex-Secretary
FrelinghuySen and others in its dis.
cusslon, and Secretary Bayard has
championed the claims of Delaware.
Mr.. Gilchrist's connection with the case
has made him curiously familiar with
the times of Charles III. and with the
pecularities of the Duke of York and
that liable politician" William Penn.
who seems to have been successful in
getting almost anything he wanted
from the Duke until the latter ran away
from Whitehall and threw his great seal
as James H. into the River Thames
One of the strange phases of the Della.
ware claim to exclusive privileges on
the River Delaware and Delaware Bay
is that its people, or some of them,
fought the claim a hundred years ago
and up to near the beginning of the
present century repudiated the guileful
Ouaker's claims. Mr.. Penn was a
grantee under the Duke of York as a
Jerseyman, and a claimant from the
same source in Delaware and Pennsyl.
vana. The Jersey grant, in l663-64, re-
newed after the Dutch defeat in
1874. was made to Penn among
Others, and the claim for Delaware was
subsequent to and inconsistent with
this. New Jerseys titles to land were
confirmed in 1902 and by the Revolution
Delaware's claim to the fishing priv.
leges and to the right to keep Jersey
men from the waters of the river date
back to 1882 William Penn had OBJ
tanned the grant of Pennsylvania, but
when he arrived he found ten SwedeS
in Delaware occupying the fair water
front. He fixed lustful eyes upon the
place, and at length got grant from
the Duke of York for the town of New
castle and all that lay within a twelve
mile circle thereof. The Duke, unfOrt-
unatelv for Penn, had no right to make
that grant, his brother, King Charles
having never given it to him. Penn
evidently understood the deficiency in
the Grant, for when the Duke became
KinG he cot his deed redrawn, and it
passed through the preliminary stages
and needed only the Kings great seal
Just at this juncture King James
thought London was getting too hot Tor
him and ran away. 1t is recorded in
an ancient chronicle that "duringan an
llnguarded moment that able politician,
Penn. confessed to the Board Of Trade
that had King James remained two
days longer at Whitehall he would have
obtained a grant under the great seal
| for the three counties of Delaware. In
| 1908 the Delaware Assembly knew that
Penn had clan on the counties, but
denied its leg timacy, and before that
the King and council had repudiated it.
| There was a war over the possession IN
! 1897 between Lord Baltimore S men and
the Penn tenants, and again the council
decided that the province belonged TO
the crown; and in 1884 the people OIL
Delaware themselves formally, at
popular election, decided that the crown
| hal possessed the State until It's. clam
had been trans erred by the Revout on.
1t has seemed strange, therefore, that
the Penn grant should be made the basis
for claim in the river, which had been'
in fact always possessed by the crown
or general governmental fact the Dela'
wareans had used violence to maintain
The Penn grant, which was never
really granted, has therefore been
subject of dispute for just two hundred
and two years. Rejected at first by tne
residents Of the colony, admitted tooe
void, fought by Lord Baltimore win .
drawn swords, " fretfully alluded to9
source of trouble by the Delaware
Assembly one hundred and fltty years
ago, formally repudiated by the king
and Council rejected again by the De-
awareans, further invalidated by tn'
Revolution, it might have been consul.
cred as dead as the willy Penn h msel
it had not come forth as an areumen'
upon the question of who owned les Lea
Patch Island in the Delaware RiverforV
years ago, and had not then been nn, 1ls,
| understood and mis- construed so VIZ"
| Delaware was able to lay some clam"
its genuineness, and, a few years aSS,
| set up that it was, as heir 10 1enn
privileges, the sole possessor OF lat%; llt;n
dction over the Delaware River Wi'an aa
twelve miles of Newcastle, and has Wv
right to make Jerseymen pay ncen,Si n
for fishing therein. An injunction t;nsd u
the United States Courts has sustalnHTs Nv
operation since, and is admitted 10 ,Or w
effective still. The end is not yet' Is ~,
the case is not fully adjusted. 1t all9iGs. h;s.
at least, glimpse of early colonial Io.t ~. y
tory which is not without lrtel0s'
Trenton (M J.) Cor. NJ y Ir70a"S