Evening journal., 1893-02-06
THE ORIGINAL CHARTER FOUND.


The Genuine Land Grant OF Charles III
u william Penn Claimed to be Possess-
ed by a New Yorker-Bogus "Origi-
mails" Recalled.
The long missing original charter
from King Charles II to William Penn
for the State of Pennsylvania and the
Province Of Delaware, for which the
state historians and hunters Of archives
have been fruitlessly searching for years,
has seemingly turned up to the light at
asst among the papers Of a New Yorker
j. 5. Richardson. Mr. Richardson ex-
plains that 1t came into his possession
'as direct lineal descendant of an old
Delaware family Of Quaker stock, who
came over with William Penn in 1882
A much treasured document au Harris
burg was for many years passed off as
the original charter, and in 1878 a
fac-simile of it was published in
the second series Of PENNSYLVANIA
Archives" The beautifully illumina-
ted, illustrated and rubricnted docu
ment, as critic Immediately pointed
out, was but a copy made more than
year after the date of the original char
ter. Moreover, IL is not copy Of the
charter, as it ultimately passed the Great
Seal, but merely copy of the record of
the charter rs it passed the Priyy Seal "
ltis this seal that Sculptor Caldwell copied
for his colossal statue Of Penn, thereby
drawing down upon his head the indiqna
tion Of Director Charles Henry Hart. of
the Academy of the Fine Arts Part Of
the great seal of the Province OF New
York during the reign Of George Ii was
afterward actually published as a por-
tion Of the waxen seal of the Penn char
ter.
1t has always been a mystery how even
the copy Of the original charter came
into the possession Of the state at Harris
burg. According to letter written BY
Doctor Mease from this city to Governor
Snyder, January 90, 1912, "Mr. John r.
Coates, OF this city agent of the Penn
estates in this country, brought with
him two years since from London the
original charter of Charles the Second
and the Duke of York to William Penn
which, upon my suggestion, he was will
ing to deposit in the archives of the
state" under certain conditions As
Lawyer John William Wallace later de
clared "Mr Coates got possession of
them on q visit to his principals in Eng.
land. Being at their seat Of Stoke Pogis.
he was shown by them into the charter
room of their house, where he was
told he might find some old deeds etc.
that would interest him as an American.
and to which he was welcome
This original charter of the state was
still in the possession of the representa-
tives of the Penns as late as 1914. and
had not been handed over to the state
authorities, as seen by letter written
to Thomas G Hambly, of York, November
3 Of that year, by John Cadwalader.
legal adviser for the Penn family, and
their agents. He transmitted to him.
among other title papers, the Charter
to w. Penn, 1851, for use as evidence in
eiectment CT other suit, according to the
custom of that time That practice of
sending the Penn title papers into the
back counties, led William Brooke Rawle
recently to query "Can it be that tie
charter is still reposing quietly among
the papers of some old-time lawyer. or
in the dusty files Of some prothonotary
officer
Some years before, when Mr.. Rawle
became the agent for the Penn estates
he searched the box Of title papers find.
ing only Cadwalader's letter, and not
the charter
In view Of Mr.. Richardson's announce.
ment two theories now arise. One is
that he has secured their identical his
torical document, once held by Cadwal- |
ader, or that that was only copy after
all, and passed by some means into the
Harrisburg archives, while the original
was held by Mr.. Richardson's ancestor
The mystery OF the state copy perplexes
the clearness Of title of the New Workers
document. Philadelphia Record.
How She Saved Money.