The Colonial History to the War of the Revolution

The only hamlet in Pennsylvania which had received a distinctive name that was known to persons in England at the time Penn acquired title to the territory was Upland, and that that had done so was doubtless due to the fact that Robert Wade had already made it his home. He being a Friend in communication with members of that religious sect in the mother-country, that circumstance directed the attention of the Quakers, "a society," says Acrelius, "that the realm could well spare," to the little cluster of rudely-fashioned dwellings on the banks of the Delaware. Hence Friends (whom, fortunately for the United States, could be spared from Europe to plant on this continent those seeds of political truths and religious liberty which, germinating, have grown into a nation on the maintenance of which the future continuance of constitutional representative government on the earth largely depends), or Quakers, as popularly known, desiring to flee from persecution and ignominy at home, gladly availed themselves of the liberal conditions which Penn offered to persons anxious to leave England, and particularly did the latter meet the approval of those people whose poverty had been largely produced by reason of the heavy fines imposed on them simply because of the religious sentiments they maintained. That Penn originally intended to locate his proposed capital city at Upland can hardly be questioned, for his instructions to his commissioners, Crispin, Bezer, and Allen, particularly directing them "that the creeks should be sounded on my side of the Delaware River, especially Upland, in order to settle a great toune," will bear no other legitimate construction. That this was his purpose is evident from all the surrounding circumstances, and he only abandoned it when he learned that Lord Baltimore, by actual observation, had discovered that the site of the hamlet was in the debatable land as to ownership. That the proprietary, after he bad been informed of Lord Baltimore's persistent claims, had resolved to build a city farther up the river, before he first came to his province, will not admit of doubt; hence the result of the visit of William Penn to James Sandelands, mentioned as having taken place almost as soon as the former landed at Upland, when it was "talkt among the people that it was with Intent to have built a City" at that place, "but that he and Sanderlin could not agree,"¹ may perchance have interfered with some proposed improvement at the old Swedish settlement, but even had Sandelands assented to all that Penn may have required, it would not have eventuated in locating the contemplated "great town" at that point.² Under the circumstances the risks, owing to the disputed ownership of that part of his territory, were too great for Penn to assume.

² Latrobe's "History of Mason and Dixon's Line."

Martin informs us on the authority of Mrs. Sarah Shoemaker, aged ninety-two years, who died in Chester in 1825, and who had heard her grandfather, James Lownes, often speak of the times of which I am now writing, that during the winter of 1682-83, Upland presented a very animated appearance. It was the only place then in the province, as stated, known to English ship-owners, and consequently, as the destination of all vessels was this port, most of the emigrants landed here, and several ships often rode at anchor at the same time off the hamlet. It is said that the water was deep near the western shore, and vessels could approach so closely to land that the trees would often brush their upper rigging.

The great influx of emigrants in the hamlet caused nearly every dwelling in it to be a house of entertainment, and as the people of that day, in the majority of instances, used beer instead of tea or coffee, that fact may account for the number of presentments by the