A Philadelphia Story. Lori Litchman

      Painter Benjamin West’s take on Penn’s treaty with the Lenni Lenape

      (Via Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

      One of Penn’s greatest contributions to both his growing colony and an infant nation came in the form of a democratic system of government, elements of which would find their way into the foundational documents of the United States. He saw the incorporation of this system of government into his new colony as part of God’s plan for humanity. He gave all men—but not slaves or women—the right to vote. At the time, England allowed only property owners to vote, so Penn certainly increased citizen participation, but voting rights for African Americans and women would come at a much later point in history.

      Penn went on to create and implement the Charter of Privileges in October 1701. This charter was a constitution for Penn’s colony that would later help lay the groundwork for the government of the United States. One of the key features of the charter was the creation of an assembly that could create bills, instead of merely accepting or rejecting bills from the governor and his council. The charter also included the election of representatives and a separation of powers.

      The Charter of Privileges would remain the law of the land in Pennsylvania until the dawn of the Revolutionary War in 1776. To celebrate the charter’s 50th anniversary, a bell was created in 1751 to mark the occasion. The bell weighed 2,080 pounds and was cast of copper. The following words were inscribed on the bell: PROCLAIM LIBERTY THROUGHOUT THE LAND UNTO ALL THE INHABITANTS THEREOF. That bell became known as the Liberty Bell and is housed at Independence National Historical Park, located in today’s neighborhood of Old City.

      Equality was vital to Penn’s Holy Experiment, and he ensured that people could freely practice whatever religion they chose. Many people who came to Pennsylvania were fleeing an inhospitable religious environment in Europe. And even though women could not vote, Penn saw equal education an imperative element to his society and provided schooling to both boys and girls.

      The Liberty Bell with Independence Hall in the background

      (Photo: Dave Tavani)

      The Grid System Is Born

      HAVING LIVED IN LONDON and seen the destruction that disease and fire could wreak on a city, Penn wanted his city to be safe. He hired Captain Thomas Holme to be his surveyor, and after scouting out the territory, Holme chose to lay out the city about a mile from the Delaware River, from today’s South Street to Vine Street. According to historian Russell Frank Weigley, the area was a hardwood forest covered in oak, black walnut, chestnut, cypress, hickory, beech, and elm. When Penn arrived, however, he felt that the area Holme had chosen was too small, so Penn moved his city westward. Penn decided that his Philadelphia should be situated between the Delaware and the Schuylkill Rivers, so he bought a mile of land along the Schuylkill. Philadelphia would be a total of 1,200 acres and would be 1 mile wide and 2 miles long.

      Penn’s early vision for his “greene countrie towne” was to create large swaths of land for each purchaser. He imagined that each property would contain “gardens, orchards, and fields” and would be 800 feet apart from the neighboring lot. In his revised plan in 1682, Penn created somewhat smaller lots and laid them out in a rectangle. He reserved parcels of land to the north and west of Philadelphia (today’s North and West Philadelphia) and called those areas “liberty lands.” Penn originally intended to build a home for himself in today’s Fairmount section of the city, overlooking the Schuylkill River, but he would later decide to build his homestead, Pennsbury Manor, in what is now Bucks County.

      Thomas Holme’s original layout of Philadelphia, 1683

      (Via Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

      Holme drew up Penn’s plan, which would later become known as a grid system. Both High Street (today’s Market Street) and Broad Street would be 100 feet wide and intersected by east–west running streets. Penn named those streets after trees: Cedar (today’s South Street), Pine, Spruce, Walnut, Chestnut, Mulberry (today’s Arch Street), Sassafras (today’s Race Street), and Vine. The north–south streets were numbered, as they remain today.

      Penn also created space for four sections of land that would be designated as park space open to the public. Today, those parks are known as Franklin Square, Logan Circle, Rittenhouse Square, and Washington Square. Penn designated the home of the city’s current City Hall as the center of town and home to the Quaker meetinghouse, school, market, and state center. With that, the grid system for cities was born, and as urban areas developed across the country, they would often use Penn’s system as a blueprint.

      Short Stay

      PENN’S FIRST STAY IN THE NEW WORLD was a short one, lasting less than two years. After acquiring Pennsylvania, Penn would spend a great deal of time battling with Lord Baltimore over boundaries. Lord Baltimore claimed that the southern portion of the state—which would have included Philadelphia—belonged to him. Penn met with Lord Baltimore in 1683 to try to settle the dispute of the southern border of the state, with no luck. In 1684, Penn received word that Lord Baltimore was headed back to England to try to establish the southern line of Pennsylvania, so Penn hopped on a boat and headed back to England to fight for his interests against Lord Baltimore. Penn was able to block a transfer of Pennsylvania’s land to Maryland, but he wasn’t able to get the crown to make a decision with regard to the southern border. In fact, the dispute over the southern border of Pennsylvania was not solved in Penn’s lifetime, but rather with the drawing of the Mason-Dixon Line in 1763.

      Rittenhouse Square was one of Philadelphia’s original town squares.

      (Photo: © M. Edlow/Visit Philadelphia)

      During his lifetime, Penn would have two wives and numerous children. His first wife, Gulielma Springett, died before she could make the journey overseas to visit her husband’s colony. She and Penn had eight children, three of whom survived childhood: Laetitia, Springett, and William Jr. Two years after Gulielma’s death in 1694, Penn married Hannah Callowhill, who was 25 years his junior. Together they had eight children, five of whom survived to adulthood: John, Thomas, Margaret, Richard, and Dennis. Only one of those children, John, was born in the New World: Born in 1700, he was nicknamed “The American.”

      After securing his property interests in the dispute with Lord Baltimore, Penn returned to Philadelphia in December 1699 with his new wife. When he returned to the colony, he brought with him his secretary, James Logan, who would become an integral part of the growth of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. During this visit, Penn chose to stay in his country home, Pennsbury Manor. Regardless of his views on freedom, Penn had slaves and allowed slavery in his colony and at his home. (Slavery came to Pennsylvania in the 1640s, thus it had already been established by the time that Penn arrived.) There isn’t much documented about Penn’s slaves, but several of them were named in the historical accounts of Pennsbury Manor, where they lived and served. The known names of Penn’s slaves were Sam, Sue, Yaff, Jack, and Peter.

      In 1701, Penn got word that the English Parliament was planning on reclaiming Pennsylvania, so he again boarded a ship and headed back to England to protect his land. He was able to keep Pennsylvania, but he had many financial

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