Abstract
On December 14, 1763, a band of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians1 rode into Conestoga Manor, near the town of Paxton on the frontier of Pennsylvania, and murdered six Indians who were living under the protection of the Quaker controlled colonial government. Two weeks later the Paxton Boys, as they were called, descended on the Lancaster work house and killed the remaining fourteen Conestoga Indians who had been housed there for safety. Early in February about two hundred of the frontiersmen, armed, marched on Philadelphia. The Philadelphians, fearful and angry, promptly organized militia companies and prepared to defend the city. In an effort to prevent bloodshed the colonial authorities sent Franklin and others to negotiate with the Paxton Boys. The negotiators were successful; they promised that, if the Paxtonians would write a statement of grievances and return home, the governor and assembly would give serious consideration to the redress of those grievances. This the Paxton Boys did. Thereupon, having gotten rid of the rebels, the governor and assembly let the matter drop. This was the Paxton Rebellion.
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References
W. Roy Smith, “Sectionalism in Pennsylvania During the Revolution,” Political Science Quarterly, XXIV (1909), p. 211.
Charles H. Lincoln, The Revolutionary Movement in Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1901), pp. 42–46.
See Brooke Hindle, “The March of the Paxton Boys,” The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd. ser., III (1946), p. 463, where Hindle shows that if representation were based on the number of taxables the western counties would have 22 members in the assembly and the eastern 23. See, also, Lincoln, p. 47.
Lincoln, pp. 46–47.
See William Robert Shepherd, History of Proprietary Government in Pennsylvania (New York, 1896), pp. 439–469
Winfred Trexler Root, The Relations of Pennsylvania with the British Government, 1696–1765(New York, 1912), pp. 210–216.
Wayland F. Dunaway, A History of Pennsylvania (New York, 1948), pp. 250–253.
Lincoln, pp. 105 and 108.
Lincoln has pointed out that “as the war continued this sentiment of anger changed to one of suspicion that the dominant party in the Assembly was not acting honestly by the colony. By 1764 it was openly charged that the real object of the commercial ring in control of colonial politics had been to remain on good terms with the Indians that trade relations might not be disturbed.” See p. 108.
William Penn: 1644–1718. Founder of Pennsylvania ; great Quaker leader and statesman ; resided in the colony 1682–1684 and 1699–1701.
Hannah Penn: 1670–1726/27. Second wife of Penn. After his death and during the minority of her children, she served as sole executrix.
With the exception of 40,000 acres, Penn’s American estate was left to his sons by his second wife. They were John Penn: 1700–1746; Thomas Penn: 1702–1775; and Richard Penn: 1705/06–1771. The last named was the father of John Penn, governor of Pennsylvania during the Paxton trouble.
James Logan: 1674–1751. Statesman. Game to Pennsylvania in 1699 as William Penn’s secretary; served as business agent for the Penns; was a member of the provincial council from 1702 to 1747, chief justice of the supreme court from 1731 to 1739, and, after the death of governor Gordon in 1736, acted as governor for two years.
Sir George Thomas: 1705–1775. Governor of Pennsylvania, 1738–1747.
Dunaway, pp. 89–92.
James Hamilton: 1710–1783. Governor of Pennsylvania, 1748–1754 and 1759–1763 ; acting governor from July 19 to August 30, 1773.
Dunaway, pp. 94–98.
Lincoln, p. 105. Lincoln quotes Franklin to the effect “that the government instead of ‘garrisoning the forts on the frontiers ... to prevent incursions’ had demolished those forts and ordered the troops into the heart of the country, that the savages may be encouraged to attack the frontiers and that the troops may be protected by the inhabitants.’ “
Ibid., p. 105.
Guy Soulliard Klett, Presbyterians in Colonial Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, 1937), p. 246.
See G. Hale Sipe, The Indian Wars of Pennsylvania (Harrisburg, 1929), pp. 204–275: October 16, at Perm’s Greek twenty-five to twenty-eight Germans were killed, scalped, or carried away; October 31 to November 3, forty-seven settlers were killed and captured and a settlement wiped out in an attack on Great and Little Coves; November 14 to 16, nine whites were killed and three captured at Swarara and Tulpehocken; November 24, eleven Moravian missionaries were murdered at Gnadenhuetten. Similar killings and depredations continued in 1756. January 15, eight whites and several friendly Indians were killed near Schupp’s Mill; at the end of January about twenty settlers were killed and fifteen captured in Juniata and Perry counties; February 14, eleven Germans were killed in Berks county; April 1, Fort McGord, a private fort, was burned and twenty-seven whites were killed or captured. I have listed only a few of the Indian attacks recorded by Sipe.
Ibid., p. 275.
Klett, p. 248.
John Elder: 1706–1792. Clergyman. Studied for the ministry in Edinburgh; about 1736 emigrated and settled near Harrisburg; installed over the churches of Paxton and Derry in 1738; remained in that relationship to the Paxton church until his death.
Richard Peters: 1704–1776. Clergyman. Educated at Oxford and Leyden; took orders in the Church of England; came to the colonies about 1735; became secretary to the land office, secretary to a succession of governors, and a member of the provincial council until his death.
Pennsylvania Colonial Records, VI, pp. 704–705.
Ibid., p. 705.
“From the very beginning of the struggle Presbyterian ministers played an active part in the organizing of companies for purposes of defense. The Reverend John Elder, known as ‘the fighting parson,’ the Reverend John Steel, and the Reverend Andrew Bay were active in Lancaster, Cumberland, and York counties respectively, in the defense of the frontier.” See Klett, p. 247.
Robert Hunter Morris: 1700?-1764. Governor of Pennsylvania, 1754–1756.
Howard M.Jenkins, ed., Pennsylvania: Colonial and Federal (Philadelphia, 1903), I, p. 442.
Col.Rec.,Vl,p. 521.
Jenkins, pp. 448–449.
John F. Watson, Annals of Philadelphia, Being a Collection of Memoirs, Anecdotes & Incidents of the City and Its Inhabitants from the Days of the Pilgrim Founders (Philadelphia, 1830), p. 449.
Pennsylvania Archives, 8th. ser., V, pp. 4111–4112.
Col. Rec., VI, p. 682.
Ibid., pp. 702–703.
Ibid., pp. 707–710.
Ibid., p. 724.
Ibid., pp. 730–733 and pp. 737–738. Thomas Penn wished this to be considered as an outright gift and as not having anything to do with the problem of the taxation of the proprietary estates, but the colonial authorities assumed otherwise.
Ibid., VII, pp. 78–79.
Jenkins, p. 451.
Henry Jones Ford, The Scotch-Irish in America (Princeton, 1915),pp. 304–305.
The bounties were as follows: For every male Indian prisoner above 10 years, $ 150; for every female Indian over 10 years or male under 10, $ 130; for the scalp of every male Indian above 10 years, $ 130; and for the scalp of every Indian woman, $ 50. See Col. Rec., VII, pp. 78–79.
Samuel Powell, Anthony Morris, Israel Pemberton, John Reynell, John Smith, and Samuel Preston Moore.
Col. Rec., VII, pp. 84–86.
Ibid., p. 83 and see Jenkins, p. 452, where he points out that “ten members came, of whom all but three had been brought up as Quakers, and all but four still considered themselves such: yet all except Logan agreed to war without delay.”
Col. Rec., VII, pp. 83–84.
Ibid., pp. 88–90.
On April 13 the governor told the council he had received letters from Lancaster to this effect. This was not the first of such warnings: in November of the preceding year Governor Morris had read to the council a letter from Colonel William Moore “advising him of 2,000 Inhabitants preparing to come to Philadelphia from Chester County, to compel the Governor and Assembly to agree to pass Laws to defend the Country and oppose the Enemy . . . Also a Letter from Mr. Weiser to the same purpose of another considerable number from Berks County.” See Col. Rec., VII, p. 87 and VI, p. 729. The march of the Paxton Boys on Philadelphia in 1764 was not so much the carrying out of a new idea as it was the physical expression of an old habit of mind-direct action.
Sharpless called this declaration of war “the final act which drove the Quakers from the Assembly.” See Isaac Sharpless, A Quaker Experiment in Government, (Philadelphia, 1898), pp. 180–181. But he pointed out that “the ‘Quaker Party,’ however, did not die. Under new leaders, and supported by the same voters, it controlled the province till the Revolution in 1776 threw down all the old lines.”
See Rufus M. Jones, assisted by Isaac Sharpless, and Amelia M. Gummere, The Quakers in the American Colonies (London, 1911), p. 493.
Jenkins, p. 455.
Ibid., p. 455.
According to Sharpless, the English Quakers (such men as Dr. Samuel Fothergill and David Barclay) and the delegation from the London Yearly Meeting sent over to urge the withdrawal from the assembly found matters ripe for their purpose. “The votes for warlike defence, imposing a tax which some of their members could not conscientiously pay, were too much like temporising to suit the Quaker regard for plain dealing. They urged their brethren to withdraw from a government which involved such inconsistency. . . . Thus ended in 1756 the Quaker régime. They could not carry on a state at war. Had they had executive control they would have pacified the Indians as they did privately a few years later.” See Jones, Quakers, PP- 492–493.
Sharplesss Quaker Experiment, pp. 223–224.
Sharpless, A History of Government in Pennsylvania: Volume Two, The Quakers in the Revolution (Philadelphia 1899), p. 25.
George A. Cribbs, “The Frontier Policy of Pennsylvania,” Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, II (1919), pp. 75–76.
Rayner Wickersham Kelsey, Friends and the Indians, 1655–1917 (Philadelphia, 1917),p. 67.
Sir William Johnson: 1715–1774. Commissioner for New York for Indian affairs, 1746 ; colonial agent and superintendent of the affairs of the Six Nations and other northern Indians from 1756 until his death.
Jenkins, p. 457.
John Armstrong: 1725–1795. Soldier. Served in France in 1755–56; commanded an expedition against the Indians at Kittanning and destroyed their settlement and captured their stores; was later a brigadier-general in the continental army and a member of Congress.
Sipe, p. 311.
Nevertheless, John Elder could write to Richard Peters from Paxton, July 30, 1757, of the need for a garrison to encourage “the Inhabitants to continue in their Places,” and thus “prevent the weakening of the frontier Settlements ...” He added: “It’s well known that Representations from the back Inhabitants have but little weight with the Gentlem11 in power, they looking on us either as uncapable of forming just notions of things, or as biass’d by Selfish Views.” Elder wrote to Peters because he was convinced Peters had “more favourable conceptions of us.” See Pennsylvania Archives, III, p. 251.
Klett, p. 251.
Edward Shippen: 1703–1781. Business man. Moved to Lancaster in 1752 where he was appointed prothonotary, a position he held until 1778; served as a county judge under both provincial and state governments.
Joseph Shippen: 1732–1810. Lawyer and governmental official. Graduated from Princeton in 1753 ; served as a colonel in the Provincial Army; in 1762 succeeded Richard Peters as Secretary of the Province and served in this office until the Revolution ; moved to Lancaster in 1789 where he became judge of the county court.
George Groghan: ?-1782. Indian trader. Settled near Harrisburg; in 1756 was made deputy Indian agent for the Pennsylvania and Ohio Indians by Sir William Johnson; gave valuable service in Indian relations all his life.
Presumably Jeffrey Amherst: 1717–1797. Began his American career as major general in Ganada; in 1760 appointed governor-general of the British possessions in America and proved unable to deal with the Indian problem; in 1763 became governor of Virginia; in 1776 was raised to the peerage.
American Philosophical Society, Shippen Papers, Folder 314, Edward Shippen to Joseph Shippen, Lancaster, June 6, 1763.
Ibid., Folder 315, Edward Shippen to Joseph Shippen, Lancaster, June 13, 1763.
Sipe, pp. 414–438.
“The number of refugees gathered about the forts of Shippensburg in July, 1763, is computed at 1, 384: 301 men, 345 women and 738 children. Every shed, barn or possible place of shelter was crowded with people who had been driven from their homesteads, losing their live stock and harvests and reduced to beggary.” See Ford, p. 306.
Shippen Papers, Folder 314, Edward Shippen to Joseph Shippen, Lancaster, July 21, 1763.
Ibid., Edward Shippen to Joseph Shippen, Lancaster, July 30, 1763.
See Sipe, pp.. 450–463: September 8 to 10, sixteen whites were killed or captured in Berks County; October 8, twenty-three whites were killed in Northampton County; October 9, eight settlers were murdered in Lehigh County; October 15, nearly twenty were killed in the first massacre at Wyoming. I have listed only a few of the massacres, there were many more.
Benjamin J. Wallace, “The Insurrection of the Paxton Boys,” The Presbyterian Review, VIII (1859–1860), p. 653.
Col. Rec., IX, p. 36. See the remarks of W. T. Root upon this action of the assembly: “It is evident that a large majority of the members of the assembly, who lived in the east free from Indian attacks, were alive only to their own security and felt a gross indifference to the needs of the people of the west.” Root, Relations of Pennsylvania, p. 326.
Col. Rec., IX, pp. 42–43.
Ibid., p. 62: “ . . . but I cannot help repeating my Surprize at the infatuation of the People in your Province, who tamely look on while their Brethren are butchered by the Savages, when, without doubt, it is in their Power by exerting a proper Spirit, not only to protect the Settlements, but to punish any Indians that are hardy enough to disturb them.” Amherst to Hamilton, October 16, 1763. See also the letter of the Earl of Halifax, written October 19, 1763; received January 9, 1764, p. 36 of this introduction.
The Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania, VI (1759–1765), pp. 311 – 319.
Col. Rec., IX, pp. 74–75. Amherst’s order was dated November 5, 1763.
Root, p. 327.
John Penn: 1729–1795. Governor of Pennsylvania, 1763–1771 and 1773–1776; grand son of the founder, William Penn.
Root, p. 328.
Henry Bouquet: 1719–1766. Soldier. Entered English service in 1756 with rank of lieutenant-colonel; rose to brigadier-general by 1765; served in expedition against Fort Duquesne in 1758; relieved Fort Pitt, 1763; led successful expedition in 1764 and compelled the Shawnees and Delawares to make peace.
Sipe, pp. 439–449-
Ibid., p. 450. Edward Shippen wrote that “the Young fellows are in high Spirits and resolve as soon as possible to take another Trip,” and spoke of defeating the “naked, black painted serpents on their own Dunhil.” See Shippen Papers, Folder 314, Edward Shippen to Joseph Shippen, Lancaster, August 31, September 3, and September 26, 1763.
Sipe, p. 452. The proprietors were pleased at the efforts of the frontiersmen. See The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Penn MSS, Penn-Hamilton Correspondence, 1748–1770, p. 72, Thomas Penn to Governor Hamilton, London, November 11 and December 9, 1763: “I am greatly concerned for the situation of the Inhabitants on the Frontiers who are continually liable to be destroyed by the Enemy, but I hope Coll Armstrongs expedition to the great Island where he has destroyed the Houses and corn of the Indians, will secure that frontier, as they will find it difficult to subsist on any of the excursions, Northampton County I am in great pain for, but I hope the inhabitants will shew as much spirit as those of Lancaster and Cumberland have done and will attack the Indians in their Towns on the east branch of Susquehannah and Delaware, but I hope great care will be taken not to attack those Indians that are our Friends, as I fear may have been the case near Bethlehem.”
The Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania was claimed by inhabitants of Connecticut under the Charter of 1662 in which her territory stretched across the continent in a narrow strip from Narragansett Bay to the “South Sea.” In 1753 the Susquehannah Company was formed to buy land, colonize, and evangelize the natives; they chose the Wyoming Valley. In 1754 the Company purchased land from the Six Nations; in 1762 the first settlers were sent out by the Company and returned to Connecticut in the winter; in the spring of 1763 more settlers went to the Valley and the Indians drove them out in October, 1763, in the massacre referred to.
Sipe, pp. 461–462.
Pa. Arch., 8th series, VI, pp. 5482–5483.
See The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Penn MSS, Official Correspondence, IX, 1758–1764, p. 208, John Penn to Thomas Penn, Philadelphia, November 15, 1763: “... we have been oblig’d to order the Moravian Indians down to Philadelphia to quiet the minds of the Inhabitants of Northampton County who were determined either to quit their settlements or take an opportunity of murdering them all, being suspicious of their having been concerned in several murders in that County.”
Ford, pp. 307–308.
Col. Rec., IX, pp. 89–90.
Not only had the settlers killed some Indians, which was bad enough, but also they had chosen to kill Indians who had made a special effort to welcome Governor Penn on his arrival. See Col. Rec., IX, pp. 88–89: “Brother: We (the Conestogoe Indians) take the present opportunity, by Captn. Montour, to welcome you into this Country by this String of Wampum, and as we were settled at this place by an Agreement of Peace and Amity established between your Grandfathers & ours, We now promise ourselves your favour and protection.” They concluded by asking the governor to “consider our distressed Situation” and to appoint people “to take care of us.”
John Harris: 1716–1791. Founder of Harrisburg; had the confidence of the Indians, who asked Governor Hamilton to re-appoint him an Indian trader in 1761.
Sipe, p. 464.
Lazarus Stewart: Little is known of him; he later moved to the Wyoming Valley, where he died in July, 1778.
William H. Egle, History of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Civil, Political, and Military, 3rd. ed. (Philadelphia, 1883), pp. 111–112.
Sipe, p. 464.
Wallace, “Insurrection,” pp. 655–656; see also J. I. Mombert, An Authentic History of Lancaster County (Lancaster, 1869), pp. 179–180.
Robert Proud, The History of Pennsylvania in North America (Philadelphia, 1797–1798), II, pp. 326–328.
See pp. 195–199 and 283–285 of this volume.
Col. Rec., IX, pp. 95–96.
Shippen Papers, Folder 314, Copy of a letter of Edward Shippen to John Elder, Lancaster, December 16, 1763.
Pa. Arch., IV, pp. 148–149.
Shippen Papers, Folder 314, Edward Shippen to Joseph Shippen, Lancaster, December 19, 1763.
Col. Rec., IX, pp. 92–93.
Ibid., p. 94.
Ibid., pp. 94–95. The proclamation did not appear in public print for a week; the two Philadelphia papers, the Gazette and the Journal, were weeklies.
Col. Rec., IX, p. 102.
Col. Rec., IX, p. 103.
Ibid., pp. 103–104.
J. S. Mombert, An Authentic History of Lancaster County in the State of Pennsylvaani (Lancaster, 1869), p. 185.
Proud, II, p. 329.
Col. Rec., IX, p. 100.
Thomas F. Gordon, The History of Pennsylvania, from Its Discovery by Europeans to the Declaration of Independence in 1776 (Philadelphia, 1829), p. 405
Samuel Hazard, ed., The Register of Pennsylvania (Philadelphio 1828–1836), XI, p. 115 and VI, p. 298.
Watson, Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, Enlarged, with many Revisions and Additions by Willis P. Hazard, (Philadelphia, 1900), II, p. 168.
Hazard, Register, VII, p. 255.
Ibid., VI, p. 358 and VII, p. 255.
Watson, p. 168.
Proud, II, p. 329.
Shippen Papers, Folder 314, Edward Shippen to Joseph Shippen, Lancaster, January 5, 1764. This letter is in poor condition, as a consequence I have made a number of guesses, all of which are indicated: a word within brackets signifies a guess where there is a torn or worn spot but the context seems to permit the guess ; a word within brackets followed by a? indicates a guess as to the word written at that place; a? within brackets means the word is not discernable and the context does not permit a guess.
Mombert, pp. 188–189.
Pa. Arch., IV, pp. 151–152.
Lottie M. Bausman, “Massacre of Conestoga Indians, 1763: Incidents and Details,” Historical Papers and Addresses of the Lancaster County Historical Society XVIII (1914), PP. 179–180.
Pa. Arch., IV, p. 154.
Ibid., p. 155.
Ibid., pp. 153–154.
Col. Rec., IX, p. 106.
Thomas Gage: 1721–1787. Soldier. Served as a lieutenant-colonel under Braddock; was made brigadier-general in 1759; served as commander-in-chief in America, 1763–1773; returned to the colonies in 1774; recalled after Bunker Hill in 1775.
Col. Rec., IX, pp. 104–105.
Ibid., pp. 107–108.
Pa. Arch., IV, p. 156. Shippen’s covering letter stated that he would carry out the governor’s instruction “to the utmost of my Power.” See Shippen Papers, Folder 314, Edward Shippen to Joseph Shippen, Lancaster, January 1, 1764.
Col. Rec., IX, pp. 108–109.
Ibid., pp. 109–110.
See “Fragments of a Journal Kept by Samuel Foulke, of Bucks County, While a Member of the Colonial Assembly of Pennsylvania, 1762–3–4,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, V (1881), p. 67: “ . . . but So great was the prejudice which possessed ye Minds of a great many of ye Frontier inhabitants against the S’d Indians & ye maintaining them at ye publick Expence, & the disaffection appearing to Spread like a Contagion into the Interior parts of ye province & Even ye City it self, That ye Government became in some measure intimidated by the reported threats of ye back inhabitants, and thinking it Safer to remove ye Indians Entirely out of ye province, did on ye 7 Inst, [an error] with more precipitation than prudence.”
William Franklin: 1729–1813. Son of Benjamin Franklin. Appointed governor of New Jersey, 1762; was a Tory during the Revolution; sailed to England in 1782 and remained there until death.
Cadwallader Golden: 1688–1776. Physician. Graduated from the University of Edinburgh, 1705 ; came to colonies in 1708 ; settled in New York in 1718 ; appointed governor of the province in 1761 and held that office until his death.
Col.Rec., IX, p. no.
Ibid., pp. 110–113.
Ibid., p. 114.
Ibid., p. 120.
Ibid., pp. 121–122.
Ibid., pp. 124–125.
Ibid., pp. 126–127.
Ibid., pp. 127–128.
Ibid., pp. 128–129.
Ibid., pp. 131–132.
Account of the March of the Paxton Boys against Philadelphia in the Year 1764,” Extracted and Translated from the Journals of the Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, D. D. by Heister H. Muhlenberg, Collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, I (1853), p. 73.
Captain Schlosser was ordered to be ready to defend the Indians. He was to ask any armed persons who appeared their intentions. If they said they were after the Indians, he was to ask once again and say he would fire if they did not disperse; if they still came on, he was to fire. See Pa. Arch., IV, pp. 160–162.
Muhlenberg, p. 73. Under the leadership of Franklin and others the citizens formed themselves into nine militia companies: six of infantry, one of artillery, and two of cavalry.
Col. Rec., IX, pp. 132–133. Muhlenberg wrote on the fourth that many Phila-delphians were saying “that such preparations were made against our own fellow citizens and fellow Christians, but never had any concern been shown to protect his Majesty’s subjects and our fellow citizens on the frontiers against the Indians.” See P.73.
Emanuel Carpenter, Isaac Saunders, Edward Shippen.
Pa. Arch., IV, p. 160.
“Paxton Boys”, A letter dated Philadelphia, February 29, 1764, written by a Quaker, Hazard, Register, XII, p. 11.
Francis Parkman, The Conspiracy of Pontiac, 9th edition, revised, with additions (Boston, 1887), II, pp. 145–146. See also [Alexander Graydon], Memoirs of a Life, Chiefly Passed in Pennsylvania, within the Last Sixty Tears (Harrisburgh, 1811), pp. 39–40. The tension of the moment was so great that some rather strange orders were given by civilians suddenly become military men. One such “was the curious order, that every householder in Market street should affix one or more candles at his door before daylight, on the morning of the day, on which, from some sufficient reason no doubt, it had been elicited that the enemy would full surely make his attack, and by no other than this identical route, on the citadel. Whether this illumination was merely intended to prevent surprise, or whether it was that the commander who enjoined it was determined, like Ajax, that if perish he must, he would perish in the face of day, I do not know, but certain it is, that such a decree went forth and was religiously complied with.”
For the details of the day in Philadelphia see Muhlenberg, pp. 74–77; The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Society Collection, Letter of Sally Potts to her sister, Philadelphia, February 9, 1764; Graydon, pp. 38–40; “Paxton Boys,” pp. 9–13; and William Barton, Memoirs of the Life of David Rittenhouse (Philadelphia, 1813), pp. 148–149.
See Potts: “[The Quakers] seem’d as ready as any to take up Arms in such a Cause to Defend the Laws and Libertys of their Country against a parcel of Rebels.-Ewd. Pennington they say was at the Head of a Company and I am apt to think 2 thirds of the young Quakers in Town took up arms.” See also The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Edward Carey Gardner Collection, Edward Penington Papers, Box 26, MS copy of Penington’s letter to the monthly meeting. In this long letter Penington explains his motives and states that all “friends to good Government” want to prevent violence. The question is how best to do that. He believes “that no Government could long exist that only punished individuals for offending against its laws, while large bodies of men were suffered to commit the most horrid crimes with impunity. To prevent bloodshed, and preserve good order in Civil Society, was my design in bearing arms.”
Muhlenberg, p. 75.
Ibid., p. 75.
Not all Quakers were so belligerent, according to John Harris “Several Principal Persons of a Certain Society Left the City & Took Refuge in the Jerseys ...” See The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Papers of the Shippen Family, VI, p. 95, Harris to James Burd, Paxton, March 1, 1764. James Pemberton told of his surprize at being informed that the rioters “demanded my bro. Israel to be given up to them”. When he went to his brother’s house he found him, on the advice of friends, preparing to leave Philadelphia “so that he was obliged to undergo a sort of banishment for a few days.” Pemberton added sardonically, “shall be glad it may prove a lesson of Instruction.” See The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Pemberton Papers, XXXIV, pp. 125–128. James Pemberton to John Fothergill, Philadelphia, March 7, 1764.
Ibid.
See Sharpless, Quakers in the Revolution, pp. 49–54. Sharpless states that there were some Quakers who “justified their action through all the disciplinary proceedings which the meeting now entered upon.” The Society strove with them from March, 1764, until May, 1767, “when the Committee finally reports that some are still unconvinced.” Also Jones, Quakers, p. 507, where Sharpless states that “those who acknowledged an offense were very few. The others justified themselves. No one was disowned.” See also “Early Minutes of the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting of Friends,” Publications of The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, XIII (1936–1939), pp. 29) 30, 32, 211, 215 where it is recorded that in two meetings in 1764 and one each in 1765, 1766, and 1767 half a dozen Quakers expressed their sorrow for bearing arms.
Muhlenberg, p. 75.
J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott, History of Philadelphia: 1609–1884 (Philadelphia, 1884), I, p. 241.
Muhlenberg, pp. 73–74.
Ibid., p. 75.
Ibid., p. 76.
Ibid., pp. 76–77.
Ibid., p. 77; see “Paxton Boys,” p. 11: “They [the government] thought it
best to try the milder methods of pursuasion first, and therefore sent the Reverend G-----t T-----t with two or three more pious divines of the same order, to convince them if possible ... to return home.” See also, Foulke, p. 70, who gives a different explanation: “The Governor sent Out Several Glergimen to meet the Insurgents or Lawless banditi afores’d, who met about 200 of ‘em at Germantown, and acquainted them with ye preparations the Governm’t was making for their reception & punishm’t, upon hereing of which they thought fit to Halt, and proposed to Extenuate ye Enormity of their Crime by laying before ye Legislature Certain Grievances for which they demanded redress.” Not only clergymen went to see the Paxtonians, “in the afternoon, many of the inhabitants gathered courage, and went out to visit them.” See Parkman, Pontiac, II, pp. 146–147.
Muhlenberg, p. 77.
Barton, Rittenhouse, p. 148.
“Paxton Boys,” pp. 11–12.
See “Paxton Boys,” p. 12; Pemberton Papers, XXXIV, James Pemberton to John Fothergill, Philadelphia, March 7, 1764, p. 128; and Potts.
Parkman, Pontiac, II, p. 147; Pemberton Papers, XVII, “Notes on the Paxtons,” p. 10; and Barton, Rittenhouse, p. 148.
Papers of the Shippen Family, VI, p. 87, Joseph Shippen to James Burd, Philadelphia, February 9, 1764, p. 87.
Hindle, p. 480.
Parkman, Pontiac, II, p. 148. For a very different impression of the meeting between the negotiators and the Paxton Men, see Foulke, p. 70: “The Governor sent out Several of his Council, accompanied by 4 members of Assembly, to advise them to disperse immediately, & avoy’d the penalties which wou’d be ye necessary Consequences of their Continuing unlawfully Assembled. They frankly Confess’d they had set out, with full purpose to kill Every Indian in ye Barracks, having been invited & Encouraged by many Considerable persons in Philada., & that they Shou’d meet with no Opposition in ye Execution of their Design, but now being inform’d the Indians were under ye protection of ye Kings troops they profess’d So much Loyalty to his Majesty that they wou’d not lift a hand against them—a very poor thin Guise this, to Cover the disloyal principles of ye faction, which appears to be a presbiterian one-that Society thro’ out the province being tainted with ye same bloody principles with respect to ye Indians & of disaffection to ye Government.”
Apparently Benjamin Chew; see Barton, Rittenhouse, p. 148, “... and there was a long harangue made by Mr. Chew.”
Parkman, Pontiac, II, pp. 148–149; for a different view of the speech see “Paxton Boys,” p. 12.
Parkman, Pontiac, II, p. 149; Barton, Rittenhouse, p. 148; Potts.
Parkman, Pontiac, II, p. 149; Barton, Rittenhouse, p. 149; Foulke, p. 71,
“Paxton Boys,” p. 12.
Ibid.
See pp. 99–110 of this volume.
Foulke, pp. 71–72.
Sydney George Fisher, Pennsylvania: Colony and Commonwealth (Philadelphia, 1897), p. 243.
Col. Rec., IX, p. 146.
Ibid., pp. 147–148.
Gordon, p. 410.
Hindle, p. 474. Dunbar, Paxton Papers 6617.
Ibid., p. 486.
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© 1957 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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Dunbar, J.R. (1957). Introduction. In: Dunbar, J.R. (eds) The Paxton Papers. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-1005-9_1
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