Author: Charles Penrose Keith

Publisher:

Published: 2015-08-05

Total Pages: 640

ISBN-13: 9781332311682

Excerpt from The Provincial Councillors of Pennsylvania, Who Held Office Between 1733-1776, and Those Earlier Councillors Who Were Some Time Chief Magistrates of the Province, and Their Descendants Under the first Charter, granted by William Penn, in 1682, as a frame of government for Pennsylvania, and extended to the counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex on the Delaware, the upper house of the legislature was called the Provincial Council, and was composed of representatives chosen by the people. One-third retired each year, and, to increase the number of persons familiar with such service, it was provided that, after the first seven years, a retiring member should not be again chosen until a year had elapsed. While this Charter continued in force, about eighty persons served as Councillors, among them William Markham, who was the first Lieutenant-Governor under Penn, and Thomas Lloyd, who was also many years at the head of affairs in the Province. During the short period when Pennsylvania was a Royal, as distinguished from a Proprietary Province, eleven persons were appointed as the Council for these parts, Markham again being Lieutenant-Governor. At the surrender of the old Charter, during Penn's second visit to his dominions, he invited a number of persons to act as Councilors, who served until his departure. The Charter of 1701 having made no provision for an Upper House or a Cabinet, he then commissioned ten persons as a Provincial Council, to advise the Lieutenant-Governor whom he or his heirs, true and absolute Proprietaries and Governors, should appoint, and to administer the laws in the absence of such an officer. The Lieutenant-Governors added to this body as occasion required, and it maintained perpetual succession until the American Revolution. Edward Shippen was its first President, and, as such, was the head of the Colony for some time. Of the other Councillors who qualified before the period embraced within this book, those who took the greatest part in public affairs were, with few exceptions, still in office in 1733. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.