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William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, was born.
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The origins of the Society of Friends lie in the intense religious ferment of seventeenth century England. George Fox, the son of a Leicestershire weaver, is credited with founding
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For the second time, England captured from the Dutch the area that became the state of Pennsylvania and the Duke of York made an undocumented assertion that it was part of New York, a colony that he was clearly entitled to govern because of charters from the king.
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Quakers held their first religious meeting at Upland (now Chester) in and they came to Pennsylvania in great numbers after William Penn received his Charter.
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William Penn founded Pennsylvania with a land grant that was owed his deceased Father.
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Penn induced people to emigrate, the terms being 40 shillings per hundred acres, and "shares" of 5,000 acres for 100 pounds. These generous terms induced many to set out for the New World.
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Penn made his cousin William Markham deputy governor of the province and sent him to take control.
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Charter's provisions for Pennsylvania's western expanse clashed with the land description in Virginia's older charter.
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Pennsylvania's first constitution, the Frame of Government was drafted
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William Penn set sail from England, with Captain Greenway, in the ship Welcome. The ship was filled with additional passengers, mostly Quakers, with good estates.
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The Proprietor arrived in Pennsylvania on the ship Welcome.
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Penn made a treaty with the Leni Lenape to purchase his grant of land from them, even though there was no law requiring him to do so. The treaty's duration was for "as long as water flows and the sun shines and grass grows." Penn and Taminend, Leni Lenape chief, exchanged wampum belts under the Shackamaxon elm in Philadelphia.
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The Pennsylvania Assembly, which had Delaware representatives, approved an Act of Union that made the Pennsylvania Charter applicable to the three counties, but Delaware leaders resented domination by Pennsylvanians.
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Pennslyvania's emigration increased, welcoming pioneers mostly from England, Ireland, Wales, Holland and Germany. Enslaved Africans and Enslaved descendants of Africans were brought into Pennsylvania, mostly by the English, Welsh, and Scotch-Irish.
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There was a natural conflict between the proprietary and popular elements in the government which began under Penn and grew stronger under his successors. As a result of the English Revolution of 1688 this overthrew King James II.
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The Proprietor again visited Pennsylvania and, just before his return to England in 1701, agreed with the Assembly on a revised constitution, the "Charter of Privileges," which remained in effect until 1776.
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Thousands of Germans were also attracted to the colony and, by the time of the Revolution, comprised a third of the population. The volume of German immigration increased.
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About 4,000 slaves had been brought to Pennsylvania.
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An exceptionally prosperous farming area had developed in southeastern Pennsylvania. Wheat and corn were the leading crops, though rye, hemp, and flax were also important.
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George Washington of Virginia failed to persuade the French to leave Pennsylvania and in 1754 they defeated his militia company at Fort Necessity.
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Although William Penn was granted all the land in Pennsylvania by the King, he and his heirs chose not to grant or settle any part of it without first buying the claims of the Native Americans who lived there. In this manner, all of present Pennsylvania except the northwestern third was purchased.
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The Pennsylvania long rifle was an adaptation of a German hunting rifle developed in Lancaster County. Its superiority was so well recognized that by gunsmiths were duplicating it in Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, and Maryland.
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Another important immigrant group was the Scotch-Irish, who migrated from about 1717 until the Revolution in a series of waves caused by hardships in Ireland.
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The Province of Pennsylvania had become the third largest English colony in America, though next to the last to be founded.
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Pennsylvania became the second state, after Delaware, to ratify the U.S. Consitution. In the American Civil War
