William Penn

[William Penn]. Petition Requesting a "Bancke" to Lots Facing the River. One page, 8 x 11 1/2 inches (sight), Pennsylvania; August 31, 1701. Period fair copy in a clerical hand of a petition from the Assembly for the Lower Counties addressed to William Penn, requesting that lots of land along the river of an unnamed town include the river's bank. Penn's approval (in the same clerical hand) is noted at the bottom left of the page. The document has been mounted and framed to an overall size of 13 5/8 x 17 inches.

Document reads, in part (with original spelling): "To the Honorable William Penn Esq. proprietor & Govern'r of the province of pensilvania & Territories etc. May it pleas Your Hon'r that Wheras the members of Assembly for the Lower Counties did request Your Hon'r on behalfe of the Inhabatence of this Towne that you would Be pleased to grant the Bancke to such persons as have Lotts fronting the River at the yearly Quitrents of a Bushell of Wheat for Each Sixty foot in Breadth & Six hundred foot in Length from the now front street they Improving the same whith good Wharfes in seven years After the date of the first grant or Else the Same to Return to your Hon'r to be granted to such persons as will Comply with the same in the Time profixed (which your Hon'r was pleased to promis should be done) we therfore on behalfe of our selves & the rest of the Towne Concern'd doe further Request that the same may be Confirmed by some order or or Writing under your hand to your Comisioners that Warrants may Be granted and the same to Be Layed out and patented to such persons as shall Desire the same: and we shall as our duty bound ever pray..."

William Penn (1644-1718) was an English Quaker and the founder of the Province of Pennsylvania. In 1681, he received a land grant from King Charles II as repayment for a debt owed to his father and established Pennsylvania as a colony emphasizing religious freedom and self-governance. Later in life, Penn faced financial difficulties and a series of strokes, ultimately spending his final years in declining health and relative obscurity in England.

Condition: Moderate foxing and staining, with some wear along the margins. Smoothed folds, with toning and some separations thereat. Text at top is lighter. Not examined outside of the frame.