The Proprietary Group in Pennsylvania, 1754-1764

HE Revolutionary decades in Pennsylvania present the historian with an intriguing sequence of events. From I754 to i790 political leadership in the colony and state changed hands no less than three times. From I754 to I764 Benjamin Franklin and the Quakers in the province's elected Assembly championed the cause of liberty and democracy against the hereditary rule of the Penn family and the Proprietary appointees in the executive branch of local government. In I764, however, the leaders of the anti-Proprietary faction-Franklin, Joseph Galloway, and John Hughes-lost some of their power by trying to invoke royal influence against the Penns' charter at a time which revealed the menacing tendencies of English authority. In I765 the anti-Proprietary group's fortunes sank even lower when Franklin and Hughes appeared to favor the hated Stamp Act.' At the same time, while Franklin was in England, the Proprietary merchants and appointees began to lead the underrepresented frontiersmen and voteless city-dwellers in the province not only against English policies but also against the Penns' enemies in the Assembly. One would expect that the legislature with all its previous objections to prerogative would have played a leading part in protests against English domination, but such was not the case. Extralegal councils, committees, and conventions in Pennsylvania replaced the Assembly in organizing and expressing public opinion. Between I766 and I770 the Penns arranged a truce with their former enemies; the Assembly enacted a series of public works for the benefit of the Proprietary merchants in return for greater participation in the operations of the Penns' land office and the City Corporation of Philadelphia.2 With almost all local opposition eliminated, Thomas Will

Group (periodic table · Physics · Political science · American Constitutional Law and Politics · History

• America's Forgotten Founder

  Open Access•Jane Calvert•History Compass•2007

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