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Notes and Documents ONE QUAKER'S VIEW: WILLIAM FISHBOURN'S REMARKS ON THE SETTLEMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA By Alan Tully* It is weU-known that a number of notable Pennsylvania Quakers, such as Caleb Pusey, David Lloyd, Isaac Norris, Sr., and James Logan collected and preserved historical materials in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries that would eventually be incorporated in Samuel Smith's History of the Province of Pennsylvania .1 It is less weU-known, however, that one of their Philadelphia contemporaries actuaUy wrote a short essay on the early years of Quaker setdement. In 1739, WiUiam Fishbourn, Sr., penned his "Some Remarks on ye Settlement of the Province of Pennsylvania" in which he recounted what he considered to be some of the salient features of early Pennsylvania history. There is nothing in Fishbourn's career to indicate why he, in particular, undertook to do this. Biographical material is sparse but relatively straightforward. Fishbourn was born in Talbot County , Maryland on June 25, 1677 and he moved to Philadelphia where he became a successful merchant, sometime before 1700. He served at various times as justice of the peace for Philadelphia County, mayor of Philadelphia, member of the Governor's Provincial Council , city treasurer, Assemblyman, and acting trustee of the loan office. His pubUc career, however, was not unimpeachable. In 1731 the Pennsylvania Assembly judged Fishbourn to be guilty of embezzling loan office funds and passed a special Act of Assembly disabling him from further service in provincial office.3 Shortly •Department of History, University of British Columbia. 1.Joseph E. Illick, "The Writing of Colonial Pennsylvania History," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 94 ( 1970) , 6-7. 2.William Fishbourn, Sr., Some Remarks on Ye Settlement of the Province of Pennsylvania to the Year 1739, Etting Collection Miscellaneous Manuscripts, p. 56. Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 3.Gertrude MacKinney, ed., Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives of the Province of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Archives, \h ser. (Harrisburg, 1931-35), III, 2080, 2098. 51 52QUAKER HISTORY after the Assembly discovered the loan office shortages, the PhUadelphia Monthly Meeting disowned him and this occurred only two years after he had been reinstated from a former disownment for "scandalous conduct & behaviour with women."4 In 1739, however, Fishbourn was again reinstated and he remained a member in good standing in the Society of Friends until his death on May 27, 1742. Not surprisingly, the value of the Fishbourn essay does not Ue in its accuracy as a historical account for there are many obvious distortions in the themes that he does choose to treat. Rather, the importance of William Fishbourn's "history" lies in its exposure of the kinds of assumptions a mid-eighteenth century Quaker merchant held about early Pennsylvania history and of its revelation of the use such historical consciousness could fulfiU. The most significant characteristic of the Fishbourn essay is the way in which the author stresses the successes of the Quaker experiment in Pennsylvania. The early years of hardship were quickly left behind and Pennsylvanians soon passed into an era of peace, harmony, and prosperity. This, of course, was a Quaker accomplishment and William Penn, as the colony's founder and as the obvious representative of the best Quakerism had to offer, played a central role in attaining those ends. Motivated by religious purposes, farsighted and shrewd in his actual colonization plans, open-minded and fair, Penn laid the basis for peaceful relationships between colonists and Indians and among the settlers themselves. In the former case his policy of fair land purchase insured that the natives would treat Pennsylvanians as brothers; in the latter case he laid the basis for smooth and equitable government by granting a Frame of Government acknowledged by most provincial residents to be an admirable constitution. Penn, of course, was not solely responsible for the idyllic state of affairs. Thoughtful Quakers guided their proprietor into making "certain concessions" prior to their immigration, concessions which were to promote equity in the formation of public policies. Moreover, the Quaker immigrants brought with them a strong allegiance to the ideal of social harmony . Dedication to the principle of concord brought peace among Quakers, cooperation between proprietor and...

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