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124 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL SOCIETY. THOMAS PENN'S WALKING PURCHASE. Early in the morning of the nineteenth of Ninth month, 1737, there was an interesting gathering at a point in the old Durham Road, at Wrightstown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Three men, Edward Marshall, James Yeates and Solomon Jennings, stood, each with one hand on a chestnut tree, awaiting the signal to start upon a walk of one and a half days in a general northwestwardly direction as the final act in a land deal with the Indians.* The exact place of the old tree is unknown, but its proximate location is beyond dispute, and we may assume it was on the spot since marked by the Bucks County Historical Society, a few rods from the Friends' Meeting House. As we pause at this point, and try to understand the purpose of the gathering of settlers and officials, the backward look is obscure, but the forward view is partially illumined by official records and the testimony of eye-witnesses. Before we liberate the three walkers from their places by the chestnut tree, let us explain the occasion of their presence, and why the early narrative is so obscure. The present writer accepts the tradition that in 1686 a bargain was made with the Indians for the purchase of all the land bounded upon the east by the Delaware River, and upon the west by a line starting from some point near Philadelphia, thence along the water course of the Neshaminy, and in that general direction as far as a man could walk in two and one half days (or perhaps three days, for exact data are not available), to a point, thence to the Delaware River. The writer farther assumes that William Markham having made this bargain, either he, or possibly William Penn himself on the occasion of his second visit, did the first day's (or day and a half) walk, reaching the chestnut tree at Wrightstown; then * No attempt is made in these pages to discriminate as to the smaller Indian tribes encountered by the early settlers of Eastern Pennsylvania. Lenni Lenape, Delaware and Shawanese are names used interchangeably, and these Indians seem to have spoken a different language from the Six Nations or Iroquois, who exercised a kind of sovereign control. THOMAS PENN'S WALKING PURCHASE.125 thinking he had all the land likely to be needed, simply reserved the right to extend the walk another day and a half should the additional land ever be needed. He is further willing to believe that Penn, if it was he, walked leisurely from sunrise to sunset , stopping an hour for lunch, and was not averse to a pause for the purpose of shooting game. This walk might have been along the Neshaminy, or along the river to a point above Morrisville , at the mouth of what was called Baker's Run, thence running a line to intersect the Neshaminy. But all this rests upon tradition only, and if any one questions the truth of it, we must confess to the want of absolute proof. We must in fairness adopt a conclusion which will account for the well-defined neighborhood belief as above stated, and for the equally definite Indian tradition in regard to it. There were men living in 1737 who must have known all about the first part of the walk, and it was not questioned in those days. The Indian chief, who, as will presently be told, objected to the manner of completing the walk, might easily have been one of the party on the earlier occasion. But now, in 1737, times were much changed. William Penn had long since passed away. Thomas Penn, Governor from 1732 to 1741, was the American representative of proprietary interests. Land was increasingly valuable. Already, without waiting fully to extinguish the Indian title, some tracts had been sold far beyond the limits of the first day's (or day and a half) walk. Thomas Penn began to plan for the completion of the purchase. He had departed from the principles and practices of his father and the Society of which he was once a nominal member. He cared little for...

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