12
HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
land, and Dirck Sipman, of Crefeld, each five thousand acres of land to be laid out in Pennsylvania. As the deeds were executed upon that day,[1] the design must
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Mr. Lawrence Lewis has suggested that under the system of
double dating between Jan. 1st and March 25th, which then prevailed,
it is probable that the date was March 10th, 1682-3. The evidence
pro and con is strong and conflicting. The facts in favor of 1682-3
are mainly —
1. It is manifest from an examination of the patents that the custom was, whenever a single date, as 1682, was mentioned within those limits, the latter date, 1682-3, was meant.
2. A deed to Telner, dated June 2d, 1683 (Ex. Rec. 8, p. 655), recites as follows: “Whereas the said William Penn by indentures of lease and release, bearing date the ninth and tenth days of the month called March for the consideration therein mentioned, etc.” The presumption is that the March referred to is the one immediately preceding.
3. The lease and release to Telner March 9th and 10th, 1682, and several deeds of June, 1683, are all recited to have been in the 35th year of the reign of Charles II. It is evident that March 10th, 1681-2, and June, 1683, could not both have been within the same year.
This would be enough to decide the matter if the facts in favor of 1681-2 were not equally conclusive. They are —
1. It is probable, a priori, and from the German names of the witnesses that the deeds to the Crefelders, except that to Telner, were dated and delivered by Benj. Furly, Penn's agent at Rotterdam for the sale of lands. In both Holland and Germany the present system of dating had been in use for over a century.
2. A patent (Ex. Rec. vol. i. p. 462) recites as follows: “Whereas by my indentures of lease and release dated the 9 and 10 days of March Anno 1682 . . . . and whereas by my indentures dated the first day of April, and year aforesaid, I remised and released to the same Dirck Sipman the yearly rent. . . .” The year aforesaid was 1682, and if the quit rent was released April 1st, 1682, the conveyance to Sipman must have been earlier. If on the 25th of March another year, 1683, had intervened, the word aforesaid could not have been correctly used. This construction is strengthened by the fact that the release of quit rent to Streypers, which took place April 1st, 1683, is recited in another patent (Ex. Rec. 1, p. 686) as follows: “Of which said sum or yearly rent by an indenture bearing date the first day of April for the consideration therein mentioned in the year 1683 I remised and released.”
3. The lease and release to Telner on March 9th and 10th, 1682, are signed by William Penn, witnessed by Herbert Springett, Thomas Coxe, and Seth Craske, and purport to have been executed in England. An Op den Graeff deed in Germantown book recites that they were executed at London. Now in March, 1681-2, Penn was in England, but in March, 1682-3, he was in Philadelphia.
4. Pastorius says that Penn at first declined to give the Frankfort Co. city lots, because they had made their purchase after he (Penn) had left England and the books had been closed, and that a special arrangement was made to satisfy them. Penn left England Sept. 1st, 1682. The deeds show that the Crefelders received their city lots.
