Penn Promise

William Penn's Promise

Concessions to the Province of Pennsylvania, 1681

I, William Penn, Proprietor and Governor of the colony of Pennsylvania given to me by King Charles II, do hereby declare:

That as soon as persons arrive in the colony, land will be set aside for a large town or city near a river.

Every person who purchases land will have a section determined by lottery.

Great roads will be built from the city into the countryside.

Every purchaser may buy from one thousand to ten thousand acres of land. However, no person is to have more than one thousand acres unless in three years he brings his family to settle on the land.

When a servant is brought over to work the land at the end of his years of service he shall be given 50 acres of his master’s land.

For those who wish to search for gold and silver in Pennsylvania, they have the liberty to dig in any man’s property provided they pay for any damages done to the land. If gold or silver is discovered the person who discovered it will get one-fifth; the owner of the land will be given one-tenth; the governor, two-fifths; and, the rest will go into the colony’s treasury with a share going to the King of England.

Every man will be required to plant a section of his land within three years after purchasing the land or it will be divided and settled by newcomers.

Planters are to trade fairly with the natives of this country.

No person shall harm or mistreat an Indian in any way. If a person breaks the law he or she would be punished as if the harm had been done to any white settler.

If any Indian, in any way, harms a settler, the settler may not take the law into his or her own hands but must present a case before an officer of the district. The district officer or judge will take the case to the local Indian chief who has the power to determine how the dispute should be settled.

In clearing the ground for planting, one acre of trees should be left for every five acres cleared in order to preserve oak and mulberry trees for silk and shipping.

William Penn

Source: Henry Steele Commager and Milton Cantor (eds.), Documents of American History, Vol. 1, 10th Edition
(Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1988), pp. 35-36.