“Upon reading this day at the Board the Humble petition of W^m. Penn Esq^r … Her Ma^ty. in Councill taking the same into her consideration is Graciously pleased, to ord^r accordingly, that the s^d petition of the Lord Baltimore, Be, and it is hereby Dismissed”

Document signed by Pennsylvania’s political leaders during a stormy period in the province’s history, which saw chronic tensions between Quakers and non-Quakers, between the “lower counties” of Delaware and the rest of the province, and between the proprietor (William Penn) and the Assembly. All the same, the separate signatures on two sheets of paper attests to the landmark commitment of Penn to religious tolerance.

Pennsylvania founder William Penn supported James II during the Glorious Revolution, James’s attempt to regain the English throne. When William and Mary ascended the throne, Penn was suspected of treason.

The “greatest of early American maps … a masterpiece” (Corcoran).

“This monumental work is without question the finest printed cartographic document relating to North America to be published to date.” (Burden). No other English American colony was mapped in the seventeenth century on such a large scale, and in such amazing detail.

“… there are ffour Comission^rs who by the order & command of y^e said Lord [Baltimore], have beene & are waiting … ever since y^e tenth day instant, for y^e Running y^e Division Lyne…”

Sandelands and Wade, two members of Pennsylvania’s first Provincial Council, alert Deputy Governor Markham of the arrival of Lord Baltimore’s commissioners to Augustine Hermann’s estate, near the disputed border between Maryland and Pennsylvania. Baltimore’s commissioners sought to locate the 40^th degree of latitude, the dividing line established by King Charles I’s original charter for Maryland. Markham did not come, choosing to wait for Penn’s arrival, most likely because he knew that an accurate measurement of the 40˚ line would deprive Pennsylvania of an outlet on the Chesapeake, and perhaps cause them to lose Philadelphia.

“As the loadstone attracts Iron, so ought acknowledgem^ts to pursue faviours … [I] dare not presume any further having soe lately recd soe great a marke of your bounty….”

Deputy Governor Anthony Brockholls of New York extends a cordial note to Governor William Penn in the midst of continuing deliberations between Penn and Lord Baltimore over the southern boundary of Pennsylvania and possession of Delaware.

“There are no Whigs and Tories in America, yet there is a spirit of liberty; and this spirit is too powerful for the management of Governors and ministerial tools, who wish to enslave a free people…Let us try, cries a Minister, if none can be found under the specious cloak of religion. You will find it in the church of Rome, cries the Pope. You will find it in the church of Rome, cries the Devil. I have found it there, cries the French King. Then I will seek it there, cries the English Minister…” (p1/c3)

The excellent Revolutionary War content starts with the masthead, adopted from a famous design drawn by Benjamin Franklin during the French and Indian War. “Join, or Die,” first published in the Pennsylvania Gazette on May 9, 1754, urged unity amongst the British colonies. It had not been forgotten 20 years later during the prelude to the Revolutionary War. From July 27, 1774 to October 18, 1775, publisher William Bradford included this variant, “Unite or Die,” in his masthead of The Pennsylvania Journal; and the Weekly Advertiser, this time urging unity against the British. This paper also announces the selection of John Hancock as President of Massachusetts’ Provincial Congress and publishes letters to and from Royal Governor Thomas Gage, and editorials. One comment summarizes all: “We hear express orders have been sent over to the Commander in Chief, to prevent the sitting of the American Congress at all events. [These orders will arrive too late.]”