it was annulled and he was free, at least for a time, to govern as he
pleased. Fortunately his commissioners never attempted to carry out
these instructions. There would have been a rebellion and some very
unpleasant history if they had undertaken to enforce such oriental
despotism in Pennsylvania. The five commissioners with Thomas Lloyd at
their head seem to have governed without seriously troublesome incidents
for the short term of two years during which they were in power. But
in 1687 Thomas Lloyd, becoming weary of directing them, asked to be
relieved and is supposed to have advised Penn to appoint a single
executive instead of commissioners. Penn accordingly appointed Captain
John Blackwell, formerly an officer in Cromwell's army. Blackwell was
not a Quaker but a "grave, sober, wise man," as Penn wrote to a friend,
who would "bear down with a visible authority vice and faction." It was
hoped that he would vigorously check all irregularities and bring Penn
better returns from quitrents and sales of land.

But this new governor clashed almost at once with the Assembly, tried
to make them pass a militia law, suggested that the province's trade to
foreign countries was illegal, persecuted and arrested members of the
Assembly, refused to submit new laws to it, and irritated the people by
suggesting the invalidity of their favorite laws. The Quaker Assembly
withstood and resisted him until they wore him out. After a year and
one month in office he resigned at Penn's request or, according to
some accounts, at his own request. At any rate, he expressed himself as
delighted to be relieved. As a Puritan soldier he found himself no match
for a peaceable Quaker Assembly.

Penn again made the Council the executive with Thomas Lloyd as its
President. But to the old causes of unrest a new one was now added.
One George Keith, a Quaker, turned heretic and carried a number of
Pennsylvania Quakers over to the Church of England, thereby causing
great scandal. The "Lower Counties" or Territories, as the present
State of Delaware was then called, became mutinous, withdrew their
representatives from the Council, and made William Markham their
Governor. This action together with the Keithian controversy, the
disturbances over Blackwell, and the clamors of Church of England people
that Penn was absent and neglecting his province, that the Quakers would
make no military defense, and that the province might at any time fall
into the hand