s of France, came to the ears of King William, who was
already ill disposed toward Penn and distrusted him as a Jacobite. It
seemed hardly advisable to allow a Jacobite to rule a British colony.
Accordingly a royal order suspended Penn's governmental authority and
placed the province under Benjamin Fletcher, Governor of New York.
He undertook to rule in dictatorial fashion, threatening to annex the
province to New York, and as a consequence the Assembly had plenty of
trouble with him. But two years later, 1694, the province was returned
to Penn, who now appointed as Governor William Markham, who had served
as lieutenant-governor under Fletcher.

Markham proceeded to be high-handed with the Assembly and to administer
the government in the imperialistic style of Fletcher. But the
Assembly soon tamed him and in 1696 actually worried out of him a new
constitution, which became known as Markham's Frame, proved much more
popular than the one Penn had given, and allowed the Assembly much more
power. Markham had no conceivable right to assent to it and Penn never
agreed to it; but it was lived under for the next four years until
Penn returned to the province. While it naturally had opponents, it
was largely regarded as entirely valid, and apparently with the
understanding that it was to last until Penn objected to it.

Penn had always been longing to return to Pennsylvania and live there
for the rest of his life; but the terrible times of the Revolution
of 1688 in England and its consequences had held him back. Those
difficulties had now passed. Moreover, William III had established free
government and religious liberty. No more Quakers were imprisoned and
Penn's old occupation of securing their protection and release was gone.

In the autumn of 1699 he sailed for Pennsylvania with his family and,
arriving after a tedious three months' voyage, was well received. His
political scrapes and mistakes in England seemed to be buried in the
past. He was soon at his old enjoyable life again, traveling actively
about the country, preaching to the Quakers, and enlarging and
beautifying his country seat, Pennsbury, on the Delaware, twenty miles
above Philadelphia. As roads and trails were few and bad he usually
traveled to and from the town in a barge which was rowed by six oarsmen
and which seemed to give him great pride and pleasure.

Two happy years passed away in this manner, during which Penn seems to
have settled, not however wit