Our first volume of Lawmaking and Legislators examines the Pennsylvania legislature from William Penn's first Assembly in December 1682 to the pivotal 1710 Assembly election when a series of assemblies hostile to proprietary government came to an abrupt end with the resounding victory of Penn's allies.

The introductory chapters bring to the fore a number of interrelated themes that dominated the first three decades of the colony. Most important was the struggle for legislative control between the Assembly and the Provincial Council, which ultimately resulted in a unique unicameral legislature. A second involved the often bitter relationship between Quaker-dominated Pennsylvania and the predominantly non-Quaker Delaware Counties, which culminated in the legislative separation of 1704 that strengthened Quaker control of Pennsylvania. More ominous for the Quakers was their struggle with the Anglicans in the colony for political superiority. With their close ties to the English crown, the Anglicans were consistently able to invoke the specter of a royal takeover of Penn's colony. Finally, there was the increasingly strained relationship between Penn, the absentee proprietor, and his fellow Quakers in Pennsylvania, which frustrated Penn more than any other development in the colony and prompted his unsuccessful effort to sell his right of governing Pennsylvania to the crown; the full-text of the essay The Pennsylvania Quakers and William Penn [PDF] is now available.

The 325 representatives portrayed in this volume include David Lloyd, the perennial House speaker who led the struggle to defend and expand the House's privileges; Nicholas More, the autocratic chief justice of the Provincial Court who was impeached by the Assembly in 1685; Thomas Lloyd, the domineering Welsh physician who was the most influential Quaker politician during Pennsylvania's first decade; and Phineas Pemberton, a Bucks County farmer and officeholder who was among Penn's loyalist supporters.

We hope that you enjoy the sample biographies of Joseph Growden, Edward Shippen, and Nicholas Waln [NOTE: You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these excerpts].  The Name Index and Subject Index for Volume One may prove useful to you if you are interested in early Pennsylvania or are researching your own family's history.

To purchase Volume One of Lawmaking and Legislators contact Boston Book Warehouse at (252)-478-6300.  The volume is also available at many reference libraries.