Beschreibung:

Autograph letter signed from William Markham to Jonathan Dickinson, informing him that he has "renewed Mr. Claypoole's Commission for Sheriff."
Philadelphia: 9 May 1698. ½ p., single sheet (303 x 190mm). Address panel and docketed by Dickinson on verso. Condition : slight separation to folds, browned, stains from remnants of wax seal. rare letter by the first deputy governor of pennsylvania. William Markham (1635-1704), William Penn's first cousin, was the first deputy governor of the province appointed by Penn in April 1681. In 1694, following the restoration of his Charter, William Penn reappointed William Markham as his Deputy Governor. Markham was a controversial figure in early Pennsylvania politics. An Anglican and a staunch supporter of the Proprietor, he frequently was opposed in his measures by the General Assembly who sought to establish their own power base. However, by the time of this document, he had found favor with the Assembly, having opposed the measures of his predecessor Deputy Governor Fletcher. Holding that position from 1694 until William Penn's visit to the colony in 1699, his "was the longest rule in the [first] two decades" (Bronner, William Penn's Holy Experiment, p. 171). See Bronner, chapter 10 for a lengthy discussion of the politics during this period under Markham's rule. John Claypoole (1658-1700), who served as sheriff of Philadelphia from 1687-1690 and then again from 1693-1698, was equally controversial. In July 1695 the Pennsylvania House of Assembly had asked Markham to remove Claypoole from office as a man of "ill fame." Six years earlier, acting on orders of Deputy Governor Blackwell, Claypoole had incurred the wrath of the Assembly by arresting a member of the Assembly during its session, releasing him, and then four days later breaking into his house and arresting him again. At the time of the present letter Dickinson was serving as an official of the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia.