Just as the idea of a New World freedom for Catholics had appealed to the first Lord Baltimore, so now to William Penn, the Quaker, came the thought of freedom there for the Society of Friends.

The second Charles owed an old debt to Penn's father.

He paid it in 1681 by giving to the son, whom he liked, a province in America.

Little by little, in order to gain for Penn access to the sea, the terms of his grant were widened until it included, beside the huge Pennsylvanian region, the tract that is now Delaware, which was then claimed by Baltimore.

Maryland protested against the grant to Penn, as Virginia had protested against the grant to Baltimore--and equally in vain.