When William Penn arrived on this side of the water (1682) and took possession of his princely gift from Charles II., he found the eastern border of his new province already occupied, though sparsely, by an industrious and enterprising people. The old Swedish colonists as well as a sprinkling of Englishmen and other nationalities had been there for a good many years, and were beginning to get the necessaries as well as the comforts of life about them. For their numbers, they had a fair supply of horses, cattle, sheep, and swine; and the growing of cereals and fruits of all kinds showed encouraging progress, with the promise of plenty. The new proprietor was gladly welcomed and his rule proved kindly and beneficent. In a letter to Lord Ormonde, after his arrival, Mr. Penn, in describing the condition of things in his new colony, says: “The horses are not very handsome, but good.” The public affairs of Penn’s grant, before his arrival, had been administered in the name of the Duke of York, from about the time New Amsterdam had surrendered to the English, and hence we find sundry regulations with regard to the horse in force before that event. The first of these, having the efficacy of law, was in the year 1676, requiring all horses to be branded, and officers appointed to do the branding and keep a record of the fact. Besides the individual brands, each town had its own brand that had to be applied, and by this double marking it was supposed that strays could be identified with certainty. Another provision was that no mares should be exported to Virginia or Barbadoes or other foreign plantations. Again, every owner was supposed to keep a certain number of horses at home, for daily use, and he was allowed to keep twice that number running at large. In 1682 no stone horse under thirteen and one-half hands high was allowed to run at large. This was afterward changed to thirteen hands. In 1724 this law was revised and re-enacted so that colts “of comely proportions” and not more than one year and a half old, if thirteen hands high, might run at large; but if older than eighteen months they must be fourteen hands high or suffer the penalty, which was castration. In 1750 horse racing of all kinds was prohibited, under a severe penalty.