James Logan was an important force in the political and cultural development of colonial Pennsylvania. After an early education in his birthplace, Lurgan, Northern Ireland, and in Edinburgh and Bristol, as well as brief service as a schoolteacher in Bristol, Logan journeyed to Philadelphia in 1699 as William Penn's secretary. Thoroughly dedicated to the interests of the proprietors, Logan remained in the service of Penn and his descendants for the next forty-five years, holding at various times almost all the important political offices of the colony.

When Penn left the province in 1701 to return to England, Logan became secretary of the province and commissioner of property as well as clerk of the provincial council. A staunch conservative, he was convinced of the need for an aristocracy to check the lower classes and argued for a government which balanced elements of the monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. Logan's defense of the...