WII.UAM. 





7J9 



,.f the Duke of York in the naval victory OTOT the Dutch in 1065. 

 In IOCS he retired from service at tea, but continued to perform his 

 other duti till 1609, when be weut into retirement at Wanstead in 

 FaMi where he died in 1070. 



N. WILLIAM, the only ton of Admiral Pnn, was born in 

 London, October 14, 1644. He wa educated with much care at 

 Cbigwell in Kufi, and then at a private academy in London. In 

 1600, he was entered a gentleman commoner of Christchurcb, 

 i nford. His first biai towards the doctrines of the Society of Friends, 

 or Quakers, a* they are commonly called, appears to have been pro- 

 duced by the preaching of Tbomu Loo; tho effect of which was, 

 that, while at Oxford, Penn, together with some of his fellow-students, 

 began to withdraw from attendance on the public worship of the 

 established church, and to hold private prayer-meetings. They were 

 fined by the college for non-conformity, but this did not deter them ; 

 for, an order from the king having required that the ancient custom of 

 wearing surplices should be revived, I'enn and his associates attempted 

 to tear them from the backs of those students who wore them. For 

 this display of intemperate zeal they were expelled from the college. 



Admiral Peon, who was in high favour with Charles II. ami the 

 Duke of York, and ambitious for his son's advancement at court, was 

 much displeased with this event, and still more with the change v. hieh 

 had taken place in his son's manners. He tried to turn him from his 

 religious observances aud company, but in vain, and at length was so 

 . incensed as to have recourse to blows, and finally turned him 

 out of doors. The admiral soon relented so far as to try another 

 expedient. He sent him, in 1662, on a tour to France. After remain- 

 ing considerable time in Pari->, Penn went to Saumur, and studied 

 under the popular preacher Moses Amyrault. Ho afterwards pro- 

 ceeded to Turin, whence he was recalled by his father to England, in 

 1004, who, on his return, was greatly pleased with the polish and 

 courtliness of manners which he had acquired. He wax now admitted 

 a student of Lincoln's Inn, where he continued till 1666, when his 

 father sent him to Ireland, for the purpose of managing his estates in 

 that country. This duty he performed to the entire satisfaction of 

 his father; but, happening to attend a religious meeting at Cork, 

 where Thomai Loe delivered a di-course, beginning " There is a faith 

 that overcomes the world, and there is a faith that is overcome by the 

 world," be was so deeply impressed, that from this time he constantly 

 attended the Quakers' meetings. At one of these, held at Cork, in 

 1667, he and others wore apprehended by order of tho mayor, who 

 would have cet Penn at liberty on his giving bail for his good 

 behaviour, but he refused, and was sent to prison with the rest. He 

 wrote however to the Earl of Orrery, then lord president of Minister, 

 requiring the release of all, but the carl contented himself with order- 

 ing IVnn alone to be set at liberty. 



Admiral Penn, on being informed that William hod decidedly joined 

 the Quakers, summoned him home, and remonstrated with him and 

 threatened him, but in vain ; the son wa* firm, but respectful. The 

 admiral at last restricted himself to the demand, that he should take 

 off 1 his hat in the presence of the king, the Duke of York, and himself. 

 But Penn refused to pay even this limited degree of ' bat worship,' at 

 which the admiral wa* so much incensed that he again turned bis son 

 out of doors ; but in a short time he allowed him to return home. 



In 1668 Penn began to preach, and also published his first work, 

 ' Truth exalted.' In this year, a preacher named Vincent accused the 

 Quakers of being opposed to the doctrine of tho Trinity. A public 

 disputation took place, from which both parties retired without being 

 convinced. In prosecution of this controversy I'eun wrote ' Tho 

 Sandy Foundation shaken,' in which he professed his belief in the 

 doctrine of the Trinity, but objected to the language in which it wns 

 expounded by the Church of England ; and for this he was committed 

 to the Tower. During his imprisonment, which lasted nearly seven 

 months, he wrote his ' No Cross, no Crown,' one of his most popular 

 work*. In 1669, after his liberation, an entire reconciliation took 

 place between him and his father, and ho again went to Ireland to 

 look after bis father's estates, in which country he remained about 

 twelve months. 



In 1670 the Conventicle Act was passed, and Penn was one of tho 

 firt sunVrrrs under it He was committed to Newgate for preaching 

 to what was called "a riotous and seditious assembly," which con- 

 jsUd of the Quakers, who bad been excluded from their chapel, and 

 who now met in the open street, as near to it as they could. The 

 trial took place at the Old BuUy Sessions, and is remarkable not only 

 for the finnMw and ability of Penn's defence, but for the admirable 

 eoarag* aod constancy with which the jury, in opposition to tin 

 tioo of the Bench, and In defiance of its tlireate, pronounced a 

 of acquittal The jury were fined, and ordered to be imprisoned till 

 the fine* wen paid; bat this proceeding was d.elared illegal by the 

 Court of Common Pleat, on which occasion, chief justice Vnughan 

 red an able speech in defence of the rights of juries. Soon 

 afUr llii Admiral Penn died, perfectly reconciled to his son, to whom 

 he lft estate* worth 1600*. a year, and, while on his death bed, he 

 ct a r qtwt to the I >uko of York that he would n*e his good-offices 

 for hU son : a request with which the duke promised to comply. In 

 'broary 1C7-71, Peon was again committed to Newgate on a charge 

 of an miiiifpobliclr, and he remained in prison six months. 



Peon tainted Ouliclma Maria, daughter of Sir William 



infjjried Guli( 



Springctt, who wa* killed in the civil ware at the siege of Bambcr. 

 He now took up his abode at Uiekraansworth in Hertfordshire, but 

 afterward* settled at Worminghurat in Sussex. 



In 1677, in company with George Fox and Robert Barclay, he made 

 a sort of religious tour in Holland and Germany, and was received with 

 marked distinction by the Princes* Elisabeth of the Rhine, daughter 

 of the King of Bohemia, and granddaughter of James I. of England. 

 After hi* return he was heard before a committee of the House of 

 Commons in behalf of the Quakers, who were oppressed by Exchequer 

 prosecutions under statutes which had been enacted against the Roman 

 Catholics ; he was also admitted to plead before a committee of the 

 house that the solemn affirmation of the Quakers should be admitted 

 in the place of an oath, and to this effect an enactment passed the 

 Commons in 1678, but wo* lost in consequence of a prorogation before 

 it had passed the Lord*. 



We now come to an important event in Penn's life, tho establishment 

 of the colony of Pennsylvania. A tract of country on tho west side 

 of the Delaware was granted on petition by Charles II. to Penn and 

 his heirs, in consideration of a debt of 16,000{. due from the crown to 

 A imir.d I'enn for money advanced for the service of the navy. To 

 thi-i the Duke of York added by cession a contiguous portion of 

 territory lower down on the Delaware. The king's patent was dated 

 March 4, 1680-1 ; and in this document he named the province, in 

 honour of tho founder and his father, Pennsylvania, Penn wa* con- 

 stituted absolute proprietor and governor of the province. He published 

 ' Some Account of Pennsylvania ' &c., aud also ' Certain Condiiions or 

 Concessions/ &c., in which he offered easy terms of settlement to those 

 who might be disposed to emigrate. Three ships soon set sail with 

 settlers from England and Wales, chiefly Quakers. In the beginning 

 of 1632 he published ' Tho Frame of tho Government of the Province 

 of Pennsylvania in America, together with certain Laws agreed upon 

 in England by the Governor and divers Freemen of the aforesaid Pro- 

 vince, to be further explained and confirmed there by the first Provineial 

 Council that shall be held.' Having previously opened a friendly 

 intercourse with the native Americans by preent< and conciliatory 

 letters, in the autumn of 16S2 he sailed for Pennsylvania, le ivin ; his 

 wife and children in England ; and soon after his arrival summoned 

 an assembly of the freemen of the province, by whom the frame of 

 government, as formed in England, was accepted. He had sent out 

 instructions before he left England to negociate a treaty of sale with 

 the Indian nations ; and tradition records that a great meeting of tho 

 Indian nations and European settlers took place under an enormous 

 elm-tree, near the site of Phil.i'lelphi i, when the treaty was ratified, 

 and a league of friendship established, " a friendship," says Proud, the 

 historian of Pennsylvania, " which for the space of more than seventy 

 years was never interrupted, cr BO long as the Quakers retained power 

 iu the government." 



Having founded the city of Philadelphia on the banks of the Dela- 

 ware, and spent about two years in the province adjusting its political 

 constitution, and bringing the colony into a state of prosperity aud 

 order, he returned to England about Midsummer 1634. Within this 

 short period no less than fifty sail arrived in the province with settlers 

 from England, Ireland, Wales, Holland, and Germany. 



In February 16S5, soon after Penn's return to England, Charles II. 

 died; and the favour with which James II., when Duke of York, had 

 regarded Admiral Penn, was transferred to his son. Macaulay has 

 charged Penn with having acted during the reign of James as a kind of 

 court agent in, among other things, selling for the maids of honour 

 pardons for the girls at Taunton who were condemned for having 

 presented Monmouth with a standard on his entry into that town ; as 

 having gone to Holland to endeavour to persuade the Prince of Orange 

 to assent to the j romulgation of the Declaration of Indulgence ; and 

 iu trying to deduce the fellows of Magdalen College to submit to tho 

 king's illegal measure*. But Mr. Dixou, in an ' Extra Chapter ' of his 

 'Life of Penn,' 1851, has satisfactorily shown that the Prune who 

 acted as pardon-broker at Taunton was not William Penn, but a certain 

 George Ponne, who was by no means unused to such disreputable 

 traffic ; and the other charges he has shown to be not sustained by 

 the authorities cited. Mr. Macaulay has not however, it may be noted, 

 withdrawn any of these charges in the recent editions of his work, or 

 indeed in any way noticed the replies made to them. 



After the revolution in 1638, Penu's intimacy with James II. exposed 

 him to suspicions, and he was four times arrested on accusations of 

 being a concealed Papist and a Jesuit ; but he always cleared himself 

 before the king aud council, till one Fuller, who was afterward* 

 declared by parliament to be an impostor, in 1690 accused him on 

 oath of being concerned in a plot to cstore the late king. Unwilling 

 to expose himself to the risk of being convicted upon the oath of Mich 

 a mau, and the evidence which he might get up, he lived in great 

 raclusion in London till 1693, in which year, through the median <n of 

 his friends at court, he was admitted to plead his cause before the 

 king and council, and WM honourably acquitted. Soon after this hi* 

 i-d. In 1696 ho married Hannah, the daughter of Thomas 

 Ollowbill, a merchant of Bristol. 



In 1099 he again sailed for Pennsylvania, with his wife anil family, 

 with the intention of making it the place of his future residence. He 

 had been deprived of the government of Pennsylvania in 1692, and it 

 had been annexed to that of New York ; but it wa* restored to him 



