98 AUTHENTIC HISTORY 



all this, he dared to consult his own reason, and follow the dictates of his own 

 judgment, the soundness of which every revolving year has confirmed. 



Penn was ambitious, and animated by the love of fame. He sacrificed 

 his time and his fortune in its pursuit ; at least so much of them as was 

 unnecessarily employed at the courts of James and Anne. The obscu- 

 rity of his province was unattractive ; and, in the height of his favor with 

 James, he was for a moment unregardful of the free principles on which 

 it was founded. Had he applied himself, unreservedly and exclusively, 

 to cultivate the scion he had planted, its growth would have been more 

 rapid ; and, under its shade, distant from the vexations and vicissitudes 

 of English politics, he would have enjoyed the reward of his labor, com- 

 petence, and the respect of the world. Pecuniary distress, at times, com- 

 pelled him to give utterance to undignified and unjust complaints. The 

 political benefits he had conferred upon his province, in his opinion, im- 

 posed on its inhabitants an obligation to be requited with money; his 

 proprietary character claimed to be recognized by the establishment of 

 some revenue. His people, on the contrary, felt these pretensions as a 

 double charge, and were unwilling to maintain a resident and non-resi- 

 dent Governor, the latter of whom had an estate in the soil of the prov- 

 ince, which increased in a great and indefinable ratio. 



In his demeanor, William Penn was grave, but not austere ; affable, 

 but not familiar ; and, whilst his intercourse with his friends was marked 

 by the formality and peculiar phraseology in use with his sect, his cor- 

 respondence with men of the world showed him to have been perfectly 

 acquainted with polite manners. As a writer, he was much esteemed by 

 his church ; as a minister, he was bold, industrious and successful ; he 

 was beloved by his family and a wide circle of friends. He had been 

 twice married. His first wife was Gulielma Maria Springett, daughter of 

 Sir "William Springett, of Darling, in Sussex. The fruit of this marriage 

 was tAvo sons and one daughter ; Springett, William, and Letitia. Spring- 

 ett died in 1696, aged twenty-one years; William and Letitia, and three 

 grand-children, children of his son William, survived him. His second 

 wife was Hannah, daughter of Thomas Callowhill, of Bristol, by whom 

 he had five children ; John, Thomas, Margarette, Eichard and Dennis, 

 who, with their mother, were living at their father's death. 



At his decease, his province was encumbered by his mortgage of 1708, 

 and his contract with the crown for the sale of the government. His 

 will, dated 1712, was made antecedently to, but in contemplation of, this 

 contract. He provided for the issue of his first marriage by the devise 

 of his English and Irish estates; which, producing fifteen hundred pounds 

 sterling per annum, were estimated of greater value than his American 

 possessions. From the latter he made provision for the payment of his 

 debts, and for his widow and her children. The government of the 



