William Penn

Penn, William, 1644-1718, English Quaker, founder of Pennsylvania, b. London, England; son of Sir William Penn.

Early Life

He was expelled (1662) from Oxford for his religious nonconformity and was then sent by his father to the Continent to overcome his leanings toward Puritanism. He continued his religious studies, however, and in Ireland, where he had been sent (1666) to oversee the family estates, he became a staunch member of the Society of Friends. He was imprisoned (1668) for writing a tract (The Sandy Foundation Shaken) against the doctrine of the Trinity, but, undaunted, he wrote No Cross, No Crown and Innocency with Her Open Face while in the Tower of London. After his release (1669), Penn continued his writing, his many tracts including The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience (1670), in which he argued for religious toleration. He also went on preaching missions through England, the Netherlands, and Germany.

In the American Colonies

Penn became involved in the affairs of the American colonies when in 1675 he was appointed a trustee for Edward Byllynge, one of the two Quaker proprietors of West Jersey. He helped draw up Concessions and Agreements, a liberal charter of government for the Quakers settling there. In 1681, Penn and 11 others purchased East Jersey (see New Jersey). In the same year, in payment of a debt owed his father, Penn obtained from King Charles II a charter for Pennsylvania (named by the king for Penn's father) for the establishment of his "holy experiment," a colony where religious and political freedom could flourish. Shortly afterward he received a grant of the Three Lower Counties-on-the-Delaware (present Delaware) from the duke of York (later James II).

In 1682, Penn went to his province, where the earliest settlers were already laying out the city of Philadelphia in accordance with his plans. He drew up a liberal Frame of Government for the colony. He also established the friendly relations with the Native Americans that were to distinguish the early history of Pennsylvania. Returning to England (1684), he asserted his boundary claims against Charles Calvert, 3d Lord Baltimore.

Penn's friendship with James II led to his being accused of treason after that king's deposition (1688), and his colony was briefly (1692-94) annexed to New York. Penn continued writing religious and political tracts and preached extensively. Difficulties in Pennsylvania caused his return there for a short time (1699-1701), and he issued a new constitution, the Charter of Privileges (1701), granting more power to the provincial assembly.

Penn's last years were troubled ones. His own steward swindled him to such an extent that he was imprisoned (1707-8) for debt, and the continued difficulties of his colony and troubles concerning his eldest son caused him much grief. A stroke in 1712 removed him from active life.

(born Nov. 4, 1879, Indian Territory, U.S. [near present-day Claremore, Okla.]—died Aug. 15, 1935, near Point Barrow, Alaska) U.S. humorist and actor. Raised in Indian Territory, he demonstrated his rope-twirling skills in Wild West shows and vaudeville and gradually wove bits of homespun wit into his act. He was popular in New York City from 1905 and starred in Florenz Ziegfeld's Midnight Frolic (1915). Noted for his good-natured but sharp criticism of current affairs, he wrote a newspaper column in the New York Times (from 1922) as well as several books. He performed on radio and in movies such as State Fair (1933) and Steamboat Round the Bend (1935). His death in a plane crash in Alaska with the aviator Wiley Post (1899–1935) was widely mourned.

Learn more about Rogers, Will(iam Penn Adair) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Oct. 14, 1644, London, Eng.—died July 30, 1718, Buckinghamshire) English Quaker leader and founder of Pennsylvania. Expelled from Oxford for his Puritan beliefs, he was sent to manage the family estates in Ireland, where he joined the Society of Friends in 1667. He was imprisoned four times for stating his Quaker beliefs in print and in speech; one of his trials resulted in the precedent-setting Bushell's Case, which established the independence of juries. In The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience (1670), Penn advocated religious toleration and envisioned a colony based on religious and political freedom. On his father's death, he inherited his estates and his influence with Charles II, who granted him a vast province on the Delaware River in payment for debts owed his father. In 1682 he drafted a Frame of Government that established freedom of worship in the settlement. Upon his arrival later that year, he negotiated a series of treaties with the local Indians. In 1684 he traveled to England to defend his interests against claims by neighbouring Maryland. With the accession of his friend the duke of York as James II, he secured the release of imprisoned Quakers. He returned to Pennsylvania in 1699, where he wrote the Charter of Privileges, which allowed the assembly greater autonomy. The years after his return to England in 1701 were clouded by debt and illness.

Learn more about Penn, William with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Sir William Penn (23 April 1621 – 16 September 1670) was an English admiral, and the father of William Penn, founder of the colony of Pennsylvania. Penn was born in St. Thomas Parish, Bristol to Giles Penn and Margaret Gilbert. On 6 June, 1643 he married Margaret Jasper. They had three children: Margaret, Richard and William.

In the First Anglo-Dutch War, he served in the navy of the Commonwealth of England, commanding squadrons at the battles of the Kentish Knock (1652), Portland, the Gabbard and Scheveningen (1653).

In 1655 he commanded the fleet that launched a bungled attack on La Hispaniola; afterwards the less desireable island of Jamaica was seized for the Commonwealth regime.

At the Restoration he was sent in the Naseby (later the Royal Charles) to fetch king Charles II over to England.

In the Second Anglo-Dutch War he was captain of the fleet at the Battle of Lowestoft in 1665 under James Stuart, Duke of York.

The key source for the adult life of Penn is the Diary of his next door neighbour Samuel Pepys. In 1660 Penn was appointed a Commissioner of the Navy Board where he worked with Pepys, Clerk of the Acts to the Navy Board.

Like Pepys and the Earl of Sandwich (Pepys' patron at the Navy Board) Penn was a "moderate" Roundhead who had succeeded in maintaining his position at the Restoration. Unsurprisingly, Penn appears several times in Pepys diary most vividly in an entry for 1665 when we read,

"At night home and up to the leads [roof], were contrary to expectation driven down again with a stinke by Sir W. Pen's shying of a shitten pot in their house of office"

A native of the West Country Sir William Penn is buried in the church of St. Mary Redcliffe in Bristol. His helm and half-armour are hung on the wall, together with the tattered banners of the Dutch ships that he captured in battle.

References

• Street, Lucie. An Uncommon Sailor A Portrait of Admiral Sir William Penn : English Naval Supremacy. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988.
• familysearch.org Accessed November 3, 2007
• Penn Family Genealogy