Northampton County PA Archives History - Books .....The Penns 1920
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  Book Title: History Of Northampton County
  
  CHAPTER II
  THE PENNS
  
      William Perm, the first proprietary of Pennsylvania, was a descendant of an
  ancient and respectable English family. His father, William Penn, was a son of
  Giles Penn, a merchant and seaman of Bristol, England. The son served an
  apprenticeship at sea with his father, and was an ambitious, successful and
  important personage, who at the age of twenty-two years was a captain in the
  English navy. He married at that time Margaret, a daughter of John Jasper, a
  correspondent or resident partner of an important London trading house. Though
  some historians, from the fact that she was living at Rotterdam at the time of
  her marriage, have concluded she was partially of Dutch descent, her parentage
  was strictly English, and her son was a full-blooded thoroughbred Englishman.
  Samuel Pepys in his "Pepys' Diary," stated that he met her in 1664, and she was
  "a fat short old Dutchwoman"; the neighborhood gossip credited her with not
  being a good housekeeper, but Pepys claims that she had more wit and discretion
  than her husband, and improved on acquaintance, being possessed of a cheerful
  disposition. The year after his marriage, Captain Penn was made rear admiral of
  Ireland, two years afterwards admiral of the Straits, and in four years more a
  "general of the sea" in the Dutch war. This was during Cromwell's time, when
  young men of energy and ability acquainted with the sea were in line of
  promotion. The Penns at the time of William's birth lived on Tower Hill, in the
  parish of St. Catherine, in a court adjoining London Wall. Here they resided in
  two chambers, fared frugally, and there William was born October 14, 1644.
  
      The battle of Marston Moor was fought in that year. All England was taking
  sides in the contention between the Parliament and the King. The navy was in
  sympathy with Parliament, but the personal inclination of Admiral Penn was
  toward the King and his associates. Cromwell dispatched an expedition to the
  Spanish West Indies to conquer Cuba, placing Penn in charge of the fleet, and
  Venables as general of the army. The two commanders, without conferring with
  each other, sent secret word to Charles II offering him their ships and
  soldiers. The King, though he declined the offer, wished them to reserve their
  affection for His Majesty until a more opportune time. This was the beginning of
  the friendship between the House of Stuart and the family of Penn, which
  resulted later in the erection of the colony of Pennsylvania. Admiral Penn on
  his return from the ill-fated expedition to the West Indies, was imprisoned with
  his military colleague. He made humble submission to tlie parties in power, was
  released, and retired to his estates in Ireland. He still continued his
  communications with the Royalists, and had rather an obscure share in the
  Restoration. He secured a seat in Parliament; and was also the bearer of the
  welcome message which finally brought Charles II from his exile in Holland to
  his throne in England. For his part in this pleasant errand he was made a
  baronet, commissioner of admiralty and governor of Kinsale. At the age of thirty
  years he was promoted to the highest rank attainable to a sea-going officer,
  that of vice-admiral of England, inferior only to the Lord High Admiral. In the
  second Dutch war, at the battle of Lowestoft, he was captain-general of the
  fleet under the Duke of York (afterwards King James II); when the duke withdrew
  from the command, Penn's service ceased.
  
      On the elder Penn's return to England, he was the foremost naval commander
  of his country; he continued, however, to be a commissioner of the navy. Thus he
  had retrieved and improved his fortunes, his personal ambition was attained, and
  he associated with persons of rank who were favored by royalty. His death
  occurred September 16. 1670, and he is buried in the Church of St. Mary
  Redcliffe, Bristol, England. He was survived by two sons, one of whom died three
  years after his father's death, and a daughter.
  
      Sir William Penn was not a highminded man, and Pepys, in his Diary,
  stigmatizes him as a "mean fellow." He was, however, a figure of considerable
  importance in English naval history; as admiral and general for Parliament he
  helped in 1653 to draw up the first code of tactics provided for the navy. It
  was the base of the Duke of York's "Sailing and Fighting Instructions" which
  continued for many years to supply the orthodox tactical creed of the navy.
  
      While Sir William Penn had been sailing the high seas and fighting battles
  with the enemies of England, William Penn, the younger, had been living in
  quietness, surrounded by the green fields of the country in the village of
  Wanstead, in Essex county. Here he said his prayers in Wanstead Church,
  obtaining his education at Chigwell School, where he was brought under strong
  Puritan influence. He was a child of sensitive temperament, and he had times of
  spiritual excitement. At the age of twelve years he had the strongest conviction
  of the being of a God, and that the soul of man was capable of enjoying
  communication with Him. His father had not reflected that while he was pursuing
  his ambitious career, his son was living amongst Puritans and in a Puritan
  neighborhood. To remedy these youthful impressions his father immediately sent
  his son to Oxford University, where he was entered as a gentleman-commoner of
  Christ Church at the Michaelmas term of 1660. The boy was intended by his
  paternal sire to become a successful man of the world and a courtier like his
  father. On his entrance into Oxford, young Penn found everything in confusion,
  the Puritan faculty having been replaced by churchmen. This state of affairs was
  displeasing to the new student, whose sympathies were with the dispossessed. The
  churchmen made public exhibitions of their cavalier habits to shock their
  Puritan neighbors. They amused themselves freely on the Lord's Day, patronized
  plays and games, tippled, puffed tobacco, swore, and swaggered in all the newest
  fashions. William, like his father, appreciated pleasant and abundant living,
  but was not of the disposition to enter into wanton and audacious merrymaking,
  as he was a gentle, serious, country lad, with a Puritan conscience. During his
  two years at the University his sober tastes and devout resolutions were
  strengthened by certain appealing sermons. Oxford was the nursery of enthusiasms
  and holy causes. Young Penn did not profit by his academical course but by the
  influences of Thomas Loe, a Quaker preacher, from whom he received the impulse
  which determined all of his after life.
  
      The origin of the word "Quaker" is uncertain; some claim it is derived from
  the fact that the early preachers of the sect trembled as they spoke; others
  deduce it from the trembling' which their speeches compelled in those who heard
  them. The earnest spirit of these strange people was annoying and displeasing to
  all their neighbors in the seventeenth century.
  
      William Penn knew what "the inward light" was, and, accordingly, not only
  went to hear Loe, but was profoundly impressed by what he heard. He was
  naturally a religious person, by inheritance perhaps from his mother; he was
  also naturally of a political mind, by inheritance from his father. The Quaker's
  dream was a colony across the sea, the Churchmen had a colony in Virginia, the
  Puritans in Massachusetts. Somewhere in that wide continent of America there
  must be a place for religious refugees who in England could expect no peace from
  either Puritans or Churchmen. Penn was listening to Loe when he preached to the
  students, revealing that George Pox, the first Quaker, was in correspondence
  with a Quaker brother in America, asking him to confer with the Indians in
  reference to the purchase of lands. This colonization scheme appealed to Penn;
  he had an instinctive appreciation of large ideas, imagination and confidence,
  which made him eager to undertake their execution. It was the spirit of his
  father that carried him from a lieutenancy in the navy to the position of an
  honored and influential member of the Court of the Merry Monarch. Young Penn in
  his enthusiasm absented himself from college prayers and joined with other
  students attainted with Quakerism, in holding prayer meetings in their own
  rooms. He assisted in a ritual rebellion, and fell upon the students who
  appeared in surplices and helped to destroy them.
  
      This incident ended William's collegiate career; he was dismissed from
  Oxford and never returned. The Admiral was thoroughly incensed at his son's
  conduct, and on his return to the parental roof he chastised and turned the
  culprit out of doors. The boy came back, of course, as it was but a brief
  quarrel, but the father was satisfied that something must be done to rid his son
  of his queer notions. Accordingly, the young man was sent to France to travel in
  company of certain persons of rank. He returned to England on August 26, 1664, a
  gentleman in appearance, and with an inclination to French in his manners and
  conversation. This continental journey influenced the rest of his life; it
  restrained him from following the absurd singularities of his associates. He did
  become a Quaker, but shunned the leather apparel adopted by George Fox. He wore
  his hat in the Quaker way, and said "thee" and "thou," but otherwise dressed and
  acted according to the conventions of polite society. There were, however,
  Quakers who looked askance at him because he was so different from them, able to
  speak French, and acquainted with the manners of drawing rooms. During his
  travels, he attended for some months the Protestant College at Saumer, devoting
  himself to the study of primitive Christianity, which Loe told him was to be
  found the true ideal of the Christian church. Here he acquired an acquaintance
  with the writings of the early Fathers, from which he liked to quote.
  
      On his return to England, his father sent him to study law at Lincoln's Inn;
  it seemed that at last his father had succeeded in his purpose. His legal
  studies were interrupted by the Great Plague of 1665, and for safety he returned
  to the green fields of the country, which gave him time to think more seriously
  of religious matters. This change was marked by his father, who sent him to
  Ireland, where he resided on his father's estate at Shannangary Castle. He so
  distinguished himself in suppressing a mutiny at Carrickfergus that the Duke of
  Ormond, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, offered him a commission in the army.
  William for a time seriously considered the proposition, and was disposed to
  accept it. He had the well known portrait of himself painted, the only one from
  life, clad in steel, with lace at the throat. His dark hair was parted in the
  center, and hung in cavalier fashion over his shoulders. He looked out of large,
  clear, questioning eyes, and his handsome face was strong and serious. Fate,
  however, intervened. The young cavalier went to Cork on business, there heard
  that Thomas Loe was in town, and went to hear him expound the Quaker belief.
  "There is faith," said the preacher, "which is overcome by the world." This was
  the theme; to Penn it seemed as if every word was spoken out of heaven straight
  to his soul. In his long contention, the material world had been gaining the
  ascendency; the attractions of the material life had outshone the light which
  had flamed about him in boyhood. Then Loe spoke, and there were no more
  perplexities; Penn's choice was definitely made. He was now thoroughly wedded to
  the Quakers; he attended their meetings, though he still dressed in the gay
  fashions he had learned in France. He attended a Quaker meeting in Cork,
  September 3, 1667, and assisted to expel a soldier who had disturbed the
  meeting; for this offense he was brought before the magistrates and sent to
  prison. He wrote to the Earl of Orrery, the Lord Lieutenant of Munster, in which
  he first publicly made a claim for perfect freedom of conscience. That he was
  immediately released from jail, was on account of his father, and being a
  protege of the Duke of Ormond. His father recalled him home, and was sorely
  disappointed that neither France nor Ireland had cured his son from his
  religious eccentricities. The son used "thee and thou"; would not remove his
  hat, and declined to enter the pleasant society where his father hoped to see
  him shine. Though his father offered a reasonable compromise, the young convert
  declined to make any change in his customs, or part with the faith of his
  religious belief; and for the second time the Admiral forbade his son the
  protection of the paternal roof.
  
      Penn was now twenty-four years of age; he was received by the Quakers with
  open arms. He became a minister of that sect, and at once entered upon
  controversy and authorship. His first book, "Truth Exalted," was violent and
  aggressive in the extreme. The same offensive personality is shown in "The Guide
  Mistaken," a tract written in answer to John Clapham's "Guide to True Religion."
  His first public discussion was with Thomas Vincent, a London Presbyterian
  minister, who had reflected on the damnable doctrines of Quakers. Penn at once
  published "The Sandy Foundation Shaken." In this able tract, orthodox views were
  so offensively attacked that the Bishop of London had him arrested, and he spent
  the next seven months in the Tower. The bishop sent him word that he must either
  recant or die in prison. Penn's answer was that his prison should be his grave
  before he would budge a jot. The young author wrote an explanation of his tract,
  entitled "Innocency With Her Open Face," and also addressed a letter to Lord
  Arlington, principal Secretary of State. These writings gained him his liberty,
  the Duke of York interceding for him with the King. While in prison, Penn
  published the most important of his writings, "No Cross, No Crown." This was an
  able defense of the Quakers' doctrines and practices, a scathing attack on the
  loose and unchristian lives of the clergy. The Quakers when he joined them, had
  no adequate literature expressive of their thoughts. The most of them were
  intensely earnest, but uneducated; their preachers spoke great truths somewhat
  incoherently; Penn gave Quaker theology a systematic and dignified statement.
  
      On his release from the Tower, he returned to his father's home, and the
  next year was spent in superintending his father's estates in Ireland. At the
  request of his father, in 1670, he returned to London and found his Quaker
  brethren in great trouble. There was a determined resolve on the part of the
  government to enforce the Conventicle Act, which prohibited all religious
  meetings except those of the Church of England. In the middle of the summer,
  Penn was arrested while speaking to a congregation on the street. He, with one
  William Mead, was brought before the mayor and committed as rioters and sent to
  await trial to the sign of the Black Dog in Newgate Market. At the trial, Penn
  entered the courtroom wearing his hat, and the judges promptly fined him forty
  marks for not removing it. He tried in vain to learn why he was arrested, and
  claimed he was innocent of any illegal act. The jury after being kept out by the
  judges for two days without food or drink, returned a verdict of "not guilty."
  The judges thereupon fined every juryman forty marks for contempt of court. Penn
  and the jurors on refusing to pay their fines were all imprisoned in Newgate.
  The Court of Common Pleas reversed the judges' decision and released the jury.
  Penn was also released against his own protest, by the payment of his fine by
  his father. The Admiral was in his last sickness, being only forty-nine years
  and four months old at the time of his death. His son William succeeded to all
  his estate by the law of promogeniture, without let or hindrance. The income of
  the estate was about £ 1,500 a year. The King was a creditor to the amount of
  £16,000, with accumulated interest. This relation may be succinctly explained:
  Between the parsimony of the parliament and the extravagance of King Charles II,
  the latter was always poor in purse and a chronic borrower. He helped Admiral
  Penn to make prize money in order that he might borrow the guilders the Admiral
  wrung from the defeated Dutch. The King was, however, honest, and would pay his
  debts; when he could not pay, he would borrow more. In the case of Admiral Penn,
  he had borrowed more and paid nothing.
  
      Penn had hardly been released from prison when he plunged into a public
  controversy with a Baptist minister named Jeremiah Ives. He wrote the
  vice-chancellor of Oxford a vehement and abusive defense of religious freedom.
  It was in the beginning of 1671 that he was again arrested for preaching, and
  was imprisoned for six months. During his imprisonment he wrote several works,
  the most important being "The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience." Upon his
  release from prison he traveled in Germany and Holland. At Emden, Prussia, he
  founded a Quaker society. In his travels he regained the strength of his body,
  which he had lost amidst the rigors of his prison confinements.
  
      Returning home, in the spring of 1672, he married, at Amesham, England, in
  the month of May, Gulielma Maria Springett, daughter of Colonel Sir William
  Springett, who died at the siege of Aurundel Castle at the age of twenty-three
  years, and was the youngest officer of his grade in Cromwell's army. His
  daughter was born three months after his death. Her mother had contracted a
  second marriage with Isaac Pennington, a Quaker preacher. The marriage ceremony
  was consecrated under the tenets of the Quaker belief by simply making a
  statement before friends that they accepted each other as husband and wife. The
  life of Mrs. Penn indicates rich endowment of domestic virtue and strength of
  character. The atmosphere of the Pennington home, where she was reared, was
  pure, wholesome and devout. She was at the time of her marriage, past
  twenty-five years, and was greatly helpful to her husband in the most trying
  period of his career. She inherited from her father a productive estate and a
  neat country house at Worminghurst in the county of Sussex. The newly married
  couple took up their residence at Rickmansworth, in Hertfordshire, the following
  autumn. Penn again commenced his missionary journeys, preaching in twenty-one
  towns.
  
      The Declaration of Indulgence was withdrawn; the religious liberty it gave
  was good, but the way that liberty was given was bad; what was needed was not
  indulgence, but common justice. The prisons were again filled with peaceable
  citizens, whose offense was their religion. One of the first sufferers was
  George Fox, and in his behalf Penn went to court. He appealed to the Duke of
  York. This incident is significant, as it was the beginning of another phase of
  Penn's life. He was practically a minister of the gospel, a Quaker preacher; in
  opening the door of the Duke's palace he became a courtier; he went into
  politics; he now began to enter that valuable but perilous heritage left him by
  his father, the friendship of royalty. In an interview with the duke, he
  delivered his request for the release of Fox. The duke received him with
  polished courtesy, stated he was opposed to persecution for religion's sake, and
  promised to use his influence with the King. Fox was not, however, set at
  liberty by Penn's interview, but the latter learned that the royal duke
  remembered the Admiral's son. This was a turning point in his affairs; returning
  to Ricksmansworth, for a time his life went on as before. The persecution of the
  Quakers was renewed, and Penn wrote a "Treatise on Oaths": also published for
  the general public. "England's Present Interest" and the "Peace of Europe." The
  first was an argument for uniformity of belief; the second was a treatise
  against war and in favor of arbitration. In "The Continued Cry of the
  Oppressed," he petitioned the King and Parliament. About this time he engaged in
  a controversy with Richard Baxter, in which, of course, each party claimed
  victory. He removed in 1677 to his wife's estate at Worminghurst, in the county
  of Sussex, and, in company with Fox and other Quakers, made a religious voyage
  into Holland and Germany, preaching the gospel. This journey was of great
  importance afterwards in the settlement of Pennsylvania, as in the communities
  visited they found in Penn a kindred spirit, and upon his establishing his
  colony many of them came to America and became the "Pennsylvania Germans."
  During his travels he wrote "To the Churches of Jesus Throughout the World."
  
      Penn combined in an unusual way the qualities of a saint and statesman- his
  mind was at the same time religious and political. As he became better
  acquainted with himself, he entered deliberately upon a course of life in which
  these two elements of his character could have free play. He applied himself to
  the task of making politics contribute to the advancement of religion. Men
  before had been eminently successful in making politics contribute to the
  advancement of the church, but Perm's purpose was deeper and better.
  
      In 1678 the popish terror came to a head, and to calm and guide Friends,
  Penn wrote his "Epistle to the Children of Light in This Generation." This was
  followed in the next year by "An Address to Protestants of All Persuasions." a
  powerful exposition of the doctrine of pure tolerance, and a protest against the
  enforcement of opinions as articles of faith. The same year appeared his
  "England's Great Interest in the Choice of a New Parliament," and "One Project
  for the Good of England."
  
      He entered on the fulfillment of his great plan in 1680, which had been in
  his mind since his student days at Oxford, to undertake the planting of a colony
  across the sea. At this point Penn's connection with America begins. Disputes
  having arisen between John Fenwick and Edward Byllinge, both Quakers, in regard
  to the proprietorship of West Jersey. Penn was asked to act as arbitrator, and
  Byllinge having fallen into bankruptcy, his interests were transferred to Penn
  for the benefit of his creditors. East Jersey in 1679 came also into the market,
  and Penn, in connection with eleven others, purchased the proprietary rights.
  Penn's interest in the Jerseys terminated when the government was surrendered to
  the Crown in 1702. Being encouraged by his success in the Jerseys, he again
  turned his thoughts to America. In 1680, finding the King his creditor to the
  amount of £16,000, not considering this amount collectable, he offered to
  exchange the debt for a district in America. Charles II immediately agreed to
  this bargain; it was very doubtful if the King would have ever paid a penny. The
  territory bestowed in exchange for the debt was almost as large as England; no
  such extensive domain had ever been given to a subject by an English sovereign;
  but none had ever been paid for by a sum of money so substantial. The charter
  received the signature of the King, March 4, 1681; the deed was signed by the
  Duke of York, releasing the tract of land called Pennsylvania to William Penn
  and his heirs forever. The Penns being of Welsh descent, the new proprietor
  desired to have the territory called New Wales, but this was objected to by a
  Welsh official. Sylvania was proposed by Penn, and although he strenuously
  objected to the addition to the name, even attempting to bribe the secretaries,
  he could not get the name altered. Penn was at this time in straitened
  circumstances for funds; his books he did not sell, as he considered them a part
  of his ministry; his Irish estates were far from profitable, his main reliance
  being the Springett estates and the debt of £16,000 due from Charles II.
  
      By the charter for Pennsylvania, Penn was Proprietary of the province. He
  was supreme governor, having the power of making laws with the advice, assent
  and approbation of the freemen of appointing officers and granting pardons. The
  laws were to conform to those of England, with an appeal to the King and Privy
  Council. In questions of trade and commerce, Parliament was supreme; the right
  to levy taxes and customs was reserved for the mother country. The importunities
  of the Bishop of London extorted the right that if twenty persons desired it,
  Anglican ministers could be appointed, thus securing the very thing that Perm
  was anxious to avoid. On the neglect on the part of Penn of any provisions of
  the charter, the government was to revert to the Crown, which eventually took
  place in 1692.
  
      Penn drew up a constitution for the new colony; it provided for a governor
  to be appointed by the proprietor, a council of seventy-two members for a term
  of three years, a third of the membership to be elected annually by universal
  suffrage, an assembly consisting of two hundred members chosen annually, and a
  body of provincial laws was added. The council was to prepare laws and see that
  they were executed; in general, was to provide for the good conduct of affairs.
  The general assembly had no right to originate legislation, but was to pass on
  all bills which had been enacted by the council. Children were to be taught a
  useful trade at the age of twelve years, and offenses punishable with death were
  reduced to crimes of murder and treason. England at this time had two hundred
  capital crimes punishable by a death sentence. Whatever help Penn may have had
  in forming his legislation, he wrote it not as a politician but as a Quaker. In
  it is applied the Quaker principle of democracy and religious belief from
  beginning to the end. It was the work of a man whose supreme interest was
  religion. In the midst of these extreme activities, Penn was made a Fellow of
  the Royal Society.
  
      At the time of granting the charter there were already settled in the
  province some two thousand people, mostly Swedes and English, besides Indians.
  The English were Quakers; the settlers lived along the banks of the Delaware. In
  the autumn of 1681 the first of Penn's emigrants arrived, and in December
  another shipload of passengers was added to the colony. Leaving his family
  behind him, Penn sailed for America, September 1, 1682. "His Last Farewell to
  England" and his letters to his wife and children contain a beautiful expression
  of his pious and manly nature. He landed at New Castle, on the Delaware. After
  receiving formal possession he visited New York, then ascended the Delaware to
  Upland, to which he gave the name of Chester. Penn was greatly pleased with his
  new possessions. Philadelphia was now founded. He wrote an account of
  Pennsylvania from his own observations for the Free Society of Traders, in which
  he showed considerable power of artistic description. He recognized the Indians
  as the actual owners of the land, and he bought of them as he needed it. He made
  his famous treaty with the Indians in November, 16S3, and the transfer of
  property thus made was a natural occasion of mutual promises. The kindly and
  courtly generosity which Penn showed in his bargains with the Indians is
  illustrated in one of his purchases of land. The land sold was to extend as far
  back as a man could walk in three days. Penn walked a day and a half, taking
  several chiefs with him; leisurely at times they would sit down, smoke and
  partake of refreshments, thus covering less than thirty miles.
  
      After a residence of two years in the province, Penn returned to England in
  August, 1684. When he left the colony he expected to return speedily, but he was
  absent for fifteen years. The intervening years were filled with contention,
  anxiety, misfortune and various distresses. James II became King, and was the
  patron and good friend of William Penn; he was, however, a Roman Catholic, and
  was resolved to make that church supreme in England. This was stoutly opposed by
  Penn in his "Sensible Caveat Against Popery," as well as in other writings,
  expressing his dislike with characteristic frankness. Nevertheless, he stood by
  the King. This perplexing inconsistency is the only serious blot on Penn's fair
  fame. He believed in the honesty of James II, was a favorite at court, and in
  spite of the disparity of their age, rank and creed, they were fast friends,
  united by a bond of genuine affection. His position at the court of James II was
  undoubtedly a compromising one. It was one of Penn's characteristics to be blind
  to the faults of his friends. Penn had taken up his residence at Kensington in
  the Holland House, so as to be near the court; his expenses were large, and his
  finances became impaired. His Quaker friends found him hard to understand; he
  was their great theologian and preacher; nevertheless, he was a skilful cavalier
  and a worldly person. The King's favorite had many enemies, but Penn could not
  be prejudiced against the King. In 1687 King James published the Declaration of
  Indulgence. Penn put forth his pamphlet, "Good Advice to the Church of England,
  Roman Catholic and Protestant Dissenters," which showed the wisdom and duty of
  repealing the "Test Acts" and "Penal Laws." In April, 1688, the King issued a
  decree that the Declaration of Indulgence should be read in every church in the
  realm. Then came the Revolution; James fled to France, and William of Orange was
  invited to England. This was a hard change for William Penn; there were
  courtiers who passed with incredible swiftness from one allegiance to another,
  but he remained constant to James. Others fled to France, but he stayed; he was
  brought before the Privy Council and was released. He was again summoned in
  1690, but was again discharged. For a space of three years he was in retirement,
  was publicly proclaimed a traitor, and dispossessed of the government of the
  colony. Finally the government was persuaded that he was innocent, and the King
  honorably acquitted him of all charges of treason. It was at this time that he
  wrote an "Essay Towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe," in which he put
  forth the idea of a great court of arbitration, a principle which he had already
  carried out in Pennsylvania. The thoughts with which Penn's mind was occupied
  during the years of his hiding appear in his book, "Some Fruits of Solitude."
  
      Penn came out of his exile in 1693 burdened with misfortune. He had been
  deprived of his government, was sadly in debt, and had lost many of his friends.
  His colony of Pennsylvania declined to lend him funds. His wife died February
  23, 1694, leaving two sons, Springett and William, and a daughter, Letitia, who
  afterwards married William Aubrey. Penn consoled himself by writing his "Account
  of the Rise and Progress of the People Called Quakers." The coldness and
  suspicion with which he had been regarded by members of his own denomination
  ceased, and he was once more regarded by the Quaker set as their leader. About
  the same time, August 20, 1694, he was restored to the governorship of
  Pennsylvania, and promised to defend the frontiers. In 1695 he went on another
  missionary tour in the western part of England. He contracted in March, 1696, a
  second marriage with Hannah Callowhill, a strong, sensible and estimable Quaker
  lady of some means, living in Bristol, England. His son Springett died a few
  weeks after his marriage. He devoted himself for some time to the work of the
  ministry. His work "On Primitive Christianity" was published, in which he argued
  that the faith and practice of the Friends were those of the early church. He
  removed to Bristol in 1697, and during the greater part of the following year
  was preaching with great success against oppression in Ireland, whither he had
  gone to look after his property in Shannangary.
  
      Penn's heart, however, was in his province. The affairs of Pennsylvania had
  been going badly; Penn's appointees had quarreled amongst themselves: the
  council and assembly were in hot contention, and there was still another between
  the province and territory. At last, on September 9, 1699, it became possible
  for the founder to make another visit to his province. He landed near Chester,
  December 1st of that year, accompanied by his wife and daughter Letitia, and a
  young Quaker named James Logan, who was destined in after years to become the
  ablest and most useful Quaker ever connected with the proprietary government.
  Penn resided in his own house in Philadelphia until the early spring of 1700,
  when his family occupied the mansion at Pennsbury Manor. In the great hall of
  this mansion Penn, in a great oak chair, received his neighbors and Indians, the
  latter coming in paint and feathers. In the midst of these rural joys news came
  that a movement was on foot to put an end to proprietary governments, placing
  them under the control of the Crown. During the two years of his second and
  final residence in Pennsylvania he had accomplished but little in the
  improvement of public affairs. The differences between the province and the
  territories again broke out. Penn succeeded, however, in calming them, appointed
  a council of ten to manage the province in his absence, and gave a borough
  charter to Philadelphia. Alterations were made in the charter; an assembly was
  created with the right to propose laws, to amend and reject them, consisting of
  four members from each county to be chosen annually, with all the self-governing
  principles of the English House of Commons; two-thirds of the membership to
  constitute a quorum was created. Nominations for county officials were to be
  chosen by the governor from the names of citizens furnished by the freemen. The
  council was no longer elected by the people, but nominated by the governor, who
  thus was left practically in complete executive power. In other respects the
  original charter remained, and the inviolability of conscience was emphatically
  asserted.
  
      Penn sailed from Philadelphia, November 4, 1701, the voyage being a
  marvelously quick one for those days, as he arrived at Portsmouth, England,
  December 14, 1701. He again took up his abode at Kensington, and published while
  there his "More Fruits of Solitude." In 1703 he removed to Knightsbridge, where
  he resided until 1706, when he removed to Brentford, his final residence being
  taken up in 1710 at Field Ruscomhe, near Tugford. He wrote his "Life of
  Balstrode Whitelocke" in 1704.
  
      America now became the seat of his troubles: the tcrritorialists openly
  rejected his authority; pecuniary troubles came heavily upon him; his eldest son
  William married, had a son and a daughter who became the ringleaders of all the
  dissolute characters in Philadelphia. The manager of his Irish estates died; he
  had by dexterous swindling, managed at the time of his death to hand down to his
  widow and son a claim of £14.000 against Penn. It appears that he had borrowed
  money of Ford, and as security had given him a mortgage on his Pennsylvania
  estate. The widow sued Penn; he was imprisoned for debt, and spent nine months
  at the Fleet. His friends at last compromised the matter by paying £7,500.
  Difficulties with the government of Pennsylvania continued to harass him. Fresh
  disputes took place with Lord Baltimore, owner of Maryland. Penn felt deeply the
  ungrateful treatment he met with at the hands of the provincial assembly of
  Pennsylvania.
  
      Being in failing health, Pcnn, in February, 1712, proposed to surrender his
  interests and power to the Crown. The commission of plantations recommended that
  he should receive £12,000 in four years from the time of the surrender, and
  £1,000 were given him as the first payment. Before the matter, however, could go
  any further, he was seized with apoplectic fits, which shattered his
  understanding and memory. A second attack occurred in 1713. He died July 30,
  1718, leaving a widow, three sons by his second wife-John, Thomas and
  Richard-besides his first wife's children. He was buried at Jourdon's Meeting
  House, near Chalford, St. Giles, in Buckinghamshire.
  
      Penn had drawn his will in 1711; he gave to Gulielma Springett's children
  the English and Irish estates, and the Pennsylvania Proprietary to Hannah
  Callowhill's children. The law officers of the Crown decided that the bill to
  confirm the sale of the province to the Crown must be withdrawn as a
  professional diagnosis of Penn's condition. After his third paroxysm in 1713, he
  was pronounced incapacitated from transacting business, and his wife was made
  curatrix of his property and custodian of his person under the common law. The
  validity of his will was upheld, and Hannah Penn became the sole executrix under
  it, vested with all the powers of the Proprietary, pending the minority of the
  youngest of her boys-John, Thomas and Richard-to whom he had devised jointly.
  The youngest son was Richard, and he did not reach his majority until 1730,
  which gave Hannah Penn's term of executrix twelve years to run. She refunded the
  money to the government that it had advanced on the proposed sale of
  Pennsylvania to the Crown, which left the matter just as it stood before Penn
  began his negotiations for the sale and transfer. The new King, George I, was
  indifferent to the concerns of the proprietary, and no overtures were made to
  renew or revise the bargain. There was no danger so long as Penn lived, but on
  his death his will became operative. That instrument named three earls-Oxford,
  Powlett and Mortimer-trustees of the proprietary, with power to convey it to the
  queen or any other person or persons. The trustees were friendly to Mrs. Penn;
  they were in her confidence and approved her plan; their powers under the will
  became operative, and they left the whole affair in her hands as executrix. She
  managed the proprietary of Pennsylvania from 1712 to 1727; she suffered in 1722
  a stroke of paralysis, which permanently affected her left side; it did not,
  however, injure her mental faculties. She soon rallied, and continued to
  exercise the functions of proprietary until September, 1727, when a second
  stroke proved fatal. Hannah Penn's administration was far more practical and
  successful than that of William Penn. He left his wife a vast estate so
  hopelessly entangled in every kind of complication that ruin seemed inevitable.
  When Hannah Penn died she left the same estate to her three sons-the most
  magnificent domain on earth owned by private individuals.
  
      William, the eldest son of the founder, was born about 1676. He came to the
  colony of Pennsylvania in 1704, and was a member of the provincial council. He
  returned to England, was an unsuccessful candidate for Parliament, contested his
  father's will, and died of consumption at Liege, now in Belgium, in 1720,
  leaving three children. Springett, his eldest son, succeeded to his father's
  claims, and was considered by some persons as the rightful governor-in-chief of
  the province. The will of the founder was established by a decree of the court
  of exchequer in 1727, and a compromise was in process of adjustment between the
  two branches of the family in 1731 at the time of Springett's death. His brother
  and heir, William, executed for £5,500 a release to John, Thomas and Richard
  Penn, dated September 23, 1731. William had an only son, who died without issue.
  The interests in the proprietary of Pennsylvania were divided as follows: John
  Penn, one-half; Thomas and Richard, each a quarter.
  
      Of the three sons of William Penn, John and Richard were spendthrifts, and
  of not very estimable character. Thomas was haughty, reserved and, for a person
  of his pretensions, not of very good morals, fond of evil company and frequently
  prosecuted for evildoing. On his last departure, for Europe some of the
  venturesome boys of Philadelphia erected a gallows along the street where he was
  to pass. John Penn, the eldest, born in Philadelphia February 29, 1700, has been
  called "the American" because he alone of all the Penn family, except possibly
  one child of his nephew Richard, was born in the New World. He was recognized as
  the head of the governors-in-chief of Pennsylvania, being older than his
  colleagues, Thomas and Richard, and having twice as much interest as either of
  them in the property. Before the more active brother, Thomas Penn, made his
  visit to Pennsylvania, an agreement was entered into by the three proprietors to
  preserve the estate to their heirs male. The}' covenanted by articles dated May
  8, 1732, that none of the three would dispose of his share, except to create
  charges upon it, otherwise than to his eldest son tail male, with remainder to
  his other sons successively in order of birth in tail male, and if any of the
  three should die without issue his estate, subject to charges, should go to the
  survivors, as he might appoint. At this time only Richard was married, his wife
  being Hannah, daughter of John Loudner, a physician; and only one son had yet
  appeared to gratify the desire for establishing a family.
  
      John Penn, the American, had not thought well of a suggestion to make Thomas
  the lieutenant-governor, perhaps because of the latter's want (if popularizing
  manners, perhaps because he had already entered upon a life offensive in morals.
  His lack of cordiality or effusiveness is fully illustrated in the abrupt
  reception of a certain Welsh clergyman who, shortly after Thomas' first arrival
  to this country, prepared a poem of welcome and called upon him. Thomas Penn
  spoke these sentences: "How does do? Farewell, The other door," and consequently
  did not receive the poem.
  
      John Penn came to Pennsylvania in September, 1734, but returned to England
  the following year. He figures in the history of Pennsylvania as counsellor,
  lieutenant-governor and proprietary. He appears to be the only descendant of
  William Penn to remain a Quaker. He died without issue in October, 1746, leaving
  his rights in the province to his brother Thomas.
  
      Thomas Penn was born in England in 1702. He came to Pennsylvania in 1732
  with a power of attorney from his brothers John and Richard, and took a seat in
  the council. He returned to England in 1741. Both he and his brother were much
  disgusted with the colony, a feeling the colonists reciprocated with compound
  interest. He was enthusiastically loyal to the Crown. Thomas Penn, at his
  brother's death, took the direction in the government and business of property
  to which his share and seniority entitled him, and for which ability and
  experience fitted him. He was master over his weak nephew John (son of Richard),
  whom he sent away and kept away from the girl, objectionable in herself or her
  surroundings perhaps only because they were humble when, as a schoolboy, John
  had married. He himself remained a bachelor until 1751, when he entered a family
  of the nobility by marrying Lady Juliana, daughter of Thomas Fermor, first Earl
  of Pomfret. Thus the middle-aged bridegroom, the profligate son of a noble sire,
  became one of the rich gentry of England, ruler of an American principality
  larger than Ireland. He ceased to be a Quaker, regularly attending church after
  his marriage, and in 1760 purchased the historic seat of Stoke Park at Stoke
  Pogis, where he established his family. He died in England, March 21, 1775,
  leaving two sons, John and Granville. John succeeded to his father's interest,
  but with his cousin lost the proprietaryship and governorship of Pennsylvania by
  the American Revolution. Granville was one of the most learned laymen of
  England. He left several sons, all of whom died without issue, so that the
  pension paid by the British government descended to his sister, Sophia Margaret,
  wife of William Stuart, Archbishop of Armagh.
  
      Richard Penn, the youngest son of the founder, was born in England about
  1710, and never came to Pennsylvania. The chief thing to remark is that at an
  early date he forsook the Society of Friends, and if he did not sacramentally
  join, otherwise conformed to the Church of England, his children receiving
  infant baptism. He died October 4, 1771. His children who lived to grow up were
  John, Hannah and Richard, of whom Hannah married James Clayton, and died without
  issue. John, his eldest son, was a counsellor, lieutenant-governor and
  proprietary in Pennsylvania's history; he died without issue. Richard, the other
  son, was also lieutenant-governor; he had two sons, William and Richard, who
  died childless.
  
      The Penns were represented in the province by a deputy or
  lieutenant-governor, and a council composed of appointees, and known as the
  governor's council. These deputies were generally men of slender abilities, and
  mean tools of the proprietors. They held their official position at the will of
  the proprietors, and were placed under heavy bonds for their faithful
  performance and loyalty, first due the King and British government, next to the
  proprietaries, and thirdly and, it might be added, lastly, to the province or
  colony. Theirs was a difficult task to assume, for there were three masters to
  serve for what they owed to those abroad and what was due to the circumstances
  by which they were surrounded. It may be surprising that with all the power
  exercised over them, the province paid their salaries, which were fixed and
  allowed by the assembly. The assembly was composed of representatives from the
  different districts of the colony, and elected by the people. The powers of the
  assembly extended little beyond making laws relating to the collecting and
  appropriating revenues.
  
      The council could only act with the advice of the governor, and with him
  possessed the appointing power. The greatest power of the Penns to carry through
  any unjust designs against the will of the people or of the assembly, who it
  appears were generally disposed to justice, lay in the appointing power. Thus,
  the judges of the courts, the attorney-general, surveyor-general and sheriffs
  down to all deputies, were appointed and commissioned bv the governor and
  council through the instructions of the proprietors, and should the governor
  disobey he would at once be set aside. The council, though in one sense
  independent, was completely subordinate to the governor, without whom they could
  not act; again, when duly obedient or passive, themselves and their sons would
  likely at some time be rewarded by office or promotion. This was the general
  character of those in the courts as well as in other provincial offices of the
  people. The governor had still the right to appoint and commission either one of
  the two receiving the highest vote for office, and often the candidate receiving
  the highest vote was not appointed to the office.
  
      These Penns cherished those erroneous Tory notions of the right's of
  sovereignties which Lord Bute infused into the contracted mind of George III,
  and which cost that dull and obstinate monarch his colonies. Not satisfied in
  the pride of possessing acres by the millions, they felt themselves to be lords
  of the land they owned and of the people who dwelt upon it, and it must be
  confessed they were long upheld in this belief by the Pennsylvanians themselves.
  When one of the proprietors deigned to visit the province, he received the
  address as a king might from his subjects, and replied to them with a brevity
  more than royal. The tone and style of all their later communications to the
  Pennsylvanians were that of offended lords to contumacious vassals; and yet at
  home, as Franklin records, they were so insignificant as hardiy to be found in
  the herd of gentry-not in court, not in office, and not in Parliament.
  
      The Penns, by reason of being involved in lawsuits in England, had acquired
  considerable experience in matters pertaining to law, and turned their knowledge
  to account in the government of Pennsylvania. Hence they kept a vigilant eye on
  those designed to be judges of the courts, as well as sheriffs who had the
  selection of jurors. So much were those holding these positions their creatures
  that in any case in which the interest of the Penns would be involved there
  could be but a poor chance for justice. It is doubtful whether in any of the
  other English colonies there could have been found so servile a set of judges
  and so devoted to the proprietary interests as those in Pennsylvania down to the
  Revolution. Thus, in the collection of their quitrents and other revenues, the
  leasing and disposing of lands, and in the disputes arising therefrom, they
  wielded a power that now can scarcely be credited. In those matters the royal
  government had no interest, and was consequently indifferent; but it was
  otherwise with the people, who, as a general thing, were too liberty-loving to
  be blind to such gross abuses of power; and we need not wonder that there was
  such a spirit of opposition to the proprietors and that they preferred a
  government directly under the Crown. "On the one side was the proprietary family
  with their feudal prerogatives, their manors of 10,000 acres, their quitrents,
  and baronial pomp- alienated in their sympathies from the colony-preferring the
  luxuries of aristocratic life in England to the unostentatious manners of the
  New World -ruling the colonies by capricious deputies-and ever refusing to be
  taxed for the common defence of the country. On the other side was a hardy and
  enthusiastic band of colonists, free in this New World to develop the great
  principles of civil liberty then just dawning upon the human mind-willing to
  bear their share, provided the proprietaries would consent to be equally taxed."
  
      When the proprietary was finally abolished in 1779, the interest of the Penn
  family in the soil was vested in the colony. The act of 1779, however,
  appropriated £130,000 to be paid out of the colonial treasury to the heirs of
  William Penn in full for all claims and damages, and secured to them all private
  estates, lands and manors owned by them in fee simple at the date of the act.
  The Penn heirs were all Tories, and they made a claim under an act of Parliament
  for £945,000. After a reviewing of the claim, they were allowed £500,000, which
  was paid in consols at par. It thus appears that the heirs of William Penn
  realized from the governments of Pennsylvania and Great Britain £630,000,
  besides securing their private estates in Pennsylvania. In 1700 the proprietary
  rights of Penn's descendants were bought by the British government for a pension
  of £4,000, payable annually to the eldest male descendant of his second wife;
  this pension was commuted in 1884 for £67,000.
  
  
  Additional Comments:
  
  Extracted from:
  
  History of Northampton County
  [PENNSYLVANIA]
  and
  The Grand Valley of the Lehigh
  Under Supervision and Revision of 
  WILLIAM J. HELLER
  
  Assisted by AN ADVISORY BOARD OF EDITORS
  VOLUME I
  1920 
  THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
  HOSTON    NEW YORK     CHICAGO
  
  
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