Brief History of William Penn
Atwater-Kent MuseumPortrait of Young William Penn in Armor, date and artist unknown.
William Penn (October 14, 1644–July 30, 1718) founded the Province of Pennsylvania, the British North American colony that became the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The democratic principles that he set forth served as an inspiration for the United States Constitution. Ahead of his time, Penn also published a plan for a United States of Europe, "European Dyet, Parliament or Estates."
Religious beliefs
Although born into a distinguished Anglican family and the son of Admiral Sir William Penn, Penn joined the Religious Society of Friends or Quakers at the age of 22. The Quakers obeyed their "inner light", which they believed to come directly from God, refused to bow or take off their hats to any man, and refused to take up arms. Penn was a close friend of George Fox, the founder of the Quakers. These were times of turmoil, just after Cromwell's death, and the Quakers were suspect, because of their principles which differed from the state imposed religion and because of their refusal to swear an oath of loyalty to Cromwell or the King (Quakers obeyed the command of Christ to not swear, Matthew 5:34).
Penn's religious views were extremely distressing to his father, Admiral Sir William Penn, who had through naval service earned an estate in Ireland and hoped that Penn's charisma and intelligence would be able to win him favor at the court of Charles II. In 1668 he was imprisoned for writing a tract (The Sandy Foundation Shaken) which attacked the doctrine of the trinity.
"If thou wouldst rule well, thou must rule for God, and to do that, thou must be ruled by him....Those who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants." –William Penn
Penn was a frequent companion of George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, travelling in Europe and England with him in their ministry. He also wrote a comprehensive, detailed explanation of Quakerism along with a testimony to the character of George Fox, in his Introductionto the autobiographical Journal of George Fox.
Persecutions
Penn was educated at Chigwell School, Essex where he had his earliest religious experience. Thereafter, young Penn's religious views effectively exiled him from English society — he was sent down (expelled) from Christ Church, Oxford for being a Quaker, and was arrested several times. Among the most famous of these was the trial following his arrest with William Meade for preaching before a Quaker gathering. Penn pleaded for his right to see a copy of the charges laid against him and the laws he had supposedly broken, but the judge, the Lord Mayor of London, refused — even though this right was guaranteed by the law. Despite heavy pressure from the Lord Mayor to convict the men, the jury returned a verdict of "not guilty". The Lord Mayor then not only had Penn sent to jail again (on a charge of contempt of court), but also the full jury. The members of the jury, fighting their case from prison, managed to win the right for all English juries to be free from the control of judges. (See jury nullification.)The persecution of Quakers became so fierce that Penn decided that it would be better to try to found a new, free, Quaker settlement in North America. Some Quakers had already moved to North America, but the New England Puritans, especially, were as negative towards Quakers as the people back home, and some of them had been banished to the Caribbean.
The founding of Pennsylvania
In 1677, Penn's chance came, as a group of prominent Quakers, among them Penn, received the colonial province of West New Jersey (half of the current state of New Jersey). That same year, two hundred settlers from the towns of Chorleywood and Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire and other towns in nearby Buckinghamshire arrived, and founded the town of Burlington. Penn, who was involved in the project but himself remained in England, drafted a charter of liberties for the settlement. He guaranteed free and fair trial by jury, freedom of religion, freedom from unjust imprisonment and free elections.
King Charles II of England had a large loan with Penn's father, after whose death, King Charles settled by granting Penn a large area west and south of New Jersey on March 4, 1681. Penn called the area Sylvania (Latin for woods), which Charles changed to Pennsylvania in honor of the elder Penn. Perhaps the king was glad to have a place where religious and political outsiders (like the Quakers, or the Whigs, who wanted more influence for the people's representatives) could have their own place, far away from England. One of the first counties of Pennsylvania was called Bucks County, named after Buckinghamshire (Bucks) in England, where the Penn's family seat was, and from whence many of the first settlers came.
Although Penn's authority over the colony was officially subject only to that of the king, through his Frame of Government he implemented a democratic system with full freedom of religion, fair trials, elected representatives of the people in power, and a separation of powers — again ideas that would later form the basis of the American constitution. The freedom of religion in Pennsylvania (complete freedom of religion for everybody who believed in God) brought not only English, Welsh, German and Dutch Quakers to the colony, but also Huguenots (French Protestants), Mennonites, Amish, and Lutherans from Catholic German states.
Penn had hoped that Pennsylvania would be a profitable venture for himself and his family. Penn marketed the colony throughout Europe in various languages and, as a result, settlers flocked to Pennsylvania. Despite Pennsylvania's rapid growth and diversity, the colony never turned a profit for Penn or his family. In fact, Penn would later be imprisoned in England for debt and, at the time of his death in 1718, he was penniless.
Atwater-Kent MuseumWampum belt, legend dated 1682. Lenape Tribe; clam and whelk shell beads, leather.
From 1682 to 1684 Penn was, himself, in the Province of Pennsylvania. After the building plans for Philadelphia ("Brotherly Love") had been completed, and Penn's political ideas had been put into a workable form, Penn explored the interior. He befriended the local Indians (primarily of the Leni Lenape (aka Delaware) tribe) , and ensured that they were paid fairly for their lands. Penn even learned several different Indian dialects in order to communicate in negiotiations without interpreters. Penn introduced laws saying that if a European did an Indian wrong, there would be a fair trial, with an equal number of people from both groups deciding the matter. His measures in this matter proved successful: even though later colonists did not treat the Indians as fairly as Penn and his first group of colonists had done, colonists and Indians remained at peace in Pennsylvania much longer than in the other English colonies.
Penn began construction of Pennsbury Manor, his intended country estate in Bucks County on the right bank of the Delaware River, in 1683.
Penn also made a treaty with the Indians at Shackamaxon (near Kensington in Philadelphia) under an elm tree. Penn chose to acquire lands for his colony through business rather than conquest. He paid the Indians 1200 pounds for their land under the treaty, an amount considered fair. Voltaire praised this "Great Treaty" as "the only treaty between those people [Indians and Europeans] that was not ratified by an oath, and that was never infringed." Many regard the Great Treaty as a myth that sprung up around Penn. However, the story has had enduring power. The event has taken iconic status and is commemorated in a frieze on the United States Capitol.
Penn visited America once more, in 1699. In those years he put forward a plan to make a federation of all English colonies in America. There have been claims that he also fought slavery, but that seems unlikely, as he owned and even traded slaves himself. However, he did promote good treatment for slaves, and other Pennsylvania Quakers were among the earliest fighters against slavery.
Penn had wished to settle in Philadelphia himself, but financial problems forced him back to England in 1701. His financial advisor, Philip Ford, had cheated him out of thousands of pounds, and he had nearly lost Pennsylvania through Ford's machinations. The next decade of Penn's life was mainly filled with various court cases against Ford. He tried to sell Pennsylvania back to the state, but while the deal was still being discussed, he was hit by a stroke in 1712, after which he was unable to speak or take care of himself.
Penn died in 1718 at his home in Ruscombe, near Twyford in Berkshire, and was buried next to his first wife in the cemetery of the Jordans Quaker meeting house at Chalfont St Giles in Buckinghamshire in England. His family retained ownership of the colony of Pennsylvania until the American Revolution.
Odds and Ends
Atwater-Kent MuseumOpen Arm Chair with caned seat and back, c. 1695-1715.
On November 28, 1984 Ronald Reagan, upon an Act of Congress by Presidential Proclamation 5284 declared William Penn and his second wife, Hannah Callowhill Penn, each to be an Honorary Citizen of the United States.
There is a widely told, entirely apocryphal, story of an en encounter between Penn and George Fox, in which Penn expressed concern over wearing a sword (a standard part of dress for people of his station), and how this was not in keeping with Quaker beliefs. Fox responded, "Wear it as long as thou canst." Later, according to the story, Penn again met Fox, but this time without the sword. Penn then said, "I have taken thy advice; I wore it as long as I could." Though this story is entirely unfounded, it serves as an instructive parable about Penn's Quaker beliefs.
There is a statue of William Penn atop the City Hall building of Philadelphia, built by Alexander Milne Calder. At one time, there was a gentlemen's agreement that no building should be higher than Penn's statue. One Liberty Place was among the first of several buildings in the late 1980s to be built higher than Penn.There is a common misconception that the smiling Quaker found on boxes of Quaker Oats is William Penn. The Quaker Oats Company has stated that this is not true.
William Penn Timeline
Baptized at All Hallows Church, London
Enters Christ Church College, Oxford University. He is fined for having services at the home of Dr. Owen, the former Puritan head of Christ Church instead of at Chapel. He comes under the influence of the Quaker, Thomas Loe.
Attends the coronation of Charles II in London
Penn is expelled from Oxford for having his own services in his room instead of attending Chapel. He father beats him for this.
Penn leaves on a grand tour of Europe with the Earl of Crawford. Louis XIV receives them at court. That autumn in Anjou he begins studies for a year at the Huguenot Academy. He leaves in 1664. He resumes his travels in the company of Robert Spencer. He meets Robert's uncle, Algernon Sidney, in exile in Turin, Italy, for his views on political liberty. By August he had returned to London, as his father prepares the Royal Navy for war against the Dutch.
Begins to prepare for a career in law at Lincoln's Inn, Chancery Lane, London.
Sails with his father and the Duke of York on war vessels against the Dutch. Before the engagements, he is sent home with dispatches for the King.
His father wins a battle at sea and the plague (1665-1666) visits London. The ministers of the established church flee London and Quakers preach from their pulpits. William resumes the study of law.
He begins the practice of law in Ireland.
He goes with his friend Lord Arran to quell a rebellion at Carrickfergus. William shows coolness and courage in battle. He has his picture painted in armor.
William returns to London to find the city in ruins from the Great Fire (Sept. 2, 1666).
Penn returns to Shangarry.
He converts to the Quakers in Ireland. On the 3rd of September, he and the other Friends attending meeting at Cork are arrested. Late that year he leaves for London for a confrontation with his father about his newfound religion. He travels there with Josiah Coale, newly returned from America. Coale discusses setting up a utopia in America with him. He writes his first pamphlet, "Truth Exalted", a call to the professors of religion of every name to cease from a dependence upon outward observances or confessions of faith, and to seek for salvation where alone it may be known, by obedience to the law of God written in the heart. (Janney)
He meets George Fox in London. His father tries to disown him, but cannot bring himself to do it. He debates the Presbyterian minister Thomas Vincent with fellow Quaker George Whitehead. He writes the pamphlet "The Sandy Foundation Shaken." For it, he is sent to the Tower of London without trial at the urging of the Bishop of London. The Sandy Foundation was written as a response to accusations of blasphemy by a dissenting minister, Thomas Vincent. While imprisoned he writes "No Cross, No Crown." He writes the pamphlet "Innocency with her Open Face", which is received by the King as satisfaction for "The Sandy Foundation Shaken," and after which Penn is released after about eight months in the Tower in July, 1669. In September he begins courting Gulielma Springett, step-daughter of the Buckinghamshire Quaker, Isaac Pennington. Gulielma's mother Mary had first married Sir William Springett who had died in the English Civil War. He becomes known as a Quaker minister and writer.
Back in Ireland, practicing law, he writes "Letter of Love to the Young Convinced" and "The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience." With the help of powerful friends, such as Lord Arran, he wins the freedom of all the Quakers imprisoned in Ireland. Meanwhile, in England the Conventicle Act (1670) was renewed and a severe persecution of Quakers and Baptists begins. This act was supposed to prevent seditious conventicles, but was really intended to suppress religious meetings conducted "in any other manner than according to the litrugy and practice of the church of England." "This act", says Thomas Ellwood, "broke down and oerran the bounds and banks anciently set for the security of Englishmen's lives, liberties, and properties, namely, trials by jury; instead thereof, authorizing justices of the peace (and that too, privately, out of sessions) to convict, fine, and by their warrants distrain upon offenders against it, directly contrary to the Great Charter." In June 1670 he returns to England. He is reconciled with his father.
He is arrested with William Mead, a Quaker and former captain in Cromwell's army, preaching outside the padlocked Quaker meeting-house in London off Gracechurch Street. He is held at Newgate Prison two weeks before the famous trial. In this trial the jury acquitted Penn and Mead and the judge had the jury locked up without food until they changed their verdict! Penn tells the jury, "You are Englishmen; mind your privileges, give not away your right." To which juror Edward Bushell replies, "Nor will we ever do it!" The jury is imprisoned for their verdict and successfully sues the judges for false imprisonment, as the King's Bench decides that no jury can be punished for their verdict, a principle of law established by this trial. It took a year for this resolution of the case. Amongst the comments of the court officials in the transcripts are favorable comments about the Spanish inquisition. The letters Penn wrote his father while in Newgate prison show that Penn was quite conscious of playing his part in an act of civil disobedience aimed at securing the rights of all Englishmen in trial by jury. (The right to a fair trial by a jury of one's peers is of course now guaranteed to all Americans in the Bill of Rights.)
His father dies at his residence at Wanstead, Essex. Penn inherited an annual income from his father's estate of about 1500 pounds.
He is arrested again for speaking at Quaker meeting with Thomas Rudyard and he is imprisoned at Newgate until August, this time without benefit of a jury trial. His official offence was refusal to take the oath of allegience to the crown (Quakers would not take any oath).
He sees George Fox off on Fox's trip to America.
He marries Gulielma Springett at King's Farm, Chorley Wood. The marriage proves to be strong and affectionate. They take up residence in Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire.
Penn travels to meetings in Kent, Sussex and Surrey. Penn, Giulielma and George Whitehead participate in Religious meetings in Bristol where they welcome George Fox back from America. Later in London, Penn, Whitehead, George Keith and Stephen Crisp debate Jeremy Ives, Thomas Hicks and others on theological beliefs of Friends with over 6000 in attendance.
1677 The King passes a law of Indulgence, suspending the laws passed against the non-Conforming religious groups. This respite is brief as parliament will soon reinstate them and pass the Test Act. Penn's daughter Gulielma is born and dies. Penn obtains from Lord Baltimore an agreement excusing Quakers in Maryland from the requirement of taking oaths (1673). Penn writes "England's Present Interest Considered" (1675), an argument that religious tolerance leads to prosperity and follows from fundamental English law. The Quaker Edward Byllynge buys West Jersey with John Fenwick his agent (1675) from Lord Berkeley. Penn is called to mediate a dispute between Byllynge and Fenwick. Fenwick sails with his family and others and founds Salem, New Jersey. Penn becomes a trustee for New Jersey. Penn writes The Charter or Fundamental Laws, of West New Jersey, which includes freedom of conscience, an assembly elected by the people and true trial by jury adapted in 1676.
Five more ships sail to New Jersey and the city of Burlington is founded. They buy the land from the Native Americans. A new wave of persecution breaks out in England. Fox is imprisoned. Penn is imprisoned three times between 1673 and 1678. He meets with the Duke of York (a Catholic who later becomes James II) who takes up the cause against religious intolerance. Fox is released after delays. He moves to Worminghurst in Sussex. Penn accompanies George Fox on a trip to Holland and Germany with George Keith, Robert Barclay, George Watts, John Furley and William Tallcoatt. They are well received by Princess Elizabeth Palatine of the Rhine, Charles II's first cousin. They spend time at Crisheim, Germany where a Quaker meeting had been already established and preach all over the Rheinlands.
Penn's home is Worminghurst and he attends meeting at Coolham and sometimes at Horsham. In March 1678 Penn goes before Parliament to plead for legislative relief from religious persecution. Parliament is dissolved before it can act and a new one instated. Penn campaigns for the Whig candidate Algernon Sidney, a radical pro-democracy candidate, who has returned from exile. The Quakers are on the outside in politics — the Protestant Whigs persecute them for religion and the Royal party (Tories) because they are Whigs. Thousands of Quakers are in prison, where over 300 die since Charles II takes the throne.
Charles II owes the Penns 16000 pounds for money loaned him by the admiral, William Penn Sr., and Penn Jr. writes to the King asking for land in America as payment. The Duke of York and Robert Spencer, his old friend, who is now the Earl of Sunderland, supports him.
The King signs over Pennsylvania to William Penn and names the colony after Penn's father.
About 3000 persons of European descent (Swedes, Dutch and Quakers from New Jersey) lived in Pennsylvania at this time. He sends his cousin William Markham to America to act as his agent. He writes "Some Account of the Province of Pennsylvania in America." His price for land is set at 100 pounds for 5000 acres and an annual quit-rent of a shilling for each 100 acres. He orders his manor of Pennsbury to be built in Bucks county, Pennsylvania. He writes to the Indians, asking for peaceful relations, acknowledging wrongs done them by previous European immigrants in other colonies. His instructions on dealing with the Indians: "Be tender of offending the Indians...To soften them to me, and the people, let them know you are come to sit down lovingly with them...Be grave, they like not to be smiled on." He issues instructions for the planning of Philadelphia which was to include "gardens or orchards or fields, that it may be a green country town, which will never be burnt and always be wholesome." In the spring of 1682 he writes his Frame of Government for Pennsylvania. He consults with Algernon Sidney and John Locke in drawing up his Frame. Sidney complains that Penn keeps too much power for himself and Locke that he gives too much to the people. Penn's Frame survives to become the model for most state governments in the United States, the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights. In the preface Penn writes, "Government seems to me a part of religion itself, a thing sacred in its institution and end...And government is free to the people under it, whatever be the frame, where the laws rule and the people are a party to those laws; and more than this is tyranny, oligarchy, or confusion...As governments are made and moved by men, so by them they are ruined too. Wherefore governments rather depend upon men than men upon governments. Let men be good, and the government cannot be bad. If it be ill, they will cure it. But if men be bad, let the government be ever so good, they will endeavor to warp and spoil it to their turn." The Frame includes religious liberty (it is intolerance that is unlawful), an assembly elected by the people to make the laws, trial by jury, and a penal system designed to reform, not merely to punish. There were only two capital crimes — murder and treason. He denies a request for a monopoly on the Indian trade in Pennsylvania.
he sails on the Welcome to Pennsylvania. Smallpox breaks out on board. Penn, who had already had the disease at age 3, administers to the sick. 31 of 100 passengers die. Penn lands at New Castle on 27 October (Delaware is also owned by Penn, and was at that time part of Pennsylvania), and begins a stint as Governor.
He changes the name of Upland to Chester. He goes to the site of Philadelphia and lands at Dock Creek (site of George Guest's Blue Anchor tavern). He meets with the Indians and participates in foot races and athletic contests with them. He makes his headquarters a mile from Philadelphia in the home of Thomas Fairman at Shackamaxon. He modifies the plans for Philadelphia and orders that streets running north and south are numbered and those east and west named after trees. The main north-south street he names Broad and the main east-west street he names High (now Market St.). He buys the rest of New Jersey (with partners) from the Carteret estate. He meets with the Indians at Shackamaxon (Penn is named by them Onas, the pen). The treaty (written or unwritten) made that day endured until 1737 and the Walking Purchase, and a period of unusual harmony between European settlers and the Native Americans begins in Pennsylvania and Jersey (see. xroads.virginia.edu web page). He attempts to resolve a boundary dispute with Lord Baltimore and Maryland, but is not successful. Penn visits Friends' meetings in Maryland. Twenty-three ships arrive with passengers for colonization of Pennsylvania.
The Pennsylvania Assembly meets and adopts Penn's Frame as the "New Charter", modifying it slightly (the Governor's votes in the Council reduced from three to one). He declines to tax exports and imports for his benefit. In April, he moves to Pennsbury. He walks out the first part of the Walking Purchase with the Lenni Lenape, stopping to smoke a pipe and casually strolling for two days, claiming about 30 miles to the north (approximately the Bucks/Northampton county border, there was still a day to walk, but this was not done until 1737 — when Penn was dead, and his successors decided to run a relay race instead of walk). He makes a trip 120 miles into Indian Territory where it is said that he had picked up enough of their tongue to converse without an interpreter. He writes, "Let them have justice, and you win them."
Thomas Lloyd and Francis Daniel Pastorius arrive on the "America", highly educated men who become friends of Penn's. On October 8, 34 German Quakers arrive on the "Concord" and found Germantown. Penn writes a letter describing the province of Pennsylvania in 1683.
Algernon Sidney is executed for taking part in the Rye House plot. Penn concerned with his wife's health, the boundary dispute with Lord Baltimore, and worsening political situations in England, returns to England, embarking on 12 August, 1684. Thomas Lloyd is made President of the Council in Pennsylvania in his place. William Markham is made provincial Secretary, and James Harrison is left in charge of Pennsbury. He lands at Wonder in Sussex on 6 October, 1684.
Charles II dies and the Duke of York takes the throne as James II.
The king declares himself a Roman Catholic. He puts down a rebellion by the Duke of Monmouth. Part of the boundary dispute (the Maryland/Delaware line) is resolved. Penn gets pardons from the king for John Locke and John Trenchard. He becomes known as an influential friend of the king.
the king issues a general pardon, and all religious prisoners are released, including 1300 Quakers. He visits William of Orange in Holland to inquire on the king's behalf about his views on religious liberty. Penn's expenditures on Pennsylvania are 3000 pounds greater than his income from Pennsylvania. Penn's family takes lodgings in the Holland House, Kensington.
James II issues the Declaration of Indulgence and suspends the laws against religious tolerance. The king is seen as usurping the authority of Parliament to pass laws.
James II places 7 bishops in the Tower, who are later acquitted and released.
William of Orange lands at Torbay in Devon. By December James II has fled to France and William and Mary are king and queen of England. William Penn is arrested as a friend of James', but is released on bail and acquitted.
Parliament passes the Act of Toleration, guaranteeing religious freedom in England (except that the Test Act remains in force). The William Penn Charter School is set up in Philadelphia with instructions to educate all, and charge according to ability to pay. George Keith is the first schoolmaster.
Penn is arrested for corresponding with James II. He is acquitted again. James II lands in Ireland. Penn is arrested under orders from Queen Mary. He was brought to trial, but nothing could be found against him.
George Fox dies in London. Penn speaks at his funeral. Penn goes into hiding just after the funeral and charged with treason. Quarrels over religion begin in Pennsylvania among the Quakers, partly stirred up by George Keith. In 1692, the king takes Pennsylvania from Penn and places it under the Governor of New York. He writes "Essay towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe." He is declared a traitor in Ireland and his estates forfeited to the crown. He writes "Some Fruits of Solitude." A quote from it: "there can be no friendship where there is no freedom. Friendship loves free air, and will not be penned up in straight and narrow enclosures. It will speak freely, and act so too; and take nothing ill, where no ill is meant...Choose a friend as thou chooses a wife, till death separate you."
Penn is exonerated, with the help of his friends including Henry Sidney, Lord Rochester, Lord Ranelagh and John Trenchard (now Secretary of State).
Gulielma Springett Penn dies.
He writes "A Brief Account of The Rise and Progress of the People Called Quakers."
Pennsylvania is returned to his authority. William Markham is Deputy-Governor of Pennsylvania in Penn's place. George Keith returns to England and becomes an episcopal minister.
He marries Hannah Callowhill, daughter of a Quaker, Bristol merchant.
Penn meets with Czar Peter the Great in London. The Czar attends Quaker meeting at Deptford.
He goes to Ireland with son William and Thomas Story, where some of his Irish estates had been reinstated to him. He preaches the Quaker doctrine in Ireland. Thomas Story leaves for America.
Penn and his family go to Pennsylvania, accompanied by James Logan. They arrive in December. They stay at the home of Edward Shippen for a month. In the spring of 1700 the family removed to Pennsbury Manor. He visits Lord Baltimore. He visits the Indians at Conestoga. In 1701 the three slaves at Pennsbury are freed. Some, but not all Friends follow his example and free their slaves. Penn had by this time lost 20000 pounds on Pennsylvania.
a proposal to turn over the proprietary colonies to the crown, forces Penn to return to England, November 1701 on the 'Dalmahoy'. In September a new "Charter of Priviledges" is passed by the Pennsylvania Assembly, much like the old one but with two important changes. The Assembly is allowed to propose new laws, not just vote on them (which before only the Governor's Council could do), and the Province and Territories (Delaware) were allowed to split their governments. He appointed Andrew Hamilton deputy-Governor in his stead, and James Logan became provincial Secretary of Council. Hamilton worked secretly against Penn with the Lords of Trade and Plantations. John Evans replaced Hamilton, after Hamilton dies, and is not a good deputy-Governor.
Queen Anne takes the throne, and is friendly to Penn. He unsuccessfully tries to save Daniel Defoe from the pillory.
His son William goes to Pennsylvania and engages in a tavern brawl with his friend deputy-Governor Evans against the night watch. Son William leaves the Society of Friends and takes up residence in France after the Friends criticize his behavior.
The Fords (Quakers of Bristol) foreclose on a loan to Penn and claim Pennsylvania.
He is arrested for non-payment of debt. He is freed in December 1708, after his friends and Callowhill in-laws negotiate a deal with the Fords.
Governor Charles Gookin is well liked in Pennsylvania, and a new Assembly is elected friendly to Penn. The Assembly passes laws that rights Penn's finances. A law is passed that heavily taxes the importation of slaves (vetoed by the crown). The Penns move to Ruscombe in Berkshire, and attend meeting in Reading.
Penn is stricken by paralysis, which affects his memory.
Penn dies and is buried at Jordans with Gulielma.
