2022/10/17

Quotations from William Penn

The essence of the man

"I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness or abilities that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."

"Right is right, even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong, even if everyone is for it."

"A good end cannot sanctify evil means; nor must we do evil, that good may come of it...To do evil that good may come of it is for bunglers in politics as well as morals." (From Some Fruits of Solitude)

"Force may make hypocrites, but it can make no converts." (Letter to Lord Arlington, while imprisoned in the Tower)

"The humble, meek, merciful, just, pious and devout souls everywhere are of one religion and when death has taken off the mask, they will know one another, though the diverse liveries they wore here make them strangers."

"There is a zeal without knowledge, that is superstition. There is a zeal against knowledge, that is interest or faction; there is a zeal with knowledge, that is religion; and if you will view the countries of cruelty, you will find them superstitious rather than religious. Religion is gentle, it makes men better, more friendly, loving and patient than before."

"Did we believe a final Reckoning and Judgment; or did we think enough of what we do believe, we would allow more Love in Religion than we do; since Religion it self is nothing else but Love to God and Man. Love is indeed Heaven upon Earth; since Heaven above would not be Heaven without it: For where there is not Love; there is Fear: But perfect Love casts out Fear. Love is above all; and when it prevails in us all, we shall all be Lovely, and in Love with God and one with another."

Penn on Government

These statements, now the commonly held beliefs of most Americans, were revolutionary in the late 1600s. They flow naturally from Penn's Quaker experience and beliefs.

"Governments, like clocks, go from the motions men give them, and as governments are made and moved by men, so by them are they ruined too. Wherefore governments rather depend upon men than men upon governments." (From preface to the Frame of Government of Pennsylvania, 1682)

"It is certain that the most natural and human government is that of consent, for that binds freely, ... when men hold their liberty by true obedience to rules of their own making." (Towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe, 1693)

"No people can be truly happy, though under the greatest enjoyments of civil liberties, if abridged of the Freedom of their Conscience as to their Religious Profession and Worship." (Pennsylvania Charter of Liberties, 1701)

"If we will not be governed by God, we must be governed by tyrants."

"Let the people think they Govern and they will be Govern'd. This cannot fail if Those they Trust, are Trusted." (From Some Fruits of Solitude)

"By Liberty of Conscience, we understand not only a mere Liberty of the Mind ... but the exercise of ourselves in a visible way of worship, upon our believing it to be indispensably required at our hands, that if we neglect it for fear or favor of any mortal man, we sin, and incur divine wrath." (Written in Newgate Prison, 1670)

"It is great Wisdom in Princes of both sorts, not to strain Points too high with their people. For whether the People have a Right to oppose them or not, they are ever sure to attempt it when things are carried too far; though the Remedy oftentimes proves worse than the disease." (from Some Fruits of Solitude)

"We meet on the broad pathway of good faith and good will; no advantage shall be taken on either side, but all shall be openness and love." (Addressed to the Leni-Lenape, 30 November 1682 at Shackamaxon)

Some advice from William Penn [mostly from Some Fruits of Solitude]

"Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders, than from the arguments of its opposers. Never marry but for love; but see that thou lovest what is lovely. Sexes make no Difference; since in Souls there is none..."

"Between a Man and his Wife nothing ought to rule but Love. Believe nothing against another but on good authority; and never report what may hurt another, unless it be a greater hurt to some other to conceal it."

"If thou thinkest twice before thou speakest once, thou wilt speak twice the better for it."

"Friendship is the union of spirits, a marriage of hearts, and the bond thereof virtue"

"There can be no friendship when there is no freedom; Friendship loves the free air, and will not be fenced up in straight and narrow enclosures."

"Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly, for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood."

"Equivocation is half way to lying and lying the whole way to hell."

"Inquiry is human; blind obedience brutal. Truth never loses by the one but often suffers by the other."

"He that has more Knowledge than Judgment, is made for another Man's use more than his own."

"Fear and Gain are great Perverters of Mankind, and where either prevail, the Judgement [of God] is violated."

"No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown."

"Some Fruits of Solitude" by William Penn (excerpts)

From the section entitled "RIGHT MARRIAGE"

79. Never Marry but for Love; but see that thou lov'st what is lovely

80. If Love be not thy chiefest Motive, thou wilt soon grow weary of a Married State, and stray from thy Promise, to search out Pleasures in forbidden Places.

81. Let not Enjoyment lessen, but augment Affection; it being the basest of Passions to like when we have not, what we slight when we possess.

82-3. It is the difference betwixt Lust and Love, that this is fixt, that volatile. Love grows, Lust wastes by Enjoyment: And the Reason is, that one springs from an Union of Souls, and the other from an Union of Sense. They have Diverse Origins, and so are of different Families: That inward and deep, this superficial; this transient, and that paramount.

84. They that Marry for Money cannot have the true Satisfaction of Marriage; that requisite Means being wanting.

85-6. Men are generally more careful of the Breed of their Horses and Dogs than of their Children. Those must be of the best Sort, for Shape, Strength, Courage and good Conditions: But as for these, their own Posterity, Money shall answer all Things. With such, it makes the Crooked Straight, sets Squint-Eyes Right, cures Madness, covers Folly, changes ill Conditions, mends the Skin, gives a sweet Breath, repairs Honor, makes Young, works Wonders.

87. O how sordid is Man grown! Man, the noblest Creature in the World, as a God on Earth, and the Image of him that made it; thus to mistake Earth for Heaven, and worship gold for God!

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From the section entitled "AVARICE"

92. But in Marriage do thou be wise; prefer the Person before Money; Virtue before Beauty; the Mind before the Body; then thou hast a Wife, a Friend, a Companion, a Second Self; one that bears an equal Share with thee in all thy Toils and Troubles.

93. Choose one that Measures her satisfaction, Safety and Danger, by thine; and of whom thou art sure, as of thy secretest Thoughts: A Friend as well as a Wife, which indeed a Wife implies: For she is but half a Wife that is not, or is not capable of being such a Friend.

94. Sexes make no Difference; since in Souls there is none: And they are Subjects of Friendship.

95. He that minds a Body and not a Soul, has not the better Part of the Relation; and will consequently want the Noblest Comfort of a Married Life.

96. The Satisfaction of our Senses is low, short, and transient: But the Mind gives a more raised and extended Pleasure, and is capable of an Happiness founded upon Reason: not bounded and limited by the Circumstances that Bodies are confin'd to.

97. Here it is we ought to search out our Pleasure, where the Field is large and full of Variety, and of an enduring Nature: Sickness, Poverty or Disgrace, being not able to shake it, because it is not under the moving Influences of Worldly Contingencies.

98. The Satisfaction of those that do so is in well-doing, and in the Assurance they have of a future Reward: That they are best loved of those they love most, and that they enjoy and value the Liberty of their Minds above that of their Bodies; having the whole Creation for their Prospect, the most Noble and Wonderful Works and Providences of God, the Histories of the Ancients, and in them the Actions and Examples of the Virtuous; and lastly, themselves, their Affairs and Family, to exercise their Minds and Friendships upon.

99. Nothing can be more entire and without Reserve; nothing more zealous, affectionate and sincere; nothing more contented and constant than such a Couple; nor no greater temporal Felicity than to be one of them.

100. Between a Man and his Wife nothing ought to rule but Love. Authority is for Children and Servants; yet not without sweetness.

101. As Love ought to bring them together, so it is the best Way to keep them well together.

Brief Biography of William Penn

Brief Biography of William Penn

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

1644

Baptized at All Hallows Church, London

October 1660

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.

April 1661

Attends the coronation of Charles II in London

Fall 1661

Penn is expelled from Oxford for having his own services in his room instead of attending Chapel. He father beats him for this.

July 1662

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.

February 1665

Begins to prepare for a career in law at Lincoln's Inn, Chancery Lane, London.

March 1666

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.

June 1666

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.

Fall 1666

He begins the practice of law in Ireland.

Spring 1667

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.

January 1667

William returns to London to find the city in ruins from the Great Fire (Sept. 2, 1666).

September 1667

Penn returns to Shangarry.

1668

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)

1668-1669

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.

Winter 1669-1670

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.

August 14, 1670

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.)

September 16, 1670

His father dies at his residence at Wanstead, Essex. Penn inherited an annual income from his father's estate of about 1500 pounds.

February 5, 1671

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).

1671

He sees George Fox off on Fox's trip to America.

April 4, 1672

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.

1672

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.

1673

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.

1677-78

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.

1678-1680

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.

June 1680

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.

4 March 1681

The King signs over Pennsylvania to William Penn and names the colony after Penn's father.

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1681-1682

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.

August 30, 1682

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.

1682-1683

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.

Spring 1683

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."

August 20, 1683

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.

1683-1684

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.

Feb 6, 1685

Charles II dies and the Duke of York takes the throne as James II.

1685

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.

March 1686

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.

Spring 1687

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.

Spring 1688

James II places 7 bishops in the Tower, who are later acquitted and released.

November 1688

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.

1689

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.

1690

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.

January 13, 1691

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."

November 30, 1693

Penn is exonerated, with the help of his friends including Henry Sidney, Lord Rochester, Lord Ranelagh and John Trenchard (now Secretary of State).

February 23, 1694

Gulielma Springett Penn dies.

1694

He writes "A Brief Account of The Rise and Progress of the People Called Quakers."

August 1694

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.

5 March 1696

He marries Hannah Callowhill, daughter of a Quaker, Bristol merchant.

1697

Penn meets with Czar Peter the Great in London. The Czar attends Quaker meeting at Deptford.

1698

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.

September 7, 1699

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.

1701

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.

1702

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.

1707

The Fords (Quakers of Bristol) foreclose on a loan to Penn and claim Pennsylvania.

Jan 1708

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.

1710

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.

1712

Penn is stricken by paralysis, which affects his memory.

1718

Penn dies and is buried at Jordans with Gulielma.

The Life of Margaret Fell

Based on Margaret Fox of Swarthmoor Hall by Helen G. Crosfield, Headley Brothers, Bishopsgate, E.C. (1913)

Margaret Fell was called the Nurturing Mother of Quakerism. Her home was the early organizational headquarters of the Religious society of Friends, as the Quakers are also known. Note that, like Betsy Ross, the name she is best known by is neither the name she was born with, nor the name she died with, but was the name of her first husband. After marrying George Fox in 1669, she changed her name to Margaret Fox, a name by which she is sometimes known.

1614

Margaret Askew is born at Marsh Grange in the Parish of Dalton, in Fournis in Lancashire, of good and honest parents. Her father is John Askew and she has one sister. On her father's death she is left 6000 pounds.

1632

Thomas Fell marries Margaret Askew and they live at Swarthmoor Hall. Thomas Fell was a young barrister of Gray's Inn, about 34 years of age. He had inherited Swarthmoor and the estate of Hawkswell near Ulverston from his father, George Fell, an attorney-at-law. This property was of considerable extent, comprising most of the land from Swarthmoor Hall to Morecambe Bay. In 1641 Thomas Fell was made Justice of the Peace for Lancashire and some years later Judge of Assize of the Chester and North Wales Circuit. Several times during the years 1646-1653 he represented Lancashire in parliament. He was made Sequestrian Commissioner for Safety in 1648. In 1649 he was given the office of Vice-Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster and in 1655 that of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Religion was a serious matter to both Judge Fell and Margaret. The Judge in the latter years of his life did not approve of Cromwell's assumption of authority in civil and religious matters and declined to play an active role in the Government. Margaret Fell writes that the first 20 years of her marriage was spent seeking of the best ways to serve God which included having traveling ministers stay at Swarthmoor.

1652

At the time of the arrival of George Fox, the Fell household included the following children: Margaret, aged 19; Bridget, Isabel, George b. 1639, Sarah, Mary, and Susanna. Rachel b. 1653 would be born the next year. William Caton, later a Quaker journal writer, was a companion for George and was being educated at Swarthmoor with the other children.

1652

First visit of George Fox. Judge Fell was away on the Welsh circuit. Margaret, her servants (among whom are Mary Askew, Anne Clayton, Thomas Salthouse) and her children become convinced of the truth of Fox's ministry. Fox, in church, speaking before the sermon asks, "You will say Chirst saith this, and the apostles say this; but what canst thou say? Art thou a child of Light, and hast thou walked in the Light, and what thou speakest is it inwardly from God?" Margaret tells us that "this opened me so, that it cut me to the heart, and then I saw clearly we were all wrong. So I sat down in my pew again and cried bitterly: and I cried in my spirit to the Lord, 'We are all thieves; we have taken the Scripture in words, and know nothing of them in ourselves.' After Fox leaves Richard Farnsworth and James Nayler follow in his steps to Swarthmoor. Judge Fell, before he arrives at the hall is greeted by neighbors who warn him that his family has been taken out of their religion. However, Farnsworth and Nayler persuade him to not act hastily. That night Fox returned and conversed with Thomas Fell and made a good impression so that from then on Judge Fell, though not a convinced Friend was sympathetic to their cause, allowing Swarthmoor Hall to be a meeting place and haven for Friends. He also was a protector, as after his death, a storm of persecution broke out in the North of England.

1653

George Fox is beaten by a mob at Ulverston on his way to Swarthmoor and young George Fell is pummeled too. While the Judge is away Fox and Nayler are imprisoned.

1653-1658

Life at Swarthmoor is described as very loving, both amongst Margaret's family and the servants. William Caton says, "Oh! The love which in that day abounded among us, especially in that family! And oh! The freshness of the power of the Lord God, which then was amongst us; and the zeal for Him and His truth, the comfort and refreshment which we had from His presence - the nearness and dearness that was amongst us one towards another, - the openings and revelations which we then had!" During this time many traveling Friends and Friends meetings are held at Swarthmoor. Margaret also raises money for Quakers in prison and those in need of money as well as organizing the Kendal fund. A number of Epistles written by Margaret Fell can be found here.

October, 1658

Judge Thomas Fell dies. Margaret inherits Swarthmoor Hall and her son George the rest of the estate. The trustees are Friends Anthony Pearson and Gervase Benson. George Fell was about 20 and a law-student at Gray's Inn, London. George had to obtain the King's pardon for his father's service during the Commonwealth or lose his estate. George eventually drifts away from the Quakers.

1659

Two weeks after the restoration of Charles II, soldiers appear at Swarthmoor and arrest George Fox on charges of treason. Fox is imprisoned at Lancaster Castle dungeon for 20 weeks. Margaret Fell left Swarthmoor in the summer of 1660 to visit the King and secure Fox's release accompanied by fellow-Friend Anne Curtis (whose father was executed for Royalist sympathies during Cromwell's time). They secure Fox's removal from jail to London to answer the charges there. Full liberty was then ordered for Fox by the King. See her letter to the king at The Quaker Writings Home Page or her letter to her children.

1661

The insurrection of the Fifth Monarchy Men, in which Quakers did not take part, is used as a pretext for renewed persecution. Margaret obtains a proclamation of freedom to Quakers from the King and Council and returns home after an absence of 15 months. A great deal of the correspondence between Margaret and her children during this time survives.

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January 29, 1662

daughter Margaret is married to John Rous (d. 1694), merchant of London, later a Quaker missionary in Barbadoes and Massachusetts; a few months later Bridget marries John Draper of Headlam in Durham, son of Henry Draper, a friend of George Fox.

1662

An act to suppress the Quakers passes parliament by which they can be imprisoned for refusing to take the Oath to the King. Again Margaret goes to London to intercede with the King who hears her favorably. She then travels from Devonshire to Northumberland with her daughters Sarah and Mary as a traveling Quaker minister.

1664

Returning to Swarthmoor, the Hall is ransacked and Fox arrested and thrown into Lancaster Gaol. Later Margaret is arrested and refusing to take the oath is placed in Lancaster Castle also, the chief magistrate behind this act being Colonel Richard Kirkby. It was Kirkby's father who had been replaced as the local magistrate by Thomas Fell in 1641 when Parliament deposed Charles I, and afterwards lost much of their land. In the trials it is clear that the purpose of the Judges is to prevent Quakers from meeting together as they attempt to get Fox and Fell to agree to this and only try to get them to say the Oath of Obedience after they refuse. Margaret's answer was "...this I shall say, as for my allegiance, I love, own, and honor the King and desire his peace and welfare; and that we may live a peaceable, a quiet and a godly life under his government, according to the Scriptures; and this is my allegiance to the King. And as for the oath itself, Christ Jesus, the King of Kings, hath commanded me not to swear at all, neither by heaven, nor by earth, nor by any other Oath." She then spent 6 months in Lancaster Gaol after which there was a trial 21 September 1664 at which she was committed to life in prison and forfeiture of her property. Her answer to this sentence was, "Although I am out of the King's protection, yet I am not out of the protection of the Almighty God." Fox was also committed and moved to Scarborough prison. Her daughters tried to get the King to intercede, but he did not have the power to overturn acts of Parliament. The Conventicle act was passed soon afterwards and persecution of the Friends, in fact, increased. During 1664, while she was in prison, her daughter Isabel was married to William Yeamans, a Quaker merchant of Bristol. Margaret Fell remained in prison for 4 and a half years except for a brief parole in 1665. During her imprisonment she took up the pen, writing Religious phamplets (published by Ellis Hookes in London). William Caton dies. The Plague and great fire sweep London. In January 1665 the King granted her forfeited estate to her son George Fell, who was no longer a Quaker. However, he left his sisters in charge of Swarthmoor as he preferred the city. George married Hannah Potter, widow, daughter of Edward Cooke in 1668. Quaker meetings continued at Swarthmoor unabated. See 1664 letter to John Rouse.

Title of a pamphlet written in prison: Women's Speaking Justified, Proved and Allowed of by the Scriptures, All Such as Speak by the Spirit and Power of the Lord Jesus And How Women Were the First That Preached the Tidings of the Resurrection of Jesus, and Were Sent by Christ's Own Command Before He Ascended to the Father (John 20;17). /p>

Summer 1668

By order of the King and council Margaret Fell was released from Lancaster prison. On 26 August, 1668 Mary Fell married Thomas Lower of Cornwall, a Quaker convinced by Fox in 1656 along with his aunt, Loveday Hambly.

Summer 1669

Fox writes, "I had seen from the Lord a considerable time before that I should take Margaret Fell to be my wife. And when I first mentioned it to her, she felt the answer of life from God thereunto." They obtained clearness from Margaret's children and the Quakers in Bristol and were married 27 October, 1669. On returning to Swarthmoor she was again imprisoned in Lancaster for breaking the Conventicle act preventing Quaker meetings where she remained for about a year. A few months after her release, Fox leaves for America. Not long after he returns in 1673, he is thrown into prison in Worcester for unauthorized meetings. Margaret again intercedes with the King and eventually in 1675, Fox is freed. After recuperation at Kingston with the Rouses they spend over a year together at Swarthmoor. There they are busy building the organizational structure of the Friends.

1677

Fox leaves for Holland.

1679

Fox leaves for London where his service for the rest of his life chiefly lay.

1681

Sarah Fell marries William Meade, linen draper of London. Sarah had been Clerk of the Lancashire Women's Quarterly Meeting and the person most concerned with the family's finances.

1684-5.

See the letter to her daughter Rachel.

1686

James II issues the act of Toleration and all Quakers are freed from prison.

1688

Meeting house built at Swarthmoor.

January 13, 1691

George Fox dies. After his death, Margaret Fox spent the remaining years except for one journey to London, in the quiet home-life of Swarthmoor. August 1691 - Susanna Fell marries William Ingram of London. It is said the Margaret oversaw the publishing of Fox's journals after his death.

April 23, 1702

She dies. Her last words being, "I am in Peace." She was buried at Swarthmoor Meeting-house. No headstone marks her resting-place.

Information on this page provided by James Quinn. Visit Gwynedd (Pennsylvania) Friends Meeting.