Penn

WILLIAM, (pèn,) a celebrated member of the Society of Friends, and the founder of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, B. in London, 1644, was the eldest son of Admiral Sir William Penn. He studied at Oxford, early gave evidence of strong religious impulses, and adopted the new doctrines of the so-called Society of Friends. This step on his part caused his expulsion from the university and consequent estrangement from his father. The latter, however, sent him to make the tour of Europe, in the hope that foreign travel might wean him from his heterodox ideas. This proving ineffectual, he was sent to Ireland, where he joined the army and distinguished himself at the siege of Carrick fer gus. In 1667, however, he again renewed his a ociation with the Quakers, was arrested and imprisoned, and finally recalled home by his father. In 1669 he commenced preaching in London, for which offence he was tried before the Court of Common Pleas, and heavily fined. P. remained in prison for some time on account of his refusal to pay the sum in which he had been mulcted, and which his father ultimately paid for him. In 1680, P., who had inherited from his father a claim against the govt. of £16,000, obtained from the king in satisfaction therefor a grant of an extensive tract of country lying W. of the river Delaware and N. of Maryland, in the American plantations, and which in the royal patent was called Pennsylvania (Penn's wooded country), in honor of the late admiral, the father of the grantee. This territory P. resolved to form into a commonwealth based upon perfect religious toleration, and accordingly set sail thither, arriving in Delaware Bay on the 27th Oct., 1682. In Nov. he entered into a league with the Indians, and next founded the city of Philadelphia. In 1684 he returned to England, where he enjoyed the confidence of James II., who had been his father's friend. After the acce ion of the Prince of Orange as William III., P. was twice accused of treason, and was arrested in 1690 on a charge of conspiracy, but was finally and honorably acquitted in 1693. In 1699, he paid a second visit to Pennsylvania, and his stay, which lasted two years, was marked by many useful measures, and by efforts to ameliorate the condition both of the Indians and Negroes. In 1701 he returned to England, and being encumbered with debts, endeavored to effect a sale of Pennsylvania to the Crown, but this negotiation was interrupted in 1712, through his being attacked by apoplectic fits, which greatly impaired his mental faculties. D. 1718. [s. 695]