Young William Penn
Born to a British Admiral in 1644, the young son of Admiral Sir William Penn was well educated and raised in a household typical of British military of the day. He attended Oxford University. At age twenty-four, he became a Quaker. Historical records tell us William Penn was expelled from Oxford in 1662 for "religious reasons", alluding to the strict Quaker faith he practiced. Penn was growing into adulthood a man of his own reasoning. He traveled to France and Italy. When he was called home by his father in 1664, he served briefly in the British Navy. Thus, a picture emerges of a young man with a mind of his own dutifully paying tribute to his father's stellar military career.
As he grew into young adulthood, he decided to study law in Lincoln's Inn in London, England. When Admiral Sir William Penn sent his son to Ireland to manage the family's estates, he was soon after imprisoned in Cork as a result of his participation in a disturbance at a Cork Quaker meeting. Fortunately, he was released and summarily returned to London. His experience in Ireland ignited and inflamed his religious beliefs and he became an stalwart Quaker.
Penn, The Orator and Writer
In midlife, Penn began public speaking on topics of his religious views. In 1688, he wrote, "The Sandy Foundation Shaken". He followed this with another literary work, "No Cross, No Crown", written during another imprisonment. Penn's inflammatory religious oratories were less tolerated in England of the 1600's, a time of religious turbulence. He was imprisoned again in 1669. He refused to remove his hat in court and then, refused to pay the fine for this act of disobedience. Due to the death of his father in 1670, Penn was released and several months later, arrested again. While imprisoned for six months, he authored "The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience". In 1671, Penn was released once more and decided to make a continental missionary tour. The following year, he married Gulielma Springett.
For a period of five years, from 1675 to 1680, he continued his oral and written religious and political agitation. During these years, Penn became interested in Quaker colonization in New Jersey. While in New Jersey, he formulated the famous, "Concessions and Agreements", his earliest governmental program.
Pennsylvania Colony
In 1681, Penn secured a charter from Charles II for Pennsylvania. In 1682, he secured a grant and added territory that became the state of Delaware. In Pennsylvania Colony, however, Penn's work there charted the course of Pennsylvania history with his program called, "The Holy Experiment". He later wrote "Frames of Government" as well as several treatises on Indian policy.
Philadelphia
Though he spent only two years in Pennsylvania, Penn founded and planned the city of Philadelphia, widely known as "The City of Brotherly Love". He continued to write and travel and work as a missionary in the interests of his Quaker faith. He lost control of his province in 1692 due to political difficulties he experienced. However, his friend, James II, helped to restore the province to him in 1694.
The Waning Years
Penns wife, Guglielma, died in 1694. Penn remarried in 1696. Though he became notable mostly for his founding of Pennsylvania, Penn's fourth "Frame of Government" proved most comprehensive for its liberalism and as the constitution of colonial Pennsylvania. When he returned to England, he spent the last decade of his life in financial hardship, including a term in debtors prison. He surrendered his control of Pennsylvania to the crown. Around this time, severe physical illness befell him. He became paralyzed and suffered memory lapses. His second wife tended to his affairs until he died in London on July 30, 1718.
Penn, The Author
William Penn authored several other works, "Christian Quaker and His Divine Testimony Vindicated" in 1673 and "An Address to Protestants of all Persuasions", in 1679.
Ref: Colliers Encyclopedia
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