PHILADELPHIA:
FOR SALE AT FRIENDS' BOOK-STORE,
No 304 ARCH STREET.
The following is a brief sketch of the life of one who, though perhapsmore widely known as the Proprietor and Founder of Pennsylvania, wasalso eminent as a minister of the gospel in the Society of Friends, anddistinguished for his superior intellectual abilities, his variedculture, and, above all, for his devoted Christian character,exemplified both in adversity and prosperity. It is taken principallyfrom a work entitled "Friends in the Seventeenth Century."
He was the son of William Penn, who, trained to nautical life, had byhis genius and courage risen rapidly in the navy, until at the age oftwenty-nine he became "Vice-Admiral of the Straits." From the account ofhis life and public career, given by Granville Penn, a descendant, heappears to have been a man who made self-interest a leading principle ofconduct, but who, while eagerly coveting wealth and honor, was neveraccused of being corrupt as a public servant. His son William was bornin London, in 1644, and resided with his mother at Wanstead, in Essex,while his father was absent with the fleet over which he had command.
Owing to information received by Cromwell, through some of the spieskept by him in attendance upon the exiled Charles and his court, that,notwithstanding he had sanctioned the promotion of Admiral Penn, andlargely rewarded him by an estate in Ireland, for some losses he had[Pg 4]sustained there, he was secretly making overtures to bring the squadronhe commanded into the service of the Royalists, he lost favor with theProtector. On his return from an unsuccessful expedition against theSpanish West India Islands, he was deprived of his command and throwninto prison, whence Cromwell generously liberated him at his own humblepetition. He then took his family over to Ireland, where he continued toreside for some years, on the estate which Cromwell had had bestowedupon him, and which was near Cork.
In a manuscript written by Thomas Harvey, reciting an account given tohim by William Penn, of some of the circumstances of his early life, andwhich was first published in "The Penns and Peningtons," by M. Webb, itis stated, "That while he was but a child living at Cork with hisfather, Thomas Loe came thither. When it was rumored a Quaker was comefrom England, his father proposed to some others to be like the nobleBereans, and hear him before they judged him. He accordingly sent toThomas Loe to come to his house; where he had a meeting in the family.Though William was very young, he observed what effect T. Loe'spreaching had on the hearers. A black servant of his father could notrestrain himself from weeping aloud; and little William looking on hisfather, saw the tears running down his cheeks also. He then thoughtwithin himself, 'What if they would all be Quakers!'" This opportunityhe never quite forgot; the remembrance of it still recurring at times.William Penn was then about eleven years of age, and was being educatedby a private tutor.
On the retirement of Richard Cromwell from the[Pg 5] position for which hehad been appointed by his father, Admiral Penn declared for CharlesStuart, and lost no time in going over to the Continent to pay court tohim whom he had no doubt would soon be recalled to the throne. Charlesemployed him in secret service, and rewarded him by the honors ofknighthood, and by becoming his debtor for one hundred pounds.
When a little over fifteen years of age, William Penn entered as a"gentleman commoner," at Oxford, where he remained three years,distinguis