BIO: William Penn, Quaker statesman (30 Jul 1718)


A list of related biographies follows:
  MARY DYER, QUAKER MARTYR (1 JUN 1660)
  ROBERT BARCLAY, QUAKER THEOLOGIAN (3 OCT 1690)
  GEORGE FOX, FOUNDER OF THE QUAKERS (13 JAN 1691)
  WILLIAM PENN, QUAKER STATESMAN (30 JUL 1718)
  JOHN WOOLMAN, QUAKER VOICE OF CONSCIENCE (7 OCT 1772)
  ELIZABETH GURNEY FRY, QUAKER HELPER OF PRISONERS (12 OCT 1845)
  JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY, EVANGELICAL QUAKER (4 JAN 1847)
  STEPHEN GRELLET, QUAKER ARISTOCRAT (16 NOV 1855)
  RUFUS JONES, QUAKER MYSTIC AND SOCIAL ACTIVIST (16 JUN 1948)
  KENNETH BOULDING, QUAKER ECONOMIST FOR PEACE (19 MAY 1993)
  (Many of the biographies have appended sections on aspects of the
  Quaker mvement.)

$$$ WILLIAM PENN

     William Penn was born in 1644, son of the distinguished Admiral
Sir William Penn, who was close to King Charles II. When young
William was twelve, he heard a travelling Quaker preacher, and was
much impressed. When he was sixteen, he was sent to Oxford <51:46 N
1:15 W>, but expelled the next year for attending unauthorized
prayer meetings.  His father sent him abroad for a while, and then
set him to manage his Irish <@ 53 N 7 W> estates. There, at the age
of twenty-three, he heard again the same preacher as before, and was
"convinced" on the spot.  His father told him, "You may 'thee' and
'thou' whom you please, except for the King, the Duke of York, and
myself." Penn would not agree to these three exceptions, and was
barred from his father's house. He immediately wrote a book called
SANDY FOUNDATIONS SHAKEN, a book on the Trinity, which Trueblood
(see booklist below) calls "controversial and superficial." For
this, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London, where he wrote his
masterpiece, NO CROSS NO CROWN, a stirring call to Christian
discipleship and commitment. In 1669, being freed, he wrote
INNOCENCY WITH HER OPEN FACE, a work in which he modified,
explained, and essentially withdrew, the anti-Trinitarian statements
of his first book. In 1670, he wrote THE GREAT CASE OF LIBERTY OF
CONSCIENCE, presenting the case for complete religious toleration by
the state on theological, scriptural, rational, historical, and
pragmatic grounds.
     In 1677 Penn visited the Rhineland <@ 50 N 7 W>, where he met
members of persecuted "peace groups" such as the Amish and the
Mennonites. He later invited them to settle in his new colony, which
accounts for the presence on a large scale in Pennsylvania <@ 41 N
78 W> and some neighboring areas of what are called the
"Pennsylvania Dutch."

     In September 1670, Penn was the central figure in a trial that
is a landmark not only in the history of religious freedom, but
still more in the history of English law. He was chief speaker at a
large and tumultuous Quaker meeting, and was afterwards arrested,
along with one William Meade. They were charged with fomenting a
riot, and tried by jury. The judges were blatantly hostile to the
defendants, but the legal case broke down completely. The witnesses
for the prosecution admitted that, because of the size and noisiness
of the meeting, they could not hear what Penn had actually said.
Penn demanded to see a copy of the law he was accused of breaking,
and the judges shouted him down. He replied: "Is this justice or
true judgement? Must I therefore be taken away because I plead for
the fundamental laws of England? However, this I leave upon your
consciences who are of the jury, and my sole judges, that if these
ancient fundamental laws which relate to liberty and property, and
are not limited to particular persuasiveness in matters of religion,
must not be indispensably maintained and observed, who can say he
hath right to the coat on his back?"
     The jury found Penn's arguments persuasive. They found Meade
"Not Guilty", and Penn "Guilty of Speaking in Gracious Street" (i.e.
"Gracechurch Street"). There was no legal penalty for simply
speaking, and they knew it. They were sent back, to be locked up
without food or drink until they rendered an acceptable verdict.
After three days, they simply brought in a verdict of Not Guilty for
both defendants. The court fined them for this verdict, and
sentenced them to be imprisoned until the fines were paid. They were
imprisoned accordingly, but (according to one of my sources) Penn's
dying father paid the fine, and they were released. They then sued
for false imprisonment, and won. The Court of Common Pleas ruled
that NO JURY CAN BE FINED FOR ITS VERDICT. The case is known as
Bushell's Case (named for the jury foreman), and a monument stands
today before the courthouse (the Old Bailey?) to mark this milestone
in English law.

     In 1674, what is now northern New Jersey <@ 40 N 72:30 W> was
colonized by Quakers. The constitution of the colony outlawed
slavery, capital punishment, and debtor's prison, and provided that
whenever an Indian was tried for any offense, half the jury should
consist of Indians.
     In 1682, Penn and other Quakers bought northern New Jersey from
its proprietor, and not long after, the Duke of York gave Penn what
is now the state of Pennsylvania (with Delaware <@ 39 N 75:30 W>
thrown in), in discharge of a debt owed by the Duke to Penn's
father. Penn enthusiastically set to work to produce a society
governed by sound Quaker principles and common sense. He laid out
the city of Philadelphia <40 N 75:10 W>, with broad, straight
streets running at right angles.  In one direction, they were called
First Street, Second Street, and so on; and in the other, they were
Oak Street, Chestnut Street, and so on. Each house was to stand on
its own lot, with space on all sides between the house and the
property line. In contrast with some other colonists, Penn
recognized the Indians as rightful owners of the territory the
government of England had given him, and he proceeded to negotiate
with them for the purchase of lands he proposed to settle. Voltaire
said: "It was the only treaty made by the settlers with the Indians
that was never sworn to, and the only one that was never broken. In
subsequent Indian attacks on the expanding white settlements, no
Quaker was ever harmed." The statement is a bit exaggerated, but not
much.

     We still have the original manuscript of Penn's FRAME OF
GOVERNMENT in his own handwriting, with comments written in by John
Locke and Viscount Sidney.

     Probably many Americans have a vague impression that Penn
became a permanent resident of Pennsylvania. In fact he visited it
only twice, for about two years each time, in September 1682--August
1684, and again in 1699-1701. With the fall of the Royal House of
Stuart in 1689, he lost the favor and protection of the government
in England, and he ended his years in poverty and ill health. He
died in Berkshire <@ 51:20 N 1:00 E>, 30 July 1718.
     Pennsylvania was established as a colony to be run on Quaker
principles. In Rhode Island, Quakers held the governorship for
thirty-six successive terms. The first governor of East Jersey was a
Quaker. In North Carolina <@ 37 N 80 W>, Quakers at one time held
the governorship and half the legislature.
     In 1796, back in England, William Tuke and other Quakers
established a hospital in York called the Retreat, for the humane
treatment of the insane.

$$$ FOR FURTHER READING


 @@@ PENN, WILLIAM
     THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE PEOPLE CALLED QUAKERS, $75,
0-913408-32-8
     THE PEACE OF EUROPE, THE FRUITS OF SOLITUDE, AND OTHER
WRITINGS, $7 (or L=5) pb 376pp 0-460-87302-4 C E Tuttle
     NO CROSS, NO CROWN, $32pb 0-900657-57-X (or $69hc -58-8) W
Sessions
     NO CROSS, NO CROWN, abridged, $9pb, 0-913408-71-9 Friends
United
     NO CROSS, NO CROWN, text edition (ed. Anna Brinton) $3p PH
-030-8
     NO CROSS, NO CROWN, 1682 ed., L=11, 0-900657-57-X W Sessions
     QUAKER CLASSICS IN BRIEF 1978 $8pb PH -904-6
     Elizabeth G Vining, WILLIAM PENN, MYSTIC (1969) $3p PH -167-3
     Edwin G Brenner, WILLIAM PENN, 17TH CENTURY FOUNDING FATHER
36pp, $3pb PH -204-1
     William W. Comfort, WILLIAM PENN AND OUR LIBERTIES, 146pp,
(1976) $5pb 0-941308-02-2 Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, RSOF
     Q A Thakeham, WILLIAM PENN, L=1.50 (1993) Praxis Books
0-9518729-2-3
     Massey, THE LEGACY OF WILLIAM PENN, "CITIZEN OF THE WORLD,"
L=2.20 (1993) Quaker Home Service 0-85245-245-4
     Barbour, WILLIAM PENN ON RELIGION AND ETHICS: the emergence of
Liberal Quakerism, 2 vols, L=80, E Mellen Press, US (1991)
0-88946-687-4
     Reason, THE STORY OF WILLIAM PENN, "QUAKER CAVALIER," L=2,
Lutterworth Press (1984) 0-7188-2609-4

     D(avid) Elton Trueblood, THE PEOPLE CALLED QUAKERS, Friends
United Press, Richmond, Indiana, ISBN 0-913408-02-6 pb