WILLIAM PENN.
_From the Print by J. Hall, after the Picture by West._
Under the Superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge.
_London, Published by Charles Knight & C^o. Ludgate Street._
]
[Illustration]
PENN.
William Penn was born in London, October 14, 1644. He was the son of a
naval officer of the same name, who served with distinction both in the
Protectorate and after the Restoration, and who was much esteemed by
Charles II. and the Duke of York. At the age of fifteen, he was entered
as a gentleman-commoner at Christchurch, Oxford. He had not been long in
residence, when he received, from the preaching of Thomas Loe, his first
bias towards the doctrines of the Quakers; and in conjunction with some
fellow-students, he began to withdraw from attendance on the Established
Church, and to hold private prayer-meetings. For this conduct Penn and
his friends were fined by the college for non-conformity; and the former
was soon involved in more serious censure by his ill-governed zeal, in
consequence of an order from the king, that the ancient custom of
wearing surplices should be revived. This seemed to Penn an infringement
of the simplicity of Christian worship: whereupon he with some friends
tore the surplices from the backs of those students who appeared in
them. For this act of violence, totally inconsistent, it is to be
observed, with the principles of toleration which regulated his conduct
in after life, he and they were very justly expelled.
Admiral Penn, who like most sailors possessed a quick temper and high
notions of discipline and obedience, was little pleased with this event,
and still less satisfied with his son’s grave demeanour, and avoidance
of the manners and ceremonies of polite life. Arguments failing, he had
recourse to blows, and as a last resource, he turned his son out of
doors; but soon relented so far as to equip him, in 1662, for a journey
to France, in hope that the gaiety of that country would expel his
new-fashioned and, as he regarded them, fanatical notions. Paris,
however, soon became wearisome to William Penn, and he spent a
considerable time at Saumur, for the sake of the instruction and company
of Moses Amyrault, an eminent Protestant divine. Here he confirmed and
improved his religious impressions, and at the same time acquired, from
the insensible influence of those who surrounded him, an increased
polish and courtliness of demeanour, which greatly gratified the Admiral
on his return home in 1664.
Admiral Penn went to sea in 1664, and remained two years on service.
During this time the external effects of his son’s residence in France
had worn away, and he had returned to those grave habits, and that rule
of associating only with religious people, which had before given his
father so much displeasure. To try the effect of absence and change of
associates, Admiral Penn sent William to manage his estates in Ireland,
a duty which the latter performed with satisfaction both to himself and
his employer. But it chanced that, on a visit to Cork, he again attended
the preaching of Thomas Loe, by whose exhortations he was deeply
impressed. From this time he began to frequent the Quakers’ meetings;
and in September, 1667, he was imprisoned, with others, under the
persecuting laws which then disgraced our statute-book. Upon application
to the higher authorities, he was soon released.
Upon receiving tidings that William had connected himself with the
Quakers, the Admiral immediately summoned him to England; and he soon
became certified of the fact, among other peculiarities, by his son’s
pertinacious adherence to the Quakers’ notions concerning what they
called Hat Worship. This led him to a violent remonstrance. William Penn
behaved with due respect: but in the main point, that of forsaking his
associates and rule of conduct, he yielded nothing. The father confined
his demands at last to the simple point, that his son should sit
uncovered in the presence of himself, the King, and the Duke of York.
Still William Penn felt bound to make not even this concession; and on
this refusal, the Admiral again turned him out of doors.
Soon after, in 1668, he began to preach, and in the same year he
published his first work, ‘Truth Exalted, &c.’ We cannot here notice his
very numerous works, of which the titles run, for the most part, to an
extraordinary length: but ‘The Sandy Foundation Shaken,’ published in
the same year, claims notice, as having led to his first public
persecution. In it he was induced, not to deny the doctrine of the
Trinity, which in a certain sense he admitted, but to object to the
language in which it is expounded by the English Church; and for this
offence he was imprisoned for some time in the Tower. During this
confinement, he composed ‘No Cross, No Crown,’ one of his principal and
most popular works, of which the leading doctrine, admirably exemplified
in his own life, was, that the way to future happiness and glory lies,
in this world, not through a course of misery and needless
mortification, but still through labour, watchfulness, and self-denial,
and continual striving against corrupt passions and inordinate
indulgences. This is enforced by copious examples from profane as well
as sacred history; and the work gives evidence of an extent of learning
very creditable to its author, considering his youth, and the
circumstances under which it was composed. He was detained in prison for
seven months, and treated with much severity. In 1669 he had the
satisfaction of being reconciled to his father.
William Penn was one of the first sufferers by the passing of the
Conventicle Act, in 1670. He was imprisoned in Newgate, and tried for
preaching to a seditious and riotous assembly in Gracechurchstreet; and
this trial is remarkable and celebrated in our criminal jurisprudence,
for the firmness with which he defended himself, and still more for the
admirable courage and constancy with which the jury maintained the
verdict of acquittal which they pronounced. He showed on this, and on
all other occasions, that he well understood and appreciated the free
principles of our constitution, and that he was resolved not to
surrender one iota of that liberty of conscience which he claimed for
others, as well as for himself. “I am far from thinking it fit,” he
said, in addressing the House of Commons, “because I exclaim against the
injustice of whipping Quakers for Papists, that Papists should be
whipped for their consciences. No, for though the hand pretended to be
lifted up against them hath lighted heavily upon us, and we complain,
yet we do not mean that any should take a fresh aim at them, or that
they should come in our room, for we must give the liberty we ask, and
would have none suffer for a truly sober and conscientious dissent on
any hand.” His views of religious toleration and civil liberty he has
well and clearly explained in the treatise entitled ‘England’s present
Interest, &c.,’ published in 1674, in which it formed part of his
argument that the liberties of Englishmen were anterior to the
settlement of the English church, and could not be affected by
discrepancies in their religious belief. He maintained that “to live
honestly, to do no injury to another, and to give every man his due, was
enough to entitle every native to English privileges. It was this, and
not his religion, which gave him the great claim to the protection of
the government under which he lived. Near three hundred years before
Austin set his foot on English ground the inhabitants had a good
constitution. This came not in with him. Neither did it come in with
Luther; nor was it to go out with Calvin. We were a free people by the
creation of God, by the redemption of Christ, and by the careful
provision of our never-to-be-forgotten, honourable ancestors: so that
our claim to these English privileges, rising higher than Protestantism,
could never justly be invalidated on account of non-conformity to any
tenet or fashion it might prescribe.”
In the same year died Sir William Penn, in perfect harmony with his son,
towards whom he now felt the most cordial regard and esteem, and to whom
he bequeathed an estate computed at 1500_l._ a-year, a large sum in that
age. Towards the end of the year he was again imprisoned in Newgate for
six months, the statutable penalty for refusing to take the oath of
allegiance, which was maliciously tendered to him by a magistrate. This
appears to have been the last absolute persecution for religion’s sake
which he endured. Religion in England has generally met with more
toleration in proportion as it has been backed by the worldly importance
of its professors: and though his poor brethren continued to suffer
imprisonment in the stocks, fines, and whipping, as the penalty of their
peaceable meetings for Divine worship, the wealthy proprietor, though he
travelled largely, both in England and abroad, and laboured both in
writing and in preaching, as the missionary of his sect, both escaped
injury, and acquired reputation and esteem by his self-devotion. To the
favour of the King and the Duke of York he had a hereditary claim, which
appears always to have been cheerfully acknowledged; and an instance of
the rising consideration in which he was held, appears in his being
admitted to plead, before a Committee of the House of Commons, the
request of the Quakers that their solemn affirmation should be admitted
in the place of an oath. An enactment to this effect passed the Commons
in 1678, but was lost, in consequence of a prorogation, before it had
passed the Lords. It was on this occasion that he made that appeal in
behalf of general toleration, of which a part is quoted in the preceding
page.
Penn married in 1672, and took up his abode at Rickmansworth in
Hertfordshire. In 1677 we find him removed to Worminghurst in Sussex,
which long continued to be his place of residence. His first engagement
in the plantation of America was in 1676, in consequence of being chosen
arbitrator in a dispute between two Quakers, who had become jointly
concerned in the colony of New Jersey. Though nowise concerned, by
interest or proprietorship, (until 1681, when he purchased a share in
the eastern district of New Jersey,) he took great pains in this
business; he arranged terms, upon which colonists were invited to
settle; and he drew up the outline of a simple constitution, reserving
to them the right of making all laws by their representatives, of
security from imprisonment or fine except by the consent of twelve men
of the neighbourhood, and perfect freedom in the exercise of their
religion: “regulations,” he said, “by an adherence to which they could
never be brought into bondage but by their own consent.” In these
transactions he had the opportunity of contemplating the glorious
results which might be hoped from a colony founded with no interested
views, but on the principles of universal peace, toleration, and
liberty: and he felt an earnest desire to be the instrument in so great
a work, more especially as it held out a prospect of deliverance to his
persecuted Quaker brethren in England, by giving them a free and happy
asylum in a foreign land. Circumstances favoured his wish. The Crown was
indebted to him 16,000_l._ for money advanced by the late Admiral for
the naval service. It was not unusual to grant not only the property,
but the right of government, in large districts in the uncleared part of
America, as in the case of New York and New Jersey respectively to the
Duke of York and Lord Baltimore: and though it was hopeless to extract
money from Charles, yet he was ready enough, in acquittal of this debt,
to bestow on Penn, whom he loved, a tract of land from which he himself
could never expect any pecuniary return. Accordingly, Penn received, in
1681, a grant by charter of that extensive province, named Pennsylvania
by Charles himself, in honour of the Admiral: by which charter he was
invested with the property in the soil, with the power of ruling and
governing the same; of enacting laws, with the advice and approbation of
the freemen of the territory assembled for the raising of money for
public uses; of appointing judges, and administering justice. He
immediately drew up and published ‘Some Account of Pennsylvania, &c.;’
and then ‘Certain Conditions or Concessions, &c.’ to be agreed on
between himself and those who wished to purchase land in the province.
These having been accepted by many persons, he proceeded to frame the
rough sketch of a constitution, on which he proposed to base the charter
of the province. The price fixed on land was forty shillings, with the
annual quit-rent of one shilling, for one hundred acres: and it was
provided that no one should, in word or deed, affront or wrong any
Indian without incurring the same penalty as if the offence had been
committed against a fellow-planter; that strict precautions should be
taken against fraud in the quality of goods sold to them, and that all
differences between the two nations should be adjudged by twelve men,
six of each. And he declares his intention “to leave myself and my
successors no power of doing mischief; that the will of one man may not
hinder the good of a whole country.”
This constitution, as originally organized by Penn, consisted, says Mr.
Clarkson, “of a Governor, a Council, and an Assembly; the two last of
which were to be chosen by, and therefore to be the Representatives of,
the people. The Governor was to be perpetual President, but he was to
have but a treble vote. It was the office of the Council to prepare and
propose bills, to see that the laws were executed, to take care of the
peace and safety of the province, to settle the situation of ports,
cities, market-towns, roads and other public places, to inspect the
public treasury, to erect courts of justice, to institute schools for
the virtuous education of youth, and to reward the authors of useful
discovery. Not less than two-thirds of these were necessary to make a
quorum, and the consent of not less than two-thirds of such quorum in
all matters of moment. The Assembly were to have no deliberative power,
but when bills were brought to them from the Governor and Council, were
to pass or reject them by a plain Yes or No. They were to present
Sheriffs and Justices of the Peace to the Governor; a double number, for
his choice of half. They were to be chosen annually, and to be chosen by
secret ballot.” This ground-work was modified by Penn himself at later
periods, and especially by removing that restriction which forbade the
Assembly to debate, or to originate bills: and it was this,
substantially, which Burke, in his ‘Account of the European Settlements
in America’ describes as “that noble charter of privileges, by which he
made them as free as any people in the world, and which has since drawn
such vast numbers of so many different persuasions and such various
countries to put themselves under the protection of his laws. He made
the most perfect freedom, both religious and civil, the basis of his
establishment; and this has done more towards the settling of the
province, and towards the settling of it in a strong and permanent
manner, than the wisest regulations could have done on any other plan.”
In 1682 a number of settlers, principally Quakers, having been already
sent out, Penn himself embarked for Pennsylvania, leaving his wife and
children in England. On occasion of this parting, he addressed to them a
long and affectionate letter, which presents a very beautiful picture of
his domestic character, and affords a curious insight into the minute
regularity of his daily habits. He landed on the banks of the Delaware
in October, and forthwith summoned an assembly of the freemen of the
province, by whom the frame of government, as it had been promulgated in
England, was accepted. Penn’s principles did not suffer him to consider
his title to the land as valid, without the consent of the natural
owners of the soil. He had instructed persons to negotiate a treaty of
sale with the Indian nations before his own departure from England; and
one of his first acts was to hold that memorable Assembly, to which the
history of the world offers none alike, at which this bargain was
ratified, and a strict league of amity established. We do not find
specified the exact date of this meeting, which took place under an
enormous elm-tree, near the site of Philadelphia, and of which a few
particulars only have been preserved by the uncertain record of
tradition. Well and faithfully was that treaty of friendship kept by the
wild denizens of the woods: ‘a friendship,’ says Proud, the historian of
Pennsylvania, ‘which for the space of more than seventy years was never
interrupted, or so long as the Quakers retained power in the
government.’
Penn remained in America until the middle of 1684. During this time much
was done towards bringing the colony into prosperity and order. Twenty
townships were established, containing upwards of 7000 Europeans;
magistrates were appointed; representatives, as prescribed by the
constitution, were chosen, and the necessary public business transacted.
In 1683 Penn undertook a journey of discovery into the interior; and he
has given an interesting account of the country in its wild state, in a
letter written home to the Society of Free Traders to Pennsylvania. He
held frequent conferences with the Indians, and contracted treaties of
friendship with nineteen distinct tribes. His reasons for returning to
England appear to have been twofold; partly the desire to settle a
dispute between himself and Lord Baltimore, concerning the boundary of
their provinces, but chiefly the hope of being able, by his personal
influence, to lighten the sufferings and ameliorate the treatment of the
Quakers in England. He reached England in October, 1684. Charles II.
died in February, 1685. But this was rather favourable to Penn’s credit
at court; for besides that James appears to have felt a sincere regard
for him, he required for his own church that toleration which Penn
wished to see extended to all alike. This credit at court led to the
renewal of an old and assuredly most groundless report, that Penn was at
heart a Papist—nay, that he was in priest’s orders, and a Jesuit: a
report which gave him much uneasiness, and which he took much pains in
public and in private to contradict. The same credit, and the natural
and laudable affection and gratitude towards the Stuart family which he
never dissembled, caused much trouble to him after the Revolution. He
was continually suspected of plotting to restore the exiled dynasty; was
four times arrested, and as often discharged in the total absence of all
evidence against him. During the years 1691, 1692, and part of 1693, he
remained in London, living, to avoid offence, in great seclusion: in the
latter year he was heard in his own defence before the king and council,
and informed that he need apprehend no molestation or injury.
The affairs of Pennsylvania fell into some confusion during Penn’s long
absence. Even in the peaceable sect of Quakers there were ambitious,
bustling and selfish men: and Penn was not satisfied with the conduct
either of the representative Assembly, or of those to whom he had
delegated his own powers. He changed the latter two or three times,
without effecting the restoration of harmony: and these troubles gave a
pretext for depriving him of his powers as Governor, in 1693. The real
cause was probably the suspicion entertained of his treasonable
correspondence with James II. But he was reinstated in August, 1694, by
a royal order, in which it was complimentarily expressed that the
disorders complained of were produced entirely by his absence. Anxious
as he was to return, he did not find an opportunity till 1699: the
interval was chiefly employed in religious travel through England and
Ireland, and in the labour of controversial writing, from which he
seldom had a long respite. His course as a philanthropist on his return
to America is honourably marked by an endeavour to ameliorate the
condition of Negro slaves. The society of Quakers in Pennsylvania had
already come to a resolution, that the buying, selling, and holding men
in slavery was inconsistent with the tenets of the Christian religion:
and following up this honourable declaration, Penn had no difficulty in
obtaining for them free admission into the regular meetings for
religious worship, and in procuring that other meetings should be holden
for their particular benefit. The Quakers therefore merit our respect as
the earliest, as well as some of the most zealous emancipators. Mr.
Clarkson says, “When Penn procured the insertion of this resolution in
the Monthly Meeting book of Philadelphia, he sealed as assuredly and
effectually the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and the Emancipation of
the Negroes within his own province, as, when he procured the insertion
of the minute relating to the Indians in the same book, he sealed the
civilization of the latter; for, from the time the subject became
incorporated into the discipline of the Quakers, they never lost sight
of it. Several of them began to refuse to purchase Negroes at all; and
others to emancipate those which they had in their possession, and this
of their own accord, and purely from the motives of religion; till at
length it became a law of the society that no member could be concerned,
directly or indirectly, either in buying and selling, or in holding them
in bondage; and this law was carried so completely into effect, that in
the year 1780, dispersed as the society was over a vast tract of
country, there was not a single Negro as a slave in the possession of an
acknowledged Quaker. This example, soon after it had begun, was followed
by others of other religious denominations.”
In labouring to secure kind treatment, to raise the character, and to
promote the welfare of the Indians, Penn was active and constant, during
this visit to America, as before. The legislative measures which took
place while he remained, and the bickerings between the Assembly and
himself, we pass over, as belonging rather to a history of Pennsylvania,
than to the biography of its founder. For the same reason we omit the
charges preferred against him by Dr. Franklin. The union in one person
of the rights belonging both to a governor and a proprietor, no doubt is
open to objection; but this cannot be urged as a fault upon Penn: and we
believe that it would be difficult to name any person who has used power
and privilege with more disinterested views. That he was indifferent to
his powers, or his emoluments, is not to be supposed, and ought not to
have been expected. He spent large sums, he bestowed much pains upon the
colony: and he felt and stated it to be a great grievance, that, whereas
a provision was voted to the royal governor during the period of his own
suspension, not so much as a table was kept for himself, and that
instead of contributing towards his expenses, even the trivial
quit-rents which he had reserved remained unpaid: nay, it was sought by
the Assembly, against all justice, to divert them from him, towards the
support of the government. It is to be recollected that Franklin wrote
for a political object, to overthrow the privileges which Penn’s heirs
enjoyed.