PENN'S WORK COMPLETED
When Penn left the Fleet Prison, he went to his home at Brentford, nine
miles out of London, and stayed there for a short time, after which he
moved with his family to a country place in the Berkshire Hills called
Ruscombe. While he was here he kept up his efforts to sell Pennsylvania
to the English Crown, and, as that matter dragged along with little
result, he tried his best to straighten out the tangled government of
his colony by sending long letters to James Logan and other officers in
Philadelphia. In its early days the province had been a great pleasure
to him, but now it seemed to be only a source of continual
misunderstandings and debts. He felt that, however much the colony might
have profited others, it had proved almost a thankless burden to
himself. He wrote to some of the colonists just what his feelings were
in regard to Pennsylvania. "The many combats I have engaged in," he
said, "the great pains and incredible expense to your welfare and ease,
to the decay of my former estate, of which (however some there would
represent it) I too sensibly feel the effects, with the undeserved
opposition I have met with from thence, sink me into sorrow, that if not
supported by a superior hand, might have overwhelmed me long ago. And I
cannot but think it hard measure, that, while that has proved a land of
freedom and flourishing, it should become to me, by whose means it was
principally made a country, the cause of grief, trouble, and poverty."
Although the English Crown was anxious to take over the province of
Pennsylvania, there were many obstacles to their coming to an agreement
with Penn. Some of these obstacles he at length compromised; for
example, he agreed that he and his family should have only 800,000 acres
in fee, in place of all the rights to real estate that had been granted
him under the original charter. He insisted that there should be no
official establishing of the Church of England in Pennsylvania, that no
public money should be used for one sect in preference to others, and
that public offices should be open to all settlers. After much
controversy the English government drew up a new charter or
constitution, modeled after those in New York and New Jersey, except
that nothing whatever was said in the charter about establishing the
Church of England; while the question of the right to vote on public
matters was left for the people themselves to decide.
By 1710 the arrangements to take over Pennsylvania from Penn were about
completed. He then wrote a long letter to the people of his province,
addressing them as "My Old Friends," and setting forth what he had tried
to do for them, and how of late they had pained him by their continual
squabbles. His writing showed his surprise that Pennsylvania had not
been the home of peace he expected it would be. In one part of the
letter he said, "Friends! the eyes of many are upon you; the people of
many nations of Europe look on that country as a land of ease and quiet,
wishing to themselves in vain the same blessings they conceive you may
enjoy; but to see the use you make of them is no less the cause of
surprise to others, while such bitter complaints and reflections are
seen to come from you, of which it is difficult to conceive either the
sense or meaning. What are the distresses, grievances, and oppressions,
that the papers, sent from thence, so often say you languish under,
while others have cause to believe you have hitherto lived, or might
live, the happiest of any in the Queen's dominions?" He graciously
closed his letter in these words: "God give you his wisdom and fear to
direct you, that yet our poor country may be blessed with peace, love,
and industry, and we may once more meet good friends, and live so to the
end, our relation in the Truth having but the same true interest. I am,
with great truth and most sincere regard, your real friend, as well as
just Proprietor and Governor, William Penn."
The English Crown was to pay Penn £12,000 in four annual installments.
Before the matter could be finally settled it had to be ratified by an
Act of Parliament; however, there seemed little reason to doubt but that
the affair was practically settled, and so Penn considered it. Although
he was now almost seventy years old, he made many journeys through
England in order to spread the Quaker doctrines. In his leisure moments
he added many maxims to the collection he had made, and did other
writing as well. He seems to have given up the idea of returning to his
house at Pennsbury, although he sometimes spoke as if he should like to
return, if only his affairs in London would let him do so.
Some time before he had been taken ill, having what appeared to be a
stroke of paralysis. He recovered from this, but a second recurrence of
his illness came, and then a third. This last made him a complete
invalid, and even affected his mind to a certain degree. Although calm
and serene, he could not transact business intelligently. This prevented
the completion of the sale of his title to Pennsylvania; for, his mind
being impaired, he could not give a valid deed to the government. As a
result the title to the province stayed in his family until the American
Revolution in 1776.
When he could not attend to matters in Pennsylvania, his wife took
charge, and she managed them very capably. It was she who discharged a
deputy governor who was quarreling with the Assembly there, and
appointed in his place an excellent governor, Sir William Keith, who
proved a popular and very successful officer. Also, trade in
Pennsylvania was now beginning to boom, so that in a short time the
province became much more valuable, and it turned out well for Penn's
wife and children that he had not sold his title to the English Crown.
Penn remained an invalid until his death on July 30, 1718, and during
this time, freed from care concerning his province, he delighted in the
quiet country life at Ruscombe, and in the company of his devoted wife
and younger children. Many friends came to visit him, and on Sundays he
was driven to the meetinghouse, where he would sometimes speak briefly,
always proclaiming his faith in the religion that had been the guide
and mainstay of his eventful life.
William Penn was always a deeply religious and honorable man, thoroughly
sincere, and indomitable in his defense of what he believed to be the
truth. He was a great man, for he led the new sect of Quakers through
their early trials; he had the vision to build them a new home beyond
the seas and to set them standards of liberty and government that were
far in advance of his time. His faults of judgment were many; he too
often trusted the wrong men, and frequently he showed himself a child in
caring for money matters. These faults, however, were never faults of
character, but rather of a nature too generous and confiding. We usually
think of him as a quiet, simple Quaker, wearing plain clothes and caring
little or nothing for luxury or display. In reality he was quite
different. He was a man of action, a man who was naturally fond of court
life, who liked power, who was restless and eager, and who would have
made a better soldier than a statesman. While he lived in Pennsylvania
he lived up to his idea of a great landed proprietor and governor, and
he liked to be regarded as the leading man among the Quakers both in
Pennsylvania and in England.
[Illustration: _Courtesy of McKim, Mead, and White._
TABLET TO THE MEMORY OF WILLIAM PENN.
This beautiful tablet was erected and dedicated by the Pennsylvania
Society, in the Church of All Hallows, London, on July 13, 1911.]
His province of Pennsylvania was at once the delight and the torment of
his existence. He liked his ideal of what such a colony ought to be, but
he found the actual management of it one long series of quarrels and
money difficulties. He dealt fairly with settlers and Indians, probably
more fairly than any other governor of an American colony, and the
Indians seemed to appreciate his fair dealing more than did the white
men. The colony owed something to his guidance, but a great deal more to
the noble spirit of liberty of religion in which he founded it. There is
to be found what has made the name of William Penn illustrious and
beloved, for he had a great vision of human liberty and he worked
mightily to make that vision become a reality. In the light of his
splendid ambitions his mistakes count for little. He tried to do great
good, which is the best that can be said of any man.