| 250 | PENN | WILLIAM PENN |
PENN, Granville, an English author, born in Philadelphia, Pa., Dec. 9, 1761, died at Stoke Park, Buckinghamshire, Sept. 28, 1844. He was the grandson of William Penn, served for a time as clerk in the British war office, and in 1834 came into possession of the family estates. He wrote "Critical Remarks on Isaiah vii. 18" (1799); "Remarks on the Eastern Origination of Mankind, and of the Arts of Cultivated Life" (1799); "A Comparative Estimate of the Mineral and Mosaic Genealogies" (1822); "Memorials of the Professional Life and Times of Admiral Sir William Penn" (2 vols., 1833); and many other works, the most important being a translation of the New Testament with annotations, entitled "The Book of the New Covenant" (3 vols., London, 1836-'8).
PENN, Sir William, an English admiral, born in Bristol in 1621, died in Wanstead, Essex, Sept. 16, 1670. He early entered the naval service, and before he was 32 years old had become vice admiral of England and general. He was one of the commanders in the expedition that took Jamaica from the Spaniards in 1655, and on his return in the same year was elected to parliament. In 1660 he was made commissioner of the navy, governor of Kinsale, vice admiral of Munster, and a member of the council of that province. He was also knighted. Entering the naval service again in 1664, he was captain-commander under the duke of York in the victory gained over the Dutch off Lowestoft in 1665. He left the naval service in 1666, but retained his other offices till 1669.
PENN, William, the founder of Pennsylvania, born in London, Oct. 14, 1644, died at Ruscombe, Berkshire, July 30, 1718. He was the son of Admiral Penn, who married Margaret, daughter of John Jasper, a merchant of Rotterdam. William Penn received his first education at the free grammar school of Chigwell, Essex, where he experienced strong religious impressions, and regarded himself as called to a consecration to the service of God. At the age of 12 he was removed from Chigwell to receive private instruction at home, and three years later entered Christ Church college, Oxford. While in college, through the influence of Thomas Loe, he became a convert to Quakerism, and not only refused to conform to the worship of the established church or to wear the surplice of a student, but, with some of his companions who had embraced his principles, assaulted several of the students in public and stripped from them their robes. For this outrage he was expelled, and on his return home his father, who was aiming at a peerage, beat him and drove him from the house. A reconciliation soon took place, and in 1662 the admiral sent his son to France, in hopes that the gayety of Paris might counteract the soberness of his Quakerism. The youth, however, had no taste for dissipation, and preferred to study theology at Saumur under Amyraut. After travelling as far as Turin he was recalled by his father in 1664. Without losing his religious seriousness, he had acquired on the continent more polish and courtesy and liveliness of manners. In compliance with his father's wishes he entered as a student of law at Lincoln's Inn, but shortly after was driven from London by the great plague of 1665. Under the influence of that terrible visitation his religious impressions acquired redoubled force. His father made another effort to change these tendencies by sending him to Ireland, and committing to him the management of two large estates in the county of Cork. Penn executed this charge to the entire satisfaction of his father; but again encountering Thomas Loe at Cork, he was induced to attend Quaker meetings, at one of which, Sept. 3, 1667, he was apprehended with others and carried before the mayor, on a charge of attending unlawful assemblies. Refusing to give bonds for good behavior, he was sent to prison; but he wrote to the lord president of the council of Munster, who procured his immediate discharge. From this time he identified himself with the Quakers in everything except costume, and on returning to England soon after became involved in disputes with his father, who finally offered to tolerate every other peculiarity if his son would only agree to remove his hat in his presence and in that of the king and the duke of York. Penn, after deliberation and prayer, declared that he could not remove his hat by way of compliment to any one; and his father at once turned him out of doors. Penn soon became a prominent preacher at the meetings of the Friends. Through the influence of his mother his father's indignation was so far softened that he permitted his son to return home, and used his interest with the government to relieve him from persecution. In 1668 Penn made his first appearance as an author by issuing a crude and acrimonious treatise, entitled "Truth Exalted, in a short but sure Testimony against all those religious Faiths and Worships that have been formed and followed in the darkness of Apostasy; and for that Glorious Light which is now risen and shines forth in the Life and Doctrine of the despised Quakers as the alone good old way of Life and Salvation. Presented to Princes, Priests, and People, that they may repent, believe, and obey. By William Penn, whom Divine Love constrains in an holy contempt to trample on Egypt's glory, not fearing the King's wrath, having beheld the Majesty of Him who is invisible." This was followed by a considerable number of tracts on similar topics, which with his other writings were collected and published by Joseph Besse (2 vols. fol., London, 1726). In 1668 he also published "The Sandy Foundation Shaken," an attack upon "those so generally believed and applauded doctrines of one God subsisting in three distinct and separate persons; of the impossibility of God's pardoning sinners without a plenary satisfaction; and of the justification of impure persons by an im-
