October 14 - Happy Birthday, William Pen

Key points

Posted on October 14, 2021

This is an update of my post published on October 14, 2010:

Born in London, England, in 1644, William Penn’s father was an Admiral who was given lands by Oliver Cromwell – and shortly after rewarded for switching loyalties, to Charles II, with a knighthood. Now this dad was Admiral William Penn and, just as glorious, Sir William Penn!

William Penn (junior, not Admiral, not Sir) was raised to be a member of the ruling class and live a pretty comfy life. But –

Instead, he turned from the Church of England and the English Protestant group we know as the Puritans and became a Quaker. Like other Quakers, Penn faced persecution (bad treatment) because of his religious beliefs. And like many other people who faced religious persecution, Penn and a group of Quakers looked to the New World as a place to start fresh and gain religious freedom.

The Quaker Oats man looks like William Penn, a bit,
doesn’t he? But it is apparently mostly a matter of their
pictures both show a middle-aged white-haired man
wearing Quaker garb. The Quaker Oats fellow
is apparently NOT Penn.

The colony that Penn helped to start ended up being called…you guessed it, Pennsylvania!

But that name wasn’t given in honor of William Penn, the actual starter of the community. Instead, the colony was named Pennsylvania by the king, in honor of William’s father!

The king did more than that—he granted Penn (junior) a charter over such a large tract of land, that Penn became the largest non-royal landowner known in the world at the time. A lot of people in this situation would have wallowed in the wealth and power—and maybe abused it—but Penn considered that the colony was a “Holy Experiment,” and he tried his idealistic best to make sure that the laws were fair, that people accused of crimes would receive trial by jury, and that people in power (including himself, I gather) would be constrained by laws. He planned progressive prisons that would correct through workshops rather than punish, and he planned representational democracy.

Thomas Holme’s 1687 map of Pennsylvania

I also read that Penn cared deeply about fair treatment of Native Americans. He insisted that they be paid a fair price for land, I read. I wasn’t able to find a description or assessment of the interaction written by a Native historian, however – so we have to take this praise with more than a grain or two of salt!

Find out more here and here.