Penn, William

(1644–1718)

   State Founder and Devotional Writer.

   Penn was born in London. He failed to complete his course at the University of Oxford because of his non-conformist convictions. He joined the Quakers in 1665 and was the author of many religious works including The Sandy Foundation Shaken, No Cross, No Crown (written in prison), The Fruits of Solitude and Primitive Christianity. He is remembered as the founder of the American colony of Pennsylvania. With his help, eight hundred Quakers had settled in New Jersey in 1678 and in 1682 he secured a new charter for the colony from King Charles II. From the first, the colony was to be a refuge for those in search of religious freedom. He himself travelled to the colony that same year, but he returned to England in 1684. His supposed support of King James II resulted in his being deprived of the governorship. In 1699 he returned to Pennsylvania, intending to stay, but he went back to England in 1701 to ensure that the province would receive the status of Crown Colony. Penn’s insistence on religious freedom was to become an important influence on the makers of the American constitution.

   E.B. Bronner, William Penn’s Holy Experiment: The Founding of Pennsylvania (1962);

   M.M. Dunn, William Penn: Politics and Conscience (1967);

   J.R. Soderlund (ed.), William Penn and the Founding of Pennsylvania: A Documentary History (1983).