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Relic skull and reliquary of Saint Ivo of Kermartin (also St. Yves or St. Ives), (1253–1303) in Tréguier, Brittany, France

In religion, a relic is a part of the body of a saint or a venerated person, or else another type of ancient religious object, carefully preserved for purposes of veneration or as a tangible memorial. Relics are an important aspect of some forms of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Shamanism, and many other religions.

The word relic comes from the Latin reliquiae, meaning "remains" or "something left behind" (the same root as relinquish). A reliquary is a shrine that houses one or more religious relics.

Relics in classical antiquity[link]

In ancient Greece, a city or sanctuary might claim to possess, without necessarily displaying, the remains of a venerated hero as a part of hero cult. Other venerable objects associated with the hero were more likely to be on display in sanctuaries, such as spears, shields, or other weaponry; chariots, ships or figureheads; furniture such as chairs or tripods; and clothing. The sanctuary of the Leucippides at Sparta claimed to display the egg of Leda.^[1]

Amphora depicting Greek hero cult in honor of Oedipus (Apulian red-figure, 380–370 BC)

In contrast to the relics of Christian saints, the bones were not regarded as holding a particular power derived from the hero, with some exceptions, such as the divine shoulder of Pelops held at Olympia. Miracles and healing were not regularly attributed to them;^[2] rather, their presence was meant to serve a tutelary function, as the tomb of Oedipus was said to protect Athens.^[3]

The bones of Orestes and Theseus were supposed to have been stolen or removed from their original resting place and reburied.^[4] On the advice of the Delphic Oracle, the Spartans searched for the bones of Orestes and brought them home, without which they had been told they could not expect victory in their war against the neighboring Tegeans.^[5] Plutarch says that the Athenians were likewise instructed by the oracle to locate and steal the relics of Theseus from the Dolopians:

Cimon … saw an eagle in a place where there was the semblance of a mound, pecking, as he says, and tearing up the ground with his talons. By some divine ordering he comprehended the meaning of this and dug there, and there was found a coffin of a man of extraordinary size, a bronze spear lying by its side, and a sword. When these relics were brought home on his trireme by Cimon, the Athenians were delighted, and received them with splendid processions and sacrifices, as though Theseus himself were returning to the city. And now he lies buried in the heart of the city, near the present gymnasium, and his tomb is a sanctuary and place of refuge for runaway slaves and all men of low estate who are afraid of men in power.^[6]

The body of the legendary Eurystheus was also supposed to protect Athens from enemy attack,^[7] and in Thebes, that of the prophet Amphiaraus, whose cult was oracular and healing.^[8] Plutarch narrates transferrals similar to that of Theseus for the bodies of the historical Demetrius I of Macedon and Phocion the Good^[9] which in many details anticipate Christian practice.^{[citation needed]} The bones or ashes of Aesculapius at Epidaurus, and of Perdiccas I at Macedon, were treated with the deepest veneration.

As with the relics of Theseus, the bones are sometimes described in literary sources as gigantic, an indication of the hero's "larger than life" status. On the basis of their reported size, it has been conjectured that such bones were those of prehistoric creatures, the startling discovery of which may have prompted the sanctifying of the site.^[10]

The head of the poet-prophet Orpheus was supposed to have been transported to Lesbos, where it was enshrined and visited as an oracle.^[11] The 2nd-century geographer Pausanias reported that the bones of Orpheus were kept in a stone vase displayed on a pillar near Dion, his place of death and a major religious center. These too were regarded as having oracular power, which might be accessed through dreaming in a ritual of incubation. The accidental exposure of the bones brought a disaster upon the town of Libretha, whence the people of Dion had transferred the relics to their own keeping.^[12]

According to the Chronicon Paschale, the bones of the Persian Zoroaster were venerated,^[13] but the tradition of Zoroastrianism and its scriptures offer no support of this.^{[citation needed]}

Buddhism[link]

Buddha relics from Kanishka's stupa in Peshawar, Pakistan, now in Mandalay, Burma (Teresa Merrigan, 2005)

In Buddhism, relics of the Buddha and various sages are venerated. After the Buddha's death, his remains were divided into eight portions. Afterward, these relics were enshrined in stupas wherever Buddhism was spread, despite his instructions that relics were not to be collected or venerated.

Some relics believed to be original remains of the body of the Buddha still survive, including the much-revered Sacred Relic of the tooth of the Buddha in Sri Lanka.

A stupa is a building created specifically for the relics. Many Buddhist temples have stupas and historically, the placement of relics in a stupa often became the initial structure around which the whole temple would be based. Today, many stupas also hold the ashes or ringsel of prominent/respected Buddhists who were cremated. In rare cases the whole body is conserved, for example in the case of Dudjom Rinpoche, after his death his physical body was moved a year later from France and placed in a stupa in one of his main monasteries near Boudhanath, Nepal in 1988. Pilgrims may view his body through a glass window in the stupa.

The Buddha's relics are considered to show people that enlightenment is possible, to remind them that the Buddha was a real person, and to also promote good virtue.

Christianity[link]

Reliquary at Blessed John XXIII National Seminary with relics of St. James, St. Matthew, St. Philip, St. Simon, St. Thomas, St. Stephen and other saints

History[link]

One of the earliest sources that purports to show the efficacy of relics is found in 2 Kings 13:20–21:

²⁰ Elisha died and was buried. Now Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring. ²¹ Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man's body into Elisha's tomb. When the body touched Elisha's bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet. (NIV)

These verses are cited to claim that the Holy Spirit's indwelling also affects the physical body, that God can do miracles through the bodies of His servants, or both^[opinion]. Also cited is the veneration of Polycarp's relics recorded in the Martyrdom of Polycarp (written 150–160 AD). With regard to relics that are objects, an often cited passage is Acts 19:11–12, which says that Paul's handkerchiefs were imbued by God with healing power.

In the early church the disturbance, let alone the division, of the remains of martyrs and other saints, was not practised. They were allowed to remain in their often unidentified resting places in cemeteries and the catacombs of Rome, always outside the walls of the city, but martyriums began to be built over the site of the burial, and it was considered beneficial to the soul to be buried close to the remains of saints, several large "funerary halls" being built over the sites of martyr's graves, including Old Saint Peter's Basilica; these were initially not regular churches, but "covered cemeteries" crammed with graves, and celebrating funerary and memorial services. The earliest recorded removal, or translation of saintly remains was that of Saint Babylas at Antioch in 354, but, partly perhaps because Constantinople lacked the many saintly graves of Rome, they soon became common in the Eastern Empire, though still prohibited in the West. The Eastern capital was therefore able to acquire the remains of Saints Timothy, Andrew and Luke, and the division of bodies also began, the 5th century theologian Theodoretus declaring that "Grace remains entire with every part". In the West a decree of Theodosius only allowed the moving of a whole sarcophagus with its contents, but the upheavals of the barbarian invasions relaxed the rules, as remains needed to be relocated to safer places.^[14]

The Second Council of Nicaea in 787 decreed that every altar should contain a relic, making it clear that this was already the norm, as it remains to the present day in the Catholic and Orthodox churches.

Relic from the shrine of Saint Boniface of Dokkum in the hermit-church of Warfhuizen: bone fragment in middle is from Saint Boniface; little folded papers on the left and right contain bone fragments of Saint Benedict of Nursia and Bernard of Clairvaux

Many tales of miracles and other marvels were attributed to relics beginning in the early centuries of the church; many of these became especially popular during the Middle Ages. These tales are collected in books of hagiography such as the Golden Legend or the works of Caesar of Heisterbach. These miracle tales made relics much sought after during the Middle Ages. By the late Middle Ages the collecting of, and dealing in, relics had reached enormous proportions, and had spread from the church to royalty, and then to the nobility and merchant classes. In the absence of real ways of assessing authenticity, relic-collectors became prey to the unscrupulous, and some extremely high prices were paid.

There are also many relics attributed to Jesus, perhaps most famously the Shroud of Turin, said to be the burial shroud of Jesus Christ. Pieces of the True Cross were one of the most highly sought after such relics; many churches claimed to possess a piece of it, so many that John Calvin famously remarked that there were enough pieces of the True Cross to build a ship from,^[15] although a study in 1870^[16] found that put together the claimed relics weighed less than 1.7 kg.

When Thomas Becket was martyred in Canterbury, his successor and the Canterbury chapter very quickly and successfully used (one might say "marketed") his relics to promote the cult of the as yet un-canonized martyr. His body was retained at Canterbury, but relics including pieces of his clothes, or cloth soaked with his mopped-up and diluted blood, were distributed widely across Europe to churches and rulers. The motivations included the assertion of the Church's independence against rulers, a desire to have an English (indeed Norman English) saint of European reputation, and the desire to promote Canterbury as a destination for pilgrimage; the campaign was successful on all counts.

[edit] Virtus and daemones

St. Francis Xavier's humerus, St. Joseph's church, Macao

]In his introduction to Gregory of Tours, Ernest Brehaut analyzed the Romano-Christian concepts that gave relics such a powerful draw. He distinguished Gregory's constant usage of sanctus and virtus, the first with its familiar meaning of "sacred" or "holy", and the second

… the mystic potency emanating from the person or thing that is sacred. These words have in themselves no ethical meaning and no humane implications whatever. They are the keywords of a religious technique and their content is wholly supernatural. In a practical way the second word [virtus] is the more important. It describes the uncanny, mysterious power emanating from the supernatural and affecting the natural. The manifestation of this power may be thought of as a contact between the natural and the supernatural in which the former, being an inferior reality, of course yielded. These points of contact and yielding are the miracles we continually hear of. The quality of sacredness and the mystic potency belong to spirits, in varying degrees to the faithful, and to inanimate objects. They are possessed by spirits, acquired by the faithful, and transmitted to objects.^[17]

Opposed to this holy "virtue" was also a "false" mystic potency that emanated from inhabiting daemons who were conceived of as alien and hostile. Truly holy virtus would defeat it, but it could affect natural phenomena and effect its own kinds of miracles, deceitful and malignant ones. This "virtue" Gregory of Tours and other Christian writers associated with the devil, demons, soothsayers, magicians, pagans and pagan gods, and heretics. False virtus inhabited images of the pagan gods, represented today by sculpture preserved by archaeology and in museums. The zeal to destroy the false virtus embodied by these works of art accounts for some of the rage with which mobs of Christians toppled sculptures, and smashed classical reliefs (particularly the faces), as evidenced by the damage to many works of art on display in museums.

The transmissibility of this potency, this virtus, is still reflected in the Roman Catholic classifications of relics in degrees (see Roman Catholic classification and prohibitions below). By transmission, the virtus might be transmitted to the city (see Relics in classical antiquity above). When Saint Martin died November 8, 397, at a village halfway between Tours and Poitiers, the inhabitants of these cities were well ready to fight for his body, which the people of Tours managed to secure by stealth. The story of the purloining of St. Nicholas of Myra is another example. The Image of Edessa was reputed to render that city impregnable.

Relics and pilgrimage[link]

This section requires expansion.

Since the beginning of Christianity, individuals have seen relics as a way to come closer to the saints and thus form a closer bond with God. Since Christians during the Middle Ages often took pilgrimages to shrines of holy people, relics became a large business. The pilgrims saw the purchasing of a relic as a means, in a small way, to bring the shrine back with him or her on returning home, since during the Middle Ages the concept of physical proximity to the "holy" (tombs of saints or their personal objects) was considered extremely important. Instead of having to travel hundreds of miles to become near to a venerated saint, one could venerate the relics of the saint within one's own home.

Roman Catholic classification and prohibitions[link]

Saint Jerome declared, "We do not worship, we do not adore, for fear that we should bow down to the creature rather than to the creator, but we venerate the relics of the martyrs in order the better to adore him whose martyrs they are."^[18]

A reliquary in the church of San Pedro, Ayerbe, Spain

• First-Class Relics: Items directly associated with the events of Christ's life (manger, cross, etc.), or the physical remains of a saint (a bone, a hair, skull, a limb, etc.). Traditionally, a martyr's relics are often more prized than the relics of other saints. Also, some saints' relics are known for their extraordinary incorruptibility and so would have high regard. Parts of the saint that were significant to that saint's life are more prized relics. For instance, King St. Stephen of Hungary's right forearm is especially important because of his status as a ruler. A famous theologian's head may be his most important relic. (The head of St. Thomas Aquinas was removed by the monks at the Cistercian abbey at Fossanova where he died). If a saint did a lot of travelling then the bones of his feet may be prized. Current Catholic teaching prohibits relics to be divided up into small, unrecognizable parts if they are to be used in liturgy (i.e., as in an altar; see the rubrics listed in Rite Of Dedication of a Church and an Altar).

• Second-Class Relics: An item that the saint wore (a shirt, a glove, etc.) Also included is an item that the saint owned or frequently used, for example, a crucifix, rosary, book etc. Again, an item more important in the saint's life is thus a more important relic. Sometimes a second class relic is a part of an item that the saint wore, known as Ex indumentis ("from the clothing").

• Third-Class Relics: Any object that is touched to a first- or second-class relic.^[19] Most third-class relics are small pieces of cloth, though in the first millennium oil was popular; the Monza ampullae contained oil collected from lamps burning before the major sites of Christ's life, and some reliquaries had holes for oil to be poured in and out again.

The sale of relics is strictly forbidden by the Church. The Code of Canon Law states:^[20]

§1190 §1 – "It is absolutely forbidden to sell sacred relics."

§1190 §2 – "Relics of great significance and other relics honored with great reverence by the people cannot be alienated validly in any manner or transferred permanently without the permission of the Apostolic See."

• 

  St. Peter's chains, preserved in San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, a second-class relic

• 

  Main Altar of St. Raphael's Cathedral, Dubuque, Iowa, containing the remains of Saint Cessianus, a boy martyred during the Diocletianic Persecution

• 

  Relics of St. Demetrius in the cathedral of Thessalonika, Greece

• 

  Relic of the True Cross, Decani Monastery, Kosovo

• 

  Relic of Blessed Pope John Paul II in the Hong Kong Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

Eastern Orthodoxy[link]

Grapevine cross of Saint Nino of Georgia (Sioni Cathedral, Tbilisi, Georgia)

The veneration of relics continues to be of importance in the Eastern Orthodox Church. As a natural outgrowth of the concept in Orthodox theology of theosis, the physical bodies of the saints are considered to be transformed by divine grace — indeed, all Orthodox Christians are considered to be sanctified by living the mysical life of the Church, and especially by receiving the Sacred Mysteries (Sacraments). In the Orthodox service books, the remains of the departed faithful are referred to as "relics", and are treated with honour and respect. For this reason, the bodies of Orthodox Christians are not traditionally embalmed.

The veneration of the relics of the saints is of great importance in Orthodoxy, and very often churches will display the relics of saints prominently. In a number of monasteries, particularly those on the Holy Mountain (Mount Athos in Greece), all of the relics the monastery possesses are displayed and venerated each evening at Compline. As with the veneration of icons, the veneration (Greek; δουλια, dulia) of relics in the Orthodox Church is clearly distinguished from adoration (λατρεια, latria); i.e., that worship which is due to God alone. Thus Orthodox teaching warns the faithful against idolatry and at the same time remains true to scriptural teaching (vis. 2 Kings 13:20–21) as understood by Orthodox Sacred Tradition.

The examination of the relics is an important step in the glorification (canonization) of new saints. Sometimes, one of the signs of sanctification is the condition of the relics of the saint. Some saints will be incorrupt, meaning that their remains do not decay under conditions when they normally would (natural mummification is not the same as incorruption). Sometimes even when the flesh does decay the bones themselves will manifest signs of sanctity. They may be honey colored or give off a sweet aroma. Some relics will exude myrrh. The absence of such manifestations is not necessarily a sign that the person is not a Saint.

Relics play a major role in the consecration of a church. The consecrating bishop will place the relics on a diskos (paten) in a church near the church that is to be consecrated, they will then be taken in a cross procession to the new church, carried three times around the new structure and then placed in the Holy Table (altar) as part of the consecration service.

The relics of saints (traditionally, always those of a martyr) are also sewn into the antimension which is given to a priest by his bishop as a means of bestowing faculties upon him (i.e., granting him permission to celebrate the Sacred Mysteries). The antimens is kept on the High Place of the Holy Table (altar), and it is forbidden to celebrate the Divine Liturgy (Eucharist) without it.

While Orthodoxy does not make use of the strict classification system of the Roman Catholic Church, it too recognizes and venerates relics which may pertain to Jesus Christ or a saint, such as a relic of the True Cross, the Chains of Saint Peter (feast day, 16 January), the grapevine cross of Saint Nino of Georgia, etc. Places can also be considered holy. When one makes a pilgrimage to a shrine he may bring back something from the place, such as soil from the Holy Land or from the grave of a saint.

List of relics[link]

• St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican contains Saint Peter's relics
• The Apostle Paul's relics are allegedly contained in the Basilica of Saint Paul
• St John the Evangelist's tomb is purported to be in the Basilica of St. John at Ephesus in Turkey
• St Mark's relics are held at St Mark's basilica in Venice
• St James' relics are reputedly held at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in North West Spain
• St Andrew's relics are contained in the Basilica of St Andrew in Patras, Greece
• John the Baptist's bones were recently discovered in a Bulgarian Monastery
• St. Thomas Aquinas relics are contained in the Church of the Jacobins, Toulouse, France.
• St. Catherine of Siena's head is stored in San Domenico church, Siena, with her body in Santa Maria sopra Minerva Church in Rome.

Islam[link]

Footprint of the prophet Muhammad, preserved in the türbe (funerary mausoleum) in Eyüp, Istanbul

In Istanbul[link]

While various relics are preserved by different Muslim communities, the most important are those known as The Sacred Trusts, more than 600 pieces treasured in the Privy Chamber of the Topkapı Palace Museum in Istanbul.

Muslims believe that these treasures include:

• Hand of John the Baptist
• Sword of Ali
• Hair from Muhammad's beard and footprint
• Staff of Moses
• Turban of Joseph
• Sword of David
• Pot of Abraham

Most of the trusts can be seen in the museum, but the most important of them can only be seen during the month of Ramadan. The Qur'an has been recited next to these relics uninterruptedly since they were brought to the Topkapı Palace.

Sacred Cloak of the Prophet[link]

A cloak (kherqa) believed to have belonged to the prophet Mohammed is kept in the central mosque in Kandahar, Afghanistan. According to local history, it was given to Ahmad Shah by Mured Beg, the Emir of Bokhara. The Sacred Cloak is kept locked away, taken out only at times of great crisis. In 1996 Mullah Omar, leader of the Afghan Taliban took it out displayed it to a crowd of ulema (religious scholars), and was declared Amir-ud Momineen, "Commander of the Faithful". Prior to this, the last time it had been removed had been when the city was struck by a cholera epidemic in the 1930s."^[21]

Marxism-Leninism[link]

While Marxism–Leninism is usually described as an ideology rather than religion, many communist states placed importance on the preservation of the remains of their respective founders, and making their available for veneration by citizens. In both the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China the mausolea of, respectively, Lenin and Mao Zedong were the focal points of the two nations' capitals. The communists did not rely on the natural incorruptibility of the remains, but used an elaborate embalming process to preserve the lifelike appearance of the remains.

Minor communist nations would often seek the help of the USSR or PRC to preserve the remains of their own founders in a similar way to how it was done in Moscow or Beijing. See Georgi Dimitrov Mausoleum (Bulgaria, 1949), Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum (Vietnam, 1973), Kumsusan Memorial Palace (North Korea, 1994). The bodies of the founders of the socialist Czechoslovakia, Mongolia, and Angola were also at some point made available for display and veneration in similar mausolea.^[22]

Cultural relics[link]

Relic is also the term for something that has survived the passage of time, especially an object or custom whose original culture has disappeared, but also an object cherished for historical or memorial value (such as a keepsake or heirloom).

"Cultural relic" is a common translation for "Wenwu" (文物), a common Chinese word that usually means "antique" but can be extended to anything, including object and monument, that is of historical and cultural value.

See also[link]

Relics of Saint Sabbas the Sanctified in the Catholicon of Mar Saba Monastery in the Kidron Valley

• Amulet
• Hazratbal Shrine
• Pilgrim
• Pilgrimage
• Relics associated with Jesus
• Saint Anthony's Chapel (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
• Shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne Cathedral
• Translation (relics)
• Veneration of the dead
• Contagion heuristic

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Relics, by Joan Carroll Cruz, OCDS, Our Sunday Visitor, Inc, 1984. ISBN 0-87973-701-8
• Reliques et sainteté dans l'espace médiéval [1]
• Brown, Peter; Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity; University of Chicago Press; 1982
• Vauchez, Andre; Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages; Cambridge University Press; 1997
• Mayr, Markus; Geld, Macht und Reliquien; Studienverlag, Innsbruck, 2000
• Mayr, Markus (Hg); Von goldenen Gebeinen; Studienverlag, Innsbruck, 2001

Relics in fiction[link]

• The Relic by Eça de Queiroz, Dedalus Ltd, UK 1994. ISBN 0-946626-94-4
• The Translation of Father Torturo by Brendan Connell, Prime Books, 2005. ISBN 0-8095-0043-4

External links[link]

Look up relic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Relics

• Holy Relics
• Relics
• Franciscan Relics- National Shrine of St Francis of Assisi
• [2] World tour of the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux
• Keeping Relics in Perspective
• A Place for Relics
• The veneration of the relics of saints – from the Summa Theologiae
• Book:Reliques et sainteté dans l'espace médiéval [3]
• Cultural 'saints'? Friday March 3, 2006, Arts Hub
• The Benefits of Seeing the Relics sites of the Maitreya Project
• Sacred Relics and Imperial Ceremonies at the Great Palace of Constantinople
• de:Reliquien in Rom#Papstreliquien Relics of bodily parts (liver, spleen and pancreas) of the popes residing at Quirinal Palace
• Introduction by Earnest Brehaut (from his 1916 translation), pp. ix-xxv to: Medieval Sourcebook, Gregory of Tours (539-594), History of the Franks, Books I–X (on the 6th century meaning of sanctus and virtus)
• [4]
• Texts on Wikisource:
  •  "Relics". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 
  • Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Relics". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 
  • Charles Conrad Abbott, “A Curious Indian Relic,” Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 8 (November 1875)
  • Hilaire Belloc, “The Relic” from On Something
  • John Donne, “The Relic”
  • Jack London, “A Relic of the Pliocene” from The Faith of Men
  • John Greenleaf Whittier, “The Relic”

William Penn
Portrait of William Penn
Born	(1644-10-14)October 14, 1644 London, England
Died	July 30, 1718(1718-07-30) (aged 73) Berkshire, England
Religion	Quakerism (Religious society of Friends)
Spouse	Gulielma Maria Springett, Hannah Margaret Callowhill
Children	William Penn, Jr., John Penn ("the American"), Thomas Penn, Richard Penn, Sr., Letitia Penn, Margaret Penn, Dennis Penn, Hannah Penn
Parents	Admiral Sir William Penn and Margaret Jasper
Signature

Frederick S. Lamb's painting of William Penn at the Brooklyn Museum

William Penn (October 14, 1644 – July 30, 1718) was an English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was an early champion of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful treaties with the Lenape Indians. Under his direction, the city of Philadelphia was planned and developed.

In 1681, King Charles II handed over a large piece of his American land holdings to William Penn to satisfy a debt the king owed to Penn's father. This land included present-day Pennsylvania and Delaware. Penn immediately sailed to America and his first step on American soil took place in New Castle in 1682.^[1] On this occasion, the colonists pledged allegiance to Penn as their new Proprietor, and the first general assembly was held in the colony. Afterwards, Penn journeyed up river and founded Philadelphia. However, Penn's Quaker government was not viewed favorably by the Dutch, Swedish, and English settlers in what is now Delaware. They had no "historical" allegiance to Pennsylvania, so they almost immediately began petitioning for their own Assembly. In 1704 they achieved their goal when the three southernmost counties of Pennsylvania were permitted to split off and become the new semi-autonomous colony of Lower Delaware. As the most prominent, prosperous and influential "city" in the new colony, New Castle became the capital.

As one of the earlier supporters of colonial unification, Penn wrote and urged for a Union of all the English colonies in what was to become the United States of America. The democratic principles that he set forth in the Pennsylvania Frame of Government served as an inspiration for the United States Constitution. As a pacifist Quaker, Penn considered the problems of war and peace deeply, and included a plan for a United States of Europe ("European Dyet, Parliament or Estates") in his voluminous writings.

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

William Penn was baptized in 1644 at All Hallows-by-the-Tower Church in London

Penn was born in 1644 at Tower Hill, London, the son of Admiral Sir William Penn and Margaret Jasper, previously the widow of a Dutch captain, and the daughter of a rich Dutch merchant from Rotterdam.^[2] William Penn, Sr. served in the Commonwealth Navy during the English Civil War and was rewarded by Oliver Cromwell with estates in Ireland. The lands were seized from Irish Catholics in retaliation for an earlier massacre of Protestants. Admiral Penn took part in the restoration of Charles II and was eventually knighted and served in the Royal Navy. At the time of his son’s birth, Captain Penn was twenty-three and an ambitious naval officer in charge of quelling Irish Catholic unrest and blockading Irish ports.^[3]

William Penn grew up during the rule of Oliver Cromwell, who succeeded in leading a Puritan rebellion against King Charles I, who was beheaded when Penn was age 5.^[4] His father was often at sea. Little William caught the pox at young age, losing all his hair (he wore a wig until he left college), prompting his parents to move from the suburbs to an estate in Essex.^[5] The country life made a lasting impression on young Penn, and kindled in him a love of horticulture.^[6] Their neighbour was famed diarist Samuel Pepys, who was friendly at first but later secretly hostile to the Admiral, perhaps embittered in part by his failed seductions of both Penn’s mother and sister Peggy.^[7]

Penn was educated first at Chigwell School, by private tutors whilst in Ireland, and later at Christ Church, Oxford.^[8] At that time, there were no state schools and nearly all educational institutions were affiliated with the Anglican Church. Children from poor families had to have a wealthy sponsor to get an education, as did Sir Isaac Newton. Penn’s education heavily leaned on the classical authors and “no novelties or conceited modern writers’’ were allowed including William Shakespeare.^[9] Foot racing was Penn’s favorite sport, and he would often sprint the more than three mile (5 km) distance from his home to the school. The school itself was cast in a Anglican mode — strict, humorless, and somber — and teachers had to be pillars of virtue and provide sterling examples to their charges.^[10] Though later opposing Anglicanism on religious grounds, Penn absorbed many Puritan behaviors, and was known later for his serious demeanor, strict behavior and lack of humor.^[4]

After a failed mission to the Caribbean, Admiral Penn and his family were exiled to his lands in Ireland. It was during this period, when Penn was about fifteen, that he met Thomas Loe, a Quaker missionary, who was maligned by both Catholics and Protestants. Loe was admitted to the Penn household and during his discourses on the “Inner Light”, young Penn recalled later that “the Lord visited me and gave me divine Impressions of Himself.”^[11]

A year later, Cromwell was dead, the royalists resurging, and the Penn family returned to England. The middle class aligned itself with the royalists and Admiral Penn was sent on a secret mission to bring back exiled Prince Charles. For his role in restoring the monarchy, Admiral Penn was knighted and gained a powerful position as Commissioner of the Navy.^[12]

In 1660, Penn arrived at Oxford and enrolled as a gentleman scholar with an assigned servant. The student body was a volatile mix of swashbuckling Cavaliers (aristocratic Protestants), sober Puritans, and nonconforming Quakers. The new government’s discouragement of religious dissent gave the Cavaliers the license to harass the minority groups. Because of his father’s high position and social status, young Penn was firmly a Cavalier but his sympathies lay with the persecuted Quakers. To avoid conflict, he withdrew from the fray and became a reclusive scholar.^[13] Also at this time, Penn was developing his individuality and philosophy of life. He found that he was not in sympathy with either his father’s martial view of the world or his mother’s society-oriented sensibilities, “I had no relations that inclined to so solitary and spiritual way; I was a child alone. A child given to musing, occasionally feeling the divine presence.”^[14]

Penn returned home for the extraordinary splendor of the King’s restoration ceremony and was a guest of honor alongside his father, who received a highly unusual royal salute for his services to the Crown.^[13] Though undetermined at the time, the Admiral had great hopes for his son’s career under the favor of the King. Back at Oxford, Penn considered a medical career and took some dissecting classes. Rational thought began to spread into science, politics and economics, which he did not take a liking to. When Dean Owen was fired for his free-thinking, Penn and other open-minded students rallied to his side and attended seminars at the dean’s house, where intellectual discussions covered the gamut of new thought.^[15] Penn learned the valuable skills of forming ideas into theory, discussing theory through reasoned debate, and testing the theories in the real world.

He also faced his first moral dilemma. After Owen was censured again after being fired, students were threatened with punishment for associating with him. However, Penn stood by the dean, thereby gaining a fine and reprimand from the university.^[16] The Admiral, despairing of the charges, pulled young Penn away from Oxford, hoping to distract him from the heretical influences of the university.^[17] The attempt had no effect and father and son struggled to understand each other. Back at school, the administration imposed stricter religious requirements including daily chapel attendance and required dress. Penn rebelled against enforced worship and was expelled. His father, in a rage, attacked young Penn with a cane and forced him from their home.^[18] Penn’s mother made peace in the family, which allowed her son to return home but she quickly concluded that both her social standing and her husband’s career were being threatened by their son’s behavior. So at age 18, young Penn was sent to Paris to get him out of view, improve his manners, and expose him to another culture.^[19]

In Paris, at the court of young Louis XIV, Penn found French manners far more refined than the coarse manners of his countrymen — but the extravagant display of wealth and privilege did not sit well with him.^[20] Though impressed by Notre Dame and the Catholic ritual, he felt uncomfortable with it. Instead he sought out spiritual direction from French Protestant theologian Moise Amyraut, who invited Penn to stay with him in Saumur for a year.^[21] The undogmatic Christian humanist talked of a tolerant, adapting view of religion which appealed to Penn, who later stated, “I never had any other religion in my life than what I felt.”^[22] By adapting his mentor’s belief in free will, Penn felt unburdened of Puritanical guilt and rigid beliefs, and was inspired to search out his own religious path.^[23]

Upon returning to England after two years abroad, he presented to his parents a mature, sophisticated, well-mannered, “modish” gentleman, though Samuel Pepys noted young Penn’s “vanity of the French”.^[24] Penn had developed a taste for fine clothes, and for the rest of his life would pay somewhat more attention to his dress than most Quakers. The Admiral had great hopes that his son then had the practical sense and the ambition necessary to succeed as an aristocrat. He had young Penn enroll in law school but soon his studies were interrupted. With warfare with the Dutch imminent, young Penn decided to shadow his father at work and join him at sea.^[25] Penn functioned as an emissary between his father and the King, then returned to his law studies. Worrying about his father in battle he wrote, “I never knew what a father was till I had wisdom enough to prize him...I pray God...that you come home secure.”^[26] The Admiral returned triumphant but London was in the grip of the plague of 1665. Young Penn reflected on the suffering and the deaths, and the way humans reacted to the epidemic. He wrote that the scourge “gave me a deep sense of the vanity of this World, of the Irreligiousness of the Religions in it.”^[27] Further he observed how Quakers on errands of mercy were arrested by the police and demonized by other religions, even accused of causing the plague.^[28]

William Penn at 22

With his father laid low by gout, young Penn was sent to Ireland in 1666 to manage the family landholdings. While there he became a soldier and took part in suppressing a local Irish rebellion. Swelling with pride, he had his portrait painted wearing a suit of armor, his most authentic likeness.^[29] His first experience of warfare gave him the sudden idea of pursuing a military career, but the fever of battle soon wore off after his father discouraged him, “I can say nothing but advise to sobriety...I wish your youthful desires mayn’t outrun your discretion.”^[30] While Penn was abroad, the Great Fire of 1666 consumed central London. As with the plague, the Penn family was spared.^[31] But after returning to the city, Penn was depressed by the mood of the city and his ailing father, so he went back to the family estate in Ireland to contemplate his future. The reign of King Charles had further tightened restrictions against all religious sects other than the Anglican Church, making the penalty for unauthorized worship imprisonment or deportation. The “Five Mile Act” prohibited dissenting teachers and preachers to come within that distance of any borough.^[32] The Quakers were especially targeted and their meetings were deemed as criminal.

Religious conversion[link]

Despite the dangers, Penn began to attend Quaker meetings near Cork. A chance re-meeting with Thomas Loe confirmed Penn’s rising attraction to Quakerism.^[33] Soon Penn was arrested for attending Quaker meetings. Rather than state that he was not a Quaker and thereby dodge any charges, he publicly declared himself a member and finally joined the Quakers (the Religious Society of Friends) at the age of 22.^[34] In pleading his case, Penn stated that since the Quakers had no political agenda (unlike the Puritans) they should not be subject to laws that restricted political action by minority religions and other groups. Sprung from jail because of his family’s rank rather than his argument, Penn was immediately recalled to London by his father. The Admiral was severely distressed by his son’s actions and took the conversion as a personal affront.^[35] His father’s hopes that Penn's charisma and intelligence would win him favor at the court were crushed.^[36] Though enraged, the Admiral tried his best to reason with his son but to no avail. His father not only feared for his own position but that his son seemed bent on a dangerous confrontation with the Crown.^[37] In the end, young Penn was more determined than ever and the Admiral felt he had no option but to order his son out of the house and to withhold his inheritance.^[38]

Homeless, Penn lived with Quaker families.^[38] Quakers were relatively strict Christians in the seventeenth century. They refused to bow or take off their hats to social superiors, believing all men equal under God, a belief antithetical to an absolute monarchy which believed the monarch divinely appointed by God. Therefore, Quakers were treated as heretics because of their principles and their failure to pay tithes. They also refused to swear oaths of loyalty to the King. Quakers followed the command of Jesus not to swear, reported in the Gospel of Matthew, 5:34. The basic ceremony of Quakerism is silent meditation in a meeting house, conducted in a group.^[33] There is no ritual and no professional clergy, and Quakers disavow the concept of original sin. God's communication comes to each individual directly, and if so moved, the individual shares their revelations, thoughts or opinions with the group. Penn found all these tenets to sit well with his conscience and his heart.

Penn became a close friend of George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, whose movement started in the 1650s during the tumult of the Cromwellian revolution. The times sprouted many new sects besides Quakers, including Seekers, Ranters, Antinomians, Soul Sleepers, Adamites, Diggers, Levellers, Antibaptists, Behmenists, Muggletonians, and many others, as the Puritans were more tolerant than the monarchy had been.^[39][40] Following Cromwell's death, however, the Crown was re-established and the King responded with harassment and persecution of all religions and sects other than Anglicanism. Fox risked his life, wandering from town to town, and he attracted followers who likewise believed that the "God who made the world did not dwell in temples made with hands."^[41] By abolishing the church’s authority over the congregation, Fox not only extended the Protestant Reformation more radically, but he helped extend the most important principle of modern political history – the rights of the individual – upon which modern democracies were later founded.^[42] Penn traveled frequently with Fox, through Europe and England. He also wrote a comprehensive, detailed explanation of Quakerism along with a testimony to the character of George Fox, in his introduction to the autobiographical Journal of George Fox.^[43] In effect, Penn became the first theologian, theorist, and legal defender of Quakerism, providing its written doctrine and helping to establish its public standing.^[44]

Penn in Ireland (1669 - 1670)[link]

In 1669^[45] Penn travelled to Ireland to deal with many of his father's estates. Whilst there he attended many meetings and stayed with leading Quaker families. He became great friends with William Morris; a leading quaker figure in Cork, and often stayed with Morris at Castle Salem near Rosscarbery.

Persecutions[link]

The coat of arms of William Penn: Argent, on a fess sable three plates.

Penn’s first of many pamphlets, "Truth Exalted", was a "short but sure testimony" against all religions except Quakerism. His strident attack on the Trinity and his branding the Catholic Church as "the Whore of Babylon" and Puritans as "hypocrites and revelers in God" brought him attention from the Anglican Church. He also lambasted all "false prophets, tithemongers, and opposers of perfection".^[46] Pepys thought it a "ridiculous nonsensical book" that he was "ashamed to read".^[47] In 1668, Penn was imprisoned in the Tower of London after writing a follow up tract entitled The Sandy Foundation Shaken. The Bishop of London ordered that Penn be held indefinitely until he publicly recanted his written statements. The official charge was publication without a license but the real crime was blasphemy, as signed in a warrant by King Charles II.^[48] Penn was placed in solitary confinement in an unheated cell and threatened with a life sentence. He bravely responded, "My prison shall be my grave before I will budge a jot: for I owe my conscience to no mortal man."^[48]

Given writing materials in the hope that he would put on paper his retraction, Penn instead wrote another inflammatory treatise, No Cross, No Crown, remarkable for its historical analysis and citation of sixty-eight authors whose quotations and commentary he had committed to memory and was able to summon without any reference material at hand.^[49] Penn petitioned for an audience with the King, which was denied but which led to negotiations on his behalf by one of the royal chaplains. He was released after 8 months of imprisonment.^[50]

Though freed, Penn demonstrated no remorse for his aggressive stance and vowed to keep fighting against the wrongs of the Church and the King. For its part, the Crown continued to confiscate Quaker property and put thousands of Quakers in jail. From then on, Penn's religious views effectively exiled him from English society; he was sent down (expelled) from Christ Church, Oxford for being a Quaker, and was arrested several times. Among the most famous of these was the trial following his 1670 arrest with William Meade. Penn was accused of preaching before a gathering in the street, which Penn had deliberately provoked in order to test the validity of the new law against assembly. Penn pleaded for his right to see a copy of the charges laid against him and the laws he had supposedly broken, but the judge (the Lord Mayor of London) refused – even though this right was guaranteed by the law. Furthermore, the judge directed the jury to come to a verdict without hearing the defence.^[51]

Despite heavy pressure from the Lord Mayor to convict Penn, the jury returned a verdict of "not guilty". When invited by the judge to reconsider their verdict and to select a new foreman, they refused and were sent to a cell over several nights to mull over their decision. The Lord Mayor then told the jury, "You shall go together and bring in another verdict, or you shall starve", and not only had Penn sent to jail in loathsome Newgate Prison (on a charge of contempt of court), but the full jury followed him, and they were additionally fined the equivalent of a year’s wages each.^[52][53] The members of the jury, fighting their case from prison in what became known as Bushel's Case, managed to win the right for all English juries to be free from the control of judges.^[54] This case was one of the more important trials that shaped the future concept of American freedom (see jury nullification)^[55] and was a victory for the use of the writ of habeas corpus as a means of freeing those unlawfully detained.

With his father dying, Penn wanted to see him one more time and patch up their differences. But he urged his father not to pay his fine and free him, "I intreat thee not to purchase my liberty." But the Admiral refused to let the opportunity pass and he paid the fine, releasing his son.

The old man had gained respect for his son's integrity and courage and told him, "Let nothing in this world tempt you to wrong your conscience."^[56] The Admiral also knew that after his death, young Penn would become more vulnerable in his pursuit of justice. In an act which would not only secure his son’s protection but also set the conditions for the founding of Pennsylvania, the Admiral wrote to the Duke of York, the successor to the throne.

The Duke and the King, in return for the Admiral's lifetime service to the Crown, promised to protect young Penn and make him a royal counselor.^[57]

Penn was not disinherited and he came into a large fortune, but found himself in jail again for six months as he continued to agitate. After gaining his freedom, he finally married Gulielma Springett in April 1672, after a four year engagement filled with frequent separations. Penn stayed close to home but continued writing his tracts, espousing religious tolerance and railing against discriminatory laws.^[58] A minor split developed in the Quaker community between those who favored Penn’s analytical formulations and those that preferred Fox’s simple precepts.^[59] But overriding the differences was the fact that the persecution of Quakers had accelerated and Penn again resumed missionary work in Holland and Germany.^[60]

Founding of Pennsylvania[link]

The Birth of Pennsylvania, 1680, by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris. William Penn, holding paper, standing and facing King Charles II, in the King's breakfast chamber at Whitehall.

Seeing conditions deteriorating, Penn decided to appeal directly to the King and the Duke. Penn proposed a solution which would solve the dilemma—a mass emigration of English Quakers. Some Quakers had already moved to North America, but the New England Puritans, especially, were as hostile towards Quakers as Anglicans in England were, and some of the Quakers had been banished to the Caribbean. In 1677, a group of prominent Quakers that included Penn purchased the colonial province of West Jersey (half of the current state of New Jersey).^[61] That same year, two hundred settlers from the towns of Chorleywood and Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire and other towns in nearby Buckinghamshire arrived, and founded the town of Burlington. George Fox himself had made a journey to America to verify the potential of further expansion of the early Quaker settlements.^[62] In 1682, East Jersey was also purchased by Quakers.^[63]

With the New Jersey foothold in place, Penn pressed his case to extend the Quaker region. Whether from personal sympathy or political expediency, to Penn’s surprise, the King granted an extraordinarily generous charter which made Penn the world’s largest private (non-royal) landowner, with over 45,000 square miles (120,000 km²).^[64]:64 Penn became the sole proprietor of a huge tract of land west of New Jersey and north of Maryland (which belonged to Lord Baltimore), and gained sovereign rule of the territory with all rights and privileges (except the power to declare war). The land of Pennsylvania had belonged to the Duke of York, who acquiesced, but he retained New York and the area around New Castle and the Eastern portion of the Delmarva Peninsula.^[65] In return, one-fifth of all gold and silver mined in the province (which had virtually none) was to be remitted to the King and the Crown was freed of a debt to the Admiral of £16,000, equal to £2,120,595 today.^[66]

Penn first called the area “New Wales”, then "Sylvania" (Latin for "forests or woods'"), which King Charles II changed to "Pennsylvania" in honor of the elder Penn.^[67] On March 4, 1681, the King signed the charter and the following day Penn jubilantly wrote, “It is a clear and just thing, and my God who has given it me through many difficulties, will, I believe, bless and make it the seed of a nation.”^[68] 1682 in England, he drew up a Frame of Government for the Pennsylvania colony. Freedom of worship in the colony was to be absolute, and all the traditional rights of Englishmen were carefully safeguarded.^[69] Penn drafted a charter of liberties for the settlement creating a political utopia guaranteeing free and fair trial by jury, freedom of religion, freedom from unjust imprisonment and free elections.

First Draft of the Frame of Government, Pennsylvania's first constitution written by Penn in England (c. 1681)

Having proved himself an influential scholar and theoretician, Penn now had to demonstrate the practical skills of a real estate promoter, city planner, and governor for his “Holy Experiment”, the province of Pennsylvania.^[70]

Besides achieving his religious goals, Penn had hoped that Pennsylvania would be a profitable venture for himself and his family. But he proclaimed that he would not exploit either the natives or the immigrants, “I would not abuse His love, nor act unworthy of His providence, and so defile what came to me clean.”^[71] Though thoroughly oppressed, getting Quakers to leave England and make the dangerous journey to the New World was his first commercial challenge. Some Quaker families had already arrived in Maryland and New Jersey but the numbers were small. To attract settlers in large numbers, he wrote a glowing prospectus, considered honest and well-researched for the time, promising religious freedom as well as material advantage, which he marketed throughout Europe in various languages. Within six months he had parceled out 300,000 acres (1,200 km²) to over 250 prospective settlers, mostly rich London Quakers.^[72] Eventually he attracted other persecuted minorities including Huguenots, Mennonites, Amish, Catholics, Lutherans, and Jews from England, France, Holland, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, and Wales.^[73]

Next, he set out to lay the legal framework for an ethical society where power was derived from the people, from “open discourse”, in much the same way as a Quaker Meeting was run. Notably, as the sovereign, Penn thought it important to limit his own power as well.^[74] The new government would have two houses, safeguard the rights of private property and free enterprise, and impose taxes fairly. It would call for death for only two crimes, treason and murder, rather than the two hundred crimes under English law, and all cases were to be tried before a jury.^[75] Prisons would be progressive, attempting to correct through “workshops” rather than through hellish confinement.^[76] The laws of behavior he laid out were rather Puritanical: swearing, lying, and drunkenness were forbidden as well as “idle amusements” such as stage plays, gambling, revels, masques, cock-fighting, and bear-baiting.^[77]

All this was a radical departure from the laws and the lawmaking of European monarchs and elites. Over twenty drafts, Penn labored to create his “Framework of Government.” He borrowed liberally from John Locke who later had a similar influence on Thomas Jefferson, but added his own revolutionary idea—the use of amendments—to enable a written framework that could evolve with the changing times.^[78] He stated, “Governments, like clocks, go from the motion men give them.”^[79] Penn hoped that an amendable constitution would accommodate dissent and new ideas and also allow meaningful societal change without resorting to violent uprisings or revolution.^[80] Remarkably, though the Crown reserved the right to override any law it wished, Penn’s skillful stewardship did not provoke any government reaction while Penn remained in his province.^[81] Despite criticism by some Quaker friends that Penn was setting himself above them by taking on this powerful position, and by his enemies who thought he was a fraud and “falsest villain upon earth”, Penn was ready to begin the “Holy Experiment”.^[82] Bidding goodbye to his wife and children, he reminded them to “avoid pride, avarice, and luxury”.^[83]

Back to England[link]

In 1684, Penn returned to England to see his family and to try to resolve a territorial dispute with Lord Baltimore.^[84] Penn did not always pay attention to details, and had not taken the fairly simple step of determining where the 40th degree of latitude (the southern boundary of his land under the charter) actually was. After he sent letters to several landowners in Maryland advising the recipients that they were probably in Pennsylvania and not to pay any more taxes to Lord Baltimore, trouble arose between the two proprietors.^[85]

Political conditions at home had stiffened since Penn left. To his dismay, England had taken on the absolutism of France and Bridewell and Newgate prisons were filled with Quakers. Book-burning was encouraged and written dissent was squashed. Internal political conflicts even threatened to undo the Pennsylvania charter. Penn withheld his political writings from publication as “The times are too rough for print.”^[86]

In 1685, King Charles died and the Duke of York was crowned James II. The new king resolved the border dispute in Penn’s favor. But King James, a Catholic with a largely Protestant parliament, proved a poor ruler, stubborn and inflexible.^[87] Penn supported James' Declaration of Indulgence which granted toleration to Quakers, and went on a "preaching tour through England to promote the King's Indulgence".^[88]

Penn faced serious problems in the colonies due to his sloppy business practices. Apparently, he could not be bothered with administrative details, and his business manager, fellow Quaker Philip Ford, embezzled substantial sums from Penn's estates. Ford capitalized on Penn's habit of signing papers without reading them. One such paper turned out to be a deed transferring ownership of Pennsylvania to Ford who then demanded a rent beyond Penn's ability to pay. After Ford's death in 1702, his wife, Bridget, had Penn thrown in debtor's prison, but her cruelty backfired. It was unthinkable to have such a person govern a major colony, and in 1708 the Lord Chancellor ruled that "the equity of redemption still remained in William Penn and his heirs."^[89]

Return to America[link]

The Slate Roof House was one of two residences used by Penn during his second stay in the Americas. The house fell into disrepair and was demolished in 1867.

After agreeing to let Ford keep all his Irish rents in exchange for keeping quiet about Ford’s legal ownership of Pennsylvania, Penn felt his situation sufficiently improved to return to Pennsylvania with the intention of staying.^[90] Accompanied by his wife Hannah, daughter Letitia and secretary James Logan, Penn sailed from the Isle of Wight on the Canterbury, reaching Philadelphia in December 1699.^[91]

Penn received a hearty welcome upon his arrival and found his province much changed in the intervening 18 years. Pennsylvania was growing rapidly and now had nearly 18,000 inhabitants and Philadelphia over 3,000.^[92] His tree plantings were providing the green urban spaces he had envisioned. Shops were full of imported merchandise, satisfying the wealthier citizens and proving America to be a viable market for English goods. Most importantly, religious diversity was succeeding.^[93] Despite the protests of Fundamentalists and farmers, Penn’s insistence that Quaker grammar schools be open to all citizens was producing a relatively educated work force. High literacy and open intellectual discourse led to Philadelphia becoming a leader in science and medicine.^[94] Quakers were especially modern in their treatment of mental illness, decriminalizing insanity and turning away from punishment and confinement.^[95]

Ironically, the tolerant Penn transformed himself almost into a Puritan, in an attempt to control the fractiousness that had developed in his absence, tightening up some laws.^[96] Another change was found in Penn’s writings, which had mostly lost their boldness and vision. In those years, he did put forward a plan to make a federation of all English colonies in America. There have been claims that he also fought slavery, but that seems unlikely, as he owned and even traded slaves himself and his writings do not support that idea. However, he did promote good treatment for slaves, including marriage among slaves (though rejected by the Council). Other Pennsylvania Quakers were more outspoken and proactive, being among the earliest fighters against slavery in America, led by Daniel Pastorius, founder of Germantown, Pennsylvania. Many Quakers pledged to release their slaves upon their death, including Penn, and some sold their slaves to non-Quakers.^[97]

The Penns lived comfortably at Pennsbury Manor and had all intentions of living out their life there. They also had a residence in Philadelphia. Their only American child, John, had been born and was thriving. Penn was commuting to Philadelphia on a six-man barge, which he admitted he prized above “all dead things”.

James Logan, his secretary, kept him acquainted with all the news. Penn had plenty of time to spend with his family and still attend to affairs of state, though delegations and official visitors were frequent. His wife, however, did not enjoy life as a governor’s wife and hostess, and preferred the simple life she led in England. When new threats by France again put Penn’s charter in jeopardy, Penn decided to return to England with his family, in 1701.^[98]

Later years[link]

Bronze statue of William Penn atop Philadelphia City Hall

Penn returned to England and immediately became embroiled in financial and family troubles. His eldest son William, Jr. was leading a dissolute life, neglecting his wife and two children, and running up gambling debts. Penn had hoped to have William succeed him in America.^[99] Now he could not even pay his son's debts. His own finances were in turmoil. He had sunk over £30,000 in America and received little back except some bartered goods. He had made many generous loans which he failed to press.^[100]

While he was away, Pennsylvanians were exercising their independence from their "father", replacing Penn's constitution with their own, the "Charter of Privileges", which governed them until the American Revolution. They gave voters more power than Penn had by eliminating the Upper House representing the wealthy class, but Jews and non-believers were barred from office.^[101]

Making matters worse from Penn's perspective, Philip Ford, his financial advisor, had cheated Penn out of thousands of pounds by concealing and diverting rents from Penn's Irish lands, claiming losses, then extracting loans from Penn to cover the shortfall. When Ford died in 1702, his widow Bridget threatened to sell Pennsylvania, to which she could prove title.^[102] Penn sent William to America to manage affairs, but he proved just as unreliable as he had been in England. There were considerable discussions about scrapping his constitution.^[103] In desperation, Penn tried to sell Pennsylvania to the Crown before Bridget Ford got wind of his plan, but by insisting that the Crown uphold the civil liberties that had been achieved, he could not strike a deal. Mrs. Ford took her case to court. At age 62, Penn landed in debtors' prison; however, a rush of sympathy reduced Penn's punishment to house arrest, and Bridget Ford was finally denied her claim to Pennsylvania. A group of Quakers arranged for Ford to receive a payment for back rents and Penn was released.^[104] In 1712 Berkeley Codd, Esq. of Sussex County, Delaware disputed some of the rights of Penn’s grant from the Duke of York. Some of William Penn’s agents hired lawyer Andrew Hamilton to represent the Penn family in this replevin case. Hamilton’s success lead to an established relationship of good will between the Penn family and Andrew Hamilton.^[105] Penn had grown weary of the politicking back in Pennsylvania and the restlessness with his governance, but Logan implored him not to forsake his colony, for fear that Pennsylvania might fall into the hands of an opportunist who would undo all the good that had been accomplished.^[106] During his second attempt to sell Pennsylvania back to the Crown in 1712, Penn suffered a stroke. A second stroke several months later left him unable to speak or take care of himself. He slowly lost his memory.^[99]

William Penn died penniless in 1718, at his home in Ruscombe, near Twyford in Berkshire, and was buried in an unmarked grave next to his first wife in the cemetery of the Jordans Quaker meeting house near Chalfont St Giles in Buckinghamshire in England. His wife as sole executor became the de facto governor until she died in 1726.^[107]

Family[link]

Penn first married Gulielma Maria Posthuma Springett (1644–1694), daughter of William S. Springett (the Posthuma in her name represented that her father had passed prior to her birth) and Lady Mary Proude Penington. They had three sons and five daughters, including William Penn (Jr.) and * Letitia Penn, (b. 1678-1746), married William Awbrey (Aubrey). (Gulielma Maria 1671/72-before 1685, William 1672/73-1674, Maria Margaret b/d 1673/74, Springett 1674/75-1696, Letitia 1678-1746, William, Jr. 1679/80-1720 , Unnamed child b/d 1682, (2nd) Gulielma Maria 1685-1689) ^[108]

Two years after Gulielma's death he married Hannah Margaret Callowhill (1671–1726), daughter of Thomas Callowhill and Anna (Hannah) Hollister. William Penn married Hannah when she was 25 and he was 52. They had eight children in twelve years. The first two children died in infancy. The other children were:

• Unnamed Female (b/d 1697)
• John Penn (1699/00–1746), never married.
• Thomas Penn (1700/01–1775), married Lady Juliana Fermor, fourth daughter of Thomas, first Earl of Pomfret.
• Hannah Penn (1703-1707/08)
• Margaret Penn (1704/05-1771)
• Richard Penn, Sr. (1705–1771)
• Dennis Penn (b. 1705/06, d. 1721/22)
• Hannah Penn (1708–1709)

Family tree[link]

Legacy[link]

After Penn’s death, Pennsylvania slowly drifted away from a colony founded by religion to a secular state dominated by commerce. Many of Penn’s legal and political innovations took root, however. Voltaire praised Pennsylvania as the only government in the world responsible to the people and respectful of minority rights. Penn’s "Frame of Government" and his other ideas were later studied by Benjamin Franklin as well as the pamphleteer of the American Revolution, Thomas Paine, whose father was a Quaker. Among Penn's legacies was the unwillingness to force a Quaker majority upon Pennsylvania, allowing his state to develop into a successful “melting pot”. In addition, Thomas Jefferson and the founding Fathers adapted Penn’s theory of an amendable constitution and his vision that “all men are equal under God” in forming the federal government following the American Revolution. In addition to Penn’s extensive political and religious treatises, he wrote nearly 1,000 maxims, full of wise observations about human nature and morality.^[109]

Penn’s Philadelphia continued to thrive, becoming one of the most populous colonial cities in the British Empire, reaching about 30,000 by the American Revolution, and becoming a center of commerce, science, medicine, and politics.^[92] New groups of immigrants in the 18th century included German-speaking peoples and Scots-Irish.

Penn’s family retained ownership of the colony of Pennsylvania until the American Revolution. However, William's son and successor, Thomas Penn, and his brother John, renounced their father’s faith, and fought to restrict religious freedom (particularly for Roman Catholics and later Quakers). Thomas weakened or eliminated the elected assembly's power, and ran the colony instead through his appointed governors. He was a bitter opponent of Benjamin Franklin and Franklin's push for greater democracy in the years leading up to the revolution. Through the infamous Walking Purchase of 1737, the Penns cheated the Lenape out of their lands in the Lehigh Valley.^[110]

Posthumous honors[link]

On November 28, 1984 Ronald Reagan, upon an Act of Congress by Presidential Proclamation 5284 declared William Penn and his second wife, Hannah Callowhill Penn, each to be an Honorary Citizen of the United States.^[111]

A bronze statue of William Penn exists on top of Philadelphia's City Hall. When installed in 1894, the statue represented the highest point in the city, as City Hall was then the tallest building in Philadelphia. A lesser-known statue of Penn is located at Penn Treaty Park, on the site where Penn entered into his treaty with the Lenape. In 1893, Hajoca Corporation, the nation's largest privately held wholesale distributor of plumbing, heating and industrial supplies, adopted the statue as its trademark symbol.^{[citation needed]}

A common misconception is that the smiling Quaker logo shown on boxes of Quaker Oats is a depiction of William Penn, but the Quaker Oats Company has stated that this is not true.^[112] It is simply a Quaker man who slightly resembles William Penn.

Penn was depicted in the 1941 film Penn of Pennsylvania by Clifford Evans.

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikisource has original works written by or about: William Penn