Part 1 (1/2)

A Concise Biographical Sketch of William Penn

by Charles Evans

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF WILLIAM PENN

The following is a brief sketch of the life of one who, though perhaps more widely known as the Proprietor and Founder of Pennsylvania, was also eospel in the Society of Friends, and distinguished for his superior intellectual abilities, his varied culture, and, above all, for his devoted Christian character, exemplified both in adversity and prosperity It is taken principally from a work entitled ”Friends in the Seventeenth Century”

He was the son of Williaenius and courage risen rapidly in the navy, until at the age of twenty-nine he became ”Vice-Admiral of the Straits” Froiven by Granville Penn, a descendant, he appears to have been aprinciple of conduct, but hile eagerly coveting wealth and honor, was never accused of being corrupt as a public servant His son William was born in London, in 1644, and resided with his mother at Wanstead, in Essex, while his father was absent with the fleet over which he had coh some of the spies kept by him in attendance upon the exiled Charles and his court, that, notwithstanding he had sanctioned the proely rewarded him by an estate in Ireland, for so overtures to bring the squadron he commanded into the service of the Royalists, he lost favor with the Protector On his return froainst the Spanish West India Islands, he was deprived of his coenerously liberated him at his own humble petition He then took his family over to Ireland, where he continued to reside for some years, on the estate which Cromwell had had bestowed upon him, and which was near Cork

In a iven to him by William Penn, of some of the circumstances of his early life, and which was first published in ”The Penns and Peningtons,” by M Webb, it is stated, ”That while he was but a child living at Cork with his father, Thomas Loe caland, his father proposed to some others to be like the noble Bereans, and hear hily sent to Tho in the fa, he observed what effect T Loe's preaching had on the hearers A black servant of his father could not restrain hi on his father, saw the tears running down his cheeks also He then thought within himself, 'What if they would all be Quakers!'” This opportunity he never quite forgot; the re at tie, and was being educated by a private tutor

On the retirement of Richard Cromwell from the position for which he had been appointed by his father, Adoing over to the Continent to pay court to him whom he had no doubt would soon be recalled to the throne Charles employed hihthood, and by beco his debtor for one hundred pounds

When a little over fifteen years of age, Williaentleman couishi+ng himself as a hard and successful student After the Restoration, the Court set to work to re those who held Puritanical opinions, or who had found favor during the Co others, friendly to the re-established church and the laxDr

Owen, conspicuous as a scholar and a strict religionist, was ejected to make room for a royalist partisan, and the students becaes made

There is reason to believe, frohout his youth he was repeatedly visited by the Day-Spring fro hi hie, his associates appear to have been those of a religious cast of character like hireatly influenced by the teaching and advice of Dr Owen It so happened that, whilethe scholars relative to religious opinions and practices, Thos To these s William Penn and his associates went, and a deep i of this devoted servant of Christ They declined being present at ere now the regular ”services” of the college, and did not refrain fronated as the ”Popish doctrines and usages” re-introduced a them For this they were lectured and fined With the ardor and indiscretion of youth, this supposed indignity was highly resented by thes for worshi+p and religious exhortation and prayer, but soown and cap, and in some instances tore them off of those they -doing is not known; but his positive refusal to wear the usual garb, his bold denunciation of the doctrine and practices he believed to be wrong, and his courageous defence of the gospel truths he had heard froht upon him the enmity of the Masters in power, and he was expelled the University

Ad his son for realizing to the full the ambitious hopes and aims entertained by himself for his family, appears to have been little qualified to understand his son's character, or to rightly estimate the principles that actuated hi scheer, and for a tin to speak to him Accustomed to coive up his newly-forious duty, and to hold no further intercourse with those who had shared in his rebellious opinions and course Enraged on finding that his authority, though seconded by the filial affection of his child, was powerless for reious convictions, he resorted to the use of his cane, followed by solitary confinement in his roo, however, before his good sense convinced him that the object he had in vieas not to be obtained by severity He resolved to change his ained by force ayety and pleasure Learning that a nuh fao on to the Continent and spend so, he decided to send Willialy, furnished with letters that would introduce him into what the world considered the best society, he went to Paris; and, fascinated by the courtly and gay scenes of the couest, he soon caught the worldly spirit that presided over their festivities, and his serious, Quaker-like i dew before the burning rays of the sun He did not, however, allow pleasure to wean hi himself under the tuition of the learned Moses Ae and literature of the country, e into Italy, he ratified his taste for the works of theout of the ith the Dutch, the Admiral called his son William home, where he arrived after an absence of two years All trace of the religious seriousness and conscientious restraint that had one, and his father was delighted to find his son wearing the carriage and displaying the accomplishments of a self-possessed man of the world He was at once introduced at Court, and had the opportunity to becoh in the brilliant but profligate society that filled the saloons of Whitehall

William Penn now entered Lincoln's Inn as a student of law, and in 1665, when twenty-one years of age, there see an accomplished courtier, and a successful competitor for the honors of this world Few could enter life with rounded prospects of attaining to all that would gratify aintellectual powers, and naturally a with health, betokened physical strength and endurance His disposition, though lively and active, was marked by docility and sweetness He possessed ready wit, and his good mental abilities had been well developed and trained by careful culture, and strengthened by extensive and profound literary attainh in power and place smiled upon him His father enjoyed close intimacy with the Duke of York, heir presuht to secure for his son the glory and riches of the world, which courted his acceptance

The Ad been appointed by the Duke of York to accompany him in command of the fleet, took William as one of his staff; but after a short absence the latter was sent ho in London, and soon the whole aspect of the city was sadly changed The awful scenes of death that were daily occurring and struck the stoutest hearts with disof the necessity to prepare for its sudden terain broke up his false rest, showed hirandeur, and wooed hieneration

After a cruise of about two uinary contest in which he had been engaged He found Williaain serious, and indisposed to continue the course upon which, but a short time before, he had exultantly entered The increased honors and emoluments heaped on the victorious sailor by the royal brothers, made hiht them, of his son, would yet disappoint his hopes of the hereditary honors that e accession to his Irish estate, derived from royal bounty as a reward for the service rendered, made it necessary that so experienced the good effect, as he considered it, of placing his son within the dazzling circle of gay and fashi+onable life, he hurried him across the Channel, with letters of introduction to the Duke of Ormond, then Lord Deputy of Ireland

Williaal Court comparatively free from the dissipation and loose morals of that which surrounded Charles II, and he soon seemed to enter heartily into the enjoyment it afforded He joined an expedition sent, under the command of Lord Airan, to quell an insurrection that broke out aus, and for a while was so excited by the spirit and enterprise attending active military life, that he became anxious to adopt it as a profession But his father, when consulted on the subject, decidedly objected, and it was given up

But He atches over the workmanshi+p of his hand, and seeks to save that which is lost, was not leaving William Penn to wander in the paths of folly, without the reproofs of instruction, and inhim to accept those reproofs as the way to life; and it was not long before he was brought to a stand, and made to feel that he must then make his election between the life of a votary of this world and that of a self-denying disciple of a crucified Saviour

Shangarry Castle, the newly-acquired estate of the Ad the place and the affairs connected with it into order, William was often in the tohere he had been well acquainted when a boy Having one day, while there, gone into the shop of a woman Friend who she did not recognize him, he introduced hi to her recollection theheld by Tho surprise at his ht he would never forget theo to hear hih it was a hundred o so far, for that Friend was now in Cork, and was to have a ain to hear one who had arrested his attention when a boy, and seriously impressed hi; and after a time Thomas Loe stood up with the expression, ”There is a faith that overcomes the world, and there is a faith that is overcome by the world” It struck deep into the heart of Willia striving against or slighting his known duty to his Maker, and allowing the world to overco him out from the thraldom of sin; and as the preacher with fervid eloquence dwelt on the fruits of such faith, he was thoroughly broken down, and wepthe ith Thomas Loe to a Friend's house, where they had a free conversation, and fros of Friends As the Light of Christ shone with rievously he had departed froht under deep repentance therefor

Convinced of the truth of the doctrines held by Friends, he heartily embraced them, and firmly resolved to live and die by the at ain Cork in 1667, he, with others, was arrested by officers who cah the Magistrate, who recognized hiarry Castle, offered to set hiive his word ”to keep the peace,” which he refused Froiving an account of the arrest and i their innocence, and pleading the liberty of conscience deospel An order was immediately dispatched by the Earl for his release; and as it was soon noised abroad that Admiral Penn's son had turned Quaker, the Earl wrote to his father, co the inforence, the Admiral ordered William to come home immediately, which he did Josiah Cole, a minister in the Society of Friends,deeply interested for his stability and preservation, ith him to his father's house Fully as William had adopted the principles of Friends, and h, he had not yet adopted the plain dress that distinguished the this, and that his rapier still hung by his side, hoped that his friend the Earl had been wrongly infor with ordinary courtesy, without alluding to the report that had reached hi, on the next day, that William did not uncover his head when he caenerally wore their hats in the house,--and that he used thee and thou when addressing him, he de been convinced of the truth of the religion of the Quakers, he was conscientiously scrupulous against taking off his hat as a token of respect, using the plural language, or cory altercation on the part of the father, and deeply distressing on the part of the son, succeeded, and wasthat neither argument nor threats could shake the latter's firm conviction that to comply with his father's wishes would be to violate his duty to his Lord and Master, told hiht thee and thou whom he pleased, and keep on his hat, except in the presence of the King, the Duke of York, and himself; but to or before these he should not thee or thou, or stand covered; and the son, moved by his father's distress and his own filial affection, asked ti a decisive reply This was reluctantly granted, though he was forbidden to see any Friend, and Williaht direction and strength to follow it At their next interview William told his father that he could not co his duty to his God, and must therefore decline Irritated at what he considered his son's obstinacy, and foolish deter his acceptance, for a mere whim, the Admiral upbraided him in no ed, turned him out of doors, with the threat that he would disinherit hi his home and farieved; not sodriven froht to poverty, as because he incurred his displeasure, and was thought by hined torather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteereater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he had respect unto the recompense of reward” Friends who knew the circuladly; and his reatly mourned the course pursued towards him, took means to have him supplied with ed as to have an occasional intervieith hi aside his rapier and all ornaarb of a Quaker

So the trials that befell his and scornings that fell upon me, the displeasure of my parents, the cruelty and invective of the priests, the strangeness of all n and wonder theyand watching against iven up to endure the baptisms necessary for his purification and refineht him up out of the horrible pit, set his feet upon Hies, and made hi thus prepared hiift in the ospel of life and salvation He first came forth in this service in 1668, about two years after his convincement under the ministry of Thoe His uniformly consistent conduct, and careful maintenance of affectionate filial respect toward his exasperated parent, finally won upon him so far that he perh it was long after he had been so living, before he would havein the persecution which Friends were then suffering, his son was cast into prison, it was said he secretly used his influence to obtain his liberty