equally remarkable for beauty, devotion to her husband, and firmness to the religious principles which she had adopted when little more than a child.[1] He now settled at Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire, and gave himself up to controversial writing. To this year, 1672, belong the Treatise on Oaths and England’s Present Interest Considered. In the year 1673 Penn was still more active. He secured the release of George Fox, addressed the Quakers in Holland and Germany, carried on public controversies with Thomas Hicks, a Baptist, and John Faldo, an Independent, and published his treatise on the Christian Quaker and his Divine Testimony Vindicated, the Discourse of the General Rule of Faith and Practice,[2] Reasons against Railing (in answer to Hicks), Counterfeit Christianity Detected, and a Just Rebuke to One-and-twenty Learned Divines (an answer to Faldo and to Quakerism no Christianity). His last public controversy was in 1675 with Richard Baxter, in which, of course, each party claimed the victory.
At this point Penn’s connexion with America begins. The province of New Jersey, comprising the country between the Hudson and Delaware rivers on the east and west, had been granted in March 1663–1664 by Charles II. to his brother; James in turn had in June of the same year leased it to Lord Berkeley and Sir G. Carteret in equal shares. By a deed, dated 18th of March 1673–1674, John Fenwick, a Quaker, bought one of the shares, that of Lord Berkeley (Stoughton erroneously says Carteret’s) in trust for Edward Byllinge, also a Friend, for £1000. This sale was confirmed by James, after the second Dutch War, on the 6th of August 1680. Disputes having arisen between Fenwick and Byllinge, Penn acted as arbitrator, and then, Byllinge being in money difficulties, and being compelled to sell his interest in order to satisfy his creditors, Penn was added, at their request, to two of themselves, as trustee. The disputes were settled by Fenwick receiving ten out of the hundred parts into which the province was divided,[3] with a considerable sum of money, the remaining ninety parts being afterwards put up for sale. Fenwick sold his ten parts to two other Friends, Eldridge and Warner, who thus, with Penn and the other two, became masters of West Jersey, West New Jersey, or New West Jersey, as it was indifferently called.[4] The five proprietors appointed three commissioners, with instructions dated from London the 6th of August 1676, to settle disputes with Fenwick (who had bought fresh land from the Indians, upon which Salem was built, Penn being himself one of the settlers there) and to purchase new territories, and to build a town—New Beverley, or Burlington, being the result. For the new colony Penn drew up a constitution, under the title of “Concessions.” The greatest care is taken to make this constitution “as near as may be conveniently to the primitive, ancient and fundamental laws of the nation of England.” But a democratic element is introduced, and the new principle of perfect religious freedom stands in the first place (ch. xvi.). With regard to the liberty of the subject, no one might be condemned in life, liberty or estate, except by a jury of twelve, and the right of challenging was granted to the uttermost (ch. xvii.). Imprisonment for debt was not abolished (as Dixon states), but was reduced to a minimum (ch. xviii.), while theft was punished by twofold restitution either in value or in labour to that amount (ch. xxviii.). The provisions of ch. xix. deserve special notice. All causes were to go before three justices, with a jury. “They, the said justices, shall pronounce such judgment as they shall receive from, and be directed by the said twelve men, in whom only the judgment resides, and not otherwise. And in case of their neglect and refusal, that then one of the twelve, by consent of the rest, pronounce their own judgment as the justices should have done.” The justices and constables, moreover, were elected by the people, the former for two years only (ch. xli.). Suitors might plead in person, and the courts were public (ch. xxii.). Questions between Indians and settlers were to be arranged by a mixed jury (ch. xxv.). An assembly was to meet yearly, consisting of a hundred persons, chosen by the inhabitants, freeholders and proprietors, one for each division of the province. The election was to be by ballot, and each member was to receive a shilling a day from his division, “that thereby he may be known to be the servant of the people.” The executive power was to be in the hands of ten commissioners[5] chosen by the assembly. Such a constitution soon attracted large numbers of Quakers to West Jersey.
It was shortly before these occurrences that Penn inherited through his wife the estate of Worminghurst in Sussex, whither he removed from Rickmansworth. He now (July 25, 1677) undertook a second missionary journey to the continent along with George Fox, Robert Barclay and George Keith. He visited particularly Rotterdam and all the Holland towns, renewed his intimacy with the princess Elizabeth at Herwerden, and, under considerable privations, travelled through Hanover, Germany, the lower Rhine and the electorate of Brandenburg, returning by Bremen and the Hague. It is worthy of recollection that the Germantown (Philadelphia) settlers from Kirchheim, one of the places which responded in an especial degree to Penn’s teaching, are noted as the first who declared it wrong for Christians to hold slaves. Penn reached England again on the 24th of October. He tried to gain the insertion in the bill for the relief of Protestant Dissenters of a clause enabling Friends to affirm instead of taking the oath, and twice addressed the House of Commons’ committee with considerable eloquence and effect. The bill, however, fell to the ground at the sudden prorogation.
In 1678 the popish terror came to a head, and to calm and guide Friends in the prevailing excitement Penn wrote his Epistle to the Children of Light in this Generation. A far more important publication was An Address to Protestants of all Persuasions, by William Penn, Protestant, in 1679; a powerful exposition of the doctrine of pure tolerance and a protest against the enforcement of opinions as articles of faith. This was succeeded, at the general election which followed the dissolution of the pensionary parliament, by an important political manifesto, England’s Great Interest in the Choice of this New Parliament, in which he insisted on the following points: the discovery and punishment of the plot, the impeachment of corrupt ministers and councillors, the punishment of “pensioners,” the enactment of frequent parliaments, security from popery and slavery, and ease for Protestant Dissenters. Next came One Project for the Good of England, perhaps the most pungent of all his political writings. But he was not merely active with his pen. He was at this time in close intimacy with Algernon Sidney, who stood successively for Guildford and Bramber. In each case, owing in a great degree to Penn’s eager advocacy, Sidney was elected, only to have his elections annulled by court influence. Toleration for Dissenters seemed as far off as ever. Encouraged by his success in the West Jersey province, Penn again turned his thoughts to America. In repayment of the debt mentioned above he now asked from the Crown, at a council held on the 24th of June 1680, for “a tract of land in America north of Maryland, bounded on the east by the Delaware, on the west limited as Maryland [i.e. by New Jersey], northward as far as plantable”; this latter limit Penn explained to be “three degrees northwards.” This formed a tract of 300 m. by 160, of extreme fertility, mineral wealth and richness of all kinds. Disputes with James, duke of York, and with Lord Baltimore, who had rights over Maryland, delayed the matter until the 14th of March 1681, when the grant received the royal signature, and Penn was made master of the province of Pennsylvania. His own account of the name is that he suggested “Sylvania,” that the king added the “Penn” in honour of his father, and that, although he
- ↑ For a very charming account of her, and the whole Pennington connexion, see Maria Webb’s The Penns and Penningtons.
- ↑ See on this Stoughton’s Penn, p. 113.
- ↑ The deed by which Fenwick and Byllinge conveyed West New Jersey to Penn, Lawry and Nicholas Lucas is dated the 10th of February 1674–1675.
- ↑ The line of partition was “from the east side of Little Egg Harbour, straight north, through the country, to the utmost branch of Delaware River.”
- ↑ Penn’s letter of the 26th of August 1676 says twelve, and Clarkson has followed this; but the Concessions, which were not assented to by the inhabitants until the 3rd of March 1676–1677, say ten.
