The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://archive.org/details/cu31 924028831 200 Cornell University Library F 1522 S88 William Penn. the founder of PennsylYani olin 3 1924 028 831 200 WILLIAM PENN. BV THE SAME AUTHOR. I. HISTORY OF RELIGION IN ENGLAND. From THE OPENING OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT TO THE END OF THE Eighteenth Century. Third and Carefully Revised Cheap Edition. In Six Volumes. Crown 8vo, price £,•! ss. Handsomely bound in cloth. I.— THE CHURCH OF THE CIVIL WARS. II.— THE CHURCH OF THE COMMONWEALTH. III.— THE CHURCH OF THE RESTORATION. IV.— THE CHURCH OF THE RESTORATION. v.— THE CHURCH OF THE REVOLUTION. VI.— THE CHURCH IN THE GEORGIAN ERA. *' He was there also to express fore Dr. Siaiigkton's time, histories the obligations of dear old frieitds of the Puritans, in nvhich they read of 200 years ago — Ckillingworih, of nothing hut Puritafiistn ; kistor- yereiny Taylor, Sir Matthew ies of the Church of England, in Hale^ Cudworth, and others. All which vjas nothing but the glories of these were noiv near friends, "who the Church of England. The -work but for Dr. Sioughton would never of Dr. Stoughton's was the first have been known to the^n. He had "work "which had brought together also to express his obligations to Dr. men famous in their different Stoughtonfor making hint acguain- classes, within the fmir comers ted here with men wh4)m he should of the same book. — From Dean know so well above — he meant Howe, Stanley's Speech at Kensington Owen, and others. They had, be- Chapel, April, 1875. II. WILLIAM WILBERFORCE. In "Men Worth Remem- bering" Series. '* Dr. Stoughtonhas ioldthe story He gives many vivid touches also, of Wilbetforce with the quiet ease which enables us to realise the which coines of long literary habits times in which Wilbetforce lived" and experience, and "which tlie — Literary World. general reader always appreciates, III. THE DAILY PRAYER-BOOK. For the Use of Families, with Additional Prayers for Special Occasions. Edited by Rev. John Stoughton, D.D. Seventh Edition. Crown 8vo, 3f. td, " There is nothing sectarian in alike. The selection is one of the the prayers, so that th£y may be happiest we have S€en."^—'R&\viM!iry. used by Churchmen and Dissenters London : HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 27, Paternoster Row. 'L WILLIAM PENN, THE FOUNDER OF PENNSYLVANIA. BY JOHN STOUGHTON, DID. fonbon : HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 27, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCLXXXII. [All rights r£servcd.'\ 1 I I- '■-; f> .*, !"?■>;/ 'J Butler &• Tanner, The Selwood Printittg Works, Frome, and London. ADVERTISEMENT. ' I "HE Bicentenary of William Penn's arrival in -*■ America naturally recalls attention to the story of his life. I have been requested by my publishers to prepare a new work on the subject : and Quaker descent on my mother's side, the study for many years of opinions entertained by the Society of Friends, and sympathy with the founder of Pennsylvania in his love of peace, and his advocacy of civil and re- ligious freedom, have rendered the task pleasant and interesting. The writings of Penn, and his life by Thomas Clarkson, in two volumes, 1813, supply a basis for the whole work. But important supplementary know- ledge has been added since. The controversy raised by Lord Macaulay touching Penn's relations with James II. illustrated those points in many ways ; and the Right Hon. W. E. Forster especially, in his ex- haustive pamphlet on the subject, published in 1849, supplied much original information for subsequent writers. Hepworth Dixon's popular and eloquent " Historical Biography, founded on Family and State Papers," did not add much to what was known be- for&; but Hazard's "Annals of Pennsylvania," 1850, LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. and Watson's "Annals of Philadelphia," 1857, contri- buted new and curious information, documentary and traditional, respecting the American portion of the founder's history. " The Penns and the Penningtons," by Maria Webb, 1867, made the public acquainted with several original family letters, and other docu- ments, giving beautiful glimpses of his domestic and social life ; and further copious and reliable materials for what relates to the other side of the Atlantic are supplied in the " Correspondence between William Penn and James Logan," edited by Edward Arm- strong, for the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1870. In addition to these printed authorities, I have been favoured by my friend, Mr. Joseph Bevan Braithwaite, with unpublished correspondence and other documents, which I have found very useful. I must also mention valuable assistance rendered to me when I visited the United States in 1873: Mr. Thomas Stewardson, jun., laid me under great obliga- tion by his conversation and correspondence. I have also gleaned some fresh particulars from papers in the Record Office, and from Reports of the Historical Commission. JOHN STOUGHTON. Ealing, October, 1882. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PACE Father and Son _ . . i CHAPTER II. Mysticism and th^ Early Friends . . . .18 CHAPTER III. Conversion 31 CHAPTER IV. Persecution 48 CHAPTER V. Breathing Time 82 CHAPTER VI. A Family Story 88 ' CHAPTER VII. Controversialist and Arbitrator . . . .104 CHAPTER VIII. Abroad .... . . .122 CHAPTER IX. Political Action . 145 CHAPTER X. Westward Thoughts . . . .162 viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XI. PAGE The Founding of Philadelphia . . .181 CHAPTER XII. Back Again ... 203 CHAPTER XIII. Fresh Troubles .... . . 245 CHAPTER XIV. In Retirement . 259 CHAPTER XV. At Liberty Again . 276 CHAPTER XVI. Second Visit to America . . . 294 CHAPTER XVII. Second Return . 320 CHAPTER XVIII. Sunset ..... 345 Chapter i. FATHER AND SON. ADMIRAL PENN, the distinguished father of an illustrious son, was born in the year 1621. That father was son of Giles Penn, the master of a merchant vessel ; who traded in the Levant, and was familiar with the seaports of Portugal and Spain. He had with him on his voyages the future admiral, instruct- ing him in seafaring duties, down to those most menial. The youth took to nautical pursuits with a sort of second nature, and felt that passion for enter- prise on the deep which is the secret of success in naval careers. Increasing knowledge, growing skill, with native courage and decision of character, gave pledges of eminence in seamanship ; and there could be no doubt that young William, for that was his christian name, would make a mark amongst his fellow-men. The merchant service could not satisfy his ambition, and therefore he entered the Royal Navy, and was so fortunate as to be made a Captain in 1642, having only just come of age. The fortunate young sailor next year married a Dutch lady, and the happy couple took lodgings near the Tower. " Your late honoured father," said Gibson to the famous quaker long afterwards, "dwelt upon Great Tower Hill, on the east side, within a court adjoining to B LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. London Wall ; " ^ — a precise description which brings the locality before us —and if it applies to this early- residence in the neighbourhood, we may see the new captain, full of life and spirits, in sailor uniform, coming out of the court and stepping into the Trinity House hard by, where his father might have business to transact ; or pushing in a boat up the silent highway of the Thames to the Admiralty, in Duke Street, Westminster, where he would have business of his own. So lucky was he, that in a year after his marriage, he rose to be a Rear-Admiral, and would feel that sense of personal importance which, it is proverbial, such gentlemen generally feel as they first put their feet on the ladder of promotion. In the autumn of that year, the 14th of October, 1644, a little boy was born in the court adjoining London Wall, filling the house with joy and gladness. Just then England was in a very excited state. The battle of Marston Moor had been fought in the previous summer, the country was plunging deeper still into civil strife. King Charles I. had been virtu- ally dethroned, and parliamentary power had leaped into the saddle, the armies of the royahst and country party were marching up and down the land to the terror of quiet citizens, and no one could tell how the strife would end. For a soldier there was no help he must take one side or the other. But a sailor could stand aloof The navy had only to do with England's enemies, to fight with Holland and Spain ; it had no business to interfere between patriots and partisans of the crown. England's lordship of the 1 Sir William Penn's "Life," vol. ii. p 615. FATHER AND SON. 3- seas was in the hands of the High Admiral, Lord' Warwick, and other Admirals had only to obey his orders. " It is not for us to mind state affairs," said'! Blake, then the foremost slilor of his day, " but to keep foreigners from fooling us." In that sentiment- Captain Penn agreed with him, though perhaps he had rather a strong leaning towards royaKsm. Penn had to leave England just after his son had come into the world, and for a good while was cruising about, and meeting with adventure, in distant climes, whilst the Dutch wife and the little boy were living at Wanstead, in Essex, whither they removed' soon after the father had gone to sea. Wanstead was then a remarkable place, and so was Chigwell, close by it ; with these two villages the child would become acquainted as he grew up to boy- hood, and I cannot help thinking that his life there for about eleven years had much more to do with his after-life than Penn's biographers have been wont to think. Old Wanstead House was in its glory. It had been rebuilt by Lord Chancellor Rich, had received Queen Mary just before her coronation, had been visited by Queen Elizabeth for four or five days, and had witnessed the marriage of the Earl of Leicester with the Countess of Essex, — the bridegroom being at the time lord and master of the domain. The splendour of the mansion might be on the wane when the Admiral's wife went to live in the vicinity, but still it would be the talk of the neighbours — an object of curiosity and pride. Old Wanstead Church, very different from the present building, would also be of some interest ; for there puritan feeling ran very high, and disputes between the old and the new LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. establishment — the Church of episcopacy and the Church of presbyterianism — had begun to rage three years before. The principal inhabitants then signed a protest against all "popish innovations," and in favour of " the true reformed protestant religion " ; and they bound themselves to oppose, "and by all good ways and means endeavour to bring to condign punishment," all who should do anything contrary to the contents of that protestation. In 1647, — when Penn was only three years old, — John Saltmarsh, one of England's most remarkable Mystics, is said to have died mad ; at all events his writings prove him to have possessed real genius ; for his " Sparkles of Glory '' contain passages of singular beauty and power, and many a glimpse of truth, such as the wise of this world can never understand. The Wanstead protest and Saltmarsh's " Sparkles " may not appear to have any connection with the boy William ; but I fancy it will be found that they had, and that the reader will see it when we get a few pages farther on. Chigwell, too, was a notable place. St. Mary's Church, with a Norman door approached by an avenue of yews, so far appears much as it did in . the period of the civil wars and under the Common- wealth ; and there is still preserved in it a monu- mental brass, representing a niched figure dressed in cope, rochet, and chimere, with an inscription stating that under it lies Samuel Harsnett, Archbishop of York. This prelate had been vicar of Chigwell and master of the Grammar School, and had founded there two free schools, one for young children, the other for " teaching the Greek and Latin tongues," and it is curious to find the founder stipulating that FATHER AND SON. 5 "the master should be a good poet ; of a sound reli- gion, neither papal nor puritan ; of a grave behaviour ; of a sober and honest conversation ; no tipler nor haunter of alehouses, no puffer of tobacco ; and above all, apt to teach and severe in his government." Here it was that William Penn went to school ; here he learnt Latin and Greek ; here he would seem to have been taught gratuitously ; and it is pretty certain he never saw his master with a pipe in his mouth. At Chig- well free school he remained till he was twelve, and what he was taught we gather from Harsnett's direc- tions. "Lilly's Latin, and Cleonard's Greek gram- mar " were the boy's class-books ; for " phrase and style " he read " no other than Tully and Terence " ; for poets he studied " the ancient Greek and Latin, no novelties, nor conceited modern writers." Besides a Latin schoolmaster, William had another, who, — if he corresponded with the terms of Harsnett's Trust, which no doubt he did so far, — wrote " fair secretary and Roman hands," was skilful in "cyphering and casting up accounts," and taught " his scholars the same faculty." ^ I have no doubt that the boy was instructed accord- ing to the founder's wishes in all matters of secular learning, though he does not seem to have profited much under the writing master, if we may judge from the facsimile of his signature ; but I question whether the trustees attended to one alternative of the two forbidden in the Chigwell schoolmaster, — " neither papist nor puritan." " Papist," we may rest assured, the head-master was not, but that he was " puritan " ' The terms of the trust are given by Lysons, " Environs of London," vol. iv. p. 128. LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. is almost certain ; for Chigwell, like Wanstead, was steeped in puritanism. One Dr. Utey had been ejected from the vicarage in consequence of a petition signed by the inhabitants complaining that he had " erected an altar," had used " offensive bowing and cringing," had " kissed the altar twice in one day," and read the prayers with his back to the people.^ In 1650 it was reported by Commissioners, that there had been no settled minister at Chigwell since Dr. Utey's removal. The name of Peter Watkinson as minister at Chigwell appears in the list of the Pres- byterian clergy for the Braintree district, in Essex ; but at what date he was there I cannot tell. We have seen what books young Penn studied, but he must have received an education beyond what comes from printed pages. He was active as a young man, very fond of manly sports, and, no doubt, liked to wander and play games in the adja- cent woods known as Hainault Forest. It is still " very picturesque in parts, abounds in nightingales, and can still show some fine trees, although none so large nor so celebrated as the Fairlop oak which stood not far from Chigwell." The country was disafforested in 1851, and therefore what it is now gives but a faint idea of what it was when Penn wandered in its green glades and amused himself with other boys under its far-spreading trees. We may depend upon it that inspirations then came on him from nature, and the God of nature, the influence of which he never lost : and the stories of the neighbourhood he would hear, ' The whole document is very curious ; and proceedings con- sequent upon it are printed in David's " Annals of Nonconfor- mity in Essex," pp. 220-223. FATHER AND SON. and of what was going on in England ; how while sunshine glinted through the leaves of oaks, and nightingales sang their peaceful songs, and eventide softly dropped its curtain over the Hainault land- scape, England was full of tossing to and fro. Naseby fight succeeded the battle of Marston Moor, and then afterwards came the king's execution at Whitehall, when, as his head fell from the block and the blood streamed over the sawdust. Archbishop Ussher fainted, and Philip Henry heard a groan from the multitude thronging Charing Cross, such as he never forgot to his dying day. Dunbar and Wor- cester were names which Penn must have begun to understand soon after the decisive battles which led to Cromwell's sovereignty were fought ; and surely in 1653, or soon afterwards, when the boy was eight years old and more, he would take an interest in what was told by people from London, who perhaps had seen grand doings at Westminster in mid-winter, when the Worcester hero was installed Lord Protector of England. Fasts were so frequent, and sermons in parish churches on topics of the day so common, that he could scarcely fail to gather something about what was going forward in the outside world. But family stories would be still more attractive : stories about his father especially, how successful he had been in his numerous cruises ; how he had fought Prince Rupert, and chased him along the Portuguese shores ; and had sailed up and down the Mediter- ranean, where he had seen "many countries and many people," like Ulysses, whose tale perhaps the boy was beginning to spell out in Homer. His father's successive promotions he could not but hear 8 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENh'. of. His mother would tell how he had been made Vice-Admiral of the Irish Sea in '46 ; Vice- Admiral of the Straits in '50; Vice-Admiral of England '52 ; and then a "General" of the sea the next year. Good news followed of later days ; how he had re- ceived an accession of property, full three hundred a-year, by the interposition of the Protector, who wished to secure the rising officer as a faithful servant. When William was about eleven he had a strange experience. Alone in his chamber, "he was suddenly surprised with an inward comfort ; and, as he thought, an external glory in the room, which gave rise to religious emotions, during which he had the strongest conviction of the being of a God, and that the soul of man was capable of enjoying communication with Him. He believed also that the seal of Divinity had been put upon him at this moment, or that he had been awakened or called upon to a holy life." The excitement was purely of a spiritual nature, and appears to have been entirely unconnected with any passing events in his family and the world. If I may deal in conjecture, I should say, that as Saltmarsh's " Sparkles of Glory " had been published before that time, it is not unlikely from the author's connection with a place of such strong puritan sympathy, that the book would be circulated there and excite a deep interest. It is baptised with that spirit of devout mysticism which has had charms for some of the holiest minds, and which was likely to lay hold on the best people in Chigwell. It appears no extravagant supposition that the little volume might find its way into the Penns' dwelling, and that the curious child FATHER AND SON. turned over the exciting pages. Be that as it may, two things are clear : first, that the oft-repeated anecdote of his boyhood, taken in connection with his after Hfe, proves him to have had a mind of a sensitive and impressible nature ; and, secondly, that the Spirit of God early began to touch his, heart and to lead him into paths of thoughtfulness and devotion. Before leaving the Wanstead and Chig- well period, let it be carefully noticed that all the while he lived in that neighbourhood he breathed a puritan atmosphere, very different from what his father did before and afterwards. Great trouble befel the Admiral in 1655. Just at Christmas time, 1654, a fleet sailed from Portsmouth, with sealed orders, under Penn and General Venables. The ships numbered fifty, the soldiers on board four thousand. When the orders were opened, they were seen to prescribe an attack upon Hispaniola and the Spanish power in the West Indies. The expedition came to grief. Hispaniola was reached in April, 1655, but the soldiers did not land where Drake had landed, but sixty miles off, whence they marched through thick tangled woods, under tropical heats, "till they were nearly dead with mere marching." Ambuscades lay in wait for them. Most of the soldiers fought badly, some would not fight at all, but rushed back to the ships dreadfully diseased, and " dying there at the rate of two hundred a day." ^ Penn came back, and Venables followed, to meet the wrath of the Protector. He immediately stripped them of their commissions and lodged them in the ' " Journal of the English Army by an Eye-witness." — Harl. MiscelL, vol. vi. pp. 372-390. LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. Tower. This was a sad blow. The Admiral must at once have been reduced in circumstances, and, whether on that account or not, the family returned to town and again took up an abode near the Tower. After a while he was released from imprisonment, and his possessions were restored, and this must have lifted the parents once more into a condition of comfort. It is said that the Admiral procured a private tutor to carry on the education of his heir ; but the former seems to have been absent from home a good deal, and the latter could not have experienced much parental instruction and guardianship. Domestic matters would sometimes be talked about ; and here I may notice, before going further, what probably the lad learnt about the family name, according to an American report, — and also respecting certain strange incidents which are said to have happened to an uncle of his when residing in Spain. The Reverend Hugh David, who went to Phila- delphia in 1700, used to tell this story: he and Penn were on board ship, and the latter observing a goat gnawing a broom, called out, " Hugh, dost thou observe that goat.? See what hardy fellows the Welsh are, how they can feed on a broom. However, Hugh, T am a Welshman myself, and will relate by how strange a circumstance our family lost their name. My grandfather (or great grandfather) was named John Tudor, and lived upon the top of a hill or mountain in Wales ; he was generally called John Pennmunnith, which in English is, ' John on the top of a hill.' He removed from Wales into Ireland, where he acquired considerable property. Upon his return FATHER AND SON. into his own country, he was addressed by his old friends and neighbours, not in the former way, but by the name of Mr. Penn. He afterwards removed to London, where he continued to reside under the name of John Penn, which has since been the family name." ' It it said on the Admiral's tombstone that he was of the Penns of Penlodge, in the county of Wilts, and " those Penns of Penn, in the county of Bucks." How the inscription and the story are to be reconciled I do not see ; but if the report of the Welsh pedigree be true, young Penn must have heard of it from his father or mother. The story respecting Penn's uncle is repeated by a modern biographer,^ but on what authority I do not know. The Admiral, it is said, when at his station in the English channel, heard of a brother of his named George, who had gone to Spain and was a victim of the Inquisition in the city of Seville. He had been in the cathedral amongst those who, after suffering the agonies of the rack, had abjured Protestantism. In solemn procession, amidst judges, priests, and friars, he had, to save his life, been compelled to do penance before a multitude of people ; and thus ex- posed, he had attracted the notice of English residents who were present on the occasion. It became known that this George Penn, who had resided in several Spanish towns, was seized at San Lucar, some time before, by ministers of the Holy Office, and was separated from his wife, a Roman Catholic lady of Antwerp. His property was seized, and he was dragged off to a dungeon in Seville, where he lived ' Watson's "Annals of Pennsylvania," vol. i. p. 119. 2 Hepworth Dixon. LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. on bread and water. After enduring great cruelties he was, at the end of three years, brought into the trial chamber, and there accused of heretical offences, such as endeavouring to convert his wife. He was, on his denying the charge, subjected to horrible tortures, until, in an hour of weakness, he was led to recant. Then followed the exhibition just men- tioned. When the tragedy was related to the Admiral, so the story goes, he set sail at once in search of a Spanish bark which he could keep as a hostage until his brother's wrongs should be redressed. He fell in with a vessel on its way to Flanders, convey- ing Juan de Urbino, a Spanish nobleman, who was secretary to the Government there. The British officer, with all the traditionary hatred of Spain still existing in the British navy, increased by indignation at his brother's fate, stripped the grandee, whom he made prisoner, and determined to retain him until the subject of the Inquisition should be released and his property restored. George, it is related, was sent back to England, and died soon after the Restoration, leaving his claims on the Spanish Government to be enforced by his representatives. This heirloom of trouble belonged to the Admiral's son William, and what was the result of his application for redress at a later period does not appear. Leaving these stories, I must mention that the Admiral continued in Cromwell's service until the death of the latter on the 3rd of September, 1658, faithful only to his naval instincts ; but after " Old Noll " had laid down his sceptre, and things were falling to pieces, the Admiral, in whom T think loyalist FATHER AND SON. 13 tendencies had before existed, began to anticipate a coming change, and calculating on the return of the Stuarts, commenced worshipping the rising sun. The Admiral visited Ireland, where, according to the story I have told, Giles Penn's father had pos- sessed an estate, and there he took up his abode to look after his inheritance. Mother and son, as they often did, remained at a distance from the wandering husband and father. Whilst in Ireland, the Admiral began to avow himself a Royalist, schemes being afloat for bringing about a restoration of the exiled Stuarts. After the deposition of the Protector Richard, English affairs fell into a troubled condition. Many readers can recall the time when France scarcely knew from day to day what government it would have to-morrow. England was in that state in the winter of 1659-60,- All sorts of political dreams were floating in the air, and strange revolutions of power were occurring from month to month. The Rump Parliament vanished, or rather was merged in a new one with vacancies filled up, which was summoned in February, 1659, to meet at once, and sit no longer than the 6th of May. London burst into an uproar of joy ; bonfires blazed from Temple Bar to St. Dun- stan's, — there were thirty-one kindled in the Strand. Butchers made music with their knives, and roasted a rump of beef on Ludgate Hill ; bells rang till the steeples shook. All over the country there were similar demonstrations. Admiral Penn was returned Member of Parlia- ment for Weymouth, and after the king came home. His Majesty bestowed on the brave sailor marks of 14 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. regard, and conferred on him the honour of knight- hood ; this shows that he had won a reputation for loyalty, and that what he had done in Cromwell's time was fully forgiven. It also appears that he could now abuse the man to whom he owed so much.^ Charles entered London at the end of May, and crossed London Bridge in gorgeous procession, men wearing cloth of silver and velvet coats, buff and green, black and gold, white and crimson, — delighting the eyes of the shouting citizens. We cannot sup- pose that all this went on unnoticed by the boy who studied under a private tutor on Tower Hill. He was now approaching the age of sixteen, and boys at that period were early sent to the University. Before this there had been talk about William's entering Oxford, and now it was determined that there he should be sent. Anthony Wood says, " He was entered a gentleman-commoner of Christ Church, and in the beginning of Michaelmas term (October) he was matriculated as a knight's son." Thus it comes out clearly that William was not sent to col- lege until after the Restoration, and so the clouds and darkness in which some writers have enveloped this part of William Penn's history are dispersed, and the dreams of his being within the walls of Christ Church when Dr. Owen was Dean, flees away. It was not to ' " 1662, March 12. " Sir W. Penn told me of a speech he had made to the Low States of Holland, telling them to their faces that he observed that he was not received with the respect and observance now, that he was when he came from the traitor and rebel Cromwell —by whom, I am sure, he hath got all he hath in the world— and they know it too." — Pepy^ Diary. FATHER AND SON. 15 the University of the Commonwealth, but to the University of the Restoration, that the new knight sent his son ; and what the University was under puritan rule has nothing to do with this gentleman- commoner's residence within sound of the chimes of big Tom. Still, of course, traditions would linger in the halls, cloisters, and gardens touching what had gone on there under Owen ; but whatever tales might be trumped up discreditable to puritan regime, there is historical proof enough to show that the state of learning and the discipline of the colleges had been such that puritanism had no reason to be ashamed of it. Misrepresentations of that period are still abun- dant, and a good deal of our popular history respect- ing that era needs to be rewritten. Immediately after the Restoration, clergymen dis- missed by the Long Parliament began to recover their livings, and heads of colleges were enabled to recover their forfeited rights. Dr. Reynolds, who had been appointed in the spring to succeed Dr. Owen, was, before the autumn, followed by George Morley. In the place of Dr. Thomas Goodwin, the famous puritan president of Magdalen, appeared Dr. Oliver, who had been ejected under the Common- wealth. Like changes occurred throughout Oxford. All the heads of houses underwent a change; even where the same men as before were allowed to remain, they had to alter their ways ; so that throughout the Midland home of learning things wore quite a differ- ent colour from what they had done a year earlier. Some of the former students remained : John Locke, the famous philosopher, and Robert South, the famous preacher, were both elected students of Christ t6 life of WILLIAM PENN. Church ; Christopher Wren, the famous architect, a Wadham man, was at the Restoration Fellow of All Souls. But with no one of these three would Penn be likely to come in contact, as they were all his seniors. A whole tide of new D.D.'s, new B.D.'s, and new M.A.'s rushed in to fill up vacancies. Seventy Doctors of Divinity were created within twelve months, and if Dr. Owen had visited his old haunts he would hardly have known the place. At that time it took two days to travel from London to Oxford, through Uxbridge, Beaconsfield, and High Wycomb, described then as " unwalled boroughs." Travellers were frightened at reports of highwaymen ; but if we are to believe what is said by a French visitor in England, shortly after Penn took his journey to the University, safeguards were not neglected. We can imagine him slowly proceed- ing on his way. " It is certain," we are told, "there are good regula- tions made in this country ; and when any robbery is committed, the country presently takes the alarm, and pursues so hard that the highwaymen very seldom can make their escape." Every one does not report so favourably of English travelling then, as does this polite French physician. ^ Before describing young William's course at Ox- ford, I must pause to give a short account, necessary for understanding a crisis which occurred in his re- ligious thoughtfulness. Some minds are so constituted that they shrink ' Monsieur Samuel Sorbiere's " Voyage to England" ; quoted in " Annals of Oxford " by Jeaffreson, vol. ii. p. 147. FATHER AND SON. 17 with invincible dislike from all mystical forms of thought. They are averse to that for which others have a strong affinity. It is not necessary that a person should wholly approve a system in which there are elements calling forth his sympathy and admiration. In reviewing the history of religious opinion, surely we should endeavour to appreciate whatever may be true and good in forms of convic- tion and feeling which we are far from adopting entirely as our own. It is not requisite that people should be Roman Catholics in order to see what was beautiful in the character of Francis of Assisi ; or Lutherans to see what was grand in the Saxon reformer ; or Quakers to see what was profoundly spiritual in the founder of the Society. CHAPTER II. MYSTICISM AND THE EARLY FRIENDS. WHAT we understand by mysticism is a habit of mind which leads men to take transcen- dental views of spiritual subjects, and, forsaking paths of mere practical understanding and logical reasoning, to plunge into depths of imaginative in- quiry, or to soar into an atmosphere of spiritual rapture. In early ages of the Church these tendencies appear, and in the writings of many medisevalists it bursts forth in beautiful forms before the Reformation. John Tauler, of Strasburg, was a charming instance of this type of thought ; so was the author of the " Theologia Germanica." They broke through the meshes of perverted logic, and opened wide doors which led into open fields of truth. Veins of like thought ran through the reflections of the Cambridge school of divines which rose towards its zenith just before Penn went to Oxford. But Saltmarsh, in his " Sparkles of Glory " already men- tioned — explaining the title as intended to signify " some beams of the morning star, wherein are many discoveries as to truth and peace, to the establishment and pure enlargement of a Christian in spirit and truth " — is a bolder example of English mysticism ; MYSTICISM AND THE EARLY FRIENDS. 19 and Peter Starry, chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, " de- scribed as a high-flown, mystical divine," published a still more advanced work, entitled " The Rise, Race, and Royalty of the Kingdom of God in the Soul of Man," — the Rise conversion, the Race a childlike life, and the Royalty that of grace and glory. These two afford the most striking examples , of mystical thinkers at the period to which I am about to refer. A spirit of this kind impregnated much of the religious atmosphere of England in the seventeenth century ; but the spirit of genuine Quakerism is of another type, deeper and more practical. The founder of Quakerism was George Fox, and we must know him in order to know William Penn. Fox was one of the most extraordinary men that ever lived ; and the spirit of the system -must be sought in the life of the founder. As a child he had " inward monitions,'' strivings of the Spirit — in fact. Divine impressions, if not in form, yet in substance, the antetypes of what Penn afterwards experienced. He separated himself from the world, and abandoned practices common to society. His character was unim- peachable — just, true, temperate, virtuous, benevolent, pacific ; on that score nobody could find fault with him. All charges against him were founded on peculiarities in his behaviour. Intense spirituality of mind, cherished communion with God, power in prayer, boldness in preaching, exposure of formal religion, denunciations of hypocrisy, and defiance of all " the proprieties " of life — these roused up against him the most violent opposition. The deepest pro- blems of the universe agitated his mind, and he thus expressed himself in poetical language : " One morn- LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. ing, as I was sitting by the fire, a great cloud came over me, and a temptation beset me ; but I sat still, and it was — 'all things come by nature,' and the elements and stars came over me, so that I was in a manner quite clouded with it. But I sat still and said nothing ; the people of the house perceived nothing. And as I sat still under it and let it alone, a living hope arose in me, and a true voice which said, ' There is a living God, who made all things,' and immediately the cloud and temptation vanished away, and life rose over it all ; my heart was glad, and I praised the living God." ^ Like to that was the experience of the Chigwell schoolboy ; and no wonder that he who talked in this way was a mystery to his fellow men. A modern Quaker, Robert Barclay, has devoted much research to a study of the origin of Quakerism, and he tells us that the whole phraseology of the early literature of Fox and his followers is cast in . a mould which is clearly different from the style of most. religionists of that day. The emphasis which was placed upon the words "Light" ''Life" " Seed," " Word" as applied to the New Testament, was peculiar.^ He tells us that there were points of resemblance between the General Baptists and the Friends, but there were also points in which they differed ; that in some traits there is similarity of style, in others a striking variation. Certainly, in outward observances, the General Baptists present a contrast to their English contemporaries. I do not think, whatever resemblance may be traced between ' Fox's " Journal," vol. i. p. 104. ' " The Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the Common- wealth," p. 221. MYSTICISM AND THE EARLY FRIENDS. 21 the two systems, that Fox copied his from anybody- else, though he may, unconsciously to himself, have been, in some measure, affected by intercourse he had with people of the General Baptist denomination. There was an originality of mind, a self-absorption, a self-seclusion, a fondness for silent meditation in fields and orchards, the depths of forests and " the hollows of trees," quite inconsistent with a habit of copying other people, especially in matters of religion. So far from imitation, he went to the opposite extreme, and recoiled from what he saw in the sects of the day, including the General Baptists. He attributed his conversion, and his subsequent beliefs, to the same source as that pointed out by St. Paul. Fox was convinced, in his own mind, that the gospel he received was not from man, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ ; though, no doubt, he would have made a distinction between the Apostle and himself " The Lord," he said, " gently led me along and let me see His love, which is endless and eternal, sur- passing all the knowledge that men have in the natural state, or can get by history or books, and that love let me see myself as I was without Him." " I had not fellowship with any proper priests or professors, or any sort of separated people, but with Christ who hath the key, and opened the door of light and life unto me." ^ The fundamental principle of this primitive Friend was the inward light. He believed that Christ, the Word, is the light which lighteneth every man that Cometh into the world, and through that Scriptural ' Fox's " Journal," vol. i. p. 92. LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. phraseology he intended to convey a twofold idea : that the spirit of Christ pleads with every man, and that they who lovingly follow the light are lifted to higher and still higher spheres of illumination. He accepted the general truths of Christianity, — redemp- tion through our Lord Jesus Christ, the pardon of sin, and the new birth of the Holy Spirit,— but he repudiated Calvinistic interpretations, such as were common in those days. He firmly held the universal love of God, the unlimited range of Christ's invita- tions, and the moral nature of the deliverance which He accomplishes. Indeed, Fox had an idea of human perfectability, only not through human en- deavour, but entirely through the efficacy of Divine grace. "They asked me," he said, "if I had no sin. I answered, ' Christ my Saviour has taken away my sin, and in Him there is no sin.' They pleaded for imperfection, and to sin as long as they lived, but did not like to hear of Christ's teaching His people Himself, and making people as clear, whilst here upon earth, as Adam and Eve were before they fell."! Such were Fox's principles. His proceedings were in accordance with his principles. Believing in an inner Light, he followed that Light whithersoever he thought it led him. He did not consider that the Light could ever contradict, or ever supersede. Scrip- ture ; but its impulses he regarded as sufficient to authorize methods of action for which chapter and verse could not be quoted from the written records. Preaching was the great business of his life. For- » Fox's "Journal," vol. i. p. 288. MYSTICISM AND THE EARLY FRIENDS. 23 saking secular employments, he devoted himself to the duties of an Apostle. He preached to people in all sorts of places : in city streets, on village greens, by the wayside, under the barn roof, and, when he could, even in the steeple house, as he called a parish church. Sometimes he was allowed to deliver his message there, though he would never ascend a pul- pit, but only stand upon a bench. Discussions in places of worship were frequent, and when a sermon was over he would rise and enter into debate with the preacher. He also did go further than that, and sometimes interrupted the preacher ; spoke of churches as mass houses ; and walking through the streets of Lichfield, cried, " Woe, woe to the bloody city." 1 All this was unseemly, and can neither be justified nor excused ; no doubt acts of this description, though comparatively rare, will account for a large measure of the enraged opposition this good man met with. He preached to the poor, and he had a message to the rich : " After a while I went to Whitehall again, and was moved to declare the day of the Lord amongst them, and that the Lord was come to teach His people Himself : so I preached truth, both to the officers, and to them that were called Oliver's gentle- men, who were of his guard." A story about this visitation got into the newspaper, and was misrepre- sented, as Fox said ; whereupon followed a controversy, and he charged his opponents with telling lies. The priests, he believed, were at the bottom of it all : not such men as are called priests now-a-days. " These ' Ibid., vol. i. p. 151. 24 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. priests, the newsmongers, were of the Independent sect, like them in Leicester ; but the Lord's power came over all their lies, and swept them away, and many came to see the naughtiness of these priests." ^ Proceedings of the Friends were connected with several peculiarities. " Moreover, when the Lord sent me forth into the world. He forbad me to put off my hat to any, high or low ; and I was required to ' thee and thou ' all men and women, without any respect to rich or poor, great or small. As I travelled up and down, I was not to bid people good morrow or good evening, neither might I bow or scrape with my leg to any one ; and this made the sects and professions to rage." ^ It is plain that this deviation from the common courtesies of life was not what most people took it to be, an idle, obstinate whim, but a con- scientious protest against what he regarded as syco- phancy, and even as worship offered to the upper classes. He advocated the common rights of human- ity, was prepared really to " honour all men," but he would not do obeisance to one, so as to place others in a position of inferiority ; peasants, gentlemen, nobles, queens, and kings are all on an equality in the sight of God, and George was determined to treat them accordingly. This matter of not taking off the hat we shall see played a conspicuous part in Penn's life-story. Peculiarities in dress were added to pecu- liarities in speech and behaviour; but the simple, unfashionable attire worn by the early Quakers — as a protest against wearing gold, and having " cuffs ' Fox's Journal, vol. i. p. 270. ^ Ibid., vol. i. p. 1 14. MYSTICISM AND THE EARLY FRIENDS. 25 double," "like unto a butcher with his white sleeves," and showing off stores of ribands about the waist and at the knees, of divers colours — did not at all resemble the founder's suit of strong tough leather. Persecutions followed these proceedings and pecu- liarities, and that can be best described in the lan- guage of him who had to endure them : " When the Lord first sent me forth in the year 1643, I was sent as an innocent lamb (and young in years) amongst (men in the nature of) wolves, dogs, bears, lions, and tigers into the world, which the devil had made like a wilderness, no right way then found out of it. And I was sent to turn people from darkness to the light, which Christ, the second Adam, did enlighten them withal ; that so they might see Christ, their way to God, with the Spirit of God, which He doth pour upon all flesh, that with it they might have an under- standing to know the things of God, and to know Him and His Son, Jesus Christ, which is eternal life; and so might worship and serve the living God, their Maker and Creator, who takes care for all, who is Lord of all ; and with the light and spirit of God they might know the Scriptures, which were given forth from the Spirit of God in the saints, and holy men and women of God." ^ Such was the design of Fox's ministry. All that I have said relates to Quakerism before it was professed by William Penn, and therefore serves to show some antecedents to that event, which will account for peculiarities which he felt it his duty to maintain. Moreover, there were other circumstances, 1 George Fox's " Epistles." 26 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. which occurred beforehand, not to be passed over, because they greatly contributed to increase the oblo- quy which the Society of Friends at that time could scarcely fail to provoke. Fox had coadjutors worthy of himself Edward Burroughs was a noble character. He would step into the wrestlers' ring at a village fair, and speak to the rustic crowd with " heart-piercing power." He broke stony hearts ; " his bow," said ad- mirers, "never turned back, and his sword returned not empty from the slaughter of the mighty." "And although coals of fire, as it were, came forth of his mouth, to the consuming of briers and thorns; and he, passing through unbeaten paths, trampled upon wild thistles and luxuriant tares, yet his wholesome doctrine dropped as the oil of joy upon the spirits of the mourners in Zion."^ But there were others who laid hold of the skirts of Fox's garments. He says, " The Lord made one to go naked among you, a figure of thy nakedness, and as a sign amongst you, before your destruction Cometh, that you may see that you are naked, and not covered with the truth." ^ These words do not express disapprobation, but Fox himself never did anything of this kind ; nor, as far as I know, did any approved member of the Society in this country, though two cases occurred in New England.' James Naylor brought more scandal on the Quakers than anybody else. He was one of Fox's converts, but Fox looked on him suspiciously, struck "with a fear," as he ' Sewel's " Hist, of Friends," vol. i. p. 105. ^ Fox's "Journal," vol. i. p. 213. ' "Besse's Sufferings,'' p. 235. MYSTICISM AND THE EARLY FRIENDS. 27 said, and being "as it were under a sense of some great disaster that was like to befal him." ^ His course grieved the hearts of his people. He once offered, in 1656, to kiss George Fox;, but "I said," the latter records in his Journal, "since he had turned against the power of God, I could not receive his show of kindness. The Lord moved me to slight him and to set the power of God over him. So after I had been warring with the world, there was now a wicked spirit risen up amongst friends to war against. I admon- ished him and his company. When he was come to London, his resisting the power of God in me, and the truth that was declared to him by me, became one of his greatest burthens. But he came to see his outgoing, and to condemn it ; and after some time he returned to truth again ; as in the printed Relation of his repentance, condemnation, and recovery, may be more fully seen.' " ^ Naylor's repentance did not efface the scandal he had brought on his brethren. The story of his excesses would be in everybody's mouth, when Penn became a Friend, and very few would take the trouble of reading " the printed Relation." They would talk of his accepting addresses as " the everlasting Son, the Prince of Peace, the fairest amongst ten thou- sand ; " of his pretending to raise a woman from the dead ; of his marching through Glastonbury and Wells, as people walked before, covering the ground with their clothes, in imitation of what was done when Jesus entered Jerusalem ; of Bristol people shouting as Naylor passed by, " Holy, Holy, Holy ! Lord God ' Sewel, vol. i. p. 158. "^ Fox's "Journal," vol. i. p. 377. 28 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. of Israel, Hosanna in the highest ! " It might be said that the people who honoured the poor fanatic were more to be blamed than he; and that really they did not mean to recognise him as Divine, except in the sense of his being a God-sent teacher. It might further be alleged, that he did not accept the honours as paid to himself, but to the Lord, whose servant he was, and whose spirit he fancied dwelt within him. Such things were urged at his trial. But the scandal had been created, the mischief was done ; and no explanations, no repentance could wipe away the reproach. Through the reign of Charles II. these reports, exaggerated no doubt, told against the Quakers, and Penn, when he became one of them had to share in paying the penalty. It is remarkable that while so much of mysticism was floating in the air, and so many approached the boundaries of Quaker thought, they either passed it by as unworthy of their notice, or they plainly ex- pressed their dislike to it. John Smith, of Cambridge, wrote many beautiful passages, having in them much of the theological ring which we catch in Quaker music of devout thought ; but lines of distinction between the two may easily be drawn. Between Smith and the Quakers there is full separation ; the peculiarities of the sect, and the common prejudices against it, would be quite suffi- cient to keep aloof from them the accomplished Cambridge scholar. Much of the " light and sweetness " of Quakerism may be discovered in the writings of Henry More ; yet we find the following sentence in his curious work entitled "Mastix," where, though he begins with MYSTICISM AND THE EARLY FRIENDS. 29 charity, he ends in bitterness. "To tell you my opinion of that sect which are called Quakers, though I must allow that there may be some amongst them good and sincere-hearted men, and it may be nearer to the purity of Christianity, for the life and power of it, than many others ; yet I am well assured that the generality of them are prodigiously melancholy, and some few perhaps possessed with the devil." To pass on to a later period, mysticism continued in England through Penn's lifetime, outside the sphere of Quaker life ; like it in some respects, very different in others. I have seen a funeral sermon preached, for Prince George of Denmark, husband of Queen Ann, in which the preacher says nothing about the death of the prince, but much about death to sin. Death he says, is the first step towards life. There are two lives, sin and grace, Adam and Christ ; the first must die, the second lives for ever. The true spiritual life is a hidden life, of which an illustration is found in the ark of the testimony, covered with a veil, under badger skins and cloth of blue. Luther is mentioned as comparing the knowledge of a true Christian to the windows of Solomon's Temple, broad within, narrow without. The body is the outward court of the human temple, the soul is the place of the Divine glory. All this looks like the language of Friends, but the writer does not appear to have had any con- nection with them. I have also noticed a sermon on the Epiphany, which tells us that many a star within summons us to come to Christ, an idea similar to that of the inward. light. Yet amongst many works of 30 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. this class.i is one published in 1708, entitled " Warn- ings against the Quakers." After this brief review of mystical opinions in general, and of Quakers in particular, we shall be better able to understand the life of William Penn. ' There is a valuable collection of them in Dr. Williams' Library, Grafton Street, London. CHAPTER III. CONVERSION. YOUNG William reached Oxford in the month of October, 1660. A month before this a melancholy incident had oc- curred in the royal family. Henry, Duke of Glouces- ter, who had come over to England in health and spirits, sharing his brother Charles' joy, had been stricken with that fatal scourge, the small pox ; and, after a fortnight's illness, had died on the night of the. 13th of September. The first Parliament under the restored sovereign was opened that very day ; and the death of the prince, just come of age, naturally excited the sympathy of the nation. It was expressed in many ways, and it found utterance at Oxford after a manner customary there. The University loved to invoke the Muses when any- thing occurred to excite attention. After the peace concluded with the Dutch in 1654, a volume was published entitled " Musarum Oxoniensium EAAIO- ^OPIA," in which Robert South figured as eulogist of the republican conqueror ; and now, in 1660, we have another book full of verses from the University press, entitled " TArenodia," being a collection of elegies on the young duke's death. The new student, William Penn, is a contributor. His latinity is not 32 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. elegant, there is no beauty in the laboured lines ; but they bear witness to loyalty excited of late to a high pitch by royal favour towards Sir William, and the restoration to him of the family estates. The prince's birth, says the versifier, " turned national sorrow into joy, and the prince's death turned its re- joicings into lamentation. He was everything to the nation : alone a source of woe, alone an inspirer of gladness." Loyal flattery was the fashion of the day, and the young student was drawn into the stream. Moreover, Oxford before the Restoration had its coffee houses and recreations ; and though there were no square caps and no surplices to be seen, the gay dresses of the dons are made matters of reproach by the royalist censor.^ When the Restoration came, those who for twelve years had " carried all things at their pleasure were discontented," so says Anthony Wood ; " they plucked their hats over their eyes and felt perplexed ; and those who had been under a cloud appeared with cheerful looks." Prayer-Book and surplice were re- stored in the room of " a psalm or two, two chapters, and a prayer of the priest's own making." Lord Clarendon was made Chancellor, and a letter of his to the Rector of Lincoln College recommended a reviving of the " good discipline " for so many years intermitted " ; and in reply, the public orator thanked him for what he had written, and hoped for an " authentic copy of the statutes suppressed in the late times, and therefore now the fitter to be rein- forced." 2 Soon afterwards, in 1661, Clarendon paid ' See " Religion in England," vol. ii. chap. viii. 2 Kennett's " Hist. Register," p. 379. CONVERSION. 33 a visit when the Earl of Rochester was made Master of Arts, and was "admitted very affectionately into the fraternity by a kiss on the left cheek from the Chancellor of the University," who then sat " in the supreme chair," most likely to honour that assembly.^ The correspondence would be known, and the cere- mony would be witnessed, by our undergraduate. Two men at least were zealous in reviving old statutes, Morley, Dean of Christ Church, and Shel- don, Warden of All Souls. They afterwards became bishops, and manifested a violent anti-puritan zeal in establishing the institutes and forms of Anglo- Catholicism. But it was no easy matter, after twelve years of Puritan regime, to give a different colour to Oxford life. Every don who had puritan likings could not be weeded out ; and a good many gowns- men remained having a deep reverence for Owen and Goodwin. There were other influences working in a direction antagonistic to the existing academic government. Quakerism had gained an entrance into Oxford. There was living in the city one Thomas Loe, a layman, once belonging to the University, now a decided and zealous Friend. George Fox visited the place in 1656, and he tells us " the scholars were very rude, but the Lord's power came over them. Great meetings we had up and down as we travelled." * Whether through that visit or by other means, I cannot say; but Thomas Loe joined the Society, met with Oxford Quakers, and became what is called ' Athen. Oxon., vol. ii. p. 654. ^ Fox's " Journal" vol. i. p. 384. D 34 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. a public Friend. He preached with power ; and in consequence of his efforts suffered persecution in 1660. An outbreak of Fifth Monarchy men, who believed in the approaching reign of Christ on earth, and thought that He would raise His own kingdom on the ruins of earthly ones, had spread alarm ; upon which the Government laid hold for repressing Nonconformity, and this active Oxford Quaker experienced the effect. He was put in confinement ; and, besides himself, there were forty at the same time in Oxford, "suffering innocently for the testimony of a good conscience, because they could not swear and break Christ's commandments." Whether it was before or after Loe's incarceration, I cannot say ; but Penn somewhere about this time met with the Oxford Quaker and heard him preach ; and this proved a new turning-point in his religious history. If Royalist in politics, I apprehend that at this time he was rather Puritan in religion, so far at least as the influence of the Chigwell education was con- cerned. There and at Wanstead he was accustomed to Presbyterian worship and heard Presbyterian sermons. Puritanism would not dispose him to look favourably on such a man as Loe, for Presbyterians, Independents and Baptists more or less disliked the new sect. But that night — when he was " suddenly surprised with an inward comfort," and, as he thought, with " an external glory in the room " — had left an in- effaceable impression ; and this, united to his peculiar mental constitution, and his keen susceptibility of spiritual feeling under higher influences still, prepared him to listen with sympathy to the instructions of one like the zealous Oxford Friend. At all CONVERSION. 35 events, his ministry formed an important link in the chain of causes which made Penn a new creature in Christ Jesus. Other students, we are told, sympathised with him. Christ Church men met for religious worship differ- ent from that in college chapel or parish church. Oxford saw a similar excitement when Wesley and others met for prayer and conference within the walls of Lincoln. Anticipating the revival of the eighteenth century, this tiny ripple in the seventeenth, on the surface of university life, was to deepen and widen its circles until they should, through Penn's influence, not only undulate over England and the Continent, but reach the shores of a world beyond the Atlantic waters, then scarcely known. The agitation had an immediate antagonist result, greater than that of later Oxford prayer-meetings ; for Penn and his friends forsook chapel and church worship, and refused to attend the service of common prayer. They put themselves in the attitude of decided dissenters ; their conduct being noticed, they had to pay fines for absences. More than this. To the question about the Prayer- Book succeeded a question about surplices. Their use in chapel was enforced by the college authorities.. The Dean of Christ Church would be sure to be particular on this point. Surplices Penn could not endure. He had been taught at Wanstead and Chigwell to regard them as popish rags, and their introduction at Oxford was unendurable. Others felt as he did. Engaging, therefore, a friend of his, Robert Spencer, afterwards Earl of Sunderland, and some other young gentlemen, — so we are told, — he 36 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. -" fell upon those students who appeared in surplices, ^nd he and they together tore them everywhere over their heads." Such conduct would be very disgraceful ; but it is •possible there may be exaggeration in the account which is given. That the embryo earl who figures in history in a different way should have shared in this offence I can scarcely believe ; and if the whole business could be sifted to the bottom, I think we -should find that the report does not exactly corres- pond with the facts. The common story is that .Penn was expelled the college ; but when I turn to Anthony Wood, who one would think knew all about the matter, and would be indisposed to let off a Quaker who had torn up surplices, without some flagellation from his birch-like pen, I find him saying no more than this, that after staying at Oxford two years, " where he delighted in manly sports at times of recreation, he travelled into France." Instead of denouncing Penn as a riotous student and a violent bigot, the Oxford annalist paints him while a student as acting like a cavalier, delighting " in manly sports." I must confess that I am surprised at what I find about Penn in Wood's " Athenae Oxoniensis." He allots him a large space, enumerates a number of his works, and treats him with considerable civility, saying, " his life made him known and esteemed to be the pride and Coripheus of the Quakers." Had the historian been brought into contact with Penn in after days, when Penn knew everybody, — had the old critic, who with all his acidity had drops of sweetness in his nature, found the much-abused Friend to be a ■ real gentleman ? CONVERSION. yi An entry in Pepys' Diary about this time is worth noticing: "1662, January 25th. Walking in the Garden to give the gardener directions what to do this year, for I intend to have the garden handsome, Sir W. Pen came to me, and did break a business to me about removing his son from Oxford to Cambridge, to some private college. I proposed Magdalene, but cannot name a tutor at present ; but I shall think and write about it." This looks as if the Admiral had thoughts of removing William before he left Ox- ford. And again : " February i. I and Sir W. Pen walked in the garden talking about his business of putting his son to Cambridge." This was the year when William went home, but nothing is said by the gossip about the youth's expulsion, though he men- tions what I have not observed elsewhere, that Dr. Owen had to do with William's religious experience,' and that some time after the doctor had left Oxford. Two years were spent at Oxford, and when William went home his father was very angry. Whatever may be the rights of the case, the youth must have got into trouble, and his sympathy with Friends must have been extremely distasteful to the knighted Admiral. In 1662, just at the time when Penn returned to his father's house, the Act of Uniformity was passed, and the controversy between the Estab- lished Church and " the Sects," as they were called, — the Quakers being to many most odious of all — ' " 1662, April 28. Sir W. Pen much troubled upon letters come last night. Shewed me one of Dr. Owen's to his son, whereby it appears his son is much perverted in his opinion by him ; which I now perceive is one thing that hath put Sir William so long off the hooks." 3S LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. was at the greatest height, exasperating people on both sides in different ways. The Admiral, a church- man so far as he cared for religion, could not endure Dissenters, and especially Quakers ; and now, to find that his son and heir, of whom he was proud, had become half a Quaker at least, filled him with indig- nation. There were Friends scattered up and down London. Fox had been there over and over again, and had doubtless made many converts. Some of these William found out and consorted with ; at the same time, he abandoned the fashionable world. No wonder ! Charles the Second's court was plunging deeper and deeper into licentiousness, such as not only distressed John Evelyn, but drew exclamations of displeasure from Samuel Pepys. For a son to eschew court and fashionable life, to abstain from company at Whitehall, where he might have access, and so help himself forward to worldly prosperity, was gall and wormwood to a proud and ambitious father. To mix with Quakers now and then was bad enough, but to cut himself off from the world, to throw away golden chances within reach — that was tenfold worse. So, according to the loose and vague reports of his early history, even soon after his return from Oxford, he was turned out of doors by Sir William, much to the sorrow of his amiable Dutch wife, who clung to her son, and interceded for him with her husband. Somehow or other the Admiral was propitiated, so far at least as to arrange for his son going abroad, with the hope, of course, of his being cured of Quakerism. He was sent to France, "in company with certain persons of rank, who were then CONVERSION. 39 going upon their travels," and in Paris he found society as bad as any in London. The dim notices we have of Penn's stay in the French capital give us the idea that he so far entered within the circle of fashion as to become involved in an unpleasant affair in the street. He was attacked by some haughty desperado, who drew his sword and threatened his life. Penn disarmed his antagonist, and was praised for his courage and forbearance. Whatever might be the effect of his visit to Paris with " certain persons of rank," whether in any degree he gratified the wishes of his father who sent him abroad, does not appear ; but his arrangements after leaving Paris in- dicate that he was bent on theological improvement, for where should he go to but to Saumur, the famous French Protestant college. It was then under the presidency of Moses Amyrant, one of the greatest divines of the age, who was exciting an immense attention by the views he zealously upheld. The college had been Calvinistic, but Amyrant softened down the rigid doctrines of predestination, as estab- lished by the Synod of Dort. He believed in a con- ditional, not an unconditional, election, and in doing so incurred the charge of heresy. His opinions excited a great deal of controversy, some contending that they were compatible with those of the Genevan reformers, others maintaining the opposite. He was a man of great ability, and he thought for himself, diverging from old theological lines and opening the way to further speculation of what would be called a liberal tendency. It is a mistake to suppose, as some have done, that at Saumur Penn would have the Calvinistic system set forth in all its fulness, so as to 40 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. learn how to attack it. On the contrary, he would there see it in a very modified shape, one, most likely, which helped him to those anti-Calvinistic opinions which afterwards he so stoutly maintained. Under Amyrant's guidance he became intimately acquainted with patristic and scholastic literature, and the result of his studies in France may be distinctly traced in some of his works, especially in his " Christian Quaker." Penn's sojourn at Saumur must have been just before Amyrant's decease, for the great divine de- parted this life in 1664, a hundred years after Calvin. Leaving France, the young man crossed the Alps and entered Italy ; but after remaining at Turin a little while, he returned home, in consequence of a letter from his father requesting him to do so. There are no letters or journals throwing light on his travels at this time ; and, therefore, we can form no idea of the impression made on him by crossing the pass of Mont Cenis. The history of travelling, were it fully made out, would be a curiosity indeed. We fancy that it is impossible to ascend lofty hills and plunge into deep valleys, to cross ravines on a tottering bridge, or thread forests of primeval growth, without being struck with what we call the sublime and the picturesque ; but in looking into travels written two hundred years ago, it is remarkable that few notices are given of scenery, and no excitement whatever seems to have been produced by objects which throw modern tourists into raptures of delight. If Penn kept a note-book, and we could see it, it would be found very different from notebooks written now. We shall see a notebook of his before long. From a letter, written to him some time afterwards CONVERSION. 41 by a man named Gibson, we catch a glimpse of the youth's appearance and the father's abode : " I remember your honour very well, when you newly came out of France and wore pantaloon breeches ; at which time your late honoured father dwelt in the Navy Office, in that apartment the Lord Viscount Brouncker dwelt in afterwards, which was on the north part of the Navy Office garden."^ If we may believe Pepys, young Penn was not much improved by his travels. He says, under date 1664, August 30th : " Comes Mr. Pen to visit me. I perceive something of learning he hath got, but a great deal, if not too much, of the vanity of the French garb, and affiscted manner of speech and gait. I fear all real profit he hath made of his travel will signify little." In 1665 Sir William, appointed Captain Comman- der of the Fleet, under the Duke of York, Lord High Admiral, sailed out to meet the Dutch. Old sailors trained under Blake fought bravely, and soon came back with crowns of victory. But the plague was beginning to ravage England, and scenes such as are truly depicted in De Foe's fiction threw shadows of death over the homes of England. Before, perhaps a year before this awful calamity, William had been entered a student at Lincoln's Inn ; not, I infer, with the view of his adopting the legal profession, but that, as a gentleman, he might be acquainted with the laws of his country. The plague, however, drove him away from London ; the courts were deserted, • P. Gibson, of Penn y' Quaker, " Life of Penn," vol. ii. p. 616 ; quoted in Bohn's edition of Pepys' Diary, vol. i. p. 251. 42 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. all business reached a standstill, and William, just come of age, fled into the country to escape the pestilence. It is probable that this awful dispensation deeply affected the young man's mind, revived former convictions, and led him to think of eternity ; and this renewed his disinclination for gay society, and led him once more to seek the company of religious people. When his father came back from battle and victory, he found his son relapsing into his former pious thoughtfulness. A return to Quakerism, he thought, was impending, and to keep him out of mischief he sent him over to Ireland. The Duke of Ormond was then Lord Lieutenant, holding a Court which, in that age of splendour, attained a brilliant reputation. Dublin vied with London, the Viceregal palace with Whitehall. If Sir William thought that the gaieties of the sister isle would take effect on his son, he soon found himself mistaken. Spiritual tendencies were strengthened instead of being weakened, and none of the pleasure baits floating about were seized by the youthful visitor. The Captain Commander persevered ; he had been a conqueror on the high seas, and he would not be beaten in his own family. If dissipation failed, he would see what business might do. It is said he gave William the management of a large estate in the county of Cork, comprising a wide district round Shanningary Castle, and that William took to his father's affairs with a right good will, and so managed them that reports sent home gave satis- faction and hope. Certainly he held a Government position in Ireland ; for amongst the Treasury papers in the Record OfiSce, there are letters from William CONVERSION. 43 Penn, junr., there called " Clerk of the Cheque, Kin- sale." They are written by him to the Navy Com- missioners, but contain nothing except references to details of business, as for instance : " Presents the rest of the Muster books of seven vessels which he could not send before, depending on having sea books from the pursers."^ Strange to say, during his residence in Ireland at this period, he actually manifested a warlike propen- sity. An insurrection broke out at Carrickfergus, and Penn offered himself as volunteer in the expedition despatched to put down the disturbance. The Duke of Ormond proposed that he should enter the army, which at the moment the young man felt inclined to do, and procured for himself a suit of armour, in which martial attire he appears in the only authentic portrait of him in his youth. He is described as tall in stature, and of athletic make — " handsome in person, and graceful in manners ; " and the picture, both by pencil and pen, is that of an exceedingly handsome officer, with hair parted in the middle, profuse dark locks falling over his shoulders, and a neckcloth of fine lace hanging down the front of his polished breastplate. But this flash of military ardour vanished as soon as it appeared. Thomas Loe had been the instrument of reawakening a spiritual life within his soul when an undergraduate at Oxford ; Thomas Loe was now the instrument of completing his conversion. A curious document, dated 1727, has been dis- covered, giving an account of the convincement of ' " Calendar of Treasury Papers, 1667, Oct. 14." The Admiral was Governor of Kinsale. 44 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. William Penn, delivered by himself to Thomas Har- vey, who reports it thus : — " He said, while he was but a child, living at Cork with his father, Thomas Loe came thither. When it was rumoured a Quaker was come from England, his father proposed to some others to be like the noble Bereans, to hear him before they judged him. He accordingly sent to Thomas Loe to come to his house, where he had a meeting in the family. Though William was very young, he observed what effect Thomas Loe's preaching had on the hearers. A black servant of his father's could not contain himself from weeping aloud ; and, looking on his father, he saw the tears running down his cheeks also. He (little William) then thought within himself, ' What if they would all be Quakers ? ' This opportunity he never quite forgot, the remembrance of it still recurring at times. He afterwards went to Oxford, where he con- tinued till he was expelled for writing a book which the priests and masters of the college did not like. Then he was sent to France, further to prosecute his learning, and after he returned he was sent to Ireland." The MS. goes on to say that, on his second com- ing to Cork, being the only one of the family there, and requiring some articles of clothing, he went to the shop of a woman Friend in the city to procure them. He expected she would have known him, but she did not. He was too much altered from the days of his boyhood, when the Friend had seen him, to be now recognised by her. However, he told her who he was, and he spoke to her of Thomas Loe, and of the meeting at his father's house ten or twelve years CONVERSION. 45 before. The manuscript says : " She admired at his remembering, but he told her he should never forget it ; also, if he only knew where that person was, if 'twere a hundred miles off, he would go to hear him again. She said he need not go so far, for the Friend had lately come thither, and would be at meeting the next day. So he went to the meeting, and when Thomas Loe stood up to preach, he was exceedingly reached, and wept much."^ That William Penn visited Ireland as a boy with his father is not incredible ; but that Thomas Loe was invited to his house by the Admiral seems improbable, still more so that the Admiral wept on hearing him. An unlikely statement made on the strength of a hearsay story, told after a lapse of thirty years — so long a period elapsed before it was written down — is hardly reliable ; still it may be to some extent accurate. If the beginning of the account be believed, what follows can be accepted without diffi- culty. At any rate, William Penn did hear Thomas Loe in Cork, and it is reported that he preached from the following text : " There is a faith which over- cometh the world, and there is a faith which is over- come by the world." Quakers commonly do not take texts, and there is no such text as this in the Bible ; we must therefore suppose, either that the quotation is a confused recollection of the passage, "This is the victory which overcometh the world, even our faith," or that the preacher's words were a motto with which he commenced his address. Penn's conversion was now completed in Ireland. • " The Penns and the Penningtons," by Maria Webb, p. 174. 46 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. That conversion must not be regarded simply as a change of opinion. It was much more than exchang- ing Episcopacy or Puritanism for the adoption of tenets held by Friends. It penetrated his moral nature. It made him a new man. As in the case of St. Paul, the world was crucified unto him, and he unto the world, so William Penn could say exactly the same thing. Revealed religion, the Church of Christ, God's dealings with mankind, came to be apprehended under new aspects. He rose into another sphere of spiritual life and consciousness. What he thought and felt took a tinge from peculiar- ities in his mental constitution, and from the discipline through which the Divine Teacher had been leading him for years. His subsequent apprehensions might not unaptly be expressed in the.se glowing words : — " That which is the pure, spiritual, comprehensive principle of a Christian is this : That all outward administration, whether as to religion, or to natural, civil, and moral things, are only the visible appear- ances of God, as to the world, or in this creation ; or the clothing of God, being such forms and dispensa- tions as God puts on amongst men to appear to them in : this is the garment the Son of God was clothed with down to the feet, or to His lowest appearance. And God doth not fix Himself upon any one form or outward dispensation, but at His own will and pleasure comes forth in such and such an administra- tion, and goes out of it, and leaves it, and takes up another. And this is clear in all God's proceedings with the world, both in the Jewish Church and State, and Christians now. And when God is gone out, and hath left such an administration, of what kind CONVERSION. 47 soever it is, be it religious, moral, or civil, such an administration is a desolate house, a temple whose veil is rent, a sun whose light is darkened ; and to worship it then, is to worship an idol, an image, a form, without God, or any manifestation of God in it, save to him, who (as Paul saith), knows an idol to be nothing. The pure, spiritual, comprehensive Chris- tian, is one who grows up with God from administra- tion to administration, and so walks with God in all his removes and spiritual increasings and flowings ; and such are weak in the flesh who tarry behind, worshipping that form or administration out of which God is departed." ^ These are not Penn's words they are the words of Saltmarsh, buried at Chigwell ; and as I ponder them, I feel more and more persuaded that the sup- posed fanatic and madman had something to do with the Quaker's spiritual education. The sentiment con- veyed in this quotation was cherished by many igno- rant of such people as the Friends, and had they known them they would probably have avoided their fellow- ship. It pervaded the minds of Tauler and other Germans ; of Valdes and other Spaniards, and Italians. As I read the wonderful works of the last-mentioned reformer,* I could fancy myself perusing books written by Quakers. And in that world where they all are now, controversies about visible forms of doctrine, discipline, and worship have lost their interest, the substance of truth alone remains ; they agree that " the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal" > " Sparkles of Glory," by Saltmarsh. '^ See "XVII. Opuscules" of Valdes, translated by Mr. Betts. CHAPTER IV. PERSECUTION. THE third of September was a noted date in the life of Oliver Cromwell. So it was in the life of William Penn ; but in another way. Then for the first time he had publicly to carry a " martyr's palm." He attended that day a meeting of Friends in the city of Cork. The assembly was violently broken up. A soldier entered and " made a great disturbance, on which William Penn goes to him and takes him by the collar, and would have thrown him down- stairs, but for the interference of a Friend or two, who requested William to let him alone, telling him the Friends were a peaceable people, and would not have any disturbance made. Then he became very much concerned that he had caused them to be uneasy by his roughness. The soldier whom William Penn had expelled went to the magistrates, and brought officers and men, who broke up the meeting and took several of them prisoners, and Penn amongst the rest. They were brought before the magistrate, who, knowing W. P., said he did not think he was a Quaker, so would not send him to jail. But William told him, whether he thought it or not, he was one, and if he sent his 48 PERSECUTION. 49 > friends to prison, he was willing to go with them. Then the Magistrate said, he should go with them."^- Penn v/as imprisoned, and from prison wrote to the - Earl of Orrery, Lord President of Munster, the follow- ing epistle : — " The occasion may seem as strange as my cause is just, but your lordship will no less extend your charity in the one case than your justice in the othe". Religion, which is at once my crime and mine inno- cence, makes me a prisoner for being in the assembly of the people called Quakers, when there came con- stables, backed with soldiers, rudely and arbitrarily requiring every man's appearance before the mayor ; and amongst the others haled me before him. He charged me with being present at a riotous and tu- multuous assembly, and unless I would give bond for my good behaviour, he would commit me. I asked for his authority. His answer was a proclamation in the year 1660, and new instructions to revise that dead, antiquated order. I leave your lordship to judge if that proclamation relates to this concern- ment, that which was only designed to suppress Fifth Monarchy murderers. And since the King's Lord Lieutenant and yourself are fully persuaded the inten- tion of these called Quakers, by their meetings was really the service of God, and that you have virtually repealed that other law by a long continuance of freedom, I hope your lordship will not now begin an unwonted severity by suffering any one to indulge so much malice with his nearest neighbours ; but that there may be a speedy releasement of all, to attend • MS. by Harvey, quoted in "The Penns and the Penning- tons " p. 1 76. so LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. their honest callings and the enjoyment of their families. " Though to dissent from a national system imposed by authority renders men heretics in some eyes, yet I dare believe your lordship is better read in reason and theology than to subscribe a maxim so vulgar and untrue. It is not long since you were a solicitor for the liberty I now crave, when you concluded there was no way so effectual to improve this country as to dispense freedom in things relating to conscience. My humble supplication, therefore, to you is, that so malicious and injurious a practice towards innocent Englishmen may not receive any countenance from your lordship, for it would not resemble that clemency and English spirit that hath hitherto made you honourable." ^ After his liberation from prison, William left Ireland and landed at Bristol, where he attended meetings of Friends for the strengthening of his new-born faith. On arriving at his father's house, the Admiral at first kept his temper, until, hearing him use the words " thee '' and " thou," he became very angry. "You may 'thee' and 'thou' who you please," he said, " except the King, the Duke of York, and myself — these thou shalt not 'thee' and 'thou.'" Much has been said about refusing to take off his hat ; though no mention is made of it in this " Account of his Convincement." The Admiral told his son that he would not trouble him if he would only con- sent to take off his hat before his father. His Majesty, and the Duke of York. William, according to the ' Quoted in "The Penns and the Penningtons," p. i6i. PERSECUTION. 51 usual account, requested time for consideration, and at last firmly declined to comply with the parental wish. Of course the world felt indignant at such dis- courtesy. But the world could not understand his position, and was quite unable to enter into his scruples. He had embraced the idea that to take off the hat to any one was an act of worship. Friends at -meeting solemnly took off their hats as they offered prayer. In this way they did homage to their Maker. Ceremonialism with them had been reduced to a minimum, and therefore this small relic had in their esteem the more significance. It was with them a sign of adoration, just as kneeling is with us. To offer that sign to a fellow mortal, they thought was to break down the distinction between a Divine and a human object of regard. They said they intended no discourtesy to any fellow-being ; they only feared doing dishonour to the Creator of all. Multitudes could never understand this ; but they did, and so acted with a conscientious consistency. Moreover, they believed in human equality, a notion popular with people far removed from Quakers. They would " honour all men," and would lift no one to an emi- nence above the rest of mankind. Many who cheer to the echo the doctrine of human equality, laugh to scorn the idea when expressed by the English Quaker in his own way. When the Admiral parted with his son for the night, he said he wished to see him in the morning. When the morning came, the MS., from which I have already quoted, proceeds : " They went in the coach together, without William knowing where they were going, till the coachman was ordered to drive into the 52 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. park. Thus he found his father's intent was to have private discourse with him. He commenced by- asking him what he could think of himself, after being trained up in learning and courtly accomplishments, nothing being spared to fit him to take the position of an ambassador at foreign courts, or that of a minister at home, that he should now become a quaker. William told him that it was in obedience to the manifestation of God's will in his conscience, but that it was a cross to his own nature. He also reminded him of that former meeting in Cork, and told him that he believed he was himself at that time convinced of the truth of the doctrine of the quakers, only that the grandeur of the world had been felt to be a too great sacrifice to give up. After more dis- course they turned homewards. They stopped at a tavern on the way, where Sir William ordered a glass of wine." ^ On entering, his father locked the door, and, to the surprise of William, said he was going to kneel down and pray to God that his son might never be a Quaker. Before he would listen to such a prayer, the subject of it thought he would leap out of the window ; but just at that moment a nobleman passed by in his coach, who, knowing the Admiral, stepped in and told him he might think himself happy in having a son who could despise the grandeur of the world, and refrain from the vices so many were running into. Another nobleman also treated the matter in a simi- lar way. But at length the father bid him take his clothes and begone from his house, for he should not ' "The Penns and the Penningtons," p. 178. PERSECUTION. 53 be there any longer ; also that he should dispose of his estate to them that pleased him better. Such is the account afforded by this MS., which we must remember was written long after the author of it had heard the story fall from Penn's lips. What he undoubtedly said himself on one occasion we find in the journal of his travels. He paid a visit to an interesting circle of Christians at Leeuwarden, which will be hereafter described, and he says : — " Here I began to let them know how and when the Lord first appeared unto me, which was about the twelfth year of my age, anno 1656. How, at times, betwixt that and the fifteenth, the Lord visited me, and the divine impressions he gave me of him- self ; of my persecution at Oxford, and how the Lord sustained me in the midst of that hellish darkness and debauchery ; of my being banished the college, the bitter usage I underwent when I returned to my father ; whipping, beating, and turning out of doors in 1662 ; of the Lord's dealings with me in France, and in the time of the great plague in London. In fine, the deep sense he gave me of the vanity of this world, of the irreligiousness of the religious of it. Then, of my mournful and bitter cries to him, that he would show me his own way of life and salvation, and my resolutions to follow him, whatever reproaches or sufferings should attend me ; and that, with great reverence and brokenness of spirit. How, after all this, the glory of the world overtook me, and I was even ready to give up myself unto it ; seeing as yet no such thing as the primitive spirit and church on the earth ; and being ready to faint concerning my hope of the restitution of all things, it was at this time 54 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. that the Lord visited me with a certain sound and testi- mony of his eternal Word, through one of those the world calls a Quaker, namely Thomas Loe. I related to him the bitter mockings and scornings that fell upon me, the displeasure of my parents, the invective- ness and cruelty of the priests, the strangeness of all my companions, what a sign and wonder they made of me ; but, above all, that great cross of resisting and watching against my own inward vain affections and thoughts " 1 Penn became a minister. Many suppose that any Friend is at liberty to assume this holy calling, without any particular recognition by the body. But Friends maintain discipline in preaching, as in other things. They have their monthly, quarterly, and yearly meet- ings for the transaction of business ; and the capacity of a public Friend is too important a matter to pass unnoticed. As it is now, so it was then ; and there- fore the young man I am describing was introduced into the public ministry after the usual manner ob- served by the denomination. Almost as soon as he became a preacher he became an author. His first book, one published in 1668, is entitled, " Truth Exalted," which he explains as " a short but sure testimony against all those religions, faiths, and worships that have been formed and fol- lowed in the darkness of apostacy ; and for that glori- ous light which is now risen and shines forth in the life and doctrines of the despised Quakers^ as the alone good old way of life and salvation." " What arrogance ! " said the world. " What fidelity to con- science ! " said many a decided Friend. It must be ' Penn's Journal of his Travels in 1677, p. 102. PERSECUTION. 55 confessed that such a title, so expanded, was belli- gerent. It struck a note of theological defiance. It challenged the Church of England, and a good many sects besides. Friends now are the most peaceful people on earth ; not only as bearing testimony against the use of arms, but also as abstaining from angry polemics. Quietly but strongly they maintain their own position, giving other Christians credit for conscientiousness. It was not so at the beginning ; and Penn showed how he caught at once the controversial spirit of Fox. It was the infirmity of the age, in which others besides Quakers fully shared. The young writer boldly re- buked existing Churches, charging them with the maintenance of human opinions and carnal forms. Their religion stood, he said, " not in the Divine, but in the fallen or apostate nature ; not in the broken, but in the strong heart." This was not the way to carry home conviction. It only exasperated those at whom it was levelled. It was an Ishmaelitish policy, which brought with it reprisals, as might be expected. Once commenced, authorship vigorously went on. Penn met with a book called " A Guide to the True Re- ligion " : articles were laid down, and those who could not adopt them were denounced, Papists, Socinians, — Quakers were offensively particularized. Such writing is abominable. Penn sat down and wrote "The Guide Mistaken," in which he charged his antagonist with aspersion, hypocrisy, and contra- dictions. Pity it was that he should thus imitate a bad example ! He was soon plunged into another controversy. S6 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. There was a London Presbyterian minister, named .Thomas Vincent, who, during the plague year, did 'a wonderful work, preaching in public and visiting in private, when clergymen in general left their pul- pits and forsook their parishes. Two of the members of this good man's congregation went to a Quakers meeting and were " convinced." The Puritan pastor fdt very angry, and reflected on the new sect as holding ''damnable" doctrines. Penn, accompanied by another Friend, called on Vincent and demanded a public discussion. Vincent reluctantly assented ; a day and an hour were appointed for the parties to enter the lists. The place was a Presbyterian meet- ing-house belonging to Vincent in some obscure situation. Hoxton, says Anthony Wood ; Spitalfield?, says Clarkson ; Hand Alley, Bishopsgate, says Non- conformist tradition. The Quaker account given is that Vincent packed the place with his own hearers ; that Penn and his companion had to push their way in ; that it was proclaimed aloud, " Quakers hold damnable doc- trines," and that upon an attempt by the Friend to explain his principles, the Presbyterian contended the proper way was for him to interrogate his opponents, a proposal carried by acclamation. Vincent then inquired "whether Quakers owned one Godhead in three distinct and separate persons .' " Friends pre- sent replied, that they could not accept the doctrine, put in that form, as of Scripture authority. It was easy to fall into dispute about the word " subsistence," and the like. Unprofitable wrangling ensued, and the controversy became enveloped in metaphysical clouds. The Presbyterians are said to have added abuse to PERSECUTION. 5^ argument. They hissed, laughed, and called William Penn a Jesuit — the only one of the body at that moment so designated. Vincent, to put a stop to the disturbance, commenced praying, and then, in his intercession, accused his antagonists of blasphemy. Prayer being ended, Vincent withdrew, leaving the Friends dissatisfied. They determined not to give in, though the candles were put out, it being nearly mid- night ; so they persisted in the dark, when Vincent came back with a light, promising a future meeting if they would quietly go home. No arrangement having been made, Penn and his companion went to Hand Alley on a week-day, when the pastor delivered a lecture.^ The service was over, and Penn begged that they might continue their defence. But Vincent left the pulpit and walked home, leaving the combatants to themselves. Vincent's charges against Quakers were as irritating as were the Quakers' charges against other people. Mutual recriminations by these honest men only made their relations with one another worse and worse. As Penn was not allowed to speak, he felt determined to publish, and soon (1668) produced " The Sandy Foundation Shaken." The book was carelessly written, and is by no means equal to his other works. He attacked " thg notion of one God subsisting in three distinct and separate persons " ; " the notion of the impossibility of God pardoning sinners without a plenary satis- faction," and the notion of "the justification of impure persons by means of an imputative righteousness." ' Wilson, " Dissenting Churches," vol. iii. 58 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. This is but an example of a mode of conducting con- troversy in those days, and in our own. A combatant gives his own definition of notions in certain words which those on the other side will not accept. Vin- cent did not beheve in three "separate persons," though he believed in the Trinity. He would not accept the idea of a " plenary satisfaction " exactly in the sense which Penn attached to the words, though he believed in Christ's Atonement ; nor would he say that the impure — those who continued so — were justified by imputative righteousness, though he believed in justification by faith. Vincent published an answer to Penn, and charged him with misrepresentation ; but it is not worth while to pursue the controversy, inasmuch as both parties believed in the Divinity of our Lord, both believed in His sacrifice for sin, and both believed that men are saved by grace through faith. Theologically they differed. Metaphysically they differed. Yet, after all, in the main, religiously they were one. It might have been said to many a polemic two hundred years ago — and it might be said to many now, in the words of Moses, " Why smitest thou thy fellow ? " Penn's book laid him open to attack ; but it was interpreted unfairly. A Nemesis overtook him for his unjust representation of Vincent. He was accused of denying altogether a distinction in the Godhead. He was not an Athanasian ; nor are many divines who nevertheless are reputed to be orthodox. The Bishop of London and other prelates accused the young Quaker of heresy, — a very serious charge, as heresy of the kind attributed to him was liable to punishment by law. In consequence of what Penn PERSECUTION. 59 had written, he was actually apprehended and locked up in the Tower. " The Sandy Foundation " excited a good deal of notice, and fell into Samuel Pepys' hands, who thought himself something of a theologian. He wrote in his curious Diary on February 12, 1669, "I got my wife to read it to me, and I find it so well writ, as, I think, it is too good for him ever to have writ it ; and it is a serious sort of book, and not fit for everybody to read." But all the way through the author, in his attacks on orthodox theologians, is fighting with a shadow, for they do not accept his definitions of their doctrines, and therefore they repudiate the conse- quences he deduces from them. The imprudence of the author is manifest from the accusations of grave heterodoxy to which he exposed himself; but which, to a large extent, he boldly repelled in his " Inno- cency with her Open Face," published the same year. This is a very short pamphlet, and of no theological significance, except that whilst he retracts nothing which he had said in his former publication, he intro- duces passages which assert the Divinity of Christ, the Atonement of Christ, and justification through faith in Christ. " That, " he says, " which I am credibly informed to be the greatest reason of my imprisonment, and that noise of blasphemy which hath pierced so many ears of late, is my denying the Divinity of Christ, and divesting Him of His Eternal Godhead, which most busily hath been suggested, as well to those in authority, as maliciously insinuated amongst the people ; wherefore let me beseech you to be impartial and considerate in the perusal of my 6o LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. vindication, which, being in the fear of the Almighty God, and the simpHcity of scripture dialect, presented to you, I hope my innocency will appear without scruple." 1 He then adduces a number of texts which declare the Divinity of our Lord, and concludes with a reference to " one Socinus." " I was never baptized into his name, and therefore deny that reproachful epithet, and if in anything I acknowledge the verity of his doctrine, it is for the truth's sake, of which, in many things, he had a clearer prospect than most of his contemporaries ; but not therefore a Socinian any more than a son of the English Church, whilst esteemed a Quaker, because I justify many of her principles since the Reformation against the Roman Church." With regard to our Blessed Lord's sacrifice, the author further remarks : " However positively I may reject or deny my adversaries' unscriptural and ima- ginary satisfaction, let all acknowledge this, that I pretend to know no other name by which remission, atonement, and salvation can be obtained, but Jesus Christ the Saviour, who is the power and wisdom of God, what apprehensions soever people may have entertained concerning me." As for justification by an imputed righteousness, he remarks : " I still say that whosoever believes in Christ shall have remission and justification ; but then it must be such a faith as can no more live without works than a body without a spirit." The captive remained in the Tower seven or eight ' " Innocency with her Open Face.'' Penn's Select Works, vol. i. p. 60. PERSECUTION. 6i months. On the hill near the old city wall he was born, and this contiguity to his birthplace would make home thoughts sad ; surely he would also think of martyrs and confessors who had been lodged there before him, and their constancy would strengthen his. As afterwards John Bunyan wrote a famous book in Bedford gaol, as Raleigh before wrote a famous book in London Tower, — so Penn now wrote a famous book in that very place, far superior to any he had written before. There is a great charm in felicitous titles. As Baxter, in the " Saints' Everlasting Rest,^' so Penn, in " No Cross no Crown," presents a poem epitomized. A grand idea is concentrated in four words. Yet it must be owned that though such men had a capacity for throwing out thought in a form brief and beautiful, they could not restrain a habit of excessive amplifi- cation. On their short texts they wrote long sermons. In writing they never seem to have made erasures ; all which came to hand was written in full, without sub- sequent correction. They had vastness of conception and enormous argumentative power, and ingenious devices of arrangement ; but they gave no finish to their productions. They could blast rocks, and hew marble, and strike out gigantic figures, but they had no delicate skill in the use of the chisel — all was left in the rough. Their statues half the size would have been far better. " No Cross no Crown " is a large work, and in the original edition the beautiful title is unfortunately supplemented by the words — " or several sober reasons against hat worship, titular respect, ' you ' to a single person, with the apparell and recreations of the times, in defence of the poor despised quakers, against the 62 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. practice and objections of their adversaries." The title is altered in later editions. What was first prefixed shows that the treatise was intended as a defence of Quakerism, and an encouragement to Quakers amidst their trials. This is one bearing of the work ; but it must not be inferred it has no other and no higher one. It traverses the whole field of self-sacrifice, and presents the self denial of a religious life under a number of striking aspects. Penn had no reverence for Roman Catholic crosses of wood, or other material symbols, but he dwelt upon the indis- pensable necessity of the "Cross mystical — that Divine Grace and Power which crossed the carnal wills of men and gave a contradiction to their corrupt affections, and which constantly opposed itself to the inordinate and fleshly appetite of their minds, and so might be justly termed the instrument of man's holy dying to the world and being made conformable to the will of God. " He attacks the fashions and luxuries of the age, and earnestly inculcates the sacrifice of these as part of the law of Christian denial ; and, in doing so, distinctly keeps in view the peculiarities of Quakerism. The results of very ex- tensive reading are condensed in the review he takes of ancient sages and others, in his notices of their lives and writings, in his examples of Scripture cha- racters and ancient Christians, and in an interesting collection of anecdotes and sketches respecting dis- tinguished men of later times. Amongst the modern examples is one relating to a lady, probably a kins- woman, who had evidently come under those convic- tions which are characteristic of Friends, and may here be appropriately introduced : — PERSECUTION. 63 " A sister of the family of Penn, of Penn, in Buck- inghamshire, a young woman delighting in the finery and pleasures of the world, was seized with a violent illness that proved mortal to her. In the time of her sickness she fell into great distress of soul, bitterly bewailing the want of that inward peace which makes a death-bed easy to the righteous. After several days' languishing, a little consolation appeared after this manner. She was some hours in a kind of a trance ; she apprehended she was brought into a place where Christ was, to whom could she but deliver her petition, she hoped to be relieved. But her endeavours increased her pain, for as she pressed to deliver it, ' He turned his back upon her,' and would not so much as look towards her. But that which added to her sorrow, was, 'that she beheld others admitted.' However, she gave not over im- portuning him, and when almost ready to faint, and her hope to sink, ' he turned one side of his face towards her, and reached forth his hand, and received her request : at which her troubled soul found imme- diate consolation.' Turning to those about her, she repeats what had befallen her, adding, ' Bring me my new clothes ; take off the lace and finery ' ; and charged her relations ' not to deck and adorn them- selves after the manner of the world ; for that the Lord Jesus, whom she had seen, appeared to her in the likeness of a plain country man, without any trimming or ornament whatever; and that his ser- vants ought to be like him.' " This work, like the two former, belongs to the year 1668. Whilst he was in the Tower, a servant came to tell 64 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. him the Bishop of London had declared he should '■ either recant or die a prisoner." " Thou mayest tell my father," he replied, " that my prison shall be my grave before I will budge a jot, for I owe obedience of my conscience to no mortal man." There was true metal in such a man. But he had no objection to write in July, 1669, to Lord Arlington, asking him to intercede on his behalf. He told him that he was at a loss to imagine how a diversity of religious opinions could affect the safety of the state ; that they only were unfit for society who maintained principles subversive of industry, fidelity, justice, and obedience ; but to say that men must form religious opinions according to the prescription of other mortal men, was both ridiculous and dangerous. He begged access to the king ; — if this should be denied, then that his lordship would hear him, and that if he remanded a prisoner, it might be known for what cause.^ He finished by saying that more honour would accrue to Lord Arlington by being just, than any advantage to himself by becoming free. Few prisoners have sought release on these independent, and noble grounds. A month after this letter was sent Penn was re- leased. He went home to find trouble. The Court was full of jealousies and intrigues, and a royal favourite, like Sir William, would be sure to have some who envied and hated him. Monk, Duke of Albemarle, and Prince Rupert were by no means his friends, and made mischief at the Navy Board. They were displeased when the Admiral was appointed to ' Clarkson's " Life of Penn," vol. i. p. 54. PERSECUTION. 65 high command ; but the king and his brother stood by the veteran. However, an impeachment was trumped up ; and by the help of Samuel Pepys we see something of what went on. His entries are more lively than a second-hand narrative. " April 16, 1668. Merry at Sir W. Pen's crying yesterday, as they say, to the king, that ' he was his martyr.' To West- minster Hall, where I hear W. Pen is ordered to be impeached. There spoke with many ; and particularly with G. Montagu, and went with him and Creed to his house, where he told how Sir W. Pen hath been severe to Lord Sandwich ; but the Coventrys both labouring to save him by laying on it Lord Sandwich, which our friends cry out upon, and I am silent, but do believe they did it as the only way to save him." " It is thought the House do cool ; Sir W. Coventry being for him provoked Sir R. Howard and his party; Court all for W. Pen." Pepys might well take an interest in the case from his connection with the Admiralty and his acquaintance with the Admiral ; and what he says about Secretary Coventry and the Court, shows what influential advocates the Admiral possessed. " April 21. I hear how Sir W. Pen's im- peachment was read, and agreed to in the House this day, and ordered to be engrossed, and he suspended the House." "April 24. I did hear the Duke of York tell how Sir W. Pen's impeachment was brought into the House of Lord's to-day ; and he spoke with great kindness of him, and that the Lords would not commit him till they could find precedent for it, and did incline to favour him." " 29th. To White Hall, and there do hear how Sir W. Pen hath delivered in his answer ; and the Lords have sent it F 66 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. down to the Commons, but they have not yet read it, nor taken notice of it, so as I believe they will by design defer it till they rise, that so he, by lying under an impeachment, may be prevented in his going to sea, which will vex him and trouble the Duke of York." " May i. That Sir W. Pen who labours to have his answer to his impeachment, and sent down by the Lords' House, read by the House of Commons ; but they are so busy in other matters, that he cannot and thereby will, as he believes by design, be pre- vented from going to sea this year." And so he was. Whether caused by worry or not, the Admiral was seized with a fit of the gout this summer, and kept away from the Navy OfBce for some months. Pepys went to see him in his house on Tower Hill, and found him " sitting in his great chair, made on purpose for persons sick of that disease for their ease : and this very chair, he tells me," says the diarist, " was made for my Lady Lambert." ' Lady Lambert was wife of the Parliamentary General, who lived at that time an exile on Drake's Island, Plymouth Sound. In the spring of 1669, when young William's re- lease occurred, his father, weakened in body and depressed in mind, felt more favourably disposed toward him, and did not object to the mother visiting her son ; so negotiations went on through this me- dium, which ended in William's going over to Ireland on family business. The written correspondence opened not very auspiciously, for Sir William wrote : ' May 27. At an earlier period he has this entry : " 1661-2, Jan. 6. To dinner to Sir W. Pen's, it being a solemn feast- day with him, his wedding day, and we had besides, a good chine of beef and other good cheer, eighteen mince pies in a dish, the number of years that he hath been married." PERSECUTION. 67 " If you are ordained to be another cross to me, God's will be done, and I shall arm myself the best I can against it." But the son was ordained to be a blessing, and the father himself found this out, as will appear in the sequel. He not only attended to the business he was sent to transact, but, with the zeal of a young convert, identified himself with the persecuted sect then suffering from imprisonment. He visited them in gaol at Cork, and held a meeting there, exhorting them to patience, also to a continued protest against the illegality of their apprehension. From Cork he travelled to Dublin, and attended meet- ings in that city ; at the same time he used what influence he had at the Castle ; and, in June, 1670, he succeeded in procuring the release of his brethren. The same year he returned to his father, now willing at last to be reconciled. The latter saw that it was no use to oppose his religious convictions any longer ; that his Quaker son was a better man than ever, that he had virtue and principle, missed among courtiers who could betray and trample under foot their friends ; and, above all, that now, after the storms of life, and the disappointments of fortune, he himself longed for a harbour where he could anchor his shattered vessel. His son told him where it was to be found, and, we have reason to believe, succeeded in guiding him there. But further persecution awaited William. A Friends' meeting-house stood in Gracechurch Street, and thither he repaired to worship. On reaching the door he found it closed and guarded. A company of soldiers prevented the people from entering. The renewal, -in 1670, of the infamous Conventicle Acts 68 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. authorized this invasion of reh'gious liberty ; and there being no access to the humble building, Penn made up his mind at once to preach to the crowd in the street. Another Friend was with him, William Mead, a London linen draper ; and soon after the discourse had begun, both the preacher and his com- panion were arrested under warrant from the Lord Mayor, and immediately dragged off to Newgate. What followed forms a curious chapter in the history of English jurisprudence. The prisoners were arraigned at the Old Bailey, not, as is sometimes supposed, for a breach of the Conventicle Act, which had nothing to do with their case, but for preaching to an unlawful, seditious, and riotous assembly; it being also alleged in legal phrase, that " they had met together with force and arms to the terror and disturbance of His Majesty's liege subjects." After two days' adjournment of the court, as soon as the two gentlemen appeared in the dock, the question of "hat worship " arose. Of course they did not take off their hats ; their hats, however, were taken off for them. The officers were rebuked from the bench for what they had done. " Who bid you put off their hats .? Put them on again." This order being obeyed, the following colloquy ensued : — Recorder.^-" Do you know where you are ? " Penn.—" Yes." Rec. — " Do you know it is the king's court ? " Penn. — " I know it to be a court, and I suppose it to be the king's court." Rec. — "Do you know there is respect due to the court .? " Penn.— "Yes." PERSECUTION. Rec. — " Why do you not pay it then ? " Penn.—" I do so." Rec. — " Why do you not put off your hat then ? " Penn. — " Because I do not believe that to be any respect." Rec. — "Well, the court sets forty marks apiece upon your heads, as a fine for your contempt of the court." Penn. — " I desire it may be observed that we came into the court with our hats off (that is, taken off) ; and if they have been put on since, it was by order from the bench, and therefore not me, but the bench, should be fined." Evidence was then given that three or four hundred people assembled in Gracechurch Street ; and that Penn addressed them, but there being much confusion and noise, what he said could not be understood. Penn at once declared, " we confess ourselves to be so far from recanting or declining to vindicate the assembling of ourselves to preach, to pray, or worship God, — that we declare to all the world, that we believe it to be our indispensable duty to meet incessantly upon so good an account, nor shall all the powers upon earth be able to divert us." " You are not here," said one of the sheriffs, "for worshipping God, but for breaking the laws." Here lay the gist of the whole matter. Penn affirmed he had broken no law. He was not guilty of the indictment. " Let me know," he asked, " by what law it is you prosecute me, and on what law you ground your indictment ? " Rec. — " Upon the common law." Penn. — " Where is that common law ? " Rec. — " You must not think that I am able to run 70 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. up so many years, and over so many adjudged cases, which we call common law, to answer your curiosity." Penn. — " This answer, I am sure, is very short of my question, for if it be common it should not be so hard to produce." Rec. — " You are a saucy fellow ; speak to the indictment." Penn. — " I say, it is my place to speak to matter of law. I am arraigned a prisoner ; my liberty, which is next to life itself, is now concerned." An uproar followed, for such calmness and good sense was more than the frantic court could endure ; then on the settling down of the excitement, the trial proceeded. Rec.—"T\i& question is whether you are guilty of this indictment 1 " Penn. — "The question is not, whether I am guilty of this indictment, but whether this indictment be legal ? It is too general and imperfect an answer to say it is the common law, unless we knew both where and what it is. For where there is no law there is no transgression." Rec. — "You are an impertinent fellow. Will you teach the court what law is .' It is lex not scripta, that which many have studied thirty or forty years to know; and would you have me tell you in a moment .'' " Penn. — " Certainly if the common law be so hard to be understood, it is far from being very common. But if the Lord Coke in his ' Institutes ' be of any consideration, he tells us that common law is common right, and that common right is the great charter privileges confirmed by King Henry, etc." PERSECUTION. 71 Rec. — " Sir, you are a troublesome fellow, and it is not for the honour of the court to suffer you to go on." Penn. — " I have asked but one question, and you have not answered me, though the rights and privi- leges of every Englishman be concerned in it.'' Rec. — " If I should suffer you to ask questions till to-morrow morning, you would be never the wiser." Penn. — " That is according as the answers are." ^ Penn was more than a match for the Recorder, and he persevered until he was pushed into a corner of the dingy building, called the bale dock. Mead's case was then taken up, after the same fashion in which Penn's had been treated ; and upon his being put into the bale dock, the Recorder charged the jury in his own way, and commanded them to agree upon a verdict. In 1687 Penn wrote what he entitled " Good Advice to the Church of England," and in it he introduces a passage which perhaps was founded upon the attempt made in his trial to convict him of being guilty of a breach of the peace by speaking to the people in Gracechurch Street : " The Church of England cries out against transubstantiation because of the invisi- bility of the change. She does not see Christ there, and therefore He is not there ; and yet her sons do the same thing. For though all the tokens of a riot are as invisible in a Dissenters' meeting, as that in the transubstantiation, yet it must be a riot without any more to do. The English of which is, ' It is a riot to pray to God in the humblest and peaceablest manner in a conventicle.' " After consultation for an hour and a half, the jury ' Penn's Works (fol. 1726), vol. i. p. 10. 72 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. said they could not agree upon a verdict. Plenty of abuse from the bench followed, and they again re- tired. Then, in answer to the question, "Guilty or not guilty," the foreman replied, " Guilty of speaking in Gracechurch Street." He would go no farther. This was very awkward, and the violence of the judges reached the highest pitch. The jury were compelled to go back again, but they persevered in their verdict, " Guilty of speaking in Gracechurch Street"; adding now, "William Mead not guilty." The Recorder ordered this unmanageable but noble-spirited company of Englishmen to be locked up without meat, drink, fire, or tobacco. And they were locked up. Next morning the jury were again asked, " Guilty or not guilty." " William Penn," an- swered the foreman once more, "is guilty of speaking in Gracechurch Street " — " to an unlawful assembly," added the Lord Mayor. " No, my lord," was the answer. " We give no other verdict than we gave last night." So this extraordinary case went on, the judges badgering shamefully, the jury nobly inflexible. They were locked up another night, and then came a most unmistakable verdict : " Guilty or not guilty V " Not guilty, my lord." Incredible it appears, but it is the fact, that the court fined them forty marks each, and ordered their imprisonment until these fines were paid. " Fines," cried Penn, " what fines .? " " For contempt of court," rejoined my Lord Mayor. There had been irregularities in English courts respecting verdicts. Fines had been imposed on juries before now. The question required decision. PERSECUTION. 73 After wearisome legal argumentation, the Court of Common Pleas quashed the order for fines and im- prisonment, and set the jurors at liberty. Penn and Mead remained in Newgate, because they would not pay the unjust fines ; but some one interposed and paid for them. Then, of course, they were free ; and no sooner had our hero time for the purpose, than he sat down and wrote an account of the whole business. He entitled it " The People's Ancient and Just Liberties Asserted." During the disgraceful proceedings I have de- scribed, Penn's father remained hopelessly ill, daily drawing near his end. His son wrote to him fre- quently : — " Dear Father," he says on the 5 th of 7th month, 1670, — " Because I cannot come I write. These are to let thee know that this morning, about seven, we were remanded to the Sessions. The jury, after two nights and two days being locked up, came down and offered their former verdict ; but that being refused as not positive, they explained themselves by pronouncing the prisoners not guilty. Upon this the bench were amazed, and the whole court so satisfied that they made a kind of hymn. But that the Mayor, Recorder, and Robinson might add to their malice, they fined us for not pulling off" our hats, and have kept us prisoners for the money, an in- jurious trifle which will blow over, as we shall bring it to the Common Pleas, because it was against law, and not cessed by a jury." Again, on the 6th of 7th month, he writes : " I am cleared by the jury, and they are here in my place, and resolved to lie till they get out by law. The court 74 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN., have so overshot themselves that the generality of people much detest them. I intreat thee not to purchase my liberty." On the 7th September, after declaring he should stand firm, he says to his father, then very ill, " I am not without hope that the Lord will sanctify the endeavours of thy physician unto a cure, and then much of my solicitude will be at an end. My present restraint is so far from being humour, that I would rather perish than release myself by an indirect course, or to satiate their revengeful, avaricious appetites. The advantage of such freedom would fall very short of the trouble of accepting it. Solace thy mind in the thoughts of better things, dear father. Let not this wicked world disturb thy mind, and whatever shall come to pass, I hope in all conditions to approve myself thy obedient son." ^ William Penn, happily, has given an account of his father's dying words in a late edition of the " No Cross no Crown " : — " ' Son William, I am weary of the world ! I would not live over my days again if I could command it with a wish, for the snares of life appear greater than the fear of death. This troubles me that I have offended a gracious God, that has followed me to this day. Oh ! have a care of sin ! That is the sting both of life and death. Three things I commend to you : — " ' First : Let nothing in this world tempt you to wrong your conscience ; so you will keep peace at home, which will be a feast to you in the day of trouble. ' " The Penns and the Penningtons," pp. 262-265. PERSECUTION. 75 " ' Secondly : Whatever you design to do, lay it justly, and time it seasonably. . . . " ' Lastly : Be not troubled at disappointments ; for if they may be recovered, do it ; if they cannot, trouble is vain. If you could not have helped it, be content ; there is often peace and profit in submitting to Provi- dence, for aflflictions make wise. If you could have helped it, let not your trouble exceed instruction for another time. " ' These rules will carry you with firmness and comfort through this inconstant world.' " Soon after the death of Sir William, I find his son moving about in the counties of Bucks and Oxford. There was a Baptist minister at High Wycombe, who attacked the Quakers in general, and cast bitter reflections on their young champion in particular. Public discussions were the order of the day ; and though they seem adapted rather to excite person- alities and foment bad feeling, Penn was ready to fall into this prevalent fashion ; hence he challenged the High Wycombe preacher, to meet him in public, and contest the points he had ventured to advance. A brother of the latter, named Jeremy, undertook as a substitute, to accept the challenge ; forthwith the controversialists met in the little Buckingham town, and Jeremy, according to arrangement, opened the debate. He is represented by his opponents, as having broken down, leaving Penn master of the field, who proceeded, without interruption, to answer antagonists. What was said I do not know, and the chief circum- stance of interest connected with it is that EUwood, Milton's friend, was present, and wrote at the moment a Latin couplet, thus translated : 76 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. " Truth has prevailed ; the foe his back hath shown. Thank God we're safe ; the praise is His alone." Reaching Oxford, the zealous defender of Friends heard accounts of cruel treatment suffered by students who had been attending on religious meetings ; in consequence, he addressed the Vice-Chancellor in terms which at the present day would be thought unworthy of a Christian gentleman. They are now quoted simply to show what painful lengths over- wrought feeling carried the best of men when the theological atmosphere was full of electricity : — " Shall the multiplied oppressions which thou con- tinuest to heap upon innocent English people for their peaceable religious meetings pass unregarded by the Eternal God .■' Dost thou think to escape his fierce wrath and dreadful vengeance for thy ungodly and illegal persecution of his poor children 1 I tell thee, no. Better were it for thee thou hadst never been born. Poor mushroom, wilt thou war against the Lord, and lift up thyself in battle against the Al- mighty 1 Canst thou frustrate his holy purposes, and bring his determinations to nought } He has decreed to exalt himself by us, and to propagate his gospel to the ends of the earth." ^ Penn had scarcely finished his journey, and this philippic against the Oxford Vice-Chancellor, when he sat down to attack the dogmas of the papal system. He had read a pamphlet in their defence, and now produced a reply, entitled " A Seasonable Caveat against Popery." It undertakes to refute common arguments alleged by Roman Catholics, — a purpose common enough then, as it is now ; but it proceeds ' Clarkson's '■' Life of Penn," vol. i. p. 92. PERSECUTION. 77 further, — and that is not common, — to distinguish between popery and papists ; to pity more than to blame many of them ; to avow the doctrine of universal toleration ; and to extend it even towards such as had, in times past, denied it to other people, provided they would only give security against their renewal of persecution in time to come. Independ- ents and Baptists had long before asserted the rights of conscience and denounced the injustice of the Church, but they had not laid the foundations of religious freedom so deep as did this thoughtful Quaker. One or two of them had included Roman Catholic brethren within the compass of acceded liberty, but most had excluded them from its enjoy- ment. Penn was in advance in this respect, and contended for the toleration of faith and worship without any limit whatever ; and not only was he in advance of them and others as to extent, but he based his advocacy on a different principle. It did not proceed from reason, expediency, or even Scripture texts, but from the inmost spirit of Christianity connected with the doctrine of the inward light. To promote liberty, in his estimation, was to obey the Gospel ; not to do it, was to reject the Gospel. Per- secution he held to be, not merely impolitic, useless, and unreasonable, but also thoroughly anti-Christian. Judging people by their conduct, not by their creed, esteeming meekness and charity as firstfruits of the Spirit, — he looked upon persecutors, whether sound or heterodox, whether churchmen or Dissenters, as alien- ated from their Maker and as enemies to their race.^ ' See " Great Case of Liberty of Conscience " : Works, vol. iii. ; "Truth Exalted" : Works, vol. i. 78 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. Returning from the country to the city, Penn had not been long at home when, once more, he was deprived of that which, in his estimation, was a human birthright. Sir John Robinson, Lieutenant of the Tower, is represented in a very odious light, and at that time he had a great dislike to the earnest young Friend. He had sat on the Old Bailey Bench during the trial I have described, and felt keenly mortified at the unsuccessful issue of the proceedings. He found out that there was a Quakers' meeting-house in Wheeler Street, that Penn frequented it, and also that he preached there. Accordingly, so it was thought, Robinson arranged for Penn's arrest, and had him brought to the Tower by a company of soldiers. At any rate, if he were not privy to the arrest, he approved of it when it had taken place. At first Penn stood accused of breaking the Conven- ticle law, but there was difficulty in the way of legal proof Another Act was irrelevantly appealed to ; then Robinson, driven to his wits' end, pressed upon him the oath of allegiance, which he knew Penn could never take, not because of disloyalty, but because of conscientious objection to oaths of every kind. Caught in this net, Penn's struggle to escape was in vain. Sir J. Robinson. — " Do you refuse to swear } " W. Penn. — " Yes ; and that upon better grounds than those for which thou wouldst have me swear if thou wilt please to hear me. Sir J. Robinson. — " I am sorry thou shouldst put upon me this severity, it is no pleasant work to me." W. Penn. — " These are but words. It is manifest that there is a prepense malice; thou hast several PERSECUTION. 79 times laid the meetings for me, and this day particu- larly." Sir J. Robinson. — " No ; I profess I could not tell you would be there." W. Penn. — " Thine own corporal told me you had intelligence at the Tower, that I would be at Wheeler Street to-day, almost as soon as I knew it myself. It is disingenuous and partial. I never gave thee occasion for such unkindness." Sir J. Robinson. — " I knew no such thing ; but if I had, I confess I should have sent for you." W. Penn. — " That might have been spared ; I do heartily believe it." Sir. J. Robinson. — " I vow, Mr. Penn, I am sorry for you. You are an ingenious gentleman, all the world must allow you, and do allow you, that ; and you have a plentiful estate ; why should you render yourself unhappy by associating with such a simple people."^ Robinson cast reflections on Penn's early character, which the accused repelled with virtuous indignation, defying any one to charge him with ever having been drunk, or ever having used an oath, or ever having uttered an obscene word, much less indulged in any obscene practice. " I speak this," he continued, " to God's glory, that has ever preserved me from the power of those pollutions, and who from a child begot a hatred in me towards them. But there is nothing more common than when men are of a more severe life than ordinary, for loose persons to comfort them- selves with the conceit that they were once as they are ; and as if there were no collateral or oblique ' Penn's Works (fol. ), vol. i. p. 38. 8o LIFE OF WILLIAM FENN. line of the compass or globe, men may be said to come from to the Arctic Pole, but directly and immediately from the Antarctic." The insulted young man here gave way to his temper, and ex- claimed : " Thy words shall be thy burthen, and I trample thy slander as dirt under my feet." Without more ado, Robinson ordered him to New- gate for six months. They parted, Penn saying, " I would have thee and all men know that I scorn that religion which is not worth suffering for. Thy religion persecutes, mine forgives. I desire God to forgive you all that are concerned in my commitment ; and I leave you all in perfect charity, wishing your ever- lasting salvation." He was conducted to Newgate ; and what Newgate then was can best be told by Ellwood, the Quaker, who had been a prisoner there. " When we came to Newgate, we found that side of the prison very full of Friends, who were prisoners there before us ; as, indeed, were all the other parts of that prison, and most of the other prisons about the town ; and our addition caused a still greater throng on that side of Newgate. We had the liberty of the hall, which is on the first story over the gate, and which in the daytime is common to all the prisoners on that side, felons as well as others. But in the night we all lodged in one room, which was large and round, having in the middle of it a great pillar of oaken timber, which bore up the chapel which is over it. To this pillar we fastened our hammocks at one end, and to the opposite wall on the other end, quite round the room, in three storeys, one over the other ; so that they who lay in the upper and middle row of hammocks were obliged to go to bed first, because PERSECUTION. 8i they were to climb up to the higher by getting into the lower ones. And under the lower range of hammocks, by the wall sides, were laid beds upon the floor, in which the sick and weak prisoners lay. There were many sick and some very weak, and though we were not long there, one of our fellow- prisoners died."^ ' " The Penns and the Penningtons," p. 140. CHAPTER V. BREATHING TIME. WHEN the period of Penn's imprisonment in Newgate expired, he hastened to the Con- tinent for a change, and delightful must have been the change from a miserable cell to the open sea, from a pent-up gaol to the banks of the Rhine ; for thither the captive, now at liberty, directed his course. He has left no detailed account of his tour at this time, as he has done of a later journey ; but in the full account he gives of that which he performed in 1677, he alludes to an incident in this of the year 1671. Emden is a fortified town of East Friesland, having a Rathhaus full of curious armour, and is surrounded by marshland rich in meadows and fertile with grain, but exposed to inundations, against which defence is provided by well-constructed dykes. Nothing of this kind, however, attracted much notice from our travelling Friend, who, bent on the holiest objects, was in search of Christian people like-minded with himself. There lived at Emden a physician, named Hasbert, who was passing through a religious experience similar to that of the English Quakers. He was in a state of deep spiritual anxiety, seeking for light from BREATHING TIME. 83 that quarter whence only the purest light can come, the Holy Spirit of God. His wife was in sympathy with him, and Penn's visit to them proved a graciously providential dispensation. They became decided Friends. Ten people sat down in this doctor's house to wait upon the Lord, and the circumstance, so strange then, threw the townspeople into an up- roar. Sixteen or seventeen times over these con- fessors were banished, and then returned, stripped of all they had ; but, two years after Penn's visit, they were still resolute, and one who wrote respecting them in 1673, says, "the Lord had regard to His name, and to their innocent cry, and supported them and doth support them ; and they have found it true, that those who wait upon the Lord renew their strength." ^ Another town in the Rhineland, full of religious interest, was visited by this inquisitive pilgrim. He was seeking after manifestations of the Spirit of God, and was careful to try the spirits of men. There was a settlement at Herwerden, not far from Emden, under the superintendence of De Labadie, a strange character, formerly a Jesuit, now a nondescript re- former. He had passed through intermediate changes very unsatisfactorily, and now chiefly distinguished himself by attacks on other religionists. He estab- lished a kind of free convent, for which he secured the protection of the Princess Elizabeth, a relative of Charles H. Penn called upon this man, and did not find him in a state of mind such as he approved. " I saw the airiness and unstableness of the man's spirit, and that a sect-master was his name. Labadie, not retaining the princess's good opinion, removed to the ' Crisp's " Memoirs," p. 79. LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. North of Holland, and there attracted to himself the Somerdykes, a well-known aristocratic Dutch family, who, in a country house at Wiewart, of which guide- books say nothing, formed a kind of Protestant con- vent, under the direction of Labadie, and two pastors associated with them. Penn, in a subsequent visit to Holland, saw this little community, and was much pleased with it. Out of this visit to the Continent arose a friend- ship and a correspondence with Dr. Hasbert, the phy- sician at Emden. A letter by Penn, dated December, 1672, is important as bringing out distinctly the writer's view of the inward light : " How many profess God and Christ according to the historical knowledge of both, but never come to the mystical and experimental knowledge of them ! No ; it is utterly impossible that anything should bring to the internal knowledge and experience of the work and will of God, but the light and Spirit only by an inward revelation and operation." " In the name of the Lord God of heaven and earth, I testify that the way for every man and woman to come to God (unto whom darkness can have no access, for to it He is inaccessible) is to bring his or her deeds to the light in him or herself, and see if they be wrought in God, or by Him." " And because of the righteous judgment this heavenly light brings (for judgment is it come into the world) upon the professor who is at ease in the outward courts of profession (which were given to the Gentiles to tread down, and which were left out in measuring the evangelical temple of God), therefore he is so nettled, vexed, and in enmity say- ing, ' You deny the Scriptures, you renounce Christ, BREATHING TIME. 85 you set up your own works, and your light is in- sufficient,' with such like. Oh, but the wise man l9ves reproof, and the way thereof is life to his upright soul ! But this thou must expect from the carnal, fleshly, and historical Christian of the outward courts and suburbs of religion, who is an enemy to the spiritual seed, that sees to the end of all meats, drinks, washings, figures, and bodily exercises ; but as thy mind is kept stayed upon the light, thou wilt have a good understanding given to thee, and a right discerning, whereby to comprehend and confound all that which may let or stop, whether it be within or whether it be without. For this know, that the very same principle that gives light, administers strength, knowledge, life, raiment, and all that shall or can be needed in the spiritual journey to the eternal rest. So, my dear friend, unto that I recommend thee, be- seeching thee to dwell in it ; for by it are all things, that are either reprovable or justifiable, made mani- fest, and whatsoever can be known of God (whom to know effectually is life eternal) is manifested within."! These extracts from his letter are very character- istic, and exhibit Penn's mode of teaching under two very different aspects. The affirmation of an internal knowledge and experience of the work and will of God as essential to true religion is most important, and will be accepted and maintained by every spirit- ually-minded Christian ; and it was this testimony, in the face of formalism of all kinds, that made Quakerism a blessing to England and the world in the seventeenth century. But to speak of the inward ' Penn's "Travels," p. 197. 86 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. light as \h& final test of truth and righteousness, with- out one word of reference to Holy Scripture, as the rule of faith and practice, is highly objectionable, and opens a door to immense self-delusion. And to reply to the charge of his denying Scripture, by saying " the wise man loves reproof," is a sort of de- fiant confirmation of what was alleged against him and those that thought with him. That Penn studied and loved the Scriptures we well know ; but in this instance, as in others, he insists on a one-sided view, shutting out of sight that which was essential to a full and perfect view of Divine truth, and this one- sidedness has ever been the great bane of theology. It was to this one-sidedness of representation that we must attribute much of the prejudice against the teaching of this excellent man. He certainly laid himself open to accusations by evangelical Noncon- formists, that he undervalued the written Word of God, and was absorbed in the notion of an inward light, as if there were no outward revelation at all. To say the very least, — which I apprehend would be endorsed by his greatest admirers — there was a great want of caution in this mode of expressing his spiritual ideas. What he did immediately after he returned to England does not appear in any of the memoirs of Penn ; but a letter brought to light by the Historical Manuscripts Commission shows that he was in London at the close of the year, writing to the Earl of Middlesex and Dorset upon a subject respecting his future residence. He sought protection against Henry Goreing and Colonel Alford, two Justices of the Peace, who "'were endeavouring to make his BREATHING TIME. 87 living in Sussex uneasy, and to that end took advan- tage of his nonconformity in point of religion." Penn must at that time have contemplated a residence in that part of England ; and another letter, without date, written by him to the same person as before, indicates that he was interested in people dwelling thereabouts. He recommended to his " noble friend," two shipwrights, for the building of a couple of vessels that were wanted, and apolo- gised for this application on their behalf, remarking that they " are knaves without reason, that exclude a moderate and reasonable regard to their interest."^ This idea of residing in Sussex should be con- nected with what happened afterwards. He did afterwards take up his residence at Worminghurst, in that county. How that happened we shall see. Might he not in 1671 be thinking of that estate in connection with what happened as described in my next chapter 1 ' "Historical MS. Report," vol. iv. p. 289; date 167 1, Nov. 17th, London. CHAPTER VI. A FAMILY STORY. THE intimacy of William Penn with a family named Pennington had so much influence on his circumstances, destiny, and character, that notices of the interesting and even romantic history of its members may, with propriety, detain our attention in this chapter. Isaac Pennington was son of the famous Alderman Pennington who conspicuously figured in the city on the Parliament side during the civil war. The father could tell of Westminster riots, of the seizure of unpopular prelates in consequence of tumultuous meetings in Guildhall, and of the destruction of Old St. Paul's Cross. He could also relate how he had handed into the House of Commons a Puritan petition with 15,000 signatures. The alderman was included in the High Court of Justice for the trial of Charles I., and hence he was plunged into trouble and danger when Charles II. succeeded to his father's throne. Isaac Pennington was a different man from the alderman, — not political, not ambitious, not busy with public affairs, but a quiet country gentleman. I have noticed already that there existed in the middle of the seventeeth century much religious thought and feelings akin to Quakerism, yet lying outside its definite circle. Many good men and women might be said to be almost Quakers, without knowing anything of the history of that people, or A FAMILY STORY. 89 even the meaning of the word. This was the case with the person now described. He has opened up to us the secrets of his spiritual Hfe, and revealed the beginning of it, as follows : " My heart from my child- hood was pointed toward the Lord, whom I feared and longed after from my tender years. I felt that I could not be satisfied with, nor indeed seek after, the things of this perishing world, but I desired a true sense of, and unity with, that which abideth for ever. There was something still within me which leavened and balanced my spirit almost continually ; but I knew it not distinctly, so as to turn to it and give up to it entirely and understandingly. In this temper of mind I earnestly sought after the Lord, applying myself to hear sermons and read the best books I could meet with, but especially the Scriptures, which were very sweet and savoury to me. Yea, I very earnestly desired and pressed after the knowledge of the Scriptures, but was much afraid of receiving men's interpretations of them, or of fastening any interpreta- tions upon them myself; but waited much and prayed much that from the Spirit of the Lord I might receive the true understanding of them, and that he would endue me with that knowledge which I might feel to be sanctifying and saving." ^ It would be difficult to findan accountof the strivings of God with the soul of man — not merely at that period but at any period — in language more quaintly beautiful than is here employed. Isaac Pennington passed through severe mental exercises, and had painful conflicts with errors regarding the government of God, condemned under the word Calvinism, but 1 " The Penns and the Penningtons," p. 67. go LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. which many Calvinists so called, at that day and in this, would as strongly repudiate as he did. His father had no sympathy with him in all this, and wrote controversial letters, provoked by the son's expostulations, which were not always in the best taste. The differences between father and son would constitute a basis for sympathetic friendship -with William Penn. Mary Pennington, Isaac's wife, had been led along a somewhat similar path of experience by the same gracious Spirit. She had been of a timid disposition, and had often repeated the Lord's Prayer as a charm to ward off evil ; but when eight years old she heard a sermon upon " Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness," which was as "the day dawn and the day star " arising in her heart. She could not enjoy the service of Common Prayer in the Church of England, and longed for the free utterance of her desires at the throne of grace. She tried the Puritans, and still found no satisfaction. After a series of extraordinary circumstances, to be men- tioned presently, she became acquainted with Isaac Pennington. " My love was drawn to him," she says, " because I found he saw the deceit of all men's notions about religion. He lay as one that refused to be comforted, until he came to His temple ' who is truth and no lie.' All things that had only the appearance of religion were very manifest to him, so that he was sick and weary of them ; in this my heart united with him, and a desire was in me to be serviceable to him in this his desolate condition ; for he was as one alone, and felt miserable in the world." A FAMILY STORY. 91 Dr. Watts has ingeniously versified the theory that souls are mated in heaven, but often miss their mates in travelling earthward. Here, if ever, two kindred spirits really became one ; and it is very beautiful to watch them striving to get at the heart of things, to pierce the shell and reach the very kernel of truth, to break the pitcher and bring out the burning lamp. Both had heard of Quakers, but she knew nothing of their ways, except that they used " thee " and " thou" to everybody. At length, as they were walk- ing together, they met with a Friend, who entered into conversation with them, and so they were led into acquaintance with the people for whom by the previous workings of their minds they had been prepared — and with whom they became identified to the end of life. After marriage they went, about 1658, to live at Chalfont St. Peter's, a pleasant village in one of the retired nooks of Buckinghamshire, and there they dwelt in a charming, quiet home until 1665, when their nest was torn up by persecution ; the husband was thrown into prison, the wife was driven into the world, a wandering pilgrim, yet ever on her way to the shrine above. Probably, when troubles overtook them, they be- came acquainted with William Penn. He knew the heart of a prisoner for conscience' sake. He and Pen- nington were brothers and companions " in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ." In 1668 they were attached friends, as appears from this interesting letter : " I understand, through thy dear wife, of thy desire to be informed concerning the sickness and death of dear Thomas Loe. It was thus : When George Whitehead, Thomas Loe, and 92 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. myself, after thou left us, were at Wickham, at the Duke of Buckingham's (on the business), relative to Friends' liberty, he was taken suddenly ill, which necessitated him to leave us, and hasten to the house of a Friend who lived near, where, after three hours, we found him, from excessive retching very feverish. Business called me to the city, so that I left them. That evening he was brought by coach to Anne Greenhill's, where he remained about a week, at times very ill. By reason of the continual noise her house was exposed to, we removed him to Edward Man's, where we all had hopes of his speedy recovery, inas- much as the retirement of the chamber in which he lay occasioned great rest. But being infirm, and under extraordinary fever, the strength of his consti- tution could not long support it ; and for some time before he left us we daily expected his departure. About four days before he died, I fell sick myself; but, hearing at what point it was with dear Thomas, I could not long keep my bed, but got up and has- tened to him. I found him in readiness to depart. Friends much affected stood round his bed. When I came in and had set myself upon the bedside, so shook was he by the power of the Lord, and overcome by the ravishing glory of His presence, that it was wonderful to all the Friends. Taking me by the hand, he spoke thus : ' Dear heart, bear thy cross, stand faithful for God, and bear thy testimony in thy day and generation ; and God will give thee an eternal crown of glory, that none shall ever take from thee. There is not another way. Bear thy cross. Stand faithful for God. This is the way the holy men of old walked inj and it shall prosper. God has brought immor- A FAMILY STORY. 93 tality to light and immortal life is felt in its blessedness. Glory, glory to Thee, for Thou art eternally worthy ! My heart is full. What shall I say .' His love overcomes me. My cup runs over ; my cup runs over. Glory, glory to His name for ever ! Friends, keep your testimonies ; live to God, and He will be with you. Be not troubled ; the love of God overcomes my heart' It effected more than all the outward potions given him, for it so enlivened his spirits and raised him, that he soon after got up and walked about, saying to us : ' Many times when I have seertied to be going, the Lord hath shined upon my tabernacle and raised it up.' But it was then the will of the Lord that, after all his labour, perils, and travels, he should there lay down the body amongst his ancient friends. After some little time, so greatly did his distemper increase and his life sink, that we all gave him up, death appearing in almost every part. He lay some short time speech- less, his spirit being centred, and at last he went away with great stillness, having finished his testi- mony, and left many demonstrations of his service and much fruit of his diligent labour. My soul loved him while living, and now bemoans his loss when dead. The day following we laid the mortal part in the ground, it having done its Master's work. " With my dear love to thyself, wife, and family, " I remain, in true love, " Thy sincere friend, "Wm. Penn."i ' This letter is taken from a collection in the possession of Mr. Robson, of Saffron Walden, and printed in "The Penns and the Penningtons," p. 181. 94 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. From this letter it appears that at the time it was written an intimacy had sprung up between Penn and these two most interesting Quakers, destined in the providence of God to lead to an issue which probably none of them anticipated at the time. Isaac was Mary Pennington's second husband. She had been married, when a mere girl, to a re- markable parliamentary officer, William Springett, who, after valiant service in the civil wars, was knighted by the Speaker of the House of Commons. Her first husband and herself thoroughly sympathised in religious views, and in those unsettled times de- tached themselves from the communion of the Epis- copal Church, though Quakerism then was farthest from their thoughts. Sir William never turned Quaker, his course on earth being cut short, at the age of twenty-three, by an illness brought on during the siege of Arundel Castle. They were intensely attached to each other, and the story of her journey to be with him on his death-bed, the enormous diffi- culties she overcame and the perils she encountered, indicated her courageous character ; whilst the rapture with which she was received, and the dying exclama- tion of the young officer, " Come, once more let me kiss thee and take my leave. No more now, no more ever," reveal the strength of a romantic attachment. Within a few weeks of this affecting separation, she gave birth to a daughter named Guhelma Maria, who continued to live with her mother after she became Pennington's wife ; and, amidst the pleasant scenery of Chalfont, grew up into a charming girl. Also there lived in Pennington's house the well- known Thomas EUwood, already mentioned, who A FAMILY STORY. 95 was reader to John Milton. Whilst the latter was staying at Chalfont St. Giles, during the plague year, 1655, he gave a MS. to the former for his perusal. " When I came home," says EUwood, " and had set myself to read it, I found it was that excellent poem which is entitled ' Paradise Lost' After I had with the best attention read it through, I made him another visit, and returned him his book, with due acknowledgment of the favour he had done me in communicating it to me. He asked me how I liked it, and what I thought of it, which I modestly but freely told him ; and after some further discourse about it, I pleasantly said to him, 'Thou hast said much here of Paradise lost, but what hast thou to say about Paradise found .' ' He made me no an- swer, but sat some time in a muse, then broke off that discourse and fell upon another subject. After the sickness was over, and the city, well cleansed, had become safely habitable again, he returned thither ; and when afterwards I went to wait on him there, which I seldom failed doing whenever my occasions drew me to London, he showed me his second poem, called 'Paradise Regained,' and in a pleasant tone said to me, ' This is owing to you, for you pilt it into my head by the question you put to me at Chalfont, which before I had not thought of " Ellwood was tutor in the Pennington family, and superintended the education of the young people. Gulielma, familiarly styled Guli, was a great favourite of his. He tells us in his very interesting autobio- graphy : " While I remained in that family, suspicions arose 96 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. in the minds of some concerning me with respect to Mary Pennington's fair daughter, Guli. For she, having now arrived at a marriageable age, and being in all respects a very desirable woman — whether regard was had to her outward person, which wanted nothing to render her completely comely ; or to the endowments of her mind, which were every way extraordinary ; or to her outward fortune, which was fair, and which with some hath not the last nor the least place — she was openly and secretly sought and solicited by many, some of almost every rank and condition, good and bad, rich and poor, friend and foe. To whom, in their respective turns, till he at length came for whom she was reserved, she carried herself with so much evenness of temper, such cour- teous freedom, guarded with the strictest modesty, that, as it gave encouragement or ground of hope to none, so neither did it administer any matter of offence or just cause of complaint to any. "But such as were thus engaged for themselves or advocates for others, could not, I observed, but look upon me with an eye of jealousy ; and a fear that I would improve the opportunities I had of frequent and familiar conversation with her, to work myself into her good opinion and her special favour, to the ruin of their pretences. And according to the several kinds and degrees of their fears of me, they sug- gested to her parent ill surmises against me. Some were even inclined to question the sincerity of my motives in first coming among the Quakers, urging with a ' Why may it not be that the hope of obtain- ing so fair a fortune may have been the chief induce- ment?' But this surmise could find no place with A FAMILY STORY. 97 those worthy friends of mine, her father-in-law and her mother, who, besides the clear sense and sound judgment they had in this case, knew very well the terms and motives on which I came among the Friends ; how strait and hard the passage was to me ; how contrary to all worldly interest, which lay fairly another way ; how much I had suffered from my father for it ; and how regardless I had been of seeking any such thing these three or four years I had been amongst them. " Some others, measuring me by their own inclin- ations, concluded I would steal her, run away with her, and marry her ; which they thought I might be easily induced to do, from the opportunities I fre- quently had when riding and walking abroad with her, by night as well as by day, without any other company than her maid. But such was the con- fidence her mother had in me, that she felt her daughter was safe from the plots or designs of others if I were with her. And so honourable were her thoughts of me, that she would not admit any suspicion. " Whilst I was not ignorant of the various fears which filled some jealous heads concerning me, neither was I so stupid or so divested of human feel- ing as not to be sensible of the real and innate worth and virtue which adorned that excellent dame and attracted the eyes and hearts of so many, with the greatest importunity, to seek and solicit her hand. But the force of truth and sense of honour suppressed whatever would have arisen in my heart beyond the bounds of friendship. And having observed how some others had befooled themselves by misconstru- H LIFE OF WILLIAM: PENN. ing her common kindness, expressed in innocent, open, free conversation, springing from the abundant affabiHty, courtesy, and sweetness of her natural temper, to be the effect of singular regard and pecu- liar affection for them, I resolved to shun the rock on which I had seen so many run and split. Remem- bering that saying of the poet, ' Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum,' I governed myself in a free yet respectful carriage towards her, and thereby pre- served a fair reputation with my friends, and enjoyed as much of her favour and kindness in a virtuous and firm friendship, as was fit for her to show or for me CO seek." It has been said that in 1668 William Penn saw this young lady for the first time ; and biographers naturally have imagined what he thought and felt at first sight. But really we know nothing about it, we only know that EUwood seems to have been in love with her before that time, and certainly William Penn passed through many adventures before anything else is related of him in relation to her until the year 167 1. Penn, we may suppose, had been smitten with this beautiful Quakeress long before he avowed any attachment ; and when moving about in Buckingham- shire, after his return from the Continent perhaps, they became engaged. Here, to satisfy the reader's curiosity as to what Ellwood did when he seriously thought of entering himself into matrimonial bonds, it is proper to repeat what he says on the subject. After relating certain journeys which he had taken with Guli, he tells us in 1669, — " I found in myself a disposition of mind to change my single life for a married state. The object A FAMILY STORY. 99 of my affection was a Friend whose name was Mary- Ellis, whom for divers years I had had an acquaint- ance with, in the way of common friendship only ; and in whom I thought I saw those fair prints of truth and solid virtue which I afterwards found in her to a sublime degree. What her condition was in a worldly point of view as to estate, I was wholly a stranger to, nor did I desire to know. I had once, a year or two before, had an opportunity to do her a small piece of service in which she wanted some assistance ; where- in I acted with all sincerity and advantage, but in the satisfaction of being able to serve a friend and help the helpless. "That little intercourse of common kindness be- tween us ended without the least thought (I am verily persuaded on her part, and well assured on my own) of any other relation than that of a free and fair friendship. Nor did it lead us into any closer con- versation, or more intimate acquaintance one with the other, than had been before. But some time after, £md that a good while, I found my heart secretly drawn towards her. Yet was I not hasty in proposing, but waited to feel a satisfactory settle- ment of mind therein, before I took any step thereto. " After some time, I took an opportunity to open my mind therein unto my much honoured friends Isaac and Mary Pennington ; who then stood paren- tum loco (instead of parents) to me. They, having solemnly weighed the matter, expressed their unity therewith; and indeed their approbation was no small confirmation to me. Yet took I still further deliberation, often retiring in spirit to the Lord, and asking Him for direction, before I addressed myself LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. to her. At length, as I was sitting all alone, waiting upon the Lord for counsel and guidance, I felt the words sweetly arise in me, as if I had heard a voice, which said, ' Go, and prevail' Faith springing up in my heart, I immediately arose and went, nothing doubting." The result may be inferred. Ellwood had been gradually led into the expe- rience of Quakerism, and had met with much oppo- sition in his own family, his father treating him with not much less severity than the Admiral did his son ; and that circumstance, together with his subsequent endurance of persecution, which continued at inter- vals from 1665 to 1673, would be sure to endear him to William Penn. Gulielma, so touchingly described by Ellwood, must have been a lovely creature when Penn made her an offer ; and her character, no doubt, was formed by influences derived from both father and mother. Sir William Springett was a man of dauntless courage and firm will, and his wife was of the same stamp. From them it might be expected the girl would inherit a similar disposition ; and it is certain that her mother Mary brought her up in her own sweet ways of quiet devotion. If not born a Quakeress, Gulielma became so in childhood, and to the forma- tion of her habits in that respect her step-father, Pennington, would contribute not a little. A portrait . of her is preserved, in which she appears with sweet face, light hair, a little black hood, a white kerchief, a deep graceful stomacher, a silken dress, with short sleeves, and delicate hands, the whole realising Charles Lamb's ideal of the "shining ones." A FAMILY STORY. Before the wedding took place many changes had occurred, as hinted already, in the Pennington circle. They left their pretty home at Chalfont. Isaac was cast into prison. Mary, with Gulielma, had to change her abode again and again ; but, at last, he was re- leased to be imprisoned no more, and the loving couple were reunited i,n Woodside House, near Amersham, which, after the lapse of nearly two centuries, remains a tenantable habitation. It is not far from where lived General Fleetwood, the Protector Oliver's son- in-law — and fromWoodrow High House, where abode " Mrs. Cromwell, Oliver's wife, and her daughters." ^ William and Gulielma were married in the spring of 1672 ; wherCj it is not said, but most likely at Amersham before some gathering of Friends, in whose presence they would solemnly recognise each other, hand to hand, as man and wife — that simple but expressive rite being perhaps accompanied by devout verbal prayer.^ They immediately settled at Rick- mansworth, in Hertfordshire. A season of rest must have been welcome to the wedded pair, especially after the troubles and perse- cution which had befallen the now happy husband. Enjoying his father's estate of ;^i,500 a year, a hand- ' Written in the parish register of Amersham by a church- warden in 1661. 2 Those who contracted marriage in a disorderly manner^ " contrary to the practice of the holy men of God," were to be exhorted to repent. Marriages were to be recorded in a book, and at least a dozen witnesses were to be present. Widows who married a second time were to secure to the children of the first marriage a joint and equal portion of their property. — " Canons and Institutions drawn up and agreed upon by the Gene- ral Assembly or Meeting of the Heads j)f Q^takers, etc., 1669." LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. some income for those days, he could live as a country- gentleman ; and no doubt did so in the best sense, without indulging in rural sports, or mixing with fashionable society in the neighbourhood. Walks in the neighbourhood, the beauties of a well-cultivated garden, the company of friends such as the Penning- tons and EUwoods, and the reading of books, would be sufficient recreation for summer evenings under shady trees, or winter nights by a cheerful log fire. After a long sojourn at home, they travelled to Bristol in 1673, to meet George Fox just come from America, full of meetings and spiritual enjoyments there. Yet of other things than enjoyment had this extraordinary man to tell. " Glory to the Lord ! " he wrote in his Journal on landing at the great western seaport of England, " glory to the Lord for ever, who hath carried us through many perils, perils by water and in storms, perils by pirates and robbers, perils in the wilderness and amongst false profes- sors ; praises to Him whose glory is over all, for ever. Amen ! " The young couple would listen to their father in the Lord, and drink in his words, as he dis- coursed to them of three estates and three teachers. God the first teacher of man, the serpent a second for evil, and Jesus Christ the third for salvation. In his Journal, he tells us of the teacher Jesus Christ, but says nothing of " the estates," except by implica- tion when referring to the image of God, the power of Satan, and the bruising of the serpent by the woman's seed. Fox notices that W. Penn and his wife met him at Bristol, adding, " Glorious and powerful meetings we had at that time ; for the Lord's infinite power and life was over all." And A FAMILY STORY. 103 again, " Many deep and precious things were opened in those meetings by the Eternal Spirit, which searcheth and revealeth the deep things of God.''^ Fox and his wife also visited the Penns, and soon after Fox was sent prisoner to Worcester gaol. 1 Fox's "Journal," vol. ii. pp. 183-6. CHAPTER VII. CONTROVERSIALIST AND ARBITRATOR. AT the close of the last chapter, George Fox was left in Worcester gaol. That circumstance — after Penn had, in midsummer days, traversed Kent, Sussex, and Surrey on religious service, preaching to no less than twenty-one different congregations — ex- cited in his mind a most painful interest ; and nothing which he could do for the release of his honoured friend, did he leave undone. He wrote to Lady Penn, who wrote to Lord Windsor, Lord Lieutenant of Worcestershire, on the prisoner's behalf ; but though these potent wheels were set in motion, they did not produce the desired result. The ensnaring oath of allegiance was tendered to the Quaker, with the effect anticipated and desired by his enemies. He could not swear ; and he could not but be imprisoned for not swearing, and that they knew. Charles, who had a good-natured feeling towards the Quakers as harmless people with odd ways, would have granted Fox a pardon ; but Fox would accept no pardon, he only wanted justice, and that was difficult to obtain. He had broken no law, he con- tended ; he maintained he was innocent, and therefore forgiveness in his case was an absurdity. Penn wrote to him during his imprisonment, saying, CONTROVERSIALIST AND ARBITRATOR. 105 "The King knows not that thou refused a pardon, only that we chose rather a more suitable way to thine innocency. I am, and still stay in town, to do my utmost. The Lord knows that I could come in thy place to release thee ; but the Lord's will be done. Dear George, things are pretty quiet, and meetings very full, and precious and living, blessed be the Lord for ever." " The name of the everlasting Lord God be blessed and praised for His goodness and mercy, saith my soul. He is our Blessed Rock, the life and joy of our days ; the blessed portion of them that be- lieve and obey." ^ Penn sent his " unchangeable love,"" not only to George, but to his wife ; and she was worthy of it, as appears from the report she wrote of her efforts for her husband's welfare : — " After some time he fell sick in a long lingering sickness, and many times was very ill ; so they wrote to me from London, that if I would see him alive, I might go to him, which accordingly I did ; and after I had tarried seventeen weeks with him at Worcester, and no discharge like to be obtained for him, I went up to London, and wrote to the King an account of his long imprisonment, and that he was taken on his travel homewards, and that he was sick and weak and not like to live if they kept him long there ; and I went with it to Whitehall myself, and I met with the King, and gave him the paper, and he said I must go to the Chancellor, he could do nothing in it. Then I wrote also to the Lord Chancellor, and went to his house, and gave him my paper, and spoke to him ' "The Penns and the Penningtons," p. 286. io6 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. that the King had left it wholly to him, and if he did not take pity and release him out of that prison, I feared he would end his days there. And the Lord Chancellor Finch was a very tender man, and spoke to the judge, who gave out an habeas corpus '^x&se.v^Xy ; and when we got it we sent it down to Worcester. They would not part with him at first, but said he was premunired, and was not to go out in that manner. And then we were forced to go to Judge North, and to the Attorney-General, and we got another order and sent down from them, and with much ado and great labour and industry of William Mead and other friends, we got him up to London." ^ A letter from Penn to Fox shows how the release in which the poor woman rejoiced was really accom- plished.^ ' Quoted in " Worcester Sects," p. 247. - " Dear George Fox, — Thy dear and tender love in thy last letter I received ; and for thy business thus : A great lord, a man of a noble mind, did as good as put himself in a loving way to get thy liberty. He prevailed with the King for a pardon, but that we rejected. Then he pressed for a more noble release, that better answered hath. He prevailed, and got the King's hand to a release. It sticks with the Lord Keeper, and we have used and do use what interests we can. The King is angry with him (the Lord Keeper), and promiseth very largely and lovingly ; so that if we have been deceived, thou seest the grounds of it. But we have sought after a writ of error these ten days past, well-nigh resolving to be, as sure as we can ; and an habeas corpus is gone, or will go to-morrow night. My dear love salutes thee and thy dear wife. Things are brave as to truth in these parts, great conviction upon the people. My wife's dear love is to you all. I long and hope ere long to see thee. So dear George Fox, etc., WILLIAM Penn." — Clarkson, vol. i. p. 156. CONTROVERSIALIST AND ARBITRATOR. 107 Sympathy for Fox and other suffering Quakers in England, did not so absorb Penn's feelings as to shut out sympathy for suffering Friends elsewhere. In 1673, on the first of seventh month, he addressed such persons in Holland and Germany : " Hold up your heads, and be ye comforted, O little flock ; your Shepherd will not fly though the wolf come. Know your Shepherd and dwell with Him, and He will bring you into sweet and green pastures in the midst of your enemies. Consult not with flesh and blood to know what may be the cause of your trials, how you may shun them, or which way you may keep Mammon and a good conscience too ; but eye the Lord, without whose providence a sparrow falls not to the ground. No new or strange thing can happen unto you ; dwell in the faith that works by love, and that will cast out all fear which begets any staggering from your holy testimony. Remember that many eyes are upon you, and as you acquit yourselves in this exercise that may quickly be suffered to come upon you, so will God's truth be well or ill spoken of, for people will measure your most holy way by you. The way they see not,^^^ will behold. What know ye but the Lord is now pre- paring and brightening you for further service, both where you live and in other places. Oh, in the light of Jesus, the just man's path, live and walk that to the end you may endure; so shall you glorify God, answer their labourswho have travailed among you, and obtain unto yourselves eternal salvation. So, dear hearts, be still quiet, given up in life and death. God's great work is going on; He always comes upon the world in a storm, and sometimes to His children, that they io8 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. may be the more weaned from the world, that people may be the more stirred up to mind them, and that truth may be more effectually manifested through their self-denial, patience, and resolution." ^ Martyrs and confessors in primitive times were reproached for their readiness, even their eagerness, to suffer in the cause of Christ ; and the same disposi- tion appears in Penn and his Quaker friends. So far from shrinking at the approach of persecution, and ifleeing from the endurance of pain, they rather hailed it as an honour conferred on them by the Head of the Church. They said, " If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him." Like the Hebrews, they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods. The period to which this chapter refers may be called a time of peace, as regards release from per- secution ; but with regard to controversy, that went on more vigorously than ever, public debates and printed books filling up the years immediately suc- ceeding his happy marriage. The first debate I have to notice was in 1673, with Thomas Hicks, a Baptist minister, in Barbican. Nobody can tell whereabouts in the neighbourhood of the old city watch-tower this man's congregation met ; but he seems to have been popular in his day, and like many others of the Puritan class, he was sorely grieved by Quakers' proceedings. He re- garded Quakers as robbers prowling about the sheep- folds. They made converts amongst Baptists, as the Baptists had made converts amongst Episcopalians. Hicks was a vigilant shepherd, and looked sharply pfter those of his flock who were drawn beyond the 1 Penn's "Travels ''p. 165. CONTROVERSIALIST AND ARBITRATOR. 109 reach of his pastoral crook. He wrote a dialogue between a Christian and a Quaker, and managed it as all controversial dialogues are managed : one of the talkers is a wise man, and the other is a fool. Penn met with the silly book, and answered it in an elaborate treatise I shall notice presently. Hicks did not reply to this production, but he " fabricated," it is said, " so many falsehoods respecting the Quakers, that they appealed as a society to the Baptists them- selves against him ;" and in consequence a conference was arranged in the Barbican meeting-house. It is alleged that the scheme was, to hold it when Penn was absent from London, so that Hicks' acquittal might be secured. The scheme succeeded. The meeting was held, and the pastor was absolved from all blame by a majority of persons present. When Penn came up to town he heard of this, and chal- lenged his opponents to a second encounter, to be entered upon not with others, but with himself. There was plenty of noise when they met, and after it had subsided, the combatants, Penn and Hicks, entered upon a dispute respecting the Divine Light and the manhood of our Lord. " If," cried the Baptists, " Christ was the light within, where was the manhood .' " Penn wrote to Fox describing what took place, and his account plunges the reader into a flood of metaphysics. An answer by referring to Scripture, he said, would not have availed, for that would have made it a question of interpretation — which one thinks it really was. Penn made it a matter of definition. Is Christ to be defined as consisting of parts .-' " No," he said, " Christ is not to be divided into parts." Six thousand people were present (surely an exaggera- no LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. tion !) and many of them, he says, were desirous of an answer, as if they had been a multitude of Oxford students in scholastic days, waiting for the decision of a metaphysical problem. Friends consented that it should be answered that " the manhood was a part of Christ " ; but Penn, a subtle disputant, feared the word ■' part," and preferred the word " member " ; for which he gives three reasons, which I need not repeat. His MS. account of the dispute abruptly terminates, and we are left in the dark as to the exact issue. Another thorn in the good man's side was John Faldo, an Independent minister at Barnet, who wrote books which may well be dropped into oblivion, and sent Penn a challenge which he wisely declined to accept. Faldo then appealed to a number of minis- ters for advice, who approved of his publishing a book called " Quakerism no Christianity." Penn replied with a " Just Rebuke to One-and-twenty Learned and Reverend Divines." The learned mystic, Henry More, wrote to the author, saying, " Though I wish there were no occasion for these controversies and contests betwixt those who have left the Church of Rome, yet I have found such a taste, both of wit and serious- ness, in that pamphlet, and the argument it was about so weighty, that I was resolved to buy all of John Faldo's and all of yours touching that subject. There are sundry passages of yours nobly Christian, and for which I have no small kindness and esteem for you, they being testimonies of that which I cannot but highly prize wherever I find it." Another debate occurred in 1675. Richard Baxter informs us : " The country about Rickmansworth abounding with Quakers, because Mr. W. Pen, their CONTROVERSIALIST AND ARBITRATOR, in captain, dwelleth there, I was desirous that the poor people should once hear what was to be said for their recovery, which coming to Mr. Pen's ears, he was forward to a meeting, where we continued speaking to two rooms full of people (fasting) from ten o'clock till five ; one lord and two knights and four conform- able ministers, besides others, being present all the time, and some past. The success gave me cause to believe that it was not labour lost."^ Evidently Baxter was in his element, and one can see him with his eagle eye and beaked nose and eloquent lips, fencing skilfully and earnestly in this theological conflict ; nor would his antagonist be less in his ele- ment or appear to any disadvantage in the employ- ment of argumentative attack and defence. I have given Baxter's account ; Penn's is very different. He stated that if he had taken advantage of his antagonist, he could haye " rendered him more ridiculous than he feared his principles of love would have borne." When the contest was over, a correspon- dence ensued. It is distressing to find Penn saying to Baxter, in a letter he sent him, "I perceive the scurvy of the mind is thy distemper ; and I fear it is incurable.' I had rather be Socrates at the day of judgment than Richard Baxter." ^ I am rejoiced to find that the correspondence did not end there. Baxter, as well as Penn, had said sharp things ; but says the latter : " I do forgive thee and desire thy good and felicity ; and when I read thy letter, the many severities therein could not deter me from saying that I could freely give thee an ' Baxter's " Life and Times," vol. iii. p. 174. 3 Baxter MS.; quoted by Orme in his "Life of Baxter," p. 319. LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. apartment in my house, and liberty therein ; that I could visit and yet discourse with thee in much tender love, notwithstanding this hard entertainment from thee. I am, without harder words, thy sincere and loving friend." ^ Turning from Penn's debates to Penn's publications, the latter seem to me more numerous then than at any other period of his life. They make a long list, and some of them are not at all inviting : " Plain DeaHng with a Traducing Anabaptist," in answer to John Morse, a preacher at Watford ; a " Winding Sheet for the Controversy ended," intended for another preacher of the same stamp ; " Quakerism, a New Name for Old Christianity," a thrust at John Faldo ; the " New Witnesses proved Old Heretics,'' an exposure of the pretended revelations of Reeves and Muggleton, two noted fanatics of that day ; and " Naked Truth needs no Shift," a rejoinder to an anonymous tract entitled " The Quaker's last Shift found out." Whilst such writers forged heavy weapons, they also showed how they could sharpen their wits. By far the most important publication by Penn at that time was his " Christian Quaker." This is an able book. He here devotes himself to expounding the Friends' doctrine of an inward light ; and with it is a much smaller work, published in 1673,^ entitled, "A Discourse of the General Rule of Faith and Practice." He explains the light as being not something me- taphorical, nor yet the mere spirit or reason of man, but Christ, that glorious Sun of Righteousness and heavenly luminary of the intellectual and visible ' Clarkson, vol. i. p. 161. 2 Clarkson dates it 1673 ; Bohn, 1674 ; Select Works. 1669. CONTROVERSIALIST AND ARBITRATOR. 113 world, represented of all outward resemblances, most exactly by the great sun of this sensible and visible world; that as this natural light arises upon all, and gives light to all about the affairs of this life, so that Divine light ariseth upon all, and gives light to all that will receive the manifestation of it about the con- cerns of the other life." That light manifests sin and reveals duty. It saved from Adam's day, through the holy patriarchs and prophets' time, down to Christ : amongst the Jews, as proved from Scripture ; amongst the Gentiles, as proved from their own literature. Under this division, Penn quotes largely from the " Stromata " of Clement of Alexandria, adopting his quotations as genuine and trustworthy. The primi- tive fathers expressed themselves in accordance with this doctrine, and amongst the heathen there were men of virtuous lives, who taught the indispensable- ness of virtue to life eternal. The author contends that the latter foresaw the coming of Christ, and curiously adds that their refusing to swear proves the sufficiency of the inward light. In supporting these opinions, Penn appeals to the authority of Scripture, and employs a large amount of general reasoning. Although the inward light be the rule. Holy Scripture is a rule ; and it is authoritative and binding on those who possess it. Hence, whilst ever appealing to reason in his theological arguments, Penn habitually refers to Scripture as an inspired revela- tion from God, of great moment in determining religious controversy. The distinction which he makes, and the place which he assigns to the Bible, had better be given in his own words : " A rule and the I 114 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. rule are two things. By the rule of faith and practice I understand the living, spiritual, immediate, omni- present, discovering, ordering Spirit of God ; and by a rule I apprehend some instrument by and through which this great and universal rule may convey its dis- tinctions. Such a subordinate, secondary, and declara- tory rule we never said several parts of Scripture were not ; yet we confess the reason of our obedience is not merely because they are written (for that were legal), but because they are the eternal precepts of the Spirit in men's consciences, there repeated and declared." This is the key which unlocks Penn's theological system, and it is remarkable how the controversy between the old Quakers and their contemporaries turned mainly upon a question agitated in the present day by thinkers very unlike the Quakers in many respects. The two rules, as he defined them, were re- garded by him as requiring a rejection of the Angli- can doctrine of the Trinity ; and also of the Puritan doctrines respecting Christ's atonement, as a satisfac- tion offered to God, and as it respects the imputation of Christ's righteousness. The prominence given by this Quaker divine to the truth that Christ saves from sin, is not associated with such ideas of justification as accord with Puritan standards. He no doubt misapprehended Puritans, and Anglicans also, on this and other subjects ; and I must say that, absorbed by inward experience, he did not attach sufficient importance to some of the dogmatic or historical statements in the sacred vol- ume. He certainly did not deny what is historical, nor did he neglect all dogmatic teaching ; but like many of his brethren, he failed to dwell upon the CONTROVERSIALIST AND ARBITRATOR. 115 facts detailed in the Old and New Testament, and he did not bring out clearly much which is inculcated by the Apostle Paul. At the period noticed in this chapter, his sym- pathies were elicited by sufferer sin Scotland, and he wrote as follows to some who were imprisoned at Aberdeen : — " I feel an immortal spring of pure life rising among you ; and can say I am with you in spirit, and behold the aurora of the day of the Lord over Scotland. My brethren, all, be scattered unto and settled in your own, and wait for the feeling of the power of the Lord, that subjects all to Him ; then wait for the signification of that power. Let none quench the Spirit, nor miss of the Spirit's mind ; that you may now grow spiritual soldiers, expert, and fitted by these exercises for such spiritual conflicts as the Lord hath for you to go through in the Lamb's war. Oh, these trials are blessed mortifyings to the sensual and worldly man, and for the awakening of the soul to the things that are beyond time and mortality. O you little leaven, and salt of that country, love the pure power, the true and certain power, and grow in it, as trees in winter, downwards, that your root may spread ; so shall you stand in all storms and tempests. And oh ! blessed are they that firmly believe, pa- tiently and contentedly wait for God's salvation to be completed. God will 'stay ' such with His everlasting arm, with 'flagons'' of love, and in that pure peace which persecutors neither know nor can take away. My dear brethren, this suffering is not strange, neither is it for nought. All wait to see the end of the Lord therein, and all bow therein, and none resist the ii6 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. Lord's purpose ; for this is to bring up the seed and power into dominion, to make His righteousness and truth known to the world, and His love and His faith- fulness unto you, and to keep that down which for want of exercise might overgrow the Truth in the particular. Much I see of the Lord's wisdom, mercy, and goodness in this thing, and it will end for His glory I am persuaded ; wherefore I can say, Be of good cheer, for everlasting strength is with you and in you." ^ " Coming events cast their shadows before them." We feel this at the present point in William Penn's history. He was called upon to give advice in a matter connected with America. The Dutch do- minions there were broken up in 1664, and England became master of the Hudson and the coast be- tween that beautiful river and the waters of the Delaware. Manhattan was now called New York ; Port Orange, Albany ; and the land between the two rivers. New Jersey. The Duke of York received possession of the latter territory, and made it over to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. Carteret found only a few scattered cabins in his new domain, but the colony planted there quickly grew and greatly prospered. In March, 1673, he sold his half share of New Jersey to a Quaker, John Fenwick, in trust for another Quaker, Edward Byllinge. They fell out respecting the property, and requested William Penn to settle the dispute by arbitration. He gave Fenwick one-tenth of the province with a considerable sum of money; the remaining nine- tenths to friend Byllinge.^ ' Diary of Alexander Jaffray (1676), p. 298. 2 Hazard's " Annals of Pennslyvania," p. 404. CONTROVERSIALIST AND ARBITRATOR. 117 Fenwick refused to abide by the award, which much displeased the equitable arbitrator, who expostulated with him on the subject. " John Fenwick," he said, " the present difference betwixt thee and Edward Byllinge fills the hearts of Friends with grief, and with a resolution to take it in two days into their consideration to make a public denial of the person that offers violence to the award made, or that will not end it without bringing it upon the public stage. God, the righteous Judge, will visit him that stands off. Edward Byllinge will refer the matter to me again, if thou wilt do the like. Send me word, and, opprest as I am with business, I will find an afternoon to-morrow or next day to determine, and so prevent the mischief that will cer- tainly follow divulging it in Westminster Hall. Let me know by the bearer thy mind. O John, let truth and the honour of it in this day prevail. Woe to him that causeth offences ! I am an impartial man. "William Penn.''^ Fenwick was slow in expressing acquiescence, and Penn had to write with increasing severity. " Oh, John," he says, more than three weeks later, " I am sorry that a toy, a trifle, should thus rob men of their time, quiet, and a more profitable employ." "Away with vain fancies, I beseech thee, and fall closely to thy business. Thy days speed on, and make the best of what thou hast. Thy grandchildren may be in the other world before the land thou hast allotted will be employed." This was faithful dealing, and it shows the earnest- ' Clarkson's "Life of Penn," vol. i. p. 163. ii8 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. ness of the writer, not only in striving to heal a breach and to prevent legal proceedings, which would be a scandal, but also in rebuking that worldly spirit and that grasping after gain which he plainly saw in his fellow Friend; but which, happily for himself, he knew to be not in any degree his own besetting sin. By the month of February, 1674, Fenwick had come to his senses ; and Byllinge, having been un- fortunate, Fenwick conveyed nine-tenths of the pro- perty to William Penn and two other trustees for the benefit of Byllinge's creditors ; thus Penn virtually became Master of New Jersey. Fenwick went over to New Jersey in 1675, and bought land from the Indians, now known as Salem and Cumberland counties. Penn and his co-trustees, on behalf of Byllinge, in 1677, determined to send out commis- sioners for the purchase of fresh property, and the general settlement of affairs. A town arose in con- sequence on Chygoes Island ; and it was called first New Beverly, afterwards Bridlington and Burlington. A colony was to be gathered in that fertile and pro- mising district. It was sure to increase ; how was it to be governed } A constitution immediately followed, under the title of Concessions, and they are well worthy of being specified. No man was to have power over another man's conscience. A governing assembly was to be chosen by ballot ; every man was eligible to vote, and to be voted for ; each elected member was to receive a shilling a day "as the servant of the people." Executive power was to be in the hands of ten commissioners appointed by the Assembly ; and justices and constables were to be elected by popular vote ; and it is added, " All, and CONTROVERSIALIST AND ARBITRATOR. 119 every person in the province, shall, by the help of the Lord and these fundamentals, be free from op- pression and slavery." ^ " The Concessions are such as Friands approve of," said a message from England. "We lay a foundation for after ages to understand their liberty as Christians and as men, that they may not be brought into bondage, but by their own con- sent, for we put the power in the people'' The pre- paration of these Concessions fell almost exclusively on William Penn ; ^ here, then, we see the firstfruits of his legislative ability. Eight years before this a constitution had been drawn up for the earlier colony of Carolina; and the author of it was no other than John Locke, a student at Oxford when Penn was there. He, under the inspiration of Lord Shaftesbury, who employed him to undertake the task, prepared a scheme of the following kind. There was to be a close corporation of eight persons, whose power and dignity were to be hereditable. Land was to be divided into counties and these again into five equal parts, one part to be held inalienably by the corporation ; another part, also inalienable, to be held by two orders of nobility called Earls and Barons ; and the remaining three- fifths to be the possession of the people. The people were to elect representatives ; and these, with the privileged classes mentioned, were to meet in the same chamber, and, forming one parliament, to enact laws. Locke's original scheme had introduced into it, against his will, a clause declaring that the Church of England should be the religion of the state ; but 1 Bancroft's " History of the United States," vol. ii. p. 357- 2 Clarkson's " Life of Penn," vol. i. p. 170. LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. at the same time all other religions were to be tolerated. The contrast between these two political constitu- tions is manifest : one is aristocratic, and the other is an absolute democracy. In the one case power rests on property, in the other with the people. The one recognises a religious establishment, which the other does not. Differences of opinion will obtain respect- ing these modes of government ; perhaps neither will be approved as a whole. Some who object to power being based on property, will maintain, notwithstand- ing, that property must have influence over power; and some who are advocates for a full popular re- presentation, may not approve of paying members, however small the sum, or of leaving the appoint- ment of justices and constables to the election of citizens. Some may prefer a simple, others a mixed constitution. But, at any rate, two things are apparent on comparing Locke and Penn together : first, that Locke was influenced by traditions of the past, and that Penn broke away from them ; and secondly, that whilst Locke conceded toleration, Penn laid the foundation of it in the deepest prin- ciple, namely, that " no man nor number of men hath power over conscience." The political ability of the plain Quaker, William Penn, certainly does not pale before that of the great philosopher, John Locke. The territory for which Penn's unique policy was prepared took the name of West New Jersey, and a great many Friends soon flocked to it, attracted by the religious liberty there secured, more than by visions of temporal prosperity floating before other eyes. The good ship Kent carried a large party ; as CO A TROVE RSI A LIST AND ARBITRATOR. 121 she was lying at anchor in the Thames, Charles II. passed by in his grand pleasure barge : " Where are you going ? " he inquired of the passengers. " Qua- kers going to New Jersey," they replied. " He gave them his blessing and departed."^ When the Quakers reached their destination, they met at Burlington, " under a tent covered with sail-cloth " ; and there they held their religious meetings. In the shades of the forest they met the red men of the region : " You are our brothers," said the sachems ; " and we will live like brothers with you. We will have a broad path for you and us to walk in. If an Englishman falls asleep in the path, the Indian shall pass by him, and say, ' He is our Englishman ; he is asleep, let him alone.' The path shall be plain, there shall not be in it a stump to hurt the feet." ^ ' Smith's " New Jersey," p. 100. CHAPTER VIII. ABROAD. GULIELMA MARIA brought property to her husband ; and the Springett estate at Worming- hurst, in Sussex, coming into her possession, she and her husband removed to it from their house at Rick- mansworth. " Worminghurst House was situated on an eminence overlooking the beautiful South Downs of Sussex, and within a few miles of the sea. It was razed to the ground long since, and the Worminghurst estate absorbed in the domains of the Duke of Norfolk, only the stables remain to mark the spot where stood that charming house so long brightened by the pre- siding presence of Penn's first wife, Gulielma Maria." ^ At this new abode began his cares respecting New Jersey ; and there were born visions, hopes, and plan's touching another portion of the same New World which before long he was to call his own. But before this came to pass he took an important journey abroad on religious service, of which he has left a full account in a journal kept at the time, and seventeen years afterwards published to the world. ^ ' " Penn and Logan Correspondence," vol. i. chap. xvii. " Me- moirs of the Hist. Soc. of Pennsylvania," vol. ix. I think it is probable he had this estate in view when he wrote the letter referred to at the end of Chapter V. ^ It is printed separately under the title, "William Penn's Journal of his Travels." ABROAD. 123 Friends have no missionary society, no organiza- tion of the kind supported by other rehgious bodies ; yet no one of these has, from its origin down to our own day, shown so much of a missionary spirit. The spirit amongst Friends is individual rather than col- lective. One mind is stirred, and then another, to go in the name of the Lord and gather souls into His blessed fold. The conscious movement is felt to be a direct call, and the subject of it, like one of old, feels it a duty not to confer " with flesh and blood." So it was with George Fox ; so in our own time it has been with Stephen Grellet, with William Forster, and with Joseph John Gurney, not to mention others. In like manner William Penn felt he had a Divine call to visit Germany, He had been there before, and knew friends on the Rhine banks, with whom he had held sweet council by voice and letter. There was a sympathy in him, as in others before and afterwards, with longing souls all over the world who waited for "the moving of the waters." He possessed a mag- netic power, which drew towards him those who, dissatisfied with established forms, silently looked for a light from heaven, through whatever window God would make it shine. His manners, in spite of Quaker peculiarities, were of the winning order, and united to beauty of countenance and a commanding presence, they made a grateful impression wherever he went. Not long before he started, Penn wrote a beautiful letter to the Princess Palatine of the Rhine, and Anne Maria Countess of Homes. ^ "Jesus be with your spirits, the immaculate Lamb of God and glorious light of the world. His pure * Penn's "Travels," 1677, p. 167. 124 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. Spirit redeem you from the evil and ignorance that are in it, and replenish you with His everlasting righteousness whose end is peace and assurance for evermore. Noble of this world, but more noble for your inquiry after the truth, and love to it, the fame thereof has sounded to the ear of some of us in this island whom God hath made His certain witnesses and messengers through many and great tribulations : eternal heavenly praises to His holy and powerful Name, who lives and reigns over all principalities and powers and thrones and dominions for ever. I have had you, worthy women, often in my remem- brance, with that honour which is not of this world ; even then when my soul has been in its purest retire- ments, not only from all troubles, but from their very ideas in the mind, and every other imagination ; rest- ing with the Lord in His own sabbath, which is the true silence of all flesh indeed which profits above the formal Christian bodily exercise. " Oh, if you truly love Jesus, hear Him; and since it hath pleased God in some measure, as with Paul, to reveal His Blessed Son in you, consult not with flesh and blood which are below the heavenly things — for that inherits not the kingdom of God — but, with sincere Mary, from a deep sense of the beauty, virtue, and excellency of that life which is hid with Christ in God, wait out of all cumber, free from that run- ning, willing, sacrificing spirit that is in the world, in the pure obedience, humiliation, godly death or silence at the feet of Jesus, choosing the better part which shall never be taken from you : and Jesus will be with you ; He will shed His peace abroad in the midst of you, even that which flows from the crystal ABROAD. 125 streams of life, that arise from under the throne of God." Penn did not go alone on this important continental journey. He had for companions George Fox and Robert Barclay, another well-known celebrity, and also George Keith, a very impetuous sort of person, whose after history was very strange ; others who joined in the party need not be named. "On the 22nd of the fifth month, 1677,'' says our traveller, " being the first day of the week, I left my dear wife and family at Worminghurst, in Sussex, in the fear and love of God, and came well to London that night." They sailed on the 26th, and after two days' voyage they got to the Brill at nightfall, and were fetched on shore by a boat from Rotterdam, filled with Friends, who came out to meet the English party.' On first day following they met at the house of Benjamin Furly, somewhere in the beautiful city of trees and canals, tall houses and crowded shipping. There was a great company present, " some of most considerable note," and so powerfully " fell the Gospel preached," that Penn declares, " the dead were raised and the living comforted." Monday they went about, not to see sights and inspect churches, not to visit pretty summer-houses in suburb and garden ; but to seek " opportunities to make known what was the hope of glory ; that mystery which to the Gentiles is now revealing, even Jesus Christ, the light and life." To the university city of Leyden, to Haar- lem, famed in the annals of printing, and to Amster- dam, the Venice of Holland, they went on the same holy errand ; and the Lord granted them in these 126 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. places seasons of refreshing, "and many sober Baptists and professors came in and abode in the meeting to the end." From Amsterdam, Penn, Keith, Barclay, and Furly, after taking leave of Fox, proceeded to the marsh- encompassed Naarden, thence to Osnaburg, the (Hano- verian Osnabriick,) where they " had a little time with the man of the inn, and left," as was their wont, " several good books of Friends, in the Low and High Dutch tongues, to read and to dispose of." They pressed forward to Herwerden, where lived the Prin- cess Elizabeth, Palatine of the Rhine. Penn had ad- dressed, as I have noticed, a long letter to Her High- ness some time before ; now he received one bidding him welcome. She breakfasted early, and arranged to receive her guest at seven o'clock. When they entered, she gave them "a more than ordinary ex- pression of kindness. I can truly say it," remarks the traveller, " and that in God's fear, I was very deeply and reverently affected with the sense that was upon my spirit, of the great and notable day of the Lord, and the breakings-in of His eternal power upon all nations ; and of the raising of the slain Witness, to judge the world : who is the treasure of life and peace, of wisdom and glory, to all that receive Him in the hour of His judgments, and abide with Him. The sense of this deep and sure foundation, which God is laying as the hope of eternal life and glory for all to build upon, filled my soul with an holy testimony to them ; which in a living sense was followed by my brethren : and so the meeting ended about the eleventh hour." ^ ' " Travels," p. 23. ABROAD. 127 Though pressed to dine — she dined at one, — they , preferred returning to their "quarters," but, soon after dinner, they were at the Castle again." " It was at this meeting that the Lord in a more eminent manner began to appear. The eternal Word showed itself a hammer at this day, yea, sharper than a two-edged sword, dividing asunder between the soul and the spirit, the joints and the marrow. Yea, this day was all flesh humbled before the Lord ! It amazed one, shook another, broke another ; yea, the noble arm of the Lord was truly awakened, and the weight and work thereof bowed and tendered us also, after an unusual and extraordinary manner ; — that the Lord might work an heavenly sign before them and among them ; that the majesty of Him that is risen among the poor Quakers might in some measure be known unto them, — ^what God it is we serve, and what power it is we wait for and bow before. Yea, they had a sense and a discovery that day, what would become of the glory of all flesh, when God shall enter into judgment."' The meeting lasted until seven o'clock, and the next morning they were with the princess again ; again they declined remaining for dinner, and again they came back in the afternoon, when they met " a French woman of quality," who " from a light and slighting carriage towards the very name of Quaker, became very intimately and affectionately kind and respectful." Supper being ended, they returned to the princess's chamber; and did not leave till ten o'clock. A public meeting for worship was held next day and several strangers " came by the post waggon." 1 " Travels," p. 24. I2S LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. " Amongst them was a student from Duysburg College, who spoke 'of a sober and seeking man' in that city." The Lord "by His own power made way to their consciences, and sounded His awakening trumpet in their ears." " As soon as the meeting was over, the Princess came to me," Penn goes on to state, " and took me by the hand (which she usually did to us all, coming and going), and went to speak to me of the sense she had of that power and presence of God that was amongst us ; but was stopped. And turning herself to the window, she broke forth in an extraordinary passion, crying out, 'I cannot speak to you, my heart is full,' — clasping her hands upon her breast. It melted me into a deep and calm tenderness ; in which I was moved to minister a few words softly to her, and after some time of silence, she recovered her- self ; and as I was taking my leave of her, she inter- rupted me thus : ' Will ye not come hither again ? Pray, call here as ye return out of Germany.' I told her we were in the hand of the Lord ; and being His, could not dispose of ourselves : but the Lord had taken care that we should not forget her and those with her ; for He had raised and begotten an heavenly concernment in our souls for her and them, and we loved them all with that love wherewith God hath loved us : with much more to that purpose." "^ Next they went to Paderborn, in Hanover, famous for its cathedral, " a dark popish town, and under the government of a bishop of that religion." " One thing I do," was Penn's motto ; so he declared to the landlady where he lodged, "the testimony of the Light, 1 " Travels," p. 29. ABROAD. 129 showing the difference between an outside and inside religion. At supper he dealt with a Lutheran lawyer in the same way. At Paderborn they met " Dureus, our countryman," — John Dury, I suppose, who travelled about Europe to promote union, and even once visited, for that purpose. Archbishop Laud, not a likely person to join an Evangelical Alliance. He had learned to forget, so Penn informs us, "his learning, school divinity, and priestcraft ; and for his approaches towards an inward principle," he was " reproachfully saluted by some with the honest title of Quaker." Next I find the travellers on the road to the palatial town of Hesse Cassel, complaining of foul weather, and ■' only naked carts to ride in," whilst the waters rose high with rain. They inquired, "who was worthy in the city ? " and found some that tenderly and lovingly received them, to " whom they declared the visitation of the light and love of God." They travelled on to grand Old Frankfort, where meetings were attended by Calvinists and Luth^ans, who "received the testimony with a broken and reverend spirit." They met there with Joanna Eleonora de Malane, " a virgin," who gave an invita- tion to her house next morning, when they had a " most blessed opportunity." " A Lutheran minister was broken to pieces." "A doctor of physic was affected, and confessed to the truth." The lady " virgin " was quite a heroine, for she exclaimed, " It will never be well with us till persecution come and some of us be lodged in the stadthouse." At Kresheim, a place I do not know, they preached, though at first forbidden ; a coach full from Worms K 130 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. coming over to hear. Frankenthal, on the left bank of the Rhine, where was a colony of Flemish Protest- ants, also the well-known Manheim and Worms, came within their route ; and afterwards they took boat down the great river to Mentz, and then, in an open chariot, drove to Frankfort. There the Lord, " after a living manner, opened their hearts and mouths, and people received them with much joy and kindness." Penn's delight was now exuberant, and he employed an odd figure, "Life ran as oil, and swam a-top of all" From Mentz, Bacharach, Coblenz, and other places familiar to Rhine tourists, they reached Cologne. Not far from Duysburg, or Doesburg, a fortified town on the Ijssel branch of the Rhine, there was a Countess of Falkenstein, whom they wished to see, "an extraordinary woman, one in whom," they were told, they " would find things worthy of love ; " but there were difficulties of access, owing to her very dis- agreeable father. They carried a letter of introduction from Dr. Mastricht, of the place just named, and hoped to meet her at the minister's house in the town of Mulheim (known to the Romans), on the side of the river opposite to the GrafFs castle. On their way the surly old lord met the visitors as they were wandering over his domain, and asked them who they were. " Englishmen," they said, " from Holland, going at present no farther than Mulheim." " Why do you not pull off your hats } " asked an attendant, with all the pride of an obsequious footman. " Is it respect to stand covered in the presence of the sovereign of the country ? " " We told them," relates Penn, " it was our practice in the presence of our prince, who is a great king ; and that we uncovered not our heads to ABROAD. 131 any, but in our duty to Almighty God." Upon which the Graff, with all the haughtiness of a petty monarch, called out to the strangers, " We have no need of Quakers here ; get you out of my dominions, you shall not go to my town." They walked to Doesburg through a solitary wood, three miles long, comforting each other with the thought that, whilst "pilgrims and strangers upon earth," they " looked for a city of habitation." The walls of Doesburg were not reached until the gates were shut, and they had to lie down and sleep in the fields. About three in the morning they rose, " sanctifying God in their hearts," and walked on till five, when, as the clock struck, they obtained entrance to the town. Penn sent letters to both the Graff and his daughter, dealing with each according to the character they bore.^ The letters being despatched, the visitors called on Dr. Mastricht, to inform him of what had passed, who, terrified at what they had done, exclaimed, "What will become of the poor countess.? Her father hath called her Quaker a long time, behaving himself very severely to her; but now he will conclude she is one indeed, and he will lead her a lamentable life, I know. You care not for suffering, but she is to be pitied." Penn and his friends assured the doctor that they both loved and pitied her, and could lay down their lives for her sake ; but that he need not fear, for they had not mentioned her name to the despotic and cruel Graff, nor had they mentioned the circumstance of the doctor's having given them an » These incidents are all recorded in the " Journal of his Travels," pp. 66-70. 132 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. introductory letter. Yet they could not dispel the poor man's fears, who trembled for the lady if not for himself ; and they therefore proceeded to rebuke his timidity, and to say it was time to cast away slavish fear, and to come out with all the boldness of true Christian life. Penn found some people of more decided character; a minister and a schoolmaster came to him, and the Lord "bore witness to the testimony in all their hearts and consciences who were broken unto much tenderness." Something further gave the traveller's comfort. " It was now something past the twelfth hour of the day. In the way to our lodging, we met a messenger from the Countess of Falkenstein, a pretty young tender man, near to the kingdom, who saluted us in her name with much love ; telling us that she was much grieved at the entertainment of her father to- wards us, advising us not to expose ourselves to such difficulties and hardships, for it would grieve her heart, that any that came in the love of God to visit her, should be so severely handled ; for at some he sets his dogs, upon others he puts his soldiers to beat them : 'But what shall I say.' that itself must not hinder you from doing good,' said the Countess. " We answered him, that his message was joyful to us, that she had any regard to us, and that she was not offended with us. We desired the remembrance of our kind love unto her, and that he would let her know that our concern was not for ourselves, but for her. " We invited him to eat with us ; but he told us he was an inhabitant of Meurs, and he was in haste to go home. So we briefly declared our principle and ABROAD. 133 message, recommending him to Christ the true light in his conscience, and parted. " We went home to dinner, having neither eaten nor drank since first day morning, and having lain out all night in the field. We had no sooner got to our inn, but the man was constrained to come after us, and sat down with us, and inquired concerning our Friends, their rise, principles, and progress, and in all things about which he desired satisfaction, he declared him- self satisfied. Dinner being done and all cleared, we departed that city, being about the fourth hour in the afternoon, and for want of accommodation were forced to walk on foot eight English miles to a town called Holten, where we rested that night." 1 They had encouraging interviews with people at Wesel, Emmerich, and Cleves, picturesque towns near the lower Rhine, especially at the last of these places, where they met with a lady of quality, who told them of some she knew who searched after God, but were afraid of being called Quakers ; whatever they might be afraid of, Penn told her that all sobriety was called Quakerism by Germans, and that this ought to take off the odiousness of the name. He was at first puzzled with this " lady of quality ; " " it was hard for us," he says, "to obtain a true silence, a state in which we could reach her." But here, as in most instances, in their own estimation at least, the visitors had " a sweet time of refreshment." Penn was accustomed to look at other people's feelings through the medium of his own, and to attribute to them impressions which, sometimes, I apprehend, they did not really experi- ence. • " Travels," p. 82. 134 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. At the Cleves inn, one of. the Elector of Branden- burg's courtiers, brother to " the lady of quality," sat down at the dinner table with our travellers ; and time was " much taken up with the things of God, and they had a good meeting." Leaving Cleves, Penn " took waggon " by himself to Amsterdam, where he found things going on well. He soon set off on another expedition, with one John Claus. They went to Leeuwarden, chief town in the province of Friesland, and thence to Wiewart, the mansion of the Somerdyke family, who were living in a sort of conventual retirement. Anna Schurmans was still there, but Penn found them shy of letting him speak with her. He had "a great weight upon his spirit " that night, but next morning he had pleasant intercourse with Anna, " an ancient maid, abcJve sixty years of age." He found the people in this establishment had come nea? to Friends in speaking and in silence ; also in furniture and in dress. He was anxious to know what had induced them to change their habits. Anna began : "I find myself constrained to add a short testi- mony." " Then she told us," he proceeds, " of her former life, of her pleasure in learning, and her love to the religion she was brought up in ; but confessed she knew not God or Christ truly all that while. And though from a child God had visited her at times, yet she never felt such a powerful stroke as by the minis- try of J. de Labadie. She saw her learning to be vanity, and her religion like a body of death ; she resolved to despise the shame, desert her former way of living and acquaintance, and to join herself with ABROAD. 135 this little family that was retired out of the world ; among whom she desired to be found a living sacrifice, offered up entirely to the Lord. She spoke in a very serious and broken sense, not without some trembling. These are but short hints of what she said. "After she had done, one of the Somerdykes began, in a very reverent and weighty frame of mind, and in a sense that very well suited her contempt of the world. She told us how often she had mourned from her young years, because she did not know the Lord, as she desired ; often saying within herself, ' If God would make known to me His way, I would trample upon all the pride and glory of the world.' " ^ Before the interview terminated, Penn delivered a long address in characteristic Quaker phraseology, dwelling throughout upon those spiritual topics which were ever uppermost in his mind. He left them with a blessing — " the blessing and peace 6f Jesus." They then visited a place called Lippenhausen, and the university town of Groningen, and Delfzyl, on the Rhine, and then took boat for Emden, where Friends had been badly used. Their leader, Dr. Hasbert, and his wife, were dead, but " the memory of their fidelity was as precious ointment among the righteous." As Penn sat in his lodgings, " a burden came upon him." He had determined to write to Dr. Andrews, President of the Council of State, and reported to have been a cruel enemy to the German Friends ; but now he felt that he must go and see him. The Presi- dent felt astonished at his coming, " but comported himself with more kindness " than might have been expected. 1 " Travels," p. 99. 136 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. "Did not you and the Senate," Penn asked, "reqeive a letter in Latin from an Englishman about two years since, concerning your severity towards the people called Quakers ? " " I did," answered the President. "I was the man," rejoined his visitor; and speaking to him as a Dutchman, he went on to say, " I am con- strained in conscience to visit you on their behalf; and I cannot see how you, being a Commonwealth man, and a Protestant, can persecute." They proceeded to argue the matter ; but at last the President promised he would present to the Senate any remonstrance entrusted to him, saying he was not the enemy he was supposed to be. The party went on to Bremen, a flourishing German city, one of the three Hanse towns, where they sought after two ministers, " under some suffering from their brethren because of their great zeal against the form- ality and deadness of the so-called reformed churches." Penn found it difficult to get at them. The one they most wished to see was shy, because it being known that English Quakers were in the town, he felt afraid of committing himself. He was called a fosterer of "strange religions," and was at the time "actually under process." Penn had little patience with people less bold than himself. Taking him by the arm, he said, " I have this message to deliver to thee, that I may disburden myself before the Lord, which was this : ' Mind that which hath touched thy heart ; let that guide thee, and do not thou order that. Consult not with flesh and blood, how to maintain that cause, which flesh and blood in thy enemies persecuteth thee for.' He answered, ' Rather than I will betray that ABROAD. 137 cause, or desert Christ — by God's strength — they shall pull my flesh off my bones.' So he left us in his house, and truly we had a good time with his companion, the other minister, about three hours, testifying unto him that the day was come, and coming, in which the Lord would gather out of all sects that stand in the oldness of the letter, into His own Holy Spirit, life and power ; and that in this the unity of faith and bond of peace should stand. And therefore, that he and all of them should have an eye to the principle of God in themselves ; that being turned to it, they might speak from it ; and that therein they would glorify God, and be edified. So we parted, leaving the man in a sensible and savoury frame." ^ Penn mentions one Dr. Cozack, at Bremen, an odd imposition of a man, who " had strange openings," a great enemy of priests, and of " a merry yet rough disposition." But he hastened to visit his favourite Princess again, before he returned to England. Off he posted to Herwerden, and found her at home with her two companions, and saw them repeatedly, as on a former occasion. This time they supped together. "At supper, the power of the Lord came upon me, and it was a true supper to us, for the hidden manna was manifested and broken amongst us ; yea, a blessed meeting it proved to us. O, the reverent tenderness and lowly frame of spirit that appeared this evening, both in the Princess and Countess ! The Frenchwoman we found greatly im- proved, both in her love and understanding ; yea, she 1 "Travels," p. 117. LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. was very zealous and very broken, and was always with us on these occasions. After supper we returned to the Princess's chamber, where we stayed until it was about ten at night. At parting, I desired the Princess would give us such another opportunity next day, being the first day of the week, as we had the last time we were with her ; she answered me, ' With all my heart ; but will you not come in the morning too ? ' I replied, ' Yes, willingly ; what time wilt thou be ready to receive us ? ' She answered, ' At seven.' " ^ Next morning they went and held a meeting which lasted from eight to eleven, several citizens being present. " The glorious power of the Lord wonder- fully rose ; yea, after an awful manner, and had a deep entrance upon their spirits." It was much the same in the afternoon, when they went again to the castle after dining at their hostelry. " This day at both meetings was one of the Princess's women, that never was at meeting before ; and she, though very shy of us the last time, became tender and loving to us ; she was truly reached. O, magnified be the name of the Lord, whose presence was with us, and whose arm stood by us ! After meeting, the Princess pressed us to stay and sup with her, pleading the quietness of the family, and that they were alone. At supper, as the night before, it was upon me to commemorate the goodness of the Lord, His daily providences, and how precious He is, in the covenant of light, to the dear children and followers of the light. Great was the reverence and tenderness that was upon the spirits of ' "Travels," p. 119. ABROAD. 139 both Princess and Countess at that instant. After supper, we returned to the Princess's chamber, where we spent the rest of our time, in holy silence or dis- course, till about the tenth hour, and then we repaired to our quarters." ^ During a conversation the following day, a carriage was heard rattling into the courtyard, and the Graff of Donau and the young Princess were announced. This broke up the interview, when Penn begged for a farewell meeting. As they were retiring, the countess opened the door, and said with a sigh, "Oh, the cumber and entanglements of this vain world ; they hinder all good ! " " Come out of them then," was Penn's characteristic reply. He went back to his hotel, and sat down to write a letter to professors of religion, when the steward of the Princess arrived with a message inviting the party to come to the castle without delay, as the Graff and the Princess wished to see them. They went, and the Graff spoke in French, not taking at first much notice of their "uncere- monious behaviour." They then fell upon points of religion on which they agreed ; next they came to close quarters. " He fell to the hat," which led Penn to write in his journal : " This choketh, because it telleth tales. It is blowing a trumpet and visibly crossing the world ; and this the fear of man cannot abide." He spoke to the Graff on this subject after his usual manner, and afterwards the Graff took leave with a great civility. When left by themselves, our Friend addressed the Princess, the Countess, and the Frenchwoman, each by herself, and bade them all "Travels," p. 121. HO LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. farewell, praying that "the fear, presence, love, and life of God " might rest on them then and for ever. The travellers had a rough journey back to Wesel : "We rode three nights and days, without lying down on a bed or sleeping, otherwise than in the waggon, which was only covered with an old ragged sheet. The company we had with us made twelve in number, which much straitened us ; they were often, if not always, vain ; yea, in their religious songs, which is the fashion of that country, especially by night. They call them Luther's songs, and sometimes psalms. We were forced often to reprove and testify against their hypocrisy, — to be full of all vain and often pro- fane talk one hour, and sing psalms to God the next ; we showed them the deceit and abomination of it. We passed through several great towns by the way, Lipstadt, Ham, etc. Many discourses we had of Truth, and the religion and worship that was truly Christian, and all was very well ; they bore what we said. But one thing was remarkable, that may not be omitted : I had not been six hours in the waggon before a heavy weight and unusual oppression fell upon me ; yea, it weighed me almost to the grave, that I could almost say, my soul was sad even unto death. I knew not at present the ground of this exercise ; it remained about twenty-four hours upon me. Then it opened in me, that it was a travail for the seed of God, that it might arise over all in them I had left behind, and that nothing might be lost but the son of perdition. O, the strong cries and deep agonies, many tears and sincere bowings and hum- blings of soul before the Lord, that His holy sense. ABROAD. 141 which was raised in them, might be preserved alive in them, and they for ever in it ! that they might grow and spread as heavenly plants of righteousness, to the glory of the name of the Lord."^ Nothing brings out more clearly the inner life of Penn than these entries in his journal. He opens a door through which we can. look into his very soul. Much outside appears forbidding to most people, much that was a hindrance and not a help to his mission ; much in dress, the refusal of " hat-worship," and an insistance upon peculiarities, which modern Friends have dropped. But inside there is a charming simplicity, purity, and nobleness ; a fear of God and no fear of man ; a " hunting after souls," as George Whitefield used to call it ; a decision of will, a persist- ence of purpose, like that of John Howard in his prison researches, like that of St. Paul in his Epistle to the Philippians — " This one thing I do." And now he turned his face towards home, retracing his steps through places he had visited before. He stopped at Dusseldorf, and there wrote in his diary, what is a key to his whole life : " I know certainly from the Lord that liveth for ever, and I have a cloud of witnesses to my brethren, that retirement and silence before God is the alone way for him to feel the heavenly gift to arise, and come forth pure and unmixed. This only can aright preach for God, pray to God, and beget people to God, and nothing^else." ^ Finally, there were conferences at Amsterdam, interviews at the Hague, and a farewell meeting at Rotterdam. 1 "Travels,"?. 125. ^ Ibid., p. 135. 142 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. At a place called Wonderwick he preached a ser- mon, of which he gives the following report : — " We all sat down ; and, after some silence, the heavenly power of God did, in a living and tender manner, open their states and conditions to me, and opened my mouth to them. The substance of my testimony was to this purpose : that death reigned from Adam to Moses ; Moses was till the prophets, the prophets till John, and John till Christ. What Christ's day was, how few see this day ; and whilst people are talking of being in Christ, under grace, and not under the law, death reigneth over titem, and they are not come to Moses, nor the shaking or quaking mountain, the thunderings, lightnings, and whirlwinds ; and what was that way which led to Christ, and what it was to be in Him, and under the government of His grace ; directing them to the blessed principle of light, and truth, and grace, which God had shed abroad in their hearts. I declared the nature and manner of the appearing and operating of this principle ; and appealed to their own conscience for the truth of what was said ; and I can truly say the holy life of Jesus was revealed amongst us, and like oil, swam on the top of all. In this sense I was moved to kneel down and pray ; great brokenness fell upon all, and that which was before the world began was richly manifested in and amongst us." ^ Thus he concludes his travels abroad : — " We reached Harwich the 24th of the eighth month, 1677 ; and on the fifth day of the next week I went to Worminghurst, my house in Sussex, where I found 1 " Travels," p. 149, comp. with p. 130 of this vol. ABROAD. 143 my dear wife, child, and family all well, blessed be the name of the Lord ^God of all the families of the earth ! I had that evening a sweet meeting amongst them, in which God's blessed power made us truly glad together ; and I can say truly, blessed are they who can cheerfully give up to serve the Lord, great shall be the increase and growth of their treasure, which shall never end. "To Him that was, and is, and is to come — the eternal, holy, blessed, righteous, powerful, and faithful One — be glory, honour, and praises, dominion, and a kingdom for ever and ever ! Amen." At Worminghurst, Sussex, his beloved GuHelma had been residing during his absence. It was her ancestral estate, descending to her from her father Sir William Springett. Madame Penn, as she was called in the neighbourhood, was highly respected by the Fotherly and Tichbourne families, though they disliked Quakerism ; and the return of her husband to the village must have given her no small joy. We are favoured with an insight into his private habits and domestic life, and can therefore imagine him in neat, plain dress, walking with a cane, which he was accustomed to carry, into his study, striking the floor with it when dictating to an amanu- ensis some emphatic sentence. He wrote rules for his household entitled, " Christian Discipline ; or, Good and Wholesome Orders for the Well- governing of a Family." He measured the hours of the day for work, according to the season of the year : seven, six, five o'clock was the hour for rising as summer advanced, and in autumn the hours again declined in order. He breakfasted at nine, dined at twelve, 144 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. supped at seven, and went to bed at ten. He and his wife, his children, and servants assembled every morn- ing for worship, and at eleven they had a second meeting for reading the Bible and other religious books, especially " The Martyrology," — of John Foxe, I suppose. At six in the evening they met together again for divine service. The servants were required after supper to account for what they had done during the day, and to receive orders for the morrow. Rules laid down for the inmates of the house were very minute, descending even to the regulation of the voice ; " loud discourse and troublesome nbise " being strictly forbidden. In case of any dispute, the sun was not to go down upon their wrath. Worship at meeting on Finst Day and at the appointed week hour was enjoined ; nobody was to be absent except from ill health or some unavoidable engagement.^ A pleasant picture may be painted of this Quaker home down amongst the hills and tree-dotted meadows of Sussex ; and it may be fitly hung up as a com- panion sketch to that beautiful one of Broad Oak, near Whitchurch, where Philip Henry lived such a holy life after his ejectment. ' See Clarkson's "Life of Penn," vol. ii. p. 350. CHAPTER IX. POLITICAL ACTION. WHATEVER might be the sufferings of Friends abroad, they were surpassed by sufferings of Friends at home. We have witnessed the imprison- ment of George Fox at Worcester, Thomas Ellwood in Newgate, and of William Penn himself in the same gaol and in the Tower of London. These, however, are only a few instances of what prevailed to a wide extent. The whipping-post, the parish stocks, pelt- ings by infuriated mobs, and impositions of enormous fines : these were cruelties inflicted on Quakers year by year. Different statutes were brought to bear upon them, the Conventicle Act especially ; and where no specific law could be produced, it was easy to require the oath of allegiance, which exposed them at once to six months' imprisonment. Stories were told of meetings disturbed by drums and fiddles, of women having their hoods and scarfs torn off, and of little boys being beaten or struck with a cat-o'-nine- tails. Before the Revolution, Quakers declared that there had been of late above fifteen hundred of them in prison, of whom thirteen hundred and fifty-three remained still in bonds. Three hundred and fifty had died in gaol since 1660; and altogether, accord- ing to Penn's calculation, more than five thousand 14s L 146 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. perished for the sake of religion.'- Accurate statistics are always difficult to get at ; they were particularly so at that time. Hence it is probable there is exag- geration in these statements ; but it is quite certain the amount of suffering endured by Friends in the reigns of Charles II. and James II. must have been tremendously great. The sufferers kept a careful record of many particular instances, and laid it down as a rule of their Society, that "nothing of the memorial of the blood and cruel sufferings of your brethren be lost, which may stand as a testimony against the murdering spirits of the world ; and be to the praise of the Lord's everlasting power in the ages to come, who supported and upheld His, in such hardships and cruelty." The rule appears in their " Canons and Institutions," published in 1669 ; and accordingly these "accounts are preserved in grim and ponderous folios among the records of the Society, where they stand as if ready for the Judgment Day."^ When Penn returned from the Continent in 1677, we find him at first engaged at Bristol in a dispute respecting Church discipline, there being a difference of opinion on that subject amongst the Quakers, some contending for " Canons and Institutions," and others wishing that particulars of conduct should be left to the teaching of the Spirit. Penn advocated the maintenance of order. But the matter which occupied most of his attention in the winter of 1677-8 was the pressure of those sufferings I have this moment ' Macintosh's " Hist, of the Revolution," p. 159. Neal's " Hist, of the Puritans," vol. iv. pp. 552, 554. ' Barclay's " Inner Life of Religious Societies," etc., p. 398. POLITICAL ACTION. 147 noticed. In that winter the persecution of Quakers was increased by an excitement respecting Roman Catholics, who were deemed the enemies of their country, as well as children of the Mother of Har- lots. What Papists and Quakers could have to do with one another, most people now must wonder ; but in those days it was very common to regard Quakers as Jesuits in disguise. The notion began under the Commonwealth. It appears in absurdly written tracts of the period. It crops up in all sorts of letters and documents. There was "a perfect craze " on the subject. Penn sought the relief of his people from this hardship ; and whilst a Bill was before Parliament to distinguish Protestant from Popish Dissenters, and to protect the former from the Test Act, passed against the latter, he endeavoured to procure a clause in favour of Friends. An oath was proposed for Dissenters in general as a shield against the Test Law ; but as Quakers could not take any kind of oath, such a provision was unavailable for them. But though they could not swear, they could affirm, and that they were willing to do. Accordingly, a petition was offered by them to that effect, and William Penn had permission to support it before a Committee of the Commons in the month of March, 1678. " That," he said, " which giveth me a more than ordinary right to speak at this time and in this place, is the great abuse which I have received above any other of my profession ; for of a long time I have not only been supposed a Papist, but a Seminary, a Jesuit, an emissary of Rome, and in pay from the Pope ; a man dedicating my endeavours to the in- 148 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. terest and advancements of that party. Nor hath this been the report of the rabble, but the jealousy and insinuation of persons otherwise sober and dis- creet. Nay, some zealots for the Protestant religion have been so far gone in this mistake, as not only to think ill of us and decline our conversation, but to take courage to themselves to prosecute us for a sort of concealed Papists ; and the truth is that, what with one thing and what with another, we have been as the woolsacks and common whipping-stock of the kingdom ; all laws have been let loose upon us, as if the design were not to reform but to destroy us ; and this not for what we are, but for what we are not. It is hard that we must thus bear the stripes of another interest, and be their proxy in punishment ; but it is worse that some men can place themselves in such a sort of administration. But mark, I would not be mistaken. I am far from thinking it fit, because I exclaim against the injustice of whipping Quakers for Papists, that Papists should be whipped for their consciences. No ; for though the hand pretended to be lifted up against them hath, I know not by what discretion, lighted heavily upon us, and we complain, yet we do not mean that any should take a fresh aim at them, or that they should come in our room, for we must give the liberty we ask, and cannot be false to our principles, though it were to relieve ourselves ; for we have goodwill to all men, and would have none suffer for a truly sober and conscientious dissent on any band. And I humbly take leave to add, that those methods against persons so qualified do not seem to me to be convincing, or indeed adequate to the reason of mankind ; but this I submit to your POLITICAL ACTION. 149 consideration. To conclude, I hope we shall be held excused of the men of that (the Roman Catholic) profession in giving this distinguishing declaration, since it is not with design to expose them, but, first, to pay that regard we owe to the inquiry of this committee, and, in the next place, to relieve ourselves from the daily spoil and ruin which now attend and threaten many hundreds of families, by the execution of laws which, we humbly conceive, were never made against us." ^ Penn was allowed to address the Committee a second time. He remarked. " Excuse the length of my introduction ; it is for this I make it. I was bred a Protestant, and that strictly too. I lost nothing by time or study. For years reading, travel, and observations made the religion of my education the religion of my judgment. My alteration hath brought none to that belief ; and though the posture I am in may seem odd or strange to you, yet I am conscientious ; and, till you know me better, I hope your charity will call it rather my unhappiness than my crime. I do tell you again, and here solemnly declare, in the presence of Almighty God, and before you all, that the profession that I now make, and the Society I now adhere to, have been so far from altering that Protestant judgment I had, that I am not conscious to myself of having receded from an iota of any one principle maintained by those first Protestants and Reformers of Germany, and our own martyrs at home, against the see of Rome. On the contrary, I do with great truth assure ' Clarkson's " Life of Penn," vol. i. p. 215. ISO LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. you that we are of the same negative faith with the ancient Protestant Church ; and upon occasion shall be ready, by God's assistance, to make it appear that we are of the same belief as to the most fundamental positive articles of her creed too ; and therefore it is, we think it hard that though we deny, in common with her, the doctrines of Rome so zealously protested against, (from whence the name Protestants), yet that we should be so unhappy as to suffer, and that with extreme severity, by those very laws on purpose made against the maintainers of those doctrines which we do so deny. We choose no suffering ; for God knows what we have already suffered, and how many sufficient and trading families are reduced to great poverty by it. We think ourselves a useful people : yet, if we must still suffer, let us not suffer as Popish Recusants, but as Protestant Dissenters." ^ Whatever impression these eloquent appeals made on the Committee, unfortunately they failed to secure the object which was sought. The Committee, indeed, did insert a clause in a Bill of the kind desired, and it passed the Commons ; but a sudden prorogation of Parliament prevented the progress of the measure, and it fell to the ground. There was a spirit abroad in England that year agitating all communions and all classes of people. Popery was on the increase. A popish plot began to be talked of A French invasion was predicted, and amidst the excitement Penn published "An Epistle to the Children of Light in this Generation." It was dated from Worminghurst, and in it he ex- ' Clarkson's " Life of Penn," vol. i. p. 220. POLITICAL ACTION. 151 horted Friends to cast away their cares, to mount the watch-tower, and to stand in the gap, confiding in God as a sufficient help in the day of trouble. But whatever might be the agitation in the summer of 1678, that of the late autumn far exceeded it ; perhaps nothing like it had been known before. It was said the Jesuits had contrived a plan for the conversion of this country, and that ;^ 10,000 had been subscribed for the purpose. It was said that a conspiracy had been formed for the assassination of the king by poison, or, failing that, by bullet shot ; or if both failed, then recourse was to be had to the knife. It was said that 24,000 Catholics were to rise and cut Protestant ^throats. It was said that the crown was to be offered to the Duke of York on certain conditions, and if these were refused, he would be set aside. It was said that Jesuits were to pretend themselves to be Dissenting ministers, and to preach up liberty of conscience. It was said that certain clergymen were to be knocked on the head, and London burnt down a second time. These were ter- rible sayings, and they rested on the testimony of Titus Gates, who professed to have picked up all this and much more, at St. Omer's, at Valladolid, at Burgos, and at a tavern in the Strand. Everybody was frightened ; yet, strange to say, nobody thought of sifting the story to the bottom. Assuming its truth, people only thought of how all this mischief could be averted. The mysterious death of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey increased the frenzy. He had taken Gates' deposition, therefore he had been mur- dered by Papists. So people talked. His funeral was a wonderful sight. Seventy-two surpliced clergymen IS2 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. marched before the coffin ; and at a Protestant festi- val on the 17th of November, Queen Elizabeth's birthday, effigies were carried about of the Pope and of mitred Romish bishops ; on which, De Foe tells us, as a boy, he looked with wonder ; also how old city blunderbusses were burnished anew, and shoulder belts and other military gear came into fashion ; and how the city train ran rampantly about, and every- body was for apprehending Roman Catholics. It was computed that 30,000 recusants were driven ten miles from Whitehall. Oates was a thoroughly worthless character ; what he said was entitled to no belief because he said it. A great deal of what he related was preposterously absurd ; but that there really was a plot, not to murder the king, but to restore Popery if possible, is pretty plain. When London and England were in this uproar, Penn wrote an "Address to Protestants of all persua- sions upon the present conjuncture, more especially to the Magistracy and Clergy, for the Promotion of Virtue and Charity." He dwelt upon the crying sins of the day, and stated that his object was to glorify God, and to pre- serve government in the country. Kingdoms were not short-lived as men, but for them there was a time to die, and vice brought nations to ruin. He further aimed at the benefit of posterity ; the future depended on the present, that age would mould the next, parents would transfer evils to their children, and it was better that parents should perish than perpetuate misery. He then adverted to the prevailing errors of the POLITICAL ACTION. 153 day ; that of making opinions articles of faith and bonds of communion ; that of taking for authoritative faith what is not gospel faith ; that of debasing morality under pretence of exalting certain doctrines, and the decrying of virtuous men because they did not hold a particular creed ; that of putting human authority before reason and truth ; and that of pro- pagating faith by force. These points are handled with great skill and power ; but an appended dis- quisition on the things of Caesar and the things of God, though very true, serve rather to weaken the impression of the main particulars. One sentence is very telling, and at that time must have been very effective : " Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty ; but where chains, pillories, and gaols are, there can be none." The popish plot, together with French intrigues, led to the fall of Lord Danby's ministry. He was impeached, and in January, 1679, the Parliament which had been sitting for eighteen years was dis- solved. The general election which followed brought a fresh excitement on the heels of the other, which had not yet passed away. Protestants believed the cause of the Reformation to be in danger. The Duke of York was a professed Roman Catholic ; the king was a suspected one. The schemes of France, not fully known, were fearfully apprehended. Little prin- ciple could be found in public men. Voters looked forward to the contest as a crisis for destroying or saving the country. Popery must be crushed. The Established Church must be supported. There was canvassing ; there was bribery ; there were all sorts of corruption. Horses were demanded for the electors IS4 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. to carry them to the poll. There was an enormous consumption of bread, beer, and cakes. Of the Surrey candidate, Evelyn says, " They ate and drank him out near to £2.,ooo, by a most abominable custom."^ When the time of the election came, people had to sleep in market-places, and to lie like sheep around the town cross. Candidates were chaired at midnight, as the streets blazed with torches and echoed with the bray of trumpets. Penn, who had no sympathy with all this noise and confusion, wrote, as the election drew near, a pamphlet on " England's Great Interest in the Choice of a New Parliament, dedicated to all her Freeholders and Electors." Readers of this production must have noticed the difference between its style and that of other similar appeals addressed by Penn to men in general, and the style in which he wrote his journals, from which I have given several extracts. One might almost im- agine they were written by different people. Not only are there peculiar words and phrases in the former case, but the cast of the sentences also is of a peculiar stamp. It is quite clear that the differences are neither necessary nor accidental. They must have been designed ; and thus I reach the conclusion that Penn possessed both flexibility of mind and flexibility of language. He could think and he could write in different ways. He could be descriptive when he chose, as we shall see hereafter, and therefore the absence of scenery and manners from sketches he gave did not arise either from want of observation or ' " Diary," vol. ii. p. 436. POLITICAL ACTION. 155 from want of power to express whathe observed. If he had liked, he was able to write what we should call a pleasant Tour up and down the Rhine ; but he did not care to do so. Because he was intent on far other things, he felt it a duty to convey his own spiritual experience, and that of others, in phrase- ology current amongst Friends, stamped, as they con- ceived, with a sort of Divine mint mark. They would not speak of spiritual matters but in terms such as had become sacred to the purpose. It was a mistake, I apprehend. There is no reason, except in the use of certain Scripture words conveying unique spiritual ideas, why we should adopt language in reference to religion distinct from language employed on other themes.^ A " neutral vehicle," is eligible for the conveyance of what are meant by sacred or secular subjects, though a peculiar mode may be requisite for certain heaven-born ideas conspicuous in Scripture. Had Penn written his Journal and some other em- phatically religious compositions in the same style as that in which he wrote before the election of 1679, I cannot but think he would have made that book more useful as well as more interesting. Williatn Penn did not merely write and publish eloquent addresses to his fellow-countrymen ; he also did what Friends have been loath to do, — he took an active part in an electioneering contest. Algernon Sidney, like Lord William Russell, was one of the great patriots of his day. Their martyr- ' See Foster's " Essay on the Aversion of Men of Taste to Evangelical Religion." I may say I do not go so far as he does, in his exceptions to evangelical phraseology. iS6 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. dom has sanctified their memories, and made us tender in judging of things they did which we cannot justify. Their blood paid a price for English liberty, and has laid us under lasting obligation to their patriotism. Sidney was a friend of Penn. Perhaps the friendship has been overrated as to intimacy and influence ; for Penn, with his habits, could hardly be long at home at Penshurst, and Sidney, with his, could hardly be much at home at Worminghurst. Penn had no sympathy with Sidney's stoical philo- sophy. Sidney had no sympathy with Penn's Quakerism. In these respects they were as the poles asunder. But in politics they would have a good deal in common, though Sidney was a Republican, which I cannot find that Penn ever was. At the general election of 1679, Sidney came forward as a candidate for the borough of Guild- ford against Colonel Dalmahoy. The town was in a great bustle before the polling days. The magis- trates were flattered or terrified, according to their colours ; there was plenty of bribery and plenty of treating. Soldiers were freed from military service on promising to vote for the Court favourite, and paupers were led up to the booth to vote as their masters pleased. Penn canvassed for the patriot and brought a good many Quakers to vote on the Liberal side. He even took a place on the hustings, and addressed the crowd. The Recorder called him a Jesuit, but that did not stop his speaking. He then tendered the oath of allegiance, which Penn, at once, reminded the learned gentleman was contrary to law. At last officers were called, and the peace- able Friend was dragged away by force. POLITICAL ACTION. 157 Sidney had a majority ; yet such was the iniquity of the times, he was not returned. He was not, said his opponents, " a freeman of the borough ; " yet he had offered to take the burgess oath the day before. Dalmahoy was declared to be duly elected. Penn went home to Worminghurst, and turned over in his mind these shameful proceedings. He wrote to Sid- ney, and I extract from his letter these passages : — " I hope you got all well home, as I by God's good- ness have done. I reflected upon the way of things past at Guildford, and that which occurs to me as reasonable is this : that so soon as the articles and exceptions are digested, show them to Serjeant May- nard,^ and get his opinion of the matter. Sir Francis Winningfon and Wallope have been used on these occasions too. Thou must have counsel before the Committee ; and to advise first upon the reason of an address or petition with them, in my opinion, is not imprudent, but very fitting. If they say that (the conjuncture considered, thy qualifications and alliance, and his ungratefulness to the House) they believe all may amount to an unfair election, then I offer to wait presently upon the Duke of Buckingham, Earl of Shaftesbury, Lord Essex, Lord Halifax, Lord Hollis, Lord Gray, and others, to use their utmost interest in reversing this business. This may be done in five days, and I was not willing to stay till I come." " Thou, ' Maynard was a great constitutional lawyer. Ten years after this he became a Commissioner of the Great Seal. When ninety years old he was presentedto William III., who remarked he must have survived all the lawyers of his time. He replied, " I had liked to have survived the law itself, if your Highness had not come over." IS8 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. as thy friends, had a conscientious regard for England ; and to be put aside by such base ways is really a suffering for righteousness. Thou hast embarked thyself with them that seek and love and choose the best things : and number is not weight with thee." A petition was sent in against Dalmahoy's return ; but it came to nothing, as a violent struggle in the new Parliament annoyed Charles, and he dissolved it soon after it met. Sidney resolved to stand again, but not for Guild- ford. Fifty years ago there was much talk of the rotten borough of Bramber. There were not above thirty voters, and ;^i,ooo bribe, it was said, had been offered to one of them. Wilberforce sat for Bramber, and the story goes, that as he was once driving through, he exclaimed as the post boy named the village. " Bramber ; why, that's the place I am member for ! " Bramber must have been more populous in the middle of the seventeenth century than afterwards ; at any rate, it was chosen as the spot for fighting a political battle on behalf of Algernon Sidney. It was but a few miles from Worminghurst, and therefore this second election had a greater local in- terest for Penn than the first. He exerted himself to the utmost. Sir John Fagg was a great politician in those parts, and inclined to Liberalism. So was Sir John Temple. Sir John Pelham's politics were doubtful. Penn worked hard in connection with his patriotic neighbours, and did what he could with reference to the doubtful baronet. " Dear Friend," he wrote to Sidney, " I am now at Sir John Fagg's, where I and my relations dined. I POLITICAL ACTION. 159 have pressed the point with what diligence and force I could ; and to say true, Sir John has been a most zealous, and, he believes, a successful friend to thee. But, upon a serious consideration of the matter, it is agreed that thou comest down with all speed, but that thou takest Hall-Land in thy way, and bringest Sir John Pelham with thee, which he ought less to scruple, because his having no interest, can be no objection to his appearing with £hee ; the commonest civility that can be is all required. The borough has kindled at thy name, and takes it well. If Sir John Temple may be credited, he assures me it is very likely. He is at work daily. Another, one Parsons, treats to day, but for thee as well as himself, and mostly makes his men for thee, and, perhaps, will be persuaded, if you two carry it, not to bequeath his interests to thee, and then Captain Goreing is thy colleague ; and this I wish, both to make the thing easier and to prevent offence. Sir John Pelham sent me word he heard that thy brother, Henry Sidney, would be proposed to that borough, or already was ; and till he was sure of the contrary, it would not be decent for him to appear. Of that, thou canst best inform him. That day you come to Bramber, Sir John Fagg will meet you both, and that night you may be at Wiston, and then, when thou pleasest, with us at Worminghurst. Sir John Temple has that opinion of thy good reasons to persuade, as well as quality to influence the electors, that with what is and what will be done, the business will prosper." Candidates were thought of on the other side, but they had little chance of success ; and so at length Algernon Sidney's opponents hit on the scheme of i6o LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. bringing forward his own brother, Henry Sidney, afterwards Earl of Romney, whose political line ran in the direction of Court favour and Court patronage. It was not common for Quakers in those days to take an active part in elections; but Penn's patriotism overcame scruples generally felt by his brethren, and he threw himself into the contest with great energy. It is interesting to think of the patriot who died on the scaffold for the cJluse of liberty, visiting Worming- hurst and partaking of hospitalities gracefully minis- tered by the Friend's beloved wife, Gulielma Maria. The Pelhams supported Henry Sidney, who at the time was absent. Penn protested against bringing him forward, as likely to make a family breach ; but one behind the scenes pulled the strings, — no other than Robert Spencer, fellow-student with Penn at Oxford, his companion, it is said, in the rough attacks on the men in surplices, and now Earl of Sunderland. After the poll had been taken, Henry was found to have the same number of votes as Algernon ; but the returning officer gave the casting vote in Algernon's favour. It was now supposed his seat was secure ; yet such was the spirit of faction, that, when the House met, the Royalists annulled the return. After this Penn had no more to do with elections. He now fell back on Quaker sufferings. No less than three statistical works were prepared on the subject, and to these he wrote a preface, signed by other members of the Society as well as himself And about the same time he composed an introduction to the works of Isaac Pennington, his father-in-law, to whose virtues he gladly bore testimony. The same year his beloved friend, the Princess POLITICAL ACTION. i6i Elizabeth, passed away ; and in a second edition of "No Cross, no Crown," he paid' this tribute to her memory : — " She chose a single life as freest of care, and best suited to the study and meditation she was always inclined to ; and the chiefest diversion she took, next the air, was in some such plain and housewifely entertainment as knitting, etc. She had a small territory, which she governed so well that she showed herself fit for a greater. She would constantly, every last day in the week, sit in judgment and hear and determine causes herself; where her patience, justice, and mercy were admirable ; frequently remitting her forfeitures, where the party was poor, or otherwise meritorious. And, which was excellent, though un- usual, she would temper her discourses with religion, and strangely draw concerned parties to submission and agreement ; exercising not so much the rigour of her power as the power of her persuasion. . . I cannot forget her last words when I took leave of her, ' Let me desire you to remember me, though I live at this distance and that you should never see me more. I thank you for this good time ; and know and be assured, though my condition subjects me to divers temptations, yet my soul hath strong desires after the best things.' " This princess was a great favourite with Penn. Accustomed to mingle with people of distinction, he not only could on social grounds gracefully associate with her ; but a better qualification, and a stronger tie, existed in that spiritual concern for individuals, amongst the noble as well as the lowly, which has ever been a beautiful characteristic of the community of Friends, M CHAPTER X. WESTWARD THOUGHTS. WILLIAM PENN, on his father's death, came into the possession of large property. In addition to estates in Ireland, and other sources of income, he had claims on the Crown for money lent by the deceased Admiral. The Admiral had been by no means inattentive to his pecuniary interests ; and what with naval pay, prize money, and various op- portunities for increasing his wealth, he had funds at his command much greater than the same nominal amount would express, according to the changed value of money in our own time. There were no such national funds then as there are now, for the invest- ment of private property, securing both capital and interest ; and, consequently, it was no uncommon practice for merchants and people about Court to lend to the sovereign, with no other security than his acknowledgment. Such ventures were often entirely sunk, and the lender never again saw a shilling of what had been borrowed. The Admiral, in his ob- sequious loyalty, had accommodated Charles with money altogether to a large amount ; and interest not having been paid, the accumulation of capital, in- terest, and compound interest, by the year 1680 had reached a high figure. Payment in hard cash was WESTWARD THOUGHTS. 163 out of the question with a monarch whose exchequer was drained to the last farthing by reckless extrava- gance. But the Crown had unmeasured acres of land, rich in mineral wealth and in fertile soil, on the other side of the Atlantic. Was not that available for the payment of royal debts .? William Penn justly thought it was, and turned his eyes in that direction for the settlement of old scores. His knowledge of the New World had been greatly increased in accuracy and extent by his management of the Jersey estate for which he was trustee. News reached him of natural resources all round this pro- mising possession : wastes of immense breadth, wh;-h, under European cultivation, would yield harvesi. unparalleled in his island home ; river banks offer- ing splendid sites for towns and cities ; bays in which proud navies from the East might ride at anchor. Penn, with all his spirituality of mind, was not with- out " a moderate and seasonable regard " to temporal interest, as he said in the letter he wrote to Lord Middlesex and Dorset about the Shoreham ship- wrights ; and therefore he prudently calculated on the advantages of securing from his royal debtor a grant of land on that western shore. It would be better than money. It would form safer capital, and pay higher interest. Moreover, Quakers had gone out there already. Their industry was already turn- ing the wilderness into a garden. Jersey was as a field that the Lord had blessed ; and there Friends were holding meetings, and worshipping God accord- ing to their own convictions, free from the reach of Conventicle Acts, the intrusion of constables, the fear of fines, the perils of imprisonment, and the fury of i64 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. savage mobs. They had religious liberty, and could enjoy to the full the rights of conscience. For that he had longed, laboured, prayed, and watched ; as it regarded England all in vain. But now a vision rose out of the seaj fair and bright. What could not be realised here could be obtained in America. The thought grew as it rooted itself in his mind. To attempt its translation into fact struck him as " a holy experiment." The experiment he determined by God's help at once to try. It probably also occurred to him that the welfare of Friends abroad, as well as Friends at home, would be promoted by this experiment. He had seen something of per- secution in Germany, whilst he and others had endured much more in England. Here would be opened an outlet for much misery. The oppressed would behold before them a "silent highway" to regions beyond the waters, uncursed by cruel laws, unshadowed by dark memories. Little hope ap- peared of freedom for people who lived either on the banks of the Rhine or the banks of the Thames ; kings, though differing in almost all respects, agreed in lording it over the consciences of their subjects, and the blight of intolerance kept falling still over lands Protestant as well as lands popish. The late general election, the treatment of Sidney, the spirit of Parliament, the insensibility of the nation, — which with all his efforts he could not rouse, the deaf adder refusing to be charmed, — these things would further concur to fix his choice and strengthen his efforts. Then would arise missionary desires ; all colonialists, all en:iigrants, had mingled religion with their dreams. They would make known the Gospel to aboriginal WESTWARD THOUGHTS. 165 tribes, to benighted heathen. So thought Pizarro, and John Smith, and many others. William Penn, with more purity, simplicity, and elevation of motive, thought of extending the knowledge of primitive Christianity among the children of those primeval forests, those unbounded prairies. And he said plainly in a letter written by him to a friend at a later date, when plans were settled : " I have been these thirteen years the servant of truth and Friends, and for my testimony's sake lost much ; not only the greatness and preferment of this world, but sixteen thousand pounds of my estate, which, had I not been what I am, I had long ago obtained. But I murmur not; the Lord is good to me, and the interest His truth has given me with His people may more than repay it ; for many are drawn forth to be concerned with me, and perhaps this way of satisfaction hath more the hand of God in it than a downright payment. This I can say, that I had an opening of joy to these parts in the year 1661, at Oxford, twenty years since ; and as my understanding and inclinations have been much directed to observe and reprove mischiefs in government, so it is now put into my power to settle one. For the matters of liberty and privilege I purpose that which is extraordinary, and leave myself and succession no power of doing mischief, that the will of one man may not hinder the good of a whole country."^ Having made up his mind as to the course he should pursue, he presented a petition to the king for letters patent giving him a title to land in the western 1 Clarkson's " Life of Penn," vol. i. p. 288. 1 66 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. hemisphere, near to the settlement in Jersey. The petition existed, but in a mutilated state, in 173S, when it was adduced in evidence during a trial in reference to the Penn possessions. As far as one can make out the fragment, it alludes to the royal debt, to the difficulties entailed on his family by its non- payment, and then humbly prays that His Majesty, in his compassion to the afflicted, would grant land in America, lying north of some territory, the name of which was defaced, and bounded by a " river on the west," also left without a name. The boundaries may be inferred from subsequent records. After this appli- cation " a long and searching course of proceedings took place." ^ The privy council at that period included a com- mittee for managing "affairs of trade and plantation," something similar, I suppose, to the government in our present colonial office. In some old room at Westminster, with quaint ceiling ornaments and furni- ture — such as we now curiously scan — there met on June 24th, 1680, the Lord President Duke of Albe- marle, Christopher, son of old George Monk (a great pleasure-taker and fond of the bottle) ; the Bishop of London, Henry Compton, who afterwards figured largely in the Revolution ; and Secretary Jenkyns, a man not ashamed of his humble Welsh origin, for after he became Sir Lionel he " preserved the leather breeches which he wore to Oxford, as a memorial of his good fortune in the world." ^ Penn's petition, ' Hazard's " Annals of Pennsylvania," p. 474. This author has industriously collected and clearly arranged all the docu- ments. ^ Grainger's " Biographical Hist.," vol. iii. p. 352. WESTWARD THOUGHTS. 167 referred to them, by Robert Spencer, Earl of Sunder- land, his quondam friend, was read and considered. It asked, the mihutes of the council tell us, " for a tract of land in America, lying north of Maryland, on the east bounded with Delaware River, on the west limited as Maryland, and northward to extend as far as plantable." These words supply important gaps in our copy of the original petition, but they leave the boundaries indeterminable. Penn was called in, and asked to explain exactly what he wished for in the northern direction. Three degrees northward, he said, would satisfy him, and for such a grant he was willing " to remit his debt due from His Majesty, or some part of it, and to stay for the remainder till His Majesty shall be in a better condition to satisfy it." Copies of the petition were ordered to be sent to Sir John Werden, acting for the Duke of York, whose territory stretched thereabouts, and to Messrs. Bar- naby Dunch and Richard Burk, agents for Lord Baltimore, who held the province of Maryland. They replied, — the first speaking doubtfully about the boun- daries and reserving the Duke's rights, but not object- ing to the grant, indeed with certain limitations re- commending the petitioner's request to His Majesty ; .he second, Baltimore's agents, saying that they desired the land, if granted, should be described as land north of Susquehanna Fort, and north of all lands in a direct line between that Fort and Dela- ware River. They claimed that Lord Baltimore's rights should not be invaded, and they prayed they might see the grant before it passed, and that due caution should be taken that no ammunition should be sold to the Indians by people living on this new i68 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. plantation. On the Sth of July the Committee of Council met again, and Penn appeared before them, — no doubt in quaker dress, and with his hat on ; — he was told the contents of these letters, and that he must apply to the Duke for the adjustment of their respective pretensions. Penn said he agreed that Susquehanna Fort should be the boundary of the Baltimore province ; and as to furnishing ammunition to the Indians, he declared himself ready to submit to any restraints of that kind their lordships might impose. This I fancy he said with a smile. A second letter from Werden stated that the Duke was willing that Mr. Penn's request should meet with success, an indication of kindly feeling towards the son of the Admiral, who had commended him to. the care of His Royal Highness. On the 14th of Novem- ber, at a meeting of the Committee, " at which ten earls, etc., were present," a day was appointed for the preparation of the grant ; and on the i8th of the same month a draft of the grant was referred to the Attorney-General, for consideration of the powers therein conferred. Then came troublesome letters from Baltimore's agents respecting boundaries, con- ferences between them and William Penn, aftewards the answer of the Attorney-General, and finally, on the 25 th of January, 1681, a settlement of the boun- dary question by Lord Chief Justice North. The ' patent was prepared and submitted to the Chief Justice, and, on February ist, when the draft was read, there came a paper from the Bishop of London desiring that Mr. Penn be obliged " to admit a chap- lain, of his lordship's appointment, upon the request of any number of planters." The 24th of February WESTWARD THOUGHTS. 169 saw the patent ready for signature, with a blank left for the name of the colony ; and the bishop was requested to draw up "a law to be passed in this country for the settling of the Protestant religion.^' The charter was submitted for the royal signature, which signature it received on the 14th of March. A letter written at this time by William Penn to his friend Turner is too curious to be omitted : — "Dear Friend, — " My true love in the Lord salutes thee and dear friends that love the Lord's precious truth in those parts. Thine I have,\and for my business here, know that after many waitings, watchings, solicitings, and disputes in council, this day my country was confirmed to me under the great seal of England, with large powers and privileges, by the name of Penn- sylvania, a name the king would give it, in honour of my father. I chose New Wales, being, as this, a pretty hilly country, — but Penn being Welsh for a head, as Penmanmoire, in Wales, and Penrith, in Cum- berland, and Penn, in Buckinghamshire, the highest land in England, — [he] called this Pennsylvania, which is, the high or head woodlands ; for I proposed, when the secretary, a Welshman, refused to have it called New Wales, Sylvania, and they added Penn to it ; and though I much opposed it, and went to the king to have it struck out and altered, he said it was past, and would take it upon him ; nor could twenty guineas move the under-secretaries to vary the name, for I feared lest it should be looked on as a vanity in me, and not as a respect in the king, as it truly was, to my father, whom he often mentions with praise. Thou mayest communicate my grant to friends, and 170 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. expect shortly my proposals. It is a clear and just thing, and my God, that has given it to me through many difficulties, will, I believe, bless and make it the seed of a nation. I shall have a tender care to the government, that it will be well laid at first. No more now, but dear love in the truth. " Thy true Friend, "William Penn."i The charter speaks for itself. Penn was made "proprietary" of the domain. He was to govern and make laws, to appoint officers, to grant pardons ; the laws, however, to be consonant with English law. They were to be transmitted to England for approval. Customs and subsidies due for merchandise and wares might be imposed by the province and an agent to represent Penn must reside in London. If any wilful default or neglect on the part of the proprietary occurred, the government of the colony was to be resumed by England. No correspondence could be allowed with countries at war with Great Britain. The king was " not to levy taxes without consent of proprietary or Parliament.'' If twenty inhabitants wished, the Bishop of London might appoint them ministers. Clearly the new colony, with all its large freedom, was to remain under the dominion of the Crown. Three weeks after the charter had been signed, Penn wrote to the inhabitants of Pennsylvania : — " My Friends, — " I wish you all happiness, here and here- after. These are to let you know that it hath ' Hazard's " Annals of Pennsylvania," p. 500. WESTWARD THOUGHTS. 171 pleased God, in His providence, to cast you within my lot and care. It is a business that, though I never undertook before, yet God has given me an understanding of my duty, and an honest mind to do it uprightly. I hope you will not be troubled at your change, and the king's choice, for you are no^y fixed at the mercy of no governor that comes to make his fortune great ; you shall be governed by laws of your own making, and live a free, and, if you will, a sober and industrious people. I shall not usurp the right of any, or oppress his person. God has furnished me with a better resolution, and has given me His grace to keep it. In short, whatever sober and free men can reasonably desire for the security and im- provement of their own happiness, I shall heartily comply with, and in five months resolve, if it please God, to see you. In the mean time, pray submit to the commands of my deputy, so far as they are consistent with the law, and pay him those dues (that formerly you paid to the order of the Governor of New York) for my use and benefit, and so I beseech God to direct you in the way of righteousness, and therein prosper you and your children after you. " I am your true friend, "William Penn."^ Ten days after this loving address, the writer appointed his cousin, William Markham, deputy- governor, and sent him with a long written com- mission, instructing him fully as to the course he was to pursue. At the same time, he drew up proposals to adventurers, and an account of Pennsylvania from ' Hazard's " Annals," p. 502. 172 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. the best information he could obtain, also supplying arguments in favour of colonization, specifying terms of emigration, and describing persons most suitable for the enterprise. A wide amount oi farsightedness appears in this document. It was no rash undertaking to which Penn committed himself, but the result of careful study and of anxious anticipations, founded on observation and an intimate acquaintance with human nature. And in further illustration of this, I may mention "the Conditions and Concessions " he published in July, and the minute specifications they contained as to laying out a city, settling townships, inspecting rivers, search- ing for mines, trading with Indians, preserving trees and the like — showing altogether a practical habit of mind wonderful in one who for twenty years had been absorbed in preaching and religious service, and who, in the estimation of a large proportion of Englishmen, was a narrow-minded fanatic. His disinterestedness also appears. In September he spoke of the large offers made for a monopoly of the Indian trade which he declined, " and how he did refuse a great temptation last second day, which was ;£'6,000 for six shares in the Indian trade, from south to north, between the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers, paying also two and a half per cent, rent." But he adds, " As the Lord gave it me over all and great opposition, and that I never had my mind so exercised to the Lord about any outward substance, I would not abuse His love, nor act unworthy of His providence, and so defile what came to me clean. No, let the Lord guide me by His wisdom, and preserve me to honour His name and serve His truth and WESTWARD THOUGHTS. 173 people, that an example and standard may be set up to the nations ; there may be room there, though none here." ^ Benevolence is manifested in all his arrangements. In the instruction he gave to three commissioners sent out in October, he says : — " That so soon as it shall please Almighty God to bring you well there, you take an especial care of the people that shall embark with you, that they may be accommodated with conveniences as to food, lodging, and safe places for their goods, concerning which my cousin, William Markham, my deputy, and now on the spot, will in a good measure be able to direct, that so none may be injured in their healths or estate, in which, if you find the Dutch, Swedes, or English of my side hard or griping, taking an advantage of your circumstances, give them to know that they will hurt themselves thereby, for you can for a time be supplied on the other side, which may awe them to moderate prices." Further on he adds this exhortation : " Be tender of offending the Indians, and hearken, by honest spies if you can hear that anybody inveigles the Indians not to sell, or to stand off and raise the value upon you. You cannot want those that will inform you, but to soften them to me and the people, let them know that you are come to sit down lovingly among them. Let my letter and conditions with my purchasers about just dealing with them be read in their tongue, that they may see we have their good in our eye, equal with our own interest ; and after reading my ' Hazard's " Annals," p. 522. 174 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. letter and the said conditions, then present their kings with what I send them, and make a friendship and league with them, according to those conditions, which carefully observe, and get them to comply with you. Be grave ; they love not to be smiled on." ^ Not satisfied with giving this advice to the com- missioners, he wrote directly to the Indians them- selves : — " London, " 18/A ofWi month, 1681. "My Friends, — " There is one great God and Power that hath made the world and all things therein, to whom you and I, and all people owe their being and well- being, and to whom you and I must one day give an account for all that we do in the world ; this great God hath written His law in our hearts, by which we are taught and commanded to love and help and do good to one another, and not to do harm and mischief one to another. Now this great God hath been pleased to make me concerned in your parts of the world, and the king of the country where I live hath given unto me a great province, but I desire to enjoy it with your love and consent, that we may always live together as neighbours and friends, else what would the great God say to us, who hath made us not to devour and destroy one another, but live soberly and kindly together in the world .■' Now I would have you well observe, that I am very sensible of the unkindness and injustice that hath been too much exercised toward you by the people of these parts of ' Hazard, p. 529. WESTWARD THOUGHTS. 175 the world, who sought themselves, and to make great advantages by you, rather than be examples of justice and goodness unto you, which I hear hath been matter of trouble to you, and caused great grudgings and animosities, sometimes to the shedding of blood, which hath made the great God angry ; but I am not such a man, as is well known in my own country. I have great love and regard towards you, and I desire to win again your love and friendship by a kind, just, and peaceable life, and the people I send are of the same mind, and shall in all things behave themselves accordingly ; and if in anything any shall offend you or your people, you shall have a full and speedy satisfaction for the same, by an equal number of just men on both sides, that by no means you may have just occasion of being offended against them. I shall shortly come to you myself, at what time we may more largely and freely confer and discourse of these matters. In the mean time, I have sent my com- missioners to treat with you about land and a firm league of peace. Let me desire you to be kind to them and the people, and receive these presents and tokens which I have sent to you, as a testimony of my good will to you, and my resolutions to live justly, peaceably, and friendly with you. " I am your loving friend, "William Penn."i His activity throughout is really surprising. He must have been incessantly at work. The documents which Hazard has brought together in his historical volume, show that Penn must have been employed 1 Hazard, p. 532. 176 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. day and night from the March of 1681, when the charter was signed, to the March of 1682, when he was still engaged with his preparations. He sent out minute directions respecting the plantation of lands, the harbouring of game and wild beasts, the collect- ing of revenue, and the sale of land. He was very busy making grants in March, 1682, and at the same time he thought of planting vines. He ordered of a Frenchman from 1,500 to 2,000 plants — "those that bear the best grapes, rather than the most." A Pennsylvanian Company was a great project of his, and he obtained a charter for it from Charles II., under the title of " The Free Society of Traders." He rejoiced in its freedom, and exultantly wrote a preface to the prospectus. In glowing language he remarks : " This may be modestly said, it is a very unusual society, for it is an absolutely free one, and in a free country ; a society without oppression, where- in all may be concerned that will, and yet have the same liberty of private traffic as though there were no society at all : so that this society is calculated both to promote the public good, and to encourage the private ; and indeed it seems not possible that province should be improved in many years without it, as it is like to be in a few years by it. However, it is such a society as can do no harm to none, but may do good to all, which a serious perusal of the government of it will plainly evince to the considerate and ingenious." ^ In all this, I believe that William Penn had people to help him ; but who they were does not appear, ' Hazard, p. 551. WESTWARD THOUGHTS. 177 except that Sir William Petty made two suggestions in August, 1682.1 Naturally Penn would consult with friends of his own persuasion, but I find no reference in Fox's Journal to his having been sought as a councillor. Algernon Sidney has been supposed, without any documentary evidence that I can find, to have been a constant adviser throughout the whole business ; but a letter written by Penn to Sidney, on the 13th of October, 1 681, discloses the fact that there was an unpleasantness between the two at that time ; that Penn had drawn up his own scheme, which he altered in compliance with his friend's suggestion ; that Sidney then sketched out a draft, which he " called for back to finish and polish," and that Penn had "suspended proceedings in the business ever since." The whole letter had better be given : — "iZth Oct., 1 68 1. " There are many things make a man's life uneasy in the world, which are great abates to the pleasure of living, but scarcely one equal to that of the unkind- ness or injustice of friends. I have been asked by several since I came last to town if Colonel Sidney and I were fallen out, and when I denied it and laughed at it, they told me I was mistaken, and, to convince me, stated that he had used me very ill to several persons if not companies, saying, ' I had a good country, but the basest laws in the world, not to be endured or lived under ; and that the Turk was not more absolute than I.' This made me remember the discourse we had together at my house about me drawing constitutions, not as proposals, but as if ' Hazard, p. 564. N 178 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. fixed to th? hand ; and as my act to which the rest were to comply, if they would be concerned with me. I could not but call to mind that the objections were presently complied with, both by my verbal denial of all such constructions as the words might bear, as if they were imposed and not yet free from debate. And also that I took my pen and immediately altered the terms, so that they corresponded (and, I truly thought, more properly) with thy sense. Upon this thou didst draw a draft as to the frame of government, gave it to me to read, and we discoursed it with con- siderable argument. It was afterwards called for back by thee to finish and polish ; and I suspended proceedings in the business ever since. " I met with this sort of language in the mouths of several : I shall not believe it ; 'twere not well in me to an enemy, less so to a friend. But if it be true, I shall be sorry we ever were so well acquainted, or that I have given so much occasion to them that hate us, to laugh at me for more true friendship and steady kindness that I have been guilty of to any man I know living. It becomes not my pretensions to the things of another life to be much in pain about the uncertainties of this. Be it as it will, I am yet worthy of a line. "Thy real friend, "William Penn."^ In what relation Penn and Sidney stood to each other afterwards, I have no means of determining. Probably it was at the period we have now reached that the latter became a Fellow of the Royal Society. ' Printed in " The Penns and the Pennington s," p. 334. WESTWARD THOUGHTS. 179 He was acquainted with Dr. Wallis, one of its distin- guished members, and Clarkson informs us that Penn wrote to him expressing his interest in the proceed- ings of the institution, and offering to contribute to its usefulness. The biographer thinks it was owing to this circumstance that Penn was elected a Fellow.^ About this time too, perhaps in June, 1682, Penn lost his mother, " for whom he had the deepest filial affec- tion." He must have seen much more of her than of his father. This Dutch lady was his guardian at Wanstead, and his advocate when the troubles at Ox- ford and in Ireland shed darkness over their London home. Pepys gives no flattering account of the Ad- miral ; and so unsympathetic a father could scarcely have been a very affectionate husband, so that domes- tic trials most likely made her cling all the more to her much-loved son. When she died, he was ill for some days. He alludes to his bereavement in a letter he wrote immediately , afterwards to one of his friends, who was also in trouble. It is written in the same style as his Journal in Germany : " Both thy letters came in a few days one of the other. My sickness upon my mother's death, who was last seventh day interred, permitted me not to answer thee so soon as desired ; but on a serious weighing of thine inclina- tions, and perceiving to last thy uneasiness under my constrained silence, it is most clear to me, to counsel thee to sink down into the seasoning, settling gift of God, and to wait to distinguish between thy own desires, and the Lord's requirings." ^ ' Clarkson's " Life of Penn," vol. i. p. 292. 2 Ibid., p. 298. i8o LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. From Fox's Journal we learn that Penn continued to preach amidst all the demands of business. "William Penn went with me, and spoke at the meeting (Gracechurch Street) ; and while he was de- claring the truth to the people, a constable came in with his great staff, and bid him give over, and come down ; but William Penn held on, declaring truth in the power of God." ^ It was now time for Penn to visit his new possession ; and in the prospect of departure, he wrote at Worm- inghurst a touching letter to his wife and children. He told her that neither sea nor land nor death could lessen his affection, and that she was the love of his youth and the joy of his life, and that their match was " of Providence's making." Then he gives advice, both spiritual and temporal, mingling business sagacity with devout solicitude. The children are particularly addressed with much solemn beauty, the father open- ing up to them his whole heart, yearning for their highest welfare, and as one method of promoting it, bidding them read " No Cross no Crown." He sailed in the Welcome, from Deal, with a hun- dred passengers, chiefly Quakers. " Fox's " Journal," vol. ii. CHAPTER XI. THE FOUNDING OF PHILADELPHIA. I CAN never forget the first glance I had, some years ago, of the banks of the Delaware. The waters, under a mid-day sun, were as a sea of glass mingled with fire ; and the wooded shores flashed with crimson maple flames, amidst far-spreading leafy masses of brown and green. And " the wedded rivers," as Whittier calls them, charmed me more and more, when, as a " Pennsylvanian pilgrim," I sought to explore, to some small extent, the banks of the Schuylkill, as well as to catch glimpses of the Delaware roll of waters, in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia. The drive along the Wissahickon, between rocks embowered in trees, the stream — a fit haunt for Shakespeare's fairies. Peas-blossom and the rest — flowing through tangled brakes, wealthy in wild flowers, not to speak of the grand view from Belmont over park and city, and the charming pictures which open on every side, whilst the visitor rambles in the Laurel Cemetery; so worthy of its fame — they all live in my imagination, and often charm me as I sit by my English fireside on a winter's night. I do not think that justice has been done to American scenery — to the Hudson, like a chain of Italian lakes, to the forests of New England, and to the manifold charms of Pennsylvania ; and it is too much forgotten that 1 82 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. there you are nearly in the same latitude as Naples, and so through a transparent atmosphere such as one breathes in the sunny south, the inhabitants see as we do not in our northern clime the glorious objects which lie around them. Convenience, thoughts of commerce, the selection of a fitting spot for a great city, the choice of a harbour for the shipping of the world, no doubt mainly determined the site of Philadelphia. But utility and the picturesque often go together, as we feel on visiting the monastic remains of our country — where the ivy-decked walls are encompassed by waters full of fish and meadows full of cattle, and not far off by wide fields rich in wheat and barley. Whether the commissioners sent out by Penn, who marked the foundation for the noble metropolis of their new state, had much care for landscape beauty, I cannot say; but, at all events, they managed to secure it, even if aiming at far other things. Nearly forty years before. Red Indians were haunting the shore about a mile from Port Nassau, and there some Dutchmen bought land from these wild children of the west, and mounted the flag of their country on a tall boundary mark as a sign of possession. This act was followed by a quarrel with neighbouring Swedes, who came and indignantly tore down the symbol of proprietorship raised by the bold Hol- landers. The two European countries were rivals for the lordship of the tempting realm, but they did little indeed towards the cultivation of the soil ; for between thirty and forty years afterwards the region remained infested with wolves, and the heads of these animals were brought in to be paid for by the scanty THE FOUNDING OF PHILADELPHIA. 183 settlers at the rate of fifty-five heads for forty guilders earh. Some acres between "the land of Wiccaco," and " the land of Jurian Hartsfielder," were granted on petition in 1677 to one Peter Rambo, but on the complaint of a neighbouring family, who laid claim to it, the grant was cancelled. This became the site of the new city. Penn did not land there. His voyage from Eng- land lasted two months, and on its way the Welcome was scourged by the small-pox, which swept off no less than one-third of the hundred passengers who had embarked at Deal. The first point on the American coast which the vessel reached was "the Capes," on the 24th of October, 1682, and on the 28th Penn landed at Newcastle. He was. "hailed there with acclamation by the Swedes and Dutch," says one authority ,1 who informs us that the Swedes were living in log cabins and clay huts, the men dressed "in leather breeches, jerkins, and match coats," the women " in skin jackets and linsey petticoats " ; but the old records of Newcastle give a more stately description of the arrival. Penn produced two deeds of enfeoffment, and John Moll, Esq., and Ephraim Hannan, gentleman, performed livery of seisin by handing over to him turf and twig, water and soil,^ and with due formality the act was recorded in a docu- ment signed with nine names. The inhabitants of the little settlement afterwards gave a pledge of obedience. Penn held " a court " — we must not attach grand ideas to the word — on the 12th of November, in the 1 Watson's "Annals," vol. i. pp. 16, 19. '^ Hazard, p. 597. LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. record of which he is styled " Right Honourable Pro- prietary." His cousin, Markham, Deputy-Governor, was present, and with him were the "Mayor" and three others of "the Council," five more persons being mentioned as "Justices." "The Right Hon- ourable Proprietary" delivered a practical speech, and afterwards the territory below Newcastle was made over to him. After this, Penn visited New York, and returned at the end of a month, when he went to a place called Upland, and turning round to a Quaker friend who had come with him in the Welcome, he said, " Provi- dence has brought us here safe ; thou hast been the companion of my perils ; what wilt thou that I should call this place .' " Pearson said, " Chester," in remem- brance of the city whence he came. On the 14th of December the Assembly met at Chester without Penn's presence ; there Committees were appointed, and even so soon debate arose about some undue election. Much discussion followed, and the members got through a good deal of business. The Great Law, as it is called, or rather the body of laws, of the province of Pennsylvania, was passed at Chester the 7th of December, 1682 ; and here we have the scheme of legislation devised by the founder. It requires attention, as expressing his political views. He lays down the principle of liberty of conscience for the whole province, and it recognises intolerance as intolerable. " If any person shall abuse or deride any other for his or her different persuasion and prac- tice in matter of religion, such shall be looked upon as disturber of the peace, and be punished accordingly." The observance of the Lord's Day is prescribed, but is THE FOUNDING OF PHILADELPHIA. rSj not enforced by penalties. All Government officers and servants are to profess belief in the Divinity of Christ, profaneness and blasphemy are to be punished, and several criminal offences are carefully specified Drinking healths, and selling rum to Indians, come under the same category ; so do stage plays, and other amusements fashionable in the days of Charles II. Days and months are not to be called by heathen names. These are the only peculiar laws ; the rest being provisions for trial by jury, for purity of election, and for strictly legal taxation. This is a very different code from Locke's, drawn up for Carolina. No aristocratic element appears ; and but that the charter stipulated for Royal authority and rights, and was really the basis of an English provincial government, the articles might be taken for those of a pure republic. But no signs of Algernon Sidney's hand can be discovered ; certainly the religious provisions were quite contrary to his views. As the Pilgrim Fathers and the founders of Massachusetts intended New England to be a Christian State after an Independent model, so William Penn meant his to be a Christian State after a Quaker model. The fact is, neither he nor they saw where- unto things would grow. They did not contemplate an empire, but a kind of large family, where, though much liberty was to be allowed, that liberty was to be quite consistent with a recognition of Christianity. Penn came after the Plymouth and Massachusett fathers, and could profit by their experience ; but it must be confessed that he had profounder theoreti- cal views on the rights of conscience, than had 1 86 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. the Puritans and Nonconformists in general at that period. Much has been said in praise of Roman Catholic legislation in Maryland. It has been claimed as a liberal exception to prevalent intolerance ; and therefore Catholics with pride, and Protestants with wonder, have pointed to this phenomenon. But it is now ascertained, on the authority of the vice- principal of the Jesuits, at London, in 1642, accord- ing to a MS. in Stoneyhurst College, that the Baltimore province, supposed to be Roman Catholic, was really a province " inhabited by infidels or here- tics." The Jesuit says of the first colony, that Lord Baltimore " immediately treated with Father Richard Blount, at that time provincial," and with the General Society at Rome, for missionaries to visit Maryland to convert "the heretics who were des- tined to colonise that country." "The affair," it is added, "was surrounded with heavy and many diffi- culties ; for, in leading the colony to Maryland, by far the greater part were heretics ; the country itself {a meridie VirginicB ab Aquilone) is esteemed likewise to be a New England ; that is, two provinces full of English calvinists and puritans." " The Baron," says the writer, "was unable to find support for the Fathers." And another Roman Catholic authority states, that in a newly-planted country like Maryland, dependent on England, neither could ecclesiastical persons be admitted, " nor the Catholic religion be publicly allowed." So it turns out, that instead of a Roman Catholic nobleman promulgating tolerant laws for a few Protestants, at the mercy of their neighbours and the Government, we have a majority THE FOUNDING OF PHILADELPHIA. 187 of anti-Romanists, amongst whom it was difficult to support Romanism at all. Whatever toleration, then, was vouchsafed, must have been in the interests of Rome, and not in the interests of religious liberty at large.^ Penn's legislation is quite of a different character from that of his neighbour. Lord Baltimore, and of Lord Baltimore's ancestor. The Assembly which passed the laws of Penn- sylvania sat for three days, and after its adjournment Penn paid a visit to Maryland, and had an interview with Lord Baltimore respecting the boundaries of the two provinces ; but the matter not being easily settled, its further consideration was postponed till the follow- ing spring. Penn returned to Chester, and thence proceeded to the spot where, in after time, the capital city of his province was to rise and spread, in all its magnificence. His arrival is an event of great interest ; but he has himself given no account of it, nor have any of his contemporaries left a connected description of the circumstances. By piecing together scattered fragments of tradition, however, something like a full narrative of what occurred may be con- structed. He proceeded along the river in an open boat till he reached " a low and sandy beach," at the mouth of what was called the Dock Creek ; on the opposite side of it was a grassy and wet soil, yielding an abundance of whortleberries ; beyond was the " So- ciety Hill," rising up to what is now Pine Street, covered then ' with wild outgrowths ; the neighbour- hood containing woods in which rose lofty elms, and ' See The New Englander for November, 1878, and The New Englander for 1881, p. 481. LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. masses of rich laurels. The margin of the creek here and there produced evergreen shrubs, and near them were wigwams of Red Indians, who had settled down for a while as a starting-point for favourite hunting- grounds. When Penn and his companions arrived, they found some men busy, building a low wooden house, destined, under the name of the Blue Anchor, to be an object of interest and a subject of con- troversy. These men, and a few European colonists who were scattered about the locality, pressed towards the boat to give a cordial welcome as the Englishmen stepped on shore. If not immediately, we may be sure that soon afterwards, the Indians would come forward to gaze on the white man from the other side of the world ; and then would begin those manifestations of kindness towards the children of the forest which made an indelible impression on them, and on others who witnessed the interviews. A lady, who lived to be a hundred, used to speak of the Governor as being of "rather short stature, but the handsomest, best looking, lively gentleman she had ever seen." " He endeared himself to the Indian by his marked con- descension and acquiescence in their wishes. He walked with them, sat with them on the ground, and ate with them of their roasted acorns and hominy. At this they expressed their great delight, and soon began to show how they could hop and jump ; at which exhibition, William Penn, to cap the climax, sprang up and beat them all." Probably a little imagination enlivened the old lady's recollections, and she condensed several meetings into one ; but as Penn was at that time under forty, and he had been fond of active sports in earlier days, the story on the THE FOUNDING OF PHILADELPHIA. 185 whole is quite credible ; and it is curious to find an old journalist leaving on record, that the founder of Pennsylvania was "too prone to cheerfulness for a grave public Friend," especially in the eye of those of them who held " religion harsh, intolerant, severe." ^ Blue Anchor Tavern was pulled down years ago, but some archaeological Philadelphians still preserve relics of the old timbers. The city had been planned beforehand, the streets marked, and the names given ; and these being Vine, Walnut, Pine, Sassafras, and Cedar, we may believe that such trees abounded in the woods into the midst of which the city ran. The name of Philadelphia was chosen by the founder, its scriptural and historical associations being probably present to his mind ; but the chief object of the choice was a lesson to its inhabitants "touching brotherly love, upon which he had come to these parts, which he had shown to Dutch, Swedes, Indians, and others alike ; and which he wished might for ever characterize his new dominions." ^ It is pleasant to learn that amongst the allotments, he did not forget George Fox, but reserved for him no less than a thousand acres in the neighbourhood. Also six acres were reserved for a meeting-house, a school, and a burying-ground, and ten acres besides as an enclosure for horses, during the religious service of the owners, lest the animals should be lost in the woods. He planned for himself a residence in the middle ' My authority is Watson, in his " Annals of Philadelphia," pp. 55-130. Perhaps the author has added some tints of his own imagination to the traditions he so minutely records. ^ Clarkson, vol. i. p. 348. 190 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. of the city, which came to be called Letitia Cottage, after the name of a daughter who resided there after- wards. There is a Letitia Court still ; and when I was in Philadelphia, I made a pilgrimage to the spot, but could not satisfy myself as to Penn's house. There is a shabby tenement called Penn Hall, to which common tradition points as the original abode of the Governor ; but a counter tradition points to two other dwellings, either " Doyles Inn," or " the old Rising Sun Inn " ^ — not a satisfactory state of things for a pilgrim in search of William Penn's houses and haunts. Respecting one more locality, I should like to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. The Treaty-Elm lo- cality — the spot where stood the traditionary elm — is known, and is identified by a monument on the spot ; but as to the treaty said to have been ratified there, imagination has had play, for historical information is wanting. Everybody has seen Benjamin West's pic- ture of the treaty between Penn and the Indians, and the artist's fancy has been made the basis of historical description. So unsatisfactory was the state of the question years ago, that the Historical Society of Philadelphia appointed a committee of inquiry. They reported that a treaty did take place, probably in November, 1682, at Shackamaxon, under an elm tree blown down in 18 10. The treaty was probably made with the Delaware tribes as " a treaty of amity and friendship," and not for the purchase of territory.^ The ' Watson, vol. i. p. 158. 2 " Society's Memoirs," vol. iii. part 2, p. 143. Hazard's "Annals," p. 635. THE FOUNDING OF PHILADELPHIA. 191 speeches made, the dresses worn, and the surrounding scene, appear now to be altogether fictitious. Materials, however, exist for forming some idea of the manner in which the treaty would be conducted. " I have had occasion," says Penn, " to be in council with them upon treaties for land, and to adjust the terms of trade. Their order is thus : — " The king sits in the middle of an half-moon, and has his council, the old and wise, on each hand. Be- hind them, or at a little distance, sit the younger fry in the same figure. Having consulted and resolved their business, the king ordered one of them to speak to me. He stood up, came to me, and in the name of his king saluted me, then took me by the hand, and told me that he was ordered by his king to speak to me, and that now it was not he but the king who spoke, because what he should say was the king's mind. He first prayed me to excuse them, that they had not complied with me the last time. He feared there might be some fault in the interpreter, being neither Indian nor English. Besides, it was the Indian custom to deliberate and take up much time in council before they resolved ; and that, if the young people and owners of the land had been as ready as he, I had not inet with so much delay. Having thus introduced his matter, he fell to the bounds of the land they had agreed to dispose of, and the price ; which now is little and dear, that which would have bought twenty miles not buying now two. During the time that this person spoke, not a man of them was observed to whisper or smile, the old grave, the young reverent, in their deportment. They speak little, but fervently, and with elegance. I 192 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. have never seen more natural sagacity, considering them without the help (I was going to say the spoil) of tradition ; and he will deserve the name of wise, who outwits them in any treaty about a thing they understand. When the purchase was agreed, great promises passed between us of kindness and good neighbourhood, and that the English and Indians must live in love as long as the sun gave light ; which done, another made a speech to the Indians in the name of all the Sachamakers or Kings ; first, to tell them what was done ; next, to charge and command them to love the Christians, and particularly to live in peace with me and the people under my govern- ment ; that many governors had been in the river ; but that no governor had come himself to live and stay there before : and having now such an one, who had treated them well, they* should never do him or his any wrong ; at every sentence of which they shouted, and said Amen in their way."^ Penn wrote letters from Chester about this time, whether before or after the treaty I cannot tell. " I am now casting the country into townships for large lots of land. I have held an Assembly in which many good laws are passed. We could not stay safely till the spring for a Government. I have annexed the territories lately obtained to the province, and passed a general naturalization for strangers, which hath much pleased the people. As to outward things we are satisfied, the land good, the air clear and sweet, the springs plentiful, and provision good and easy to come at ; an innumerable company of wild 1 Clarkson's " Life of Penn," vol. i. p. 394. THE FOUNDING OF PHILADELPHIA. 193 fowl and fish; in fine, here is what an Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would be well contented with, and service enough for God, for the fields are here white for the harvest. O how sweet is the quiet of these parts, freed from the anxious and troublesome solicitations, hurries, and perplexities of woeful Europe." ^ At the time he was in America, there were ill- natured critics who found fault "with his proceedings ; but he was quite self-possessed, and knew how to rebuke impertinence. " Keep," says he, " thy place. I am in mine. It is more than a worldly title or patent that hath clothed me in this place ; nor am I sitting down in a greatness that I have denied. Had I sought great- ness I had stayed at home, where the difference between what I am here, and was offered and could have had there, is as wide as the places are. I am day and night spending my life, my time, my money, and am not sixpence enriched by this greatness (costs in getting, settling, transportation, and maintenance, now in a public manner, but at my own charge duly considered), to say nothing of my hazard and the distance I am from a considerable estate, and which is more, from my dear wife and poor children." Part of this extract requires explanation : the " worldly title or patent " and " the greatness he had denied," refer to an offer of Charles II. to his father. The king would have made the Admiral Viscount Weymouth, Weymouth being the borough he repre- sented in Parliament ; but the son having become a ' Clarkson's " Life of Penn," vol. i. p. 350. O 194 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. Quaker and inveighed against titles of nobility, the offer was withdrawn.^ Penn could not have been long in America before he heard of the death of Mary Pennington, who, on the 1 8th of September, died at the house of Gulielma, — Worminghurst. It was only eleven days after he sailed, but she had long been in ill health. More than a year before she had beautifully written : " Now it is upon me in the holy fear of the Lord, to declare to you, my dear children, of what great service it was to me in my sickness, that I had nothing to do but to die when the Lord visited me. The Lord was pleased to assure me I should have a mansion, according to His good pleasure, in His holy habitation. Through this knowledge I was left in a quiet state, out of any feelings of the sting of death ; not having the least desire to live, though I did not witness any measure of triumph and joy. I could often say that it is enough I am in peace, and have not a thought day nor night of anything that is to be done in prepara- tion for my going hence." " Death hath been many times before me, on which occasions I have rather embraced it than shrunk from it ; having for the most part found a kind of yielding in my spirit to die. I had all my days a great sense of death, and subjec- tion to the fear of it, till I came to be settled in the truth ; but now the fear of death, that is the state after death, is removed. Yet there remaineth still a deep sense of the passage ; how strait, hard, and difficult it is, even in some cases to those over whom the second death hath no power." ^ 1 The passage, omitted by Clarkson, vol. i. p. 351, is given in the Preface to the " Logan Correspondence," L. xxxix. ' " The Penns and the Penningtons," p. 323. THE FOUNDING OF PHILADELPHIA. 195 In this holy frame of mind this beautiful Christian ended her earthly days, having an " abundant " and only gently shaded " entrance into the everlasting kingdom." The tidings of her death, bound up with so much that was sacred, and the perusal of her recorded experience, must have deeply affected her son-in-law. During her husband's absence, Gulielma Penn wrote on the 2nd of August, 1684, to Margaret Fox, and in her letter she refers to him as expected home very soon — a circumstance which put a stop to her going to America. " With the Lord," she says sweetly, " I desire to leave it, and commit him and myself to His holy ordering." The first paragraph is very beauti- ful : " In a sense of that love and life by which we are united to God, and made near one unto another, I salute thee. And, dear Margaret, I cannot express the sense I have of thy love and regard to me and my dear husband ; but it is often before me, with very great returns of love and affection, and desires for thy prosperity and preservation amongst God's people. I should be exceedingly glad if it were my lot once more to see thy face, but at present I see little likelihood. Yet methinks, if thou foundest a clearness, it would be happier if thou were nearer thy dear husband and children ; but I leave it to the Lord's ordering, and thy freedom."^ When Penn had enjoyed possession of his territory a little while, he wrote an account of it to the " Free Society of Traders of Pennsylvania," and in it he manifests a power of graphic description really ad- ' " The Penns and the Penningtons," p. 354. 196 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. mirable. It brings the whole country vividly before our eyes ; the land, " the best vales of England watered by brooks ; the air, sweet ; the heavens, serene like the South of France ; the seasons, mild and temper- ate ; vegetable productions abundant, chestnut, wal- nut, plums, muscatel grapes, wheat and other grain ; a variety of animals, elk, deer, squirrel, and turkeys weighing forty or fifty pounds, water-birds and fish of divers kinds, no want of horses ; and flowers lovely for colour, greatness, figure, and variety." He goes on to describe the persons, language, manners, religion, and government of the natives, not omitting to specu- late on their origin ; and, yielding to a fascination both ancient and modern, he is ready to believe they are of the Jewish race, for which he adduces in- genious, if not satisfactory, reasons. I must satisfy myself with one extract relative to Philadelphia. "Philadelphia, the expectation of those who are concerned in this province, is at last laid out, to the great content of those here who are any way inter- ested therein. The situation is a neck of land, and lieth between two navigable rivers, Delaware and Sculkill,^ whereby it hath two fronts upon the water, each a mile ; and two from river to river. Delaware is a glorious river ; but the Sculkill, being a hundred rriiles boatable above the falls, and , its course north- east towards the fountain of Susquehanna, (that tends to the heart of the province, and both sides our own), it is like to be a great part of the settlement of this age. I say little of the town itself, because a plat- form will soon be shown you by my agent, in which ' Schuylkill. THE FOUNDING OF PHILADELPHIA. 197 those who are purchasers of me will find their names and interests. But this I will say, for the good pro- vidence of God, of all the places I have seen in the world, I remember not one better seated ; so that it seems to me to have been appointed for a town, whether we regard the rivers, or the conveniency of the coves, docks and springs, the loftiness and sound- ness of the land, and the air, held by the people of these parts to be very good. It is advanced within less than a year to about four score houses and cottages, such as they are, where merchants and handicrafts are following their vocations as fast as they can ; while the countrymen are close at their farms. Some of them got a little winter corn in the ground last season ; and the generality have had a handsome summer crop, and are preparing for their winter corn. They reaped their barley this year in the month called May, the wheat in the month fol- lowing ; so that there is time in these parts for another crop of diverse things before the winter season. We are daily in hopes of shipping to add to our number ; for, blessed be God, here is both room and accommodation for them ; the stories of our necessity being either the fear of our friends or the scarecrows of our enemies ; for the greatest hardship we have suffered hath been salt meat, which by fowl in winter and fish in summer, together with some poultry, lamb, mutton, veal, and plenty of venison, the best part of the year has been made very passable. I bless God I am fully satisfied with the country and entertainment I got in it ; for I find that particular content which hath always attended me, where God in His providence hath made it my place and service to LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. reside." . . . " As it is some men's duty to plough, some to sow, some to water, and some to reap, so it is the wisdom as well as the duty of a man to yield to the mind of Providence, and cheerfully as well as carefully embrace and follow the guidance of it." ^ This account of the country two hundred years ago seems incredible as one walks down the magnifi- cent streets, stands before the Hall of Independence, gazes on the Masonic Temple, drives through the Laurel Cemetery, and tarries for a few days at the " Continental " in this fair city, grand as it is fair. Penn's report altogether is most interesting ; and it indicates great power of observation, a wide range of knowledge, much skill in grouping facts, and an un- affected yet vigorous style of description on the part of its author. Disputes between him and Lord Baltimore as to boundaries continued some time, till they disappeared under mild remonstrances, which the former addressed to his violent and troublesome neighbour. But he had other cares, which he felt more keenly. Of course the rising city occupied much of his attention ; and disputes about lots, sites, frontage, vaults, stores, wharfs, river bank, and a hundred other things, made great demands on the sag^pcity and patience of the Governor. But so successful were the arrange- ments he was able to make, that within two years of his arrival as many as three hundred houses were built within the infant metropolis, and the population was then reckoned at 2,500. The interests of Pennsylvanian Friends lay near ' Clarkson's " Life of Penn," vol. i. p. 402, et seq. THE FOUNDING OF PHILADELPHIA. 199 his heart, and he felt anxious to establish discipline amongst them. He had preached, but he felt that something more was requisite to secure order and stability ; hence he laid down rules for the conduct of human life, and the maintenance of peace and consistency by the members of Society. Amidst anxieties arising from so many sources, it was a comfort for him to receive the following letter, written by a Quaker friend, Stephen Crisp, and sent from England in the ship Endeavour. " This I must tell thee," says the writer, " which thou also knowest, that the highest capacity of natural wit and parts will not and cannot perform what thou hast to do, namely, to propagate and advance the instrument and profit of the government and plantation, and at the same time to give the interests of Truth and testimony of the Holy Name of God their due prefer- ence in all things ; for to make the wilderness sing forth the praise of God is a skill beyond the wisdom of this world. It is greatly in man's power to make a wilderness into fruitful fields, according to the common course of God's providence, who gives wis- dom and strength to the industrious ; but, then, how He who is the Creator may have His due honour and service thereby, is only taught by the Spirit in them who singly wait upon Him." ^ Thus were laid the corner-stones of this great Quaker community ! Before receiving this letter, Penn had been informed of the continuance and even increase of persecution in England. All over the country the spirit of in- tolerance rode on the wings of a storm, and at a ' Clarkson, vol. i. p. 418. LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. village in his own neighbourhood a Quakers' meeting had been broken up by a troop of soldiers, who had seized twenty-three inoffensive persons and hurried them off to Aylesbury gaol. These poor folks, quiet as lambs, were indicted for a riot, and actually found guilty, the punishment being a fine, and imprison- ment until the fine was paid ! The interposition of a friend, who paid the fine, alone saved them from a cruel incarceration. Such a circumstance touched Penn to the quick, and he resolved to cross the Atlantic again, that he might see what he could do for the benefit of his oppressed co-religionists. He had to make arrangements for conducting affairs in Pennsylvania during his absence, and devolved the office of President upon a Friend named Thomas Lloyd, entrusting to him, and other commissioners, the Great Seal of the province. In a letter addressed to Pennsylvanian Friends, written on board the Endeavour, which was to take him to England, he thus apostrophised his beloved city : — " And thou, Philadelphia, the virgin settlement of this province, named before thou wert born, what love, what care, what service, and what travail has there been to bring thee forth and preserve thee from such as would abuse and defile thee ! " O that thou mayest be kept from the evil that would overwhelm thee ; that faithful to the God of thy mercies in the life of righteousness, thou mayest be preserved to the end. My soul prays to God for thee, that thou mayest stand in the day of trial, that thy children may be blessed of the Lord, and thy people saved by His power. My love to thee has THE FOUNDING OF PHILADELPHIA. 201 _ been great, and the remembrance of thee affects mine heart and mine eye. The God of eternal strength keep and preserve thee to His glory and peace." ^ There is a beautiful letter written by Gulielma Penn to Margaret Fox, endorsed 1690,^ but the con- tents of the letter show, I think, that this date is incorrect. It must have been written during Penn's absence in America, and as his only absence there during her life was between 1682 and 1684, I intro- duce it at the close of this chapter. "To Margaret Fox. " Dear and honourable Friend, M. F . " With salutations of true, constant, faithful love is my heart filled to thee. I feel it in that which is beyond words — in the unity of the Spirit of Truth. It rises in my mind, as I am writing, something that I saw concerning thee in my sleep long ago, about the . time of the beginning of these bad spirits. I thought I saw thee and dear George and many Friends in a meeting, where the power of the Lord was greatly manifested ; and methought there came in dark, wicked spirits, and they strove exceedingly against the (Divine) life that was in the meeting. Their chief aim was at thee and George, but mostly at thee. They strove to hurt thee, but, methought, thou gottest so over them that they could not touch thee, but only tore some little part of thy clothes, and thou escaped unhurt. Then a sweet rejoicing and triumph spread throughout the meeting. That ' Clarkson, vol. i. p. 423. 2 " The Penns and the Penningtons," p. 373. LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. dream was long ago, and the Lord has so brought it to pass that thy life now reigns over them all. It was thee they began with, but the Lord has given and will (further) give thee the victory, to the joy and comfort of thy people. Dear Margaret, I received thy acceptable letter long since, but have delayed writing to thee, in the hope to give a fuller account of my husband and of our going. But the winter and spring have been so severe that letters have been hindered, and now that many are come, none of them of late dates are for me, because my husband has been in daily expectation of seeing us there, and I am sorry for his disappointment. I should have been truly glad to have seen him before going, as thou sayest, but am contented, and desire not his coming merely to fetch us, as I know he has a great deal of business to attend to ; and also know it is not for want of true love or the desire to see us that keeps him, but it is that he must first mind the duties of the place in which he now stands, and do that which is right, and in which he has peace. If the Lord gives clearness and drawings to come, I would be glad, but see no likelihood at present." " I am truly refreshed in the remembrance of thee, and thy lines are very dear to me. I desire thy prayers to the Lord on our -behalf, that He may attend us with His sweet and heavenly presence in our undertaking, and then it will be well with us, whether staying or going. " Dear Margaret, in a sense of this, and in true love, I bid thee farewell, and am thy affectionate friend in my measure of the blessed truth, "GULI Penn." CHAPTER XII. BACK AGAIN. PENN sailed from America on the I2th of August, 1684, and reached his native shores on the 3rd or 4th of October. He announced his arrival to Margaret Fox : — "Dear M. Fox,— " Whom my heart loveth and honoureth in the Lord, remembering thee in the ancient love and path of life which is most glorious in mine eyes ; yea, excellent above all visible things. Dear Margaret, herein it is I enjoy the fellowship of thy spirit above time and distance, floods, and many waters. " It is now a few days above three weeks since I arrived well in my native land. It was within seven miles, of my own house that we landed. I found my dear wife and her children well, to the over- coming of my heart because of the mercies of the Lord to us. I have not missed a meal's meat or a night's rest since I went out of the country, and wonderfully hath the Lord preserved me through many troubles in the settlements I have made, both as to the government and the soil. I find many wrong stories let in of me, even by some I love ; but, blessed be the Lord, they are the effects of envy, for things are sweetly well with Friends there, and many 204 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. grow in wisdom. And in the outward things they increase finely. The love of divers Friends, especially those of Lancashire and Cheshire, was to thee. Our meetings are blessed, and I think there are eighteen in number in the province. Poor C. Hurst and brother died soon after arrival. Fixing on a low, marshy place, for the river's sake (though a dry bank was not a stone's cast from them), they had agues and fevers, but no seasoning in any other settlement. " My dear wife relates thy great love to her in my absence, and so she also wrote me word, which affected my heart and soul. I return thee my tender acknowledgment. My salutation is to thy dear children, and to Thomas Cann, Leonard Fell, and other faithful brethren. " I have seen the King and the Duke. They and their nobles were very kind to me, and I hope the Lord will make way for me in their hearts, in order to serve His suffering people as well as my own interest. " I shall be glad to hear of thy well-being, and am with much affection thy faithful friend and brother in the truth, "William Penn.''^ Penn soon found that plenty of trouble was laid up for him in England. Stephen Crisp, a distinguished Quaker, conveyed the annoying intelligence that reports injurious to his character were coming into circulation. He had given sanction, it was said, to military proceedings in Pennsylvania, contrary to Friends' principles ; he ' "The Penns and the Penningtons," p. 356. BACK AGAIN. 205 had amassed money in his province, and was making haste to be rich ; he had altered the Royal charter, and had thus been guilty of a stretch of power ; and he had added to his possessions lands which of right belonged to the Swedes. These charges were hastily disposed of in a reply sent to his respected friend. Penn declared that he knew of no arms being em- ployed ; certainly, there were lying on a green, seven rusty old cannon, without powder or shot, but what had become of them he could not tell, and, moreover, no soldier or militiaman could be found throughout the length and breadth of his province. He had not gone out for gain, he said, but had, out of his own pocket, maintained Governor and Government for four years. Any changes with regard to charter pro- visions, he further stated, had been made to please the people, not himself; what additional land he had secured, he bought and paid for, and then gratuitously bestowed upon the public. But it was no use, he said in conclusion, listening to these flying stories, " he could not please all." There were, added to other things, the Baltimore difficulties about boundaries ; but though they ac- companied him to England, happily, after awhile he got rid of them ; for the Committee of Plantations examined documents, heard evidence, and sent in a report to His Majesty, who decided that the land in dispute should be divided into two equal parts, and that Lord Baltimore must be contented with what was lying on the Chesapeake side, whilst the other half was to remain at the Crown's disposal, evidently with an intention of its ultimately falling into Penn's hands. 2o6 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. A momentous event in relation to him and his interests occurred soon afterwards. Charles II. died in February, 1685. Penn wrote to one of his friends : — " The King is dead, and the Duke succeeds peace- ably. He was well on the first day (Sunday) night. About eight next morning, as he sat down to shave, his head twitched both ways or sides ; and he gave a shriek and fell as dead, and so remained some hours. They opportunely blooded and cupped him, and plied his head with red hot frying-pans. He returned (revived) and continued till sixth day noon, but mostly in great tortures. He seemed very penitent, asking pardon of all, even the poorest subject he had wronged, prayed for pardon, and to be delivered out of the world, the Duke appearing mighty humble and sorrowful. He was an able man for a divided and troubled kingdom. The present King was pro- claimed about three o'clock that day. A Proclama- tion followed, with the King's Speech, to maintain the Church and State as established, to keep property and use clemency." " Be careful that no indecent speeches pass against the Government, for the King going with his Queen publicly to mass in Whitehall gives occasion. He declared he concealed himself to obey his brother, and that now he would be above-board ; which we like the better on many accounts. I was with him and told him so ; but withal hoped we should come in for a share. He smiled, and said he desired not that peaceable people should be disturbed for their religion. And till his coronation, the twenty-third, when he and his consort are together to be crowned, BACK AGAIN. 207 no hopes of release ; and till the Parliament, no hope of any fixed liberty." ^ Penn thought more of the rising than the setting sun, as well he might; he and his friends could lose nothing by the death of Charles ; they might gain much by the accession of James. He had been a friend of the old Admiral, and a sort of guardian to the Quaker son, and it might have been expected that halcyon days were now at hand. Quite the con- trary. Nothing could be more unfortunate. The favour of the new sovereign, and the suspicions it inspired, proved the bane of Penn's life for years, and cast the darkest shadows over his story as it was to be related to posterity. What injured the good man whilst living, has injured him ever since. Amidst persecution he is justly regarded only with honour ; looked at in the brilliancy of a Court, he has been pointed at by the finger of calumny. James certainly was partial to Penn. He liked him for his father's sake. He liked him for his own. His loyalty and affection were pleasant to one who had few admirers. His harmless Quakerism was no offence. Indeed, to have one like Penn to take His Majesty's part amongst Nonconformists was a posi- tive advantage. And as James liked Penn, so Penn liked James. As a boy he had known the Duke, and felt grateful for his notice, and for the possessions in America he had recovered at his hands. And still more was the anticipated royal acceptance valued, because it would give the object of it many an occa- sion for helping on the interests of that cause he so deeply loved. He was determined to avail himself ' Clarkson, vol. i. p. 431. 2o8 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. of every opportunity he could turn to such advan- tage ; and therefore, to be near him, so as to command private opportunities of access, he removed to Ken- sington. He took up, for a time, his abode in Holland House, where we find him dating some of his letters ; but it must have been only as occupant, not as owner — since that picturesque building, with its spacious and well-timbered park, belonged then to the sixth Earl of Warwick. There he would be amongst per- sons of distinction — not far from Whitehall — indeed within the atmosphere of the Court. How a Friend like William Penn could take such a step is to me a marvel. It enabled him, no doubt, to secure favours for others. He procured a pardon for John Locke, though John Locke, like the Penn of earlier days, would not accept a pardon, because he was conscious of no crime ; and beyond this he procured the liberation of Quakers from the loath- some gaols in which they had been confined. As many as twelve hundred were set free. The King and the Quaker spent hours together alone. His Majesty would keep peers and officers of state waiting for admission to the audience cham- ber, whilst private conferences were going on, and when the Quaker came out from the presence, ex- pressions of jealousy would be natural, and too obvious in the faces of mortified courtiers. At the same time people crowded the Quaker's doorsteps, seeking introduction, that they might petition for favours. We are told, sometimes "two hundred and more " might be seen watching for the royal favourite ; and knowing what human nature is, who can wonder at lies being speedily put in circulation .' BACK AGAIN. 209 Of course, vanity and ambition would be laid to the charge of the new courtier. He would be sus- pected of full sympathy with the monarch in policy, and sentiments of which he was unconscious would be attributed to him. James was a Papist, under the influence of priests, in friendship with France, a despot like Louis XIV., and a hater of Protestantism, though for certain ends he might kindly treat certain Protestant subjects. He disliked Parliaments. He preferred governing by his own decrees. He was undermining the Constitu- tion. He was destroying the liberties of England. By the help of a few deluded or deceitful sycophants, he would unprotestantise the Established Church, turn its wealth into the coffers, and its honours into the hands, of popish sacerdotalists. So people talked ; and the more intensely Protestant anybody was, if he did not possess discrimination and impartiality of the rarest kind, the more likely he was to condemn any fellow Protestant who chose to bask in the sun- shine of the royal favour. However far removed from Rome might be his position, a person of that sort was sure to be counted a Papist, or very much like one. Penn, though doubtless he had good objects in view, paid the penalty of his imprudence.^ It may ' The following curious entry appears in the records of Devonshire Friends : — " At our Meeting for Sufferings at the High Gaol, Exeter, the 20th of the ist month, 1683, it was agreed to draw up an account of Friends' sufferings for presentation to the judges who were then holding the assize. It being also reported to this meeting, as also to divers Friends, that the slanderous reports cast upon P 210 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. seem at first sight a monstrous thing for a Quaker to be denounced as a Jesuit ; but if we turn back a few pages in our national history, we shall see how such an unreasonable suspicion came to be current. In the midst of the Civil Wars, Jesuitism was sup- posed to be plotting all over England. Parliament- arian soldiers said the Royal camp abounded in Jesuits. Cavaliers declared that the same gentlemen were busy with Puritans. Even Baptist Churches complained of being infested with the followers of Loyola. It was believed that the doctrine of the inner light was taught by Jesuits, and that a Franciscan friar had said no Churches came so near his own "as the Quakers." ^ Many Quakers were only Jesuits in disguise ; that was an idea during the Commonwealth, and the idea lingered in England when the Common- wealth had e^cpired ; it rose with new life, and domin- ated over weak minds with unspeakable terror, when James II. ascended the throne. What only madmen would now believe, was accepted then by some of the wisest and best men of the age — Dr. Tillotson, for example. William Penn, that he died a Jesuit, have been believed, and reported by some of the justices of this county and others ; so that it's agreed upon that a few lines be written from this meet- ing to the justices, with one or more of the papers lately put forth by Philip Ford, in order to remove that scandalous report put of their minds." — Early Records of the Society of Friends in Devonshire, by Robert Dymond, F.S.A. This was written many years before Penn's death ; but the report was that he had just died. ' " Broadmead Records," p. 46, BACK AGAIN. Hence the following correspondence/ which speaks for itself. It is dated the early part of 1686. Penn's letters were written from Charing Cross, where he must have been staying for a time. It is only neces- sary to remember that Tillotson was then Dean of Canterbury, a strong Protestant, a zealous Whig, and a decided opponent of King James's policy. " Being often told that Dr. Tillotson should suspect me, and so report me, a Papist, I think a Jesuit, and being closely prest, I take the liberty to ask thee, if any such reflection fell from thee. If it did, I am sorry one I esteemed ever the first of his robe, should so undeservedly stain me ; for so I call it. And if the story be false, I am sorry they should abuse Dr. Tillotson, as well as myself, without a cause. I add no more, but that I abhor two principles in religion, and pity them that own them : the first is obedience upon authority without conviction ; and the other, destroying them that differ from me for God's sake. Such a religion is without judgment, though not without teeth. Union is best if right, else charity ; and, as Hooker said, the time will come when a few words spoken with meekness, humility, and love, shall be more acceptable than volumes of controver- sies, which commonly destroy charity, the very best part of true religion. I mean not a charity that can change with all, but bear all, as I can Dr. Tillotson in what he dissents from me, and in this reflection, ' The correspondence is briefly given by Clarkson, vol. i. p. 450; more fully by Maria Webb in "The Penns and the Penningtons,'' p. 363, et seq. ; most fully, and I apprehend most correctly, in the life of the author prefixed to the folio edition of Penn's works. LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. too, if said, which is not yet believed by thy Chris- tian true friend, "William Penn.''^ Tillotson replied, he had heard of a correspondence his friend held with Rome, particularly with some Jesuits there ; and that he had told him so, which Penn heard with a little surprise, saying he would call and speak further on the subject ; he had done this, but seemed strange the next time they had met together. This, Tillotson said, he had mentioned, but nothing more. Then he adds : — " I do fully concur with you in the abhorrence of the two principles you mention, and in your approba- tion of that excellent saying of Mr. Hooker, for which I shall ever highly esteem him. I have en- deavoured to make it one of the governing principles of my life, never to abate anything of humanity or charity, to any man for his difference from me in opinion, and particularly to those of your persuasion, as several of them have had experience. I have been ready upon all occasions to do all offers of kindness, being truly sorry to see them so hardly used ; and though I thought them mistaken, yet, in the main, I believed them to be very honest." Penn replied, as he was addressed, in the spirit of Christian candour and charity. After reciprocating the Dean's courtesies, he adds : " For the Roman corres- pondence I will freely come to confession. I have not only no such thing with any Jesuit at Rome (though Protestants may have without offence), but I hold none with any Jesuit priest or regular in the world of ' Penn's Works, vol. i. p. 126. BACK AGAIN. 213 that communion. And that the Doctor may see what a novice I am in that business, I know not one any- where. And yet, when all this is said, I am a Catholic, though not a Roman. I have bowels for mankind, and I dare not deny others what I crave for myself. I mean liberty of the exercise of my religion, think- ing faith, piety, and providence a better security than force ; and that if truth cannot prevail with her own weapons, all others will fail her. . . . That Dr. Tillotson may see how much I value his good opinion and dare own the truth and myself at all turns, let him be confident I am no Roman Catholic, but a Christian, whose creed is the Scripture, of the truth of which I hold a nobler evidence than the best church authority in the world ; and yet I refuse not to believe the porter, though I cannot leave the sense to his discretion." ' Tillotson closed the correspondence by declaring his satisfaction with what Penn had written, and begging pardon for listening to suspicion about him. He promised to vindicate his friend's character, and to visit him at Charing Cross the first opportunity. Penn, subsequently to this correspondence, employed himself in authorship, for which he had a great taste, and wrote "A Further Account of Pennsylvania"; also, " A Defence of the Duke of Buckingham's Book, from the exceptions of a nameless author." The Duke of Buckingham was by no means a creditable person, and though he appeared in print, and in Parliament, as an advocate of liberty, he cared little for the cause he espoused, except as it might advance party purposes. Penn appears to more advantage in his Penn's Works, vol. i. p. 128. 214 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. " Persuasive to Moderation to Dissenting Christians, in Prudence and Conscience, humbly submitted to the King and his Great Council." Some of his histori- cal arguments and illustrations will not bear critic- ism, but there is much good sense in the position, that religious freedom would be a benefit to England. " As things then stood," he remarked, " no churchman meant no Englishman ; and no conformist meant no subject." Thus it happened that the ablest statesman, the bravest captain, and the best citizen might be dis- abled, and the prince forbid their employment in his service." The following sentence is somewhat cur- ious : " What was the ark itself but the most apt and lively emblem of toleration ; a kind of natural temple of indulgence, in which we find two of every living creature dwelling together, of both sexes too, that they might propagate ; and that as well of the unclean as of the clean kind, so that the baser and less useful sort were saved." ' In the summer of 1685 the rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth threw the country into a state of alarm on the part of most people — into a state of hope on the part of a considerable number. James the Second was unpopular, especially amongst Protestants ; yet most Protestants disapproved of the violent course adopted by the Duke, and foresaw defeat and misery as the most likely result of his proceedings. Many, however, welcomed his landing at Lyme, in Dorset- shire, on the nth of June, and rallied round his banner. It is certain that he evoked the sympathies of a Nonconformist Church at Axminster, for it is • Penn's Works, vol. ii. p. 742. BACK AGAIN. 215 said in its records : " Now were the hearts of the people of God glad, and their hopes and expectations raised, that this man might be a deliverer for the nation and the interest of Christ in it, who had been even harassed out with trouble and persecution, and even broken with the weight of oppression under which they had long groaned." ^ But Friends, from their hatred of war in every form, abstained from expressing any sympathy on this perilous movement, nor did they show any indignation at the cruelties which followed its suppression. " Not the slightest allusion is to be found in the minute books of Friends to the fearful scenes they must have witnessed," says Mr. Dymond in his " Early Records of the Society of Friends in Devonshire," Such a striking omission can hardly have been un- designed. " Not content," he says, " with giving prac- tical effect to their testimony against the taking up of arms, our predecessors appear to have studiously avoided any written expression that could be con- strued into evidence of complicity with rebellion." -Quakers would condemn Monmouth's appeal to arms, and would be careful not to say or do anything which could be construed into approval of an attempt to dethrone the king; and in Penn's case personal con- siderations reinforced a decision based on religious grounds. The most fearful cruelties followed the repression of this outbreak. The story of Judge Jeffrey's com- mission is written in scarlet letters. It makes one's blood boil to read an account of the judicial murders ' " Axminster Ecclesiastica," p. 80. 2i6 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. committed by that wretched man. Penn persuaded himself that " the king was much to be pitied, who was hurried into all this effusion of blood by Jeffrey's impetuous and cruel temper." Bishop Burnet took a different view, he said : " If the king's own inclination had not been biassed that way ; and if his priests had not thought it the interest of their party to let that butcher loose, by whom so many men, that were like to oppose them, were put out of the way, it is not to be imagined that there would have been such a run of barbarous cruelty, and that in so many instances." ^ We ought to give Penn credit for honesty of opinion, though we regard the bishop's representation of the king's feelings as nearer the truth. Penn it appears witnessed the execution of two victims included in the holocaust : the beneficent Elizabeth Gaunt, and the patriotic Henry Cornish ; and of the latter, respecting whom it was said by the mad upholders of James's policy, that he died in a fit of fury, Penn remarks : " There appeared nothing in Cornish's conduct at the place of execution but a just indignation that inno- cence might very naturally give." People not doomed to death for their complicity in the rebellion, were severely punished in other ways, and mention is made in the Axminster records of a man carried captive to the Isle of Barbadoes, where he was sold as a slave, and afterwards ransomed by payment of a sum of money collected amongst his friends. Penn was anxious that some of those sentenced to trans- portation should be sent to Pennsylvania, with the benevolent intention of doing what he could to ' Burnet's " History of his Own Time," vol. i. p. 651. BACK AGAIN. 217 diminish their sufferings. Some involved in trouble by their conduct, managed to escape the fangs of soldiers and constables ; and there are romantic traditions still lingering in the West — amongst them this, that one of the " Taunton maids " was concealed on the roof of a house at the entrance to Totnes Priory, reached only by a ladder, and that food was conveyed to her at night with the utmost secrecy. The affair of the " Taunton maids " was destined to be an occasion of slander to the memory of Penn more than a century after he was dead and gone. The " Taunton maids " were a party of girls, some very young, who, in their Protestant enthusiasm, marched in procession with their schoolmistress to welcome Monmouth, as he entered the town where they lived. To get them pardoned, of course, became an object of desire and effort to their relatives and friends. Pardons in those days were sought at Court as common articles of barter. It was known at the time that negotiations went on to purchase the safety of these girls by payments to the maids of honour, who were royally appointed mediators in the affair, and were to receive the money as a welcome dower. Names of people mixed up in the matter are found amongst the state papers ; but nobody dreamt of our William Penn having had anything to do with it. Sir James Mackintosh, however, discovered the follow- ing letter in the Record Office. "Whitehall, Feb. i^tk, 1685. "Mr. Penn, " Her Majesty's Maids of Honour having acquainted me, that they designe to employ you 2i8 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. and Mr. Walden in making a composition with the Relations of the Maids of Taunton for the high Mis- demeanor they have been guilty of, I do at their request hereby let you know that Her Majesty has been pleased to give their fines to the said Maids of Honour, and therefore recommend it to Mr. Walden and you to make the most advantageous composition you can in their behalf. " I am, sir, your humble servant, " Sutherland P." Lord Macaulay read this letter, which Sir James Mackintosh had discovered, and ventured to main- tain on the strength of it, " that the maids of honour requested our William Penn to act for them, and that he accepted the commission'.' ^ To give such an account of him in connection with the story of the "Taunton maids," as the eloquent his- torian has done, simply and entirely on the authority of Sunderland's letter, is an extraordinary incident in historical literature ; to convict a man as guilty of an offence, to say, without any hesitation, that "Penn accepted the commission',' and that a little of the perti- nacious scrupulosity, which he had often shown, about taking off his hat, would not have been altogether out of place on this occasion, — to advance this statement for no other reason than what is contained within the four corners of the letter, is singularly strange. What would be thought of a jury that could base a con- demnatory verdict on such evidence } It has been shown to be highly probable that George Penne, a notorious pardon-broker of the day, was the man to ' Macaulay's " History of England," small 8vo, vol. ii. p. 235. BACK AGAIN. 219 whom this note was sent ; but it is not necessary to dwell upon that probability in order to show how utterly insufficient is this document to criminate the subject of our biography.! The letter, at the very utmost, could only be pressed in evidence to show that the maids of honour wished to employ the person to whom the letter was addressed, and the Mr. Walden mentioned in it, to make an advantageous bargain on their behalf. There is no proof whatever that those who are named accepted the office, and accomplished the purchase ; and that such a man as Penn the Quaker would mix himself up with such a dis- graceful transaction, is to the last degree improbable. Testimony to character is quite sufficient to refute a charge based on a document which might appropri- ately enough be addressed to a low pardon-broker, like George Penne. Much obscurity rests on the transaction relative to the Taunton maids and the maids of honour. A letter amongst the State papers, with the address torn off, dated December 12, 1685, and bearing the signature of the Duke of Somerset, then in office, asks whether the girls who welcomed Monmouth were in custody, and whether the person addressed was acquainted with them, because there were friends of the writer, who, it was thought, might obtain the royal pardon on easy terms. Another letter, dated the 14th of the January following, directed to Sir Francis Warre, Baronet, refers to a Mr. Bird, who had offisred services to the Court ladies in negotiating terms with friends ' The present Right Honourable W. E. Forster, in 1849, pub- lished an exhaustive reply to Macaulay. Mr. Hepworth Dixon did the same afterwards in his Life of Penn. 220 LIFE OF WILLIAM FENN. of the Taunton girls for the sovereign's forgiveness ; but it appears that his assistance was declined. Then there turns up a further communication from the same nobleman to the same baronet, dated January the 2 1st, stating that it seemed best to send a letter of attorney to somebody, who might aid Sir Francis in his negotiation, and that the ladies had resolved to proceed against the culprits, if ^7,000 were not paid for their deliverance, that sum being thought " reason- able." ^ No further correspondence between Somerset and Warre has been discovered ; but the latter is described " as unwilling to be concerned in the busi- ness ; " and it seems the schoolmistress who headed the procession was " a woman of mean birth." ^ Look- ing at the circumstances, a large ransom appeared very unlikely. Oldmixon, who speaks from personal knowledge of some amongst the parties, states that " Brent, the popish lawyer," was engaged in further negotiations, having as an under agent one Crane, of Bridgewater.^ Brent was a broker in pardons, like other worthless people about Court, and the name frequently occurs in entries under the head of secret, service.* Oldmixon further relates that it was sup- posed these disreputable folks "paid themselves bountifully out of the money which was raised." ^ Moreover, it is to be remarked that the " Mr. Penne," to whom Lord Sunderland's note is addressed, looks ' These letters are in the Record Office. ^ "History of Taunton," by Dr. Toulmin, new edition, 1822, P- S3I- 3 "History of the Stuarts," vol. i. p. 108. * Dixon's " William Penn,'' ch. xvi. ' History, vol. i. p. 78. BACK AGAIN. wonderfully like a person named in the cash book preserved at Sonierton Erlegh House. " Bristol, Sept. 1685. Mr. John Pinney is debtor to money paid Penne, Esq., for the ransom of my brother Aza, August, 1685 . . . £6$." Pinney was involved in Monmouth's insurrection.^ The " Penne " in the letter agrees with the spelling of " Penne " in the cash book ; but Lord Macaulay meets the argument for identity, and its difference from William Penn's name, by alleging the fact — about which there can be no dis- pute — that a loose habit of spelling names was char- acteristic of the age.* I do not insist on the variation in spelling as any strong reason for rejecting the historian's theory, nor should I urge that Sunderland's letter is unlikely to have been sent to his old college friend, because " dry and distant," since official com- munications are always formal ; but I do think it in a high degree improbable that he would have written to a Court gentleman, as well as a friend, in such a lofty authoritative tone, a tone unaccountable — in spite of " Your humble servant " — except when a superior was giving directions to one far beneath him. It is couched in just such terms as might be expected in writing to a pardon-broker like the notorious " George." Lord Macaulay, in defending his statement, dwells upon the circumstance that " Penn's house, and the approaches to it, were every day blocked up by crowds of persons, who came to request his good offices." Now, though this would be good reasoning in a case where Penn had been described as an intercessor with the king, ' Dixon, ch. xix. 2 It will have been noted that Pepys spells Penn's name with only one n. LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. the queen, or the maids of honour, on behalf of people in trouble, it is a bad argument in the case supposed, where he is represented as making a money- bargain with those who were implicated in rebellion. Not influence at Court, but acquaintance with the Taunton people, together with a clever huckstering habit, was the requisite qualification — a qualification which Penn certainly did not possess. Macaulay adds, respecting the courtly maids, " that if their first appli- cation had been made to some obscure pettifogger, or needy gambler, he should be warranted in believing that the Penne to whom this second application was made was George. If, on the other hand, their first application was made to a gentleman of the highest consideration, we can hardly be wrong in saying that the Penn to whom their second application was made must have been William." An argument in the opposite direction seems much more feasible. It was not an honourable, but a dirty business. Sir Francis at first would appear to the proud Duke of Somerset a most desirable agent ; but the baronet declined the office. Others, low and mean, were ready enough to engage in the undertaking — Bird, Brent, Crane ; why not George Penne .' In want of more respectable instruments, such a willing tool would be very accept- able. The lofty demand for ;£'7,ooo crumbled down to the acceptance of ;£'i 50. Then the matter dropped.^ Two of the sufferers in consequence of Monmouth's rebellion were grandsons of the famous Baptist minister, William Kiffen. Their sister, Hannah Hew- ling, ventured to carry a petition on their behalf to Toulmin, p. 531. BACK AGAIN. 223 the royal presence; and whilst waiting in the ante- chamber for admittance to His Majesty, she entered into conversation with Lord Churchill, who was stand- ing near a chimney-piece. He expressed his hearty wishes for her success, but he added : " Madam, I dare not flatter you with any such hopes, for that marble is as capable of feeling compassion as the king's heart." The words were too true. James could be faithful to Penn for his father's sake, for the sake of a promise he had made him, for the sake of a liking he felt for the Quaker ; but as to what is meant by tender-hearted- ness, nobody who knows his character can conceive of its being in any degree attributable to him. James sought to administer " a balsam," as he called it, " for the sore " poor William Kiffen felt after the execution of his grandsons, and therefore had his name set down as an alderman in the new charter for the City of London. For six weeks Kiffen endeavoured to get rid of this office, and only accepted it at last in order to free himself from a heavy fine in case of refusal. " I used," he says, " all the diligence I could to be excused, both by some lords near the king, and also by Sir Nicholas Butler and Mr. Penn. But it was all in vain." It seems incredible, but it is a fact, that the same historian who gratuitously accuses the Quaker of bribing the maids of honour, says, " The heartless and venal sycophants of Whitehall, judging by them- selves, thought that the old man would be easily propitiated by an alderman's gown, and by some compensation in money for the property which his grandsons had forfeited. Penn was employed in the work of seducing, but to no purpose'.' It is enough here to say, the fact is that Penn, on Kiffen' s behalf. 224 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. sought in vain to persuade the king to relieve him of the municipal office ; not that Penn, on the kin^s behalf, sought to persuade Kiffen to accept it.^ Penn was a great letter-writer, and frequently wrote to Friends on the other side the Atlantic, and it has been my good fortune to be supplied with copies ^ of letters which he despatched from England during a residence at Kensington, in Holland House. The first of them touches upon passing events, especially in reference to Quakerism and the persecution which followed the Monmouth rebellion, as the following extracts will show : — " Holland House. "2«^ %th month, 1685. "Dear Thomas Lloyd, " This, with my dear love in the truth to thee and thine, is to recommend the bearer, Charles Delane, a French minister of good name for his sincere and zealous life in his own country, and is well recom- mended out of his own country, and by men of his nation here. As he is used, more will follow. The man is humble, and intends to work for his bread ; has two able servants, and has a genius {or a liking) for a vineyard or a garden. I desire thy regard to him, and if he should want forty shillings' worth of corn at any time, he may be accommodated. It will be of good favour, for a letter is come over from a great professor there, to some well inclined here, telling them there is no room for any but Quakers, etc. . . . ' See " Kiffen's Memoirs,'' edited by Oniie. ''■ For these copies I am indebted to my friend, Mr. J. Bevan Braithwaite, of Lincoln's Inn. BACK AGAIN. 225 Give my love to all the friends and people. I long and hope to see them next season ; about 300 hanged in divers towns in the West, about 1000 to be transported. I begged twenty of the King. Colonel Holmes, young Hayes, the two Hewlings, .' . . and Hicks. Ministers are executed ; preparations in Westminster Hall for trial of some Lords, Gray, Delamore, Gerard, etc. Sir G. Gerard and Sir R. Cotton committed. The Keeper dead ; and Lord Jeffries, Chief Justice and Baron of Wem, made Lord Chancellor, and is (as said) to be Earl of Flint. Baltimore and I have had one hearing, and next week expect another. In that which we had, all went well on our side. He had time to examine our Holland proofs. But persecution grows, and the bearer will tell thee how it is in France." The atrocious cruelties which followed the rising in the West are cautiously referred to ; at which no one can be surprised, when it is recollected how in those days the most abominable use was made of letters for the punishment of people disliked by those in power. Another letter follows, of later date : — " London', " 2i)th Wi month, 1685. " Things are generally well with Friends, only some quarters visited with great suffering. . . . We are trying to do what we can to relieve them. There is daily inquisition for those concerned in the late plots ; some die denying, as Alderman Cornish ; others con- fessing but justifying ; some repenting. Cornish died last 8th day in Cheapside, for being at the meeting Q 226 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. the Lord Russell died for ; but denied it most vehe- mently to the last. A woman, one Gaunt, of Wapping, of Dr. More's acquaintance, was burned the same day at Tyburn, for the high treason of hiding one of Mon- mouth's army, and the man saved came against her. She died composedly, and fearless, interpreting the cause of her death to be God's cause. Many more are to be tried, great and small. It is a day to be wise. I long to be with you, but the Eternal God does as He pleases. O be you watchful, fear and sanctify the Lord in your hearts. In France not a meeting of Protestants is left. They force all, by not suffering them to sleep, to conform. They use drums, or fling water on the drowsy, till they submit, or run mad, and they pray to be killed ; but the King (Louis XIV.), has ordered his dragoons, that are his inquisitors and converters, to do anything but kill and ravish. Such as fly and are caught, are executed, or sent to the galleys to row. Thus they use all qualities, from dukes and duchesses to the meanest of that way. Many and much wealth will visit your parts. Be wise, weighty, kind, and strict against looseness. Believe me, it is an extraordinary day, such as has not been since generations ago. Read this to weighty Friends, and magistrates, in private ; and gird up your loins and serve the Lord in this juncture. No matter in what part they settle in our country ; let not temporal interest sway, in my land, or theirs that have bought of me. No matter, the public will get, in awhile, by their establishment." In another letter, dated London, 24th 2nd month, 1686, and addressed to a person named Harrison, Penn expresses a wish to return to Pennsylvania, saying BACK AGAIN. 227 there were hindrances in the way ; but he bids the friend to whom he wrote " cheer up the people " ; adding, " my heart is with you, and my soul is after you ; the Lord keep us here in this dark day. Be wise, close, respectful to superiors." He then pro- ceeds : — " The King has discharged all Friends by a general pardon, and is courteous to us ; though, as to the Church "of England, things seem pinching. Several Roman Catholics get much into places in army, navy, and the Court. My Persuasive [" Persuasion ' to Moderation "] works much among all sorts, and is diversely spoken of I have been thrice taken at meetings, but got off. I bless the Lord, my dear wife and children are well. Friends in general well, and things quiet. An open mass of a German prince [was] held in London. A rout about it. 'Tis feared the King's regiments will be quartered there, and so become a garrison. This may be communicated, but discreetly. The King of France is like to die. Again great cruelty there to the Protestants. Many coming to you. "London, 24;?^ 2nd month, 1686. To J. Harrison." There is another letter to the same person, dated 1686, between 2nd and 7th month : — "My ancient and dear love in the unchanging truth salutes thee, and thy honest faithful wife, and your children, whom I love, and the faithful of God in those parts. I beseech the God of all our blessings and mercies to replenish you with the goodness of 228 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. his house, and make you a renown to his name, and the mutual joy of one another in that land. Things in the nation look towards ease, great liberty is enjoyed. God has wrought wonderfully. The pro- fessors come in apace, and are loving to Friends. The King shows himself merciful to all. Meetings very full and living. A blessed general meeting we had : the Lord is good among us. A great appearance, many of the old Friends at it. Friends generally well ; public Friends are spreading abroad much ; and the trumpet is sounding apace ; blessed be the Lord, abundance of the gentry of the land come now to our meetings. There is also a people called 'the silent,' or, 'people of rest,' in Italy, at Naples, and at Rome itself, that come near Friends ; an inward people from all ceremonies and self-worship, seekers, the Pope and two of the cardinals favour them. A poor Spanish Friar, called Molino, is the first of them. A thousand in Naples it is thought. . . . " I am engaged in the public business of the nation and Friends, and those in authority would have me see the establishment of the liberty that I was a small instrument to begin in this land. The Lord has given me a great entrance, and interest with the King, though not so much as is said ; and I confess I should rejoice to see poor England fixed ; the penal laws repealed, that are now suspended ; and if it goes well with England, it cannot go ill with Pennsylvania. Perhaps thou wilt hear more of some passengers. But this I will say, no temporal honour or profit can tempt me to decline poor Pennsylvania, as unkindly used as I am ; and no poor slave in Turkey desires more earnestly, I believe, for deliverance, than I do BACK AGAIN. 229 to be with you. Wherefore be contented awhile ; and God in his time will bring us together." ' If we read these letters carefully, we must be struck with the indications they supplied of the writer's sanguine temperament. He was sanguine as to "Cos. success of his great American enterprise ; sanguine about the number of foreigners who would go over to the new province ; sanguine with regard to the king's beneficent intentions, notwithstanding the atrocities committed in his name ; sanguine relative to the spread of Quakerism at home and abroad ; and san- guine as to the results of his own efforts for the promotion of religious liberty. Time has more than fulfilled his hopes of America, and had he not in some other things hoped against hope, he could not have accomplished what he did. But a sanguine temper has its perils, and has often led men to act in a way anything but wise. It was so in Penn's case, as we shall see further on. In 1686, a year after the rebellion, Penn passed over to the Continent on religious service ; and James, hear- ing of his intention to visit Holland, asked him to see the Prince of Orange at the Hague, and endeavour to get his consent to a general religious toleration in England, together with the removal of all tests. Here we come face to face with the difference be- tween the policy pursued by Penn, and in a certain way by James, on the one hand ; and on the other hand the policy pursued by the Prince of Orange and ' I have followed the copies of the letters as closely as pos- sible, except in the orthography. The spelling is very strange, and sentences are not properly divided. As William Penn was a bad writer, I suspect the copies are not perfectly accurate. 230 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. the general Protestant party in England. Penn was for extending full toleration to Roman Catholics, as well as to all Protestant denominations. William of Orange and the English Whigs wished to secure toleration to Protestants only ; and as one means of such security, to impose a test on Roman Catholics, who had shown themselves foes to religious freedom. To urge the toleration of papists was, in the esteem of all Whigs and most Protestants in James's reign, to betray the cause of the Reformation, and to favour the designs of Rome. Hence the persistent charge brought against Penn, " He is a Jesuit in disguise." As I have intimated, we in the nineteenth century detect the absurdity of such talk ; perhaps if we had lived two hundred years ago we might have joined in it. At any rate, Penn saw the Dutch prince, and plied him with arguments in favour of universal toleration. " No tests whatever," he said. " Toleration, but with tests to secure it against Rome,'' said William of Orange.1 Penn met Burnet at the Hague. They did not like each other, and their opinions on the matter discussed were quite different. Burnet went with the English Whig Protestants, which Penn did not. They talked together without effect, except to ^ "Nov. idth, 1685. With regard to the point of toleration, it is reported here (Westminster) that both His Highness and my Lady the Princess have declared in favour of it, and that this will be reported in the next Parliament, and that they have dis- coursed at length thereon with the well known Pen, the Arch- Ouaker, who is Governor of Pennsylvania, and have declared themselves to this extent on the subject." — Letter from Van. Getters, the Dutch Ambassador to the English Court. It is printed both in Dutch and English in Mr. Forster's pamphlet, "William Penn and T. B. M,acaulay," (1849.) p. 45. BACK AGAIN. 231 confirm one another's previous views. Burnet, like Tillotson, had heard that Penn had dealings with Rome. But Burnet, unlike Tillotson, was not satis- fied to the contrary by personal communication. How the historian felt towards the Quaker is plain from what is said of Quakers in his " History of his Own Time ; " and perhaps there might be something in Penn's conversation and manner which increased Burnet's prejudices. Penn met with Quakers, and with divers other people, whilst abroad. He met with Scotch fugitives. Sir Robert Stuart, of Coltness, and his brother James. What ensued may as well be related here, though it belongs to a rather later date. The traveller on his return advised the king to give indemnity to such exiled Presbyterians as were not guilty of treason, and recall them home. Sir Robert accordingly left Holland, to find his estates in the hands of James Earl of Arran, afterwards Duke of Hamilton. He was a friend of Penn, and on his coming to London, the latter met and congratulated him. "Ah! Mr. Penn, Arran has got my estate, and I fear my situation is about to be now worse than ever." " What dost thou say .' " asked his friend ; " thou sur- prisest and grievest me exceedingly. Come to my house to-morrow, and I will set matters right." Penn went off to the Earl of Arran immediately. " What is this, friend James," he asked, " that I hear of thee ? Thou hast taken possession of Coltness' estate. Thou knowest thai it is not thine." " That estate," replied Arran, " I paid a great price for. I received no other reward for my expensive and troublesome embassy to France except this estate, and I am certainly much 232 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. Out of pocket by the bargain." " All very well, friend James," urged the Quaker, "but of this assure thyself, that if thou dost not give this moment an order on thy chamberlain for ;£'200 to Coltness, to carry him down to his native country, and ;^iOO to subsist on till matters are adjusted, I will make it as many thousands out of thy way with the king." Arran complied, and after the Revolution Coltness recovered his estate. After his visit to the Prince and Princess of Orange in their grand old palace at the Hague, Penn travelled along that land of tree-bordered canals to Amsterdam, — richer then than even now in pictur- esque street scenery and in harbours full of well- freighted ships. He also went to Utrecht at the period of its highest glory, the university numbering many English Nonconformists, who had been driven away by intolerant laws. The celebrated John Howe was there then, an exile from England, keeping a lodging- house, and occasionally preaching at the English Church.^ Penn, when at Amsterdam, stayed at the house of William Sewell, author of a valuable Quaker history, who at the time he entertained his English guest was busy with a Dutch translation of " No Cross, No Crown." Upon leaving Holland, the traveller passed into Germany, re- visiting, no doubt, his old haunts, and refreshing the spirits of Friends ; but there is no record of his journey known to be in • Amongst expatriated Englishmen at that time in Holland were Sir John Thompson, Sir John Guise, Sir Patience Ward, and Thomas Papillon. In Howe's house, amongst other in- mates, were the Earl and Countess of Sutherland, several Eng- lish gentlemen, and his nephews, George and John Hughes. BACK AGAIN. 233 existence. He wrote to an American, that in these travels he " had had a blessed service for the Lord." After reaching his home at Worminghurst — where he enjoyed a short rest with his family — he went on a preaching mission through some of the Midland and Northern counties, rejoicing in the spiritual acceptance he met with, and writing in his accustomed phrase- ology on such occasions, " The Lord hath been with me at this season, in a sweet and melting life, to the great joy of myself and refreshment of my friends." The spring and summer of 1687 form a momentous era in English annals. In February and April James published his Declarations for liberty of conscience in Scotland and England ; and, in the last of these months, the grand quarrel began between the king and the Fellows of Magdalen College. With these events the name of Penn has become associated. The Declaration created a tremendous disturbance, because it was regarded as a breach of constitutional principles, and as a door opened for the restoration of popery. Many Nonconformists declined to avail themselves of it, — yet many also took advantage to re-open their places of worship, the doors of which had been " nailed up." Those who improved the season of liberty presented addresses to His Majesty ; and amongst the rest the Quakers, headed by the royal favourite, approached the royal presence. It is said they left their hats behind them in Sunderland's apartment, where probably they had been taken off by servants ; and so they came before the king bare- headed. The address, I apprehend, was composed by Penn, and as it has been misrepresented, I introduce it here, 234 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. directing attention to the notice of liberated Quakers, who, it is certain, owed their freedom to his interces- sion. " We cannot but bless and praise the name of Almighty God, who hath the hearts of princes in his hand, that he hath inclined the king to hear the cries of his suffering subjects for conscience' sake : and we rejoice that instead of troubling him with complaints of our sufferings, he hath given us so eminent an occasion to present him with our thanks. And since it hath pleased the king, out of his great compassion thus to commiserate our afflicted condition, which hath so particularly appeared by his gracious pro- clamation and warrants last year, whereby twelve hundred prisoners were released from their severe imprisonments, and many others from spoil and ruin in their estates and properties ; and his princely speech in council, and Christian declaration for liberty of conscience, in which he doth not only express his aversion to all force upon conscience, and grant all his dissenting subjects an ample liberty to worship God in the way they are persuaded is most agreeable to his will, but gives them his kingly word the same shall continue during his reign ; we do (as our friends of this city have already done) render the king our humble, Christian, and thankful acknowledg- ments, not only in behalf of ourselves, but with respect to our friends throughout England and Wales. And pray God with all our hearts to bless and preserve thee, O king, and those under thee, in so good a work. And as we can assure the king it is well accepted in the several counties from whence we came, so we hope the good effects thereof for the BACK AGAIN. 235 peace, trade, and prosperity of the kingdom, will produce such a concurrence from the Parliament as may secure it to our posterity in after times. And while we live it shall be our endeavour (through God's grace) to demean ourselves, as in conscience to God and duty to the king, we are obliged. " His peaceable, loving, and faithful subjects." ^ Penn's connection with the Magdalen College busi- ness requires fuller notice. James wished to impose as president an unqualified person, Anthony Farmer ; and failing in that design, he nominated Parker, Bishop of Oxford. Dr. Hough stood forward as a champion of invaded collegiate rights, and his appear- ance before the Royal Commissioners is a stirring scene in English history. In Wilmot's " Life of Hough " it is related, on the authority of letters dated the 6th, 7th, and 9th of September,' 1687, that Penn, who attended the king in his visit to Oxford, had an interview with the Fellows at Magdalen, and then wrote a letter to James on their behalf, saying "that their case was hard, that in their circumstances they could not yield without a breach of these oaths, and that such man- dates were a force upon conscience, and not agreeable to the king's other gracious indulgences." Soon after this interview, an anonymous letter was received by one of the Fellows, reminding him of the danger of incensing His Majesty ; that the king would not be baffled in the pursuit of an object, and suggesting ''a speedy endeavour of putting an end to their troubles." ' I copy this from Mr. Forster's admirable pamphlet already noticed, p. 44. 236 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. This letter was supposed to be written by Penn, but on the margin of it, as preserved in the Magdalen archives, is a memorandum — " Mr. Penn disowned this." On the 9th of October, Dr. Hough and other Fellows had an interview with Penn at Wind- sor Castle, whither he had accompanied the Court. Hough describes what took place : " He was in all about three hours in our company, and at his first coming in he began with the great concern he had for the welfare of our college, the many efforts he had made to reconcile us to the king, and the great sincerity of his intentions and actions ; that he thought nothing in this world was worth a trick, or anything sufficient to justify collusion or deceitful artifice, and this he insisted so long upon, that I early perceived he expected something of a compliment, by way of assent, should be returned." Hough replied that they depended on his sincerity, or they would not have troubled themselves to meet him. Penn told them it was not popery, but property, that began his acquaint- ance with the king ; that he himself was no Papist, but a dissenting Protestant, and that he was anxious to do what he could for the college. Hough put some papers in his hand stating their case, and when Penn had read them, and made some objections, he ex- pressed himself satisfied with explanations in reply, and promised to read to the king, if permitted, every word in the documents. He said he knew nothing in particular of the royal measures to be taken, and did not so much as hint at the letter which was sent to him. He offered no proposal by way of accom- modation ; only when reference was made to the Bishop of Oxford's indisposition, he said, " If the BACK AGAIN. 237 Bishop of Oxford die, Dr. Hough may be made Bishop, and what think you of that, gentlemen ? " They said they should be glad ; but Hough dis- claimed any wish of that kind. Penn went on to remark that the king did not like to be thwarted, and some concessions must be made to him. Hough replied that they had statutes to justify them in what they were doing, and that they had to defend the Protestant religion The Papists had got Christ Church and University, and now the struggle was for Magdalen ; they threatened soon they would have the rest. " That they shall never have, assure yourselves. I suppose two or three colleges will content the Papists." " When they have ours," persisted Hough, " they will take the rest." It is pretty clear from this narrative, of which I have given the salient points, that Hough was no admirer of Penn. It can be easily accounted for. Quakers were generally disliked — by Episcopalians, perhaps, more than others — and Penn had the mis- fortune to be a royal favourite, always perilous to a person's reputation in certain quarters at certain times. Moreover, our friend was considered mad on the subject of religious liberty ; and, at the very least, to be unmindful of necessary safeguards against popish intrusions. We may therefore suspect that with all Hough's honesty, he might give a little pre- judiced colouring to this explicit narrative. He would make the most of Penn's imprudent utterances. Sewell's account should be compared with the state- ments of Hough. He says that Penn did " not omit to blame this usurpation at Oxford, and to tell the king that it was an act which could not in justice be 238 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. defended, since the general liberty of conscience did not allow of depriving any of their property who did what they ought to do, as the Fellows of the said college appear to have done." ^ Nothing more is necessary to show the unfairness of Lord Macaulay in his account of these circum- stances, as well as those before noticed, than to com- pare the authorities I have cited with the narrative given by his lordship. It manifests a strong dislike to Penn, a disposition to make the worst he could of what was unfavourable to his reputation. At the same time, I must say that Penn's behaviour on this occasion, as represented by Hough, was not straight- forward ; that he acted imprudently, and that the suggestion as to the Oxford bishopric is indefensible. It must indeed be recollected that we have only Hough's report, checked by Sewell, to guide our judgment ; but this is clear, that Penn acted as a mediator authorized by the monarch, and in queries sent to Magdalen College from Windsor, September iSth, 1687, there is a distinct reference to this fact.^ In the autumn of 1687 James made a grand pro- gress. At the same time Penn made another progress of a different kind. He visited Bristol, where John Whiting met him. " I and my wife," he says, " went to Bristol fair as usual, our friend William Penn being there, where were mighty meetings, notwithstanding the late persecution in that city. I never knew greater, though I had been acquainted with them and frequented them at times when at liberty for sixteen • Sewell's Hist., p. 609. ' " Proceedings against Magdalen College.'' Howell's edit, of " State Trials," vol. ii. p. 298. BACK AGAIN. 239 years, even from the time of building the great meet- ing-house there. People flocked to them like doves to their windows, which I note to show the ineffectual- ness of persecution." 1 At Chew, in Somersetshire, Penn preached under the boughs of an old oak. He also travelled into Cheshire, and there crossed — I should say, unfortunately crossed — the royal path. James actually went to hear the Quaker preach, a circumstance which, in the heated state of public opinion, could not but prove disadvantageous to both parties. Public opinion had risen to white heat in the early part of 1687, and it grew more and more in its burn- ing intensity as months rolled on, till it glowed like fire in a glass furnace during the late spring of 1688. Then it scorched and burnt up the whole system of government which James II. obstinately maintained. I allude to the effect produced by his Declaration of Indulgence. The king aimed at relieving the con- sciences of his subjects from the pressure of persecu- ting laws ; but he sought to accomplish it simply by the exercise of his prerogative. The opposition made to this measure took very different forms, and those who did not oppose the measure, voted their consent to it on various grounds, which must be glanced at before any one can fully understand the position occupied by William Penn at this particular crisis. The well-known resistance of the seven bishops, who were sent to the Tower and tried at Westminster, because they would not read the royal decree, pro- ceeded chiefly on religious grounds. They regarded 1 John Whiting's " Memoirs,'' quoted by Clarkson, vol. i. p. 496. 240 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. the decree as intended to promote popery — the king being a professed Papist — and they considered that to encourage it was first to undermine, and ultimately to overthrow, the existing Church of England, a Church which, in their estimation, stood as a bulwark of Protestantism in this country. It was the anti- papal spirit of this resistance which evoked the shouts of London citizens as the seven were conducted back- wards and forwards between their prison and the judgment hall. The resistance made to the Declaration by the Whigs of that day was chiefly of a political character. The exercise of a dispensing law — a claim to the right of setting aside Acts of Parliament, whatever those Acts might be, without consulting Parliament which had authorized them — that, in the eyes of Whig politicians, was a despotic proceeding destructive of the English Constitution — a going back to the habit of regal encroachment, the source of terrible civil wars, in which some old men then living had been forced to take a part. On the other hand, there were people prepared to vindicate, or excuse, or, at any rate, to avail them- selves of this interference with parliamentary law. The assertors of passive submission and non-resist- ance to the divine right of kings, might consistently vindicate what James had done ; and such persons there were, who maintained that a power of suspend- ing the statutes of the realm really pertained to the English Crown, and had been exercised without ofi'ence in earlier times. Others, who could not go so far, were ready to excuse what His Majesty had done, as proceeding from benevolence, and as the only BACK AGAIN. 241 practicable method of conferring a boon on Noncon- formists, who had, ever since the Restoration, been oppressed by both Lords and Commons. Another class, who greatly preferred that liberty should be granted by constitutional legislation, thought it would be unwise to reject what was welcome in itself because it was conveyed in another way than that which they would have preferred. This class consisted of certain Nonconformists who, whilst constitutionalists in prin- ciple, accepted the proffered boon, and even thanked the monarch for its bestowment. At the same time, be it remembered, there were other Nonconformists who disinterestedly and nobly declined to avail them- selves, to their own advantage, of an unconstitutional proceeding on the part of the monarch. When we inquire into Penn's position in 1688, we see at once it was not that of the seven prelates. Pie had no sympathy with them ; he looked on them as oppressors of his people and the enemies of his religion. Nor was he a constitutional Whig. What exactly his politics were, apart from religion, it is difficult to say. He looked at politics through the medium of his religion, and his first and last desire for England was that it should enjoy unshackled religious liberty. His ideal was the old Hebrew one, that every man should sit under his own vine and his own fig tree. For the party politics of the hour he had no taste whatever, and felt indifferent to the bearings of opinion on the interests of Whigs or the interests of Tories. Religious liberty was so precious to him, that he was glad to appropriate it to himself and others, in whatever way it could be had. He would have preferred it as a legal grant. There can be no R 242 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. fair doubt of this. " He desired a Parliament, as the only mode of establishing toleration without subvert- ing the laws." And in his " Good Advice " very little is said of the dispensing power.' At the same time he saw that a safeguard against the encroachments of the papacy was required, and he had a scheme for providing what was called an equivalent for existing tests. The equivalent was, that English subjects should be pledged to the continued maintenance of religious liberty, and that any attempt to repeal a law securing it should be treated as a capital crime. ^ Lord Halifax and others had no faith in anything of that sort, and he shrewdly said, " Look at my nose ; it is a very ugly one, but I would not take one five hundred times better as an equivalent, because my own is fast to my face."^ Penn's position was unfortunate. It was unfor- tunate that he should appear as the friend and supporter of James, when all Churchmen and most Dissenters regarded the king as bent on re-establish- ing popery.^ That this really was the king's aim history has made too plain for any impartial student to deny. And it was unfortunate also, to say the least, that Penn should favour a dispensing power to the extent he did. To avail himself of the dispensa- tion, like certain constitutional Nonconformists, would have freed him from blame ; but he went farther than that. He had a sincere conviction, felt by very few j Protestants, that James was a friend to religious I liberty, that he was an honest, trustworthy man, and ' " Good Advice to the Church of England." * Mackintosh's " History of the Revolution," p. 219. BACK AGAIN. 24.3 it was this sincere conviction which led the great advocate of Quakerism into a world of trouble.^ One of the last glimpses he had of regal splendour is thus described in a letter recovered from oblivion by the Historical MSS. Commission. It was written just after the birth of the child who was known after- wards as " the Pretender." " Oci. 2ird, 1688. — Yesterday was a great presence at Whitehall ; the King, the Queen Dowager, the Council, the Judges, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, the Bishops and Lords about the town — of which the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishops of London, Winchester, and Oxford, the Marquis of Halifax, and Lord Nottingham, were some — appeared in the Coun- cil Chamber, where the birth of the Prince was cleared by the ladies of the bed-chamber, the women, mid- wife, nurses, physicians, and Lords present at his birth, to the great content of the company. Last night an express from Rotterdam with some difficulty come from their army, and speaks of additional forces to the former. One Greenwood apprehended for dealing with the King's officers of his army, to revolt. Also Wicksteed for such practices and words against the Lord President, for having corresponded with the Prince of Orange ; he is fled with his messenger." ^ ' In a letter now before me, from one of the Friends in Holland to a member of the same communion in England, written at the Hague in 1849, after Macaulay's History of Eng- land had been published, the writer says : " It is, however, much to be lamented that W. Penn was ever so much connected with James II. He was persecuted for it during his lifetime, and even now we see what a danger there is in being connected with the princes of this world." ^ Hist. MSS. Com. Rep., vol. ii. p. 10. 244 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. I cannot but think that it was a good thing for William Penn when King James abdicated the throne and retired from England. Though in one respect the favour of the sovereign helped him to serve the Quakers, the influence of the sovereign could not be favourable either to his political or his religious char- acter. It tended to warp his judgment in some points, and to impair the beauty of his life in others. He must have been more than man if his exposure to the temptations of a Court like that of James II. left him perfectly unharmed and entirely untouched. It could hardly fail to rub off the fresh bloom of his early piety. It certainly has had a detrimental effect on his historical fame. All the most serious charges against him spring from this one source. Those charges are, when fully examined, found to be unsus- tained ; yet occasion and colour were given to them by the unfortunate circumstances in which patronage such as that of the popish prince placed this excel- lent person over and over again. Some of the reports circulated respecting him might have been silenced at once but for his uncommon intimacy with the monarch, and the means he adopted to maintain and increase it. CHAPTER XIII. FRESH TROUBLES. PENN, just before the Revolution, became more unpopular than ever. He was regarded as James's adviser in publishing the Declaration ; and, therefore, during the trial of the seven bishops, who were regarded as martyrs for their resistance to despotism, furious indignation was poured on the head of the " Arch-Quaker," although he utterly dis- approved of the imprisonment of the prelates, and sought their discharge at the hands of the monarch. William Popple, Secretary to the Lords Commis- sioners for the Affairs of Trade and the Plantation — a friend of Locke and a friend of Penn, — wrote to the latter, whom he highly esteemed, repeating the rep.ort circulated against his character, and begging him to publish something which would clear him from popular imputations. The monstrous report he mentions is really amusing : — " Your post is too considerable for a Papist of an ordinary form, and therefore you must be a Jesuit ; nay, to confirm that suggestion, it must be accom- panied with all the circumstances that may best give it an air of probability : as that you have been bred at St. Omer's in the Jesuits' College ; that you have taken orders at Rome, and there obtained a dis- 246 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. pensation to marry; and that you have since then frequently officiated as a priest in the celebration ot the mass at Whitehall, St. James's, and other places. And this being admitted, nothing can be too black to be cast upon you. Whatsoever is thought amiss in Church or State, though never so contrary to your advice, is boldly attributed to it ; and if other proofs fail, the Scripture itself must be brought in to con- firm, that whosoever offends in one point (in a point especially so essential as that of our too much affected uniformity), is guilty of the breach of all our laws. Thus the charge of Popery draws after it a tail like the et cetera oath, and by endless innuendoes pre- judicates you as guilty of whatsoever malice can invent or folly believe." ^ But enough of this ! Penn, in answer, solemnly denied, as he had done before, that he was a Papist, and goes on to say : — " The only reason that I can apprehend they have to repute me a Roman Catholic, is my frequent going to Whitehall — a place no more forbid to me than to the rest of the world, who yet, it seems, find much fairer quarter. I have almost continually had one business or other there for our Friends, whom I ever served with a steady solicitation through all times since I was of their communion. I had also a great many personal good offices to do upon a principle of charity for people of all persuasions, thinking it a duty to improve the little interest I had for the good of those that needed it, especially the poor. I might add something of my own affairs, too, though I must ' Clarkson, vol. ii. p. i r. FRESH TROUBLES. 247 own (if I may without vanity) that they have ever had the least share of my thoughts, or else they would not have still depended as they yet do." This was his usual style of self-defence, and probably the reader will not, any more than myself, suspect him of misrepresenting his own motives ; but it is to be lamented that frequent visits to the Roman Catholic Court laid him open to unpleasant charges, and left his friends in difficulty when they attempted to ex- cuse him. Called a Roman Catholic and a Jesuit, as he had been for years, he ought therefore to have been more careful He was not wise as a serpent, if he was harmless as a dove. It is unjust to his memory not to allow his infirmities ; for special pleading in his vindication countenances special pleading on the part of his calumniators. It is no great discredit to say respecting any one, " the best of men are men at the best." The condition in which Penn found himself after the landing of the Prince of Orange at Torbay, the rapturous welcome given to His Royal Highness by Conformists and Nonconformists as a heaven-sent deliverer, the disgraceful flight of James, and the loyal recognition of the new ruler as lord of a national revolution, may be better imagined than described. In proportion as plaudits were lavished on William the Protestant, imprecations were poured on the head of " William the Jesuit." Popular clamour was accompanied by Government proceedings. As he was walking down Whitehall one day, with feelings differ- ent from what had been often awakened as he crossed the royal threshold and ascended the royal stair- case, he was met by officers who delivered a summons, 248 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. calling him to appear before the Lords of the Council. In reply to their interrogations, he protested that "he had done nothing but what he could answer before God and all the princes of the world ; that he loved his country and the Protestant religion above his life, and had never acted against either; that all he had ever aimed at in his public endeavours was no other than what the prince himself had de- clared for ; that King James had ever been his friend, and his father's friend ; and that in gratitude, he him- self was the king's, and did ever, as much as in him lay, influence him to his true interest." He was im- mediately discharged upon his giving security to appear the first day of the following term. It was the fashion at Whitehall then, as it had been thirty years before, to abuse the setting and to worship the rising sun ; but Penn was above all that, and what- ever we may think of his conduct in some respects, when James was in all his glory, we must honour the man who, instead of flattering the royal person now in the ascendant, had a good word for him who had fallen into disgrace. The gratitude he felt to James for his kindness was very beautiful, and his courage in making this unpopular acknowledgment was worthy of his character ; and it stands out in noble contrast to the unfaithfulness of many who, paying their adulation at the footstool of his throne, reviled when he fled an exile from his country. When the day came for Penn's appearance in Court, no witness came forward against him, conse- quently he recovered entire liberty. And when the Toleration Act, so-called, passed the legislature and received the royal assent, Penn was only too pleased FRESH TROUBLES. 249 that a decided constitutional step was taken towards freedom of conscience, though fettered by Roman Catholic and other disabilities. In the case of William Penn, " the clouds returned after the rain." He had been on friendly terms with the Duke of Buckingham, who was now dead ; and there might be passages in the letters he had ad- dressed to him, which, though perfectly harmless, could at that period of ingenious and malicious mis- construction, be turned to mischievous purposes against the writer. A friend accordingly collected letters which were within reach, in order to preserve them from being misused ; and when Penn heard of it he wrote as follows : — "Though nothing of an interest of my own was the reason of the ancient esteem I have had for thee, yet that only is the motive at this time to this free- dom ; for being informed by J. Grimshaw that some of my letters to the late Duke of Buckingham are in thy hands, and that thy wonted kindness to all of our communion had shown itself in my regard by collecting them apart, to prevent their falling under any improper notice, I thought myself obliged both to return my acknowledgments for that friendly caution, and to desire thee to let them follow him they were written to, who can be no more known to the living- Poor gentleman ! I need not trust another hand than that which was unwilling any other should be trusted with them but my own. I know not what the cir- cumstances of that time might draw from me ; but my only business with him ever was to make his superior quality and sense useful to this kingdom, that he might not die under the guilt of mis-spending the 250 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. greatest talents that were among the nobility of any country. However, in the rubbish of those times and the late extraordinary Revolution let them lie, and let us all think of this only way to the peace and happiness we pretend to seek, namely^ to give God his due out of us, and then we shall have our dues out of one another ; and without it let us not wonder at the nimble turns of the world, nor reflect upon the mischiefs that attend them. They are the natural effects of our breach of duty to God, and will ever follow it. We, like the Jews, are full of jealousy, humour, and complaint, and seek for our deliverance in the wrong place. When we grow a better people we shall know better days ; and when we have cast off Satan's yoke, no other can hold longer upon us. Things do not change. Causes and effects are ever the same, and they that seek to overrule the eternal order, fight with the winds and overthrow themselves. But what is this to my subject } I close with a true sense of all thy tenderness to our poor folks and regards to myself, beseeching God that more than the reward of him that gives a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple may be thy portion when this very trifling world may be no more. " I am thy affectionate, true Friend, "William Penn.''^ Again he was summoned before the Lords of the Council, and now he appealed to William III. in person. Penn had conversed with His Majesty at the Hague, and he had no doubt of a gracious recep- tion by him in the presence of his Privy Councillors. ' Clarkson, vol. ii. p 56. FRESH TROUBLES. 251 A letter written by the exiled monarch to his Quaker friend had been intercepted. It desired him to go to the exile's assistance, "and to express to him the resentments for his royal favour and benevolence." " Why does James write to you ? " the Lords pro- ceeded to ask. " How is it possible to prevent the king from writing to me, if he choose to do it," was the reply. " What does he mean by ' resentments ' 'i " they further inquired. " I know not," returned Penn ; " but I suppose the king means that I should endeavour his restoration. I cannot remove the suspicion, but I deny the guilt. I loved King James, and he loved me in his pros- perity, though I could not join with him in what concerned the state of the kingdom. I would repay his kindness by private service, but I must observe inviolably and entirely that duty to the State which belong to all the subjects of it, and therefore I have never had the wickedness even to think of restoring him that crown which has fallen from his head." ^ William was satisfied, but some of the Council were not, and therefore Penn was ordered to appear again in Trinity term. News of an expected French invasion alarmed the country in the middle of 1690. Queen Mary, during her husband's absence, to terrify conspirators, issued a proclamation for apprehending a number of dis- tinguished persons, and William Penn's name is found last on the list. He was apprehended accord- ingly, and sent to prison, where he was confined until ' Clarkson, vol. ii. p. S9- 2S2 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. the last day of Michaelmas term, when he was brought into the Court df King's Bench. Trumped- up evidence was adduced against him, but it utterly- failed to support any indictment for treason. A worse trial than imprisonment befell him in the latter part of the year 1690, and this was succeeded by a trial of the same nature at the opening of 1691. He lost his two dearest friends, Robert Barclay and George Fox. Robert Barclay had been a companion to Penn when he visited Germany and Holland in 1677. In 1676, two years after Penn published his " Christian a Quaker," Barclay sent forth his famous apology. With nothing like the flowing style of his friend, he had perhaps a more robust understanding, and a clearer conception of what exactly he wished to say. Nor was he less learned, I conceive, though he made little show of it, — a weakness towards which Penn seems to have leaned. He certainly affords the student this advantage, that whilst his contemporary can be fully understood only by those who pore over two folio or five octavo volumes, in order to ascertain his scattered opinions, Barclay brings together in their proper relations the theological propositions which convey his beliefs. A remarkable coincidence appears between the two writers, though their intimacy did not commence until after Barclay had composed his " Apology." On turning to it, we find him insisting on the inward light as the true foundation of spiritual knowledge — there is universal redemption by Christ, and the saving light illuminateth every man coming into the world. Christ is a divine seed in the soul, above mere reason or conscience, Vekiciilum Dei, as FRESH TROUBLES. 253 he calls it ; there is however, he says, a great differ- ence between Christ in the ungodly and Christ in the saints. In the one He is quenched and crucified, in the other cherished and obeyed. He speaks of an outward and an inward redemption, — the first through His crucified body, the second through His spiritual presence. By the first, man is put into a capacity for salvation ; by the second we witness and know in ourselves the cleansing power of redemption. Adopt- ing scholastic phraseology, he says, " Wherefore as to us they are both causes of our justification, the first the procuring efficient, the other the formal cause." ^ He did not scruple to describe good works as " merit- orious in a qualified sense," yet he took care distinctly to ascribe salvation to our Lord Jesus Christ. He expressed faith in perfection, yet admitted a growth in goodness. He denied the Calvinistic doctrine of perseverance. Penn and Barclay were both scholars, and I infer that the conversations between them must have em- braced distinctions, and been couched in language, not familiar to George Fox, though both of them would look to him as a singularly gifted servant of God, full of the Holy Spirit. And the loss of Barclay must have been a sorrowful visitation, though brightened by the hopes of eternal reunion in the fields of celestial light. Position in society would draw Penn and Barclay together. Penn was the son of an English admiral who had made a mark in the annals of his country ; and Barclay was the son of a Scotch colonel, married ' " Apology," p. 204. 254 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. to a lady of the ducal house of Gordon. Both had high connections, and both had moved in the best society. In this respect they would stand apart from a great number in that fellowship which neither of them felt ashamed to call his own. We cannot con- ceive of them as being proud in any common signifi- cation of the term ; yet looking at their rank, at their style of living, and at the aristocratic society in which they still frequently moved, we can easily imagine, knowing what human nature is, that there might be attributed to them sometimes a lofty demeanour, of which they were entirely unconscious themselves. We all know how open to suspicion of this kind are persons of the upper ranks when they join a society composed largely of the humbler classes. And here, perhaps, we touch the secret of those painful imputa- tions which have been cast upon William Penn, and shall have further to notice them before we reach the end of this story. Penn was summoned to Fox's death-bed in London, January, 1691, when his wife Margaret was absent in Lancashire. The illness must have been brief, not admitting of her return to close the eyes of her be- loved husband. The task of communicating the sad tidings devolved on Penn. " I am to be," he wrote, " the teller to thee of sorrowful tidings in some respects, which is this, that thy dear husband, and my beloved and dear friend, finished his glorious testimony this night about half an hour after nine, being sensible to the last breath. Oh, he is gone, and has left us in the storm that is over our heads, surely in great mercy to him, but as an evidence to us of sorrows to come." ^ Clarkson, vol. ii. p. 64. FRESH TROUBLES. 253 Penn attended Fox's funeral, where he addressed a crowd of two thousand people ; and when they had dispersed, and the preacher was gone, officers, with a warrant for his apprehension, reached the ground where the service had taken place. A few days before, a man named Fuller had lodged some political in- formation against him. This Fuller was one of the villains, numerous in those days, who committed per- jury without compunction, to gratify their malicious employers and to feed their own greedy love of gain. At that moment there was no security for innocence. A false oath could deprive an honest man of liberty and even life, and therefore Penn thought it most prudent to hide himself in obscurity. The accuser soon afterwards was prosecuted, and being found guilty of imposture and falsehood, was sentenced to stand in the pillory. On the back of other troubles came some very heavy ones from the other side of the Atlantic. Since Penn left. Government had not gone on well in America. The Assembly had been rash ; the Free Society of Traders had quarrelled ; there had been amongst the rulers in the place of Governor Penn plenty of selfishness and pride ; the Council slighted his letters ; they had forfeited their charter by mis- conduct over and over again ; of quit-rents due, to the amount of more than £$00 a year, he had not received a penny, and he was £6,000 out of pocket. He consequently reduced the executive to five persons, and made out a fresh commission. This change he made at the commencement of 1687, long before the troubles last described, which had been gradually growing. Billows kept breaking one after 2S6 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. another ; and, as the last dashed at his feet, others were surging up in the distance, steadily in the wake of their formidable predecessors. At the end of that year he complained of the silence of his representa- tives. "I am heartily sorry," he says, "that I had no letter from the Government. Indeed, I have hardly had one at all ; and for private letters, though from public persons, I regard them but little, — I mean, as to taking my public measures by ; for I find such contradictions, as well as diversity, that I believe I may say I am one of the unhappiest proprietors with one of the best of people." " Had the Government signed, I mean those who are the most eminent in authority, by consent of the rest, it had given me some ease and satisfaction ; but as it is, 'tis con- troversy rather than government ; for government stands and lives and prospers in unity, at least of the governing part, whatever be their affections ; for men may agree in duty who dislike one another's natural tempers. I shall henceforth, therefore, expect letters from the Government, recounting the affairs of it, that they may be authoritative to me, and as many private ones as you please besides." ^ Affairs did not mend in America. He therefore niade another alteration. He determined upon a deputy-governor, and two assistants, instead of five commissioners, the Council still existing separately. The government reverted in 1689 to its original form, connected with a council. After a restoration to Council of the power it had at the beginning, he sent the members the following advice : — ' Clarkson, vol. i. p. 518. FRESH TROUBLES. 257 " I heartily wish you all well, and do beseech God to guide you in the ways of righteousness and peace. I have thought fit, upon my further stop in these parts, to throw all into your hands, that you may all see the confidence I have in you, and the desire I have to give you all possible contentment. I do earnestly press your constant attendance upon the Government, and the diligent pursuit of peace and virtue ; and God Almighty strengthen your hands in so good a work !" ^ For months and years he had been planning a return to his province, but his purposes were always defeated. "By this time," he wrote in 1690, "thou wilt have heard of my troubles, the only hindrance of my return, being in the midst of my preparations with a great company of adventurers when they came upon me. The jealousies of some, and unworthy dealings of others, have made way for them ; but under and over it all the ancient Rock has been my shelter and comfort ; and I hope yet to see your faces with our ancient satisfaction. The Lord grant it, if it be foi his glory, whose I desire to be in all conditions ; for this world passeth away, and the beauty of it fadeth ; but there are eternal habitations for the faithful, among whom I pray that my lot may be, rather than among the princes of the earth. " I desire that my afflictions may cease, if not cure, your animosities or discontents among yourselves, if yet they have continued, and that thou wilt, both in Government and to my Commissioners, yield thy ' Clarkson, vol. ii. p. 53. 258 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. assistance all thou canst. By all this God may pre- pare me to be better for future service, even to you there. I ask the people forgiveness for my long stay ; but when I consider how much it has been my own great loss, and for an ungrateful generation, it is punishment. It has been twenty thousand pounds damages in the country, and above ten thousand pounds here, and to the province five hundred families. But the wise God, who can do what He pleases, as well as see what is in man's heart, is able to requite all ; and I am persuaded all yet shall work together for good in this very thing, if we can overlook all that stands in the way of our views Godward in public matters. See that all be done prudently and humbly, and keep down irreverence and looseness, and cherish industry and sobriety. God Almighty be with you and amongst you, to His praise and to your peace !"i ' Clarkson, vol. ii. p. 66. CHAPTER XIV. IN RETIREMENT. IN the early part of 1691 we find Penn "in retire- ment," to use an expression employed to indicate how, for his own safety, he lived in concealment, occupying " private lodgings " in the city of London. London was a convenient place for concealment in those days. Narrow streets with lofty houses, story above story projecting into the highway, — where the great fire had not burnt down the ancient edifices ; alleys narrower still, with inner courts, approachable only through winding ways like paths to the cave of Daedalus ; — these pictureseque but dirty retreats were convenient for people proscribed by law; thither, therefore, Jacobites and many more were wont to repair. One can trace some really excellent, even saintly, men into such refuges, however disreputable they may now appear to us. Whereabouts, and in what sort of lodgings Penn resided, of course nobody knows. When he had been a little while in this retirement, a proclamation was published in the city, authorizing the apprehension of Dr. Turner, Bishop of Ely, a non-juror, justly suspected of being a decided Jaco- bite ; also of James Grahame, a Scotch Jacobite ; and, in addition to their names, that of Penn is 26o LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. introduced. Accusations had been got up against these parties by the wretched Fuller already men- tioned, who charged them with complicity in a plot with the Earl of Clarendon and Viscount Preston, to invite James to return to England and claim his crown. Viscount Preston was induced to make a confession to save his life ; and we find a document, dated February 3rd, 1691, from King William's Cabinet, bearing on his case in reference to others. " He {i.e. Preston) is the only witness," says the writer, " both against my Lord Clarendon, the Bishop of Ely, and Pen, whereas by his execution you disap- point all these ends ; and in my opinion it will not be to your Majesty's disadvantage if you should think fit to show your clemency, rather than draw any more blood on this occasion." So wrote the Earl of Caer- marthen to His Majesty. Preston's life was to be saved that he might be a witness against Clarendon, Turner, and Penn ! ^ In the same archives is a letter from Lord Sydney, dated the 27th of February, 1691, introducing to us Penn " in retirement." William, to whom this com- munication was sent, was at the time abroad : — " About ten days ago, Mr. Pen sent his brother- in-law, Mr. Lowther, to me, to let me know that he would be very glad to see me, if I would give him leave, and promise him to let him return without being molested ; I sent him word I would if the Queen would permit it. He then desired me not to mention it to anybody but the Queen ; I said I ' These documents in reference to Penn are printed in Dalrymple's " Memoirs," vol. ill., Second Appendix, pp. 183-185. IN RETIREMENT. 261 would not. Monday, he sent to me to "know what time I would appoint. I named Wednesday in the evening, and accordingly I went to the place at the time, when I found him just as he used to be, not at all disguised, but in the same clothes and the same humour I formerly have seen him in. It would be too long for your Majesty to read a full account of all our discourse ; but in short it was this, that he was a true and a faithful servant to King William and Queen Mary, and if he knew anything that was preju- dicial to them, or their Government, he would readily discover it ; he protested in the presence of God that he knew of no plot, nor did he believe there was any one in Europe, but what King Lewis hath laid ; and he was of opinion that King James knew the bottom of this plot as .little as other people." Lord Sidney goes on to say that Penn knew there were many more dangerous than the Jacobites to King William ; but he would give no answer as to certain letters found in the possession of Lord Preston, except that he was willing to meet His Majesty and tell him all he was acquainted with, and this would be to his Majesty's interest. He could easily have run away twenty times, he said, but he felt confident he could give satisfaction to the king, and awaited his return with perfect tranquility. Penn was a friend of the Sidney family, and his lordship knew him well ; the letter shows that though the accused thought it prudent to retire from public gaze, he was not skulking in disguise, he could escape if he pleased. And whatever we may think of the accuracy or otherwise of his statement respecting Jacobite plots, his sincerity is beyond a doubt. 262 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. According to his conviction, there were none con- cocted or carried out at that time. It was hardship enough to be maligned by enemies ; it was worse still to be suspected by Friends. This the good man felt most keenly, and in self-vindi- cation wrote to the yearly meeting. He entreated his brethren not to receive evil surmisings, nor suffer hard thoughts through false insinuations. His privacy was not because men had sworn truly ; they had laid in wait for him, and laid to his charge things he knew not. He entreated them to wrestle in prayer with Him who could prevail against cruel desires ; and he himself interceded on their behalf that these solemn assemblies might be blessed with " His tender, meek, lowly, and heavenly love and life." ^ A few personal friends retained full confidence in the sufferer. Amongst them was John Locke. He found out where Penn was living, threaded his way to the place, and tendered his assistance for procuring a pardon. Procuring a pardon ! This was the very favour offered by Penn to Locke at the time when the latter was in exile at the Hague. Locke said he would not accept a pardon for that of which he was personally innocent. Now this favour, offered by Locke to Penn in 1691, was declined by Penn on ex- actly the same ground. The innocent need no pardon. Between 1682, when he left England for America, and 1684, when he returned to his native country, there was a break in the continuity of his authorship, except in the instance of his description of Pennsyl- vania in 1683, which is in fact a report — and a very ' Clarkson, vol. ii. p. 75. IN RETIREMENT. 263 good one — intended for the use of the Free Society of Traders. In 1685 his pen was idle, so far as any publication was concerned, — correspondence with his representatives in America, and intercessions at Court for all sorts of people, being enough fully. to occupy his time. "A Further Account of Pennsylvania," "A Defence of the Duke of Buckingham," and " A Persuasive to Moderation," were productions of the year 1686; and " Good Advice to the Church of Eng- land, and Catholic and Protestant Dissenters," a pamphlet advocating the repeal of penal laws, and an answer to popular objections against it, issued just afterwards, — are all that went forth into the world in the following year, 1687. Then came the Revolu- tion, with its antecedents and consequences, which involved Penn in much unpleasant business, and in a great deal of trouble and sorrow, not favourable to the resumption of authorship. But in 1692, whilst continuing in retirement, he returned to his desk, and no less than three controversial works proceeded from his busy hand. A dispute arose amongst Friends on a question of ecclesiastical discipline ; and to put a stop to it, he wrote "Just Measures in an Epistle of Peace and Love," relative to the Quaker practice of what he calls " women's meetings about marriages, before they are admitted to be solemnized among us." Some thought no meetings of the kind were needed ; others thought that there was no necessity for distinct meetings ; but Penn vindicated the existing practice of separate female assemblies for this purpose. There was a periodical published at that time entitled " The Athenian Mercury." " Athenian " was 264 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. an appellation very popular. We notice in Dunton's " Athenianism " a scheme proposed under the names of " The Athenian Catalogue," " The Athenian So- ciety," and " The Athenian World." In accordance with this kind of pedantic taste, there appeared "The Athenian Mercury," a literary adventure for all sorts of criticism ; and in it attacks were made on Quaker- ism, which continued from number to number. Penn thought it worth while to answer them, so he pub- lished "The New Athenians, no Noble Bereans," meeting objections brought against Quaker discipline, Quaker doctrine, and Quaker habits. Another publication of the same year (1692) was more important. It is entitled, " A Key opening the way to every capacity how to distinguish the Religion professed by the people called Quakers from the perversions and misrepresentations of their adver- saries." All religious opinions, the author says, are liable to be misrepresented by those who oppose them. This is the greatest bane to theological con- troversy. Quakers, especially, have always suffered from such injustice. To follow the "Key" through all the intricacies of the lock is impossible, but the first example given may be cited. The Quakers held that natural light in the conscience of every man is sufficient to save all that follow it, so they overthrew salvation by Christ. So it was said. The Friends' principle, however, was that " Christ, who is the Word, that was with God, and was God (and is so for ever), hath lighted every man that cometh into the world with His own light," and that such as follow the reproofs, convictions, and leadings of that light shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of IN RETIREMENT. 26c life ; that is, be in a holy and living state or condition towards God. Friends assert the light of Christ to be sufficient to save ; that is, to convince of sin, lead out of it, and quicken the soul in the way of holiness, and not to be a natural light otherwise than as all men born into the world have a measure of Christ's light. Of course this applies to those who have no means of becoming acquainted with the Gospel ; but it is by no means a Quaker idea that the Gospel on this account is of little or no value. Far from it. They extol the Gospel as a glorious revelation from God to man. " A nameless author " replied to the " Key," and Penn replied to " A nameless author." Other matters pressed on his attention, even more unpleasant than criticisms on religious opinions. We have already seen that matters went on badly in Pennsylvania. Indeed they went on from bad to worse. There was no union amongst the authorities, and one formidable controversy overtopped the rest. It had relation to the " Province," and the " Terri- tories." The " Province " was the domain which had been granted to Penn by royal charter on the con- ditions enumerated in connection with that instrument. The "Territories " were tracts of land adjoining that domain, and granted to Penn by the Duke of York by deeds of feoffment. These tracts included Newcastle and twelve miles' circle around it, also another terri- tory twelve miles south of Newcastle. Penn and his heirs were to pay to the Duke and his heirs a yearly rent of five shillings for the first territory, and " one rose at the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel, yearly if demanded," for the other. Both districts were 266 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENIf. placed under the same government ; but the people of the province wanted one thing, the people of the territories another. After changes had been made for removing their complaints, the territorialists con- tinued to complain. They did not consider they had a due share of public appointments. They claimed that nine of their number, or any six of them, should appoint three judges, and all other officers ; and that no judges or officers should be imposed on them but by their choice. When this proposal was sent to England, it hurt Penn's mind exceedingly ; yet hoping to conciliate the territorialists, he suggested to the Council the choice of any one of the three sorts of government they had put upon trial, that the execu- tive should be vested in a council, or in five commis- sioners, or in a deputy-governor. The provincials were for a deputy-governor; against this the terri- torials protested. They wished to have five commis- sioners. The secret at the bottom was that the territorialists disliked the burden of supporting a governor. Throughout they had wished for govern- ment without pay, and Penn was always out of pocket on this score. The province had its way, and ap- pointed a deputy-governor. The territory would not accept him, and its refusal was supported by Colonel Markham, Penn's cousin. Penn felt displeased with both parties — first with the provincials, and next with the territorialists. He charged the latter with ingratitude. They had wished to be united to the province, and had been gratified so far ; now they wished to be independent, and to fling aside the obli- gations of the charter. " This striving," he said, " can arise from nothing else ; and what is that spirit. IN RETIREMENT. 267 which would sooner divide the child than let things run on in their own channel, but that which sacrifices all bowels to wilfulness ? Had they learnt what this meaneth, ' I will have mercy and not sacrifice,' there had been no breaches nor animosities between them — at least till I had come." Thus he wrote in 169 1. As a compromise he consented to a deputy-governorship to please the province, and also agreed that Colonel Markham, who had taken part with the territorialists, should be their deputy-governor. In 1692 things went on better. The storm subsided. The two deputies agreed to pursue a friendly policy, and wrote in cordial terms to the common proprietary. But at the same time religious discords arose. Quakerism in America was rent in pieces by the conduct of George Keith. We met with him some time ago as the companion of Fox and Penn in the German journey of 1677. Nothing then, apparently, could exceed their mutual affection. But Keith had crossed the Atlantic, and in 1687, we find him Surveyor- General of the province of New Jersey. Then he removed to Pennsylvania, and took charge of the first Friends' public school in Philadelphia. He was a changeful man. He had been a Presbyterian before he became a Quaker, and now he began to get tired of Quakerism. Gradually he formed opinions adverse to those of the people with whom he had been identified. He charged them with slackness of discipline, and with violation of principle. He condemned them for accepting political offices, and then he resisted the authority of their tribunals. For this he was brought to trial, yet tenderly dealt with ; for the slight fine of five pounds imposed on 268 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. him was afterwards remitted. Unsoftened by leni- ency, he proclaimed himself the only genuine Quaker in Philadelphia ; his former co-religionists he de- nounced as apostates. Expostulations were vain. He said "he trampled their judgment under his feet as dirt." He set up a separate meeting. It was necessary to disown such a troubler of the peace. Accordingly, " A Declaration or Testimony of Denial" was passed and published by the Philadelphian Friends on the 20th of April, 1692, and confirmed afterwards by a general meeting at Burlington. The terms of censure are characteristic. The pen which wrote the instrument of excision was dipped in love. " He had walked in the council of God, and was little in his own eyes, and so long his bow abode in strength, and his sword had not returned empty from the fat of the enemies of God. O how lovely went thou on that day when His beauty was upon thee, and when His comeliness covered thee. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember, therefore, from whence thou hast fallen, and repent and do thy first works ; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of its place except thou repent." These touching words prefaced the testimony against him, which was transmitted to London in 1694; there it was confirmed by the yearly meeting. That one who had been so intimate a friend — who had travelled with Penn on religious service up and down the Rhine, who ate of his bread and drank of his cup, — should how lift up his heel against the people of God, was more than Penn knew how to bear. He mourned over him as a lost brother. IN RETIREMENT. 269 There were breakers ahead more terrible still. What took place in America was known in England. Disturbances in the government, quarrels between the province and the territories, the question of a deputy- governor or a council, division amongst the Quakers ; all this and much more reached the ears of Penn's enemies, and they were determined, accordingly, to accomplish his ruin. This he foresaw. He knew at once that what had happened would entail further painful consequences. It did so. Contemporary with these events were others which affected the Quaker Proprietary. Europe was dis- turbed by French ambition. William III. resolved to resist it. A war between the two countries seemed approaching. How far it might spread nobody knew. It kindled flames which might blaze on the other side the globe. The mother country had to think of her colonies. Who could tell what would become of New York amidst the conflagration .? Pennsylvania was near. It might be wrested out of English hands. What security was there for that promising possession so long as it belonged to Qua- kers, who would- not fire a gun or draw a sword .' There were colonists, not Quakers, who were quite ready to urge this question. Such a posture of affairs boded nothing but evil to William Penn. He was not competent to rule. His delegates were rushing headlong to destruction. So said courtiers and others in and about the city of London. The issue speedily became too plain. • On the loth of March, 1693, an Order of Council was issued depriving the Proprietary of his govern- ment in Philadelphia, and lodging it in the hands of 270 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. Colonel Fletcher, the Governor of New York. How the announcement of this reversal of his cherished hopes reached the Proprietary in his retirement we do not know. But bad news travels fast, and when it came to the place of his retreat, it must have inflicted a stunning blow. The cup of his sorrow, however, was not drained to the bottom. His beloved wife was extremely ill. Poor Gulielma could not but be heart-broken by her husband's misfortunes ; and her sympathy, preying on a delicate constitution, impaired her health and threatened her life. Political disap- pointment and domestic trial were aggravated by suspicions awakened in the minds of his fellow Friends. We have seen that so early as 1683 a report was circulated in Devonshire that he had become a Jesuit, and subsequently it had spread far and wide. Quakers could never believe that this was true ; but some did think that " he meddled more with politics or with the concerns of the Government than became a member of their Christian body." A memorandum exists, in the handwriting of Thomas Lower, an emi- nent Friend, and dated at the end of 1693, after Penn was deprived of his government. It is as follows : — " Underwritten is what was upon my mind to offer, and which I have since offered, to William Penn as an expedient for a reconciliation betwixt him and Friends. First, for William Penn to write a tender, reconciling epistle to all Friends, as in the love and wisdom of God it shall be opened unto him, and in the closure thereof to insert as foUoweth, or to the following efifect : — And if in any things during these late revolutions I have concerned myself, either by words or writings (in love, pity, or goodwill to any in IN RETIREMENT. 271 distress) further than consisted with Truth's honour or the Church's peace, I am sorry for it ; and the Government having passed it by, I desire it may be by you also, that so we may be all kept and preserved in the holy tie and bond of love and peace to serve God and his Truth in our generation to the honour of his holy Name, which will render us acceptable to God, and more precious one to another ; and finally bring us, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to the parti- cipation of the immortal crown which is prepared for all that continue faithful in well doing unto the end." ^ Amongst documents printed by Macpherson, we find one bearing date December, 1693, which at the time his enemies hoped would inculpate Penn in treasonable designs for the restoration of the exiled prince. The paper referred to is a memorial laid before James, with a report of what was being done by the Jacobites on his behalf. " Mr. Penn says that your Majesty has had several occasions, but never any so favourable as the present ; and he hopes that your Majesty will be in earnest with the Most Chris- tian King not to neglect it ; that a descent with thirty thousand men will not only re-establish your Majesty, but, according to all appearance, break the league ; that your Majesty's kingdoms will be wretched while the confederates are united ; for while there is a fool in England, the Prince of Orange will have a pen- sioned Parliament who will give him money." ^ Years afterwards similar correspondence appears. Nobody familiar with the papers which passed between England and France at that period can • Clarkson, vol. ii. p. 97. ^ " Original Papers," vol. ii. p. 468. 272 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. have any idea of the monstrous falsehoods told by spies and intriguers, either deluded by fanatical Jacobinism, or inventing reports for the sake of hoped- for pay. This story about Penn resembles many more. " Thirty thousand men !" That was the num- ber coming, or to come, from nobody knew where. The report occurs over and over again in these pre- cious despatches. The schemes only existed in the brains of the writers, or of those who were hoodwinked by their inventions. That Penn, a Quaker, should have talked in the way described is simply incredible ; but to put an end to all doubt, we shall see that in the very month of December, when this paper was written, Penn had established his innocence of treasonable charges before the king and Council. These reports by unprincipled people about the Court of James II. show what perils encircled the good Quaker at the moment when he vainly thought he was promoting religious liberty. In 1693 he sat down again to write, and prepared for the press his " Fruits of Solitude." They show from beginning to end how sweet are the uses of adversity. Perhaps but for Penn " in retirement " we should never have had these beautiful aphorisms of Penn's wisdom. The preface is charming : " The Author blesses God for his retirement and kisses that gentle hand which led him into it, for though it should prove barren to the world, it can never do so to him. He has now had some time he could call his own, a property he was never so much master of before, in which he has taken a view of himself and the world, and observed wherein he hath hit and missed the mark ; what might IN RETIREMENT. 273 have been done, what mended, and what avoided in his human conduct ; together with the omissions and excesses of others, as well societies and governments as private families and persons. And he verily thinks were he to live over his life again, he could not only, with God's grace, serve Him, but his neighbour and himself, better than he hath done, and have seven years of his time to spare. And yet, perhaps, he hath not been the worst or the idlest man in the world, nor is he the oldest." ^ The following are specimens of the book : — " We must needs disorder ourselves if we only look at our losses. But if we consider how little we deserve what is left, our passion will cool, and our murmurs will turn into thankfulness." " If our hairs fall not to the ground, less do we or our substance without God's providence." " Nor can we fall below the arms of God, how low soever it be we fall." " For though our Saviour's Passion is over. His compassion is not. That never fails His humble, sincere disciples. In Him they find more than all they love in the world." " The world is certainly a great and stately volume of natural things, and may be not improperly styled the hieroglyphics of a better ; but alas ! how very few leaves of it do we seriously turn over ! This ought to be the subject of the education of our youth, who at twenty, when they should be fit for business, know little or nothing of it. We are in pain to make them scholars, but not men, — to talk rather than to know, which is pure canting." ' Penn's Works, vol. i. p. 819. T 274 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. "As our faith, so our devotion should be lively. Cold meat will not serve at these repasts." " It is a coal from God's altar must kindle our fire ; and without fire, true fire, no acceptable sacrifices." " It were better to be of no church than to be bitter for any." " Zeal dropt in charity is good, without it good for nothing, for it devours all it comes near." The gathering of such ripe fruits of wisdom was a solace to him in his retirement ; but retirement was now coming to an end. He had friends at Court, — the Duke of Buckingham, Lord Somers, Lord Ranelagh, Earl of Rochester, and Lord Sidney ; and seizing a favourable opportunity, they determined to use their influence on Penn's behalf. The last three had an audience with William, and represented the injustice of the Quaker's treatment. " There is nothing against him, your Majesty," such was their strong appeal, " but what impostors or those who have fled the coun- try have advanced, or those who, when their crimes are pardoned, cannot verify what they have advanced. We have long known him, some of us thirty years, and we never saw or heard of his doing an ill thing ; on the contrary, he has performed many good offices ; and if it had not been that going abroad might be thought a defiance of the Government, he would have done it two years ago. But he chose to wait, to go about his business as before, with leave, that he may be the better respected." Having spoken to this effect, these intercessors had the satisfaction to receive His Majesty's reply. " William Penn is my old acquaint- ance as well as yours ; and he may now follow his business as freely as ever, I have nothing to say IN RETIREMENT. 275 against him." They then asked that His Majesty- would authorize the communication to be made to the principal Secretary of State. " Certainly," replied the king ; and Lord Sidney was commissioned to convey it. The Secretary arranged an interview with Penn. They met on the 30th of November, 1693, when the Secretary told him, in the presence of the Marquis of Winchester, " You are as free as ever ; and I doubt not your prudence as to quiet living. I can assure you you shall not be molested or injured in any of your affairs." Penn had in him the same feeling as St. Paul, when the magistrates at Philippi privily dismissed him after an unjust imprisonment : a formal and public acquittal was what he desired. Therefore a Council was held for that purpose, the king and several lords being present, and the accused having been heard in his own defence, he was honourably set at liberty. Just before he recovered perfect freedom, he wrote "An Essay towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe." His object was to prevent war by the establishment of a court of arbitration, to which national quarrels might be referred, — a beautiful dream, as reasonable as it is beautiful ; but alas ! it was and is far from realization because of men's un- reasonableness and their insane love of fighting. He proposed an elaborate scheme for the institution of such a court, "the judgment of which," he says, "should be so binding that if anyone Government offering its case for decision did not abide by it, the rest should compel it." How ? And if a Government would not ofTer its case for decision, what then } CHAPTER XV. AT LIBERTY AGAIN. HE recovered his freedom at the close of the year 1693, and immediately afterwards he wrote : — " From the Secretary I went to our meeting at the Bull and Mouth, thence to visit the sanctuary of my solitude, and after that to see my poor wife and chil- dren ; the eldest being with me all this while. My wife is yet weakly, but I am not without hopes of her recovery who is one of the best of wives and women." From this note it appears that his beloved son, Springett, was the companion of his solitude, and that when he was free to go abroad he went, after attend- ing Divine worship, to his beloved Gulielma, who was then sickening for the grave, and ripening for heaven. He had the consolation of her society for three months, and then closed her eyes in the long sleep of the body till the resurrection morn. She died on the 23rd of February, 1694, in the fiftieth year of her age. She was buried in the graveyard of Jordans, near his mother and the children who died before her. " She would not suffer me,'' he tells us, " after I recovered my liberty, to neglect any public meeting on her account, saying often, ' Oh ! go, my dearest ; 276 AT LIBERTY AGAIN. 277 do not hinder any good for me. I desire thee to go ; I have cast my care upon the Lord ; I shall see thee again.' About three hours before her end, on a relation taking leave of her, she said, ' My dear love to all Friends,' and, lifting up her dying hands and eyes, prayed the Lord to preserve and bless them. About an hour after, causing all to withdraw, we were half an hour together, in which we took our last leave. At her departure our children and most of our family were present. She gently expired in my arms, her head upon my bosom, with a sensible and devout resignation of her soul to Almighty God. " I hope I may say she was a public as well as a private loss ; for she was not only an excellent wife and mother, but an entire and constant friend, of a more than common capacity, and great modesty and humility ; yet most equal and undaunted in danger ; religious as well as ingenious ; without affectation ; an easy mistress, and good neighbour, especially to the poor ; neither lavish nor penurious ; but an ex- ample of industry as well as of other virtues : there- fore our great loss, though her own eternal gain." ^ Under the sorrows of bereavement, authorship has in many instances proved a balm, and the biography of Penn furnishes an illustration of this. The religion of Friends had been the salvation of his soul ; the history of them as a part of the Church of Christ was entwined round his personal memories ; he had cast in his lot with them in early life ; Gulielma, the wife of his youth, had been a gem in the crown of ■ " An Account of the Blessed End of his dear Wife, Gulielma Maria Penn." 278 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. that spiritual community ; George and Margaret Fox had been bosom friends, the former his companion in German travels, the latter his confidential corres- pondent, and an object of tender sympathy. What then could be more soothing, when he first became a widower, than to gather up the sacred threads of that history with which his own life was identified ? Ac- cordingly he sat down and composed " An Account of the Rise and Progress of the People called Qua- kers." With the interesting story he interwove an account of the doctrine and discipline of the com- munity, thus supplying what in days of much ignor- ance and misrepresentation on the subject was most valuable — a manifesto of Quaker principles. After a loving portraiture of his dear friend George, he closed his sketch with an appeal, first to the members of his own fellowship, and next to his countrymen who regarded it with curiosity or dislike. From a study of the Old Testament at this time, together with the fulfilment of its manifold prophecies of a Messiah in the life of our Blessed Saviour, Penn conceived a more than usual interest in the outcast house of Israel, and yearned for its salvation with that earnest sympathy which has so touched the hearts of spiritually minded Christians. Not with a proud sense of superiority, not in the spirit of cruel reproach, but under the influence of a profound regard for a people of such lofty lineage ; and panting for their salvation as the elect of God, he argued with them, as did St. Paul, out of the Scriptures, showing that Jesus of Nazareth is the very Christ. Contemporaneously with this employment of his pen, he revised and published the narrative he had AT LIBERTY AGAIN. 279 drawn up of his tour along the Rhine and in Holland seventeen years before. All this helped to recover the vigorous tone of feeling and thought which had marked sunnier days ; and now came two incidents, letting in fresh light and sweetness upon a spirit darkened, if not soured, by trouble. There had been somewhat of alienation from him manifested by several members of his Society. They thought they had noticed much injury done to his spiritual cha- racter and Christian life by Court influence and royal intimacy. The temptation was now at an end, trials had proved a gracious discipline, the son of sorrow appeared more beautiful than the favourite at Whitehall ; and now restored to their full con- fidence, he was reinstated in the leadership of Quaker ministrations and affairs. The other incident which shed new sunshine over the founder of Pennsylvania, was his reinstatement in the governorship of which he had been deprived. After his discharge by King William, the Privy Council sent a petition that he might recover the rights granted to him by the charter of Charles II. After full acquittal from all charges of treason or other offences entailing for- feiture, there could be no justifiable ground foi re- taining the province in other hands ; and therefore by royal order, dated the 20th of August, 1694, the government of Pennsylvania was restored to the founder, the instrument declaring that the disorder and confusion into which the province and territories had fallen had been entirely occasioned by his absence. This renewal of royal confidence, this re- inauguration of his ruling power, was accompanied by the thorough exposure and humiliation of that 28o LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. malignant foe, William Fuller, who had been set in the pillory, and was now living in deserved obscurity and disgrace. We now find our friend once more devoting him- self to the ministry. He revisited the West of Eng- land, travelled in the counties of Gloucester, Somer- set, Devon, and Dorset, holding meetings to which people flocked in crowds, and " testimony to the truth, answering to that of God in their consciences, was assented to by many." A contemporary Friend, John Whiting, writes in his autobiography in (1694) the ninth month : — " William Penn came down to Bristol, and to Chew, and had a great meeting at Clareham, and came to my house at Wrington that night with several other Friends. And next day we went with him on board the Bengal ship in Kingroad to dinner, and after- wards by Westbury to Bristol, on seventh day night, where on first day were very large meetings." Led by this Friend, it is pleasant to follow Penn on board this vessel, and then to drive round the neighbourhood of the great western port, touching at the pretty little village he mentions ; to take up the narrative again as he proceeds into Devon and Dorset, to be met at Wells by John Whiting, who accompanies him to Somerton. There was hard work to get a place to preach in, the market house was too small, peo- ple could not crush within the walls ; so away they went into the fields : " and a great gathering there was." Mayors, from the respect they had to the preacher, generally lent him the use of their town halls, other buildings not being large enough to ac- commodate the congregations. AT LIBERTY AGAIN. 281 Amongst waifs and strays on the stream of time, there turns up an old letter written to one John Gratton, of Chesterfield, in Derbyshire, who had " taken joyfully the spoiling of his goods." "Dear John Gratton, — " Thy dear and tender love I feel by thy kind lines, and they were to my comfort and refreshment. Thy name has been down in my pocket-book ever since I came to this city, to write to thee as one of my dear and choice friends, that lies and lives near me, with whom is my dear, near, and inward fellow- ship ; and that thou art low and poor, and as self- independent as ever, is a brave condition, and thou canst not say better for thyself or the greatest worthy in the flock. O dear John, I desire to dwell there, while I live in this tabernacle. It is my prayer, and much of my ministry to God's people. Some are convinced, but not converted ; and many that are converted do not persevere ; wherefore their oil dries up ; and Self, in Truth's form, gets up under specious pretences. Through the Lord's great mercy, and beyond my hopes, I am yet tolerably well through hard service, which it has been my lot to be en- gaged in of late ; in which the Lord has abundantly answered me, and tender-hearted Friends and sober people of all sorts. As yet I have not seen my own home above these four months. I am a poor pilgrim on the earth, yet my hope is established for an abiding place in an unchangeable world. Dear John, never trouble thyself with priests. Let them have our books. Take two or three gross things from theirs, confute them, and leave the rest. 282 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. Methinks J. R. [Sir John Rhodes, who was Gratton's neighbour, and had become a Quaker] should exer- cise himself that way, which would whet him up to services suitable to his condition. My love to him and the doctor [Gilbert Heathcote, who had married Sir John Rhodes' sister] ; I remember them in my prayers to the Lord, that they may travel on to the end, and receive the crown of faithfulness. So, in the Lord's love, dearly farewell ! " Thy cordial Friend and loving Brother, "William Penn." Plunged into controversy again, as the year 1695 passed over him, he wrote "A Reply to a Pretended Answer by a Nameless Author," and in this fugitive production the only thing worth notice is the way in which he defends himself against the charges of opponents. Thus he vindicates his conduct during the reign of James II. : " I was the same man then, and acted by the same principles ; not more intemperate in the reign that favoured it than in the reign I con- tended with [the preceding], that did not favour it. And no man but a persecutor, which I count a beast of prey and a declared enemy to mankind, can with- out great injustice or ingratitude reproach that part I had in King James's Court ; for I think I may say, without vanity upon this provocation, I endeavoured at least to do some good, and would have done more." From this it appears that he had the testimony of a good conscience. He had done much good to many, and no harm to a single individual except himself and his family — a statement strictly true, to a greater AT LIBERTY AGAIN. 283 extent, perhaps, than he at the moment intended. Nor did he relax his efforts now on behalf of his fellow members, who, though free from much of their former persecution, had still to complain of certain grievances. Oaths were such a burden that they could not bear them, and this entailed several misfortunes ; con- sequently they were desirous that affirmations should be substituted for oaths. Obligations imposed by law they were willing to bear, the form only was esteemed a grievance. Penn therefore drew up a petition, and was allowed to present it to the House of Commons, stating the conscientious scruples felt as to oath- taking, especially insisting on this characteristic prin- ciple, " not to swear at all," and naively saying, " the righteousness of Christianity does not need or use an oath." Friends were quite willing to suffer as much for simple falsehood as for formal perjury, " they subject their integrity to trial upon the hazard of a conviction that is so much greater than the offence in the eye of the law would bear." The prayer of the petition was that affirmations might be substituted for oaths. Again he is seen travelling over the country in religious service. He preached at Henley-on- Thames, at Melksham, where there was. a dispute between a Baptist and a Quaker, " in the courtyard belonging to Thomas Beaven's house," wherever that might be ; evening coming on, Penn rose up, " break- ing like a thunderstorm over his head, in testimony to the people." He had crowded meetings at War- minster and Wrington. In the cathedral city of Wells he met with a singular adventure. Kidder was then the inhabitant of the picturesque palace, with its moat and bridge, where some few years afterwards he 284 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. and his wife were killed by the fall of a chimney. The Quaker called on his lordship to get permis- sion to hold a meeting. " Why have a meeting here, where there are no Quakers ? " asked the prelate. John Whiting, who here again appears as Penn's companion, replied, " To declare the truth." " What truth have you to declare more than we ? " rejoined the other. "The grace of God," was the answer. "We preach the grace of God also," pursued the diocesan. " But not as the Quakers," continued the visitors. The interview ended pleasantly, the good- natured bishop leaving them to do as they liked. Forthwith they proceeded to ask for the use of the market-house. Unfortunately an election was going on in the city, and the party "who had been drinking Colonel Berkeley's election ale," turned the clerk of the market against the Friends, and they were re- fused ; whereupon they agreed with the landlord of the Crown, where they had put up, for the use of a balcony facing the Market Place. Looking at the Toleration Act, they saw that a license was necessary for a meeting ; and, forthwith, they repaired a second time to the palace, to request one from Dr. Kidder. The bishop was willing to do what was asked. Ac- cordingly, Penn mounted the balcony and began a discourse. In the middle of it constables came with a warrant from the mayor to take him into custody, and to bring him before the magistrates ; a proceed- ing which produced disturbance, as the market was filled with between two and three thousand people. The magistrates found themselves in a difficulty when they learned that the bishop had granted a license. "They had overshot the mark, and now ex- AT LIBERTY AGAIN. 285 cused themselves as well as they could, having done just enough to manifest the keenness of their stomachs for the old work of devouring, in that they could not refrain from whetting their teeth again, after the Act of Toleration had blunted them." Subsequently the Friends found a house in Wells, and there met in peace. Visiting Bristol once more, Penn turned his steps homeward to Worminghurst. Penn was now on the eve of a new marriage. Hannah Callowhill, a Bristol lady, granddaughter of Dennis Hollister, a Quaker of that city, Penn had long known and esteemed, and in March, 1696, he went down to the wedding. But "in the garden there was a new sepulchre." Shortly after the wedding a sad bereavement visited the dwelling. Gulielma had left three children, Springett, named after his mother's father, Letitia, and William. Two had died in infancy, Mary and Hannah.' Springett, the eldest boy of the first marriage, was ill with consumption before the wedding. Disease developed itself with rapidity, and he died within five weeks of his father's nuptials. He seems to have been an amiable and pious youth, and his memory is embalmed in a short parental memoir, under the title of " Sorrow and Joy in the Loss and End of Springett Penn." It is a touching record of the youth's dying words. " I am resigned to what God pleaseth. He knows what is best. I would live if it pleased Him, that I might serve Him ; but, O Lord, not my will, Thine be done !" " Poor Tishe ! " ' See Pedigree, Watson's " Annals," vol. i. p. 18. 286 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. he said, addressing Letitia ; " look to good things. One drop of the love of God is worth more than all the world. I know it ; I have tasted it. Dear father, sit by me ; I love thy company, and I know thou lovest mine," glancing, perhaps, at the moment, to the time of his retirement. " If the Lord should raise me up, and enable me to serve Him and His people, then I might travel with thee some- times [in the ministry], and we might ease one another." " Feeling himself decline apace, somebody fetched the doctor ; but as soon as he came in he said, ' Let my father speak to the doctor, and I'll go asleep,' which he did, and waked no more, breathing his last on my breast, the tenth day of the second month, between the hours of nine and ten, 1696, in his twenty-first year." Once more under the shadow of bereavement Penn worked for the press, and issued two publications, one " On Primitive Christianity." His object was to show that Friends had revived the original faith and prac- tice of the Church ; that the doctrine of Divine light was a doctrine of apostolic times ; that the views of Quakers respecting satisfaction, justification, and the atonement of Christ, were in accordance with the Scriptures ; and that simple worship like theirs was true worship, the worship of the Father in spirit and in truth. The other publication was of a personal character ; it was entitled, " More Work for George Keith." In 1696, the year when this pamphlet saw the light, Keith, as we have seen, had been cut off from the Friends' fellowship, and having left America was living in London, where he studied the doctrines and constitution of the Church of England. He was AT LIBERTY AGAIN. 287 propagating, at the time, false reports of Quakerism, and doing everything in his power to damage those with whom he had been in communion. Nobody is to be condemned who, from conscientious conviction, leaves Nonconformity for the Establishment ; but nothing can be justly said in defence, or in excuse, of any one who, after such a separation, chiefly devotes his time to damaging the cause he had previously upheld. The case is just as strong against any one who acts in the same way towards the Church of England. Keith entered into "holy orders," and became an agent for the Propagation Society, in which capacity his chief business was to attack Non- conformists, especially Quakers. After a course of disputation, he returned to England, and died Rector of Ed burton in 17 16. A remarkable visitor was in this country in the year 1696. There might be seen working in the royal dockyard at Deptford no less a person than the Emperor of Russia, Peter the Great. He came to learn shipbuilding, with a view to the foundation of a navy of his own. Two Quakers visited his Imperial Majesty, in York Buildings, where he took up his abode, and had, through an interpreter, a conver- sation, in which he inquired about hat-worship, and asked how a country could be safe without army and navy. Peter knew nothing of English, and could only speak Russ and Dutch. Penn, who could con- verse fluently with Hollanders, waited, with another famous Quaker, George Whithead, upon the Russian prince, and presented His Majesty with books, which were graciously accepted. Pleased with his new friends, Peter actually attended a meeting at Dept- 288 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. ford, where he conducted himself with exemplary decorum, copying the rest in their manner of worship, " sitting and standing as he could best accommodate others." It is interesting to add, that some years afterwards, when he was in Holstein, he inquired if any Quakers were there, and learning that there were, he attended the meeting, accompanied by his retinue. They understood not the preacher ; so the Czar became interpreter, and finished by saying, "Whosoever lived up to such doctrines would be happy." ^ Worminghurst, where Penn had lived on the estate of his first wife, had many sorrowful memories around it ; and, soon after the second marriage, we find Penn removing to Bristol ; the next year, 1698, we find him at work preaching the gospel in Ireland. He and his son William reached Dublin in time for the half-yearly meeting, and there met Thomas Story. John Dunton, a curious writer who gathered to- gether all kinds of information, in his "Conversation in Ireland," says, respecting Dublin : " The Quakers are here in great numbers, as one might easily per- ceive, that would have considered the mighty throngs of them which crowded about their great speaker and champion, William Penn, when he came hither to hold forth." Thomas Story informs us "great was the resort of people of all ranks, qualities, and profes- sions to our meetings, chiefly on account of our friend William Penn, who was furnished by the truth fully to answer their expectations. Many of the clergy were there, and the people, with one voice, spake ' "Xife and Errors," vol. ii. p. 556. AT LIBERTY AGAIN. 289 well of what they heard. And of the clergy the Dean of Derry was one, who being there several times was asked by his bishop whether he had heard anything but blasphemy and nonsense, and whether he took off his hat in time of prayer to join with us ? He answered that he heard no blasphemy nor non- sense, but the everlasting truth, and did not only take off his hat at prayer, but his heart said Amen to what he heard." Story goes on to say that the dean "proved like the stony ground, and brought forth no fruit " ; and then repeats words attributed to him of this kind : that " he could die for the principles of spiritual religion the Quakers professed ; but their outward peculiarities, single speech, plain habits, and the like, he did not think of sufficient weight to justify his secession from the Church of England." ^ Friend Story, like some other Friends, was apt to be harsh in judging any one who did not attach to their distinguishing practices the importance they themselves claimed for them. , An odd circumstance occurred to Penn on his way to Waterford. He and his companion were taken for Papists, the old story being revived, I suppose ; and as there was an abominable law forbidding such people to have horses worth more than five pounds each, and authorizing anybody to seize Roman Catholic steeds of higher value, the valuable nags on which the Quakers and their attendants rode were claimed as legal prey. Penn sent some of the animals over the river at Ross, on the road to Waterford, and intended to follow in the ferry boat, when it was pushed off from the shore by a number of soldiers. He found 1 " Life of Thomas Story," p 128. U 290 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. that this was done intentionally, and that some of his horses were detained ; meanwhile he rebuked the officers, as they stood on the quay, for they had evidently directed the proceedings of the soldiers. He succeeded in crossing, and left some of his party to recover the detained horses, which was accom- plished without much trouble ; and afterwards, upon Penn's writing to the Lords Justices, the officers were frightened, and begged the Governor of Waterford to intercede for them with the insulted Quaker. The inter- cession was successful, the offenders were forgiven. Penn preached at Waterford, and the bishop and some clergymen having a curiosity to hear this much- talked-of personage, stood outside the meeting, in an adjoining garden, to pick up what they could of the discourse. At Cork, too, the bishop of that city showed a friendly spirit ; at Limerick also, and else- where, clergymen came to hear his voice, and also complimented him on his discourses. But at Cashel he met with uncivil treatment. The meeting was interrupted through the interference of the bishop. The interruption was resented by one, who said. Friends had been admitted to the king's presence, who assured them of their legal right to preach, and that if they were disturbed, he would be their pro- tector. " Thou disturbest our meeting," the speaker proceeded to say, " and commandest us in the king's name to disperse, as if we were aggressors ; but whether we should obey thee without law, or believe the king's word, and accept of his royal protection, according to law, let all that hear judge." Of course the meeting could not be broken up, and the mayor had to telt the bishop so, and he said further, that AT LIBERTY AGAIN. 291 the preacher would call at the palace when the ser- vice was over. Then his lordship informed the visitors that he certainly had been annoyed to find that when he went to preach at the church nobody was present but the mayor, the churchwardens and a few constables, the citizens having flocked to hear the Quaker. The Quaker had the best of it in all respects, and the bishop, finding that what he had done contravened the Act of Toleration, had to apologise to the Lord Justice. Before Penn's departure from Ireland, he visited his estates, and from what we learn of his pecuniary affairs afterwards, they could not have been in a flourishing condition ; but his mind evidently was, at that time, engaged in other things. During his absence the breath of calumny again touched the good man's reputation. Letters reached him in Ireland stating that he had been basely at- tacked in the London yearly meeting ; but when the report of this reached the sister island Friends, they felt assured that it sprung " from an evil root, for the Lord was pleased to clothe William that day with majesty, holy zeal, and Divine wisdom, to the great satisfaction of friends and the admiration and ap plause of the people." There soon followed still more satisfactory proofs of falsehood on those who origin- ated the damaging rumours. Story, who had been the great preacher's companion in Ireland, now had " a concern '' for America, and felt it his duty to visit Pennsylvania. Penn accompanied him to the ship on the point of sailing, and going down into the cabin he broke out into prayer "for the good and preservation of all, and especially of those who were 292 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. going to leave their native country, with thanksgiving also for the favours of God, and for that holy and precious opportunity of their then spiritual enjoy- ment, as an addition to his many former blessings.'' He who offered the prayer soon followed the subject of his intercession. It had for a long time been de- sirable that he should revisit America. His absence had been a cause of trouble, as indicated when the governorship was replaced in his hands. Tidings of late from the other side of the Atlantic had been more favourable ; still, it was needful that he should go and see with his own eyes the state of affairs. Before he went he wrote some pieces in defence of Quakerism, similar to those he had published before, and not needing any particular notice ; besides, he addressed advice to his children, as he did when first going to America, and also at the time of embark- ation a letter to " the people of God called Quakers, wherever scattered or gathered." It is customary when public Friends are going on religious service to give them letters of commend- ation, and the practice was observed in the present instance : — " From our monthly meeting, held at Horsham, Old England, 14th fifth month, 1699, to the Churches of Christ in Pennsylvania, and to all the faithful friends and brethren unto whom this may come. In the covenant of life and fellowship of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the unity of the one Eternal Spirit of our God, we dearly salute you, most earnestly desiring your everlasting pros- perity in the blessed truth. "Now, dear friends and brethren, whereas our AT LIBERTY AGAIN. 293 worthy friend and elder, William Penn, did acquaint our monthly men's meeting with his intended voyage into his province of Pennsylvania ; and although we are right sensible that he needed no letter of recom- mendation from us, yet at his request, and for the good order sake that God hath established in His Church and among His people, and for the sincere love we bear to our well-beloved friend, we could do no less than give this small token of our unity and communion with him, as a testimony for him and his service in the Church of Christ, wherein he hath been a blessed instrument in the hand of the Lord, both in his ministry and conversation, and hath always sought the prosperity of the blessed truth and of peace and concord in the Church. He hath walked among us in all humility, godly sincerity, and true brotherly love, to our great refreshment and comfort ; and hath, with much labour and great travail, on all occasions endeavoured the defence of the truth against its opposers, and the preservation of true unity and good order in the Church of Christ. So in the unity of the one Eternal Spirit, which is the bond of true peace, we take our leave of him with earnest breath- ings and supplications to the great God whom the winds and seas obey, that He would mercifully be pleased to go along with him and conduct him by the angel of His Divine presence to his desired port, and preserve him to the end of his days ; and in the end, that he may receive an immortal crown, and be bound up in the bundle of life amongst them that have turned many to righteousness, who shine as the sun in the firmament of God's eternal power, for ever and ever. Amen." CHAPTER XVI. SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. AFTER a voyage of three months, Penn, with his - wife Hannah and daughter Letitia, reached the Delaware ; his son WilHam being left behind. He took with him on this occasion James Logan, a young Irishman of extraordinary abilities and attainments, who afterwards received important official trusts in Pennsylvania, and who distinguished himself by the publication of works in literature and science. He went out as Penn's private secretary, and allusions to him in documents of the period show what a high place he held in the Governor's estimation. On the 30th of November, 1699, the party reached their destination. The days were closing in ; and sailing past Chichester as the shadows of evening began to fall, Penn ordered out a boat, and landed near Chester, at the house of one Lydia Wade. Thomas Story, and other friends, were present to give the voyagers a cordial welcome. But one of the first things he had to talk about was the yellow fever, which had swept over the country, and had slain seven or eight a day of the small population ; so that, as he said, " Every face gathered paleness, and hearts were humbled, and countenances fell and sunk," people waited "every moment to be summoned to the bar and numbered in the grave.'' After a night's rest Penn took boat across the creek S94 SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 295 to Chester; and there — strange greeting certainly for a Quaker, and in opposition to orders given — a few young men fired off two small cannon as a salute to the old Governor: one of, these hasty artillerymen so managed the business that he blew his left arm to pieces. Going on board his vessel again, Penn made for Philadelphia, where " the honester party " gave him the warmest welcome, taking care, however, not to fire off any guns. The ringleaders of the disaffected citizens went down to the waterside with a submis- sive air ; but his Excellency paid them little or no attention, and took special notice of an old acquaint- ance standing near. He then proceeded to the house of the Deputy ; and afterwards, as it was fast day, walked with a great crowd of people, about three o'clock, to meeting, "where he spoke on a double account to the people," and concluded with prayer. The disaffected ones for two or three days kept their distance, especially Colonel Quary, until Penn sent an invitation, which he accepted, and entered into conversation ; the Governor showing how disposed he was to treat all parties with civility. Yet the inter- view did not pass off before he was " warm enough to inveigh highly against past proceedings, not sparing several in express words," and laying open the con- sequences which would follow if they did not " satisfy superiors at home." ^ As he looked round, he saw great changes in the place he had left sixteen years before. One thing > I here follow Logan's letter to Penn junior ; " Penn and Logan Correspondence," vol. i. p. 1 7. 296 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. displeased him : many trees which then gracefully bordered the city had been ruthlessly felled ; and he at once spoke of the great abuse wrought in his absence by destroying so much timber and wood, and by suffering the ground to be overrun everywhere with a wild growth of stunted bushes. He had intended a fourth part of the city to be reserved for purchasers who might build on the land in future time, and that trees should be left to adorn the streets. But Phila- delphia was growing ; and of Pennsylvania at large at this time, a presentment among the Treasury papers in the State Paper Office informs us : " Pennsylvania. That province grew very populous, and the people were very industrious, and had so improved the tillage that bread, floor, and beer were drugs in the markets of the West Indies." i When Penn left Philadelphia, after his first visit, there were only three hundred houses ; now there were four hundred more. A Friends' meeting stood above Mulberry Street, built in 1685 ; and a second, sixty feet by forty, had been erected at the same time, at the corner of the centre square, then full of oaks and hickories. Brick tenements and stores had risen near the landing-place, with vaulted passages from the water edge to large brick cellars, constructed for receiving goods. Superior to them all was a build- ing for one named Skipper, who was " proverbial for three things, — the biggest person, the biggest house, and the biggest coach." " He has an orchard," said an admiring observer, just before Penn's arrival, " and gardens equal to any I have seen, abounding in tulips, ' Treasury Papers : Presentment, etc., April 8, 1701. SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 297 carnations, roses, and lilies." A wooden bridge crossed Dock Creek in a line with a stately chestnut avenue. Another edifice Penn would see, " a very fine church" for Episcopalian worshippers, built in 1695 ; and after some little time the following item turns up in the English Treasury minutes : " Order in Council on reading the report from the Committee of the Customs concerning salaries of £^0 and £"^0, ordered to be settled on a Protestant divine, and a schoolmaster, in the province of Pennsylvania." ^ In the neighbourhood, Germantown was in a pro- mising infancy, cradled by Francis Daniel Pastorius, a German Quaker of renown, who, probably attracted by what he had heard of Penn's travels in Germany, left the Fatherland and sailed over to the land of promise on the Delaware. The first building in which Penn took up his abode this time, was not the Blue Anchor, but the " Slate- roof House," at the corner of Norris' Alley and Second Street, pulled down, in 1867, to make room for the Commercial Exchange. It was the birthplace of John, the first son of the Founder's second mar- riage, the American, as he had the honour to be called. " In those doors," says an enthusiastic collector of Philadelphian traditions, the Governor " went in and out, up and down those stairs he passed, in those chambers he reposed, in those parlours he dined and regaled his friends, through those garden grounds they sauntered." ^ There was much to do, as well as much to see and Treasury Papers, Nov. 10, 1698. Watson's " Annals of Pennsylvania." 298 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. hear, that memorable winter time. The frost was severe. Heavy icicles hung on the trees and house- roofs ; but Penn must needs travel, and also summon the Assembly of the province to meet on business. He went to the quarter sessions at Chester, to a double wedding at Burlington, and to a meeting of Welsh Friends at Haverfordwest. One night he slept at Merion, and there, tradition .says, a boy about twelve years old crept up to his chamber door, and peeping through the keyhole, saw the much-talked-of visitor on his knees by the bedside, and overheard him thanking God for protection whilst he was journeying in that wilderness. When the Assembly met they found plenty of business to do. The Governor apologised for calling them together at such an inclement season ; but it could not be helped. Two matters urgently demanded attention — piracy and smuggling. The Treasury papers reveal heavy complaints of pirates infesting the coast, and the inability of the authorities to check their progress. From a despatch in 1698, we find that as there were no forces, naval or military, in the province, the inhabitants were dependent for defence on armed English vessels that happened to be near. But the officers sometimes would not interfere when asked to do so, and pleaded plausible excuses for neglect, thus leaving people on the shore and property on the river open to the mercy of adventurers. Colonel Markham, Governor in Penn's absence, had been at his wit's end in conse- quence of the depredations thus committed. " The orders for the recall of the two men-of-war," says a Treasury paper, " were directed to the captains, so SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 299 that he [Lord Bellemont] was considered unworthy to be acquainted therewith ; his power over them was so entirely superseded, that on a pirate ship coming into the Delaware, and taking nine or ten ships, and rob- bing the people of Pennsylvania, Captain Culliford refused absolutely to sail his ship and fall on the pirate, saying he had positive orders to make the best of his way to England. Colonel Markham sent two letters concerning the pirate ship, and desired the writer of the despatch to send the Fowy man-of-war to the relief of the people under his government ; together with the letter to him from the town of Lewis, in Pennsylvania." ^ A presentment of later date informs the Treasury Lords : " Colonel Quary, in some of his late letters, complained of the difficulty he laboured under as to trial of pirates ; many of whom had been seized, and their effects, to a considerable value, lodged in the hands of Governor Penn." The same document further states that, " Governor Penn was very zealous and willing to do all things to promote the king's interest in his government." ^ Complaints respecting piracy, I suspect, were some- what exaggerated ; for at this time there existed a party inimical to the interests of the Governor, and desirous of plucking authority out of his hands. Colonel Quary, just mentioned, was one of this faction, and to promote his ends he was likely to make out the worst case he could respecting piratical depreda- tions. They were urged in order to show how perilous it ' Treasury Papers, Sept. 31, 1698. ^ Presentment of the Commissioners of Customs to the Lords of the Treasury, April 8, 1701. 30O LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. was to entrust the colony to the care of Quakers, who would not fire a gun or use a cutlass against sailor thieves who prowled around the ports in quest of prey. The Assembly took up the subject of piracy, and a law was passed for its repression ; but how that could be accomplished without the employment of force, it is difficult to understand. A prison had been built in Philadelphia before the Governor's return, and two men were put in confinement under suspicion of being pirates ; but the difficulty would be how to catch such offenders on the high seas, or in the Dela- ware creeks, without the employment of arms in some way or other. A bill was also passed to prevent illicit trade ; in other words, to put down smuggling. And this as well as piracy would have to be dealt with by forcible means. When these laws had been enacted, the Governor and his family left the incommodious Slate-roof House for a goodly mansion, called Pennsbury, in Bucks county, on the Delaware, below Burder's Town. The building had been commenced in 1682, and had cost ;£^7,ooo ; materials for its ornamentation having been brought from England. It is described as measuring sixty feet in front, and forty feet in depth, with a sloping garden to the river side. I have never been at Pennsbury, and therefore cannot determine be- tween glowing pictures of wooded vistas and flowery terraces given by some, and prosaic accounts of the country, as quiet low and tame, given by others ; but I should conclude that even when Pennsbury was occupied by its owner, the house, with its immediate surroundings, was but a modest affair, in harmony with his simple and unworldly tastes. He was fond of the SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 301 country : "Let my children," he said, "be husbandmen and housewives." " A country hfe and estate I like best for my children." A love of nature, I have no doubt, had to do with this choice of a residence away from the city ; and over the virgin soil, amidst open rural scenery, he and Hannah and Letitia would wander at their own sweet will, talking no doubt sometimes of Worminghurst and Bristol, and dear friends on the other side of the water. The house was well furnished, if we may judge from the inventory, which speaks of embroidered chairs, plush couches, curtains of satin, camlet and damask, and a handsome carpet such as was hardly ever seen but in the abodes of noblemen. The side- board displayed silver and china, Tonbridge ware and fine napery. The dinners must have been plain ; for, says the master, in his list of maxims, " The sauce is now prepared before the meat, twelve penny- worth of flesh with five shillings of cookery may happen to make a fashionable dish. Plain beef or mutton is become dull food ; but by the time its natural relish is lost in the crowd of cooks' ingredients, and the meat sufficiently disguised from the eaters, it passes under a French name for a rare dish." The simplicity of his own taste appears in an order to his steward : " Pray send us some two or three smoked haunches of venison and pork. Get them from the Swedes ; also some smoked, shads and beefs, the old priest at Philadelphia had rare shads." Penn did not disdain to give specific directions touching domestic matters : " Send up," he says to Logan, " our great stewpan and cover, and little soup dish, and two or three pounds of coffee if sold in the town, and three 302 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. pounds of wick ready spun for candles, the next oppor- tunity. The lime may be kept till our men come up." The weather was bad, and he had complained of his leg ; now it was " well advanced," and " the first fair day he would, God willing, set forward," indeed would have done so earlier if " coach or calash" had been within reach.^ Again he writes : " Send up for cider what barrels thou canst get in town, I mean such as are sweet and have had cider in them, they will be cheapest ; also a pipe or two to put the mash of the apples in." He then alludes to an honest but weak man's paper, complaining of the Governor's financial carefulness, respecting which he says, " I think I have convinced him that I am one of the poorest men in the Government, and that my sin has been neglect of myself, and not selfishness, and therefore ought and must make the best of everything." ^ These trifles, as illustrations of character, are worth more than formal generalizations. Hannah Penn was a helpmeet for her husband, and her letters deal largely in household affairs. Candle- sticks, and great candles, some green ones, and pewter and earthen basins, mops, salts, looking-glass, a piece of dried beef, and a firkin or two of good butter, are catalogued in orders sent to Logan by this exemplary housewife.^ Such things throw light on the internal economy of Pennsbury mansion ; and prove that the Governor's lady was no proud, haughty dame, superior to the notice of what contributed to the comfort of life. In many respects, notwithstanding high connec- ' "Penn and Logan Correspondence,'' vol. i. pp. 14-17. 2 Ibid., vol. i. p. 50: 3 i]3ij_^ yoi_ j p i^_ SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 303 tions and intercourse with good society, these Penns were plain sort of people ; and in one of his letters he refers to his " leather stockings" ; — yet such articles of dress were worn in the colony by one of the highest rank, and a story was told of a woman who went to look at Lord Cornbury, because he was the queen's cousin and a lord ; but she could see no difference between him and others, except that he wore "leathern stockings." They must have been gaiters. Stories are told of a coach and sedan chair amongst the " leathern conveniences " of this country seat ; but it is said the master preferred horseback to any other conveyance by land, and that he usually went to Philadelphia in a six-oared barge. This barge he seems to have liked, for in writing to his steward, he adjured him, "above all dead things," to take care of his barge. " I hope nobody uses it on any account, and that she is kept in dock covered from the weather." An amusing anecdote is related in con- nection with thjs favourite vessel. Governor Jennings of New Jersey, was fond of smoking ; but Governor Penn, of Philadelphia, was not. One day Jennings and his friends were whiffing their favourite weed, when the barge came in sight. They hastily secreted their pipes, which Penn observed, remarking with a smile, " I am glad you have a sufficient sense of pro- priety to be ashamed of your practice." " O dear no," rejoined the New Jersey man ; " we are not ashamed, but desisted to avoid hurting a weak brother." He then expressed surprise that Penn should have ven- tured out in his barge in such unfavourable weather, wind afld tide being against him. "I have been sailing against wind and tide all my life," replied the Quaker. 304 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. With what is said about his barge may be coupled an extract from a family letter by Isaac Norris, a prosperous colonist, written in 1701. "The Gover- nor's wife and daughter are well, their little son is a lovely babe ;" his wife is "extremely well-beloved here, exemplary in her station, and of an excellent spirit, which adds lustre to her character, and she has a great place in the hearts of good people. The Governor is o\xx pater patrice, and his worth is no new thing to us. We value him highly, and hope his life will be pre- served till things, now on the wheel, are settled to his peace and comfort, and the people's ease and quiet.'' Further testimony is borne to the excellence of the family just before their leaving Pennsylvania, and to the ministry of its master and head, in another epistle of that period. " Our communion in the Church," writes another Friend, " sweetens all, and our inward waitings and worships together have often been a general comfort and consolation ; and in this I take a degree of satisfaction after all, that we part in love, and some of his last words in our meeting yesterday were : ' That he overlooked all infirmities and outwards, and had an eye to the regions of spirits, wherein was our surest tie ; ' and in true love there he took his leave of us. His excellent wife, and she is beloved of all, I believe I may say in its full extent, so is her leaving us heavy and of real sorrow to her friends ; she has carried under and through all with a wonderful even^ ness, humility, and freedom. Her sweetness and good- ness have become her character, and are, I believe, ex- traordinary. In short, we love her, and she deserves it" ^ 1 "Penn and Logan Correspondence,'' vol. i. pp. 40-58. SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 305 Negro slavery existed in the colony. Black slaves were employed for domestic purposes. But at an early period there were Friends who condemned the practice, and regarded personal freedom as a natural birthright. At Germantown, so early as 1688, a movement commenced in favour of emancipation. Testimony on that behalf was sent up from the neighbourhood by the monthly meeting to the quar- terly meeting, the former saying, " We find the matter so weighty, that we think it is not expedient for us to meddle with it here." The members at the quarterly gathering also, thought it "a thing of too great a weight for this meeting to determine," and so re- ferred the subject to the court of last resort. But the yearly meeting thought it not proper to give a positive judgment in the case ; "it having so general relation to many other parts, and therefore at present they forbore it." And they forbore it for a great many years ; but they did at last pronounce against slavery, and that before others had done so in the capacity of an organised religious body.^ In 1696, the Philadelphian yearly meeting passed a resolution to the effect that buying, selling, and hold- ing men in bondage was contrary to the first principles of the Gospel of Christ. This was Penn's decided opinion ; and under its influence, from the beginning he and many others treated their slaves as members of the family, and brethren and sisters in Christ. It is pleasant to find from Thomas Story's journal, that several negroes attended Friends' meetings, and were ^ For this notice of Germantown Friends in reference to slavery, I am indebted to an intelligent correspondent in Phila- delphia. X 3o6 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. much affected. As he passed by a black woman just afterwards, he saw her weeping, and, " finding the day of the Lord's visitation upon her," he spoke encour- agingly. A negro told him they had always been kept in ignorance, and regarded as persons who were not to expect anything from the Lord, until a minister informed them "that the grace of God, through Christ, was given to them, and that they ought to believe in and be led and taught by it." On another occasion many negroes were convinced. "Thus," says the diarist, " one planteth and another watereth, but God giveth the increase." Penn was delighted to hear that story; but he wished to go further still. First, .he attempted to make the management of slaves a question of discipline in Quaker society ; and next to secure the kind treat- ment of bondsmen throughout the colony by legisla- tive enactments. He did not see the duty of eman- cipation as we do ; but, by discipline and enactment, he was preparing for that consummation. He accom- plished his first object at the earliest monthly meeting of the year 1700. Special arrangements were then made for the spiritual instruction of negroes once a month, and Friends were expected to allow them to worship as often as possible. A further scheme for an improved treatment of slaves throughout the colony he brought before the Assembly of the province and the territories in the month of June. He had thought over the matter with much anxiety, and proposed, for the improvement of the negroes' condition — that marriage should be permitted, that polygamy should be abolished, and that adultery should be repressed. Rewards for good behaviour SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 307 were suggested, and on the failure of such generous methods, penalties were to follow. He further pro- posed regulations for the trial and punishment of black offenders. But of the bills proposed, the Assembly would accept of those only which related to trial and punishment. This disgraceful fact illustrates existing public opinion in reference to coloured people. They were regarded not as human beings, but as beasts of the fields, to be worked as long as they had strength, and then left to die without one thought of their spiritual nature and future destiny. That opinion worked its way into Pennsylvania ; not indeed amongst godly Quakers, but amongst others — worldly, unprincipled, and greedy of gain — who had settled down in the neighbourhood. It would be a great mistake to imagine that all the Philadelphians were Friends ; gradually other denominations, and people of no denomination at all, became numerous, hanging on the skirts and impeding the movement of the righteous and charitable. Besides this, wretched jealousies between the province and the territories came into play, and because the measure for the benefit of blacks was supported by the former, the latter set themselves defiantly against it. The terri- tory men were mostly Dutch and Swedes, and they had no love for English Quakers. Other bills of a local and commercial nature, and also bills respecting property and revenue, were passed without difficulty. The Governor was glad to step into his six-oared barge, and to row towards Pennsbury, there to find a little rest after toils and fatigues ; yet still intent on doing good. From the slaves he turned to the 3o8 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. Indians. He sought in every possible way to hold friendly intercourse with them, and to inspire and cultivate mutual faith in treaties between the white men of the colony and the red men of the forest. He liked they should visit him, and when they came, — kings and queens, painted and feathered, with their wild retinue, — he would receive them in an audience- hall built for the purpose ; where, enthroned in his oak chair, he used gracefully to give them audience, listen to what they had to say, use such simple arguments as he thought would convince them, and thus bring them to binding agreements. Sometimes he returned their visits. An Indian feast near a spring of water was held under a canopy of far-spreading trees, and there the Governor came by invitation. Bucks were killed, cakes were made and cooked, wheat and beans and fruit were offered. The repast over, the Indians began to dance, and white men, in the same kindly mood but in other ways, expressed joyful sympathy. Numerous treaties were ratified with simple cere- monies by the Susquahannah and other tribes, treaties, as it is often remarked, which proved more binding than proud European ones, signed and guarded by elaborate formalities. A new Assembly was called in October. The members met at Newcastle, a town not in the province but in the territory, where the Governor summoned them, from a spirit of courtesy towards those who had regarded themselves as neglected. He recommended them all to discuss the terms of a new charter which he had proposed to a former Assembly. But the old love of contention appeared. The territorialists wished to separate from the provincials. They were SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 309 dissatisfied with their own position, because their neighbours were more numerous and prosperous than themselves. They wanted equal weight in the Com- mon Council, and they proposed that at no future time should the representatives of the province exceed in number the representatives of the territories ; and that, if more counties should be made in the former than in the latter, the union should expire. The province of course refused to listen to the idea Penn, always bent upon suppressing strife, always ready for a generous compromise, suggested that in all cases where territorial interests were chiefly- involved, two-thirds of the territorial representatives. as well as a majority of other members, should be requisite for the carrying of any new law. For a time the fire was put out, but the old embers smoul- dered still. The question of revenue came up again, and then out burst the flame once more ; for the province and the territory could not agree as to the proportion of payments. I shall" not lead the reader into the smoke and dust of this fresh quarrel, but say that the province now went one way, and the territories, another. Here again Penn proved himself equal to the occasion, and suggested a clever money arrange- ment which overrode the difficulty. He prorogued the Assembly on the 27th of No- vember, 1700. The minister was not merged in the governor. The year 1700 contains a record of his preaching. He visited Haverfordwest on public service ; and riding along the road, he pulled up his horse on seeing a poor little Quaker girl, without shoes or stockings, 3IO LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. bent on hearing him at the meeting whither he went. " Where art thou going ? " he asked. On being told, he bid her get up, and bringing his steed to a place where she could conveniently mount, off he trotted with this youthful disciple behind him. Such an act would not diminish the acceptance of his ministra- tions afterwards. He preached in the Jerseys and in Maryland. All sorts of people, high and low, went to hear the Quaker, some only from curiosity. Lord and Lady Baltimore, with their retinue, crowded into a meeting for wor- ship at Treddhaven. They came late, and, says the narrator, "the strength and glory of the heavenly power was going off." Her ladyship was disappointed, but was polite enough not to throw the blame on her husband's brother ruler. " I did not," she said to him, "want to hear you, or such as you, for, you are a scholar and a wise man ; I did not question but you could preach ; what I wanted was to hear some of your mechanics, husbandmen, shoemakers, and such like, for I think they must be unable to preach to any purpose." " Some of these are the best preach- ers we have," replied Penn. An outbreak in East Jersey occurred the following year, 1707 ; and some people had taken up arms. He set off to visit the place, and use moral means to suppress the rebellion. But on his way he found peace had been restored. He, however, wrote to the Government there, and propounded his policy; in which, without saying, " force is no remedy," he did say, " Try moral means first." He had received surprising news of the practices of some East Jerseyians, which were as unexpected to SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 311 him as they were dishonourable in them. " It would be hard to find temper enough," he said, " to balance extremes : for he knew not what punishment those rioters did not deserve, and he had rather live alone than not have such people corrigible. Their leaders should be eyed, and some' should be forced to declare them by the rigour of the law ; and those who were found to be such should bear the burden of such sedi- tion, which would be the best way to behead the body without danger. If lenitives would not do, coercives should be tried ; but though men would naturally begin with the former, yet wisdom has often sanctioned the latter as remedies, which, however, were never to be adopted but with regret." He had less trouble with Indians than other people. Treaty after treaty with them is mentioned in records of this second residence. Chiefs with unpronounceable names resorted to Philadelphia, to hear speeches from him, and to make speeches of their own. They were to be, both said, of one head and of one heart ; at no time to hurt, injure, or defraud ; but to be ever ready to do justice and maintain friendship. Indians were not to help any nation at war with England ; and to prevent abuses, nobody was to traffic with them ex- cept such as were approved and authorized by the Governor ; nor were they to sell their furs and skins to any people outside the province. Free trade was not one of the principles included in the Pennsyl- vanian government. In harmony with a restrictive policy, no doubt intended for the good of unsophisti- cated natives, he projected a sort of joint-stock com- pany to deal with the inhabitants in matters of barter, and they were instructed to keep spirituous liquors as 312 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. far as possible out of their way ; at the same time the company was to do all that was possible to promote amongst them the knowledge of Christianity. A visitor at Pennsbury informs us how the Indians behaved when they came on a visit. They would strike their heads three times, saying they did not make treaties there ; and then striking their breasts they would say, " We make them here'.' The Governor gave them " match coats," or blanket coverings, and even allowed them some spirits, which the caciques, or chiefs, distributed amongst their followers. After audience in the hall of the mansion, they went out into the garden, to perform their cantico, or worship. They kindled a fire, round which the men sat down by themselves, and with fixed eyes sang " a melodi- ous hymn." Then they beat the ground with sticks, made motions with their hands, and paused till one of the elders renewed the chant. Pauses and chants succeeded each other, after which they rose, danced round the fire, and with loud shouts completed the ceremony. The pious Quaker who relates this was anxious to know by what words he could reach their understandings so as to inculcate principles, " such as! Christ's manifesting Himself to the inward senses of the soul by His light, grace, or Holy Spirit, with the manner of the operations and working thereof in the hearts of the children of men." Penn tried hard td convey these ideas through an interpreter, but " the interpreter would not, either by reason, as he alleged, of want of terms, or his unwillingness to meddle in religious matters." He was but " a dark man," says our informant ; " a wrong man for the purpose," said Penn. It is quite certain that, however well disposed. SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 313 the poor fellow would have found it difficult, indeed, to convey an idea of " the inner light " to these wild men of the woods. In the summer of 1701, the Governor received a despatch from England which created anxiety. The king urged that a union should be formed with other proprietaries for mutual defence. The sum of £2,^0 was also asked for building fortifications on the fron- tier of New York. It was awkward for a Quaker to make this proposal to an Assembly largely composed of Quakers. When it was made, and explained, they knew not what to do. There was an " unpleasant parley for four days." At last the Assembly, without asserting their peace principles, resolved that, owing to the poverty of their constituents, they thought it right to adjourn the further consideration of the king's letter. They added, however, their readiness to comply with the royal demands, " so far as their religious persuasions would permit." This question of territorial defence was one of great difficulty. A few, very few perhaps, including James Logan, were for armed protection. Enemies to aggressive warfare, they did not see how they could avoid adopting measures for guarding against the violence of an invading enemy. " The fighting Qua- kers," as they were called, did not appear until after the outbreak of the great revolutionary war. Quaker principles obviously stood in the way of accomplishing any plan of military defence, especially that recommended by William III. and his Council ; probably, also, the Government became jealous of the Pennsylvanian authorities, when population and property under their control were making gigantic 314 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. strides. Leading politicians in England were for putting an end to the dual rule, and getting Penn to relinquish the governorship, in order that Pennsyl- vania might become simply an English colony or plantation. Other persons of influence, however, possessing land in the country, wished that the dis- cussion of such a settlement should be deferred until after Penn's return. That return was most desirable. He determined therefore to revisit his native country, and plead before Parliament for the preservation of his rights. After he had accomplished that object, he hoped to return. It seems likely, from traditions and letters on the subject, that the Governor's lady, and his daughter Letitia, wished to leave their present abode. Writing to Logan in July, 1701, he said, "I cannot prevail on my wife to stay, and still less with Tishe. I know not what to do." " To all that speak of it say, I shall have no need to stay in England, and a great interest to return." There was another matter under the surface. Penn justly complained that the province and territories would do nothing towards the expense of his government. He had no allowance out of the revenue whatever ; and the cost of paying for everything out of his own pocket was an insupportable burden. In a letter written three years afterwards, he said, " Had you settled a reasonable revenue, I would have returned and laid my bones among you, and my wife's too, after her mother's death."! It was necessary to call the Assembly together before his departure. On the 15 th of September he ' Watson's " Annals," vol. i. pp. 24, 25. SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 315 met them in Philadelphia, and opened the session with the following speech : — "Friends, you cannot be more concerned than I am at the frequency of your service in Assembly* since I am very sensible of the trouble and charge it contracts upon the country : but the motives being considered, and that you must have met of course in the next month, I hope you will not think it a hard- ship now. The reason that hastens your session is the necessity I am under, through the endeavours of the enemies of the prosperity of this country, to go for England, where, taking advantage of my absence, some have attempted, by false or unreasonable charges, to undermine our Government, and thereby the true value of our labours and prosperity. Govern- ment having been our first encouragement, I confess I cannot think of such a voyage without great reluct- ancy of mind, having promised myself the quietness of a wilderness, and that I might stay so long at least with you as to render everybody entirely easy and safe ; for my heart is among you as well as my body, whatever some people may please to think : and no unkindness or disappointment shall, with submission to God's providence, ever be able to alter my love to the country and resolution to return and settle my family and posterity in it : but having reason to be- lieve I can at this time best serve you and myself on that side of the water, neither the rudeness of the season nor the tender circumstances of my family can over-rule my inclinations to undertake it. Think, therefore (since all men are mortal) of some suitable expedient and provision for your safety, as well in your privileges as property, and you will find me 31 6 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. ready to comply with whatsoever may render us happy by a nearer union of our interests. Review again your laws, propose new ones that may better suit your circumstances ; and what you do, do it quickly, remembering that the Parliament sits the end of next month ; and that the sooner I am there, the safer, I hope, we shall be here. I must recom- mend to your serious thoughts and care the King's letter to me, for the assistance of New York with £'i^o sterling as a frontier government, and therefore exposed to a much greater expense in proportion to other colonies ; which I called the Assembly to take into their consideration, and they were pleased for the reasons then given to refer to this. I am also to tell you the good news of the Governor of New York's happy issues of his conferences with the five nations of Indians ; that he hath not only made peace with them for the king's subjects of that colony, but, as I had by some letters before desired him, for those of all other governments under the Crown of England on the continent of America, as also the nations of Indians within these respective colonies ; which certainly merits our acknowledg- ments. I have done when I have told you that unanimity and dispatch are the life of business ; and this I desire and expect from you for your own sakes, since it may so much contribute to the disappoint- ment of those that too long have sought the ruin of your young country." ^ The session proved a very stormy one on several points. The Assembly and the Governor could not ' Clarkson, vol. ii. p. 258. SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 317 agree, and certain objects for which they contended, Tie considered to be an invasion on his personal rights, plainly saying, " he would not suffer them to inter- meddle with his property, lest it should be drawn into a precedent if a governor should preside distinct from the proprietary." Again the old feud broke out between territory and province. On one occasion, the territorians rose in a body and left the house. A con- ference followed, and the Governor, with characteristic blandness, poured oil on the troubled waters. But the dissentients were not pacified until after the following persuasive letter was read to them by the speaker : — " Friends, — " Your union is what I desire, but your peace and accommodating one another is what I must expect from you. The reputation of it is something ; the reality is much more. And I desire you to remember and observe what I say : Yield in circumstantials to preserve essentials, and being safe in one another, you will always be so in esteem with me. Make me not sad when I am going to leave you, since it is for .you, as well as for your Friend and Governor, "William Penn.''^ A new charter had often been talked about, and now a draft of it, prepared by a Committee of the Assembly, was produced and discussed. The pro- visions did not promise much security, inasmuch as the representatives of opposite and clashing in- terests were left at liberty to separate "by proper ' Clarkson, vol. ii. p. 271. 3i8 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. signification of the same," within three years after the date of this new charter. The Governor appointed, by letters patent under the great seal, a Council of State, consisting of Edward Shippen, Thomas Story, and eight other persons, for the government of the province and territories, to assist him or his lieutenant with their advice, in his own absence, or in case of his lieutenant's death or incapacity, to exercise the necessary powers of government He also granted a charter of incorporation to a mayor, aldermen, and common-councilmen, with a recorder, sheriff, town clerk, and other officers, thus showing how closely he walked on English constitutional lines in giving a municipal constitution to the good city of Phila- delphia. All things being thus set in order, he turned his face towards Old England, and embarked with his wife and family on a voyage which proved his last across the Atlantic. Just as they were on the point of starting, a cer- tificate of removal was given to Letitia Penn, testify- ing that she was " courteously carriaged and sweetly tempered in her conversation among us, and also a diligent comer to meetings. We hope she hath plen- tifully received of the dew which hath fallen upon God's people to her settlement and establishment in the same." In this document, it is said, to the best of their knowledge and belief, she was not under any marriage engagement. Respecting this last matter, a good deal came out afterwards. Some said Letitia at the time was under an en- gagement to William Masters, and when the persons who signed the certificate heard this, they wished to recall it, whereupon much controversy ensued. For SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 319 soon after her return to England she was married to one William Aubrey. Certainly we find her brother saying in a letter from London, " My sister Letitia has, I believe, a very good sort of man, that makes a good husband ; William Masters, whatever ground he had for it in Pennsylvania, made a mighty noise here, but it lasted not long." The father also remarked that she was married, adding, " We have brought her home, where I write, a noble house for the city, and other things, I hope well. But S. Pennington's, if not S. Harwood's, striving for William Masters against faith, truth, and righteousness, will not be easily for- gotten ; though things come honourably off, to his and the old envy's confusion, his father's friends nobly testifying against the actions of both."^ Penn has not clearly expressed himself in this last sentence, but I gather from it that there had been a family dispute; that the relations of Letitia's mother did not approve of the match, and herein differed from the father's opinions. He clearly had a strong feel- ing of displeasure, and makes no secret of it. William Penn, with all his courteousness, could be very plain. ' Date 6th September, 1 702 ; " Penn and Logan Correspond- ence,'' vol. i. p. 34. CHAPTER XVII. SECOND RETURN. WILLIAM PENN and his household reached Portsmouth in the middle of December, 1701, having been absent about two years. A little more than two months afterwards, the death of William III. and the accession of Anne altered for a time the prospects of the Penn family. The Dutch prince, though personally civil to the founder of Philadelphia, did not complacently regard the rela- tion of the latter to the new city, and to the State around it. William was a very different man from the last two sovereigns of the Stuart line. They were neither soldiers nor diplomatists. They cared com- paratively little for England's glory. They had no anxiety about the balance of power and the defeat of French ambition. They had no dreams of colonial empire, and of checking European enemies by military plans in America. But these matters occupied the mind of William in his cabinet, and influenced his movements in the field. He wished for a change in the state of the new colonies across the Atlantic, in subserviency to objects nearer home. Efforts to bring the province and the territories on the banks of the Delaware completely under royal authority, to re- cover grants made by Charles and his brother James, SECOND RETURN. 321 and to constitute the Quaker State a Crown colony — thus making it a base for military operations, — were favourite objects of the royal ambition. Schemes had been suggested with that end in view. Bills had been introduced to the House of Lords for that purpose ; and hence tidings of what was being done in this respect alarmed the Quaker Governor whilst sitting in his chair of state at Philadelphia and Pennsbury ; the demise of the Crown defeated their designs, and removed the fears which brought him back from his transatlantic possessions. In one direction, at least, the clouded sky began to clear. William's toleration policy was welcome to the sub- ject of our memoir, but his martial policy, in reference to Europe, could not be approved by one who fully imbibed that hatred of war which had marked the teachings of George Fox. No Quaker could sym- pathise in the royal anxiety for a balance of power, and the determination to adjust it by force of arms. The accession of Anne, on personal grounds, was propitious to William Penn. She was the daughter of James, the old Admiral's friend, and even more the friend of his son. She had much of the same disposition as her father ; and she liked those who liked him. She knew all about his intimacy with the Quaker, and the loyalty of the Quaker to him. She had heard how he had suffered for her father's sake, and this must have commended him to Her Majesty's regards. Upon her accession religious bodies pressed towards the throne, to present dutiful addresses. Church and Dissent vied with each other in professions of attach- ment. The Presbyterian, the Independent, and the Y 322 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. Baptist ministers of London were ready with con- gratulations ; but no reply, such as had been given on former similar occasions, was now vouchsafed to them, and royal silence was construed as ominous. In her speech to Parliament she promised to maintain the Act of Toleration, and for this the Quakers thanked her in an address. It could not but be entrusted to the hands of Penn, and when he appeared she did not receive him in silence. "Mr. Penn," she said, with that charming tone of voice for which she was famed, "Mr. Penn, I am so well pleased that what I have said is to your satisfaction, that you and your friends may be assured of my protection." This was flattering. Soon afterwards we find him taking lodgings at Kensington, where he had resided before. It was near the Court. In the red brick palace — now wear- ing much the same appearance as of yore — the queen took up her abode, and liked to sit by the windows which looked into the beautiful garden, where the public were allowed to gaze upon her as she drank her favourite cup of tea. It was a fashionable neigh- bourhood ; and on that very account one wonders that a Quaker should have selected it for his residence. But we do not know his motives, and an acquaintance with them is necessary to determine the wisdom or other- wise of the choice he made. However, there is no proof of his having played the courtier this time. After the interview when presenting the address, I know of no instance of his admission to the royal presence. Harley, a reserved man — first member of ^ Whig, and then member of a Tory administration — is spoken off as a friend of Penn's, and as one able SECOND RETURN. 323 and willing to render service in his Pennsylvanian affairs. Amongst his large acquaintance with distin- guished people, there were others kindly disposed, and he would come in contact with them at the Treasury Office and elsewhere ; but there is no evidence of his having courted their society for the sake of patronage or prestige. We have reason to believe that he re- mained throughout a steady, uncompromising Quaker. Dissenters were then unpopular. Sacheverell was commencing his career. A cry of "the Church in danger ! " began to be heard. Low Churchmen were violently abused ; and as a sign of the times, an Occasional Conformity Bill was brought before the Commons. " It was a bold attempt," says a candid historian, " to repeal the Toleration Act, and to bring back the pains and penalties of the times before the Revolution." ^ Occasional communion with the Church of England had been allowed to Noncon- formists, who by availing themselves of it could evade the Corporation Act. In this way a Dissenter had become Lord Mayor of London. The new Bill was intended to stop the practice. Some Nonconformists disapproved of occasional conformity. De Foe did ; and whilst the controversy raged, Penn stepped for- ward with a pamphlet on the subject. At the same period he committed to the press "More Fruits of Solitude," as a second part of the admirable " Max- ims" published in 1683. He removed, in 1703, from Kensington to Knights- bridge, and there wrote another controversial essay in defence of Quakerism. Whilst residing there he also ' Perry's " History of the Church of England," vol. iii. p. 145. 324 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. issued a collection of devotional writings by Charles Marshall, called "Zion's Travellers Comforted." On the 26th of May, 1703, Penn lost his friend Samuel Pepys, the charmingly garrulous diarist, who enables us to live amongst his contemporaries, and who was an intimate acquaintance, though not an admirer, of the old Admiral. He seems to have had a liking for the son, and several times refers to him ; and I notice this circumstance because I find that in his will he bequeathed " rings and mourning," to be "presented upon the occasion of his death and funeral ;" and in a long list of persons, there occurs the name of William Penn. To him a ring is left ; and in the executor's account certain names are distinguished by the letter V., with this memorandum — " to the persons thus marked, the rings, etc., were delivered or sent as opportunity served ; the rest were present at the funeral." Penn's name is so distinguished. As a Quaker he would not be likely to attend the obsequies of the deceased, but he must have been touched by the reception of a memorial from one so far removed from him in religious opinions. Two dark and threatening storms began to gather ; a third was not far off. The first came rolling across the Atlantic. He heard that the Governor, acting in his place, had summoned the Assembly, but that the representatives of the territories refused to meet — they objected to the charter, and said it was not binding on them. They held on in this obstructive course, and so de- feated attempts at business ; as soon as the repre- sentatives of the province determined to act by them- selves, the Governor died, and his successor found SECOND RETURN. 325 them still further impracticable, because they claimed the power of self-adjournment, whenever they pleased. It is wearisome to enter into details of these disputes. It is sufficient to state that they continued year by year to trouble the proprietor's peace. Besides bad news brought by American posts, there were pecuniary troubles which began to press more heavily than ever. " I am forced to borrow money," he writes, " adding debts to debts, for conferences, counsel's opinions, hearings, etc., with the charges for these — guineas melting away ! " " O Pennsylvania, what hast thou not cost me ! Above ;£'30,ooo more than I ever got." ^ Whilst unable to extricate himself, he had in the course of a few years to contend with fresh difficulties. In 1706 a new Governor, General Evans, managed to make himself so unpopular as to endanger the safety of the province. He advocated military pre- parations, and treated with contempt antipathies to war. To make it out that such preparations were necessary, he played an infamous trick. He had a messenger sent to Philadelphia during a fair, saying that a foreign fleet had ascended the river, and was on the point of attacking the town. The people were frightened, whilst the contriver of the plot rode up and down the streets, brandishing a sword in deiiance of the imaginary foe. Fleeing to the woods, burying property, and taking up arms, were methods of safety employed by some people ; but only four Quakers assumed a military attitude. When the hoax was exposed, the inventor of it found himself farther off his object than before ; for the irritated citizens were 1 " The Penns and the Penningtons," p. 404. 326 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. now more than ever resolved to defeat his policy. Yet, untaught by experience, the man tried another scheme. He sought to render a law, passed by the territorialists for the imposition of a tax for every vessel as it sailed up the river, binding upon the people of the province, who had no part in the enact- ment ; but in this manoeuvre, as in the other, he was defeated, for the law was broken with impunity, and the enforcement of it was given up in despair. More- over, Logan, Penn's Secretary, was attacked by a form of impeachment. Through new Pennsylvanian troubles old confusion became worse confounded, and Penn got heartily sick of his responsibility as ruler of so refractory a set of people. His representative in Philadelphia went on quarrelling with the Assembly, and the Assembly went on quarrelling with him. Affairs thus became increasingly perplexing, so that Penn gradually came to feel that the best thing was to get rid of his burdens altogether. The second storm of which I have to speak was worse than the first. That blew from abroad; this sprung up at home. He was very fond of his first- born son. This young man, whose name was William, had resided at Worminghurst during his father's absence, and had been put in possession of paternal property situated in Ireland. He was at the time now under review married to a young lady, like himself fond of high life and gay company, though they both stood connected with the Society of Friends. He told his father, on his returning to England, that, as heir of large American property, he ought to see his inheritance ; and he wished to start alone as soon SECOND RETURN. V-1 as possible. The father accordingly wrote to Logan : " My son shall hasten. Go with him to Pennsbury. Advise him. Recommend his acquaintance. No rambling to New York. He has promised fair. I know he will regard thee. He has wit, kept the top company, and must be handled with much love and wisdom. Urging the weakness and folly of some behaviour, and the necessity of another conduct from interest and from reputation, will go far." He men- tions several persons who would be " soft and kind in leading. That will do wonders with him. He is conquered in that way. Pretends much to honour, and is over-generous by half; yet sharp enough to get to spend." ^ This reveals the father's tenderness, who wished to make the best of his boy; and behind it all, do we not see loving memories of the mother, Gulielma Maria .' But there was delay in young Penn's departure for full a year, occasioned, perhaps, by the circumstance first mentioned in the following note : — " My son, having life, resolves to be with you the first opportunity. His wife, this day week, was de- livered of a fine boy. So that now we are major, minor, and minimus. I bless the Lord mine are pretty well. Johnny lively ; Tommy a lovely large child ; and my grandson, Springett, a mere Saracen ; his sister a beauty. If my son sends hounds, as he has provided two or three couple of choice ones, for 1 " The Penns and the Penningtons," p. 400. This letter is no doubt taken from the Logan correspondence, but as no date is given, I am unable to find it. The extracts by Maria Webb are very inaccurately copied. 328 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. deer, foxes, and wolves, pray let great care be taken of them."^ From this it appears his father was ready to indulge him as far as possible. The father, with all his affection, had reason already to suspect that his son was not what he wished him to be ; and he endeavoured, therefore, to raise such fences as he could against inroads of temptation. He says, in a letter to Logan in 1702, when the young man was preparing to embark : " Immediately take him away to Pennsbury, and there give him the true state of things, and weigh down his levities, as well as temper his resentments, and inform his under- standing, since all depends upon it, as well for his future happiness, as in measure your poor country's." " Watch him. Outwit him, and honestly overreach him for his good. Fishings, little journeys (as to see the Indians) will divert him ; and pray Friends to bear him all they can, and melt towards him, at least civilly, if not religiously. He will confide in thee." " Pennsylvania has cost me dearer in my poor child than all other considerations." ^ Young Penn reached America in 1 703, and was received for his father's sake with the utmost respect. The Indians sent a deputation to the heir, bidding him welcome, and presenting belts of wampum, as symbols of goodwill. For a time the young man behaved with propriety ; but at length he threw off the influence of Logan, his best adviser, that he might put himself into the hands of Deputy-Governor Evans, who became his evil genius, and led him to disgrace- ' " The Penns and the Penningtons," p. 401. ^ " Penn and Logan Correspondence," vol. i. p. 171 SECOND RETURN. 329 ful excesses. His father had been utterly deceived in Evans, and he and young William became city talk, to the bitter sorrow of Quaker friends. Logan, on the 9th of September, 1704, let the father know how things went on ; and the father, on the 9th of November, wrote back to say that he hoped his friend would persuade William to send for his wife, whom he had left behind in England. " I have done when I tell thee," said the agitated parent, " to let my son know that if he be not a very good husband, I must sell there as well as here, and that all he spends is disabling me, so far, to clear myself of debt, and that he will pay for it in the long run. Do it in the friendliest manner, that he may co-operate with me to clear our encumbered estate and honour." ^ The son complained that his father had more regard for his second than his first family. Logan wrote to the Governor and told him this ; and " an emulation," he adds, " between his own and thy younger seems too much to rivet him in it [this opinion], which, were it obviated by the best methods, might be of service ; for he is, and must be, thy son, and thou either happy or unhappy in him." He also says, in February, 1705, the young man " was barbarously treated by that rascal, David Lloyd." ^ Of course this scape- grace murmured against Friends in England and America, alleging that their reports were false and unreasonable ; though unfortunately his subsequent conduct removed him beyond the pale of justification, or even excuse. • " Penn and Logan Correspondence," vol. i. p. 343. 2 Ibid., vol. i. p. 369. 330 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. The Quaker community in Pennsylvania had to complain of nightly disturbances in streets once re- markable for quietude. Young men and women went about indulging in all sorts of riotous merriment. They held one evening a masquerade at a tavern, and then turned out to revel in the public thorough- fares. Such license fearfully shocked the Quaker inhabitants ; and it touched them to the quick to find that Friend Penn's heir was ringleader of the orgies. At last, the roystering party became so out- rageous, that the city guard had to interfere. The rioters were brought before the magistrates, one of the culprits being the Founder's own son. He had up to this time professed to be of the same faith as his father, but now the members of the community exercised customary discipline ; a step resented with indignation by the young man, who renounced the name as well as the character of a Friend. William the Quaker had grieved William the Ad- miral ; now William the dissolute grieved William the pious. The consequences were as great a contrast as the causes ; the Admiral in the end had to bless God for the disobedience of his son ; the disobedience of the grandson brought down his father's grey hairs with sorrow to the grave. He returned from America to England, only to continue a trouble to his father, who was now pouring out to Logan the tale of his sorrow from that and other sources. "What with the load of your un- worthy spirits there," he says in April, 1705, "and some not much better here, with my poor son's going into the army or navy, as well as getting into Par- liament, through so many checks and tests upon his SECOND RETURN. 331 morals as well as education ; with the loads of debt hardly to be answered, from the difficulty of getting in what I have a right to, of twice their value, which is starving in the midst of bread, my head and heart are filled sufficiently with trouble. Yet the Lord holds up my head, and Job's over-righteous and mistaken friends have not sunk my soul from its confidence in God.^ From this it appears that the son, after being educated as a Friend, was thinking of military or naval service, and was also striving to get into Par- liament. The former of these circumstances must have been distressing to one who was so strenuous an advocate of peace, and the electioneering experi- ment could not but lead to fresh pecuniary embar- rassment. Other letters written by Penn at this period, show that the son lost his election, and petitioned that his opponent should be unseated, which only involved him in fresh expenses. They also show that the sum of ;^ 10,000 was wanted to pay off debts.^ A third storm, still more violent, broke unexpec- tedly. Penn had mistaken the character of Evans ; he made a greater mistake in the case of Ford, whom he employed as steward. Whatever faculty he might have for the discernment of good, he had little or no power of discerning evil ; and he thought well of all who professed to think well of him. This last man, whom he trusted, passed accounts without auditing them, and signed bills without troubling him- ' " Penn and Logan Correspondence," vol. ii. p. 14. 2 Ibid., p. 69. 332 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. ^elf to inquire what they were for. Ford died, and left a son, also a widow, as unprincipled as himself These survivors conspired to ruin the very person to whom the whole family were under immense obliga- tion. Penn, unknown to his friends, had borrowed ;^2,8oo from this wretched steward ; and after paying into his hands as much as would liquidate the debt, neglected to secure the bond in which he had actually given the Pennsylvanian province as security. Con- sequently, after Ford's death, his representatives de- manded principle and interest, amounting altogether, they said, to ;^ 14,000. Penn consulted Friends, who saw what villainy had been practised, and they advised him to resist the claim. The claimants took out a warrant, in consequence of Penn's nonpayment of some minor items, and actually endeavoured to arrest their victim when he was worshipping at Gracechurch meeting. Friends managed to prevent this, and recommended him to go to prison for awhile, rather than submit to gross injustice. He was lodged in the Fleet, or rather within the precincts of the prison. There he was visited by friends, not only those of his own religious community, but others in high social position. All pitied him. James Logan wrote to Thomas Callow- hill, father of Penn's second wife, a letter, dated the 13th of August, 1706, in which he says, "Never was there any person more barbarously treated or baited with undeserved enemies. He has been able to foil all attacks from public adversaries, but 'tis his fortune to meet greatest severities from those that were most to him.'' " For such a combination of adversaries has seldom been known to attack a person that so little SECOND RETURN. 333 deserved them. It must be confessed something of it all is owing to his easiness and want of caution." "As far as I can gather, from the accounts I have at such a distance, P. Ford's designs were base and barbarous from the beginning ; and what an old cun- ning, self-interested man, with such intentions, might be capable of doing, when he had so much goodness, open-heartedness, and confidence in himself to deal with, is not difficult to imagine." ^ Beyond all doubt Penn was singularly guileless, not suspecting others who were the very opposite to himself " I have seen their accounts," said Callowhill, in reply, dated 23rd of March, 1707, "stated under both their hands, William Penn's and Philip Ford's, in which, by his easiness and want of caution, as thou observest, he gave the wretch opportunities of his base, barbarous, and wicked extortions, that riseth to so great a bulk, which had they been corrected in time would not have amounted to the tenth part of what they now are. That little knowledge that I have of it troubles me ; yet have I comfort in this, that, though their concerns seem great and exercising, neither him nor my daughter sinks under it; but from the Divine Providence have supports to their spirits, and I pray God it may tend to their good, and be instruction to their posterity." ^ Nor is this all. The Fords had the impudence to petition Queen Anne to be put in possession of the provincial Government. But the Lord Chancellor decided that at all events the equity of redemption ' " Penn and Logan Correspondence," vol. ii. p. 163. ^ Ibid., p. 201. 334 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. remained in Penn and his heirs ; and, " as to taking the Government, that could not be, for it would not be decent to make Government ambulatory." ^ Penn remained nine months within the rules of the prison ; and whilst there, one day some visitors called on him with lamentable accounts of the Lieutenant- Governor of Pennsylvania. The man's unrighteous policy and immoral conduct shocked his superior exceedingly. " This disjoints all," he says, "and cuts me down at once, so that I have been forced to think, much against my desire, of looking out another to put in his place." Yet, after this, Penn did not lose con- fidence in the man, but said, " I doubt not his regard for my interest in the main." ^ At last the prisoner was liberated through the in- tervention of friends. There was still that uncancel- led bond standing before him, worse than a gaunt spectre, and it was thought best to advance the sum of ;^7,Soo, to liberate the victim from his legal but thoroughly inequitable obligations. It has been beautifully said, "God darkens this world to us, that our eyes may behold the greater brightness of His kingdom." Perhaps it would not be going too far to say that there was more brightness falling on Penn's head when in the Fleet, than when he was at White- hall with James II. 1 " Penn and Logan Correspondence," vol. ii. p. 263, et seq. 2 I find this passage in a letter from Isaac Norris to Joseph Pike, dated 2Sth March, 1708, "Penn and Logan Correspond- ence," vol. ii. p. 267 : " William Penn intends, if cast in Chan- cery, to remove to the House of Lords ; but it cannot be this Session, for 'tis not issued in Chancery yet. I believe the Duchess of Marlborough has not only pitied but taken some pains in his affairs." SECOND RETURN. 335 Other money troubles pressed upon Penn. William Aubrey, who married his daughter Letitia, turned out a grasping creditor. He lent money to his father-in- law ; and the vexations arising from that source are brought to light by the publication of the Logan correspondence. In a letter by William Penn, 4th June, 1709, he writes : " Oh, whatever thou dost, let my poor daugh- ter have some money, for great is the cry of William Aubrey and old Norton against Pennsylvanian pay- masters. I will pay no more interest to W. Aubrey, if thou canst make pay to his attorney's there. But whatever thou dost, let me not be dishonoured in that affair, because [of] my poor child's portion. But for her he would go over. But her regards for the country are at low ebb, which is my trouble." Evidently Letitia had no love for America. Yet another affair troubled him ; for he says in the same letter, " I have had a hearing before the Queen and Council, against Lord Baltimore, who drew it upon me, in which I have my old order of 13th of 9th month, 1685, in all its parts and points ratified and confirmed, which has laid those walking ghosts. Can my wicked enemies yet bow .■• They shall, or break and be broken to pieces, before a year from this date comes about, and my true friends rejoice." ^ In the same year (1709) he would hear of the dis- putes between his faithful friend, James Logan, and the Assembly, who went so far as to order his com- mitment to " the county gaol of our Lady the Queen. "^ ^ " Penn and Logan Correspondence,'' vol. ii. p. 354. 2 Ibid., p. 418. 336 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. But this order did not take effect, and we find Logan in England shortly afterwards. The different authorities in Pennsylvania kept on quarrelling ; and in March, 17 lO, Isaac Norris, a man of influence, thus writes : " I often think of the frogs' petition to Jupiter, and fear it must be a governor im- mediately from the Crown that must set us to rights. We are an infatuated or blind people, or the condi- tion of our neighbours in Jersey might be a good instance to us." ^ Penn did not leave the subject of his wrongs entirely to other persons ; he undertook to expound them in his own way. He wrote an address to his "old Friends," in 1710, and referred to the great troubles which had befallen him at the time when they were reaping the advantage of his enterprise. He had borne incredible expense for their welfare ; had he not been supported by a Divine hand, he would have sunk long before. Hard measures had been dealt out to him ; they occupying a land of prosperity, he suffering from the sources of their wealth. He had been treated as an enemy, not as a friend. He had studied their interests, giving them charters which they desired ; but they had called licentiousness liberty, and had broken up order by turbulent proceedings. " The attacks," he adds, " on my reputation ; the many indignities put upon me in papers sent over hither, into the hands of those who could not be expected to make the most discreet and charitable use of them ; the secret insinuations against my justice, besides the attempt made upon ' " Penn and Logan Correspondence," vol. ii. p. 423. SECOND RETURN. 337 my estate, resolves passed in the Assembly for turn- ing my quit-rents, never sold by me, to the support of Government ; my lands entered upon without any regular method ; my manor invaded (under pretence I had not duly surveyed them), and both these by persons principally concerned in these attempts against me here ; a right to my overplus land unjustly claimed by the possessors of the tracts in which they are found ; my private estate continually exhausting for the support of that government ; to which I cannot but add the violence done to my Secretary." When," he says, " I reflect on all these heads. . . I cannot but mourn the unhappiness of my portion; . . . nor can I but lament the unhappiness that too many are bringing on themselves, who, instead of pursuing the amicable ways of peace, love, and unity, which I first hoped to find in that retirement, are cherishing a spirit of contention and opposition ; and, blind to their own interests, are oversetting that foundation on which your happiness might be built." ^ Here, in spite of wordiness, we recognise in the old man eloquent a good deal of the force and fire of earlier days. This address took effect. A change came over the Assembly when they pondered the long chapter of his wrongs ; and when a new Assembly was elected in October, 1710, not one candidate was returned inimi- cal to his interests. We are told that harmony and co-operation followed, that revenues were supplied, and that complaints were hushed. To crown all. Friends had power sufficient to get a Bill passed for preventing the importation of negroes. ' Clarkson, vol. ii. p. 324. 338 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. Penn's Government, according to the ideal as painted by Mr. Bancroft, seemed now to be approach- ing reahzation : " An executive dependent for its support on the people ; all subordinate executive officers elected by the people ; the judiciary depen- dent for its existence on the people ; all legislation originating exclusively with the people ; no forts, no armed police, no militia ; perfect freedom of opinion ; no established Church ; no difference of rank, and a harbour opened for the reception of all mankind, of children of every language and every creed." ^ But surely the friend of King James, and the sup- porter of a dispensing power, could scarcely wish for such an absolute democracy as the historian has ven- tured to paint. At all events, we discover from the Logan correspondence that the Assembly voted ;£" 500 to Queen Anne ; and in the same correspondence mention is made of " the Queen's order " ; and the prison at Philadelphia is called, as we have seen, " the county gaol of our Lady the Queen." ^ In fact, the charter of Charles II. had reserved certain Crown rights which had not been abrogated. Pennsylvania remained, though a republic in one sense, yet a royal colony in another. In 1695 the Assembly drew up a new form of government, re- ducing the number of councillors and deputies, and committing to the Assembly the power of meeting without summons from the Governor — a thoroughly democratic proceeding — and Penn assented to it. Also in 1701 he allowed the territories, if they wished, to ' " History of the United States," vol. iii. p. 46. ' " Penn and Logan Correspondence," vol. ii. pp. 357,418, 430. SECOND RETURN. 339 separate from the province ; but the recognitions of loyalty which I have just cited, as late as the year 17 10, show that Queen Anne, like her predecessors, retained a suzerainty over the broad lands on the banks of the Delaware. To avoid breaking the main threads of trouble, which I have endeavoured carefully to gather up, certain incidents have been passed over ; they will be found to have afforded some mitigation of his numer- ous griefs. Penn sought some relief in repeated removals, he being rather of a restless turn in the choice of abodes. After he went from Kensington to Knightsbridge, he removed, in 1706, to Brentford, no very agreeable change, one would think ; there, however, he con- tinued some time. Then, in 17 10, he took a large quaint house opposite the church at Field Ruscombe, close to Twyford, on the Reading road. " ' The Loddon slow, with verdant alders crown'd,' occupies two principal channels, both here fordable, which give the name to Twyford, and about two miles below ' the fair Lodona ' falls into the Thames, according to Drayton — ' Contributing her store, As still we see the much runs ever to the more. A little farther on — ' Clear Kennet overtakes His lord, the stately Thames.' and traverses the rich alluvial meads to Reading." ^ I avail myself of this extract to indicate the plea- sant scenery amidst which the Founder of Pennsyl- ' Murray's " Handbook for Berks." 340 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. vania took up his last abode. His rustic taste would there find gratification, and the account given of the way in which he lived, shows that he must have had many comforts at his command ; though how this was managed is by no means clear, as we listen to his complaints of straitened means. I must say his pecuniary affairs are a great puzzle. The year of his removal to the rural retreat near Twyford, we find him at times in London, dining with the Prime Minister, Harley ; and waiting upon the Duke of Ormond at Whitehall, on his returning from the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland. Then, accom- panied by other Friends, Penn thanked him for his kindness to the Society during his administration there. At this period he employed himself occasionally both in preaching and in publication. He did not travel far, but Berks, Bucks, and Surrey were visited ; and we are warranted to imagine that, whilst increas- ing years made his dignified appearance still more venerable, he continued, when at meeting, his habit of sitting at the lowest end of the bench or gallery appropriated to ministers, always giving precedence to poorer brethren, and those whom he considered peculiarly gifted. Young preachers were much en- couraged by the notice of so eminent a man ; and Thomas Story speaks of fatherly care shown to him- self by " that great minister of the gospel, and faithful servant of Christ, William Penn, who abounded in wisdom, discretion, prudence, love and tenderness of affection, with all sincerity, above most in this genera- tion J and indeed I never knew his equal." ^ ' Clarkson, vol. ii. p. 354. SECOND RETURN. 341 He continued the practice of authorship. In 1704, whilst at Knightsbridge, he wrote a preface to " The Gospel Labours of John Whitehead," a distinguished ministerial Friend. After his retirement to Rush- combe, he prepared " Some Account of the Life and Writings of Bulstrode Whitelocke," a lawyer and statesman of great importance during the Common- wealth, with whom Penn cultivated an intimate friendship. Whitelocke opposed the trial of Charles I., and told Cromwell, one day in Kensington Park, that there were legal objections to his assumption of regal authority. Political sympathies, in some degree, would bind together the two men ; yet though White- locke held office under Cromwell, he never much liked him, and under Charles II. he gave no trouble. Whitelocke was heavily mulcted at the Restoration with a fine of ;£'so,ooo ; Penn, when talking about it years afterwards, would be able to sympathise with Whitelocke, though then he little thought of his future losses. The lawyer was a Puritan, and retired to Chilton Lodge, in Wiltshire, where he entertained ejected ministers, and had religious meetings at a time of persecution. He died in the year 1676. Penn, even as a boy, might have known something of him, but his intimate friendship could scarcely have begun till some time after the Restoration ; probably it was fostered after the Quaker's imprisonment. It appears from what the latter says, that he had visited White- locke in Berkshire. He speaks of him as one of the most accomplished men of the age. " Being with him sometimes at his own house in Berkshire, where amongst many serious things he spoke, this was very 342 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. observable : ' I ever have thought,' said he, ' there has been one true religion in the world ; and that is, the work of the Spirit of God in the hearts and souls of men. There have been indeed divers forms and shapes of things, through the many dispensations of God to men, answerable to His own wise ends, in reference to the low and uncertain state of man in the world ; but'the old world had the Spirit of God, for it strove with them ; and the new world has had the Spirit of God, both Jew and Gentile ; and it strives with all ; and they that have been led by it have been the good people in every dispensation of God to the world. And I myself must say, I have felt it from a child to convince me of my evil and vanity ; and it has often given me a true measure of this poor world, and some taste of divine things ; and it is my grief I did not more early apply my soul to it. For I can say, since my retirement from the greatness and hurries of the world, I have felt some- thing of the work and comfort of it, and that it is both ready and able to instruct, and lead, and pre- serve those that will humbly and sincerely hearken to it. So that my religion is the Good Spirit of God in my heart; I mean, what that has wrought in me and for me.' After a meeting at his house, to which he gave an entire liberty for all that pleased to come, he was so deeply affected with the testimony of the light, spirit, and grace of Christ in man, as the Gospel dispensation, that after the meeting closed in prayer, he rose up, and pulled off his hat, and said, ' This is the everlasting gospel I have heard this day, and I humbly bless the name of God that He has let me live to see this day, in which the ancient gospel SECOND RETURN. 3+3 is again preached to them that dwell upon the earth.' " i This showed Whitelocke's sympathy with Friends relative to a fundamental principle in their religious system, and it would of course win the heart of his visitor. Penn's latter days were consecrated to the pre- servation of loving memories. First of John White- head, next of Bulstrode Whitelocke, last of John Banks," " one of his ancient friends." This was the last piece he ever published. The author tenderly acknowledged his obligations. Banks had been the first in Cumberland to receive the glad tidings pro- claimed by George Fox and the early Friends. " Thus I first met him," says Penn, " and as I re- ceived his testimony through the Saviour of life, so I was kindly accepted and encouraged by him in the belief of the blessed testimony of the light, spirit, grace, and truth of Christ, in the inward parts, re- proving, instructing, reforming, and redeeming those souls from the evil of the world that were obedient thereunto. Here he was a strength to my soul, in the early days of my convincement, together with his dear and faithful friend, brother, and fellow-traveller, John Wilkinson, of Cumberland, formerly a very zealous and able Independent minister." ^ Thus Banks comes into union with Loe in the chain of instrumentalities producing Penn's spiritual change. One planted, another watered, God gave the increase. In the course of his preface to Banks' works, Penn ' Penn's Works, i. p. 431. 2 Clarkson, vol. ii. p. 308. 344 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. breaks out into one of those holy utterances which in style differ so much from his secular writings : — "And O that none who make profession of the dispensation of the spirit may build beside the work of Jesus Christ in their own souls, in reference to His prophetical, priestly and kingly office ; in which regard God His Father gave Him as a tried stone, elect and precious, to build by and upon ; concerning which great and glorious truth we do most humbly beseech the Almighty, who is God of the spirits of all flesh, the Father of light and spirits, to ground and establish all His visited and convinced ones, that they may grow up an holy house and building to the Lord ; so shall purity, peace, and charity abound in the house and sanctuary that He hath pitched and not man." ^ ■ Clarkson, vol. ii. p. 307. CHAPTER XVIII. SUNSET. REPEATED references have been made to the contemplated resignation by William Penn of that governmental proprietorship of Pennsylvania which had been to him a source of constant trouble. This proprietorship must be carefully distinguished from the property he possessed as a large American landowner. Such possessions were retained by him, and they afterwards proved a source of great wealth to his descendants. There is a letter, by Isaac Norris, in the Logan correspondence, dated 4th month, 171 1, which shows that in Philadelphia the transfer was anticipated. " We hear that a surrender is on foot in England upon which some Friends have wrote freely to our proprietor. I hope if he does, it will be on safe terms for Friends and honourable for himself. In my private judgment, our present circumstances duly weighed, I cannot be against it. He is far in years, his son not very desirable to succeed him, therefore it looks as if the best conditions would be now had in his lifetime ; yet, on the other hand, being sensible, notwithstanding our stingy malcontents make such an outcry now at the poor pittance that is raised, that when a change happens our penny may be sixpence ; 345 346 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. and then whosoever shall by advice or otherwise have contributed thereto, his rational prospects shall be overlooked, and the peoples' present sense of pain raise their anger, so that I would be very cautious of contributing to a change, if it were possible to hold out with any hope of durable ease." Attention has been called to Penn's own intention of resigning the colony into the hands of the Queen's Government, and in 1712 this must have taken a substantive form ; for amongst Treasury papers pre- served in the Record Office, I find there is clear and distinct notice of an arrangement for transferring the provincial government. It appears that he proposed to the Commissioners of Plantation, in February, 1712, to surrender to Her Majesty the powers with which he was invested. In the patent of Charles II., the Pennsylvanian mines of gold and silver, he said, had been granted to him ; of these he had made transfers to others, and consequently could not restore them. But the powers of government he could and would relinquish ; and whilst proposing this surrender to Her Majesty, he sought that she would take the people of his persuasion under her protection. I do not find mention made of any other stipulation or request. Attending at the office when such business was transacted, on being called in by the Commis- sioners, he was asked how he came to set the value he had done upon the revenues due to him. Upon his having answered this question, it was arranged that " their Lordships would recommend the Queen to allow to Mr. Penn the sum of ;^i 2,000, to be paid in four years from the date of his surrender." At this time he seems to have been able, without SUNSET. 347 inconvenience, to attend at the Treasury Office, and to transact business there. He was called in ; ques- tions were asked, to which he gave satisfactory replies, and the arrangement which followed he appears to have been perfectly competent to settle with their lordships. But a note of the same year, dated Feb- ruary or March, most likely the latter, affectingly indicates that something in the interval had happened seriously to injure his health. It is addressed to the Lord High Treasurer : — "My Noble Friend, — " The reason of the trouble of my message was the hopes thy goodness had long raised in me of an easier access, in my present weakness, at thy house than office, wearing a night-gown still, which makes but an odd figure at the Treasury. I hope I shall not need to trouble thee often, because the expedients I have to offer for the payment of my government, will make it so easy and practicable in thy opinion. Compassionate the circumstances of thy faithful and respectful old friend, "William Penn.''^ If this were written within a month after the former entry, either an attack of indisposition must have seized him in the interval, or indisposition, previously experienced slightly, must have become consider- ably worse. Clarkson states that in 1712, "he made up his mind to part with his province to Government ; " and after further description of the arrangement, he adds, " He was seized at different times with three ' Papers under date 1712, Feb. 23. 348 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. several fits, said to be apoplectic, the latter of which was so severe that it was with difficulty that he survived it. It so shattered his understanding and memory, that he was left scarcely fit to manage at times the most trifling of his private concerns." ^ But as he did not die till 17 18, six years must have elapsed between his first seizure and his decease. From the above note, addressed to the Lord Treasurer, I should conclude that the first seizure occurred immediately after his appearance before the Commissioners ; that it was not very serious, yet such as rendered it neces- sary for him to have a loose dress, such as he could not wear before their lordships in committee, though it might serve sufficiently for a private visit to his friend the High Treasurer. The last and severest attack he suffered five years before he died, left him unable to walk or write, and at times affected his mind ; yet there were intervals in which he could take drives, attend meetings, and hold short conversations with his friends. In the Treasury Papers, under date, September, 1712, there is notice of ;^ 1,000 in part payment of j^ 1 2,000, a circumstance which indicates that instal- ments began to be made of the sum for which Govern- ment had purchased the proprietary rights of Phila- delphia ; but the contract could not have been carried out, as appears from subsequent relations between his heirs and the authorities in the colony. The negotiations most likely were suspended or termin- ated by his increasing illness. His wife's father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. Callow- ' Clarkson, voL ii. p. 310. SUNSET. 349 hill, died in the middle of the year 1712 ; and whilst he was in the act of writing a letter to his friend Logan, touching his family bereavement, suddenly " the pen — that busy pen — stopped, and stopped for ever, under the pressure of a paralytic seizure." In 1714, April lOth, there is, amongst the Trea- sury documents, notice of a report to the Lord High Treasurer, in these words : — "Pennsylvania, Newcastle, and Lower Counties. Hitherto, under the government of Mr. Penn, self- supported ; the proprietor, by his grants of the Lower Counties from King James, when Duke of York, was accountable to the Crown for half the quit rents, and other profits, from 24th August, 1682, computed at £6,200, for which Mr. Penn had been called upon ; but, as he was treating for the surrender of the property, there had been 'no further prosecution.' On the surrender there would be an annual expense for a governor, etc., and the assemblies might refuse to make the allowance, as was the case at New York, and the expense to Her Majesty would then be about ^1,000 per annum." The securing of the colony to the Crown on the terms proposed in 17 12, would appear from this minute of 1714 to have been a matter then in a state of suspension. " No further prosecution " could be made, doubtless owing to Penn's shattered state of health, which incapacitated him for business. What exactly would have been the condition of Pennsylvania had the contract of 17 12 been carried into effect, I cannot tell ; but we know what was the condition of New Jersey, surrendered to Queen Anne in 1702. It lost its charter. A Royal Commission 350 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. constituted the form of administration. To the Governor appointed by the Crown belonged the power of legislation, with the consent of the Council and of the people's representatives. A freehold qualification limited the franchise. The Governor could convene and dissolve at pleasure. Laws were subject to an immediate veto from the Governor, and an ultimate veto from the Crown. The Governor instituted legal courts, and appointed legal officers. Liberty of conscience was conceded to all except Papists, and favour was sought on behalf of the Church of England.^ A constitution of that kind would not have suited the Pennsylvanians. As it was, proprietary rights were inherited by the Penn family after the Founder's decease, and the sons had an experience of colonial affairs similar to their father's. " The sons met with opposition, as did their father, and with the usual difficulties attendant on the founding of a province : some agents embezzled the money produced by sales of land, while the daily wants of each proprietary absorbed much of the proceeds obtained by parting in haste with the most valuable properties." Troubles as before arose from government, and troubles also arose from real property in estates ; and the two kinds of trouble are to be distinguished. Had the colony been surrendered, property in certain lands would have still remained with Penn's descendants. The possessions in real estate were by the Founder's will devised to his sons John, Thomas, and Richard, sons by his second wife ; and the State revenues ' Bancroft, vol. iii. p. 48. SUNSET. 351 which still accrued to the family were expended upon the maintenance and adornment ' of Stoke and of Pennsylvania castles.' " ^ A calculation of the supposed worth of the pro- prietary estate in 1725, made it amount to ten millions. In 1779 "the legislature of Pennsylvania passed an Act for vesting the estate of the late proprietaries in the Commonwealth." By this Act, however, the private estates were reserved to them, and £ 1 30,000 was to be paid on the termination of the war, " in remembrance of the enterprising spirit of the founder, and of the expectations and dependence of his descendants." The amount received by the State of Pennsylvania between 1781 and 1789 from the escheated lands of Penn's heirs, appears to have amounted to ;£'824,094. Parliament, in 1790, granted an annuity of ;^4,ooo to the eldest male descendant of William Penn by his second wife.* Happily for America and England, no such troubles as crushed the spirit of William Penn can occur again in Pennsylvania. The only satisfactory account of him during his last long illness that I know of, is that afforded by memo- randa written by persons who visited him, particu- larly Thomas Story, a well-known Friend — and used by Mr. Clarkson in his memoirs. I shall lay them before the reader, together with notes written by Hannah Penn, these contemporaneous accounts being more accurate and interesting than half-imaginative descriptions presented by any modern biographer. ' " Penn and Logan Correspondence," vol. i., Int. p. xyii. ' Ibid., p. xix. 352 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. A friend who visited him in 171 3 "found him in appearance pretty well in health, and cheerful of disposition, but defective in memory ; so that he could relate, many past transactions, yet he could not readily recollect the names of absent persons, nor could he deliver his words so readily as heretofore ; yet many savoury and sensible expressions came from him, rendering his company even yet acceptable, and manifesting the religious stability of his mind." In 1714 the same friend found him a little altered, yet he was able to get to Reading in his carriage, and to attend a meeting. He rose and delivered a short exhortation, and took leave of friends with great tenderness. His old friend, Thomas Story, in 17 14, came over from Pennsylvania and went down to Ruscombe. We learn from him that Penn " was under the lament- able effects of an apoplectic fit, which he had had some time before ; for his memory was almost quite lost, and the use of his understanding suspended, so that he was not so conversible as formerly, and yet as near the Truth, in the love of it, as before, wherein appeared the great mercy and favour of God, who looks not as man looks ; for though to some this accident might look like judgment, and no doubt his enemies so accounted it, yet it will bear quite another interpretation, if it be considered how little time of rest he ever had from the importunities of the affairs of others, to the great hurt of his own, and suspension of all his enjoyments, till this happened to him, by which he was rendered incapable of all business, and yet sensible of the enjoyment of Truth as at any time in all his life. When I went to the house I SUNSET. 353 thought myself strong enough to see him in that condition ; but when I entered the room, and per- ceived the great defect of his expressions for want of memory, it greatly bowed my spirit, under a con- sideration of the uncertainty of all human qualifica- tions, and what the finest of men are soon reduced to by a disorder of the organs of that body, with which the soul is connected and acts during this present mode of being. When these are but a little obstructed in their various functions, a man of the clearest parts and finest expression becomes scarcely intelligible. Nevertheless, no insanity or lunacy at all appeared in his actions, and his mind was in an innocent state, as appeared by his very loving deportment to all that came near him ; and that he had still a good sense of Truth is plain by some very clear sentences he spoke in the life and power of Truth, in an evening meeting we had together there, wherein we were greatly comforted ; so that I was ready to think this was a sort of sequestration of him from all the concerns of this life, which so much oppressed him, not in judgment, but in mercy, that he might have rest, and not be oppressed thereby to the end." ^ In 1715 Story visited him again, and found his memory still more defective, though his religious enjoyments continued. He rode with him to Read- ing, where Penn uttered " short but very sound and savoury expressions." That year he tried the Bath waters, but derived no benefit. In 17 16 there was greater forgetfulness of names, and a greater weakness of body, but taking leave of Story, he exclaimed, " My > " Life of Thomas Story," p. 463. A A 354 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. love is with you ; the Lord preserve you and remem- ber me in the everlasting Covenant ! " In 1717 Story found his friend's understanding weakened, and he scarcely knew old acquaintances. I record, with a little abbreviation, an account of the last visits — On the 2Sth of May, 1718 : "I was at the meeting at Reading. In the forenoon it was not large ; in the afternoon, on occasion of a burial, the meeting was large, where I had some concern to expose the kingdom of Antichrist, in some degree, and say something also about the resurrection of the dead. That evening I went with Hannah Penn and family to Ruscomb, where I found her husband still weak, but very open to receive me ; which he expressed several ways. There I stayed till the third day, and returned to Reading to their monthly meeting ; which being select and quiet, we had a tender time together in waiting upon the Lord ; where I also had something in testimony, and afterwards we proceeded to the business : and so all was ended in peace. That evening I returned again to Ruscomb, where I stayed till the 29th." " Went to Bristol, where, staying till the 31st, I received a letter from Hannah Penn, of the decease of her husband, our ancient and honourable friend, William Penn ; who departed this life on the 30th, between two and three in the morning, of a short sickness, of which he had no symptoms at my departure thence. " I was much broken in my spirit on reading the letter, considering how nearly we had been acquainted and united in the truth ; and a concern taking hold of my mind to be at the interment of his corpse, I set SUNSET. ■ 355 out that afternoon, about three, from Bristol, accom- panied by his son, John Penn, and one servant ; and that night I lodged at Calne. "On the 1st of the sixth month we arrived at Ruscomb, late in the evening, where we found the widow and most of the family together. Our coming occasioned a fresh remembrance of the deceased, and also a renewed flood of many tears from all eyes. A solid time we had, but few words among us for some time ; for it was a deep baptizing season, and the Lord was near at that time. " Here I staid till the Sth, and that day accompanied the corpse to the grave, at Jordans Meeting Place, in the County of Bucks, where we had a large meeting of Friends, and others, from many places. And as the Lord had made choice of him in the days of his youth, for great and good services, and had been with him in many dangers and difficulties of various kinds ; so He did not leave him in his last moments, but honoured the occasion with His blessed presence, and gave us a happy season of His goodness, to the general satisfaction of all, the meeting being well spoken of by strangers afterwards. " That night I returned to Ruscomb with the family, where I stayed till the lOth ; and being present at the opening of his last will, had occasion to advise the family touching their various interests therein, as I thought most conducing to equity, and their general peace and good, as became their relation to and honour of the deceased." ^ William Penn was interred in the burial ground of 1 " Life of Thomas Story," pp. 606-7. 356 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. Jourdans Meeting House, midway between Beacons- field and Chalfont St. Giles. " It stands upon rather high ground, but its site is in a dell surrounded by meadows and brushwood." ^ There the founder of Pennsylvania sleeps in the same grave with his wife Hannah, who survived him till the year 1726, and next to that of his first love, Gulielma Maria. Letitia and Springett, her children, rest just behind their father and mother, and close by are the remains of Isaac and Mary Pennington. Happily the recent attempt to remove Penn's relics to Philadelphia was successfully resisted. It has been a practice, especially in our own time, when any distinguished person is removed, for sur- viving friends and admirers to meet together to honour the deceased, and to emblazon his virtues on a monument of marble or bronze. Very different were the loving memorials offered after the funeral at Ruscombe. The Reading Friends at their next monthly meeting adopted the following record of William Penn's eminent worth : — " He was a man of great abilities, of an excellent sweetness of disposition, quick of thought and ready utterance, full of the qualification of true discipleship^ even love without dissimulation ; as extensive in charity as comprehensive in knowledge, and to whom malice or ingratitude were utter strangers ; so ready to forgive enemies that the ungrateful were not excepted. Had not the management of his temporal affairs been attended with some difficulties, envy itself would be to seek for matter of accusation ; and yet in ' " The Penns and the Penningtons," p. 428. SUNSET. 357 charity even that part of his conduct may be ascribed to a peculiar sublimity of mind. Notwithstanding which he may, without straining his character, .be ranked among the learned, good, and great, whose abilities are sufficiently manifested throughout his elaborate writings, which are so many lasting monu- ments of his admired qualifications, and are the esteem of learned and judicious men among all persuasions. And though in old age, by reason of some shocks of a violent distemper, his intellects were much impaired, yet his sweetness and loving disposition surmounted its utmost efforts, and remained when reason almost failed. In fine, he was learned without vanity, face- tious in conversation, yet weighty and serious ; apt without forwardness ; of an extraordinary greatness of mind, yet void of the stain of ambition ; as free from rigid gravity as he was clear of unseemly levity ; a man, a scholar, a friend, a minister surpassing in superlative endowments, whose memorial will be valued by the wise, and blessed with the just. " Signed by order of the monthly meeting held at Reading aforesaid, by " William Lomboll, jun. " Jth of 2nd month, 1719." But a perfectly unique testimonial came from the painted Indians, who loved him while living and mourned over him when dead. They sent the widow a message in figurative language, deploring the loss of their honoured brother Onas, as they called him, and with it conveyed a present of beautiful skins for a cloak, as they said, "to protect her while passing through the thorny wilderness without her guide" 35 8 LIFE OF WILLIAM PENN. With exquisite taste, Hannah Penn sent this acknowledgment through the hands of James Logan : " I take very kindly the sympathy of all those that truly lament mine and that country's loss, which loss has brought a vast load of care, toil of mind, and sorrow upon me. . . . For my own part, I expect a wilderness of care — of briers and thorns transplanted here from thence. Whether I shall be able to explore my way, even with the help of my friends, I have great reason to question, notwithstanding the Indians' present, which I now want to put on — having the woods and wildernesses to travel through indeed." She travelled on through " the woods and wilder- nesses" of this world for seven years after her honoured husband's decease, and now sleeps with him in the meadow-bordered dell, not far from the cottage where Milton thought of "paradise regained." INDEX. Anne, Queen, 320, 321, 339. Arlington, Lord, 64. Arran, James, Earl of, 231. Aubrey, William, 319, 335. Baltimore, Lord, 167, 186, 198, 205, 310. Banks, John, 343. Barclay, Robert, visits Germany with Penn, 125, et seq. ; his death, 252 ; his " Apology," 252; his friendship for Penn, 253- Baxter, Richard, 1 10. Beaven, Thomas, 283. Berkeley, Lord, 116. Bishops, The Seven, 239. Brent, 220. Brouncker, Viscount, 41. Buckingham, Duke of, 213. Burnet, Bishop, 216, 230. Burroughs, Edward, 26. Byllinge, Edward, 116- 1 18. Callowhill, Hannah, see Hannah Penn. Callowhill, Thomas, 332, 348. Carolina, 119. Carteret, Sir George, 116. Charles L, 341. Charles II., his court, 38 ; his feeling towards Quakers, 104, 121 ; his death, 206. Churchill, Lord, 223. Clarendon, Earl of, 260. Clarkson, 347, 351. Claus, John, 134. Compton, Henry, Bishop of London, 166. Cornbury, Lord, 303. Cornish, Henry, 216. Coventry, Sir W., 65. Cozack, Dr., 137. Crisp, Stephen, 199, 204. Cromwell, OUver, 9, 12, 341. Cromwell, Richard, 13. Culliford, Captain, 299. Dalmahoy, Colonel, 156. Danby, Lord, Impeachment of, 153. David, Hugh, 10. De Foe, Daniel, 41, 152, 323. Derry, Dean of, 289. Dury, John, 129. Elizabeth, Princess Palatine of the Rhine, 123, 126, 137-140, 161. Ellis, Mary, 99. EUwood, Thomas, 75, 80 ; tutor in Pennington family, 95 ; re- solves to marry, 98 ; treated 36o ' INDEX. 'ith severity by his parents, wi lOO. Evans, General, 325, 328-331. Fagg, Sir John, 158. Faldo, John, 1 10. Falkenstein, Countess of, 130, 132. Farmer, Anthony, 235. Fenwick, John, 116-118. Fletcher, Colonel, 270. Ford, 331-333- Fox, George, 19 ; his principles, 21-23 ; his converts, 26 ; at Oxford, 33 ;» in London, 38 ; meets Penn at Bristol, 102 ; sent to Worcester gaol, 103 ; refuses to accept a pardon, 104 ; efforts for his release, 105 ; liberated, 106 ; visits Germany with Penn, 125, et seq.; ground allotted to him at Philadelphia, 189 ; his death, 252,254; Penn's sketch of him, 278. Fox, Margaret, 105, 195, 201, 254. Fuller, WiUiam, 255, 260, 280. Furly, Benjamin, 125. Gaunt, Elizabeth, 216. Godfrey, Sir Edmondbury, 151. Goodwin, Dr. Thomas, 15. Goreing, Captain, 159. Grahame, James, 259. Gratton, John, 281. Hannan, Ephraim, 183. Harley, 322. Hartsfielder, Jurian, 183. Hasbert, Dr., 135. Henry, Philip, 7. Hewling, Hannah, 222. Hicks, Thomas, 108. Homes, Countess of, 123. Hough, Dr., 235-238. Howe, John, at Utrecht, 232. James H., his accession, 206 ; partiality for Penn, 207, 223 ; his unpopularity, 209, 214 ; policy, 229 ; quarrel with Magdalen College, 233-238 ; his Declaration of Indulgence, and resistance of seven bishops, 239 ; his flight, 247 ; efforts for his restoration, 271. Jeffreys, Judge, 215. Jenkyns, Secretary, 166. Jennings, Governor, 303. Keith, George, visits Germany with Penn, 125 ; change in his opinions, 267 ; disowned by Quakers, 286. Kidder, Dr., 283. Kiffin, WiUiam, 222-224. Labadie, J. de, 134. Lambert, Lady, 66. Lloyd, Thomas, 200. Locke, John, 15, 208 ; his scheme for colonising Carolina, 119, J 83 ; his confidence in Penn, 262. Loe, Thomas, 33, 43, 45, 54, 91, 343- Logan, James, 294, 301, 313, 326-332, 335, 358. INDEX. 361 Lomboll, William, 357. Lower, Thomas, 270, Lowther, 260. Macaulay, Lord, 218-222, 238. Mackintosh, Sir James, 217, 218. Malane,JoannaEleonorade, 129. Markham, William, 171, 184, 266, 298. Maryland, 186. Masters, William, 318. Mastricht, Dr., 130, 131. Moll, John, 183. Monk, Duke of Albemarle, 64. Monmouth, Duke of, his re- bellion, 214. More, Henry, 28, 1 10. Morley, 15, 33. Mysticism, 18-30. Naylor, James, 26-28. New Jersey, 1 16, 120,122,163,349. Norris, Isaac, 304, 336, 345. Gates, Titus, 151. Oliver, Dr., 15. Ormond, Duke of, 42. Orrery, Earl of, 49. Owen, Dr. John, 14, 15. Parker, Bishop of Oxford, 235. Pastorius, Francis Daniel, 297. Pearson, 184. Pelham, Sir John, 158. Penn, George, 11-12. Penn, Giles, i. Penn, Gulielma, see Gulielma Pennington. Penn, Hannah, second wife of Penn, 28s, 294, 351,354, 358; her character, 302, 304. Penn, Letitia, 285, 286, 294, 318, 33S- Penn, Springett, 276, 285. Penn, William, Admiral, early life, I ; made Admiral, 8 ; his troubles, 9, 11, 12 ; visits Ireland, 13 ; knighted, 14 ; displeased with his son, 37, 50-54 ; sails to meet the Dutch, 41 ; in Ireland, 44 ; a royal favourite, 64 ; im- peached, 65 ; reconciled to his son, 67 ; his death, 73-75. Penn, William, his birth, 2 ; youth, 3-9 ; at Oxford, 14 ; his conversion, 34, 43-47 ; hears Loe preach, 34 ; leaves college, 36 ; sent to France, 38 ; at Saumur, 39 ; in Italy, 40 ; a student at Lincoln's Inn, 41 ; in Ireland, 42-47, 66 ; taken prisoner, 48 ; liber- ated, 50 ; displeasure of his father, 50-54 ; becomes a minister, 54 ; his pubUcations, 55.57,59, 61-63, 76, 112-115, 150, 152, 154, 160, 213, 263- 265, 272-275, 277, 282, 286, 323, 341 ; controversy with Vincent, 56 ; accused of heresy, 58; taken to the Tower, 59 ; released, 64 ; re- conciled to his father, 67 ; again arrested, 68 ; extra- ordinary trial, 68-72; liber- ated, 73 ; discussion with Baptist ministers, 75, 109 ; 362 INDEX. again arrested, 78 ; sent to Newgate, 80; his intimacy with Isaac Pennington, 88, 91 ; meets GuU Pennington, 98 ; engaged, 98, 100 ; married, loi ; settles at Rickmans- worth, lb. ; meets Fox at Bristol, 102 ; attempts to pro- cure release of Fox from prison, 104 ; his letters to Fox, 105, 106, 109 ; address to Friends abroad, 107 ; his de- bate with Faldo, 110; with Baxter, 11 1 ; his sympathy with sufferers in Scotland, 115 ; settles a dispute con- nected with America, 1 16 ; trustee for New Jersey, 118; his scheme for governing the colony, 119; removes to Worminghurst, 122 ; visits Germany, 123, 125-143 ; letter to the Princess Palatine, 123 ; his home at Worminghurst, 143 ; visits Bristol, 146 ; sup- ports Quakers' petition, 147- 1 50 ; his style of writing, 154 ; takes part in electioneering contest, 155 ; his friendship for Algernon Sidney, 156; property left him by his father, 162 ; attempts to get a grant of land in America, 163 ; his petition, 165 ; charter signed, 169 ; his farsightedness and disinterestedness, 172 ; bene- volence, 173 ; activity, 175 ; letter to Sidney, 177 ; death of his mother, 1 79 ; voyage to America, 183 ; holds a court at Chester, ib. ; visits New York, 184 ; visits Maryland, 187 ; first arrival at Phila- delphia, ib. ; his house, 189 ; his treaty with the Indians, 190 ; letters, 192 ; account of Philadelphia, 196-198 ; return to England, 200 ; letter to Margaret Fox, 203 ; charges against him, 204 ; his parti- ality to James II., 207, 216 ; accused of being a Papist and Jesuit, 209, 245, 270 ; removes to Kensington, 208; procures liberation of Quakers from gaol, ib. ; private conferences with the king, zb. ; his corres- pondence with Tillotson, 211- 213 ; accused of bargaining for the ransom of Taunton maids 217-222 ; letters, 224-229 ; visits Prince of Orange at the Hague, 229 ; his pohcy, 230 ; meets Burnet, zb. ; his efforts on behalf of Sir Robert Stuart, 231 ; in Holland, 232 ; goes to Germany, zb. ; returns home, 233 ; takes part in quarrel between the king and Mag- dalen College, 233-238 ; his position with regard to king's Declaration of Indulgence, 239-243 ; unpopularity, 245 ; accusations against him, zb ; summoned to appear before the Council, 247 ; gratitude to James, 248 ; examined by Privy Council, 250 ; appre- INDEX. 363 hended and imprisoned, 25 1 ; loss of his friends Barclay and Fox, 252-255 ; his affairs in America, 256-258, 265 j in retirement, 259 ; accused of taking part in Jacobite conspiracy, 260 ; vindicates his character, 262 ; goes to America, ib. ; deprived of the government of Phila- delphia, 269 ; blamed by his friends, 270 ; establishes his innocence before the Council, 272 ; set at liberty, 275 ; death of his wife, 276 ; rein- stated in the governorship of Pennsylvania, 279 ; travels in service of religion, 280, 283, 289, 340 ; his second marriage, 285 ; death of his son, ib. ; interview with Peter the Great, 287 ; removes to Bristol, 288 ; visits Ireland, 289 ; revisits America, 292, 294 ; birth of a son, 297 ; calls meetings of the Assembly, 298, 308^ 314, 337; laws passed, 300, 307, 338 ; removes to a new house, 300 ; averse to slavery, 305, 306 ; his intercourse with Indians, 308, 311-313 ; preaches, 309 ; visits East Jersey, 310 ; returns to Eng- land with his family, 318, 320 ; presents Queen Anne with an address from the Quakers, 322 ; tidings from America, 324-326 ; troubles occasioned by his son, 328- 331 ; deceived by his steward Ford, 331 ; imprisoned, 332 ; liberated, 334 ; other troubles, 335 ; his address to " old Friends,"336 ; his government, 338 ; removals, 339 ; intimacy with Whitelocke, 341 ; other friendships, 343 ; his intended resignation of proprietorship of Pennsylvania, 345-349 ; ill health, 347-349. 35 1 ; death, 354- Penn, William, son of the Governor, 285, 288 ; visits America, 328 ; his conduct, 329 ; returns home, 330. Penne, George, 218-222. Pennington, Gulielma, or Guli, 94 ; her character, 96, 100 ; en- gaged to Penn, 98 ; her mar- riage, loi ; her letters to Margaret Fox, 195, 201 ; ill- ness, 270 ; death, 276. Pennington, Isaac, his spiritual life, 89 ; his imprisonment, 91, loi ; intimacy with Penn, 91 ; liberation from prison, loi ; publication of his works, 160. Pennington, Mary, her marriage, 91 ; her first husband, 94 ; her death, 194. Pennsylvania, 170, 176, 265, 294, 296, 338, 34S-3SI- Pepys, Samuel, extracts from his diary, 41, 59,65, 179. Peter the Great, 287. Philadelphia, founding of, 182, et seq. ; the great law passed 364 INDEX. at Chester, 184 ; state of affairs, 256-258; religious dis- cords, 267 ; growth of, 296 ; a resolution against slavery passed in, 305. Popple, William, 245. Preston, Viscount, 260. Quakers, 19, 33, 44, 48, 199; their colony in New Jersey, 116-121, 163; missionary spirit, 123 ; sufferings, 145, et seq. ; accused of being Jesuits,2io; condemn slavery, 305 ; address to Queen Anne, 322. Rambo, Peter, 183. Reynolds, Dr. 15. Robinson, Sir John, 78-80. Rochester, Earl of, 33. Rupert, Prince, 64. Sacheverell, 323. Saltmarsh, John, 4, 18, 47. Schurmans, Anna, 134. Sewell, William, 232, 237, 238. Sheldon, 33. Shippen, Edward, 318, Sidney, Algernon, candidate for Guildford, 155-158; forBram- ber, 158-160; Penn's letter to, 177. Sidney, Henry, 160. Smith, John, 28. Somerset, Duke of, 219, 222. Spencer, Robert, 35, 160, 167. Springett, Sir William, 94, 100. Story, Thomas, 288, 291, 294, 305, 318, 340; visits Penn, 352-354- Stuart, Sir Robert, 231. Sutherland, Lord, 218, 220. Temple, Sir John, 158. Treaty-elm, 190. Urbino, Juan de, 12. Ussher, Archbishop, 7. Utey, Dr., 6. Vincent, Thos., 56. Wade, Lydia, 294. Walden, 218, 219. Wallis, Dr., 179. 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