Page 1480
8.) William Penn (October 14, 1644 – July 30, 1718) was an English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, and founder and “absolute proprietor” of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future U. S. State of Pennsylvania. He was an early champion of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful treaties with the Lenape Indians. Under his direction, the city of Philadelphia was planned and developed.. In 1682, James Duke of York , the future James II of England,handed over a large piece of his American holdings to William Penn. This land included present-day Pennsylvania and Delaware. Penn immediately sailed to America and his first step on American soil took place in New Castle in 1682.On this occasion, the colonists pledged allegiance to Penn as their new Proprietor, and the first general assembly was held in the colony. Afterwards, Penn journeyed upriver and founded Philadelphia. However, Penn’s Quaker government was not viewed favorably by the Dutch, Swedish, and English settlers in what is now today’s Delaware. They had no “historical” allegiance to Pennsylvania, so they, almost immediately, began petitioning for their own Assembly. In 1704 they achieved their goal when the three southernmost counties of Pennsylvania, were permitted to split off and become the new semi-autonomous colony of lower Delaware. As the most prominent, prosperous and influential “city” in the new colony, New Castle became the capital. As one of the earlier supporters of colonial unification, Penn wrote and urged for a Union of all the English colonies in what was to become the United States of America. The democratic principles that he set forth in the Pennsylvania Frame of Government served as an inspiration for the United States Constitution. As a pacifist Quaker, Penn considered the problems of war and peace deeply, and included a plan for a United States of Europe, “European Dyet, Parliament or Estates,” in his voluminous writings. Penn was born in 1644, the son of Admiral Sir William Penn and Margaret Jasper, a captain previously widowed and the daughter of a Rotterdam merchant.William Penn, Sr., served in the Commonwealth Navy during the English Civil War and was rewarded by Oliver Cromwell with estates in Ireland. The lands were seized from Irish Catholics, in retaliation for an earlier massacre of Protestants. Admiral Penn took part in the restoration of Charles II and was eventually knighted and served in the Royal Navy. At the time of his son’s birth, Captain Penn was twenty-three and an ambitious naval officer in charge of quelling Irish Catholic unrest and blockading Irish ports…………) Pg. 429 Comparsion Quote 2nd President of United States of America John Adams*** Pg. 648 Quote*** Pg. 1325Quote***
Page 648 Quote
Have a care therefore, where there is more sail than ballast… -#8 Pg.1480 William Penn Utopian Visionary & Writer (October 14, 1644—July 30, 1718)
