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TRUE STORIES OF GREAT AMERICANS




WILLIAM PENN


[Illustration: Logo]

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK. BOSTON. CHICAGO. DALLAS
ATLANTA. SAN FRANCISCO

MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED
LONDON. BOMBAY. CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
TORONTO


[Illustration: Wm Penn]




WILLIAM PENN

BY

RUPERT S. HOLLAND

AUTHOR OF
"HISTORIC BOYHOODS," "THE KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN SPUR," ETC.


New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1915

_All rights reserved_


COPYRIGHT, 1915,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1915.

Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.




CONTENTS


CHAPTER I
                                        PAGE
WILLIAM PENN GOES TO COLLEGE               1


CHAPTER II

THE EARLY QUAKERS                          9


CHAPTER III

WILLIAM PENN TRAVELS                      18


CHAPTER IV

THE YOUNG QUAKER COURTIER                 25


CHAPTER V

PENN HELPS HIS FRIENDS                    36


CHAPTER VI

PENN BECOMES A MAN OF WEALTH              44


CHAPTER VII

PENN IN POLITICS                          55


CHAPTER VIII

FIRST VISIT TO PENNSYLVANIA               68


CHAPTER IX

WHAT PENN FOUND IN AMERICA                86


CHAPTER X

TROUBLOUS DAYS IN ENGLAND                 94


CHAPTER XI

PENN IN DISFAVOR                         109


CHAPTER XII

PENN GOES TO AMERICA AGAIN               122


CHAPTER XIII

AT COURT AND IN PRISON                   139


CHAPTER XIV

PENN'S WORK COMPLETED                    151


CHAPTER XV

PENNSYLVANIA UNDER PENN'S DESCENDANTS    158




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM PENN              _Frontispiece_

                                        FACING PAGE
ADMIRAL SIR WILLIAM PENN                         28

PENN'S CREST                          _in text_  43

PENN'S SEAL                           _in text_  67

THE LETITIA HOUSE                     _in text_  74

THE TREATY TREE                                  76

PENN'S WAMPUM BELT                    _in text_  84

PENN'S BIBLE AND BOOK-PLATE                     100

THE SLATE-ROOF HOUSE                  _in text_ 127

PENN'S DESK                           _in text_ 130

TABLET TO THE MEMORY OF WILLIAM PENN            156

FOUR OF WILLIAM PENN'S GRANDCHILDREN            162




WILLIAM PENN




CHAPTER I

WILLIAM PENN GOES TO COLLEGE


The middle of the seventeenth century was a very exciting time in
England. The Cavaliers of King Charles the First were fighting the
Roundheads of Oliver Cromwell, and the whole country was divided into
King's men and Parliament's men. On the side of Cromwell and the
Parliament was Admiral William Penn, who had in 1646 been given command
of a squadron of fighting ships with the title of Vice Admiral of
Ireland, and who had proved to be an expert navigator and sea-fighter.
He had married Margaret Jasper, the daughter of an English merchant who
lived in Rotterdam, and when he went to sea, he left his wife and
children in the pretty little English village of Wanstead, in the county
of Essex.

The Admiral's son William was born on October 14, 1644, when four great
battles of the English Civil War had already been fought: Edge Hill,
Newbury, Nantwich, and Marston Moor. The Roundheads were winning the
victories, and these Puritan soldiers, fired with religious zeal, and
taking such striking names as "Praise God Barebones" and "Sergeant Hew
Agag in Pieces before the Lord," were battering down castles and
cathedrals, smashing stained-glass windows and pipe organs, and showing
their hatred of nobles and of churchmen in every way they could think
of. The wife of Admiral Penn, however, lived quietly in her country
home, and by the time William was five years old the Cavaliers had lost
the battle of Naseby, had surrendered Bridgewater and Bristol, and King
Charles the First had been beheaded. A new England, a Pur