Dixon's Life of William Penn; Pepys's Diary; Cal. State Papers, Dom. The Penn MSS. (Sloane 3232) have no biographical interest.]
PENN, WILLIAM (1644–1718), quaker and founder of Pennsylvania, son of Admiral Sir William Penn [q. v.], by his wife Margaret, daughter of John Jasper, merchant, of Rotterdam, was born in the liberty of the Tower, London, on 14 Oct. 1644 (Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. ii. 424). He was brought up at Wanstead, Essex, then a stronghold of puritanism, going daily to Harsnet's free school in the neighbouring village of Chigwell. He continued his studies under a private tutor in his father's town house on Tower Hill, and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he matriculated on 26 Oct. 1660 (Foster, Alumni Oxon.) He had then enough knowledge of the classics to contribute some tolerable elegiacs to the ‘Epicedia’ published on occasion of the death of Henry, duke of Gloucester (1660).
From early boyhood Penn united a taste for athletic sports with a strong bent towards mystical pietism. At Oxford he corresponded with Dr. John Owen [q. v.], and listened to the discourses of the quaker Thomas Loe. He was sent down for nonconformity in October 1661. On his return home his father, the admiral, finding other methods powerless to reclaim him, sent him abroad to divert his mind. He visited Paris, was presented to Louis XIV, and mixed for a time in the brilliant society of the court. Among the English residents he made friends with Robert Spencer (afterwards second Earl of Sunderland), and Dorothy, sister of Algernon Sidney. While there he gave signal proof of courage, skill in fence, and magnanimity. On his way to his lodgings one night he was attacked by a bravo, who, sword in hand, demanded satisfaction for some imaginary insult. Penn drew, and, after a few passes, disarmed his antagonist and gave him his life.
Tired of court gaieties, Penn left Paris, and, after studying for a while under Moyse Amyraut, an eclectic theologian of the French reformed church at Saumur, crossed the Alps, and was at Turin in 1664, when he was summoned home by his father. He returned quite a ‘modish person’ (Pepys, Diary, 26 Aug. 1664), saw a little service in the Dutch war, and was admitted a student at Lincoln's Inn on 7 Feb. 1664–5 (Lincoln's Inn Reg.) In the autumn of this year he went to Dublin, and was presented at the viceregal court. In the following summer he served with distinction under Lord Arran in the suppression of a mutiny at Carrickfergus, and was offered a company of foot by the viceroy [Butler, James, twelfth Earl and first Duke of Ormonde]. He was eager to accept, but his father would not consent; and he became instead victualler of the squadron lying off Kinsale, where, by a curious coincidence, which shows how perilous inferences founded on identity of name, time, and place, even when supported by similarity of occupation, may sometimes be, another William Penn held the office of clerk of the cheque. While thus engaged Penn resided at his father's seat, Shannagarry Castle. He had not entirely lost his interest in the quakers, and during a visit to Cork attended one of their meetings, at which his old friend Thomas Loe preached on the faith which overcomes the world. He was so impressed that he became a regular attendant. On 3 Sept. 1667 he ejected a soldier from the conventicle for causing a disturbance. The soldier returned, attended by officers of justice, who arrested the worshippers on the charge of holding a tumultuous assembly. In deference to his rank, the mayor offered Penn his liberty on giving security for his good behaviour. Penn, however, disputed the magistrate's jurisdiction, and went to gaol with the rest, but soon procured his release by a letter to the president of Munster, Roger Boyle, earl of Orrery [q. v.] The affair got wind, the world laughed, and the admiral recalled Penn to London. On his return he still wore the dress belonging to his rank, but declined to take his hat off in presence of his social superiors. The admiral stipulated that at least he would so far comply with usage as to be uncovered in his own presence and that of the king and the Duke of York. Penn, however, stood firm; in the end the admiral gave way, and Penn became a quaker complete in creed, costume, and conduct.
He expounded the new gospel in a tract entitled ‘Truth Exalted,’ London, 1668, 4to, began to preach, and became intimate with Isaac Penington (1616–1679) [q. v.], Thomas Ellwood [q. v.], and George Fox [q. v.] A public disputation with the presbyterian Thomas Vincent [q. v.] occasioned the composition of his once celebrated ‘Sandy Foundation Shaken,’ in which he assailed the Athanasian doctrine of the Trinity, the Anselmian rationale of the atonement, and the Calvinistic theory of justification (London, 1668, 4to). Its publication without license was visited by his committal to the Tower under a warrant dated 12 Dec. 1668. There he wrote ‘No Cross no Crown’ (London, 1669, 4to), an eloquent and learned dissertation upon the Christian duty of self-sacrifice,
