Page:Lettersconcerni01conggoog.djvu/53

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Letters concerning

different persuasion, embrac'd him tenderly. William made a fruitless exhortation to his father not to receive the sacrament, but to die a Quaker; and the good old man intreated his son William to wear buttons on his sleeves, and a crape hatband in his beaver, but all to no purpose.

William Pen inherited very large possessions, part of which consisted in crown-debts due to the vice-admiral for sums he had advanc'd for the sea-service. No monies were at that time more secure than those owing from the king. Pen was oblig'd to go more than once, and Thee and Thou king Charles and his ministers, in order to recover the debt; and at last instead of specie, the government invested him with the right and sovereignty of a province of America, to the south of Maryland. Thus was a Quaker rais'd to sovereign power. Pen set sail for his new dominions with two ships freighted with Quakers, who follow'd his fortune. The country was then call'd Pensilvania from William Pen, who there founded Philadelphia,

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