Chapter I
William Penn’s Father—Childhood of Penn—Expulsion from Oxford for his Religious Views—Travels on the Continent
William Penn was descended from an old English family which, as early as the beginning of the fifteenth century, had settled in the county of Buckinghamshire in the southern part of England, and of which a branch seems later to have moved to the neighboring county of Wiltshire, for in a church in the town of Mintye there is a tablet recording the death of a William Penn in 1591. It was a grandson and namesake of this William Penn, and the father of our hero, however, who first made the family name distinguished. Brought up as a sailor by his father, the captain of a merchantman, with whom he visited not only the principal ports of Spain and Portugal, but also the distant shores of Asia Minor, he afterward entered the service of the government and so distinguished himself that in his twentieth year he was made a captain in the royal navy. In 1643 he married Margaret Jasper, the clever and beautiful daughter of a Rotterdam merchant, and from this time his sole ambition was to make a name for himself and elevate his family to a rank they had not hitherto enjoyed. In this he succeeded, partly by policy, but also unquestionably by natural ability; for although the name of Penn is scarcely enrolled among England’s greatest naval heroes, yet at the early age of twenty-three he had been made a rear-admiral, and two years later was advanced to the rank of vice-admiral—this too at a time when advancement in the English navy could only be obtained by real merit and valuable service.
Penn’s father was also shrewd enough to take advantage of circumstances and turn them to his profit. Although at heart a royalist, he did not scruple to go over to the revolutionists when it became evident that the monarchy must succumb to the power of the justly incensed people and Parliament; and when the head of Charles the First had fallen under the executioner’s axe and Oliver Cromwell had seized the reins of government, Admiral Penn was prompt to offer his homage. Cromwell on his part may have had some justifiable doubts as to the sincerity of this allegiance, but knowing Penn to be an ambitious man of the world, he felt reasonably sure of winning him over completely to the side of the Commonwealth by consulting his interests. He had need of such men just then, for the alliance between England and Holland, which he was endeavoring to bring about, had just been frustrated by the passage by Parliament of the Navigation Act of 1651, requiring that foreign merchandise should be brought to England on English vessels only. This was a direct blow at the flourishing trade hitherto carried on by the Dutch with English ports, and a war with Holland was inevitable. As this must of necessity be a naval war, Cromwell was quite ready to accept the services of so able and experienced an officer as William Penn. The young admiral fully justified the Protector’s confidence, for it was largely owing to his valor that the war, during which ten great naval battles were fought, ended in complete victory for the English.
Scarcely less distinguished were his services in the subsequent war with Spain, when he was given the task of destroying that country’s sovereignty in the West Indies. He conquered the island of Jamaica, which was added to England’s possessions, but was unable to retrieve an unsuccessful attempt of the land forces assisting him to capture the neighboring island of Hispaniola. He had been shrewd enough to make terms with Cromwell before sailing for the West Indies. In compensation for the damages inflicted on his Irish property during the civil war he was granted an indemnity, besides the promise of a valuable estate in Ireland, and the assurance of protection for his family during his absence. It was well for Penn that he did so, for on his return he was summarily deprived of his office and cast into prison—ostensibly for his failure to conquer Hispaniola. The real reason, however, for this action on the part of Cromwell was doubtless due to his knowledge of certain double dealing on the part of Penn, who, shrewdly foreseeing that the English Commonwealth was destined to be short-lived and that on the death of Cromwell the son of the murdered King would doubtless be restored to the throne, had secretly entered into communication with this prince, then living at Cologne on the Rhine, and placed at his disposition the entire fleet under his command. The offer had been declined, it is true, Charles at that time being unable to avail himself of it, but it had reached the ears of Cromwell, who took this means of punishing the admiral’s disloyalty.
That our hero should have been the child of such a father proves the fallacy of the saying, “The apple never falls far from the tree.” His mother, fortunately, was of a very different and far nobler stamp. She seems to have felt no regret at her son’s religious turn of mind, for later, when the father, enraged at his association with the despised Quakers, turned him out of doors, she secretly sympathized with the outcast and supplied him with money.
This son, our William Penn, was born in London on the fourteenth of October, 1644, as his father was floating down the Thames in the battleship of which he had just been placed in command. For his early education he was indebted entirely to his mother, his father’s profession keeping him away from home most of the time. From what is known of her, this must have been of a kind firmly to implant in the child’s heart the seeds of piety, for such a development of spirituality can only be ascribed to impressions received in childhood. William was only eleven at the time of his father’s disgrace, but old enough to understand and share his mother’s distress at the misfortune which fell like a dark shadow across his youthful gayety. Even then the boy may have realized how little real happiness is to be found in a worldly career, and how poor are they whose whole thoughts are centred on the things of this life.
The admiral’s imprisonment did not last long, however. A petition for pardon having been sent to the Protector, he was released and retired with his family to bury his blighted ambitions on the Irish estate near Cork which he had received as a reward for his achievements in the war with Holland. Two more children had been born to them in the meantime, a daughter, Margaret, and a second son, who was named Richard. Here, amid the pleasures and occupations of a country life to which he devoted himself with the greatest zest and enjoyment, young William grew into a slender but stalwart youth. When it became time to consider his higher education, for which there were no suitable opportunities at home, it was decided to send him to Oxford—a plan which was deferred for a time, however, owing to an event which was of more concern to Admiral Penn than his son’s education, since it opened fresh fields for his ambition.
This was the death of Oliver Cromwell on September 3, 1658. The news revived Penn’s still cherished plans for assisting in the restoration of Charles the Second, thereby laying the foundation of a new and brilliant career at the court of the young King, whose favor he had already propitiated by his offer of the fleet. These schemes he did not dare to put into immediate execution for fear of involving himself in fresh troubles, the parliamentary party still being in power and Cromwell’s son Richard chosen as his successor. But no sooner had the latter, realizing his inability to guide affairs with his father’s strong hand, resigned the honor conferred upon him, no sooner was it announced that Parliament had received a message from Charles the Second and was favorably inclined toward his restoration to the throne, than the aspiring admiral lost not a moment in hastening over to Holland to be among the first to offer homage to the new King.
The knighthood which he received from that grateful monarch served only as a spur to still greater zeal in his interests, to which he devoted himself with such success that he not only won over the navy to the royal cause by his influence with its officers, but having accomplished his election to Parliament, was thus able to assist in the decision to recall the exiled sovereign. Again he was among the first to carry this news to Holland, thereby establishing himself still more firmly in the King’s favor. Not till these affairs were settled and a brilliant future assured for himself and his family did Sir William find time to think of his son, who was accordingly sent to Christ Church, Oxford.
The young man must have soon discovered the deficiencies of his previous education and realized that he was far behind other students of his own age, but he applied himself to his studies with such diligence that he made rapid progress and earned the entire approbation of his instructors, while his amiability and kindness of heart, as well as his skill in all sorts of manly sports, made him no less popular with his fellow students. But skilful oarsman, sure shot, and good athlete as he was, he never lost sight of the deeper things of life. Indefatigably as he devoted himself to acquiring not only a thorough knowledge of the classics, but also of several modern languages, so that he was able to converse in French, German, Dutch, and Italian, he showed an even greater fondness for the study of religion. He was especially interested in the writings of the Puritans, which were spread broadcast at this time, glowing with Christian zeal and denouncing the efforts made by the court to introduce Catholic forms and ceremonies into divine worship in the universities as well as elsewhere. Feeling it a matter of conscience to protest against these innovations, Penn, with a number of his fellow students, reluctantly determined to resist the orders of the King, with whom his father stood in such high favor, but whose dissolute life could win neither respect nor loyalty from the earnest and high-minded youth.