William Penn, for the "Sober and Free"
A friend once told me, “If you’re not making somebody mad, you’re not doing your job.” The very peaceful William Penn made people mad—not because he wanted to, but because he tried to do the right thing. He also founded the colony of Pennsylvania, helped establish religious liberty in England and America, and worked continually on behalf of people who suffered for their beliefs. And he steadfastly kept a friendship at great personal cost. Although he yearned for a quiet life, he didn’t shy away from debating political and religious opponents. He was often arrested for his beliefs, yet his accomplishments lived on long after he died.
Penn was born in England in 1644. His father became an admiral in the English Navy, and was very active in warfare and political intrigue. Admiral Penn hoped that his son would grow into a polished, widely accepted member of the court of King Charles II, and young William received a good education, which suited his serious and scholarly nature. From the time he was 12 years old, he was also attracted to spiritual matters. Despite his shy, retiring character, he developed a charming personality, and learned how to maneuver among sophisticated courtiers. This, combined with the integrity that others knew he possessed, served him well at times, but did not prevent him from experiencing conflict.
Although Penn picked up some of the typical mannerisms of a young, upper-class man of his time, he developed a mind of his own. He did this partly through a keen sense of observation, an introspective nature, and careful study of history and the ancient classics. He also was influenced by free-thinking scholars in England and France. For a short time he attended Oxford University. Although he was a devout young man, he clashed with the religious authorities at the university, and was dismissed. After Oxford, he attended a protestant college in Saumur, France, and then studied law for a while in London.
Penn’s reaction to a disturbing encounter in France sheds some light on his character. Walking to his lodgings, he did not notice that a man greeted him. The stranger, thinking that Penn was being disrespectful, attacked with his sword, and Penn successfully fended him off. Penn disarmed the man, but did not retaliate.
In 1667, when Penn was administering his father’s estates in Ireland, he heard an English Quaker, Thomas Loe, preaching about “a faith that overcomes the world.” Deeply moved, Penn converted to Quakerism. He thus embarked on a course which was very different from the one his father had set for him.
At this time, Quakers and members of other religious sects often ran afoul of the law. Quakers disagreed not only with many beliefs and practices of the established Church of England, but also of general society. Calling themselves the Society of Friends, Quakers rejected much of church doctrine, ritual and the use of clergy, in favor of a very inward, personalized approach to God, and simple gatherings. They were pacifists, opposed to common practices such as dueling, and refused to swear official oaths or remove their hats as a sign of respect. They strenuously tried to avoid any speech or action which they considered to be rooted in harmful pride. Such tenets aroused suspicion and hostility.
England had experienced severe political and religious turmoil for decades, culminating in a bloody civil war in the 1640’s between supporters of King Charles I and those of Parliament. Parliament won, and the king was executed. After his son Charles II re-established the monarchy in 1660, some elements of society hoped to stamp out dissent, in order to ensure stability, security, and the predominance of the Church of England.
Charles hoped to offer some form of religious toleration for his subjects. James Duke of York, the king’s powerful brother, respected the Quakers, and believed them to be “quiet and industrious people who led good lives.”[1] Still, Parliament passed anti-Quaker laws, and some authorities were determined to make life as difficult for dissenters as possible. Nevertheless, William Penn threw himself whole-heartedly into his new community of faith. His differing spiritual concerns and habits angered his father, but William stuck to his beliefs. Despite some difficult encounters, the two continued to love and respect each other until the Admiral died.
While still in his 20’s, Penn grew determined to work on behalf of religious liberty. He was loyal to the king, but he believed that Englishmen’s traditional rights were being violated by laws that penalized Quakers and other Christians. He also believed that humans were equal before God, and he vigorously spoke and wrote on how all who believed in God should have “freedom of conscience.” By this, Penn meant that citizens should be able to freely worship and meet their obligations to God, as long as they were not acting treasonably.
Penn believed that restrictions on worship not only harmed dissenters but hurt the nation. Authorities would develop a false and dangerous sense of their own infallibility, and make judgments that should be reserved for God. Religious dissidents who were patriotic would be hurt, and all citizens would be unduly concerned about avoiding punishment, at the expense of seeking the truth. Persecution also stirred discontent. Penn wrote, “Liberty to worship God, according to their several professions, will be, as the people’s satisfaction, so the government’s greatest security: for if men enjoy their property, and their conscience, which is the noblest part of it, without molestation, what should they object against, or plot for?”[2] From 1670 onwards Penn was arrested multiple times for offenses such as holding unlawful meetings and illegally preaching, but he was never diverted from his cause. He not only worked on behalf of his general principles, but also frequently debated and wrote in defense of the Quakers. He eventually considered how Quakers might find a lasting refuge in the New World, where small numbers of them were already establishing communities.
Charles II owed a lot of money to Penn’s father when the latter died in 1670. As a way to allow the king to repay the debt, Penn petitioned in 1680 for a grant of land in North America. He was awarded proprietorship of a new colony in the following year, which was named Pennsylvania after his father. As proprietor, Penn was given land ownership and governing power in the colony, under the authority of the king. He then went to work making his dream a reality, of a haven that offered freedom of conscience. In addition to publicizing the colony to attract settlers, Penn ensured that its initial constitution and laws provided freedom of worship, along with traditional English liberties which dated as far back as the Magna Carta, or “Great Charter” of 1215, and earlier.
Penn hoped that Pennsylvania would attract sober, virtuous colonists, and serve as a model of good governance. Throughout his life, he was often disturbed by the immorality of his times. After a period of strict Puritan rule in England in the 1640’s and 50’s, moral standards and restraints on public behavior had loosened during the reign of Charles II. As a youth, instead of joining his peers in raucous behavior, Penn often retreated to his room to study. As a mature man in 1678, he wrote to fellow Quakers in England that he feared God would punish the nation for rampant immorality, but he also hoped that the virtues of his comrades and other “conscientious and well-inclined people” would “shine unto others, in these uneven and rough times that are come, and coming,” and that God would therefore show mercy. Like the Puritan John Winthrop, who led the settlement of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Penn believed that he and his fellow Friends “must show ourselves to be that Little City and Hill of God.” He urged them to resist worldly temptations, and act as good examples: “Let us be careful not to mingle with the crowd, lest their spirit enter us; instead of our spirit entering them…. Yet can we not be unsensible of their infirmities, as well as we shall not be free from some of their sufferings; we must make their case as our own, and travel alike in spirit for them as for ourselves.”[3] When his new colony became a reality, Penn had high hopes that it would be not only a haven for dissenters, but continue to “shine unto others.” Many Quakers soon settled in Pennsylvania, joining some Dutch, Finns, Swedes and English who were already living within its boundaries.
Penn believed that a moral people could thrive under various forms of government, yet he wished people to be free within reason. In 1681, as he was devising Pennsylvania’s initial constitution and laws, he wrote to settlers already in the colony that, “whatever sober and free men shall reasonably desire for the security and improvement of their own happiness I shall heartily comply with.” “Reasonably” was key. Government would have a significant role to play in buttressing morality. For Penn, and for many other American founders, liberty did not mean license to do whatever one pleased. In his Preface to the Frame of Government for Pennsylvania, Penn wrote, “Liberty without obedience is confusion, and obedience without liberty is slavery.” His first set of laws for Pennsylvania stated that “offenses against God…, which excite the people to rudeness, cruelty, looseness, and unreligion, shall be respectively discouraged and severely punished.” Such offenses included foul language, drunkenness, fornication, gambling and other activities, as well as crimes such as assault, murder and treason. Clearly, government was to have a punitive role, as well as positively encouraging virtue, yet everything hinged on the nature of the people. Penn also wrote in his Preface, “Let men be good and the government cannot be bad; if it be ill they will change it. But, if men be bad, let the government be never so good, they will endeavor to warp and spoil it.” This was echoed years later by the American founder John Adams, who wrote, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” [4]
Penn placed a high priority on maintaining good relations with the Indians, in his actions as well as his words. During his proprietorship, the colonists and Indians remained in peace. Many years before the establishment of the colony, Penn had prayed, “O Lord, send forth thy Light and thy Truth, that all Nations may behold thy Glory.”[5] During the development of Pennsylvania, he organized religious meetings for Indians in the colony, with interpreters provided.
Penn was only able to spend a few years in the colony, during two separate visits. Upon leaving Pennsylvania the first time in 1684, he wrote to the colonists: “you are now come to a quiet land; provoke not the Lord to trouble it! And now that liberty and authority are with you and in your hands, let the government be upon His shoulders in all your spirits, that you may rule for Him under whom the princes of this world will one day esteem it their honour to govern and serve in their places….”[6] Unfortunately, political factions developed, and all was not smooth sailing. Some colonists considered Penn’s governing philosophy and practice to be flawed, and political disputes were ongoing. Penn returned in 1699, but in order to counter threats to his proprietary authority which were developing in the royal court, he left permanently for England in 1701. An idealist, Penn was disappointed by the human frailty and political discord that were exhibited in the colony’s early years, yet he had laid a good foundation. Pennsylvania provided a place where social opportunity, religious observance and cultural pursuit would thrive.
While in England during the 1680’s and afterwards, Penn suffered greatly because of his friendship with Charles II’s brother, James. James became king as James II in 1685, and his devout Roman Catholicism was a cause for concern in a predominantly Protestant country which had been torn by religious strife. Penn and James worked together to provide religious toleration, but the passions and political struggles of the time overwhelmed both men. In 1688, James lost the throne and went into exile. Since Penn refused to renounce his friendship with James, he was unfairly accused of treason, and he had to retire from public affairs and even go into hiding for a while. To add to his misery, Penn was imprisoned for debt for several months. He died at home in 1718, after a series of strokes and a long period as an invalid. One man who knew Penn well said of him that “such an accumulation of adversaries has seldom been known to attack a man that so little deserved them.”[7]
Like all of us, Penn was not perfect. Occasionally he felt sorry for himself, and he was very poor at managing money. Sometimes he lost his temper and used combative and bitter language against his opponents. Yet he was fundamentally a kind man. Though a dreamer, he also gave practical help to people who were in need. When he was in the midst of planning for the Pennsylvania Colony and settling his deceased mother’s estate, he still took the time to help some Quakers in England find a suitable meeting house. On one of his two voyages to America, he nursed people on shipboard who were sick.
Penn owned slaves. He seems to have been like others of his time who thought that slavery was part of the permanent order of the world, and that slaveowners should do what they could to alleviate the condition of those in bondage, whether black or white. As colonial proprietor, Penn tried to strengthen opportunities for marriage and religious observance among black slaves. He did not seem to question the legal validity of slavery itself, yet a testimony to his just behavior is that some slaves loyally remained with him after they were freed. Indentured servants also stayed with Penn after their terms of employment were fulfilled.
Historical figures should be considered in the context of their own time, and their views don’t necessarily fit neatly into present-day situations. Penn advocated a pan-European government for the sake of preventing war, yet his consistent moral, religious and political beliefs would clash with those of many prominent supporters of today’s European Union. For example, Penn strongly believed that nations should keep sovereignty in all matters except military affairs.
Still, while appreciating how persons of the past lived in very different times, we can sometimes suitably enlist them in present-day arguments. Penn strongly held certain principles for some of the same reasons that people hold those same beliefs today, including freedom of conscience, and the need to encourage a supportive relationship between virtuous citizenry and good government.
For all his suffering and disappointments, Penn’s dream of a place that offered religious freedom was fulfilled. The ordered liberty which he and other American founders believed in has been under sustained attack for several decades, and sometimes seems hopelessly lost today, yet Penn’s work offers models and lessons for future efforts to resurrect that ideal.
Bibliography
Graham, John W., William Penn (1924)
Murphy, Andrew, William Penn: A Life (2019)
Penn, William, various writings including those cited in endnotes
Wildes, H. E., William Penn (1974)
[1] Wildes, H. E., William Penn, New York: Macmillan, 1974, p. 80.
[2] Penn, William, The Political Writings of William Penn, Liberty Fund, 1670, https://oll.libertyfund.org/title/murphy-the-political-writings-of-william-penn
[3] Penn, William, To the children of light in this generation, called of God to be partakers of eternal life in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, and Light of the World, https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N11856.0001.001/1:1?rgn=div1;view=fulltext
[4] Adams, John, To the Officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts, Oct. 11, 1798, https://oll.libertyfund.org/quote/john-adams-religion-constitution
[5] Penn, William, The Select Works of William Penn, London: Society of Friends, 1825, Vol. II, p. 415, https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=V4UrAAAAYAAJ&pg=GBS.PA414&hl=en
[6] Graham, John W., William Penn: Founder of Pennsylvania, London: The Swarthmore Press Ltd., 1924, p. 165.
[7] James Logan, in Graham, 1924, p. 295
Excellent bio!