Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/762

{|width="100%" men in which were unfriendly to his father, for disorder at a tavern, he took offence and returned to England. He was an unsuccessful candidate for parliament. On his mother's side he was related to the wife of Lord Fairfax, and engaged with him and others in a project to recover sunken treasure. By various means he added to his father's financial embarrassment, and he had also sold in 1704 the manor of Williamstadt, which had been laid out for him at the founding of the colony. The estate of Shanagarry, County Cork, Ireland, which had descended from Admiral Penn, and certain other property, being deemed a handsome provision for him, all but 40,000 acres of the American estate were left to the founder's children by his second wife after payment of his debts, the powers of government being devised to the Earl of Oxford and Earl Powlett to sell; but the heir-at-law contested this, and issued a fresh commission to the lieutenant-governor, in which he declared himself a member of the Church of England. By advice of the assembly, the commission was not proclaimed. Subsequently an order from the commissioners of trade was obtained continuing the lieutenant-governor in office. This William Penn left three children.—His eldest son,, b. in England; d. in Dublin, Ireland. 8 Feb., 1731, succeeded to his father's claims, and was by many persons considered the rightful governor-in-chief. Sir William Keith, the lieutenant-governor, caused a large tract of land on the frontier to be laid out for him, and called Springettsbury Manor. In 1725, with the widow and executrix of the founder, he nominated Patrick Gordon as Keith's successor, and obtained confirmation of the appointment by the crown. The will of the founder was established by decree of the court of exchequer in 1727, and a compromise between the two branches of the family was in process of adjustment at his death. Springett's brother and heir, William, b. in 1703; d. in Shanagarry, Ireland, 6 Feb., 1746, executed for £5,500 a release to John, Thomas, and Richard Penn, dated 23 Sept., 1731. He returned to the Society of Friends on marrying Christiana, daughter of Alexander Forbes, a merchant in London, on 7 Dec., 1732. After her death he married Ann Vaux, 13 Dec., 1736, by whom he had an only son, who died without issue, whereupon Christiana Gulielma, wife of Peter Gaskell and daughter of William and Christiana Penn, became the heiress at common law of the founder.—William the founder's eldest son by his second wife, John, called “the American,” b. in Philadelphia, Pa., 29 Feb., 1700; d. in England in October, 1746, by his mother's appointment received half of the proprietaryship, and was confirmed in the enjoyment of it by the paying of the mortgage, by the annulling of the agreement to sell the powers of government, by compromise with the elder branch of the family, by the establishment of a provisional boundary-line with Maryland, and by Indian treaties that opened all the region required for settlements. John Penn came to Pennsylvania in September, 1734, but returned to England the following year. During his stay he attended the meetings of the provincial council. He appears to have been the only descendant of William Penn in the male line that remained a Quaker. He died without issue, leaving his rights in the province and lower counties to his brother Thomas, b. in England in 1702; d. there, 21 March, 1775. Thomas had originally only one sixth of the proprietaryship, but it was increased to a fourth by the death of a younger brother in infancy. To manage the estate he came to the colony
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 * } corporation of the city of Philadelphia, the chief

in 1732 with power of attorney from John and Richard, and on his arrival took a seat in the council. He remained until August, 1741. Subsequently there was a long struggle between the proprietaries and the assembly of Pennsylvania, chiefly as to the taxation of the Penn estates. In 1764 the assembly petitioned the king to assume the government, but the crown let the powers remain with the proprietaries. Mason and Dixon's line, run in 1767 and confirmed in 1769, ended the boundary dispute with Maryland, and the treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768 extinguished the Indian claim to the whole region of the Alleghanies from New York to Virginia, so that Thomas Penn, with his colleague holding a fourth interest, was the feudal lord of more than 25,000,000 acres, nearly a quarter of a million people, and the largest town in the American colonies. When he was about fifty years old he married Lady Juliana, daughter of the first Earl of Pomfret.—Thomas's son, John, b. in England, 23 Feb., 1760; d. in Stoke Pogis, 21 June, 1834, succeeded to his father's interests, but, with his cousin, lost the proprietaryship and governorship by the American Revolution. Penn was a graduate of Cambridge, and for some time governor of the island of Portland, where he built Pennsylvania castle. He was a member of parliament in 1802. He published a tragedy, some pamphlets, and a volume of poems, and received the degree of LL. D. from Cambridge in 1811.—His brother, Granville, b. 9 Dec., 1761; d. in Stoke Pogis, 28 Sept., 1844, was for some time clerk in the war department, and reputed to be the most learned layman in England. He was the author of various works, among them a “Life of Admiral Sir William Penn,” his great-grand-father. He visited Pennsylvania. He left several sons, all of whom died without issue, so that the pension paid by the British government descended to the family of his sister, Sophia Margaret, who married William Stuart, archbishop of Armagh.—William the founder's third son by his second wife, Richard, b. 17 Jan., 1706; d. in England in 1771, was also a proprietary and titular governor of Pennsylvania and the counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex on Delaware river. He married Hannah, daughter of John Lardner, and had two sons. The eldest, John, lieutenant-governor of Pennsylvania, b. in London, 14 July, 1729; d. in Bucks county, Pa., 9 Feb., 1795, married clandestinely while he was at school, but was separated from his wife by his uncle, Thomas Penn, and went to the continent, finishing his education at the university in Geneva. He was then sent to Pennsylvania, and on 6 Feb., 1753, became a member of the provincial council, with the rank of first member thereof, and succession to its presidency in case of a vacancy in the office of lieutenant-governor. He was one of the commissioners to the congress at Albany in 1754. He left the colony after Braddock's defeat, but seven years afterward returned as lieutenant-governor, arriving on 30 Oct., 1763. The first year of his term witnessed a state of affairs that threatened the existence of civil government. The assembly, controlled by the Quakers, failed to satisfy the Scotch-Irish on the frontier, who saw large sums of money lavished in presents to Indians while they lay destitute from an Indian war. In December, 1763, the more desperate of the young men about Paxton banded together, destroyed a peaceable Indian village at Conestoga, and scalped all whom they found at home. The remainder of the tribe were placed by the authorities in the Lancaster work-house for protection, while a proclamation was issued for the arrest of the murderers; but a