Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 44.djvu/308

 the collection of 30,000l. by Tuesday. The ministers were directed to stir up their parishioners, the churchwardens to make the collection on Sunday after service, and to bring reports of their procedure to a committee of the lords and commons sitting at the Guildhall on the ensuing Monday (The Discovery of a Great and Wicked Conspiracie, &c. … whereunto is added an Order by the Lord Mayor for the Raysing of 30,000 li in the City of London,’ &c., 28 Nov. 1642). This action again evoked threats from the king, and Penington's friends published ‘An Humble Remonstrance’ in his vindication, 14 Jan. 1642–3.

In April 1643 ‘A Trve Declaration and Just Commendation of … Penington … in advancing and promoting the Bulwarkes and Fortifications about the City and Suburbs, with a Vindication of his honour from all the Malicious Aspersions of Malignants,’ was published by W. S., 4to, London (King's Pamphlets, E. 99 [27]). In August 1643 (Clarendon says on a Sunday) Penington summoned a municipal council to frame a petition to the commons against the lords' propositions for peace and accommodation.

Among his friends were John Milton and John Goodwin [q. v.], whose church he attended. In 1642 Penington had been appointed lieutenant of the Tower, and held the post until deprived by the self-denying ordinance in 1645. In this capacity he conducted Archbishop Laud to the scaffold on 10 Jan. 1645 (cf. Commons' Journals, iv. 706). Penington was appointed a member of the commission for the trial of the king, but he did not attend the sittings till Saturday, 20 Jan. He was present on the first three days of the following week, and again on the day that the death-warrant was signed, but he declined to append his signature. He was, however, afterwards appointed one of the committee to confer with trustees for the sale of the king's goods.

On 14 Feb. 1648 Penington was appointed one of the council of state, and reappointed for the following year on 13 Feb. 1649, and again on 16 Feb. 1650. On 5 Dec. 1651 he took the oath of secrecy at the council at Whitehall. He was on the committees for foreign affairs, the admiralty, and other purposes; and was one of the most regular attendants at the council. He occupied lodgings in Whitehall. His services to the Commonwealth were rewarded by grants of lands in Norfolk and Buckinghamshire, houses and tenements in the city (some of which were purchased on the sale of bishop's' lands, and were granted at the Restoration to George Morley [q. v.], bishop of Worcester) (Lords' Journals, x. 640; Commons' Journals, v. 161). He had already been granted 3,000l. on 6 May 1647 for satisfaction of his losses and damages (Lords' Journals, ix. 177, 178).

Soon after 6 June 1649, he was knighted by the speaker of the commons, on the recommendation of the house (, Book of Knights, p. 204). A satire entitled ‘Hosanna, or a Song of Thanksgiving sung by the Children of Zion,’ London, 1649, purported to include a speech by Penington at the dinner given at Grocers' Hall to the speaker, lieutenant-general, and others, on 7 June 1649.

About 1655 Penington suffered a complete reverse of fortune. He was prosecuted for debt, having borrowed money to pay to parliament for the maintenance of the army. On 25 May and 13 July 1655 he appealed to the Protector; his petition was read before the council, and proceedings were stayed (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1655–6, pp. 172, 179, 235, 244). At the Restoration Penington was attainted of treason with the other regicides. He was committed to the custody of the sergeant-at-arms on 15 June 1660, and was brought up for trial at the Old Bailey on 10 Oct. On the 16th he pleaded ‘not guilty,’ protesting his ‘ignorance of what he did.’ The jury convicted him, and he was committed a prisoner to the Tower, where, after rather more than a year's imprisonment, he died on 17 Dec. 1660. An order was issued for the delivery of his body to his friends. The place of his burial is not known.

Penington married, first, on 7 Feb. 1614–15, Abigail, daughter of John Allen of London, by whom he had six children, viz.: Isaac [q. v.] the quaker; Arthur, who became a Roman catholic priest, and was living in 1676; William (1622–1689), a merchant of London, who also became a quaker and follower of John Perrot [q. v.]; and three daughters: Abigail (married about November 1641), Bridget, and Judith. Letters from Isaac Penington the younger to his sister Judith imply that she also became a quaker. Penington married, secondly, Mary, daughter of Matthew Young. A portrait of him, as lord mayor, wearing the chain and badge of office, is prefixed to ‘A True Declaration and Commendation of Alderman Penington for Promoting the Fortification of the City,’ 1643, 4to (, Cat. of Portraits, p. 128). The same is given in Thane's ‘British Autography.’

Penington was a sturdy and austere puritan. When he expressed violent disapproval of his son Isaac's joining the quakers, the son retorted that his father's religion was formal and invented, the result of fear lest wrath should overtake him.