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 to Addenbrooke's Hospital, and in 1796 was knighted. In the College of Physicians he was elected a fellow on 29 March 1779, and delivered the Harveian oration in 1783, but did not print his composition. He was unmarried, and by his will, proved 11 March 1817, he appointed the Rev. James Wood (master), Rev. Laurence Palk Baker (fellow), and Rev. Charles Blick (fellow and bursar), his executors. He bequeathed his property in St. Sepulchre's parish, Cambridge, to the master—this included the house (now 69 Bridge Street) in which he lived—and, after a number of small legacies to servants and friends, bequeathed the residue of his estate to the college, upon trust to pay 200l. a year to the master if he were also rector of Freshwater in the Isle of Wight, but if he be not rector of Freshwater, then the income to accumulate and be invested until he be rector, when he was to receive 200l. a year and the interest on the accumulations. He also founded exhibitions in the college, with a preference to candidates from Hawkshead and Cotton near his birthplace in Lancashire. He died on 3 Feb. 1817, and is commemorated by a tablet in the chapel of St. John's. Traditions of his popularity long remained in the university.

[Munk's Coll. of Phys. ii. 320; Cambr. Univ. Calendar; Baker's Hist. of St. John's Coll. ed. Mayor; Extracts from records of St. John's Coll. kindly made by Mr. R. F. Scott.] 

PENNINGTON, JAMES (1777–1862), writer on currency and banking, born at Kendal, Westmoreland, on 23 Feb. 1777, was son of William Pennington, a bookseller, and his wife Agnes Wilson. Educated at first at Kendal grammar school, he afterwards became a pupil of John Dalton (1766–1844) [q. v.] of Manchester. Subsequently Pennington engaged in business in London. At the end of 1831 he was appointed by the president of the India board to investigate the accounts of the East India Company, but the appointment was cancelled on the change of administration. Thrown out of employment, Pennington devoted himself to the study of currency and finance, and attracted the favourable notice of Huskisson, Ricardo, and Tooke. On the recommendation of the last-mentioned, he joined the Political Economy Club in 1828; he also contributed appendices to Tooke's ‘Letter to Lord Grenville,’ 1829, and to his ‘History of Prices’ (vol. ii. App. C). When, on the emancipation of the negroes in 1833, it became necessary to regulate the currency of the West Indies, Pennington was engaged for that purpose by the treasury, and framed the measures which were adopted. In 1848 he published ‘The Currency of the British Colonies,’ 8vo, which was printed for official use, and which contains much that is of permanent value.

As early as 1827 Pennington had urged, in a paper submitted to Huskisson, the desirability of some restriction on the issue of notes by the Bank of England. He had further explained his views in ‘A Letter to Kirkman Finlay, Esq., on the Importation of Foreign Corn, and the Value of the Precious Metals in Different Countries. To which are added Observations on Money and the Foreign Exchange,’ London, 8vo, 1840. During the preparation of the Bank Act (1844) he was confidentially consulted by Sir Robert Peel. Though he accepted the principle of that measure, he was not in entire agreement with its advocates, and he disapproved of the separation of the banking and issue departments of the Bank of England. From this time until his death he was frequently consulted by the government on currency and finance, on which he was regarded as one of the leading authorities. He died, on 23 March 1862, at Clapham Common. He married, in 1811, Mary Anne, eldest daughter of John Harris of Clapham, by whom he had four sons and three daughters. His son, Arthur Robert, became canon of Lincoln and rector of Utterby, Louth.

[Annual Reg. 1862, p. 390; Economist, 19 April 1862; Times, 25 March 1862; McCulloch's Lit. of Political Economy, p. 80; Canon Pennington's Recollection of Persons and Events, pp. 109–11; private information.] 

PENNINGTON, JOHN, first in the peerage of Ireland and fifth baronet (1737–1813), born in 1737, was the eldest son of Sir Joseph Pennington, fourth baronet, and Sarah, daughter and sole heiress of John Moore, esq., of Somerset. The family came originally from Pennington in Furness, Lancashire, but had resided at Muncaster, on the river Usk, in Cumberland, since the middle of the thirteenth century. They had also acquired property, chiefly by marriage, in Westmoreland and Yorkshire. Closely connected with the Percys, the Penningtons bore the Percy arms with a slight change.

The most distinguished ancestor, (d. 1470), accompanied Henry Percy, seventh earl of Northumberland (1421–1461), on expeditions into Scotland, and was concerned more than once in ‘certain riots and misgovernances in Yorkshire’ (cf., Proc. of Privy Council, v. 271). He remained faithful to the house of Lancaster during the wars of the Roses, and is said to have