Hannah Margaret Penn ( Callowhill; 11 February 1671 – 20 December 1726) was an Anglo-American governor. The second wife of
Pennsylvania founder
William Penn
William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...
, she effectively administered the
Province of Pennsylvania for six years after her husband suffered a series of
strokes, and then for another eight years after her husband's death. She served as acting proprietor from 1712 until her death in 1726.
Life
Hannah Margaret Callowhill was born in
Bristol, England
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...
, the daughter of Thomas Callowhill, a merchant there, and Anna (or Hannah) Hollister. A
Quaker, she married William Penn on March 5, 1696, when she was 25 and he was 52. She was pregnant with their first of eight children when the couple embarked from
England for their three-month voyage to America in 1699. She lived in great style, both in
Philadelphia and at
Pennsbury Manor, a beautiful estate located in
Bucks County
Bucks County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 646,538, making it the fourth-most populous county in Pennsylvania. Its county seat is Doylestown. The county is named after the English ...
, on the
Delaware River.
When William Penn died at age 73 on July 30, 1718, his will gave Hannah Penn full control of the colony and his fortune. William Penn's oldest son by his first marriage,
William Penn Jr.
William Penn Jr. (14 March 1681 – 23 June 1720) was the eldest surviving son of William Penn, proprietor and founder of the colony of Pennsylvania.
Biography
Penn was born on 14 March 1681, the sixth child of Penn and his first wife, Gulielm ...
, sought to dismiss his father's will in order to obtain control of the colony. His suit was unsuccessful, and Hannah Penn remained in charge of the colony until she died from a stroke in her son's house in
London at age 55.
Her deputy in Pennsylvania from 1718 till 1727 was Sir
William Keith.
Children
The couple had nine children:
* Unnamed daughter (born and died 1697)
*
John Penn ("the American") (28 January 1700 – 25 October 1746), never married
*
Thomas Penn (20 March 1702 – 21 March 1775), married Lady Juliana Fermore, fourth daughter of Thomas, first
Earl of Pomfret
Earl of Pomfret (alias Pontefract) was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain created in 1721 for Thomas Fermor, 2nd Baron Leominster. It became extinct upon the death of the fifth earl in 1867.
Ancestral titles and achievements
The Fermor f ...
* Hannah Penn (1703–1706)
* Margaret Penn (7 November 1704–February 1751), married Thomas Freame (1701/02-1746) nephew of
John Freame
John Freame (1669–1745) was an English goldsmith and banker. In 1690 he co-founded Freame & Gould, which later became Barclays Bank.
Early life
John, son of Robert Freame, was born in 1669 in Cirencester, England, and baptised on 11 November ...
, founder of
Barclays Bank
Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services.
Barclays traces ...
*
Richard Penn Sr. (17 January 1706 – 4 February 1771)
* Dennis Penn (26 February 1707 – 1723)
* Hannah Margarita Penn (1708–March 1708)
* Louis Penn
Legacy
Hannah Penn is one of the few individuals and the first woman granted the status of
Honorary Citizen of the United States, awarded her by
Presidential Proclamation by an
Act of Congress
An Act of Congress is a statute enacted by the United States Congress. Acts may apply only to individual entities (called private laws), or to the general public ( public laws). For a bill to become an act, the text must pass through both hous ...
(PL. 98-516) by
Ronald Reagan on November 28, 1984.
When William Penn was laying out the city of Philadelphia in the early 1680s, he named Callowhill Street in his wife's honor. Similarly, a street in
Perkasie, Pennsylvania, is also named in her honor.
A middle school in
York, Pennsylvania
York (Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Yarrick''), known as the White Rose City (after the symbol of the House of York), is the county seat of York County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the south-central region of the state. The populatio ...
, is named in her honor.
[
Pennsylvania Governor, Tom Corbett, named March 12, 2013 "Hannah Callowhill Penn Day."
Governor Corbett and Mrs. Susan Corbett commissioned a posthumous portrait of Hannah Penn by Pennsylvania portrait artist Ellen Cooper. The portrait was unveiled at a ceremony at the Pennsylvania capitol during Women's History Month, March 19, 2014. After being publicly displayed in the governor's reception room for several months, on January 15, 2015, the portrait was hung in the Pennsylvania governor's office among portraits of other early leaders of Pennsylvania. However, as of March 2015 the portrait is in storage; Governor ]Tom Wolf
Thomas Westerman Wolf (born November 17, 1948) is an American politician and businessman serving as the 47th governor of Pennsylvania since 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he defeated Republican incumbent Tom Corbett in the 2014 gu ...
asked for it to be moved into the governor's reception room, but he said because of safety concerns it was returned to the Historical and Museum Commission.
References
External links
Presidential Proclamation 5284
Sketch of Hannah PennPennsylvania Historical Marker
and portrait
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Penn, Hannah Callowhill
1671 births
1726 deaths
Colonial American women
People from Bristol
English Quakers
People of colonial Pennsylvania
Hannah Callowhill
18th-century women rulers