John Penn (14 July 1729 – 9 February 1795) was the last governor of colonial Pennsylvania, serving in that office from 1763 to 1771 and from 1773 to 1776. Educated in Britain and Switzerland, he was also one of the Penn family proprietors of the

Province of Pennsylvania The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as the Pennsylvania Colony, was a British North American colony founded by William Penn after receiving a land grant from Charles II of England in 1681. The name Pennsylvania ("Penn's Woods") refers to Wi ...

from 1771 until 1776, holding a one-fourth share, when the creation of the independent Commonwealth of Pennsylvania during the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

removed the Penn family from power. Held in exile in

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after the British occupation of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

, Penn and his wife returned to the city in July 1778, following the British evacuation. After the war, the unsold lands of the proprietorship were confiscated by the new state government, but it provided Penn and his cousin, John Penn "of Stoke", who held three-fourths of the proprietorship, with compensation. They both appealed as well to Parliament, which granted them more compensation.

Early life and education

John Penn was born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, the eldest son of Richard Penn and Hannah Lardner. His father Richard had inherited a one-fourth interest in the Pennsylvania proprietorship from his father, the 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 ...

. It provided the family a fairly comfortable living. Richard's older brother Thomas Penn controlled the other three-fourths of the proprietorship. As Thomas did not have any sons while John Penn was in his youth, the younger man was in line to inherit the entire proprietorship (one-fourth from his father and three-fourths from his paternal uncle). John Penn's upbringing and conduct was of concern to the entire family.

First marriage

In 1747, when John Penn was eighteen years old and still in school, he secretly married Grace Cox, a daughter of Dr. James Cox of London. The Penn family disapproved of the marriage, believing that Cox had married Penn to share in the family fortune. For a while, John's father refused to speak to him because of the marriage. Thomas Penn sponsored a trip for the younger Penn to

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to study and to get him away from his wife. Apparently regretting his marriage, Penn made no effort to contact Grace during this period. The Cox family sued Penn for support of Grace Penn in 1755, but after that time, no further reference to her appears in the Penn family records. How the marriage was dissolved is unknown; they had no children.

Immigration to Pennsylvania

John Penn first traveled to Pennsylvania in 1752, sent by his uncle Thomas to the province as a political apprentice to Governor James Hamilton. Penn served on the governor's council, associating with important Penn family appointees such as Richard Peters and William Allen. In 1754, Penn attended the Albany Congress alongside other Pennsylvania delegates, including Peters,

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading int ...

, and Isaac Norris, but the younger man was there primarily as an observer. The meeting was held by representatives of seven colonies to plan common defense against the French and Indians before the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the st ...

, the North American front of the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754 ...

between Britain and France. From his home in England, the chief proprietor Thomas Penn soon became alarmed at John's extravagant expenses. Peters reported John's close association with an Italian musician, whose rent Penn paid and at whose home Penn stayed until two or three in the morning. The "debauched" musician was, in turn, "constantly tagging after him." Thomas Penn summoned his nephew, John, back to England in late 1755.Hubertis Cummings, ''Richard Peters, Provincial Secretary and Cleric, 1704–1776'' (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1944), pp. 169, 209–10.

Governorship

In 1763, Thomas Penn sent his nephew John Penn back to Pennsylvania to take over the governorship from Hamilton. The Penns were not displeased with Hamilton but believed that John was prepared to assume leadership in the province for the family. He took the oath of office as governor, officially "lieutenant governor," on 31 October 1763 and served until 1771 in his first tenure. The new governor faced many challenges: Pontiac's Rebellion; the Paxton Boys; border disputes with other colonies; controversy over the taxation of Penn family lands; and the efforts of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly, led by

, to have the Penn proprietary government replaced with a royal government. Meanwhile, he was elected in 1768 to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

, which Franklin had founded.

Second marriage and family

In 1766, Penn married Anne Allen, the daughter of William Allen and his wife, who were later Loyalists in Philadelphia. Penn reluctantly returned with his family to England in 1771 after his father's death, where he took over his father's position and affairs as one of the proprietors of Pennsylvania. His uncle Thomas Penn still held three fourths of the proprietorship but had a son, who was born in 1760. John's brother, Richard Penn Jr., was appointed governor of the province in his place.

Second appointment as governor

As Thomas Penn was displeased with Richard Jr's performance, he arranged in 1773 for the reappointment of John Penn as governor. Returning to the province with his family, Penn served until 1776. That year, the revolutionary government took control during the

. Thomas Penn had died in 1775, and his son John Penn "of Stoke" inherited the chief proprietorship (and three quarters of the total property). John Penn "of Stoke," born in 1760, was 15 when his father died. He was assigned a guardian for the proprietorship until he came of age, but the Revolution disrupted his control of the holdings.

American Revolution

The Penns were slow to perceive that the growing unrest, which became the

, would threaten their proprietary interests. In 1774 Penn refused to summon the Assembly so it could select delegates to the First Continental Congress. Patriots responded by taking control in 1775, leaving Penn powerless. Henry J. Cadbury states, "The end of proprietary government in Pennsylvania may be dated Sept. 26, 1776, with the last adjournment of the provincial assembly. The governor's acts and meetings of the council closed nearly a year earlier." After the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

began at the

Battles of Lexington and Concord The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. The battles were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, ...

, Penn watched with apprehension as Pennsylvania colonists formed

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

companies and prepared for war. Soon after the adoption of the

American Declaration of Independence The United States Declaration of Independence, formally The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen States of America, is the pronouncement and founding document adopted by the Second Continental Congress meeting at Pennsylvania State House ( ...

, "Patriots" (or "Whigs") in Pennsylvania created the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776, which replaced Penn's government with a Supreme Executive Council and no royal officials. With no power at his command, Penn remained aloof and carefully neutral in the hope that the radicals would be defeated or at least reconciled with the king. The war soon began to go badly for the Patriots. In August 1777, as General William Howe began his

Philadelphia Campaign The Philadelphia campaign (1777–1778) was a British effort in the American Revolutionary War to gain control of Philadelphia, which was then the seat of the Second Continental Congress. British General William Howe, after failing to dra ...

, Patriot soldiers arrived at Penn's Lansdowne estate near Philadelphia. They demanded him to sign a parole that stated that he would do nothing to harm the revolutionary cause. Penn refused and was taken to Philadelphia, where he was kept under house arrest. As Howe's army drew close, the Patriots threatened Penn with exile to another colony, and he then signed the parole. With Howe near Philadelphia, Patriot leaders decided to exile Penn to an Allen family estate in

called "the Union," also known as Solitude House, about from Philadelphia in present High Bridge. Anne Penn initially stayed in Philadelphia to look after family affairs while British forces occupied the city but later joined her husband in New Jersey. After the British evacuated Philadelphia in 1778, the Penns returned to the city in July of that year. The new government of Pennsylvania required all residents to take a loyalty oath to the Commonwealth or to face confiscation of their property. With the consent of his family, he took the oath. While that protected Penn's private lands and manors, the Pennsylvania Assembly passed the Divestment Act of 1779, which confiscated about of unsold lands held by the proprietorship and abolished the practice of paying quitrents for new purchases. As compensation, John Penn and his cousin were paid £130,000. That was a fraction of what the lands were worth but was a surprisingly large sum, as in some areas, Loyalist properties were taken without any compensation. Penn retired to Lansdowne and waited out the final years of the war, which ended in 1781.

Later life

For several years after the war, Penn and his cousin, John Penn "of Stoke", who had inherited three fourths of the proprietorship and received that portion of the settlement, lobbied the Pennsylvania government for greater compensation for their confiscated property. John Penn "of Stoke" lived in Pennsylvania from 1783 to 1788. Failing there, they traveled to England in 1789 to seek compensation from Parliament, which awarded the Penn cousins a total of £4,000 per year in perpetuity.Treese, ''Storm Gathering'', 199. Penn "of Stoke" stayed in England for the rest of his life, serving as a member of parliament in the early 1800s. Returning to Pennsylvania, John Penn lived the rest of his life with his family quietly in Lansdowne. After his 1795 death, Penn was buried under the floor of Christ Church, Philadelphia, the only proprietor to be buried in Pennsylvania. Some older accounts state that his remains were eventually taken back to England, but there are no records of that.Cadbury, "John Penn", p. 430.

Notes

References

*Cadbury, Henry J. "John Penn". ''Dictionary of American Biography'' (1934), vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 430. *Treese, Lorett. ''The Storm Gathering: The Penn Family and the American Revolution''. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1992. .

External links

Biography and portrait

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

Archives, People of the 1700s
John Penn's House, Philadelphia
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Penn, John 1729 births 1795 deaths Colonial governors of Pennsylvania English Anglicans English people of Welsh descent Members of the Pennsylvania Provincial Council People from Union Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey People of colonial Pennsylvania People of Pennsylvania in the American Revolution People of Pennsylvania of Pontiac's War British people of Pontiac's War Burials at Christ Church, Philadelphia John