Springett Penn (died February 8, 1731) was a grandson and heir of

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 an ...

, founder and proprietor of

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

Biography

Penn was born in England, the eldest son of

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 ...

He succeeded to his father's claims, and was by many persons considered the rightful governor-in-chief of Pennsylvania. Sir William Keith, the lieutenant-governor, caused a tract of land, 6 miles wide and 15 miles long, on the frontier (around present-day

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 populati ...

) to be laid out for him, and called Springettsbury Manor. In 1725, with

Hannah Callowhill Penn Hannah Margaret Penn ( Callowhill; 11 February 1671 – 20 December 1726) was an Anglo-American governor. The second wife of Pennsylvania founder William Penn, she effectively administered the Province of Pennsylvania for six years after her ...

, his step-grandmother, the widow and executrix of the founder, he nominated Patrick Gordon as Keith's successor, and obtained confirmation of the appointment by the

British Crown The Crown is the state (polity), state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, British Overseas Territories, overseas territories, Provinces and territorie ...

. 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. He died in

Dublin, Ireland Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

, February 8, 1731.

Legacy

Springettsbury Township, York County, Pennsylvania is named for him.

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Penn, Springett (II) 1731 deaths 18th-century English people Springett II People of colonial Pennsylvania Springettsbury Township, York County, Pennsylvania English people of Welsh descent Year of birth unknown