Thomas Penn
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Thomas Penn (8 March 1702 – 21 March 1775) was an English landowner and mercer who was the chief proprietor of Pennsylvania from 1746 to 1775. Penn is best known for his involvement in negotiating the
Walking Purchase The Walking Purchase (or Walking Treaty) was a 1737 agreement between the Penn family, the original proprietors of the Province of Pennsylvania, later the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Lenape native Indians (also known as the Delaware In ...
, a contested land cession treaty he negotiated with
Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...
chief
Lappawinsoe Lappawinsoe was a Lenape chief. His name signifies "gathering fruit" or "going away to gather food". Lappawinsoe sold the land of his tribe to Thomas Penn (1702-1775), and John Penn ("the American") John Penn (January 28, 1700 – October 25 ...
in 1737 which transferred control over 1,200,000 acres (4,860 km2) of territory from the Lenape tribe to 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 W ...
. Born in 1702 in
Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
into a
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
family, Penn was apprenticed to a
London London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
mercer at a young age by his father
William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
due to his family's financial insecurity. When his father died in 1718, William's
last will and testament A will or testament is a legal document that expresses a person's (testator) wishes as to how their property ( estate) is to be distributed after their death and as to which person (executor) is to manage the property until its final distributio ...
gave his
proprietorship A sole proprietorship, also known as a sole tradership, individual entrepreneurship or proprietorship, is a type of enterprise owned and run by one person and in which there is no legal distinction between the owner and the business entity. A sole ...
of Pennsylvania to his three sons, including Penn. In 1732, Penn travelled to the colony to assume control over his family's interests in Pennsylvania, including collecting unpaid rents. As his family back in England were deeply in debt, Penn abandoned his father's conciliatory approach towards Indian tribes residing on the colonial frontier in order to acquire more land to sell. In addition to signing treaties with Indian leaders, Penn strengthened the power of the deputy governor and frequently used his prerogative to overturn legislation from the
Pennsylvania General Assembly The Pennsylvania General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The legislature convenes in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. In colonial times (1682–1776), the legislature was known as the Pennsylvania ...
, acts which made him unpopular in the colony. Penn returned to England in 1741, though he continued to exert control over affairs in Pennsylvania. When his brother
John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...
died in 1746, his will and testament passed control over John's share of the family proprietorship to Penn, making his the chief proprietor of Pennsylvania. In 1751, he married Lady Juliana Fermor, who he went on to have seven children with. Penn eventually died at his country estate of Stoke Park, Buckinghamshire in 1775.


Early life

Thomas Penn was born on 8 March 1702 in
Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...
,
London London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
. His father was
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 ...
, a
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
religious thinker, writer and coloniser who established the
colony 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 ...
in 1681 after receiving a charter from Charles II. Penn's mother was
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 ...
, who married her husband on March 5, 1696. The couple lived in Pennsylvania from 1682 to 1701 in
Pennsbury Manor Pennsbury Manor is the colonial estate of William Penn, founder and proprietor of the Colony of Pennsylvania, who lived there from 1699 to 1701. He left it and returned to England in 1701, where he died penniless in 1718. Following his departur ...
,
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 ...
before returning to England. Despite William being the proprietors of Pennsylvania, the Penn family only derived a small amount of income from the colony. In order to provide his family with alternative sources of financial security, Penn was apprenticed to a London
mercer Mercer may refer to: Business * Mercer (car), a defunct American automobile manufacturer (1909–1925) * Mercer (consulting firm), a large human resources consulting firm headquartered in New York City * Mercer (occupation), a merchant or trader, ...
who was part of the
Worshipful Company of Mercers The Worshipful Company of Mercers is the premier Livery Company of the City of London and ranks first in the order of precedence of the Companies. It is the first of the Great Twelve City Livery Companies. Although of even older origin, the c ...
by his father when he was growing up. When William died in 1718, his
will Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...
gave control of the proprietorship to Penn and brothers
John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...
and
Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Frankish language, Old Frankish and is a Compound (linguistics), compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' an ...
. In 1727, William's will, which was disputed by the children of his first wife Gulielma, was upheld in the British legal system; four years later, Gulielma's children agreed to settle the case in exchange for a sum of money. The terms of the proprietorship issued by Charles II stipulated that the Penn family would be given absolute ownership over all lands and mining rights in the new colony in return for delivering two
beaver Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers ar ...
skins from Pennsylvania annually to
Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original cast ...
, though "the proprietorship was still no guarantee of wealth."


Management of Pennsylvania

Penn, who had by this point taken control over managing his family's financial affairs, travelled to Pennsylvania in 1732, the first member of his family to do so since William had left the colony since 1701. After arriving in Pennsylvania, Penn received a generally warm reception from the colonists living there. His interests in the colony included collecting rents owed to the Penn family from local colonists, securing payments for territory which had already been colonised by settlers and securing the Pennsylvania frontier from potential attacks by Indians tribes and nearby
French colonies From the 16th to the 17th centuries, the First French colonial empire stretched from a total area at its peak in 1680 to over , the second largest empire in the world at the time behind only the Spanish Empire. During the 19th and 20th centuri ...
. Penn's brothers John and Richard, who had remained in England when Penn travelled to Pennsylvania, wrote a letter to him on May 1734 stressing that the family was now 8,000 pounds in debt and were in urgent need of revenues from the colony. In the letter, the pair insisted upon the "absolute necessity" of finding methods to generate profits from Pennsylvania and suggested to Penn that if he was unable to generate a profit from the colony, it might be preferable to sell off the proprietorship as the family was "now at the Mercy of our creditors without anything to Maintain us". In response to these demands, Penn abandoned the previously conciliatory approach to negotiations with Indian tribes established by his father and adopted a more aggressive approach aimed at securing more land for colonial settlement. Working together with the royal governor of Pennsylvania, James Logan, Penn made plans to acquire more land from the
Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...
. Such efforts were spurred by increased immigration to the colony and fears that settlers from the nearby
Province of New York The Province of New York (1664–1776) was a British proprietary colony and later royal colony on the northeast coast of North America. As one of the Middle Colonies, New York achieved independence and worked with the others to found the Uni ...
was infringing on Pennsylvania's northern borders in the Upper Delaware river valley. Together with Logan, Penn negotiated the
Walking Purchase The Walking Purchase (or Walking Treaty) was a 1737 agreement between the Penn family, the original proprietors of the Province of Pennsylvania, later the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Lenape native Indians (also known as the Delaware In ...
treaty with Lenape chief
Lappawinsoe Lappawinsoe was a Lenape chief. His name signifies "gathering fruit" or "going away to gather food". Lappawinsoe sold the land of his tribe to Thomas Penn (1702-1775), and John Penn ("the American") John Penn (January 28, 1700 – October 25 ...
in 1737. The treaty stipulated that a 1686 treaty signed between William Penn and the Lenape gave 1,200,000 acres (4,860 km2) of land along the northern reaches of the
Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock (village), New York, Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of N ...
to Pennsylvania; the Lenape subsequently evacuated their settlements from the transferred territory. During the treaty negotiations, Logan gave the Lenape an inaccurate map, and according to historian Steven Grant Harper, the treaty was the product of duplicity on the part of Penn and Logan. Penn also took a leading role in the colony's domestic affairs. Though Penn was technically governor of the colony, a deputy governor had been installed to manage the affairs of Pennsylvania on a permanent basis, and he took several steps to increase the executive power held by the deputy governor (which strengthened the influence his family held within Pennsylvania). In 1741, Penn returned to England, leaving control over the colony in the hands of deputy George Thomas; his reputation in the colony had worsened to the point where he was thought of as "greedy and cold".


Later life and death

After Penn returned to England, John died in 1746. In his will and testament, John deeded his portion of the proprietorship, amounting to 75%, to Penn, leading to him becoming the chief proprietor of Pennsylvania. Penn continued to involve himself in Pennsylvania's affairs, including an attempt to make the Lenape conform to a European-style
land tenure In common law systems, land tenure, from the French verb "tenir" means "to hold", is the legal regime in which land owned by an individual is possessed by someone else who is said to "hold" the land, based on an agreement between both individual ...
by designating a portion of the lands near the
Lehigh River The Lehigh River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the Delaware River in eastern Pennsylvania. The river flows in a generally southward pat ...
as an "Indian Manor" to be inhabited solely by the tribe. In 1755, the Lenape tribals residing in the "Indian Manor" migrated westwards in response to the turmoil of the ongoing
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 ...
and increasing tensions with European colonists on the Pennsylvania frontier. After Penn received news of this from an employee of the Penn family in Pennsylvania named Richard Peters, he instructed Peters to led the territory to prospective colonists "as there is no probability of the Indians coming back to the Indian Manor". Postmaster
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 inte ...
was dispatched by the
Pennsylvania General Assembly The Pennsylvania General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The legislature convenes in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. In colonial times (1682–1776), the legislature was known as the Pennsylvania ...
to England as a
colonial agent A colonial agent was the official representative of a British colony based in London during the British Empire. About 200 men served. They were selected and paid a fixed salary by the colonial government, and given the long delays in communication ...
in 1757 with orders to protest the Penn family's political influence in the colony to the
British government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_es ...
. Though Penn maintained a close eye on Franklin's movements, he remained unconcerned about the potential revocation of his proprietorship; as Penn noted, Franklin had few allies in the British government and his mission soon ended in failure. 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†...
, which lasted from 1754 to 1763, "revealed the difficulties of managing the family's substantial American interests from England" and in 1763
John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...
, Penn's nephew, was appointed as the deputy governor of Pennsylvania. John continued to maintain frequent correspondence with Penn regarding issues in Pennsylvania, and gradually took on more responsibilities in managing the affairs of the colony by himself as Penn's health gradually deteriorated. On 21 March 1775, Penn died at his personal residence in
Stoke Poges Stoke Poges () is a village and civil parish in south-east Buckinghamshire, England. It is centred north-north-east of Slough, its post town, and southeast of Farnham Common. Etymology In the name Stoke Poges, ''stoke'' means " stockaded (pl ...
,
Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...
. In his will and testament, Penn left his share of the Pennsylvania proprietorship to his son
John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...
, who proved to be the last member of the family to hold the proprietorship as it was formally dissolved by the
government of Pennsylvania The Government of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is the governmental structure of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as established by the Pennsylvania Constitution. It is composed of three branches: executive branch, executive, legislative bran ...
after the
American War of Independence 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 ...
broke out in 1776. As compensation for approximately 24 million acres (97,124 km2) and £118,569 in rent owed, the Pennsylvanian government gave the Penn family £130,000.


Personal life, family and legacy

On 22 August 1751, Penn married Lady Juliana Fermor, the daughter of Thomas Fermor, 1st Earl of Pomfret; the 22-year old Juliana was 27 years younger than her spouse. One year after their marriage, Penn commissioned painter
Arthur Devis Arthur Devis (19 February 1712 – 25 July 1787) was an English artist, half-brother of the painter Anthony Devis (1729–1816), and father of painters Thomas Anthony Devis (1757–1810) and Arthur William Devis (1762–1822). His place in ...
to paint portraits of both himself and his wife. As noted by English historian Charlotte Fell-Smith, though he was born into a Quaker family, Penn gradually abandoned several aspects of the faith over the course of his life, and his disassociation from the Quaker faith was confirmed by marrying Juliana in a
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
church. Together, Penn and Juliana had seven children over the course of their marriage: four sons and three daughters. His sons included John, who served as the
High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire The High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, in common with other counties, was originally the King's representative on taxation upholding the law in Anglo-Saxons, Saxon times. The word Sheriff evolved from 'shire-reeve'. High Sheriff, Sheriff is the olde ...
in 1798 and sat in the
British House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 mem ...
as a
member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
for
Helston Helston ( kw, Hellys) is a town and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated at the northern end of the Lizard Peninsula approximately east of Penzance and south-west of Falmouth.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map she ...
from 1802 to 1805, and Granville, who was a writer and
scriptural geologist Scriptural geologists (or Mosaic geologists) were a heterogeneous group of writers in the early nineteenth century, who claimed "the primacy of literalistic biblical exegesis" and a short Young Earth time-scale. Their views were marginalised and i ...
who was elected 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 ...
in 1836. John also greatly expanded Stoke Park, Buckinghamshire, an
English country house An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...
which Penn had bought in 1760, with designs from architect
James Wyatt James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806. Early life W ...
. In Pennsylvania, Penn's legacy among the residents of the region, in contrast to views of his father, was marked by resentment and contempt; writing in 1757, Franklin wrote that Penn's refusal to pay taxes to Pennsylvania led him to " oncieveat that moment a more cordial and thorough Contempt owardshim than I ever before felt for any Man living". In addition to his refusal to pay taxes, Penn frequently used his prerogative to overturn the General Assembly's legislation, which some historians have claimed influenced Pennsylvania's support for 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 Revolut ...
. Penn's involvement in the Walking Purchase later became a source of contention among the Lenape. In 2004, the
Delaware Tribe of Western Oklahoma Delaware Nation ( del, Èhëliwsikakw Lënapeyok), also known as the Delaware Tribe of Western Oklahoma and sometimes called the Absentee or Western Delaware, based in Anadarko, Oklahomaa lawsuit against the
Commonwealth 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 ...
in the
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (in case citations, E.D. Pa.) is one of the original 13 federal judiciary districts created by the Judiciary Act of 1789. It originally sat in Independence Hall in Phil ...
. The Delaware Tribe sought of land included in the Walking Purchase, claiming that the transaction between Penn and the Lenape was fraudulent. The court granted Pennsylvania's
motion to dismiss In United States law, a motion is a procedural device to bring a limited, contested issue before a court for decision. It is a request to the judge (or judges) to make a decision about the case. Motions may be made at any point in administrati ...
, a decision which was upheld by the
Third Circuit Court of Appeals The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (in case citations, 3d Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts for the following districts: * District of Delaware * District of New Jersey * E ...
in 2006.


References


Notes


Footnotes


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Penn, Thomas 1702 births 1775 deaths 18th-century English businesspeople 18th-century English landowners Converts to Anglicanism from Quakerism Mercers Merchants from London People of colonial Pennsylvania
Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...