In 1696 William Penn was married to Hannah, the daughter of Thomas Callowhill, of Bristol,--a sober, religious woman, who survived him several years. Soon after this event he sustained an afflictive bereavement in the death of his eldest son, Springett Penn, in the twenty-first year of his age. He was a pious and amiable young man, of whom, in a touching testimony to his worth, William Penn says, "I lost all that any father can lose in a child." He had been absent from his colony for many years, though longing to return there, and oversee the working of the government he had instituted, and the growth of the prosperous colony he had been a principal means of planting on the shores of the Delaware. But the various troubles in which he had been involved, and the great loss of pecuniary means that had resulted from his outlay for the Province, and the dishonesty of his agent in Ireland, had so crippled and embarrassed him, that he had been unable to carry out his strong desire to cross the Atlantic, and spend the remainder of life amid the Friends and scenes he pictured eminently propitious to secure comfort and peace. But in 1699, having settled his affairs in England and Ireland, so as not to require his personal oversight, in the Seventh month he embarked with his wife and family for Philadelphia, expecting to end his days in the Province. The voyage, providentially, was a long one; occupying three months; by which delay on the ocean they did not arrive in the city until after the malignant fever, of which so many had died, had passed away. William Penn brought with him certificates from three meetings of Friends in England: one from "The Second-day's Meeting of Ministering Friends" in London; one from the "Men's Meeting of Friends" in Bristol, where he had resided for some years, and another from "A Monthly Meeting held at Horsham;" all expressing their full unity with and love for him as a member and minister. The reception of these certificates is recorded on the minutes of the Monthly Meeting of Friends, of Philadelphia. The arrival of the Proprietor, after an absence of fifteen years, was hailed with joy by the people generally, and doubtless he supposed that he could now pass his days in usefulness and tranquillity. But William Penn soon found that troubles beset him on every hand, and that his wise counsels and cherished plans of improvement were thwarted and opposed by a faction bent upon promoting their own selfish schemes and interests. A circumstance now occurred which separated him from his American possessions forever. A bill had been introduced into Parliament for changing the colonial into regal government. This measure, if adopted, would take the control of the colony out of his hands, and substitute military rule for the mild and pacific government he had established. From a sense of duty, although very reluctantly, he yielded to the request of his friends in England, that he would immediately return thither.