Produced by Carla Foust and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) Transcriber's note Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice. Printer errors have been changed and are listed at the end. The Riverside Biographical Series ANDREW JACKSON, by W. G. BROWN JAMES B. EADS, by LOUIS HOW BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, by PAUL E. MORE PETER COOPER, by R. W. RAYMOND THOMAS JEFFERSON, by H. C. MERWIN WILLIAM PENN, by GEORGE HODGES GENERAL GRANT. (_In preparation_) LEWIS AND CLARK, by WILLIAM R. LIGHTON. (_In preparation_) Each about 100 pages, 16mo, with photogravure portrait, 75 cents; _School Edition_, 50 cents, _net_ HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. BOSTON AND NEW YORK The Riverside Biographical Series NUMBER 6 WILLIAM PENN BY GEORGE HODGES [Illustration:] WILLIAM PENN BY GEORGE HODGES [Illustration] HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY Boston: 4 Park Street; New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street Chicago: 378-388 Wabash Avenue The Riverside Press, Cambridge COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY GEORGE HODGES ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. A PURITAN BOYHOOD: WANSTEAD CHURCH AND CHIGWELL SCHOOL 1 II. AT OXFORD: INFLUENCE OF THOMAS LOE 8 III. IN FRANCE AND IRELAND: THE WORLD AND THE OTHER WORLD 22 IV. PENN BECOMES A QUAKER: PERSECUTION AND CONTROVERSY 33 V. THE BEGINNING OF PENN'S POLITICAL LIFE: THE HOLY EXPERIMENT 53 VI. THE SETTLEMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA: PENN'S FIRST VISIT TO THE PROVINCE 68 VII. AT THE COURT OF JAMES THE SECOND, AND "IN RETIREMENT" 93 VIII. PENN'S SECOND VISIT TO THE PROVINCE: CLOSING YEARS 113 WILLIAM PENN I A PURITAN BOYHOOD: WANSTEAD CHURCH AND CHIGWELL SCHOOL The mother of William Penn came from Rotterdam, in Holland. She was the daughter of John Jasper, a merchant of that city. The lively Mr. Pepys, who met her in 1664, when William was twenty years of age, describes her as a "fat, short, old Dutchwoman," and says that she was "mighty homely." He records a tattling neighbor's gossip that she was not a good housekeeper. He credits her, however, with having more wit and discretion than her husband, and liked her better as his acquaintance with her progressed. That she was of a cheerful disposition is evidenced by many passages of Pepys's Diary. That is all we know about her.