Famous People

Southland Times, Issue 21850, 29 October 1932, Page 19

Famous People

ONE MINUTE BIOGRAPHIES. Who: WILLIAM PENN. Where: England and America. When: Seventeenth to eighteenth centuries. , . , Whv famous: An English Quaker and the founder of Pennsylvania. He had early shown a religious turn of mind and at 18 boldly declared himself a Quaker. An outraged family sent him abroad to recover his orthodoxy, but on his return he came again in touch with the Quakers and his zeal was rekindled. His faith took a somewhat militant form; he tore the gowns from the backs of his fellow students at Oxford, he refused to conform to many common habits and laws of his day, he insisted upon professing his faith openly by tongue and by pen. In consequence, he was constantly in trouble with the authorities; twice he was imprisoned in the Tower, once lor six months in Newgate for declining to take an oath when on trial. Yet there were intervals when, because of his agreeable personality, his wealth and position, he was welcomed at court and thus in a position to intercede for his long-suffering friends, the Quakers. In 1676 Penn and some friends founded a colony in America,, upon land which was given to Penn in lieu of certain money accruing to his father, the Admiral, from the Crown. By r°y a | charter William Penn became Lord Proprietor of the territory of Pennsylvania, where having consummated nis famous treaty of friendship with the Indians, he founded the city of Philadelphia or “Brotherly Love. The colony prospered amazingly, its , citizens living in peace with the Indians, its doors hospitably open to men of all religious faiths. Its founder’s aims were made clear in a letter which he dispatched to his agent in America: We lay a foundation for after ages to understand their liberty as men and Christians, that they may not be brought in bondage but by their own consent; for we put the power m the people.” William Penn’s. influence was so strong with King James II that there was issued, in 1686, a proclamation of release from prison of all persons held for their religious conviction. But throughout his entire career Penn himself endured injustices because of his persistent battles waged in behalf of freedom of conscience.