William Penn

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate October 2001

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William Penn Born in 1644 William Penn was born into a very rich life. As the son of Admiral William Penn he was named after his father. He soon began his education at the University of Oxford in Church History in 1660 but two years later he was soon expelled for religious non-conformity. He was mainly thrown out for his conversion to Quakerism. Then in 1666 his father sent him on a business trip to Ireland in the county Cork but was arrested for religious convictions then imprisoned. After his imprisonment he headed on his way back to England and then began working on a religious tract it was called The Sandy Foundation Shaken.

Unfortunately he published this without a license and he was jailed in the Tower of England. During his jail time he yet began one of the most important works of his life called "No Work, No Crown, and Innocency with Her Open Eyes.

Then again he served another imprisonment in which this time he was located in Newgate prison where he revised printed treatise on a doctrine of toleration called "The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience. During this time he wrote many treatises. Then in 1681 after receiving a debt owed to his father he received a grant for land territory in North America.

He then gathered several of his friends and headed for North America in September of 1682.Then that October he had his famous interview with some of the Native American Tribes. Happy with his new land grant Penn decided to name his new city Philadelphia and for two years he governed the colony with good judgement and wise decisions.

But when Penn decided to head back to England towards the end of the reign of Charles the 2nd to aid the...