John Penn ("the American")

John Penn (January 28, 1700[1][lower-alpha 1] – October 25, 1746[2]) was a proprietor of the colonial Province of Pennsylvania (later the American state – the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania after 1776). He was the eldest son of the colony's founder, William Penn (1644–1718) by his second wife, Hannah Callowhill Penn (1671–1726). He was the only one of Penn's children to be born in the New World – the Americas (in the Slate Roof House in Philadelphia) and was hence called "the American" by his family.

John Penn
2nd Chief Proprietor of Pennsylvania
In office
1718–1746
Preceded byWilliam Penn founder (1644–1718)
Succeeded byThomas Penn (1702–1775) – brother
Personal details
BornJanuary 28, 1700
Slate Roof House in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
DiedOctober 25, 1746 (aged 46)
Hitcham, Buckinghamshire, England
ProfessionProprietor of Pennsylvania

Life

Penn was raised by a cousin in Bristol, England, where he learned the trade of merchant, specializing in linen. As a result of his father's will and by his mother's appointment, he received half of the proprietorship of Pennsylvania.[3]

On May 12, 1732, John - with his brothers Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, as the proprietors of Pennsylvania - signed an order to create a commission. This order was directed to Governor Gordon, Isaac Norris, Samuel Preston, James Logan, and Andrew Hamilton, Esquires, and to the gentlemen James Steel and Robert Charles. The commission, which was to be made up of at least three or more of these individuals, was given full power on behalf of the proprietors for the "running, marking, and laying out" of any boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland. This was in accordance with the signed agreement between the Penn brothers and Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore on May 10, 1732.[4]

He returned to Pennsylvania in September 1734, and attended the meetings of the Pennsylvania Provincial Council, but went back to England in 1735, to support the colony's rights in the boundary dispute with Maryland.[5] The ultimate resolution of this dispute was the surveying of the Mason–Dixon line. Penn, his brother Thomas, and their agents were responsible for the infamous "Walking Purchase", under which the Penn family acquired more than one million acres (400,000 ha) of Pennsylvania land from the Lenape Indians.[6]

He never married and died in Hitcham, Buckinghamshire, England,[2] without issue, and was buried at Jordans.[7] His will left his rights in the province and lower counties to his brother Thomas Penn.

Notes
  1. Barratt (1913), in a figure caption before p. 25, gives the date February 29, 1700. Jenkins (1903, p. 374) gives the date "Jan. 29, 1699-1700" (meaning it was in 1700 if you start the year on January 1, or 1699 if you start the year on March 25, as was the custom in the American colonies at that time).

Citations
  1. Record of Births, Deaths, and Burials 2014, image 83 of 380.
  2. Jenkins 1903.
  3. HistoricUS n.d.
  4. Proud 1798.
  5. Dunaway 1948.
  6. Britannica n.d.
  7. Rawle 1899.

Works cited
  • Barratt, Norris Stanley (1913). Colonial Wars in America. Society of Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Dunaway, Wayland F. (1948). A History of Pennsylvania. New York, New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc. pp. 59, 87–88.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Jenkins, Howard Malcolm, ed. (1903). Pennsylvania, Colonial and Federal: A History, 1608–1903. 1. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Historical Pub. Association. p. 401.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, Record of Births, Deaths, and Burials, 1688–1826. (2014) Images of manuscript. U.S., Quaker Meeting Records, 1681–1935 [database on-line]. Ancestry.com, Provo, UT.
  • Proud, Robert (1798). The History of Pennsylvania in North America. Philadelphia, PA: Zachariah Paulson, Jr. pp. 208–209 – via Google Books.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Rawle, William Brooke (1899). "The General Title of the Penn Family to Pennsylvania". Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. 23.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • "Walking-Purchase". Encyclopædia Britannica.
  • "William Penn". Edited Appleton's Encyclopedia. Historic.US. n.d. Retrieved September 19, 2016.
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