An English Quaker, William Penn founded Pennsylvania as a colony where all religious faiths would be allowed. He gave Pennsylvania a democratic form of government and dealt fairly with the region's Native Americans.

Early life

William Penn was born in London on October 14, 1644. His father, Sir William Penn, was a wealthy admiral in the English navy and a supporter of King Charles II. The Penn family belonged to the Church of England, but young William had an independent spirit. He was expelled from Oxford University for his religious views.

Hoping to distract his son from religion, Admiral Penn sent his son on a long tour of Europe. Young Penn found a Protestant academy in France and studied there. Back in England, he studied law for a year.

In 1666 William Penn went to Ireland to look after his family's properties. There he met the Quaker preacher Thomas Loe. He had heard Loe's arguments before, but this time he decided to join the Quakers.

Formally known as the Society of Friends, the Quakers were regarded as a radical group and were not allowed to worship freely. The Quakers had no masses or ordained clergy. Instead, they held meetings at which anyone could speak. They refused to make payments called tithes to the Church of England. Their “plain” speech was considered disrespectful by the authorities. Penn was jailed four times, including once for refusing to remove his hat in a courtroom. But he was able to write and publish many books and pamphlets expressing his faith.

Pennsylvania

Like other British religious minorities before them, the Quakers sought religious freedom in the New World. Taking part in efforts to colonize parts of New Jersey in the 1670s, Penn became aware of the land that lay to the west of the Delaware River. In 1681 King Charles II granted Penn the rights to colonize this western territory. The grant served as repayment of a large debt owed by the king to Penn's father, who had died in 1670. The new colony was called Pennsylvania, a combination of Penn's father's name and a Latin word for woodland. For a time the colony also included present-day Delaware.

Penn intended for Pennsylvania to be a “holy experiment” in tolerance for all believers, not just Quakers. While still in England he began work on a “frame of government,” or colonial constitution, that provided for an assembly of representatives to be elected by the people. Penn also gave the colonists a way to change the constitution themselves.

Penn arrived in his colony in 1682 and found that the new city of Philadelphia was already starting to grow. He soon began talks with the region's Native Americans, the Delaware (Lenni Lenape) tribe. He built a relationship of trust with them, signing several treaties of friendship. One treaty promised that the colonists and the Indians would “live in love as long as the sun gave light.”

Maryland was Pennsylvania's neighbor to the south. The boundary between the two colonies had not been agreed upon. After less than two years in America, Penn returned to England to defend his claims. He was unable to return for many years. Penn lost almost all his political power when the Glorious Revolution of 1688 removed his friend James II from the English throne. Penn even lost control of his colony for a two-year period between 1692 and 1694.

When Penn finally returned to Pennsylvania in 1699, he found it greatly changed. It was now home to 20,000 people who demanded a stronger voice in government. In 1701 Penn responded with the Charter of Privileges, which gave the assembly supreme power in the colony. Later that year he left Pennsylvania on business, never to return.

Later life

Penn's last years in England were unhappy. Money troubles put him in prison for several months. He had almost arranged for the sale of his colony to the rulers of Britain when he suffered a stroke. After years of disability, he died in Buckinghamshire, England, on July 30, 1718. Although he had lived in America for only a few years, his experiment in religious tolerance proved to be a success.