JohnPenn,
lieutenant-governor of Pennsylvania, born in London, 14 July, 1729 ; died in
Bucks county, Pennsylvania, 9 February, 1795, married clandestinely while he was
at school, but was separated from his wife by his uncle, Thomas
Penn, and went to the continent, finishing his education at the university
in Geneva. He was then sent to Pennsylvania, and on 6 February, 1753, became a
member of the provincial council, with the rank of first member thereof, and
succession to its presidency in case of a vacancy in the office of
lieutenant-governor. He was one of the commissioners to the congress at Albany
in 1754. He left the colony after Braddock's
defeat, but seven years afterward returned as lieutenant-govern-or, arriving on
30 October, 1763. The first year of his term witnessed a state of affairs that
threatened the existence of civil government. The assembly, controlled by the
Quakers, failed to satisfy the Scotch-Irish on the frontier, who saw large sums
of money, lavished in presents to Indians while they lay destitute from an
Indian war.
In December, 1763, the more desperate of the young men about Paxton banded
together, destroyed a peaceable Indian village at Conestoga, and scalped all
whom they found at home. The remainder of the tribe were placed by the
authorities in the Lancaster work-house for protection, while a proclamation was
issued for the arrest of the murderers; but few days later a troop of horsemen
broke rote the building and massacred its inmates. Penn issued a proclamation
offering a reward for the capture of the murderers; but this had no effect. A
battalion of regular soldiers was ordered to Lancaster, and, by the united
efforts of all citizens, a bold front was presented when the " Paxton
boys" appeared at Germantown oil their way to murder the Bethlehem
Indians, who had been housed in the barracks in the Northern Liberties. This
outbreak had barely subsided before the young governor was embroiled with the
assembly on an offshoot of the old quarrel as to the taxation of proprietary
lands. This brought about the petition to change the government from proprietary
to royal. Upon the repeal of the stamp-act he congratulated the assembly, and
gave a fete at "Lansdowne," his country-seat, now within
Fairmount park. He declined to be patron of the Philosophical society because it
had chosen Benjamin
Franklin for its president.
The happiest event of Penn's administration was the treaty with the
Indians at Fort Stanwix in 1768. On the death of his father he embarked for
England on 4 May, 1771, leaving the government to the council; but in August,
1773, he returned to Pennsylvania as governor in his own right and by deputation
from his uncle. In respect to the Revolutionary contest, he attempted to steer a
middle course. He was opposed to taxation
without representation, but his first overt act might have caused the
ministry to replace the proprietary by a royal government. In February, 1775, he
besought the assembly to send a petition from their own body seeking redress of
grievances. On 30 June of that year the assembly, without troubling Penn for his
consent, provided for arming the province, and appointed a committee of safety,
which thenceforth was supreme in Pennsylvania ; but Penn's council continued to
meet until the following September. Within a month after the Declaration
of Independence a constitutional convention met, and vested the government
of Pennsylvania in a supreme executive council, choosing its own president and
the officers of state. Penn offered no other resistance than refusal to
recognize the new authority. Nevertheless, when Howe's
army was expected in Philadelphia, it was thought inexpedient to leave such
important instruments in British hands as a regularly commissioned governor and
chief justice; so Chew and himself were arrested, 12 August, 1777, on the
recommendation of congress, but they were released on 15 May, 1778.
On 28 June, 1779, the legislature of Pennsylvania transferred to the state
the property in the soil, restricted the possessions of the Penns to such
manors, or tenths, as had been set apart for them prior to the Declaration of
Independence, and also their purchases from private parties, and abolished
quit-rents except within the manors. It voted in remuneration for this the sum
of £130,000 to the heirs and devisees of Thomas and Richard Penn, to be paid
three years after the establishment of peace. In addition, the British
government created an annuity of £4,000, which has only recently been commuted.
John Penn's branch of the family was entitled to a fourth of these sums, and the
estates in Philadelphia and elsewhere were considerable; so that he was enabled
to live comfortably the rest of his life at " Lansdowne." or at
his city residence. He was buried under the floor of Christ church,
Philadelphia, but his remains were afterward removed to England.
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