Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Vol. I, Part 1

Author: Jordan, John Woolf, 1840-1921, ed; Jordan, Wilfred, b. 1884, ed
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: New York, NY : Lewis Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 710

USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Vol. I > Part 1

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974.8 C71j v.1 1317989

IVA

GENEALOGY COLLECTION

ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02143 8152

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013

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John It. Jordan.

Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania

Benenlogical and Personal Itlemoirs

EDITOR JOHN W. JORDAN, LL.D. Historical Society of Pennsylvania Ex-General Registrar of Sons of the Revolution and Registrar of Pennsylvania Society

VOLUME I

NEW YORK CHICAGO

THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY 19 II

GC 974.8 Cilj v.1

1317989

THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

1300 Locust Street,

Philadelphia, Fely 19ª 1901. Mr. O. M. (Packhouse) Morristown A.J. Dearfin

Yours of 18h wish with my friend Lee's letter to hand. 1

He makes one or two suggestions which I shall write to him about. Ihave now in the printer's hands, for aful issue of The Pinna. Mag. a reply to your Every by the Librarian of the massachusetts Hishit Society, which will interest your. Lee takes our quarterly so he will see it.

An examination of the Surveyon's Office may develope additional data relating is the Corporation". The treaty in England is amore of the old bank being an Burlington.

Truly yours Snow Somxaw.

TABLE ON WHICH THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE WAS SIGNED,

LIBERTY BELL.

INTRODUCTORY

The present work, "Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania," presents in the aggregate an amount of genealogical and personal information unequalled by any kindred publication. Indeed, no similar work concerning Pennsylvania families has ever been presented.

Numerous voluminous histories of Pennsylvania have presented in fullness the political, social and material conditions, from the earliest times. In this work are contained chronicles of the people who have made Pennsylvania what it is. These records are presented in a series of independent genealogical and personal narratives relating to lineal family heads, and the most conspicuous representatives down to the present generation, thus giving it a distinct personal interest. These ends have been conscientiously and faithfully conserved through the assistance of those who have long pursued genealogical studies with intelligence and enthusiasm, with John W. Jordan, LL.D., as supervising editor. Much assistance was rendered by Mrs. Charles Custis Harrison, Miss Leach, Oliver Hough, Warren S. Ely, and others.

THE PUBLISHERS.

STICE

Arms of Penn

Colonial Families

PENN FAMILY

Though everything relating to the life and works of William Penn, is, and always will be of intense interest to the people of the great Commonwealth and city which he founded, it is of course impossible, in a work devoted especially to the history of such Colonial families as have living descendants still resident in or near his city, to give anything like an adequate account of the Great Founder and his part in the founding of the Colony of Pennsylvania on the bed rock of personal liberty in the matter of conscience. Volumes have already been devoted to that purpose, and the many phases of his life, character, aims and attainments, and their influence in, and bearing on the founding and development of the institutions of a free and enlightened people, will prove a fruitful and interesting theme for future historians, so long as such institutions survive. It will be our purpose, therefore, after giving such account of the origin and ances- try of the family as is known, to devote our attention more especially to that branch of the family who have living descendants in America.

The family of Penn was doubtless originally Welsh; the name itself is dis- tinctly of Welsh origin, and a word in common use in that language, signifying a head, or highland. Penn himself is said to have stated that he was of Welsh origin, and that one of his ancestors had come from Wales into England. This ancestor, John Tudor, "lived upon the top of a hill or mountain in Wales"; and was generally called John Penmunrith, or "John on the top of a hill," hence ultimately John Penn. The arms borne by William Penn the Founder ; Argent on a fesse sable three plates, are according to an old manuscript prepared by a member of the Penn family of Worcestershire, those of "the main stem of the family". This manuscript continues: "As for our beginning I own it to pro- ceed from the Britons, our estates lying amongst them, and in the Marches of the same, which anciently belonged to the Penn-House, before that it was divided and scattered by many branches into several counties."

These arms were likewise borne by the Penns of Penn in Bucks, and by the Penne family of Shropshire, on the border of Wales, as shown, in the case of the former, in the Herald's Visitation of Bucks, 1575-1634: and in that of the latter, the Visitation of Shropshire, 1564-1620. The pedigree of the Shropshire family extending over fifteen generations given in the Herald's manuscript, begins with Sir William Penne, Knight Lord of Bryn, who married Joan, daugh- ter of Ririd Voel, of Lodfoll, and "bristles with Welsh names" throughout, the whole record being thoroughly Welsh.

The Penns of Penn, county of Bucks, before referred to, had also among their family several distinctly Welsh names. It is from this family that William Penn the Founder descended, as shown by the inscription on the tomb of his

PENN

father, Admiral Sir William Penn, "of the Penns of Penn-Lodge, county of Wilts, and those Penns of Penn in the county of Bucks." Granville Penn, in his "Memorials" of the Admiral, says, "Relation of kindred was always mutually claimed and acknowledged between the family of Sir William Penn and the Penns of Penn in Bucks, now represented by Earl Howe; but the genealogical connection does not appear of record." This is, of course, owing to the fact that the records of Mintye, the home of the immediate ancestors of the Founder, do not commence until after the Restoration.

We must therefore begin the known ancestry of William Penn, with his great- great-grandfather, William Penn, of Mintye and Penn's Lodge, county of Wilts. Little is known of his life, but to quote from an old letter, "He lived in a genteel ancient House", viz : Penn's Lodge, and was of enough consequence to be buried before the altar of the church at Mintye, and there is a tablet to his memory in the same church. He died March 12, 1591-2, and his will, proved in 1592, is recorded in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. It has been printed in full in the Pennsylvania Magazine, vol. xiv, p. 58. The parish of Mintye, though politi- cally in the county of Gloucester, was completely environed by Wiltshire, Penn's Lodge, was near Mintye, on the edge of Braden Forest, and a letter written by John Georges, M. P., to Sir William Penn, under date of January 27, 1665-6, urges the Adiniral to purchase the ancestral lands at Mintye, "which were your ancestors, the Penns, for many generations, worth about froo per annum, with a genteel ancient house upon it." The will of William Penn, of Penn's Lodge, dated May I, 1590, shows that his son William was deceased at that date, and was survived by his wife Margaret and six children; George, Giles, William, Marie, Sara and Susanna.

WILLIAM PENN, the second, of Penn's Lodge, as shown by the letter of John Georges, above quoted, was placed by his father with Christopher Georges, a great-uncle of the writer of the letter, then a counsellor-at-law, "to be bred up by him, and with whom he lived many years as his chief clerk, till he married him to one of his sister Ann Georges's daughters by Mr. John Rastall, then one of the aldermen of Gloucester." As shown by the will of his father, he died prior to May 1, 1590.

Of the six children of William and Margaret (Rastall) Penn, we have but little data, further than what pertains to Giles, the second son, and father of Admiral Sir William Penn. George, the eldest son, succeeded to the estates of his grandfather, at Mintye, and had a son William; and Susanna, the youngest child, is said to have married Richard Cusse, of Wooton Basset, in Wilts, in 1633, though the record of that marriage in the diocesan office at Salisbury may refer to a daughter of George.

GILES PENN, second son of William and Margaret (Rastall) Penn, married November 5, 1600, Joan Gilbert, of the Gilberts, of York. He became a captain in the Royal Navy, and afterwards was for many years a consul for the English trade in the Mediterranean, to which position he was appointed about 1635. He desired a commission as Vice-Admiral to lead an expedition against the corsairs of Morocco who were preying on the English trade vessels, but the impending civil war prevented his appointment. Capt. Giles and Joan (Gilbert) Penn, are known to have had at least four children : two sons; George, born 1601, died 1664, and the Admiral; and two daughters: Rachel, baptized at St. Mary, Radcliffe,

PENN

February 24, 1607, and Eleanor, who died November 24, 1612. There must have been at least another daughter, as Admiral Penn, in his will mentions his "nephews James and John Bradshaw and William and George Markham," of whom Wil- liam Markham, first cousin to the Founder, was for many years his Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania. It is of course possible that Rachel Penn, above men- tioned, may have been twice married, and have been the mother of all the "nephews" above named.

George Penn, eldest son of Giles and Joan, born 1601, was brought up to "Commerce", and Granville Penn tells us, "became an opulent merchant, in Spain." He resided many years in Seville, and having grown rich and being a Protestant, was pounced upon by the Spanish Inquisition in 1643 as a heretic, despoiled of all his estate, cast into prison, where for years he was subjected to torture and flagellation, and finally placed upon the rack for four days, until in his agonies he renounced the Protestant faith, whereupon he was taken through the streets of Seville to a church where his confession and sentence was pro- claimed "in the sight of thousands." His property was confiscated; his wife, a Flemish woman, was divorced from him and ordered to marry a Spaniard, and he himself was expelled from Spain and told that if he either renounced the Romish faith or returned to Spain he would be burned at the stake. On his return to England he petitioned Cromwell, then Protector, for redress against the Kingdom of Spain for his wrongs. After the Restoration, Charles II. appointed him envoy to reside at the Court of the King of Spain in order to get satisfaction for his "sufferings, loss and damage", but he was prevented from going by his sudden death on July 31, 1664.

ADMIRAL SIR WILLIAM PENN, father of the Founder, was probably the youngest of the children of Capt. Giles and Joan (Gilbert) Penn, having been born at Bristol, England, in 1621, (twenty years after the birth of his brother George), and was baptized in the Church of St. Thomas the Apostle, April 23, 1621. He was educated by his father "with great care, under his own eye, for the sea service; causing him to be well grounded in all its branches practical and scientific, as is shown by sundry elementary and tabular documents, nautical journals, draughts of lands, observations and calculations, which still survive." He served with his father as a boy "in various mercantile voyages to the north- ern seas and to the Mediterranean, became a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and thenceforward passed the whole of his active life in that service" under the Parliament, the Protector, and Charles II. after the Restoration, his services in the latter behalf being the foundation of the claim of his distinguished son the consummation of which was the grant to him of the Province of Pennsylvania. He became a captain in 1644 and admiral in 1655, under Cromwell, for the expe- dition against Spanish America. His life can best be summed up in his epitaph over his tomb in Saint Mary's Church, Radcliffe, Bristol, which is as follows:

"To the just Memory of SrWillm Penn,Kt. and sometime General: born at Bristol, An. 1621: Son of Captain Giles Penn, severall yeares Consul for yeEnglish in yeMeditteranean; of the Penns of Penns Lodge in ye County of Wilts, And those Penns of Penn in yeC. of Bucks; and by his Mother from the Gilberts of ye County of Somerset, Originally from Yorkshire; Addicted from his Youth to Maritime Affairs; he was made Captain at the yeares of 21; Rear-Admiral of Ireland at 23;

PENN

Vice-Admiral of Ireland at 25; Admiral of the Streights at 29; Vice-Admiral of England at 31, and General in the first Dutch Warres, at 32. Whence retiring in Ano. 1655 he was chosen a Parliament man for the Town of Weymouth, 1660; made Commissioner of the Admiralty and Navy; Governor of the Town and Fort of King-sail; Vice-Admiral of Munster, and a Member of that Provincial Counseill; and in Anno 1664, was chosen Great Captain Commander under his Royal Highnesse in yeSignall and most evidently successful fight against the Dutch Fleet.

Thus, He took leave of the Sea, his old Element; But continued still his other employs till 1669; at what time, through Bodely Infirmities (contracted by ye Care and fatigue of Publique Affairs) He withdrew, Prepared and made for his End; and with a gentle and Even Gale, in much peace, arrived and anchored in his Last and Best Port, at Wansted in ye County of Essex, ye16 Sept. 1670, Being then but 49 and 4 months old. To Whose Name and merit his surviving Lady hath erected this remembrance."

The Admiral married, January 6, 1643-4, Margaret, wid. of Nicholas van der Schuren, and daughter of John Jasper, his friend and colleague, Captain William Crispin, marrying her sister Anne Jasper. Lady Margaret Penn was buried March 4, 1681-2, in the church at Walthamstow, Essex.

Sir William and Margaret (Jasper) Penn had issue :-

WILLIAM PENN, Founder of Pennsylvania, b. Oct. 14, 1644; d. July 30, 1718; m. (first) Gulielma Maria Springett; (second) Hannah Callowhill;

Margaret, b 1651, d. Dec., 1718; m. Feb. 14, 1666-7, Anthony Lowther, Esq., of Maske, Yorkshire, who d. 1692, and bur. at Walthamstow, Essex, where a monument is erected in his memory. They had issue :-

Margaret Lowther, b. Feb. 8, 1667-8; m. Benj. Poole; a daughter, Mary Poole, married Richard Nichols, and had a daughter, Margaretta Nichols, who married Henry George Herbert, Marquis of Carnarvon.

Sir William Lowther, created baronet 1697; m. Catharine Preston, and had issue : Sir Thomas Lowther, m. Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, dau. of Duke of Devon- shire; had son William, who d. unm., 1756;

Anthony Lowther was member Parliament for Appleby, 1678-79. A letter from Hannah Penn, second wife of William Penn, to Rebecca Blackfan, at Pennsbury, Pa., mentions her "cousin John Lowther" as married and having one child, a daughter ; who he was, does not appear from the "Penn Pedigree."

Richard Penn d. 1673, unm.

WILLIAM PENN, the Founder of Pennsylvania, was born in the parish of St. Katharine, near the Tower of London, October 14, 1644, and was baptized at Allhallows Church, Barking, (London) October 23, 1644. Within a few weeks of his birth, his father sailed as captain of the "Fellowship," in the Parliament's navy, and his wife and child took up their home at Wansted, Essex, a suburb of London, where the Admiral and his family made their home during the greater part of his life. Young Penn received an excellent classical education at private schools and under tutors at home, and on October 26, 1660, was entered as a "gentleman commoner" at the University of Oxford, (Christ Church). His stay at the University however lasted less than two years; having attended a meeting of the Society of Friends, where Thomas Loe, formerly of Oxford University, preached, he was strongly impressed with the simplicity and purity of the faith of that sect, and with a number of fellow students refused to attend the divine

PENN

services at the University or to wear the gown of a student; he was finally expelled from the University for insubordination. After two years spent in travel and study in France and Italy he began the study of law at Lincoln's Inn, February 7, 1664-5. At about the same time he was presented at Court, and attending his father in command of the fleet operating against the Dutch, was sent by the "Great Captain Commander" with despatches to the King. In the autumn of 1665 his father sent him to Ireland, where he was received at the court of the Duke of Ormond, then Lord Lieutenant, and remained about two years, serving under the Duke at the siege of Carrickfergus, in May, 1666. It was there that the "portrait in armor", of which the Historical Society of Pennsyl- vania has a copy, was painted. In Ireland he again attended meetings of Friends addressed by Thomas Loe, and became finally convinced in the doctrines, and on September 3, 1667, suffered his first arrest for his religious convictions, and was thereafter actively identified with the Friends and presently began to write and speak in their behalf. His "Sandy Foundation Shaken" was published in 1668, and he suffered imprisonment in the Tower therefore. He was later imprisoned at Newgate and in Wheeler street, London, for his activity in Friends' affairs.

At the death of his father, William Penn became possessed of a goodly estate amounting to at least £1500 per annum. He married, April 4, 1672, at "a publick Assembly of the People of the Lord" at King's, Charle-wood, in the county of Hertford, Gulielma Maria Springett, daughter of Sir William Springett, (1620- 1644) by his wife Mary Proude, ( 1624-82) daughter of Sir John Proude, by his wife Anne Fagge. At the time of her marriage Gulielma Maria Springett was residing with her stepfather, Isaac Pennington, who had married the widow Springett. After his marriage William Penn and his family resided for about five years in Basing House, Rickmansworth, in the county of Hertford, near the line of the county of Bucks, removing to Worminghurst, Sussex, a property inherited by his wife, in 1677, where he continued to reside until 1697, after his second marriage. In that year he removed to Bristol, and seems to have had his principal residence until 1710, when he removed to Ruscombe Manor, in Berks, near Twyford. now on the Great Western railway, where he died, July 30, 1718.

Of the four years spent in Pennsylvania by the Founder, in two periods of nearly equal length, the major part was doubtless spent in the city of Philadel- phia, laid out by his direction prior to his first arrival, though his Pennsylvania home was ostensibly at Pennsbury, Bucks county, from early in the year 1683.

For several months after his arrival in Pennsylvania in the "Welcome," Octo- ber 28, 1682, Penn seems to have made his home at Chester, later residing in Philadelphia and at Pennsbury, until his return to England in August, 1684. In his second visit to his province of Pennsylvania, arriving in Philadelphia, Decem- ber 3, 1699, he was accompanied by his second wife, Hannah Callowhill, and their eldest child, John Penn, was born in Philadelphia, January 29, 1699-1700. This visit extended to September, 1701, and almost his last official act in Pennsylvania was the signing of the charter of incorporation of the city of Philadelphia. From the date of the grant of the province to him, February 24, 1680-I, to his death thirty-seven years later, 'practically his whole time and energy was devoted to her interests, and his great regret was that he was prevented from spending the greater part of his time in his beloved province.

PENN

Gulielma Maria, first wife of William Penn, died at Hoddeston, county of Hertford, February 23, 1693-4, at the age of fifty years, and he married (sec- ond) at the Friends' Meeting in Bristol, November 11, 1695, Hannah Callowhill, born at Bristol, England, April 18, 1664, died December 20, 1726. She was a daughter of Thomas Callowhill, of Bristol, linen draper, by his wife Hannah Hollister, daughter of Dennis Hollister, an eminent merchant of Bristol, England, and an early convert to the principles of Friends.

William Penn and his first wife Gulielma Maria Springett had issue :-

Gulielma Maria, b. at Rickmansworth, Herts, Jan. 23, 1672-3, d. there, March 17, 1673-4; William Penn, b. Feb. 28, 1673-4, at Rickmansworth, d. there May 15, 1674; Mary (or Margaret), twin with William, d. Feb. 24, 1674-5;

Springett Penn, b. at Walthamstow, Jan. 23, 1675, d. at Lewes, on the south coast of England, where he had been taken by his father with the hope of saving his life, April 10, 1696;

Letitia Penn, b. at Worminghurst, Sussex, March 6, 1678; bur. at Jordans, April 6, 1746; m. Aug. 20, 1702, William Aubrey, of London, who was bur. at Jordans, May 23, 1731 ; no issue; lands granted to Letitia in Pa .; she bequeathed to Christian Gulielma ( Penn) Gaskell, daughter of her nephew, William Penn (3d) of whom hereafter;

WILLIAM PENN JR., b. at Worminghurst, March 14, 1680, d. June 23, 1720; m. Mary Jones, of whom presently ;

Gulielma Maria Penn, b. at Worminghurst, Nov. 17, 1685, d. at Hammersmith, Middle- sex, Nov. 20, 1689;

By his second wife, Hannah Callowhill, William Penn had issue :-

John Penn, "the American", b. Philadelphia, Jan. 29, 1699-1700, d. unm. at Hitcham, county Bucks, England, Oct. 25, 1746; under father's will and "a deed of appointment" thereunder by mother, he became vested in one-half of the Proprietary estate in Pennsylvania; the Three Lower Counties and "elsewhere in Pennsylvania." He came to Pennsylvania in Sept., 1734, with his sister, Margaret Freame, and her husband and was ceremoniously received at Philadelphia, Sept. 29th, remaining a year, he gained the esteem of the people of Pennsylvania. He returned to England in Sept., 1735, to attend the litigation with Lord Baltimore over the Maryland boundary and never returned to America. An extract from the Oxford Flying Weekly Journal, Nov. 1, 1746, has this obituary notice of him :

"On Tuesday night last, being the 25th of Oct., after a long and painful illness, which was borne with the greatest fortitude, resignation, and cheerfulness, died at Hitcham, in the county of Bucks, John Penn, Esq., the eldest of the surviving sons of William Penn. Esq., late Proprietor of the Province of Pennsylvania; a gentleman who from his strict justice and integrity, the greatness of his mind, his universal benevolence to all mankind, and his many other amiable qualities, was a worthy successor to his great father. In his life he was highly esteemed by all who knew him and in his death generally lamented. He dying without issue his estate in Penn- sylvania descended to his next brother Thomas Penn, Esq., who for many years resided in that Province for carrying on the settlement thereof, upon the foundation which was laid by their father."

Thomas Penn, b. at Bristol, Eng., March 9, 1701-2, d. 1775; was joint proprietor with brothers John and Richard. and at death of former inherited life-right in the one- half interest held by John; gave more attention to Proprietary affairs than either of his brothers; came to Pennsylvania in Aug., 1732, and remained until 1741, when he returned to England, and never again revisited the Province, though his letters show his intention to do so soon after his return, but business engagements prevented from time to time. He was an energetic, prudent, capable man of somewhat colder tempera- ment than his brothers.

Thomas Penn m. Aug. 22, 1751, Lady Juliana Fermor, fourth daughter of Thomas, first Earl of Pomphret, of a family of great social distinction in Northamptonshire, that had the honor of knighthood as early as 1586, baronetcy 1641, and peerage 1692.

Of the eight children of Thomas Penn and Lady Juliana, five died in childhood; one, Juliana, b. May 19, 1753, m. William Baker, Esq. of Bafordbury, Herts, and had one child, Juliana Baker, who m. Jan. 18, 1803, John Fawcett Herbert Rawlins Esq., but died without issue, Sept. II, 1849, at Gunters Grove, Stoke Courcy, Somersetshire. The three remaining children of Thomas Penn, were,

PENN

John Penn, b. Feb. 23, 1760, d. unm. June 21, 1834; graduated at Cambridge, 1779; after coming into his inheritance travelled extensively in Europe; was a liberal patron of art, "something of a poet, an idealist and reformer." He came to Pennsylvania in 1783, and resided for five years, having a city house at the corner of Sixth and Market streets, and erected a small mansion which he called "Solitude," on the west bank of the Schuylkill, now in the Zoological Garden. He returned to England in 1788, and erected a handsome residence at Stoke; was Sheriff of Bucks, 1798; member of Parliament, 1802; Royal Gov. of Island of Portland in Dorset, from 1805 for many years, and was Lieut. Col. of First Troop, First Regiment Royal Bucks Yeomanry. He was the author of a number of literary works, and Cambridge University conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. in 18II.

Granville Penn, the Memorialist, was b. Dec. 9, 1761, and d. Sept. 28, 1844; he matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford, Nov. II, 1780; later entered the civil service and became assistant chief clerk in War Dept. ; he m. June 24, 1791, Isabella, eldest daughter of General Gordon Forbes, colonel of 29th Regiment of Foot, of the family of Forbes of Skillater, in Aberdeenshire, by his wife Mary, eldest daughter of Benjamin Sullivan Esq., of Cork, Ireland. On his marriage, Granville Penn settled in London, and occupied his leisure with lit- erary labors, the result of which is the several substantial volumes which form one of the chief sources of knowledge and information in reference to the Penn family. He was a justiciary of Buckinhamshire, after his succession to the extensive estates there at the death of his elder brother John. He died at Stoke, Sept. 28, 1844, almost precisely two centuries after the birth of his grandfather, the Founder.

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Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Vol. I, Part 1

Author: Jordan, John Woolf, 1840-1921, ed; Jordan, Wilfred, b. 1884, ed Publication date: 1911 Publisher: New York, NY : Lewis Historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 710

Author: Jordan, John Woolf, 1840-1921, ed; Jordan, Wilfred, b. 1884, ed
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: New York, NY : Lewis Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 710