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U.S. Landmark Books #98
William Penn: Quaker Hero
This book may be missing the Dust Jacket. It does not have an ISBN.
180 pages, Library Binding
First published June 1, 1961
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 16, 2022
I wanted to learn more about Quakers, and saw this on my mom’s shelf. It was just right. The book is a quick overview of William Penn’s life, which included some excerpts from his many, many letters and pamphlets. It’s probably written at a middle school level.
August 22, 2023
Another biographic volume in the Landmark series, this one a fairly early introduction, first published in 1961. Few on the Left Coast will know who William Penn was, these days, and probably won't realize that the state of Pennsylvania was named for a person, or that a university in Iowa was also founded and named for him. In the latter case, the university was founded in 1873 when groups of Pennsylvania Quakers migrated to Iowa and settled on the site of the Iowa Yearly Friends Meeting and a Spring Quarterly Meeting.
I admit, I didn't know all that much about him, regarding his early upbringing or his family's history, but it made for interesting reading. Some of the best Landmark book are the biographies which also address the major events in our nation's history.
William Penn (1644-1718) is arguably the world's most famous Quaker, a much-persecuted religious minority, even in the United States. Penn was born in Tower Hill, London, the son of an English naval officer, latter dubbed Sir William Penn. His mother was reportedly Dutch, the widow of a Dutch sea captain. The elder Penn had served in the navy during the Commonwealth, and was rewarded by Oliver Cromwell with estates in Ireland, which had been confiscated by Irish rebels. The book tells the story of the Younger Penn's early life, and of his father's tribulations during the tumultuous political strife in England in the late seventeenth century, and his early introduction to Quaker beliefs. The elder Penn was even exiled after a failed military expedition to the Caribbean, during which time the family moved to Ireland, to live on the estates they had been granted there. By all accounts, the family and their holdings prospered.
It was at this time, when he was about 15 years of age, that William Penn met Thomas Loe, a Quaker missionary. The family returned to England the following year after the death of Cromwell, where the elder Penn was knighted by the new Prince Charles, soon to be Charles II, and given a powerful position as Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty. In 1660, the junior Penn entered the University of Oxford, but remained uncertain as to his course of studies. He took a variety of courses, including some medical ones, but began to indulge his interests in politics and economics. It was at this time that he developed strong Quaker sympathies.
Part of Penn's gradual conversion may have been witnessing the brutality minority religious groups at Oxford suffered at the hands of Anglican dandies, who were living it up, now that Cromwell and the Puritans had been driven from power. Penn was eventually expelled from Oxford for his refusal to go to chapel with what he described as rank hypocrites, men who acted piously in church, only to immediately depart through the chapel doors to their drinking and gambling dens, while the dean did nothing more than to turn a blind eye, and, some whispered, openly encouraged the persecution of religious minorities. Penn then transferred to Cambridge University to continue his education.
The Quakers were a significant minority in Europe, but became a highly influential group in the nascent American colonies. One scholar has even proposed that the Quakers introduced many of the ideas that later influenced the Founding Fathers, including democracy and legislatures, the Bill of Rights, a trial by jury, equal rights for men and women, and a free, compulsory public education. In fact, the Liberty Bell was cast by Philadelphia Quakers.
Technically known a the Religious Society of Friends, the group comprised beliefs of several Protestant Christian traditions, with a focus on evangelism. Many dissenting minority Christian groups had developed during the English Civil War, including the Society of Friends, who had become disillusioned with the Church of England. The founder, George Fox, claimed to have experienced a revelation from Christ, and began to teach that it was possible to have a direct relationship with him, without the intercession of ordained clergy. This notion has become a common belief of many Protestant denominations today, but it was a radical idea at the time.
Fox stated that he had experienced a vision on Pendle Hill, and began traveling around the world converting people to his teachings. This clearly didn't sit well with the powers that be, and Fox was soon arrested. He was eventually brought before a magistrate, Gervase Bennet, who reportedly was the first person to refer to the group as the "Quakers," because, according to Fox, "I bade them tremble at the word of the Lord." The name thus began as a pejorative, but soon became adopted even by the group itself. The Quakers continued to experience persecution, so they became one of the groups who traveled to the American colonies, first in July, 1656, to start a new life aboard. They faced a similar fate in America, however, and were persecuted just as harshly.
Many in the Colonies considered the Quakers heretics on account of of their insistence on individual salvation absent any intercession by religious leaders and scorn for formal worship, especially in churches. They sought to live simply and peacefully with others, even refusing to hunt or slaughter their own animals for meat, relying on what they referred to as "inner light," rather than that obtained from religious leaders. Quakers also did not believe in going to war, which was a real departure, for that time.
As a result, members of the group were imprisoned and some beaten and tortured, especially in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, whose Puritan leaders also burned their books and confiscated their property. Many were deported. Things reached a head when in 1660, an English Quaker by the name of Mary Dyer was hanged near Boston Common for defying a Puritan law banning Quakers from the colony. She is one of the four executed Quakers known collectively as the Boston Martyrs. However, in 1661, King Charles II forbade the colony from executing anyone professing to be a Quaker, although it was more than 20 years before England revoked the Massachusetts charter and passed a Toleration Act, prohibiting the persecution of religious minorities other than the Puritans.
Penn wasn't always a choir boy. He did some high living of his own, albeit in moderation, and was subjected to some vicious persecution himself when he did convert. In one case, his great nemesis brought him before a judge who imprisoned the JURY for refusing to return a guilty verdict when they decided that Penn had committed no wrongdoing. The outrageous coercion didn't work: the jury refused to convict him, bug Penn's enemies continued their efforts to get rid of him. It's no wonder that these terrible abuses were a major impetus for the flight of many religious minorities to the New World, risking death on a weeks-long journey to an unknown land and uncertain future.
I won't go into great detail, but the book describes Penn's wrangling when he was appointed governor of the new colony which was named for him (and his father, the Admiral), the building of his capitol city, Philadelphia, and negotiations and relations with indigenous peoples who lived there, whom the Quakers treated with great charity and goodwill, especially compared to the other colonies of the New World. This was the story of a man whose great influence, borne of his great religious convictions, helped to shape the world in which we now inhabit.
I admit, I didn't know all that much about him, regarding his early upbringing or his family's history, but it made for interesting reading. Some of the best Landmark book are the biographies which also address the major events in our nation's history.
William Penn (1644-1718) is arguably the world's most famous Quaker, a much-persecuted religious minority, even in the United States. Penn was born in Tower Hill, London, the son of an English naval officer, latter dubbed Sir William Penn. His mother was reportedly Dutch, the widow of a Dutch sea captain. The elder Penn had served in the navy during the Commonwealth, and was rewarded by Oliver Cromwell with estates in Ireland, which had been confiscated by Irish rebels. The book tells the story of the Younger Penn's early life, and of his father's tribulations during the tumultuous political strife in England in the late seventeenth century, and his early introduction to Quaker beliefs. The elder Penn was even exiled after a failed military expedition to the Caribbean, during which time the family moved to Ireland, to live on the estates they had been granted there. By all accounts, the family and their holdings prospered.
It was at this time, when he was about 15 years of age, that William Penn met Thomas Loe, a Quaker missionary. The family returned to England the following year after the death of Cromwell, where the elder Penn was knighted by the new Prince Charles, soon to be Charles II, and given a powerful position as Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty. In 1660, the junior Penn entered the University of Oxford, but remained uncertain as to his course of studies. He took a variety of courses, including some medical ones, but began to indulge his interests in politics and economics. It was at this time that he developed strong Quaker sympathies.
Part of Penn's gradual conversion may have been witnessing the brutality minority religious groups at Oxford suffered at the hands of Anglican dandies, who were living it up, now that Cromwell and the Puritans had been driven from power. Penn was eventually expelled from Oxford for his refusal to go to chapel with what he described as rank hypocrites, men who acted piously in church, only to immediately depart through the chapel doors to their drinking and gambling dens, while the dean did nothing more than to turn a blind eye, and, some whispered, openly encouraged the persecution of religious minorities. Penn then transferred to Cambridge University to continue his education.
The Quakers were a significant minority in Europe, but became a highly influential group in the nascent American colonies. One scholar has even proposed that the Quakers introduced many of the ideas that later influenced the Founding Fathers, including democracy and legislatures, the Bill of Rights, a trial by jury, equal rights for men and women, and a free, compulsory public education. In fact, the Liberty Bell was cast by Philadelphia Quakers.
Technically known a the Religious Society of Friends, the group comprised beliefs of several Protestant Christian traditions, with a focus on evangelism. Many dissenting minority Christian groups had developed during the English Civil War, including the Society of Friends, who had become disillusioned with the Church of England. The founder, George Fox, claimed to have experienced a revelation from Christ, and began to teach that it was possible to have a direct relationship with him, without the intercession of ordained clergy. This notion has become a common belief of many Protestant denominations today, but it was a radical idea at the time.
Fox stated that he had experienced a vision on Pendle Hill, and began traveling around the world converting people to his teachings. This clearly didn't sit well with the powers that be, and Fox was soon arrested. He was eventually brought before a magistrate, Gervase Bennet, who reportedly was the first person to refer to the group as the "Quakers," because, according to Fox, "I bade them tremble at the word of the Lord." The name thus began as a pejorative, but soon became adopted even by the group itself. The Quakers continued to experience persecution, so they became one of the groups who traveled to the American colonies, first in July, 1656, to start a new life aboard. They faced a similar fate in America, however, and were persecuted just as harshly.
Many in the Colonies considered the Quakers heretics on account of of their insistence on individual salvation absent any intercession by religious leaders and scorn for formal worship, especially in churches. They sought to live simply and peacefully with others, even refusing to hunt or slaughter their own animals for meat, relying on what they referred to as "inner light," rather than that obtained from religious leaders. Quakers also did not believe in going to war, which was a real departure, for that time.
As a result, members of the group were imprisoned and some beaten and tortured, especially in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, whose Puritan leaders also burned their books and confiscated their property. Many were deported. Things reached a head when in 1660, an English Quaker by the name of Mary Dyer was hanged near Boston Common for defying a Puritan law banning Quakers from the colony. She is one of the four executed Quakers known collectively as the Boston Martyrs. However, in 1661, King Charles II forbade the colony from executing anyone professing to be a Quaker, although it was more than 20 years before England revoked the Massachusetts charter and passed a Toleration Act, prohibiting the persecution of religious minorities other than the Puritans.
Penn wasn't always a choir boy. He did some high living of his own, albeit in moderation, and was subjected to some vicious persecution himself when he did convert. In one case, his great nemesis brought him before a judge who imprisoned the JURY for refusing to return a guilty verdict when they decided that Penn had committed no wrongdoing. The outrageous coercion didn't work: the jury refused to convict him, bug Penn's enemies continued their efforts to get rid of him. It's no wonder that these terrible abuses were a major impetus for the flight of many religious minorities to the New World, risking death on a weeks-long journey to an unknown land and uncertain future.
I won't go into great detail, but the book describes Penn's wrangling when he was appointed governor of the new colony which was named for him (and his father, the Admiral), the building of his capitol city, Philadelphia, and negotiations and relations with indigenous peoples who lived there, whom the Quakers treated with great charity and goodwill, especially compared to the other colonies of the New World. This was the story of a man whose great influence, borne of his great religious convictions, helped to shape the world in which we now inhabit.
September 25, 2014
A short biography, written for young adults, about the life of William Penn, from his birth in 1644, his tumultuous relationship with his Navy Admiral father, how he became a Quaker, found love and acceptance about his new religion from his family, including his Dad, and finally, how he and his wife emigrated to America, and all the good that was accomplished here. Some of the book is quite amusing, like the trial Penn was once on in England, for the 'crime' of being a Quaker, in which the jury found him not guilty, and the judges locked up the jury until they came back with the 'right verdict.' A very good starting point for anyone who wants to know more about the famous Quaker.
October 13, 2023
An interesting and enjoyable biography of William Penn. My 106th read of Landmark’s American history series. Sixteen more books to go. I’ve found four online at Internet Archive. The remaining twelve books have been out of print for years. They are not available from my local or state libraries. I refuse to buy books from Amazon. They’re asking ridiculous prices for used copies. I’ll keep searching in used book stores. The difficulty in finding these books is few were reprinted and they are used by home-schoolers. A last recourse would be to read them in the beautiful reading room in the Library of Congress. I could easily hop on the Metro to do that.
December 13, 2023
This is a fantastic summary of his life. I did not know he sounded so orthodox and Baptistic. His life is remarkable, and he dedicated the whole of it to religious and political freedom. He is as great as any of those of the revolutionary times who fought for the American freedoms.
January 16, 2019
Enjoyable biography of William Penn and another win for the Landmark series!!!
October 4, 2015
An absolutely wonderful book. Great history of William Penn and his fight for freedom for all.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews