trial, had made use of the occasion to cast these reflections upon the Admiral. The son was ready to reply, and he devoted a portion of his rejoinder to vindicate his father's honesty and spirit. "Not that I would be thought to justify wars," he says; "I know they arise from lusts." But this does not hinder that he should state matters of fact.* The Admiral had a second son, Richard Penn, who survived him about three years, dying in April, 1673; also one daughter, Margaret Penn, who married Anthony Lowther, of Mask, Yorkshire, and died in 1681-2; her branch of the family became extinct in the fourth generation. * Truth rescued from Imposture, &c. Part III. A Vindication of my deceased Father's Reputation from the False and Unworthy Reflections of this Scandalous Libeller. Penn's Works, 2 vols. fol. Vol. I. p. 496. CHAPTER II. Birth and Education of William Penn. His Early Religious Impressions. Enters Christ's Church, Oxford. - - The Influence of Thomas Is fined for Nonconformity. - Is expelled from the University. - The Anger of his Father. Is turned out of Doors. -The Spirit of William. — Is sent to travel in France. Studies at Saumur. Is recalled. Enters Lincoln's Inn. Leaves London on Account of the Plague. THE proprietary of the province of Pennsylvania was born in St. Catharine's Parish, Tower Hill, London, October 14th, 1644. The country residence of his parents being then at Wanstead, he was sent to the free grammar school at Chigwell, Essex, which had been recently founded by Harsnett, Archbishop of York. His first and strongest religious impressions are ascribed to his boyhood in this school. While he was but eleven years of age, he was the subject of those deep exercises of spirit, which, in the language of the time, are represented almost as miraculous. Alone in his chamber, an external brightness around him seemed to answer to a mysterious motion within; and thus early was confirmed to him the great fundamental principle of his subsequent faith, that there is an inward light in man, which attests the capacity of his soul for holding immediate intercourse with God. He regarded himself as called, by this experience, to a consecration of heart and life to the service of his Maker. He was removed from Chigwell at the age of twelve, that he might be near his father's town residence, and enjoy more advantages of education in a private school, on Tower Hill, and in the help of a private tutor at home. Great pains seem to have been bestowed upon him, and not in vain; for he was a ready scholar, and his subsequent writings give proof of an accurate attainment in elementary principles, and of a wide extent of mental discipline. His healthful frame and bodily strength, in maturer years, were evidence, however, that he was not sheltered in tender seclusion, but engaged in those usual sports and amusements which are the best education of the body. William Penn was entered as a gentleman commoner, at Christ Church College, Oxford, at the age of fifteen. Amid many close friendships which he formed here, based upon moral and intellectual affinities, he numbered among his companions John Locke, to whom he offered service at the time of his expatriation in Holland. A specimen of young Penn's scholarship, at this time, is preserved in a brief Latin elegy, which was published in 1660, in a volume embracing several similar pieces, written by members of Oxford University, on the lamented decease of the Duke of Gloucester, second brother of Charles the Second.* The early religious impressions of the young student, which had not been effaced, were renewed and deepened, at this time, by the exhortations of Thomas Loe. The numerous Quaker historians and writers, contemporaneous with this period, make frequent mention of the labors and imprisonments of this famous lay preacher, to whom Penn attributed his own conversion to their principles. Having once belonged to the university, which he left for the sake of his new profession, he occasionally visited it, in his itinerary ministry, and succeeded in gaining the devout attention of several of its students, while, as a matter of course, he was ridiculed and harassed by others. Of Penn, as of many other founders and prominent disciples of great sects, we may advance the paradoxical sentence, that he had Epicedia Academiæ Oxoniensis in Obitum celsissimi Principis Henrici, Ducis Glocestriensis. 4to. 1660. already received, of his own instinctive tendencies, the views which he apparently embraced from the teaching of another. He was in fact a Quaker, before he became one by conscious or professed adhesion to Quaker principles. The doctrines, which that eminently Christian society advocated, were but a published index of the contents of many devout hearts and struggling minds. Penn at once responded to the earnest appeals of Thomas Loe, and, with a small band of his college companions, he forsook the ritual services, which the restored monarch had set up, for more congenial worship of their own, in their private apartments. All who were concerned in this grave offence were discovered, and, not denying the charge, or foregoing the practice, were fined for nonconformity. Though the fine was paid, it did not absolve wounded consciences. Penn and his companions proceeded to imitate an example, which older men had but lately set, and to insult the forms which they could not respect. The King had ordered that the students should resume their claim to their ancient title of gownsmen, and should never appear without their surplices. This Popish and formal costume, so at war, as the young converts of a simple and unadorned faith esteemed it to be, with true spirituality, excited their |