: world. Bury me by my mother live all in love; shun all manner of evil; and I pray God to bless you all, and he will bless you.' It had been the king's intention to raise Sir William Penn to an higher honour, by the title of the borough which he represented in parliament; but, his son having embraced the persuasion of the Society of Quakers, and having, in 1668, in his work entitled, "No Cross, no Crown," published an express and vehement disclaimer of all titles of honour, through the religious principles of his new persuasion, that stream of royal favour was stemmed. In that work, he largely assigns "the reasons why he, and the people with whom he walks in religion, decline giving gaudy titles, and refuse the present use of these customs; and cannot esteem titles, such as these, most excellent, most sacred, your grace, your 66 66 lordship, &c., being prohibited by God, his Son, "and servants, in days past." To this point he alluded, in a letter written some years after, (the 5th of the 10th month, 1682), from the new town of Chester, in his infant province of Pennsylvania: " It " is more than a worldly title or patent that hath "clothed me in this place; nor am I sitting down in a greatness that I have denied. Had I sought greatness, I had stayed at home; where the difference between what I am here, and was offered 66 66 England, (to which Sir William Penn always adhered, notwithstanding the expression of irritation here provoked), to the operation of its own mild and moderate principles. 1 Chap. ix. sec. 31, &c. "and could have had there, is as wide as the The following are extracts from Sir William Penn's will: "In the name of God: Amen!-I, Sir William Penn, of London, knight, being of perfect mind and memory, do make this my last will and testament, this twentieth day of January, in the year of our Lord God one thousand six hundred sixty and nine, (1669-70), and in the one-and-twentieth year of our sovereign lord, Charles the Second, &c. &c. &c. My soul, I humbly recommend into the merciful hands of my ever blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, beseeching him that, through his merits, I may be made partaker of life eternal. My body, I commit to the grave, to be buried in the parish church of Redclyffe, within the city of Bristol, as near unto the body of my dear mother deceased (whose body lies there interred) as the same conveniently may be. And my will is, that there shall be erected in the said church, as near unto the place where my body shall be buried as the same can be contrived, a handsome and decent tomb, to remain as a monument, as well for my said mother as for myself, the charges thereof to be defrayed by my executor hereafter 1 Works, Life, fol. vol. i. p. 124; 8vo, vol. i. p. 86. CLARKSON's Life of W. Penn, vol. i. pp. 351, 352. Mr. Clarkson, not being aware of the allusion in the first sentence, has omitted it in his extract from this letter. During the years 1768-70, when Viscount Weymouth was secretary of state for the plantations, the late Mr. Thomas Penn, last surviving son of the Quaker (my father), often observed in his family, that, in transacting the business of his province with that noble lord, he could rarely avoid the reflection, that if his father had not been a Quaker, he should have borne the title then borne by the noble secretary. It is certain, that the title of Weymouth did not issue from the crown until after the execution of the grant of the province of Pennsylvania, as its equivalent, in 1680; which province was erected, by its charter, into a Seignory, and the grant made to rest on the same ground on which the title would have stood; viz. "The Merits of Sir William Penn in divers ser"vices," &c.-See above, page 359. named, out of my personal estate. And as for and concerning eldest son, William "And though I cannot apprehend that any differences can fall out or happen between my said dear wife and my said son William, after my decease, in relation to any thing by me devised or limited by this my will, or in relation to any other matter or thing whatsoever; yet, in case any such differences should arise, I do hereby request and desire, and, as far as in me lieth, require, conjure, and direct my said dear wife and my said son William, by all the obligations of duty, affection, and respect which they have, and ought to have, to me and my memory, that all such differences, of what nature or kind soever they shall be, by the joint consent and submission of my said dear wife and my said son William, be at all times, and from time to time, referred to the arbitration, and final judgment and determination, of 1 See above, vol. i. p. 518. His gold chain and medal remain with his family. An engraving of the medal is given in Vertue's Collection of the Works of Simon, the eminent artist who executed it, facing page 27; a correct engraving of the same is also published, as a frontispiece, in one of the volumes of CHARNOCK's Biographia Navalis. 1 |