The family of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, ancestry and descendants

Preface

^^^^Y^HE occasion of this volume is substantially, per- ■ I haps sufficiently, stated in the opening of the first chapter. To the explanation there given a few particulars may be added. There has always been, the author believes, a strong and very reasonable interest in the personality of William Penn, as the Founder of Pennsylvania, and as a worthy figure in the world's history, and some of this interest attaches to the line of those who have descended from him. The volume here prepared assumes simply to deal with this Family subject. It is not a history nor a biography. In one or two places, perhaps, the record has been permitted an extension which could not be entirely justified by the plan of- the work, but excusing this by the special interest of the subject at those points, the author thinks the book has been fairly confined to its original and legitimate plan.

Some of the family letters, very possibly, may be regarded as containing details too trivial for printing. The view adopted as to such matters has been that the account is thus made more precise and distinct, and is invested with human interest.

Indeed, a book of this character must in part find its justification as being a study, a picture, of social conditions in the period to which it belongs, and such a study or picture is obviously of little value unless it is presented with lines sufiiciently distinct, and details suflficiently definite, to make a positive impression on the mind. While it has not

iii iv Preface,

been desired to dwell upon features that are unpleasing, and not to reward a reader — if any such there be — who comes in search of scandal, yet it has not been thought proper to omit a candid, if brief, mention of whatever is essential to the completeness of the record.

One criticism to be reasonably made is that which must apply to nearly all such works, — that the treatment of individuals is unequal, that in cases where the claims are alike more is said of one and less of another. This is explained by the variation of materials, — in one case they are abundant, in others scanty. Concerning some persons there survive letters and documents so numerous and so full that there is no difficulty in making a satisfactory account of them, while as to others only a few particulars remain, or are accessible.

Table Of Contents

I

PAGE

The Origin of the Penn Family 1

II Admiral Penn's Progenitors 5