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01 - William Penn by George Hodges · William Penn

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  Speaker 1: Chapter one of William Penn. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: by Richard Vogel. William Penn by George Hodges, a Puritan boyhood,
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  Speaker 1: Wanstead Church and Chigwell's School. The mother of William Penn
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  Speaker 1: came from Rotterdam in Holland. She was the daughter of
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  Speaker 1: John Jasper, a merchant of that city. The lively mister Peeps,
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  Speaker 1: who met her in sixteen sixty four when William was
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  Speaker 1: twenty years of age, describes her as a fat, short,
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  Speaker 1: old Dutch woman and says that she was mighty homely.
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  Speaker 1: He records a tattling neighbour's gossip that she was not
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  Speaker 1: a good housekeeper. He credits her, however, with having more
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  Speaker 1: wit and discretion than her husband, and liked her better
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  Speaker 1: as his acquaintance with her progressed. That she was of
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  Speaker 1: a cheerful disposition, is evidenced by many passages of Peep's diary.
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  Speaker 1: That is all we know about her. William's father was
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  Speaker 1: an ambitious, successful and important person. He was twenty two
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  Speaker 1: years old and already a captain in the navy when
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  Speaker 1: he married Margaret Jasper. The year after his marriage he
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  Speaker 1: was made Rear Admiral of Ireland, two years after that
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  Speaker 1: Admiral of the Straits, in four years more Vice Admiral
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  Speaker 1: of England, and the next year a General of the
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  Speaker 1: Sea in the Dutch War. This was in Cromwell's time,
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  Speaker 1: when the naval strength of England was being mightily increased.
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  Speaker 1: A young man of entergy and nobility acquainted with the
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  Speaker 1: sea was easily in the line of promotion. The family
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  Speaker 1: was ancient and respectable. Penn's father, however, began life with
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  Speaker 1: little money or education, and few social advantages. Lord Clarendon
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  Speaker 1: observed of him that he had a great mind to
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  Speaker 1: appear better bred and to speak like a gentleman, implying
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  Speaker 1: that he found some difficulty in doing so. Clarendon said
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  Speaker 1: also that he had many good words, which he used
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  Speaker 1: at adventure. The Penns lived on Tower Hill, in the
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  Speaker 1: parish of Saint Catharine's, in a court adjoining London Wall.
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  Speaker 1: There they resided in two chambers, one above another, and
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  Speaker 1: fared frugally there. William was born on the fourteenth of
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  Speaker 1: October sixteen forty four. Marston Moore was fought in that year,
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  Speaker 1: and all England was taking sides in the contention between
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  Speaker 1: the Parliament and the King. The navy was in sympathy
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  Speaker 1: with the Parliament, and the young Officer, though his personal
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  Speaker 1: inclinations were toward the King, went with his associates. But
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  Speaker 1: in sixteen fifty four he appears to have lost faith
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  Speaker 1: in the Commonwealth. Cromwell set an expedition to seize the
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  Speaker 1: Spanish West Indies. He put Penn in charge of the
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  Speaker 1: fleet and made Venables general of the army. The two commanders,
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  Speaker 1: without conference one with the other, sent secret word to Charles,
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  Speaker 1: the second, then in exile on the continent, and offered
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  Speaker 1: him their ships and soldiers. This transaction, though it seemed
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  Speaker 1: for the moment to be of none effect, resulted years
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  Speaker 1: afterward in the erection of the Colony of Pennsylvania. Charles
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  Speaker 1: declined the offer. He wished them to reserve their affections
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  Speaker 1: for his majesty till a more proper season to discover them,
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  Speaker 1: but he never forgot it. It was the beginning of
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  Speaker 1: a friendship between the House of Stuart and the Family
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  Speaker 1: of Penn, which William Penn inherited. The expedition captured Jamaica
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  Speaker 1: and made it to British Colony, but in its other
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  Speaker 1: undertakings it failed miserably, and the Admiral, on his return,
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  Speaker 1: was dismissed from the navy and committed to the tower.
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  Speaker 1: About that same time, the Admiral's young son, being in
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  Speaker 1: the twelfth year of his age, beheld a vision his
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  Speaker 1: mother had removed with him to the village of Wanstead
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  Speaker 1: in Essex. Here, as he was alone in the chamber,
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  Speaker 1: he was suddenly surprised with an inward comfort, and, as
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  Speaker 1: he thought, an external glory in his room, which gave
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  Speaker 1: rise to religious emotions, during which he had the strongest
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  Speaker 1: conviction of the being of a God, and that the
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  Speaker 1: soul of man was capable of enjoying communication with him.
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  Speaker 1: He believed also that the seal of Divinity had been
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  Speaker 1: put upon him at this moment, or that he had
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  Speaker 1: been awakened or called upon to a holy life. While
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  Speaker 1: William Penn the elder had been going from promotion to promotion,
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  Speaker 1: sailing the high seas and fighting battles with the enemies
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  Speaker 1: of England, William Penn the Younger had been living with
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  Speaker 1: all possible quietness in the green country, saying his prayers
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  Speaker 1: in Wanstead Church, and learning his lessons in Jigwell School.
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  Speaker 1: One Stead Church was devotedly Puritan. The chief citizens had
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  Speaker 1: signed a protest against any Popish innovations, and had agreed
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  Speaker 1: to every offender against the true Reformed Protestant religion. The
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  Speaker 1: founder of Chigwell School had prescribed in his deed of
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  Speaker 1: Gift that the master should be a good poet of
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  Speaker 1: a sound religion, neither papal nor puritan, of good behavior,
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  Speaker 1: of a sober and honest conversation, no tippler nor haunter
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  Speaker 1: of alehouses, no puffer of tobacco, and above all apt
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  Speaker 1: to teach, and severe in his government. Here Williams studied
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  Speaker 1: Lilies Latin and Clenard's Greek grammar, together with ciphering and
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  Speaker 1: casting up accounts. Being a good scholar, we may guess
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  Speaker 1: in the classics, but encountering the master's severe government in
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  Speaker 1: his sons, Chigwell was as puritan a place as Wanstead.
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  Speaker 1: About the time of William's going thither, the vicar had
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  Speaker 1: been ejected on petition from the parishioners, who complained that
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  Speaker 1: he had an altar before which he bowed and cringed,
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  Speaker 1: and which he had been known to kiss twice in
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  Speaker 1: one day. It is plain that religion made up a large, interesting,
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  Speaker 1: and important part in these villages in which William Penn
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  Speaker 1: was getting his first impressions of the world. All about
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  Speaker 1: were great forests, whose shadows invited him to seclusion and meditation.
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  Speaker 1: All the news was of great battles, most of them
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  Speaker 1: fought in a religious cause which even a lad could appreciate,
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  Speaker 1: and towards which he would readily take an attitude of
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  Speaker 1: stout partisanship. The boy was deeply affected by these surroundings.
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  Speaker 1: I was bred a Protestant, he said long afterwards, and
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  Speaker 1: that strictly too trained as he was his impuritan habits
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  Speaker 1: of introspection. He listened for the voice of God and
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  Speaker 1: heard it. Thus the tone of his life was set.
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  Speaker 1: There were moments in his youth when the world, as
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  Speaker 1: the phrases, attracted him. There were times in his great
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  Speaker 1: career when he seemed and perhaps was, disobedient to this
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  Speaker 1: heavenly vision. But looking back from the end of his
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  Speaker 1: life to this beginning, as a tale that is told,
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  Speaker 1: it seemed to be lived throughout in the light of
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  Speaker 1: the glory which shone in his room at Wanstead. William Penn,
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  Speaker 1: from that hour was a markedly religious man. Thereafter, nothing
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  Speaker 1: was so manifest or eminent about him as his religion.
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  Speaker 1: End of Chapter one,