68

VII. AT THE COURT OF JAMES THE SECOND, AND "IN RETIREMENT" 93

VIII. PENN'S SECOND VISIT TO THE PROVINCE: CLOSING YEARS 113

WILLIAM PENN

I

A PURITAN BOYHOOD: WANSTEAD CHURCH AND CHIGWELL SCHOOL

The mother of William Penn came from Rotterdam, in Holland. She was the
daughter of John Jasper, a merchant of that city. The lively Mr. Pepys,
who met her in 1664, when William was twenty years of age, describes her
as a "fat, short, old Dutchwoman," and says that she was "mighty
homely." He records a tattling neighbor's gossip that she was not a good
housekeeper. He credits her, however, with having more wit and
discretion than her husband, and liked her better as his acquaintance
with her progressed. That she was of a cheerful disposition is evidenced
by many passages of Pepys's Diary. That is all we know about her.

William's father was an ambitious, successful, and important person. He
was twenty-two years old, and already a captain in the navy, when he
married Margaret Jasper. The year after his marriage he was made
rear-admiral of Ireland; two years after that, admiral of the Straits;
in four years more, vice-admiral of England; and the next year, a
"general of the sea" in the Dutch war. This was in Cromwell's time, when
the naval strength of England was being mightily increased. A young man
of energy and ability, acquainted with the sea, was easily in the line
of promotion.

The family was ancient and respectable. Penn's father, however, began
life with little money or education, and few social advantages. Lord
Clarendon observed of him that he "had a great mind to appear better
bred, and to speak like a gentleman," implying that he found some
difficulty in so doing. Clarendon said, also, that he "had many good
words which he used at adventure."

The Penns lived on Tower Hill, in the Parish of St. Catherine's, in a
court adjoining London Wall. There they resided in "two chambers, one
above another," and fared frugally. There William was born on the 14th
of October, 1644.

Marston Moor was fought in that year, and all England was taking sides
in the contention between the Parliament and the king. The navy was in
sympathy with the Parliament; and the young officer, though his personal
inclinations were towards the king, went with his associates. But in
1654 he appears to have lost faith in the Commonwealth. Cromwell sent an
expedition to seize th