Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. Excerpt from book: Section 1MEMOIR OF WILLIAM PENN William Penn, the founder and governor of the province of Pennsylvania, was born in London, in the year 1644, and died at his country-seat at Rushcomb, in 1718. He was the only surviving son of the British Admiral, Sir William Penn, who distinguished himself in the naval wars of the Dutch and English in the time of Oliver Cromwell, and Charles the Second. Sir William was the confidential friend and favourite of the Duke of York, afterwards King James the Second; and amongst other tokens of his regard, he stood sponsor for his son William at his baptism, and after the admiral’s death he continued his friendship for him until he abdicated the British throne in 1688. William Penn was of a thoughtful and religious turn of mind from his youth, and when he had made considerable progress in his education at school, his father sent him at the age of fifteen, to the University of Oxford. Here he was remarked, not only for a strict attention to his studies, but for the sedateness of his conduct and freedom from the follies of his contemporaries, preferring, for his companions, a few of his fellow-students of the same serious turn ofmind as himself. These young men were in the practice of meeting together, privately, for religious edification, which having come to the knowledge of the heads of the college, they were at first admonished, and then fined for nonconformity; but, at length, having, in their zeal, resisted the introduction of some new innovations in religious practice, they were expelled the University. William Penn’s father received him coldly, being displeased at the public disgrace which he had thus incurred: but that which vexed him most, was the change in his son’s habits, for he had begun to abandon the fashionable world, and to associate with serious and religious people. …