Margaret (Jasper) Penn (abt. 1610 - 1681)

Born about 1610 in County Clare, Ireland [uncertain]

Ancestors

Wife of William Penn — married 6 Jun 1643 in St Martin, Ludgate, City of London

Descendants

Died 4 Mar 1681 at about age 71 in Wanstead, Essex, England

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Biography

The following sourced from Co Clare Library Website: " Probate Acts in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Anno 1642. In 1642 Margaret the "relict" (widow) filed her dead husband's will. In the filing she lists her deceased husband as Nicasius Vanderscuden of Six Mile Bridge, County Clare, Ireland; and her address as 119 Campbell. Her holdings at that time est. at 7,436.19s 6d pounds, a very substantial sum in that day and age. Although Margaret has been identified as English Protestant or Dutch, it is more likely she was Anglo-Irish. It is noted in history that as a young child she lived near Bunratty Castle with her family and many times would stay overnight in the Castle." Read more at: Co Clare Library Website <http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/genealogy/don_tran/fam_his/burkes_jaspers_pound.htm/>

William Penn married Margaret Van der Shuren, a widow,^[1] on 6 June 1643 at St Martin, Ludgate, City of London.

In 1664 Samuel Pepys described William Penn's mother Margaret as "a well-looked, fat, short old Dutchwoman".^[2]

Capt. William Crispin married first, 1650, Annie Jasper daughter of John Jasper, a merchant of Rotterdam, Holland, and a sister of Margaret Jasper, the wife of Admiral Penn, and mother of William Penn. Some authorities state that John Jasper was a native of Rotterdam, and others that he was an Englishman by birth. Had Captain Crispin lived Penn intended appointing him Chief Justice.^[3]

Death Alt. 1610 Wanstead, Essex, England (d) Feb / Mar 1682, Ireland; Alt. Walthamstow, Essex, England. She is buried at Walthamstow, England near Penn's old residence. <http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/genealogy/don_tran/fam_his/burkes_jaspers_pound.htm/>

Margaret was the daughter of John Jasper, a wealthy Protestant merchant in County Clare, and Alet Pletjes, whose family was from Kempen, Prussia. Before marrying Sir William Penn she was married to Nicasius Van der Schure. Margaret abandoned her Irish estates, inherited from her father, and fled to England during the Irish Confederate Wars in 1653. She and Admiral Penn petitioned Cromwell for a return of the estates worth an enormous £7,436.19s.6d. She died in Ireland in 1682. While Margaret's marriage to William Penn is recorded to have been at St Martin-within-Ludgate, London another source says St Mary Redcliffe Church, Bristol, England. There is a second certificate of marriage which may have been for the return of her estates in Ireland.^[4]

The County Clare estates in question were Rneanna and Jasper's Bridge. Oliver Cromwell himself addressed a letter to the Lord-Deputy and council in Ireland on 4 December 1654 in regard to compensating the Penns. The letter stipulated "that lands to the value of £300 per year, in Ireland as they were let in the year 1640, to be settled on General Penn and his heirs; and for such as he is now engaged in further service for the commonwealth in the present expedition by sea, and cannot himself look after the settling of the said estate, it is our will and pleasure, that lands of the said value be speedily surveyed and set forth in such place where there is a castle or convenient house for habitation upon them and near to some town or garrison, for the security and encouragement of such as he shall engage to plant and manure the same, and if it be, such lands as are already planted. . . [signed] Oliver Cromwell". The castle that was awarded was Macroom, near the town of Cork. Margaret Penn often went to Ireland and lived there for long periods of time on one or other of the family's estates. After the 1661 Act of Settlement in Ireland it was Margaret, in her husband's absence, who dealt with the legal transference of Macroom Castle to the Earl of Clancarty and the Penn appropriation of the estates of Shanagarry in East Cork & Konakilty in West Cork and the appointment of the Admiral as governor and captain of the castle and fort of Kinsale.^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ Image of Church Register marriage entry, on Ancestry.co.uk
2. ↑ Was William Penn a "Half Dutchman?, "The Journal of the Friends' Historical Society, volumes 5-6", page 118. Headley Brothers (1908) Google eBooks
3. ↑ THE HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, CHAPTER III, WILLIAM PENN BECOMES PROPRIETOR, 1673 TO 1682 from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time by W. W. H. Davis, A.M., Democrat Book and Job Office Print., Doylestown, PA, 1876.
4. ↑ Margaret Penn (Jasper) (d.1682), https://pennsylvaniahistory.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/margaret-penn1.pdf
5. ↑ Margaret Penn: wife of Admiral Sir William Penn and mother of the Quaker, William Penn, https://pennsylvaniahistory.wordpress.com/tag/alet-pletjes/

• One of the more convincing of the web records of Margaret, http://www.renderplus.com/hartgen/htm/penn.htm, says: "... at the time of her marriage to WIlliam Penn, she was a Dutch widow having been married to Nicasius Van der Schure. Margaret Van der Schure was the daughter of Jan (Johann, John) Jasper merchant of Rotterdam (Seitz, 1719 & Burke, 1929) and Alet Pletjes, whose family was from Kempen, Prussia (Lutz, 1988 & Miller, 1991)." One of that pages sources says "She was a young Dutch widow, the daughter of John (or Johann) Jasper an Irish merchant who traded with the Dutch.".

See also:

• Contae an Chláir

• http://familypedia.wikia.com/wiki/Margaret_Jasper_(c1624-1682)