Richard Penn Sr. (1706 - 1771)

Born 17 Jan 1706 in Bristol, Somerset, , England

Ancestors

Died 4 Feb 1771 at age 65 in Bristol, Somerset, England

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Biography

Richard Penn, son of William Penn and Hannah Callowhill, was born Jan 17, 1705/6, in Bristol, England at the house of his grandfather Thomas Callowhill. He was named after his uncle Richard Penn, who had died in his youth.^[1]

Richard never left England, to see his proprietary lands in Pennsylvania, and mostly lived in Stanwell, Middlesex co. England.^[1]

He married, before July 1729, to Hannah Lardner, daughter of Dr. John Lardner, physician of Gracechurch Street, London, and Woodford, Epping Forest, Sussex. Her mother had been a Winstanley.^[1]

Richard and Hannah Penn had four children:

1. John, born July 14, 1729 became the Governor of Pennsylvania.^[1]
2. Hannah, b. about 1731; married James Clayton; died in Cavendish Square, London, without issue; buried at Stoke Poges, October 2, 1791, where her husband also had been buried January 23, 1790.^[1]
3. Richard, who became Governor of Pennsylvania.^[1]
4. William. b. about 1747. He died in childhood, February 4, 1760; was buried in Penn Church, Bucks.^[1]

Richard Penn died February 4, 1771, and was buried at Stoke Poges. He wrote a will 21 March 1750, and four codicils in 1756, 1760, 1763, 1768. It was proved March 4, 1771.^[1]

The cited source goes into much more detail about Richard and his family.

Richard Penn (17 January 1706 – 4 February 1771) was a proprietary and titular governor of the province of Pennsylvania and the counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex (which three now comprise the state of Delaware) on the Delaware River.

Born in Bristol, England, he was the third son of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, by his second wife, Hannah Margaret Callowhill. He married Hannah, daughter of John Lardner, and had two sons, John and Richard, both of whom also served as provincial governors of Pennsylvania.

On May 12, 1732 Richard with his brothers John Penn and Thomas Penn, as the proprietors of Pennsylvania, signed an order to create a commission. This order was directed to Governor Gordon, Isaac Norris, Samuel Preston, James Logan, and Andrew Hamilton, Esquires, and to the gentlemen James Steel and Robert Charles. The commission, which was to be made up of at least three or more of these individuals, was given full power on behalf of the proprietors for the “running, marking, and laying out” of any boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland. This was in accordance to the agreement signed between the Penn brothers and Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore on May 10, 1732.^[2]

He died in England on 4 February 1771.^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7} Jenkins, Howard Malcolm. The Family of William Penn: Founder of Pennsylvania, Ancestry and Descendants]. p. 76, p. 177
2. ↑ Proud, Robert (1798). The History of Pennsylvania in North America From the Original Institution and Settlement of that Province, Under the First Proprietor and Governor William Penn, in 1681, till after the year 1742: With an Introduction Respecting the Life of W. Penn, Prior to the Grant of the Province, and the Religious Society of the People Called Quakers, with the First Rise of the Neighbouring Colonies, More Particularly of West-New-Jersey and the Settlement of the Dutch and Swedes on Delaware. To Which is Added a Brief Description of the said Province, and the General State in which it Flourished, Principally between the years 1760-1770. With an Appendix. Written principally between the years 1776 and 1780. Philadelphia, PA: Zachariah Paulson, Jr. pp. 208–209; digital image viewed at Archive.org (https://archive.org/stream/historyofpennsyl02prou#page/411 : accessed 11 January 2018).
3. ↑ John W. Jordan, Editor. Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania: Genealogical and Personal Memoirs, Volume I, "Colonial Families - Penn Family," page 8, "Richard Penn". New York & Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1911; digital image 9 of 656, Archive.org (https://archive.org/stream/colonialrevoluti01jord#page/8 : accessed 11 January 2018).