John Penn (82)

John Penn (14 July 1729–9 February 1795), grandson of Pennsylvania founder William Penn, was the province’s final proprietary governor and a member and patron of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1768. Born in London, he attended the University of Geneva from 1747 to 1751. He then toured Italy before moving to Philadelphia, where he became a member of the provincial council. In 1763 his uncle, lead proprietor Thomas Penn, appointed him lieutenant governor. Penn’s tenure saw border disputes with Maryland, Connecticut, and Virginia and frontier conflicts connected with Pontiac’s War, including the Conestoga Massacre and subsequent stand-off with the Paxton Boys. This period also witnessed increasing animosity between the proprietors, represented by the council, and the people of Pennsylvania, represented by the assembly. The former demanded the payment of quit-rents while the latter attempted to tax proprietary land, and this conflict came to a head in 1764 when the anti-proprietary party, led by Benjamin Franklin, unsuccessfully petitioned to have Pennsylvania made a royal colony. The passage of the Stamp Act united both factions in opposition to the metropole but also brought new challenges for the Penns. When his father died in 1771, John returned to England and his brother, APS member Richard Penn, became acting governor. Reinstated two years later, John promoted reconciliation during the lead-up to the American Revolution, but his efforts failed and the proprietary government was officially dissolved in 1776. He spent a year in forced exile in New Jersey as a suspected Loyalist before taking an oath of allegiance to the revolutionary regime. 1788 found Penn in England where he sought compensation for his lost lands before returning to his estate outside Philadelphia. His cousin Granville Penn, father-in-law William Allen, and brothers-in-law John, Andrew, and James Allen were APS members. (PI, DNB, DAB)