John Penn (writer)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Penn (1760–1834) was a writer, a part proprietor of the province of Pennsylvania, and a governor of the Isle of Portland.
He was born in London, England, 22 February, 1760, the son of Thomas Penn and his wife Juliana (the daughter of Thomas Fermor, first earl of Pomfret) and grandson of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania. On the death of his father in 1775, John Penn succeeded to his father's interests, but, with his cousin, also named John Penn, lost the proprietorship and governorship by the American Revolution. He was a graduate of Clare Hall, Cambridge University, and for some time from 1805 governor of the Isle of Portland, where he built Pennsylvania Castle. He was a member of parliament in 1802. He published a tragedy ("The Battle of Eddington, or British Liberty"), some pamphlets, and a volume of poems, and received the degree of LL.D. from Cambridge in 1811.
In his declining years he founded the "Outinian Society," whose purpose was to encourage young men and women to marry.
He died, unmarried, in Stoke Poges, where the Penn family held a manor, June 21, 1834.
