The Storm Gathering: The Penn Family and the American Revolution

Lorett Treese

Published by Penn State University Press 1992

The Storm Gathering

The Penn Family and the American Revolution

Lorett Treese

In the series Keystone Books

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780271071770

Overview
Contents

About this book

Treese's book provides a popular history of Pennsylvania during the Revolutionary period from the vantage point of the heirs of William Penn.

Most Pennsylvanians are familiar with the story of William Penn and the founding of Pennsylvania in 1681 as a haven for religious dissenters. But few may know what became of Penn's enterprise (the "proprietorship") in the years after his death in 1718. And fewer still may realize that Penn's descendants played an important, and increasingly unpopular, role in the coming of the American Revolution to Pennsylvania. The Storm Gathering, based on Penn family correspondence and other contemporary records, tells this fascinating story, focusing primarily on Thomas and John Penn, two of the last members of the Penn family to figure significantly in Pennsylvania's affairs before the colonies declared independence in 1776.

Lorett Treese begins her story with Thomas Penn, William Penn's son who eventually became chief proprietor. Thomas groomed his nephew John (sometimes called "indolent") to be governor of the colony. When John took up his duties in 1763, at the end of the French and Indian War, the Penn proprietorship faced serious problems in managing Pennsylvania. The sheer size of the colony made it difficult for the Penns to collect their rents, and settlers moving westward clashed with Indians on the frontier, threatening the peaceful relationship that William Penn had established with native peoples. A stubborn legislature resisted Penn family control at nearly every turn, and Ben Franklin led an effort to thwart the Penns and make Pennsylvania a royal colony.

According to Treese, these domestic problems diverted the Penns' attention from the growing movement in America toward democracy and independence. But by 1768, after the British parliament had passed the Townshend Act taxing the American colonies, John Penn and his uncle Thomas began to realize the magnitude of their troubles, referring to the growing rift between America and Britain as "the Storm gathering."

Events began to overtake the Penns by 1775. In that year Thomas Penn died, and the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord brought war closer. In Pennsylvania, John Penn wrote that "The people here are forming themselves into companies & are daily exercising in order to be prepared for the worst." When the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia that summer, John knew that the end of Penn leadership was near. "Our form of government still continues," he wrote, "but I think it cannot last long . . . ." In 1776, as radical sentiment grew, the colonies declared independence from England, and Pennsylvania rewrote its constitution, divesting the Penn family of governing powers and making the colony a commonwealth. When war broke out, radical patriots forced John Penn into exile, and he eventually retired to his country home where he waited out the war.

Treese concludes this engaging story with the end of the Revolution and its aftermath. While Pennsylvanians began the difficult work of reconstructing their government, the Penns attempted to salvage their personal fortunes. Many former officers of the Penn establishment participated again in government, but Penn family members were pushed outside of American government.

Author / Editor information

Treese Lorett :

Lorett Treese is a freelance writer and a regular contributor to Early American Life and the Chester County Daily Local News. Her articles have appeared in Pennsylvania Heritage and Pennsylvania Folklife.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
List of Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. "Receive What Moneys Thou Canst Get In" The Penn Proprietorship Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	5
2. "Proprietary Affairs Suffer Much" The Penn Family in the Mid-Eighteenth Century Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
3. "To Kill Us All, and Burn the Town" The Paxton Boys Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
4. "Contentions and Squabbling" The Movement for Royal Government Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	49
5. "To Prevent a Stamp Duty Being Laid on America" Pennsylvania and the Stamp Act Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	65
6. "Greatest Confusion" The Personal Trials of John Penn Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
7. "Ungovernable Spirit of the Frontier" The Incident at Middle Creek Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
8. "The Storm Gathering" Pennsylvania and the Townshend Duties Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	93
9. "More Vexation and Uneasiness" The Connecticut Yankees in Pennsylvania, 1763-1 773 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
10. "A Fortune in the Clouds" The Dispute After the Death of Richard Penn Sr. Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
11. "So Glorious an Exertion of Public Virtue and Spirit" Opposing the Tea Act in Philadelphia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	123
12. "Keeping Up the Flame" The Penns and Politics from 1774 to Lexington Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
13. "Surrounded with Many Vexations": The Penn Family and the Death of Thomas Penn Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
14. "A Difficult Card to Play" The Penns, Independence, and the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
15. "Very Alarming to the Inhabitants of Those Parts" Pennsylvania's Border Problems from 1774 to 1776 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
16. "Calm Spectator of the Civil War" Pennsylvania as a Commonwealth, John Penn as Private Citizen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	171
17. "Unjustly Deprived of Their Property" The Divestment Act of 1779 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
18. "Without Repining What Is Out of Our Power" The Penns in the Wake of the American Revolution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
Epilogue Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
Appendix A: Condensed Penn Family Tree and Interests in the Proprietorship Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
Appendix B: Chronology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	213
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	237
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241

Language: English
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 256
Keywords: Lorett Treese; 0-271-00858-X; American History; Regional Books; William Penn Keystone; us; united states; usa

eBook

Published: May 26, 2021
ISBN: 9780271071770