The Worlds of William Penn

Edited by Andrew R. Murphy and John Smolenski

Rutgers University Press

William Penn was an instrumental and controversial figure in the early modern transatlantic world, known both as a leader in the movement for religious toleration in England and as a founder of two American colonies, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. As such, his career was marked by controversy and contention in both England and America. This volume looks at William Penn with fresh eyes, bringing together scholars from a range of disciplines to assess his multifaceted life and career. Contributors analyze the worlds that shaped Penn and the worlds that he shaped: Irish, English, American, Quaker, and imperial. The eighteen chapters in The Worlds of William Penn shed critical new light on Penn’s life and legacy, examining his early and often-overlooked time in Ireland; the literary, political, and theological legacies of his public career during the Restoration and after the 1688 Revolution; his role as proprietor of Pennsylvania; his religious leadership in the Quaker movement, and as a loyal lieutenant to George Fox, and his important role in the broader British imperial project. Coinciding with the 300th anniversary of Penn’s death the time is right for this examination of Penn’s importance both in his own time and to the ongoing campaign for political and religious liberty

This marvelous new examination of William Penn’s many worlds gives us this remarkable man anew. Michael Zuckerman, University of Pennsylvania

Readers may find themselves drawn into Penn’s tempestuous trans-Atlantic world. Such readers may want to go on to read The Worlds of William Penn, a collection of 18 essays on Penn and his 'worlds' (American, English, Irish and Quaker). In one illuminating essay, historian Scott Sowerby notes how unlikely the alliance between the Quaker Penn and the Catholic James II was. Wall Street Journal

This collection offers much to consider in the history and historiography of William Penn...[A] must-have for anyone interested in William Penn and, even more so, in the state of Penn historiography. The inclusion of material history and the Native American perspective offer particular strength to the overall value of the book, which offers new interpretations from a variety of fresh angles. Scholars of Penn, Quakerism, Pennsylvania, religion, and the British Empire will be engaging with this collection and these scholars for years to come. H-Net

Like work completed over the last four decades and currently underway, this volume contributes important perspectives and research on the complicated history of William Penn and his worlds. Pennsylvania History

ANDREW R. MURPHY is a professor of political science at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. He is the author of numerous titles, including William Penn: A Life.

JOHN SMOLENSKI is an associate professor of history at the University of California, Davis. He is the author of Friends and Strangers: The Making of a Creole Culture in Colonial Pennsylvania.

Contents
Introduction: William Penn and his Worlds – Andrew R. Murphy and John Smolenski

Part I Materials, History, Memory
1.The Elusive Body of William Penn - Elizabeth Milroy
2.Where William Penn Slept (And Why it Matters) - Catharine Dann Roeber
3.Beyond the Bounds: Exploitation and Empire in the First Map of Pennsylvania - Emily Mann

Part II Irish Worlds
4.William Penn, William Petty, and Surveying: the Irish Connection - Marcus Gallo
5.The Irish Worlds of William Penn: Culture, Conflict and Connections - Audrey Horning
6.The Roads to and From Cork: The Irish Origins of William Penn’s Theory of Religious Toleration - Andrew R. Murphy

Part III Restoration Worlds
7.New Worlds and Holy Experiments in the Restoration Literature of Milton, Bunyan, and Penn - Elizabeth Sauer
8.William Penn and James II - Scott Sowerby
9.William Penn, German Pietist(?) - Patrick M. Erben

Part IV American Worlds
10.“Rancontyn Marenit”: Lenape Peacemaking Before William Penn - Michael Goode
11.William Penn, John Winthrop, and Colonial Political Science - Alexander Mazzaferro
12.Religion and Revolution in New England: 1689 - Sarah A. Morgan Smith
Quaker Worlds
13.William Penn as Preface Writer, Historian, and Controversialist - Catie Gill
14.Quakers and Political Discernment in the Early Restoration - Adrian Chastain Weimer
15.From Puritan to Quaker: Mary Dyer and Puritan-Quaker Conversion in the Seventeenth-Century Atlantic - Rachel Love Monroy

Part V Imperial Worlds
16.Pennsylvania’s Religious Freedom in Comparative Colonial Context - Evan Haefeli
17.William Penn and Security Communities: A Career - Patrick Cecil
18.William Penn’s Imperial Landscape: Improvement, Political Economy, and Colonial Agriculture in the Pennsylvania Project - Shuichi Wanibuchi

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