The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1882-11-04
William Penn s Father.

Admiral Sir William Penn was, in the
later days of the Commonwealth, an able
and gallant naval commander. When
that government was transformed into
monarchy, he, along with others who
mad rendered equally honorably service
under Parliament, thought that he could
now best serve his country by serving
his King.
From all the records we have of him
he seems to have been frank. rugged
man, little accustomed to the finer
shades of life. He was no carpet knight,
such as were too common at Whitehall
and st. James, but brave and gallant
sailor, whose very honesty and high
merit won him way into royal and du.
cal favor, when honesty and merit, as
rule, did not count for very much.
With the Duke of York, who command
ed the navies of England as Lord High
Admiral, he became an especial favorite,
for the marine war at that time raging
between England and the Dutch, gave an
ample opportunity for courageous and
able captains, such as Sir William, to win
their waT into high favor by valuable SER
vice. Nor did he neglect such opportu
nifty, for so we'll did he perform the duties
imposed upon him that at last he reached
a position only second in command to the
Duke himself.
The eliminating point of his service
was in the great naval battle of June,
1865, in which the English. after long
period of humiliation and defeat, won a
decisive victory over their enemies-a
victory largely due to Admiral Penn's
ability. In the delightfully."- humdrum
pages of Mr.. Samuel Pepys's Diary we
catch glimpse of the iubilation of the
Penn household on the occasion. "Then
to my Lady Pens" he says, "where they
are all joyed, and not a little puffed up,
at the good successes of their father; and
good service in Iced is said to have been
done by him. Had great bon fire at the
gate, and I, with my Lady Pens people
and others, to Mrs. Turner's great room,
and then down into the street. I did
give the boys is. among them, and
mighty merry; SO home to bed, with my
heart full of great rest and quiet, saving
that the considerations of the victory is
too great for me presently to compre-
hend."
Loud and long were the reioicings in
England, and great the honors bestowed
upon the man to whom the glory was so
largely due.
Thus we find him at the pinnacle of his
career, Viee-Admiral of England, favor
ite of king and kings brother, the
lauded of nation. But an end came to
his glory, as it comes to the glory of all.
A terrible enemy, the gout, seized upon
him and held him for a year or two of
lingering suffering. until, as the inscrip-
tion on his monument hath it, with a
10 no uo1
achored in his best port at Wamsted, in
the county of Essex and William, his
eldest son, fell heir to his estates
William had never been a favorite
with his father. From the time that, as
u young man, he had been sent to Ok
ford, he was thorn in the Admirals s
side. Sir William regarded the Quaker
principles of his son with all the detes-
tation that man of the world feels for
any popularity or eccentricity, whether
mundane or otherwise. There was con-
stanr succession of disagreements be-
tween them. eliminating at last when
William, in the presence of the king and
the Duke of York, refused to remove
his hat. This refusal was too much; the
Admiral lost all control of himself, and
in rage ordered his son to quit the
house, and never show his face beneath
the paternal roof again. Then family
scene My Lady Penn and Mistress
Peggy wept; and William feeling all the
dignity af martyr upon HIM marched
out with the inevitable hat firmly fixed
upon his head. Toward the close of the
Admiral's life, however, when the dis
ease held him in its fiercest grip, he and
his son were reconciled. Both had
grown some years older, and were more
inclined to bear and forbear toward one
another. So it was that at his fathers
death William fell heir to his estates in
spite of his Quaker proclivities.
When those estates came to be finally
settled it was found that the crown still
owed the Admiral balance of $4,000,
for services rendered both in the Dutch
war and in the position he formerly held
as Comptroller of the navy. It was this
that gave William a claim upon the king,
of which he speedily took advantage by
petitioning for the grant of that territory
upon which he had fixed as proper To-
cality for the proposed settlement of
Quakers- Harper's Magazine.