The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1898-03-09

In this fashion does Dixon begin his
book: "Sir William Penn is one Of the
suppressed characters in English his
tory. By the general historian he is
rarely mentioned, aud there are some
otherwise good collections of naval BIZ
ography in which his nams does not
occur. Yet in an age Of great sea cap
tains he stood in the foremost rank"
Is not this strange? Not at all. In
the Revolution "the navy was neutral
and patriotic when every other power
in the state sided with one or Oth-r of
the factions" Add to this "the over
whelming interest that attaches to the
purely domestic history of the period.
There the marins played but an infe-
rior part. The army occupies the cen
ter Of the s.age.n Where did Sir Will
lam come from? "The Penus were an
old family in the early part of the l5th
century. For many generations they
had been settled in district of Blck-
inghamshire, from which they received
or to which they beqleathed their
name" According to the founder, 1t
signifies "a head" and IS a word Of
Welsh origin. In Wales it was spelled
with only one n, as also ia Cumber-
land; bat in Buckingham with two.
This latter county, having "the high
est land in England" is in the south
east, not far from London, where it is
said the name was spelled with two MS,
while Cumberland is in the far north,
bordering Scotland. In the southeast
the name was Penn, in the north and
west it was Pen, and there is reason for
believing that Sir William spelled it in
this latter form. There is no document
airy evidence of that at hand, but every
reader of the diary of Samuel Pepys
knows that that worthy invariably
wrote Pen when he referred to the ad-
miral, to whom he did refer more times
than any man has ever numbered, and
each time with cOrdiality of hatred
which is infinitely amusing-amusing
b cluse Pepys was man, woman, child,
all in one, and therefore such bundle
of absurd prejudices as existed not be-
fore nor sine. Penn was one of the
commissioners of the navy with whom
Pepys served as secretary, or clerk of
tn acts. II : saw Penn's signature over
and often, a I'd though he occasionally
misspslIed names, it is hardly credible
that he shluld uniformly misspell one
with which he was so familiar. There
is a possibility, or even a probability,
that the admiral was Indifferent as to
the spelling, and recognized either the
Welsh Pen or the English Penn.
His son always used the English form
of the name, but in l729 John, Thomas
and Richard Penn, in a joint letter to
James Logan, did say that he ''might
depend upon one of us seeing Pensilva-
mia Immediately" and in one of the
documents relating to the boundary
question we read that "by the care and
vigilance of We government of Pensil-
vania this province hath hitherto found
means to hold all the lands eastward of
Sasquehanna," that nothing can set
tie the peace of PENNSYLVANIA on that
side hut an entire adjustment of the
boundaries" and in the list of papers
{, ken TO Maryland in May of 1874, was
an agreement entered into a decade be-
fore between the proprietors Of "Pen-
sipa and Maryland" In a paper relat-
ing to Hannah Penn's interest, drawn
up so late as 1760, the name of our COM
monwealth appears twice as Pensilva-
MIA. In an exhibit accompanying that
paper we read of William Penn, es-
auire, dece'd, late chief proprietor and
governor of the province of Pensilva-
niL" In petition from inhabitants
west of the Susquehanna, during the
boundary dispute with Maryland, the
name of the c)mn IN wealth is spelled
as now, but that is the only instance tf
such spelling which We could find in
the course of considerable search
through the old records Perhaps it
would be safe to say that as a rule the
Welsh form Of the name is used with
preference to the commonwealth, while
the English form is invariable in refer
enees to the family. Charles named