page_title: John Penn (governor)
section_title: Governorship
hierarchical_section_title: John Penn (governor) / Governorship
context_page_description: John Penn was the last governor of colonial Pennsylvania, serving in that office from 1763 to 1771 and from 1773 to 1776. Educated in Britain and Switzerland, he was also one of the Penn family proprietors of the Province of Pennsylvania from 1771 until 1776, holding a one-fourth share, when the creation of the independent Commonwealth of Pennsylvania during the American Revolution removed the Penn family from power.
  Held in exile in New Jersey after the British occupation of Philadelphia, Penn and his wife returned to the city in July 1778, following the British evacuation. After the war, the unsold lands of the proprietorship were confiscated by the new state government, but it provided Penn and his cousin, John Penn "of Stoke", who held three-fourths of the proprietorship, with compensation. They both appealed as well to Parliament, which granted them more compensation.
context_section_description: In 1763, Thomas Penn sent his nephew John Penn back to Pennsylvania to take over the governorship from Hamilton. The Penns were not displeased with Hamilton, but they believed John was prepared to assume leadership in the province for the family. He took the oath of office as governor—officially "lieutenant governor"—on 31 October 1763 and served until 1771 in his first tenure. The new governor faced many challenges: Pontiac's Rebellion, the Paxton Boys, border disputes with other colonies, controversy over the taxation of Penn family lands, and the efforts of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly, led by Benjamin Franklin, to have the Penn proprietary government replaced with a royal government. It was during this time in 1768 that he was elected to the American Philosophical Society that Franklin founded.
caption: Anne Allen (1763), by Benjamin West, Cincinnati Art Museum.
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