Early Land Purchasers

The first European or English (or white) landowner of the land around Horsham was of course William Penn who acquired what was to be called Pennsylania from King George II in payment of a debt the King owed to Penn's father. Penn was among a group of Quakers who had acquired the colony of West Jersey (half of the current New Jersey) in 1677. He had earlier witten a plan for a United States of Europe, "European Dyet, Parliament or Estates." and now wrote a charter of liberties for the Jersey settlement that guaranteed free and fair trial by jury, freedom of religion, freedom from unjust imprisonment and free elections.

William Penn (October 14, 1644–July 30, 1718), as most people know, acquired what would become the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Penn was the son of Admiral Sir William Penn but broke away from his Anglican family - and English society - to join George Fox, the founder of the Religious Society of Friends (derisively named the Quakers by and English judge), a group who followed their 'inner light' instead and did not answer to swear allegiance to any man, including the King - or to fight in the King's army. Many, including Penn, were imprisoned numerous times.

He reconciled with the Admiral before the elder Penn's death and convinced the King to grant him what is now known as Pennsylvania (45,000 square miles) in payment of a £16,000 debt. In 1682 he he drew up a Frame of Government for the Pennsylvania colony which included the novel idea of freedom of worship. Penn also later acquired 3 lower counties that became the state of Delaware.

Penn saw in America a chance for a "holy experiment" where there was freedom of religion, rights were protected, and no one man or group would have the power to hinder the country. These ideas would eventually help form the ideals that the new United States was founded on.

Penn visited Pennsylvania from 1682-84 and during this time he learned several Indian dialects and negotiated a long-lasting peace at Shackamaxon with what Voltaire called the "Great Treaty". He promised the native people fair treatment and paid them £1200 for their lands.

Many of the first settlers in Pennsylvania were also Quakers. The first groups settled in what is now Lower Merion, Haverford and Radnor starting in 1683. A few years later another group from Wales settled in Gwynedd (welsh for 'fair land' - now Upper and Lower Gwynedd) and by the early 1700s settlers were beginning to move further out in Horsham.

Penn's later years proved frustrating. Although he enjoyed good relations with the Catholic King James II and helped pass the Act of Toleration in 1689 regarding religious freedom, he had trouble with William and Mary following the Glorious Revolution and from 1692-94 control of the colony was given to New York. He returned to the colony in 1699 and in 1701 granted the Charter of Privileges to give more power the the local Assembly, and also allowed the lower 3 counties (Delaware) to self. He then returned to England leaving James Logan in charge. His advisor, Philip Ford, cheated him so badly that he spent 9 months in debtors prison. Discourage with the direction the colony was going in, he began in 1712 negotiating to return it to the crown. This was ended when he suffered a stroke in 1714 and he remained incapacitated until his death in 1718. His second wife, Hannah, took over control of Pennsylvania.

Penn had hoped to see his "holy experiment" bring about a more utopian community and he also had expected to profit from his land sales in the new world, but neither was successful. He died almost penniless.