Thomas Penn

Thomas Penn (March 20, 1702 – March 21, 1775) was a son of William Penn, founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony that became the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Thomas Penn was born in Bristol, England after his father returned there in 1701 because of financial difficulties. Thomas Penn's mother was his father's second wife, Hannah Callowhill Penn (1671–1726), daughter of Thomas Callowhill.

Life

Penn inherited the position of Proprietor of the Colony of Pennsylvania for the Crown of England in 1718 along with his brothers John and Richard on the death of their father William Penn, until 1746 when John died. Thomas continued as the Proprietor with Richard's son, John, and his own son John Penn until 1775. He tried to bring his family out of the debt that had plagued his father. He asserted his independence from the Quakers, and tried to assert his control of the colony almost as a feudal lord.

On May 12, 1732 Thomas with his brothers John and Richard, as the proprietors of Pennsylvania, signed an order to create a commission. This order was directed to Governor Gordon, Isaac Norris, Samuel Preston, James Logan, and Andrew Hamilton, Esquires, and to the gentlemen James Steel and Robert Charles. The commission, which was to be made up of at least three or more of these individuals, was given full power on behalf of the proprietors for the “running, marking, and laying out” of any boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland. This was in accordance to the agreement signed between the Penn brothers and Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore on May 10, 1732.