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Chapter 5
When the people who ran Oxford
University found out about William’s
beliefs, they kicked him out of school. He
did not change his thinking. At age 23, he
joined the Quaker religion. He was sent to
jail six times for his beliefs.However, hedid
not change. He was a man with charming
manners. Hemade friends with the English
King. Because of this, the king let many
Quakers leave the jail.
William’s father was not pleasedwithhis
son’s actions. He had been an admiral in
the king’s navy. Admiral Penn was also a
rich man. He had loaned the king a large
sum of money. The king never repaid the
money. When Admiral Penn died in 1670,
he left all his money and land toWilliam.
Thismeant that the king still needed topay
William for the loan.
An Idea for aNew
Colony
W
illiam began to think about
starting a colony in
North
America
. He wanted a place
where people of all religions could live and
practice their beliefs without fear of being
thrown in jail. William did not like the
way people were treated who thought
differently than the king. It took about ten
more years of thinking. When the king
could not repay the money he had
borrowed, William asked him for land in
North America. The king gave William
most of the land that is, today,
Pennsylvania
. Next to the English king,
this made William one of the largest
landowners in theworld.
How did our state get its name?William
wanted to name the new colony
Sylvania
,
which means woods. Almost all the land
was coveredwith forests. However, the king
wanted to name the colony in honor of
Admiral Penn. So Penn was added to
Sylvania. Remember, this was the name for
the new colony, but it was still under
English rule.
The NewColony of
Pennsylvania Is Born
I
n 1681, William began to plan how the
new colony would be organized. He
called his plan the
Holy Experiment
. He
had planned to provide certain freedoms to
the settlers of Penn’sWoods. First, hewanted
people to have the freedom of religion. This
meant that people could worship in their
own way without fear of being jailed.
Second, hewanted all people tobe treated as
William Pennmeets with the Delawares.
