Granville Penn
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Granville Penn (1761 - 1844) was a British author, scholar, Biblical geologist, and antiquarian.
He was born December 9, 1761 in Spring Gardens, a hamlet in the parish of Wooburn, Buckinghamshire, England, the fifth but second surviving and youngest son of Thomas Penn, brother of John Penn, and the grandson of William Penn, who founded the colony of Pennsylvania.
He studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, but did not receive a degree. He was for some time a clerk in the war department, and reputed to be the most learned layman in England. On June 24, 1791, he married Isabella Forbes, eldest daughter of General Gordon Forbes, and settled in London.
In 1834 when his brother John died, he took over the family estates of Stoke Park, Buckinghamshire, and of Pennsylvania Castle, Portland. He was a member of the Outinian Society, founded by his brother John. He was the author of various works, among them a "Life of Admiral Sir William Penn," his great-grandfather. His major work on geology was A Comparative Estimate of the Mineral and Mosaical Geologies, published in 1822. He visited Pennsylvania.
When his brother John died, Granville succeeded him in the family estates and fortune. Granville died in Stoke Pogis, September 28, 1844. He left several sons, all of whom died without issue, so that the pension paid by the British government descended to the family of his sister, Sophia Margaret, who married William Stuart, archbishop of Armagh.
