Richard Penn, Sr.

Richard Penn (17 January 1706 – 4 February 1771) was a proprietary and titular governor of the province of Pennsylvania and the counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex (which three now comprise the state of Delaware) on the Delaware River.

Born in Bristol, England, he was the third son of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, by his second wife, Hannah Margaret Callowhill. He married Hannah, daughter of John Lardner, and had two sons, John and Richard, both of whom also served as provincial governor.

On May 12, 1732 Richard with his brothers John Penn and Thomas Penn, 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.[1]

He died in England on 4 February 1771.

Sources

  1. ^ Proud, Robert (1798). The History of Pennsylvania in North America From the Original Institution and Settlement of that Province, Under the First Proprietor and Governor William Penn, in 1681, till after the year 1742: With an Introduction Respecting the Life of W. Penn, Prior to the Grant of the Province, and the Religious Society of the People Called Quakers, with the First Rise of the Neighbouring Colonies, More Particularly of West-New-Jersey and the Settlement of the Dutch and Swedes on Delaware. To Which is Added a Brief Description of the said Province, and the General State in which it Flourished, Principally between the years 1760-1770. With an Appendix. Written principally between the years 1776 and 1780. Philadelphia, PA: Zachariah Paulson, Jr.. p. 208-209. http://books.google.com/books?id=VFwJAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0. 

This article incorporates text from the public domain Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography.