William Penn: Political Writings

Andrew R. Murphy

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781108497121
• eBook ISBN:
  9781108752299
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

William Penn (1644-1718) – Quaker activist, theorist of liberty of conscience, and colonial founder and proprietor – played a central role in the movement for religious liberty on both sides of the Atlantic for more than four decades. This volume presents, for the first time, a fully annotated scholarly edition of Penn's political writings over the course of his long public career, tracing his thinking from his early theorisation of religious toleration and liberty of conscience in England, as a leading member of the Society of Friends during the 1670s, to his colonial undertaking in Pennsylvania a decade later, his controversial role in the years leading up to the 1688 Revolution, and the ongoing consequences of that Revolution to his future prospects. Penn's political writings provide an illuminating window into the increasingly sophisticated and influential movement for liberty of conscience in the early modern world.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: The Political Thought of William Penn (1644–1718)
• Note on the Texts
• part I political liberties
• 1 The Peoples Ancient and Just Liberties Asserted (1670)
• 2 England’s Present Interest Discover’d (1675)
• 3 England’s Great Interest in the Choice of this New Parliament (1679)
• 4 The Great and Popular Objection Against the Repeal of the Penal Laws & Tests (1688)
• part II toleration and liberty of conscience
• 5 The Great Case of Liberty of Conscience (1670)
• 6 The Proposed Comprehension (1673)
• 7 One Project For the Good of England (1679)
• 8 A Perswasive to Moderation to Church Dissenters (1686)
• part III pennsylvania
• 9 Some Account of the Province of Pennsilvania in America (1681)
• 10 The Fundamentall Constitutions of Pennsilvania (unpublished, summer 1681)
• 11 The Frame of the Government of Pennsilvania…Together with certain Laws Agreed upon in England (1682)
• 12 The Charter of Privileges (1701)
• part IV broader perspectives
• 13 An Essay towards the Present and Future Peace of Europe (1693)
• 14 A Briefe and Plaine Scheame (unpublished, February 1697)
• 15 Proposal for the Advancement of Trade in America (unpublished, March 1697)
• Select Bibliography
• Index