Note 63 — MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE OF DAVID RITTENHOUSE; ANTERIOR TO HIS SETTLEMENT IN PHILADELPHIA.
Reading edition
In the Preface to a printed copy of the celebrated Speech delivered in the House of Assembly of Pennsylvania, on the 24th of May, 1764, by the late John Dickinson, Esq. the Merits of the Founder of Pennsylvania, as they were declared at various times, in the proceedings of the Legislative Body of the colony, and in some other public Documents, are thus summed up by the writer.
“WILLIAM PENN,
A Man of Principles truly humane;
An Advocate for
Religion and Liberty;
Possessing a noble Spirit,
That exerted itself
For the Good of Mankind;
was
The great and worthy Founder
of
Pennsylvania.
To its Inhabitants, by Charter,
He granted and confirmed
Many singular Privileges and Immunities,
Civil and Religious,
Which he continually studied
To preserve and defend for them;
Nobly declaring,
That they had not followed him so far,
To lose a single tittle
Of the Great Charter,
To which all Englishmen were born.
For these Services,
Great have been the Acknowledgements
Deservedly paid to his Merit;
And his Memory
Is dear to his People,
Who have repeatedly confessed,
That,
Next to Divine Providence,
Their Happiness, Prosperity, and Increase
Are owing
To his wise Conduct and singular Goodness;
Which deserve ever to be remembered
With
Gratitude and Affection,
By
Pennsylvanians.”
For the materials of which the foregoing Eulogy is composed, its author[63a] has referred his readers to the Minutes of Assembly, for the years 1719 and 1725, to those from the year 1730 to 1740, both inclusive, excepting only 1736, 1737 and 1739; also, for 1745, 1755 and 1756; to other proceedings of the assembly, in the years 1730 and 1738; and to their Address to Governor John Penn, in 1764.
A very respectable Memorial of another nature, in honour of the justly celebrated Penn, decorates the edifice of a noble public institution in the capital of his former domain; an institution devoted to the purposes of charity, humanity and benevolence. It is a finely executed metallic statue, in bronze, of that great man; representing him in his appropriate attire, and holding in his right hand The Charter of Privileges.[63b] The statue stands on an elegant pedestal of marble, in an handsome area on the south front of the Pennsylvania Hospital: and the four sides of the pedestal contain these modest inscriptions; viz.
“William Penn—Born, 1644—Died, 1718.”
(And underneath, the Family-Arms, with his Motto; viz.)
“Mercy—Justice.”
“Pennsylvania Granted by Charles II. to William Penn,
1681.”
“The Proprietary arrived in 1682; made a just and amicable arrangement with the Natives, for the purchase of their Lands; and went back to England in 1684.”
“Returned to Pennsylvania, 1699; and finally withdrew to his Paternal Estate, 1701.”
The public in general, with the Pennsylvania Hospital more particularly, are indebted for this Memorial of true Greatness, to the munificence of a Grandson of the Founder of the extensive Dominion that bears his name; John Penn, of Stoke-Poges in Buckinghamshire, Esquire; by whom the statue was presented, in the year 1804.