John Penn (writer)

John Penn (writer)

John Penn (aka "John Penn, Jr.", "John Penn of Stoke") (22 February 1760 – 21 June 1834) was the chief proprietor of the Province of Pennsylvania as of 1775 (now the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, a state of the United States), and also a politician and writer. He and his cousin, John Penn ("John Penn the Governor") held unsold property, of 24,000,000 acres (97,000 km2), which the Pennsylvania legislature confiscated after the American Revolution.

Penn lived in Philadelphia for five years after the Revolution, from 1783-1788, building a country house outside the city. He returned to Great Britain in 1789 after receiving his three-fourths portion of £130,000, the compensation for the proprietorship by the Pennsylvania government. He and his cousin John Penn, who remained a resident in the United States, also received compensation from Parliament for their losses in the former colony.

In 1798 Penn was appointed as High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire, and served as a Member of Parliament (1802-1805). He was appointed in 1805 as governor of the Isle of Portland. Also a writer, he published in a variety of genres.