John Penn (engineer) - Personal Life and Family

Personal Life and Family

In 1847 Penn married Ellen English, the daughter of another London engineer, William English of Enfield. She was twenty-one years his junior. They had four sons John, William, Frank and Alfred (Dick) In 1872, he handed over management of the works to his two eldest sons, retiring altogether in 1875. His eldest son John became MP for Lewisham in 1891 and served until his death in 1903 and his sons Frank, William and Dick played cricket for Kent. They had two daughters of whom Isabella married Frederick Stokes and Ellen married Joseph Fletcher Green, both England national rugby union team players whom they married in 1877.

Penn's sister Charlotte married William Hartree in 1839; Hartree was probably already an apprentice with the firm of which he became a partner in 1848. Hartree's sister Maria married John Matthew who became an apprentice with the firm in 1840 and during that decade chief designer and the third partner of the firm. William Hartree was the great grandfather of Douglas Hartree; John Matthew's daughter married Sir Trevor Lawrence.