William Penn: Political Writings
Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought Series

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.

Acknowledgments; Introduction; Note on the Texts; Part I. Political Liberties: 1. The Peoples Ancient and Just Liberties Asserted (1670); 2. Englands Present Interest Discover'd (1675); 3. England's great interest in the choice of this Parliament (1679); 4. The Great and Popular Objection Against the Repeal of the Penal Laws and 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 (1686); Part III. Pennsylvania: 9. Some account of the Province of Pennsilvania in America (1681); 10. The Fundamental Constitutions of Pennsilvania (unpublished, summer 1681); 11. The Frame of Government and 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 A Brief and Plain scheame (unpublished, 1697); 15. Proposal for the Advancement of Trade in America (unpublished, 1697); Bibliography; Index.

Andrew R. Murphy is Professor of Political Science at Virginia Commonwealth University. His work on Penn has spanned several decades, including a biography, William Penn: A Life (2019), and the first study of Penn's political thought in fifty years, Liberty, Conscience, and Toleration (2016).