Engraving of William Penn by J. Hill after Benjamin West

Quaker State

Rickmansworth, England is a charming, leafy town 20 miles northwest of London. It is so charming that it was the locale of the British detective drama, “Midsomer Murders” from 2009 – 2012.

William Penn and Gulielma Springett lived in Rickmansworth soon after they married. Penn, who became a Quaker at the age of 22, was imprisoned repeatedly for his faith. George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, stayed in the Penn Rickmansworth house. Approximately 200 Quakers from the Rickmansworth area followed Penn to Pennsylvania to share his vision of a peaceful, tolerant society.

Today in Rickmansworth, there is a William Penn Leisure Center and, it being England, a Penn Pub, as well as a William Penn shopping center. Surrounded by British history drawing tourists by the bus-full, they are so proud of their Penn connection that they have appointed themselves “the cradle of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”