think how weak I am.'- My dear child, thou art weak, but God is strong, who is the strength of thy life.'- Aye, that is it,' said he, which upholdeth me.' And the day before he departed, being alone with him, he desired me to fasten the door, and, looking earnestly upon me, said, 'Dear father! thou art a dear father; and I know thy Father. Come, let us two have a little meeting, a private ejaculation together, now nobody else is here. O, my soul is sensible of the love of God!' And, indeed, a sweet time we had. It was like to precious ointment for his burial.

"He desired, if he were not to live, that he might go home to die there, and we made preparation for it, being twenty miles from my house; and so much stronger was his spirit than his body, that he spoke of going next day, which was the morning he departed, and a symptom it was of his greater journey to his longer home. The morning he left us, growing more and more sensible of his extreme weakness, he asked me, as doubtful of himself, How shall I go home?' I told him, In a coach. He answered, 'I am best in a coach; but observing his decay, I said, 'Why, child, thou art at home every where.'- 'Aye,' said he, so I am in the Lord.' I took that opportunity to ask him, if I should remember his love to his friends at Bristol and London. Yes, yes,' said he, my love in the Lord, my love to all friends in the Lord and relations too.' He said, 'Aye, to be sure.' Being asked if he would have his ass's milk or eat any thing, he answered, No more outward food, but heavenly food is provided for me.'

"His time drawing on apace, he said to me, 'My dear father kiss me! Thou art a dear father. I desire to prize it. How can I make thee amends ?'

"He also called his sister, and said to her, 'Poor child, come and kiss me!' between whom seemed a tender and long parting. I sent for his brother, that he might kiss him too; which he did. All were in tears about him. Turning his head to me, he said softly, 'Dear father! hast thou no hope for me?' I answered, 'My dear child! I am afraid to hope, and I dare not despair, but am and have been resigned, though one of the hardest lessons I ever learned.' He paused awhile, and with a composed frame of mind he said, 'Come life, come death, I am resigned. O, the love of God overcomes my soul!' Feeling himself decline apace, and seeing him not able to bring up the matter that was in his throat, somebody fetched the Doctor; but as soon as he came in he said, 'Let my father speak to the Doctor, and I'll go to sleep;' which he did, and waked no more; breathing his last on my breast the tenth day of the second month, between the hours of nine and ten in the morning, 1696, in his one-and-twentieth year. "So ended the life of my dear child and eldest son, much of my comfort and hope, and one of the most tender and dutiful as well as ingenious and virtuous youths I knew, if I may say so of my own dear child, in whom

Q

I lost all that any father could lose in a child, since he was capable of any thing that became a sober young man, my friend and companion as well as most affectionate and dutiful child.

"May this loss and end have its due weight and impression upon all his dear relations and friends, and upon those to whose hands this account may come, for their remembrance, and preparation for their great and last change, and I have my end in making my dear child's thus far public. -Clarkson's Life of William Penn.' "WILLIAM PENN."

The remains of Springett Penn were taken to Jordans, where, as we learn from the Register of Burials, those of the following members of the family rest :

Middlesex

11 mo. 24, 1708 died at Kensington Daughter of Wm. & Hannah Penn.

Hannah

William Penn
Hannah

5 mo. 3, 1718

..

Soon after the death of his son Springett, William Penn was engaged in the publication of his 'Primitive Christianity revived, in the Faith and Practice of the People called Quakers.'

In the same year he visited the Czar of Muscovy, afterwards called Peter the Great, who was then in England working as a common shipwright at Deptford, in order to acquire a practical knowledge of ship-building for a Russian navy.

In the year 1697 William Penn removed to Bristol, his wife's native place; and as it was only our purpose, as before stated, to notice that part of his career which was synchronous with his residence. within our borders, we here take leave of him, not without a feeling of satisfaction in being able to claim so noble a man as a predecessor within our limits.

The destruction of the mansion at Worminghurst has perhaps spared us a temptation to relic-worship, but the associations connected with the place are sufficiently interesting to repay the visitor to Thakeham meeting-house for continuing his journey four miles to the south, where, five miles and a half north-west of Steyning, he will find the quiet retreat which this great and good man doubtless so much enjoyed; the site of the last house, probably identical with that of the one in which William Penn lived, is easily distinguished, and commands a delightful view of the South Downs.

Who can read the following directions, which he entitled "good and wholesome orders for the well governing of my family in a right Christian conversation," or his excellent letter to his wife and children. on leaving them for America, without thinking of the powerful influence for good which must have emanated from such a household?

* *

"It is my appointment in the heavenly authority as a Christian master of my family that all in it and of it who profess the Truth with me do meet and assemble every morning with all humility and godly fear to wait upon the Almighty God or Creator and to receive and enjoy his living mercies and refreshing presence, that being sanctified by this we may hallow His name and return the praise which is due to Him from men and angels. That every day about the eleventh hour * * all come together again and every one in his turn read either the Scriptures of Truth or some martyrology. That the same practice be observed about the 6th hour in the evening to the end we may be stirred up to abhor the actions of evil doers and to embrace and follow the example of patience, zeal, holiness and constancy in the righteous who only were and are of the flock and family of God."

The following particulars relating to the property may be of interest:

"Wm. Penn purchased the estate of Hy. Bigland, of Gray's Inn, in 1676.* In 1702 William Penn sold the premises to J. Butler, in whose family they continued till 1789, when they were allotted to Ann Jemima (eldest daughter

* Another account states that it came to him with his wife, and it is spoken of as the Springett Estate. William Penn's house was rased to the ground, the purchaser being said to have expressed the determination not to leave a trace of the old Quaker.

of J. B.), the wife of Roger Clough, by whom they were finally sold in 1805 to Charles, Duke of Norfolk."

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J. Butler built in the beginning of last century a large brick mansion, and enclosed a considerable part of the parish in a deer park. The mansion has since been pulled down, the lake dried up, the timber levelled, and the park converted into a farm. A Spanish chestnut tree of great magnitude, the last remains of the former grandeur of the place, was grubbed up in the year 1825; it measured (six feet from the ground) 29 feet in circumference."

CHAPTER XIII.

RECORDING AND LIBERATION OF MINISTERS.

The first instance of anything like "recording" a minister occurs in 1749, and it is done in few words :

"these are to Sertifie all home it may Consern that wee alow our friend Rachell Penfold to bee a Minester of Christ; and hose Life and Conversation is a Greeable thereunto" (G. vii. 1749).

This at first sight looks something like a licence to preach. The word "allow," in this connection, however, is doubtless not to be understood in the sense of permission, but (according to a provincialism still much in use among the country people of Surrey) in that of estimation or belief: they believed or "allowed" that she was a minister of Christ.

The practice of giving certificates to Friends travelling in the Ministry originated at an earlier date. In 1693

"it was agreed upon that whereas Thomas Wright and Josiah Garton doth sometimes travill from home on Truths account as publick friends it is ordred that they shall have by the order and consent of this meeting A certificat to cary with them wherein is signified that friends are in unity with them as men whome the Lord hath Raised up to beare a publick Testimony for his name and Truth" (H. x. 1693).

The wording of this minute would give the impression that these certificates were given to the Friends in permanence; but, if that was ever the case, it soon ceased to be so-for, six years later, the meeting

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unanimusly agreed **** that all friends that Travill haveing a Publick Testimony and have certificates Doe bring in their sd certificats when they are Returned to their Respective homes againe **** until further occation may be for them" (H. i. 1699).