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The Worlds of William Penn (1644-1718)

Thursday, November 19, 2015 - - 

The Rutgers British Studies Center is pleased to announce “The Worlds of William Penn,” a two-day conference that will revisit the contexts and controversies that made Penn’s life and times so compelling. Plenary addresses and presentations will explore the contexts in which Penn operated, as well as the English, American, Quaker, and imperial “worlds” that he did so much to shape. We hope to use Penn’s life and career as a window onto broader contexts for understanding the making of the British Atlantic. At the height of his public career, between 1685 and 1688, William Penn was one of the best-known Dissenters in England, confidante of King James II, and governor of a bustling American colony. At its depths, he was imprisoned on suspicion of Jacobite plotting, and served time in debtors’ prison. But between the late 1660s, when he burst onto the public scene as a young agitator for popular liberties, and the second decade of the eighteenth century, when declining health removed him from political life, William Penn played an outsized role in English politics, the development of Quakerism, the articulation of religious liberty as a fundamental component of legitimate government, and the launching and governance of a major American colony.  

The "Worlds of William Penn" conference will be held November 19-20th, 2015, on the College Avenue campus of Rutgers University. All events are in Alexander Library: 169 College Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1163. Details about presenters, panels, times, and locations can be found on the attached flyer.

This conference is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Miranda McLeod at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Location   Alexander Library, Pane Room and Teleconference Lecture Hall, 169 College Avenue

Flyer