ISAAC

See also:

• PENINGTON, SIR ISAAC (c. 1587-1661)

PENINGTON (1616-1679)  , Sir Isaac's eldest son, was one of the most notable of the 17th-century Quakers . He was early troubled by religious perplexities, which found expression in many voluminous writings . No less than eleven religious works, besides a political treatise in defence of democratic principles, were published by him in eight years . He belonged for a time to the sect of the Independents; but about 1657, influenced probably by the preaching of George Fox, whom he heard in Bedfordshire, Penington and his wife joined the Society of Friends . His wife was daughter and heiress of Sir John Proude, and widow of Sir William Springett, so that the worldly position of the couple made them a valuable acquisition to the Quakers . Isaac Penington was himself a man of very consider-able gifts and sweetness of character . In 1661 he was imprisoned for refusing to take the oath of allegiance, and on several subsequent occasions he passed long periods in Reading and Aylesbury gaols . He died on the 8th of October 1679; his wife, who wrote an account of his imprisonments, survived till 1682 . In 1681 Penington's writings were published in a collected edition, and several later editions were issued before the end of the 18th century . His son John Penington (1655–1710) defended his father's memory against attack, and published some controversial tracts against George Keith . Edward Penington (1667-1711), another of Isaac Penington's sons, emigrated to Pennsylvania, where he founded a family . Isaac Penington's stepdaughter, Gulielma Springett, married William Penn .

See Maria

Webb, The Penns and Peningtons of the 17th Century (London, 1867) ; Lord Clarendon, History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England (7 vols., Oxford, 1839) ; Bulstrode Whitelocke, Memorials of English Affairs: Charles I. to the Restoration (London, 1732); J . Gurney Bevan, Life of Isaac Penington (London, 1784); Thomas Ellwood, History of the Life of Ellwood by his own hand (London, 1765) ; Willem Sewel, History of the Quakers (6th ed., 2 vols., London, 1834) .