PENN YAN  , a village and the county-seat of Yates county, New York, U.S.A., situated N. of Keuka Lake, on the outlet extending to Lake Seneca, about 170 M . W. of Albany, and about 95 M . E. by S. of Buffalo . Pop . (1905), 4504; (1910) 4597 . It is served by the New York Central & Hudson River and the Northern Central railways and by electric railway to Branchport, and has steamboat connexions with Hammonds-port at the head of Keuka Lake . The lake, one of the most beautiful of the so-called " finger lakes " of central New York, abounds in lake and rainbow trout, black bass, pickerel and pike, and there are many summer cottages along its shores . At Keuka Park, on the west shore of the lake, is Keuka College (189o), and at Eggleston's Point is held a summer " natural science camp " for boys . The village is the seat of the Penn Yan Academy (18J9) . The lake furnishes water-power, and among the manufactures are paper, lumber, carriages, shoes, &c . Much ice is shipped from the village . Penn Yan is an important shipping point in the apple and grape-growing region of central New York, and winemaking is an important industry .

The first

frame dwelling at Penn Yan was built in 1799; the village became the county-seat in 1823, when Yates county was created, and was incorporated in 1833 . The first settlers were chiefly followers of Jemima Wilkinson (1753-1819), a religious enthusiast, born in Cumberland township, Providence county, Rhode Island, who asserted that she had received a divine commission . She preached in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania . Obtaining -a large tract (which was called Jerusalem in 1789) in the present Yates county, she founded in 1788 the village of Hopeton on the outlet of Keuka Lake about a mile from Seneca Lake . Many followers settled there, and she herself lived there after 1790 . Some of her followers left her before 1800, and then the community gradually broke up . The name of the village is said to have been derived from the first syllables of " Pennsylvania " and " Yankee,” as most of the early settlers were Pennsylvanians and New Englanders . ' The figure of Britannia first appeared on this issue of copper coins . The original of Britannia is said to have been Frances Stewart, afterwards duchess of Richmond (Pepys, Diary, Feb . 25, 1667) . It was in Charles II.'s reign, too, that the practice was established of placing the sovereign's bust in a direction contrary to that of his predecessor . See Lewis C .

Aldrich, History of Yates County, New York (Syracuse, 1892) .