A letter in the Penn collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania,
from Charles Fell to John Penn, is dated January 8, 1740. The writer speaks of his wife as then very ill. She is in care of Dr. Dover, and can only take "thin caudle through the spout of a teapot." The letter gives no place of address, but appears from later allusions to have been written from Westminster. Other letters immediately following disclose a pathetic story. Fell to Penn, Thursday, January 17, 1740: "This morning at one o'clock my Dearest Guly left me for ever. . . . begg the continuance of yor Friendship to me and her Children." Fell to Penn, January 22, 1740: "My poor Dear Guly is this night to be buried in a private but as decent a manner as I am able in a Vault in Saint Margaret's Church, Westminster." Fell to Penn, January 29, 1740: " . . . I am most unhappy, left greatly in debt, and am oblig'd to dispose of all my Goods, wch will be sold next Thursday, to satisfy as many as the poor amount of them will come to, but what to do afterwards God only knows. My poor Dear Girls are gone this day wth their Grandmother1 to Hampton Court, in order to have their Cloaths a little righted up before they go to a School wch she has recommended. [The little boy, he adds, is taken by one of the ushers of Westminster School to board with him. The writer himself has taken a sleeping-room at the coffee-house; he is very anxious for some employment.]"
Gulielma was born November 10, 1699, at Worminghurst, Sussex County, England. She is
"the Beauty", and "Sweet Girl", so often mentioned in her grandfather William Penn's
letters. |
| Image by paul-simpson.org via Flickr |
Gulielma lies buried in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, London.
Philad'a, May Wh, 1781. To his Excellency the President of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the Supreme Executive Council of the State: (Regarding land in Pennsylvania.)
The Petition of John Barron, Israel Morris, Susanna
Rodney, Henry Remson, William Pollard, Owen & Clement Biddle and
Thomas Bartow, John Brown, Respectfully Sheweth:
The Church: Originally founded in the 12th century by Benedictine monks, so that local people who lived in the area around the Abbey could worship separately at their own simpler parish church, and historically part of the hundred of Ossulstone in the county of Middlesex, St Margaret's was rebuilt from 1486 to 1523. It became the parish church of the Palace of Westminster in 1614, when the Puritans of the 17th century, unhappy with the highly liturgical Abbey, chose to hold Parliamentary services in the more "suitable" St. Margaret's, a practice that has continued since that time.
(Gulielma Penn is my fourth cousin 8 times removed. Our common ancestors are Pletjes Driessen & Alet Gobels Syllys.)
says, "Among the first Germantown settlers was Dennis Conrad. The first religious meeting of the Quakers, in that place, was held at his house in 1683. He was an hospitable, well-disposed man, of an inoffensive life and good character. He died in the year 1729."
, Volume 22 By Historical Society of 
