Thomas Penn

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Penn inherited the position of Proprietor of the Colony of Pennsylvania for the Crown of England in 1718 along with his brothers John and Richard on the death of their father William Penn, until 1746 when John died. Thomas continued as the Proprietor with Richard's son, John, and his own son John Penn until 1775. He tried to bring his family out of the debt that had plagued his father. He asserted his independence from the Quakers, and tried to assert his control of the colony almost as a feudal lord.

Penn arrived in Pennsylvania in August, 1732, and organized the purchase some of the lands at the outskirts of the Pennsylvania colony. He met with some of the local Indian chiefs and tried to keep the peace as immigrants poured into the countryside north and west of Philadelphia on the Susquehanna, Schuylkill, and Delaware Rivers. Many of the Indians did not want to sell their land, and had not heard of William Penn's 1686 treaty. Finally in 1737 Acting Governor James Logan convinced several Indian Chiefs to confirm the 1686 deed, which according to the Penns had given them land west of the Delaware River to the extent that a man could walk in a day and a half. Logan hired several men to walk the measure, but they walked west at a very fast pace, and the Indians felt cheated. Logan and the Penn sons including Thomas were later criticized for this fraudulent "Walking Purchase" and their questionable treatment of the Indians. Part of the difficulty lay in the conflict with the French who laid claim on the back country west of Pennsylvania and the ensuing hostilities of King George's War (1744–1748) and the French and Indian War (1754–1763). Penn lobbied against Quaker efforts to make peace with the Iroquois and Algonquin tribes some of whom were allied with the French. The proprietor Penn brothers became rich selling their newly and fraudulently acquired land to European settlers, who as a result became resentful of the proprietors. The new land Penn acquired was not taxed by the Crown until it had been surveyed many years later.

Penn tried to stop the introduction of Roman Catholicism in the colony. In 1733 a Catholic chapel was built in Philadelphia, and in 1734 Penn attempted to suppress the movement, but the Quaker-led legislative assembly protected the rights of Catholics to worship and build churches.