William Penn (admiral)

Categories: 1621 births | 1670 deaths | Royal Navy admirals

Image:Lely, William Penn.jpg
Admiral Sir William Penn, 1621–1670 by Sir Peter Lely, painted 1665–1666.

Sir William Penn (1621 – September 16, 1670) was an English admiral, and the father of William Penn, founder of the colony of Pennsylvania.

In the First Anglo-Dutch War, he served in the navy of the Commonwealth of England, commanding squadrons at the battles of the Kentish Knock (1652), Portland, the Gabbard and Scheveningen (1653).

In 1655 he commanded the fleet that seized Jamaica for the English crown.

At the Restoration he was sent in the Naseby (later the Royal Charles) to fetch king Charles II over to England.

In the Second Anglo-Dutch War he was captain of the fleet at the Battle of Lowestoft in 1665 under James Stuart, Duke of York.

He was appointed a Commissioner of the Navy Board in 1660. As one of the Commissioners, he was a neighbour of Samuel Pepys, the secretary to the Navy Board. Pepys, who did not like him, mentions him frequently in his diary. He retired in 1669 due to illness and died the following year.pt:William Penn (almirante)