From John Jay to Lady Juliana Penn, 4 December 1782
To Lady Juliana Penn1
Paris 4th Decr. 1782
I shall always be exceedingly happy my Lady! in every opportunity of confirming the favorable opinion, with which your Ladyship and the amiable Friend, to whom I believe you allude, have been impressed— The misfortunes incident to War, are always to be regretted; & Humanity will not cease to sympathize with those, on either Side, who without deserving, have experienced it’s Rigors—
It gives me pleasure to inform your Ladyship, that ^according to^ the Preliminaries agreed to between G. Britain and America, refer ^Congress will recommend in a very benevolent Manner^ to the Reconsideration of the different States, the Measures they have taken against certain Individuals.2 The Nature of our governments rendered every other mode of revising those Cases improper; and as some Persons might have much, others little, and many no Reason to complain, it was the most eligible and obvious Method of ascertaining the merits of each— There is also Reason to expect that whatever undue Degrees of Severity may have been infused into our Laws, by a merciless War and a strong Sense of Injuries, will yield to the Influence of those gentler Emotions, which the mild and chearful Season of Peace and Tranquillity must naturally excite.
Your Ladyship will therefore see the necessity, as well as Propriety, of applying after the War, to the Legislature of Pennsylvania, for a Reconsideration of the act respecting your Family. For my Part— I believe that Justice will be done to all; and I hope that Clemency and Reconsiliation will be refused only to the faithless and the cruel. The same Magnanimity which has destinguished the Conduct of America in Times of Danger and Distress, will doubtless enable her to recieve Prosperity with Dignity and Gratitude, and to use it with Moderation & Philanthropy— I have the Honor to be with perfect Respect Your Ladyship’s3
Lady Juliana Penn
Dft, NNC (EJ: 8837).
1. Lady Juliana Fermor (1729–1801), daughter of the earl of Pomfret, married Thomas Penn (1702–75), son of the founder of Pennsylvania, in 1751. Upon the death of her husband, her three minor children inherited three-fourths of the Penn interest in the colony of Pennsylvania. An act of the Pennsylvania Assembly of 27 Nov. 1779 transferred the Penns’ proprietary holdings to the commonwealth, leaving the family their private lands and “proprietary tenths” or manors. The same act appropriated £130,000 to compensate the Penns for their losses “in remembrance of the enterprising spirit of the founder and of the expectations and dependence of his descendants.” Payments were to begin one year after the close of the Revolution. On 26 Oct. 1782 Shelburne informed Townshend that the king directed him “to take every step possible in favor of the Penn family” (UkLPR: FO 95/ 511). Shelburne’s second and current wife, Lady Sophia Fermor, was Lady Juliana’s niece. Lady Juliana’s eldest son John (1760–1834) traveled to Paris in January 1783 to consult with the American peace commissioners on the family’s claims. Pennsylvania initiated payments to the Penn family in 1785; the family was further awarded an annual pension of £4,000 voted by Parliament in 1790 as compensation for their American losses. See Howard M. Jenkins, The Family of William Penn, Founder of Pennsylvania: Ancestry and Descendants (London, 1899), 150–55. On Lady Sophia Fermor, see John Carteret (1690–1763), .
2. See Article 5 of the Preliminary Articles of Peace, 30 Nov., above.
3. The present letter responds to Lady Juliana’s letter to JJ of 23 Nov. 1782, ALS, NNC (EJ: 7046). For her apology to JA for not addressing him in that letter, see , 14: 148–49. For Henry Laurens’s discussion of her appeal, see , 16: 67–68. For British attempts to obtain compensation for the Penn family, see Thomas Townshend to Richard Oswald, 26 Oct. 1782, above. For JJ’s attempt to enlist the support of prominent Pennsylvanians in procuring compensation from the state of Pennsylvania for the Penns, see his letters of 10 Mar. 1783 to Robert Morris, below, and 11 Mar. 1783 to John Dickinson, ALS, PHi (EJ: 1171).