William Penn

From SHAFTESBURY, 1984 by Robert Voitle

Ashley's [i. e. Shaftesbury] most steady correspondent for his whole life was Furly. He was introduced to him in Rotterdam in 1687 when Furly was fifty-one and he only sixteen. William Penn (1644-1718) probably introduced Locke to Furly, in whose house the philosopher was lodging when Ashley visited him at the beginning of his grand tour. Furly was an altogether remarkable person. An Englishman, he had been converted to Quakerism and had emigrated at an early age to Holland, where he soon manifested the business acumen which seems typical of the sect, and he became a comparatively wealthy man while yet young. His radical religious notions had caused some controversy among the Quakers at one time, but by the time Ashley met him these notions had mellowed considerably. His political ideas remained radical, however, as can be seen by comparing Locke's more conservative remarks on William Penn's frame of government for his new province with those of Furly, who apparently had a substantial influence on the document in its final form.³⁷ ( Etc.)

      37. Maurice Cranston, John Locke, (1957), 261-62, 281.

THE THIRD EARL OF SHAFTESBURY
Baton Rouge and London : Louisiana University Press 1984, pp. 67-8.