Holly Nights at Pennsbury Manor, a Time to Remember Pennsylvania’s Founder and to Celebrate the Christmas Season in 17th-Century Style

By Catherine J. Barrier

William Penn in King Charles II's Breakfast
Chamber at Whitehall

Although William Penn spent, in total, less than 4 years in America, his influence on what became the U.S. government was great.  During his lifetime, both in England and in his colony of Pennsylvania, Penn fought for freedom of religion, for freedom of assembly, and for the right to a trial by jury.  As a Quaker, he was a pacifist and believed in people being governed by laws of their own making.  When he was first granted the charter for what King Charles II called “Pennsylvania” (literally “Penn’s Woods”), in honor of Penn’s father, Admiral Sir William Penn, the younger Penn wrote to the Swedish, Finnish, and Dutch already living in his colony to assure them that he would allow them a part in making the rules that they would be expected to live by and to state that there would be freedom to worship God according to one’s own conscience there.  Years later, Thomas Jefferson would say of Penn that he was “the greatest law-giver the world has produced”.  Eventually, many of Penn’s values, ideas, and laws for his colony became basic tenets of law in the new United States of America.

On Thursday night, December 9^th and Friday night, December 10^th, Pennsbury Manor, the home of William Penn along the Delaware River, located at 400 Pennsbury Memorial Road in Morrisville, PA (19067), will present its annual Holly Nights, rain or shine, from 5:30-9:00 p.m.  Step back into the 17^th Century, to a simpler time of candlelight in the evenings, season carolers, colonial crafts, period clothing, a crackling bonfire, dramatic skits, and free hot cider.  Adults: $10; Senior Citizens: $8; Children 3-17: $5; Children under 3 are free.  Because the site is along the Delaware River, it can be reached by a short drive from U.S. Route 1, U.S. Route 13, or the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  This is an outside event; dress appropriately.  For directions or more information, call (215) 946-0400, e-mail at willpenn17@aol.com, or see www.pennsburymanor.org.  A coupon, good for $1.00 off an adult admission, can be downloaded from the Website.

“[The Holly Nights at Pennsbury Manor have] been going on for quite some time now—for over 35 years,” said Tabitha Dardes, a spokeswoman for Pennsbury Manor and their Director of Public Relations and Marketing.

“It’s a festive event,” said Dardes.  “And along with the nice holiday event, there’s some education about life in the 17^th-Century,” said Dardes.

The Holly Nights event will include the demonstrations of several colonial crafts.

Open Hearth at Pennsbury Manor during Holly Nights

“We get to educate people about the 17^th-Century,” said Dardes.  “There’ll be an open hearth demonstration, craftsmen in the Blacksmith’s Shop will be working with metals, and joiners will show people the tools they used and the things they made—and there will be tours of the Manor House.”

“The Manor House has been recreated based on [information in] letters and other correspondence; it’s not the original building,” said Dardes, “but we do have period and reproduction furniture from the period—including some original pieces, so the house is furnished.”

“When people did excavation on the site, they found the foundation of Penn’s home, which he had had built in 1682.  [The present-day Manor House] is a reconstructed building of William Penn’s estate.  We found letters and documents, and the house was reconstructed based on the research available.”

Pennsbury Manor was reconstructed from archaeological evidence found mostly in the letters of instruction to James Harrison, the man Penn appointed his overseer at Pennsbury when Penn left for England in 1684 and to James Logan, whom Penn had brought to America as his personal secretary in 1699.

“The house is all decorated for the holidays and lit by candlelight,” said Dardes.  “And we have people stationed around to tell people about the house—for example, the Great Hall, where [Penn and his family] ate, the nursery, where one of Penn’s children [slept]—the only one born in America, and Penn’s bedroom.”  It was Penn’s son John, called “John the American” who was born in the New World.

A Joyner Working in the Shop

“[Pennsbury Manor] was a working estate, or plantation, with animals, gardens, and all the people making things [that the estate needed],” said Dardes.  “The estate wasn’t self-sufficient; they had to bring some things in, but they had crops, orchards, animals, and many people working on the property, working and living off of what they were doing here.”  Penn did send to town (to Philadelphia) for such things as bricks, lime, locks, nails, chocolate, flour, bacon, coffee, and cornmeal, and these would then be delivered by flatboat up the Delaware River to the landing in front of his manor home.

“The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission has administered the property since the 1930’s, when the site was reconstructed,” said Dardes.  In 1932, the Charles Warner Company owned the land and gifted 10 acres of the original site to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  Pennsbury opened in 1939.  But the Commission is not responsible for running the events at Pennsbury Manor.  “We have a non-profit (501)(c3) organization, called The Pennsbury Society [, established in 1966,] that helps administer the site,” said Dardes.  “It’s the organization that runs the special events, such as the Holly Nights, and that’s involved in bringing in the school programs, etc.  Our main focus here (at Pennsbury Manor) is education,” said Dardes.

“What we do is that, throughout the 2 evenings, we have various instrumental and choral groups come in,” said Dardes.  We bring in some local groups, such as the Men of Harmony and some other community groups—and some of the Pennsbury High School and Middle School groups will be performing.”

The Men of Harmony, formerly the United States Steel Chorus, is an organization of singers who exist to preserve the traditional religious, folk, and popular songs of our country while fellowshipping and enjoying the results of learning and performing.  In the 1940’s, many U.S. Steel plants formed choruses to entertain employees, their families, and the communities at large.  Sixty years ago, this group became the sixth U.S. Steel Chorus and from the back of a pick-up truck drove around the construction site singing Christmas Carols for the workers.  After the steel company no longer supported the chorus, the group became independent and today continues the tradition of singing for the enjoyment of others.

“The different groups perform at different spots throughout the [43 acres of the] property, so you can usually find something of particular interest to you going on,” said Dardes.

William Penn was born at Tower Hill, in London, on October 14, 1644.  His father, Admiral Sir William Penn, served in the Commonwealth Navy during the English Civil War and later received estates in Ireland from Oliver Cromwell.  Admiral Penn helped King Charles II return to the British throne, was eventually knighted, and later served in the Royal Navy.  So the younger Penn grew up under the rule of Oliver Cromwell, and he received a strictly classical education and was greatly influenced by Puritan behaviors, such as strictness, somberness, and lack of humor.

At 15, Penn was living with his family in Ireland, where he met Thomas Loe, a Quaker missionary.  During this time, Penn would later say he was “visited by God” and began to understand Him.  Back in England and at Oxford, young Penn rebelled against the rules to worship God only in the way of the official Anglican Church.  Because he was an embarrassment to them, his parents sent him to Paris, where he met a French Protestant theologian, Moise Amyraut, who further influenced Penn’s life.  Penn returned to London, studied law for a while, and lived through the plague in London in 1665, observing the suffering and death caused by it.  He also witnessed the persecution of Quakers who tried to help the sick.

The reign of King Charles II further tightened restrictions against all religious sects except the Anglican Church.  It became illegal to worship any other way, and Quakers were especially targeted.  Their meetings were considered criminal acts.  Despite this, Penn was attracted to Quakerism and began to attend Quaker meetings.  He was soon arrested for doing so, and decided to publically declare himself a Quaker.  So at 22, Penn joined the Quakers (the Religious Society of Friends), and his choice of faith greatly influenced who he was from then on, how he treated the Native American Indians in the New World years later, and eventually the government of the United States of America.

In 1681, King Charles II granted William Penn the charter for “Pennsylvania”, partly in payment for a debt the king owed Penn’s deceased father, the Admiral, and the Founder of Pennsylvania and its first Governor not long afterwards set sail on the “Welcome”, to make the 2-month voyage by ship to come to the New World.  He arrived here in 1682 and began to realize his dream.

Penn, though deeply religious, was not an ascetic, and he wanted to establish a new society based on more freedom in his colony—and to see if people would be better and happier because of this freedom.  Penn believed good government was part of God’s plan for humanity, so he called this plan his “Holy Experiment”.  And Penn, as a Quaker, believed God’s communication came to each individual directly, and consequently, he believed in the rights of the individual, which later became important when Penn was setting up the government for his new colony.  He was a gifted administrator, and unlike many, did not seek personal power.

Penn was also committed to treating the local Native American Indians fairly; it was a Quaker principle to deal justly with neighbors, so he met with them and got their blessing to settle the new land of Pennsylvania.  Although he was given the land by King Charles II, Penn paid the Native American Indians for it, recognizing that they had been there first and would not recognize the validity of the King’s charter.  Thus, Penn was very fair with the Native American Indians, and no treaty he made with them was every broken during his lifetime.  His unfailing sense of fair play won him the Indians’ respect and affection, and his work with the Indians saved Pennsylvania from Indian wars for about seventy years.  After purchasing the land from the Indians, Penn then mapped out the town of Philadelphia, between the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers and called for an election of representatives for a provincial Assembly before turning to the building of Pennsbury Manor in 1683.  It was also in 1683 that the first Quaker Meeting House was built in Philadelphia.

It took 4 years for Penn to build his country estate along the Delaware; it was completed in 1686, when Penn was abroad in England, and during that time, before sailing for England, Penn was often in Philadelphia, from where he governed his colony.  Once completed, Pennsbury had not only its Manor House, but a large stable, and many small buildings for various tasks, such as brewing and baking.  The original Manor House was a 2-story, Georgian-style home made of the typical 17^th-century red brick.  Today, the reconstructed Manor House is a three-story building rebuilt on the foundations of the original house.  It has dormer windows in the roof and is surrounded by the many estate buildings.  And it boasts more than 30,000 visitors per year.

Penn married Gulielma Maria Springett in 1672 and the couple ended up having 7 children, among them William Penn, Jr.  In 1683, Penn began the building of Pennsbury Manor, expecting that he and Gulielma would spend their days there, but circumstances in England forced Penn’s return there in 1684 before Gulielma ever came and before he’d been in the New World for a full 2 years.  Penn did not return to Pennsbury until 1699, fifteen years later.  Penn administered his colony of Pennsylvania via mail across the Atlantic during this time of much political unrest in England.  Political power changed in England while he was there, and Penn found himself suspected and finally accused of treason.  Shortly after being acquitted of those charges, Penn suffered the death of his Gulielma.

When Governor William Penn returned to Pennsylvania in 1699, it was with his second wife, Hannah Callowhill, and his grown daughter, Letitia.  The following year, on January 29, 1700, his son John, called “John, the American”, was born.  It was also during this time, between 1699 and 1701, that the Penns entertained distinguished guests from Europe, the Indian Nations, and even governors of other colonies. 

Bust of William Penn

And during this second visit to Pennsylvania, Penn drew up his Charter of Privileges, a new from of government which outlined a type of self-government for the colony of Pennsylvania and which remained in effect for almost 75 years, until the beginning of the American Revolutionary War.  A type of constitution, the Charter of Privileges was adopted in October 1701.  Year’s later, in 1751, a bell was cast for the 50^th anniversary of the Charter of Privileges.  Today, we know this bell as the Liberty Bell, and it is engraved with the words “Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof”, words taken from the Book of Leviticus (in the Bible), from Chapter 25, Verse 10.

Also during this second visit to Pennsylvania, Penn influenced the governors in neighboring New York and in Virginia to start increasing co-operation with one another.  While true unity between the colonies did not truly happen until later in the century, Penn was already pushing for it in the New World in the beginning of 18^th-Century.

Because the administration of Pennsylvania was in danger of politically being taken over by the Crown back in England, Penn needed to cross the ocean again in 1701.  He hoped to return to Pennsylvania quickly, but he never saw America, or Pennsbury, again.  Political machinations, Pennsylvania-Maryland boundary quarrels in England, increasing poverty, bad health, and general old age kept Penn away.  The only Penn to live at Pennsbury after 1701 was Penn’s son, William Penn, Jr. who arrived there in February 1704, but only remained for about a year.  Penn’s wife Hannah and daughter Letitia had insisted on returning to England with Penn in 1701.  In 1711, William Penn had his first stroke.  The following year, he had 2 other attacks and soon became incompetent.  He died on July 30, 1718, at the age of 73.  In 1792, after the United States was established, Penn’s heirs sold the family estate along the Delaware.

“[At Holly Nights,] we have a big bonfire, and there’s free cider, … and the pathways and buildings are lit by candlelight, so people can roam about and see all the wonderful things on those evenings,” said Dardes.

“There will also be 17^th-century Mummers present,” said Dardes.  “They’re role players who do little skits, giving people [a visual demonstration] of what went on in the 17^th-Century.  It’s just another little thing to see and do.”

Stringing Cranberries at Holly Nights

“I love [Holly Nights] because, … obviously, I work here, but there are people who have been coming for years, and who now bring their kids—kicking off the season,” said Dardes.  “They return every year and say, ‘We look forward to this year-after-year’.  It’s nice to hear the people are so fond of it.  They say, ‘We’re making it a tradition’.  And new people who attend say they’ll be coming back.”

“It’s an absolutely wonderful event!” said Dardes.  “And it’s a rain or shine event.  We’ll be here regardless.  But since it is an outside event, people should dress appropriately.”

“[The Holly Nights are] the only time you can come [to see Pennsbury Manor] at night,” said Dardes.  “It gives you a different feel and air about the place.  It’s a special and festive event.”

So, why not come experience William Penn’s home along the Delaware in much the way he would have known it this holiday season—at Holly Nights on December 9^th and 10^th.

* Photos of Docents & Craftsmen at Pennsbury Manor, Courtesy of Pennsbury Manor, Administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC).

© 2010 by Catherine J. Barrier.  All rights reserved.