Hannah Callowhill Penn
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Born in 1671, she married William Penn, 1696. They lived at Pennsbury, and in the Slate Roof House here, 1699-1701. During his final illness, 1712-18, and until her death, 1726, she was Pennsylvania's acting proprietor. She was the only woman to control a British proprietary colony for so long.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Hannah Callowhill Penn married William Penn in 1696 and shared his life in Pennsylvania, including two years at the Slate Roof House in Philadelphia at the turn of the eighteenth century. When a stroke left her husband incapacitated in 1712, she took up the reins of the colony he had founded, and after his death in 1718 she governed as acting proprietor until her own death in 1726. For roughly fourteen years she managed the affairs of Pennsylvania — no other woman controlled a British proprietary colony for so long.
Why it matters
Hannah Penn quietly ran a major American colony for over a decade, a remarkable exercise of a woman's political authority in the colonial era.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Museums & culture
- Independence Living History Centernearby
- Merchants' Exchange Buildingnearby · 143 South 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Museum of the American Revolution0.1 mi away · 101 South 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Science History Institute0.2 mi away · 315 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
- New Hall Military Museum0.2 mi away · Philadelphia
- National Liberty Museum0.2 mi away · 321 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia
Attractions
- City Tavernnearby · 138 South 2nd Street
- First Bank of the United States0.1 mi away · 120 South 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Carpenters' Hall0.2 mi away · 320 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Second Bank of the United States0.2 mi away · 420 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
- USS Becuna0.3 mi away · South Christopher Columbus Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA
- USS Olympia0.3 mi away · South Christopher Columbus Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA
Food & drink
- Olivier Cafe0.1 mi away · 50 South 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA
- FRIEDA0.1 mi away · 320 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
- National Mechanics0.2 mi away · 22 South 3rd Street, Philadelphia
- Buddakan0.2 mi away · 325 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Menagerie Coffee0.2 mi away · 18 South 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA
- PrimoHoagies0.2 mi away · 304 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA
Places to stay
- Thomas Bond Housenearby · 129 South 2nd Street, Philadelphia
- Philadelphia Marriott Old Citynearby · 1 Dock Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Apple Hostels Philadelphia0.1 mi away · 32 South Bank Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Apple Hostels0.1 mi away · 33 Bank Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Best Western Plus Independence Park Hotel0.1 mi away · 237 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Hilton Philadelphia at Penn's Landing0.2 mi away · 201 South Christopher Columbus Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA
Places data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Hours and details change — call ahead.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Hannah Callowhill Penn
- · William Penn
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Anthony Benezet (1713-1784)
Philadelphia, PA · est. 2016
In the crowded streets of colonial Philadelphia, a mild-mannered Quaker schoolteacher named Anthony Benezet quietly became one of the most influential abolitionists of his age. From this home he taught free and enslaved Black children in the 1750s and 60s, and in 1754 opened one of the era's earliest schools for girls—radical acts in a city where slavery was still ordinary. His tracts against the slave trade crossed the Atlantic, shaping antislavery thinkers in Britain and America alike.
Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810)
Philadelphia, PA · est. 2023
Born nearby in 1771 into a Philadelphia Quaker family, Charles Brockden Brown is often called America's first important novelist. His brooding Gothic tales, set amid the streets and fevers of his own city, helped invent an American literature and later inspired writers like Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. As a novelist, editor, and historian he also wrestled openly with the questions of his young republic—women's rights, slavery, and the shape of the nation's politics.
Joseph and Amy Cassey (1789-1848)/(1809-56)
Philadelphia, PA · est. 2009
In the decades before the Civil War, Philadelphia was home to a thriving community of free Black Americans who built their own institutions of self-help and reform. Joseph Cassey, a prosperous barber and real-estate dealer, extended rentals and loans to Black and white customers alike, while he and his wife Amy founded benevolent and intellectual societies. Amy Cassey was also active in the Female Anti-Slavery Society, part of a network of women driving the abolitionist cause.
Betsy Ross (1752-1836)
Philadelphia, PA · est. 2009
A working upholsterer in Revolutionary Philadelphia, Betsy Ross is remembered by tradition as the maker of the first stars and stripes. What is certain is that she was a skilled artisan who sewed flags for the government for more than fifty years, sustaining her family through war and the young republic's early decades. Her story stands for the countless women whose labor and enterprise kept households and a new nation afloat.