WILLIAM PENN
A 17th CENTURY LOVE STORY: 
Family, Friends, and the Holy Experiment Called Penn's Woods

For a long time this painting of William Penn, aged 22, was thought to be the only portrait of him.  Another portrait, painted when he was 38, was found in one of the Penn family manor houses, and a copy was made for the Pennsylvania Historical Society.

          "Att a Meeting at Tho: Ellwood's on the 7th of 12th mo: 71  {7 February 1672}William Penn, of Walthamstow, in ye county of Essex, and Gulielma Maria Springett, of Tilers End Green, in the parish of Penn, in the county of Bucks, proposed their intention of taking each other in marriage.  Whereupon it was referred to Thomas Zachary and Thomas Ellwood to enquire into the clearness of these proceedings, and to give an account to the next meeting."    From the Upperside Monthly Meeting Minutes; 1669-1690 Buckinghamshire Record Office, Aylesbury. 
"....    These are now to certify all persons whom it may concern, that upon the fourth day of the second month in the year one thousand six hundred seventy two the said William Penn and Gulielma Maria Springett did in a godly sort & manner (according to the good old Order & practise of the Church of Christin a publick Assembly of the People of the Lord at King's Chaarle-wood in the County of Hertford solemnly and expressly take  each other in marriage, mutually promising to be loving, true & faithful to each other in that Relation so long as it shall please the Lord to continue their natural lives..."

  Gulielma Maria Springett Penn
                1644-1694
    Called Guli by family and friends, she was the daughter of Sir William  Springett (c.1620-1644) who died before she was born, and Mary Proude Springett who subsequently became the wife of Isaac Penington.  Sir William Springett, Knight,  was born in Sussex, and died 3 February 1643/4 as the result of a wound received during the siege of Arundel Castle (in Sussex) in the service of William Cromwell.  Mary Proude (c. 1625 - 1682) was the daughter and heiress of Sir John Proude, Knight, of Kent, another military victim.  Sir John Proude was killed at the Siege of Groll in Guelderland, a colonel under the Prince of Orange  Mary Proude Springett and Isaac Penington (1616-1679) were married in 1654.  Isaac and Mary had six children, one died young:  John, Mary, Isaac, William and Isaac.  Guli and William Penn had  seven children (one set of twins); only three survived her. 
        Guli seems to have been one of those ethereal spirits who enchants all around her.  Her dear friend from her childhood in the Penington family was Thomas Ellwood, a friend and admirer of Isaac Penington, and secretary and friend of Milton, the poet.  Thomas Ellwood was undoubtedly in love with Guli, but married Mary Ellis when it became clear that Guli intended to maarry Wiliam Penn.