Quotes from William Penn
Quotes that appear on this page are taken from the post-trial account written about the famous 1670 Trial of William Penn and William Mead. In this case William Penn and William Mead were criminally charged, accused of causing a tumult in Gracechurch Street in London by preaching the Quaker religion in public after the government locked them out of their meeting room.
Quotes are presented in a variety of formats for your convenience. You can copy and paste the text versions or download any of the graphics to share around. FIJA uses the 1024 x 512 pixel graphics on Twitter, and the 400 x 400 pixel graphics on Facebook and our website. You may also find use on other social media or elsewhere for the 800 x 800 pixel graphics.
Text versions for copy and paste:
"What hope is there of ever having justice done, when Juries are threatened, and their Verdicts rejected?... Unhappy are those Juries, who are threatened to be fined, and starved, and ruined, if they give not in Verdicts contrary to their Consciences."
—William Penn, The Tryal of William Penn and William Mead, 1670
"The Agreement of Twelve Men is a Verdict in Law, and such a one being given by the Jury, I require the Clerk of the Peace to record it, as he will answer it at his Peril. And if the Jury bring in another Verdict contradictory to this, I affirm they are perjur'd Men in Law. [And looking upon the Jury] You are Englishmen, mind your Privilege, give not away your Right."
—William Penn, The Tryal of William Penn and William Mead, 1670
"If Not guilty be not a Verdict, then you make of the Jury and Magna Charta but a meer Nose of Wax."
—William Penn, The Tryal of William Penn and William Mead, 1670
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