A Concise Biographical Sketch of William Penn (PDF, MOBI, EPUB, FB2, TEXT)

wrongly informed; and he treated him and his friend during the evening with ordinary courtesy, without alluding to the report that had reached him. Observing, on the next day, that William did not uncover his head when he came into his presence,--in those days men generally wore their hats in the house,--and that he used thee and thou when addressing him, he demanded an explanation. William frankly told him that, having been convinced of the truth of the religion of the Quakers, he was conscientiously scrupulous against taking off his hat as a token of respect, using the plural language, or compliments. An angry altercation on the part of the father, and deeply distressing on the part of the son, succeeded, and was more than once repeated. Finally, the former, finding that neither argument nor threats could shake the latter's firm conviction that to comply with his father's wishes would be to violate his duty to his Lord and Master, told him he might thee and thou whom he pleased, and keep on his hat,