Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
If you would like to write a summary for this topic, email phil [at] gyford [dot] com
George Penn, the elder brother of Sir W. Penn, was a wealthy merchant at San Lucar, the port of Seville. He was seized as a heretic by the Holy Office, and cast into a dungeon eight feet square and dark as the grave. There he remained three years, every month being scourged to make him confess his crimes. At last, after being twice put to the rack, he offered to confess whatever they would suggest. His property, 12,000l., was then confiscated, his wife, a Catholic, taken from him, and he was banished from Spain for ever. — M. B.
Per L&M Companion:
(c. 1601-1664). Merchant; Sir William’s elder brother. He lived for many years in Spain. In 1643 he was arrested by the Inquisition in Seville and kept for three years in close confinement. According to a petition he addressed to the English government in 1659 he had been tortured, his property to a value of over 10,000 L confiscated, and his wife, a native of Antwerp, divorced from him and married off to a Spaniard. His nephew, William, the Quaker, was hoping to obtain compensation from the Spanish authorities at the time of the negotiations for the Treaty of Utrecht in 1712-13.