Amidst all this care and work, Penn found time to make preaching tours in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland. He and his family won a warm place in the hearts of the Friends here, as well as elsewhere. He might have a large and handsome house at Pennsbury, and his style of living might be superior to that of his neighbours; but he could pick up a bare-legged Quaker girl and give her a ride behind him to "meeting," and he had a kindly word and pleasantry for the poor as much as for the rich. "The Governor is our pater patriæ," writes one of the Colonists, "and his worth is no new thing to us. His excellent wife is beloved of all."
As Pennsylvania was the birthplace of Abolition, the German Friends at Germantown first raising the question, it is interesting to see what Penn did in the matter. He passed a Bill for regulating the trial and punishment of negro wrong-doers. But he wished to go further, and proposed that negro marriages should be legal, and that the rights of negro-women should be secured by law; but the Assembly threw out these Bills. In 1696 the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting had resolved that buying, selling, and holding slaves was contrary to the teachings of Christianity. Penn followed up this resolution by urging on the Society of Friends in Pennsylvania the recognition of the spiritual claims of negroes. Henceforth, until the Society insisted on its members liberating their slaves, they were taught the Scriptures, and encouraged to attend divine worship.
Penn arrived at Portsmouth, in the middle of December, 1701, after a voyage of about six weeks. The chief business that called him home, was the scheme of William III. for amalgamating all the American provinces as regal Governments. To his intense relief, that scheme was dropped. Soon after this, the king died, and Queen Anne, the daughter of Penn's friend and guardian, James II., ascended the throne. He once more enjoyed royal favour in a marked degree. He was chosen to present to the Queen the Quaker address, thanking her for promising to maintain the Act of Toleration. After the address was read, "Mr. Penn," said the Queen, "I am so well pleased that what I have said is to your satisfaction, that you and your Friends may be assured of my protection."