William Penn went to debtors' prison while he owned Pennsylvania, and his heirs later traded 24 million acres for £130,000 and a £4,000 British annuity

William Penn received Pennsylvania from Charles II in 1681^†. His London steward, Philip Ford, claimed Penn owed him £10,000. Ford died in 1702. On 31 October 1705 his widow Bridget and his heirs sued Penn in Chancery. Penn refused to pay. In 1708 he was held in debtors' prison, the Fleet^†, until Quaker friends raised £7,000. Releases between the Penns and the Fords are dated 2 and 6 October 1708. In 1712 Penn fell ill, and a series of strokes followed. From 1712 until her death on 20 December 1726, his second wife, Hannah Callowhill Penn, ran the province's business. Penn died in July 1718. His will gave the province to Hannah's sons. William Penn Jr., his son by his first wife, contested it. After William Jr. died, his son Springett argued that the founder had been mentally incompetent. In 1727 the court upheld the will. In 1731 William Penn 3rd gave up the claim for £5,500. In 1779 Pennsylvania's Divestment Act took 24 million acres of unsold land from the family for £130,000. In 1790 Parliament granted Penn's heirs £4,000 a year in perpetuity. Deeds on the annuity run to 1884, and the annuity was commuted around then^†. Penn is buried at Jordans, Buckinghamshire, with Hannah. In 1882 George L. Harrison reported to Pennsylvania's Governor Hoyt on a mission to move the body to Philadelphia. The body stayed at Jordans; who refused is not confirmed^†. A Jordans warden later concluded that Penn lies a few feet west of his headstone.