Public Ledger

May 25, 1894

  John Penn One of The Signers

  His Remains to Be Transferred to the Guilford Battle Ground.

In a letter to the Charlotte observer Hon. David Scheuck says:

I enclose to you a very interesting sketch of John Penn, one of the signers, from North Carolina, of the Declaration of Independence. The only error in it, in my opinion is that he descendants in Granville county. The Hunts are descendants of Fannie Penn, his youngest sister.

Dr. D. R. Scheuck recently found the grave of John Penn in a pasture field of Col. William C. Taylor, four miles west of Williamsboro, in Granville County, about three hundred yards from the Vance line. The grave had no stone but was marked by two large Sassafras trees, one at each extremity of the grave. The skull was almost whole, though he was buried in November, 1787, one hundred and seven years ago. Many pieces of the walnut coffin were still sound. These sacred remains will be put in a copper box and put under the base of a monument to be erected on Guilford Battle Ground to the Memory of William Hopper, Joseph Hews, the other signer from North Carolina, is lost. He was buried in the cemetery of Christ’s Episcopal church, Philadelphia; but patient search fails to find either the grave or any record of it on the archives of the church.

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