[2] Shippen first lived in Boston, where, according to family oral history, he was whipped for being a Quaker[3] before being invited by William Penn to move his merchant business to the new city of Philadelphia.

After the sudden death of Deputy Governor Andrew Hamilton in 1703, Shippen, by virtue of being the president of the Provincial Council, became the chief executive of the Province of Pennsylvania.

It was during his term that the Lower Three Counties (modern day Delaware) elected their own Assembly and acted in their own interests.

These counties, however, remained under the Penn Proprietorship and their appointed Deputy Governors until 1776 when Delaware became an independent state.

Shippen married, secondly, at Newport, Rhode Island, on September 4, 1689, Rebecca, widow of Francis Richardson, of New York, and daughter of John Howard, of Yorkshire, England.