In 1732, Penn travelled to the colony to assume control over his family's interests in Pennsylvania, including collecting unpaid rents.

As his family back in England were deeply in debt, Penn abandoned his father's conciliatory approach towards Indian tribes residing on the colonial frontier in order to acquire more land to sell.

In addition to signing treaties with Indian leaders, Penn strengthened the power of the deputy governor and frequently used his prerogative to overturn legislation from the Pennsylvania General Assembly, acts which made him unpopular in the colony.

[1] His father was William Penn, a Quaker religious thinker, writer, and coloniser who established the colony of Pennsylvania in 1681 after receiving a charter from Charles II.

[6] Working together with the royal governor of Pennsylvania, James Logan, Penn made plans to acquire more land from the Lenape.

[7] Such efforts were spurred by increased immigration to the colony and fears that settlers from the nearby Province of New York was infringing on Pennsylvania's northern borders in the Upper Delaware river valley.

[12] The Seven Years' War, which lasted from 1754 to 1763, "revealed the difficulties of managing the family's substantial American interests from England" and in 1763 John, Penn's nephew, was appointed as the deputy governor of Pennsylvania.

[2][16] His sons included John, who served as the High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire in 1798 and sat in the British House of Commons as a member of parliament for Helston from 1802 to 1805, and Granville, who was a writer and scriptural geologist who was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1836.

[17] John also greatly expanded Stoke Park, Buckinghamshire, an English country house which Penn had bought in 1760, with designs from architect James Wyatt.

[2] In Pennsylvania, Penn's legacy among the residents of the region, in contrast to views of his father, was marked by resentment and contempt; writing in 1757, Franklin wrote that Penn's refusal to pay taxes to Pennsylvania led him to "[conceive] at that moment a more cordial and thorough Contempt [towards] him than I ever before felt for any Man living".

[19] In addition to his refusal to pay taxes, Penn frequently used his prerogative to overturn the General Assembly's legislation, which some historians have claimed influenced Pennsylvania's support for the American Revolution.

The Delaware Tribe sought 314 acres (1.27 km2) of land included in the Walking Purchase, claiming that the transaction between Penn and the Lenape was fraudulent.