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William Penn (October 14, 1644 – July 30, 1718) founded the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony that became the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Well ahead of his time, Penn wrote and urged for a Union of all the English colonies in what was to become the United States of America. The democratic principles that he set forth in the Pennsylvania Frame of Government served as an inspiration for the United States Constitution. As a pacifist Quaker, Penn considered the problems of war and peace deeply, and included a plan for a United States of Europe, "European Dyet, Parliament or Estates," in his voluminous writings. Before moving to America, Penn owned ironworks in the Kent village of Hawkhurst.