author
Richard Penn
1784–1863
A Colonial Office official with a taste for puzzles and country sports, he wrote on everything from secret writing to angling. His small body of work offers a glimpse of a practical, curious mind in early 19th-century Britain.
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About the author
Born in 1784, he was the younger son of Richard Penn, a former Pennsylvania governor and member of Parliament, and he went on to work in the British Colonial Office. He was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1824, a sign of the intellectual respect he earned in his lifetime.
Alongside his government career, he wrote several books and pamphlets. Sources credit him with works on cryptography, including On a New Mode of Secret Writing (1829), as well as writing on angling, showing an unusual mix of official discipline and personal enthusiasm.
He died unmarried at Richmond, Surrey, in 1863. Though not a major literary figure today, he remains an interesting example of a 19th-century writer whose interests ranged from administration and science to recreation and practical invention.