In its strict sense, this word signifies one who is master of his actions, and who has the free disposition of his property. During the colonial government of Pennsylvania, William Penn was called the proprietary. 2. The domain which William Penn and his family had in the state, was, during the Revolutionary war, divested by the act of June 28, 1779, from that family and vested in the commonwealth for the sum which the latter paid to them of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds sterling.