British history is so full of crazy instances that I'm stunned. Here is a passage from Niall Ferguson's Empire:
In much the same way, it was to settle a debt of L 16,000 to one of his supporters -- William Penn, the admiral who had captured Jamaica -- that Charles II granted Penn's son ownership of what became Pennsylvania. Overnight, this made William Penn junior the largest individual landowner in British history, with an estate well over the size of Ireland. (67)
