Feb­ru­a­ry 5, 1816, Mer­ri­on Square, Dub­lin, Ire­land.

Ap­ril 30, 1873, Mus­well Hill, Lon­don, Eng­land.

Son of Rich­ard Penne­fa­ther, Bar­on of the Ir­ish Court of Ex­cheq­uer, Will­iam lived for a while (for ed­u­ca­tion­al pur­pos­es) at Wes­bury Coll­ege, near Bris­tol; then at Lev­ans par­son­age, near Ken­dal, West­more­land. He en­tered Trin­i­ty Coll­ege in Dub­lin in Feb­ru­ary 1832, and grad­u­at­ed BA in 1840. Tak­ing Ho­ly Or­ders in 1841, he be­came Cur­ate of Bal­ly­ma­cugh, di­o­cese of Kil­more. In Ju­ly 1844, he be­came Vic­ar at Mel­li­font, near Drog­he­da. In 1848 he moved to Eng­land, where he was suc­ces­siv­ely In­cum­bent of Trin­i­ty Church, Wal­ton, Ayles­bury, 1848; Christ Church, Bar­net, 1852; and St. Jude’s, Mild­may Park, 1864. He was well known for the con­fer­ences he began at Bar­net and con­tin­ued at Mild­may, and for re­li­gious and char­it­a­ble or­gan­iz­a­tions he found­ed. He wrote his hymns main­ly for the Bar­net and Mild­may con­fer­ences; some were pub­lished in pamph­let form as Hymns Orig­in­al and Se­lect­ed, by W. P., 1872. Others ap­peared, most­ly un­dat­ed, in the post­hu­mous Orig­in­al Hymns and Thoughts in Verse, 1873. His wife was hymn­ist Ca­ther­ine Pen­ne­fa­ther.

• Hustad, p. 300
• Julian, p. 888

1. And May I Really Tread
2. Help Us, O Lord, to Praise
3. How Shall We Praise Thy Name
4. Jesus, in Thy Blest Name
5. Jesus, Stand Among Us
6. My Blessed Je­sus, Thou Hast Taught
7. O God of Glor­i­ous Ma­jes­ty
8. O Haste Thy Com­ing Kingdom
9. O Ho­ly, Ho­ly Fa­ther
10. O Lord, with One Accord
11. O Sav­ior! We Adore Thee
12. Once More with Chast­ened Joy
13. Praise God, Ye Ser­aphs Bright
14. Thousands and Thou­sands Stand
15. Yon Shin­ing Shore is Near­er