USA > Pennsylvania > Welsh settlement of Pennsylvania > Part 29
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A year after this, in the Spring of 1690, a letter from James to Penn was intercepted and read, in which the former king asked him "to come to his assistance," in what matter the Privy Council was uncertain, but determined to find out, so "enn was ordered before it to explain. The out-come was as in the previous case. But in July follow- ing, when plots against William and Mary were prevalent, Penn was made the special subject of a royal proclamation, and again arrested, as before, "on suspicion of being a traitor." He was imprisoned, but not brought to trial for want of sufficient evidence, and was finally released, but placed under surveillance, because he persisted in saying James was his dearest friend, and the good angel of the Friends.
Penn now not being a courtier, but a suspect, and having nothing t entertain him, again turned his attention to lecturing among the Friends, and preached Fox's funeral sermon, on 16 Jan. 1690. During the services, he got the tip that a warrant was out for his arrest again, and slipped away from this function, went into hiding, and did not come out into the open for three years. Why he fled and
[411]
WELSH SETTLEMENT OF PENSYLVANIA
hid, can only be guessed,-he let the people of his province suppose it was on account of the same old thing, his religion, although Quakers were not being persecuted then. Where he went to, and laid concealed these three years, a fugitive, he gives us no definite information. He certainly was frightened this time, for he knew that one of the men arrested with him, the last time he was captured, was ex- ecuted for treason on slight evidence. Then, too, at this time, there were many Jacobite plots afloat, known to the Privy Council. The Government knowing that Penn was personally acquainted with these schemers, easily imagined that he might know the plans of the leaders, and when these men were captured, and executed for treason, declared that "Penn the Quaker" was one with them, knowing this, he thought it best to abscond, lay low till possibly James would come to his own again.
Wheresoever Penn hid may have been known to very few, but he secretly kept in touch with certain Friends' Meet- ings, and the leading men of his province, and was in secret correspondence with relatives at Court, asking them to beg the king :o stop hounding him, and let him live the life of a harmless, peaceful Quaker.
Now it was that Penn found himself so pushed that he threatened to turn at bay. [Penn was the true son of his father, a man of spunk always, as witness his reproof, in 1683, of Jasper Yates, a captious Quaker, who complained of the authority Penn claimed in Pensylvania, writing, "No, Jasper, thy conceit is neither religious, politic, nor equal, and, without high words, I disregard it as meddling, intruding, and presumptious"]. His menace being, that if the king did not desist he would have "reason to regret his action." What was the nature of this threat has not been preserved, but it was more likely a political than a personal matter. Unfortunately, there are many gaps in the public records of this period.
Whatever was the ultimatum Penn had in mind, it either fell flat, or may be suggested in the following item of an
[412]
WELSH TRACT AFFAIRS
extant diary of that day, under 18 Sep. 1691, "William Penn the Quaker is got off from Shoreham in Sussex, and gone to France." ("Diary of Narcissus Lutteral," II. 286). Many have guessed where in France, or on the continent, Penn went, and what company he kept there, but this year of his life is a blank as far as we are concerned, as he left no details relating it. The first we hear of him after his departure is in a letter to Robert Turner, Philadelphia, dated at London, 29 Nov. 1692. "I have been above these three years hunted up and down, and could never be allowed to live quietly in city or country," wrote the fugitive in another letter, undated, on matters of faith and religion.
Old-time friends of Penn by this time had risen to favor at Court, and through them Penn petitioned, and they con- vinced the king that he was not the dangerous man the Privy Council would have him thought, so we read again in this same Diary, under 5 Dec. 1693, "William Penn the Quaker, having for some time absconded, and having com- promised the matters against him, appears now in public, and on Friday last held forth at the Bull and Mouth [a Friends' Meeting was there], in St. Martin's [parish, London]."
Penn, in a letter written at this time, says :- "From the Secretary [of State, after his "compromise," or acquital] I went to our Meeting at the Bull and Mouth, thence to visit the sanctuary of my solitude," the secret place of refuge "from justice" where he hid so long, and which has never been discovered. Even Ford did not know where Penn was, as it may be seen there was no "transactions" between them in these several years, but the interest went on piling up day and night. From this time, Penn, although having the entree at the Court of Anne, returned to, or rather assumed the mode of life exampled by the religious Society of Friends, and meddled no more in national politics.
This little sketch of Penn's life, during seven early years that Ford and wife dominated, if not black-mailed him,
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WELSH SETTLEMENT OF PENSYLVANIA
shows no excuse for his allowing them to go on as they did, nor any for his turning his back on the Welsh Friends he had induced, by certain promises to remove to his province. But the last three years, when he was a fugitive, should be an excuse for him in both cases. After this, when he became "a living Quaker," his life yields no excuse, so far as the Welsh are concerned, and we have seen what happened in the Ford's matter.
As a summary to the aforesaid statements, it may be of interest to read here what the editor of the History of Haverford College (1892), wrote of the same, "These worthy people" [the Welsh] he said, "had emigrated to the new world with the desire to live quietly and apart from the people around them. Gov. Penn had given them some reason to expect their wishes would be gratified. In a letter of instruction to the surveyor-general, he directed that the Welsh tract should be laid out in accordance with the under- standing with them, i. e. contiguously as one barony; the intention of the Welshmen being to conduct their own affairs separately from the rest of the colony, and in their own language, as a county palatine. Tempted by the pros- pect of peace and quietness in the new land, the settlers swarmed over. * * * During the sad days of financial distress which darkened Penn's declining years, however, he wrote to his agents to be vigorous : the collection of the quit-rent, whereupon, in their zeal, the rents were assessed upon the whole 40,000 acres, heretofore exempt, * * * and in spite of the original assurance of the Proprietary himself, a line was run between Philadelphia and Chester counties, which divided the Welsh Tract in two parts. A pathetic appeal was mad from what they at least regarded as a grave act of injustice. * * * * Their spirited claim did not avail, and the reservation was thrown open for settlement by others. Doubtless it seemed to them an act of glaring wrong, and seriously marred their pleasant pictures; but it is a striking commentary on the oblitera- tions wrought by time, that these ancient Britons are now
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WELSH TRACT AFFAIRS
completely merged, and all lines between them and their English speaking neighbors have vanished; no distinction remaining save the old Welsh names. The early dissen- sions, probably, account for the quiet obscurity of the annals of this part of the colony, of which we hear little, and the Welsh settlers were not, perhaps, much in accord with: William Penn."
[415
WILLIAM LOWTHER'S MANOR .1 BILLION.
JAMES
LETITIA PINK'S
Tas FALE S.L.sry
MAN OR
or
Mount Joy.
JOHN HART
MARY FINEN
RICHARD SKRED
WILL
THE
SHALLOW
company
WILLIAM PENN, JUN. I
EAST T.
JONA PENNINGTON
COMPANY.
JUNOTAIO
THOMAS
FITA
RADNOR TO ..
... ..
BRASILY
HOLLAND.
SETTLEMENT !.
140
To
F ... O.K.
ECRLty.
4
w
WM. SHARLOW.
LLOYD.
C.
JONES.
FAMILIES.
DAVIS.
'7
FALLS .
BEYAN. -
WI[ ...
-1
1
1 ELL'S.
THOMAS
ALLIED WELSH TOWNS OF PENSYLVANIA
WELSH TRACT TOWNSHIPS.
While reviews of these origins are interesting, we should not forget that much quite as engaging in other ways has occurred in the same localities, since the Welsh settlement was made, in more than two centuries, when Evan Oliver was the official wood-ranger in Merion, and when ear-mark- ed cattle and swine roamed at large in the fenceless wilds of the plantations beyond the Schuylkill. In this cradle, under Welsh Friends' influences and teachings, were nursed the Welsh forebears of many noted men and women, who helped in various ways to uplift the Commonwealth and its metropolis, the names of hundreds of whom it should be invidious to relate, whose descendants returned, after many years, with riches and refined tastes, to the "old home," and bought back the desirable portions of their Welsh ancestors' holdings,-the "home fields" of the pioner planters, and beautified them till the "Main Line" district has become justly celebrated for its improvements the world over. And these descendants are more proud of these Welsh farmer, Quaker ancestors than any of their others of equal date, for always has there been more pride in a farmer ancestor, was he a small or a large land owner, than in one following a trade .*
*From the Philadelphia tax list, for the year 1771-2, preserv. at the Pa. Historical Society, can be learned the kind of trade, for they had to "live," of the progenitors of a multitude of Philadelphia fam- ilies, more or less prominent, and this old book should be valuable data for family historians. Space permits only a few extracts, but I can give enough instances to suggest that there were very few in the city who wrote themselves "Gentleman" in 1772 :- Gunning Bed- ford, James Bringhurst, Benjamin Loxley, Edward Stretcher, John Keen, Benjamin Shoemaker, William Lownes, Josiah Matlock, Richard Armett, Joseph and Samuel Wetherill, Edward Bonsell, James Shars-
[419]
WELSH SETTLEMENT OF PENSYLVANIA
Lying adjacent to the city of Philadelphia, (or Penn's Liberties, or old Blockley township's 7,580 acres), which has grown to its hounds,* the lands of the Welsh settlers it may be seen are naturally advantageously situated for great and greater improvement. And to further enhance the value of these lands bought from Penn for a few shillings an acre, and to make them most accessible as a residential section, within a few minutes of the heart of the business district of the city, there are two great "steam roads," an "electric road," a "trolley line," and two broad, well-kept avenues for "limousines." Yet, strange to relate, these advantages and possibilities in the "country lots." received general recognition only a few years ago, and the greatest changes in the "Seven Companies'" tracts have occurred only in the last twenty-five years, when farms dis-
wood, James Cresson, Isaac Lobdale, &c., were carpenters; Joseph Brir hurst, and William Shippen, coopers; Joseph Claypoole, Ben- jamin Horner, Thomas Cuthbert, Jr., Jonathan Wainwright, and David Bacon, were hatters; William Lippincott, Christopher Sellers, Robert Bailey, James Welch, John McCalla, &c., tailors; Benjamin Rundolph, Alexander Frazier, George Claypoole, were joiners; John Guest, Andrew Filler, John Hood, Jr., and Benjamin Paschall, were cordwainers; John Spencer, the butcher; John Drinker, and Thomas IIallowell, bricklayers; Henry Neill, Joseph Frazier, Thomas Middle- ton, and Henry Lisle, were bakers; William Bedford, the sa "er; James Claypoolc, the glazier; Isaac Snowden, and Benjamin Sharp- less, tanners; Benjamin Shoemaker, distiller; Jonathan Shoemaker, blacksmith; John Biddle, and Abraham Wayne, tavern keepers; John Snowden, potter; Thomas Cuthbert, mast maker; Philip Syng, gold- smith; and some of the shopkeepers were George Sharswood, Blair McClanachan, William Turnbull, Edward and George Bartram, Clc- ment Biddle, Geo. Anthony Morris, &c.
*Pownall in his journal, journeying from Philadelphia to the Susquehanna in 1754, says :- Crossed the Schuylkill at Coalters' Ferry. "All plots of this town represent it as extending from the Delaware to the Schuylkill. That this town should ever have such an extent is impossible. It does not now extend one-third of the way, those, therefore, who bought lots on speculation were much deceived."
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MERION, HAVERFORD, RADNOR
appeared, and "country places" succeeded, and these in turn are being "cut up into lots to suit purchasers," hence a multitude of small holdings and a greater population.
This is the present state of the "Thomas and Jones" tract, and those adjoining of the other Welsh companies, and back from the river line, and along the river front of the pioneer company, called for convenience Number One, start- ing at the Falls of Schuyl.ill, there are the great plants of the American Bridge Company, and the Pencoyd Iron Works, conducted by descendants of the first Welsh settlers, while across the entire Thomas and Jones tract is the road- way of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad. IIere also are the properties of the West Laurel Hill Cemetery, on lands of Robert David and Edward Owen, or Dr. Griffith Owen, or Robert David and Dr. Edward Jones, and Dr. Griffith, pro- prietors at various times, and of the Westmoreland Ceme- tery, on land of William ap Edward, or of Hugh Roberts, while the settlements of Belmont Heights and Ashland Heights are laid out on the lands of Katherine Thomas.
With the disappearance of the "Welsh Tract" as a dis- tinct territory in the Province, begin the annals peculiar to the townships that lay in this tract. Some of those of the townships called Merion, Haverford, and Radnor, the orig- inal settlements of the Welsh Friends, with their prepara- tive meetings, one in each township, by whose names they were and are still known, united in a monthly meeting called Haverford at first, and subsequently Radnor, that met alter- nately in its earliest years with these three meetings, are of especial interest, because of the many Welshmen, prominent in provincial affairs, who resided within their bounds.
Of these three adjoining "towns," as at first they were called, first attention is given to "Merion in the Welsh Tract," which it needs no imagination to believe, and which has before been said, was named for the Welsh shire whence came its first Welsh settlers, the party of Dr. Jones, in the summer of 1682. This township in its carly days was some-
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WELSH SETTLEMENT OF PENSYLVANIA
what larger than our present "Lower Merion" portion of it (which is in dimension, 616 by 4 miles, or about 14,500 acres), but not so large as with the whole of the present "Upper Merion" portion joined to it, as the "Upper" section in 1695, was a portion of the private land of Letitia Penn, or the Mount Joy manor, and the center was private land of William Penn, the younger, and these were not included in any "town." Then "Merion" extended inland from the Schuylkill river to the land of William Penn, Jr., and in- cluded the land adjoining his, belonging to an English ad- venturing land-company, headed by John Pennington, which the Welsh looked upon as invaders of their tract, just as they .id the Swedes, who bought from Penn some 5,000 acres of the unsettled, confiscated "Welsh Lands," along the river from present upper line of Lower Merion to Bridge- port, opposite Norristown.
From the following list of subscribers for the shares of the Susquehanna Land Company (preserved at the His- torical Society of Pensylvania), about 1690, we get the names of probably the most substantial of the early inhabi- tants of the old Welsh Tract, in the "town" of Merion, as well as those of Haverford, and Radnor, judging from the amounts subscribed for shares. This, too, may furnish some information of their prosperity at that time.
This subscription was taken when Penn had a scheme to found an interior city in his province, on the river Susque- hanna, about 1690-1697. He designed well, but unlooked- for events prevented the consummation of his plans, which got no further than getting the subscriptions, and selling a few lots in the plot of the proposed interior "city," at the rate of three hundred acres for one hundred pounds. The Welsh subscribed liberally, as may be seen, and also pur- chased building lots extra.
It can hardly be said that Penn compelled the Welsh to invest their money in this undertaking of his, but he cer- tainly influenced them to do so, and when it failed, it be- came another matter that tended to unfix their faith in him,
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MERION, HAVERFORD, RADNOR
at least as a promoter of their welfare and wealth, but it is common knowledge now that in the province their gratitude was displaced by complaints, and it was as written, through the ill-treatment they had at his hands that caused the loss of his "fatherly influence" over the Welsh Quakers else he might have persuaded them out of their conceit about their "barony;" conquered their obstinacy about paying Philadelphia county-tax; doing court duty in that county, in which their "barony" lay, and having magistrates and laws of their own adoption.
The key, and annotations, to the following "Susquehanna Subscribers" may, in many instances, be found in the notices of the early settlers.
MERION TOWNSHIP.
John Roberts,
Thomas Howell £5.
of "Wayne Mills" £5.
Daniel Thomas 5.
John Bevan 25.
Ellis Pugh 5.
Hugh Roberts 20.
Robert Lloyd 2.26.
John Roberts 20.
Edward Jones [glover] . . 5.
Cadwalader Morgan 15.
Edward Griffith
3.
Robert David 15.
Thomas David
1.10
Griffith John
10.
Peter Jones
5.
Edward Rees 15.
James Thomas, Sen.
5.
Edward Jones 10.
James Thomas, Jun'r 5.
5.
William Edward
6.
Joshua Owen 5.
Hugh Jones
5.
Benjamin Humphrys 5.
Robert Owen 8.
Thomas Jones, Sen'r 2.10
Thomas, Robert, Evan and
David William 4.
Cadw'd Jones 20.
John Owen 5.
David Hugh 5.
John William 2.10
John Humphrys 10.
Abell Thomas 2.10
Margaret Howell 10.
Katharine David 5.
Dan Thomas [cancelled] . 8.
Sarah Evans 5.
Rees Thomas
8.
Philip Price
5.
David Havord 10.
[423]
Rees Jones 6.
Evan Harry
WELSH SETTLEMENT OF PENSYLVANIA
HAVERFORD AND RADNOR TOWNSIIIPS.
William Lewis £10.
Thomas John Evon .. £5.
David Lewis
5.
Henry Rees
2.10
William Jenkins 10.
John Evan Edward 2.10
John Lewis 5.
Thomas Parry 2,10
David Lawrence 5.
Evan Prothero
8.
Morrice Llewellen
10.
Hugh Samuel
2.10
Ellis Ellis
5.
Owen Evan
2.10
William Howell
6.
Danicl Chivers 2,10
Daniel Humphrey
10.
Rees Henton
10.
Henry Lewis
5.
William David 2.10
Samuel Lewis
5.
Richard Moor
2.10
William Row
5.
Samuel Miles
6.
Lewis David
5.
William David
5.
John Evans
6.
John Morgan Thomas Owen
3.
John Jarman
2.10
David James
5.
David Evan
8.
William Thomas
2.10
Richard Orms
10.
Elizabeth Jones
2.10
David Morice
5.
The following list of fifty-two land owners in Lower Merion, in 1734, is also interesting, although their acreage is not given. It was made for the use of Gov. Thomas Penn, when he was putting the Pensylvania Land Office in proper shape for its duties. Up to his time, the land records had been a scandal.
John ap Mathias Roberts.
Catharine Pugh. Rees Philip.
Hugh Evans.
Robert Jones.
Joseph Tuker.
Robert Roberts.
James John.
Robert Evan.
Thomas John.
Rice Price.
John Lloyd.
Edward Jones .*
Griffith Lewellen.#
Abel Thomas.
Robert Roberts.
Benjamin Eastburn.i
David Jones.
Jonathan Jones.
William Walton.
*He was the captain of the Merion Associators, or militia, during the Revolution.
¡He married at the Abington Mtg., 1722, Ann Thomas.
¿He was commissioned a justice in Phila. Co., April, 1744.
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2.10
David Meredith 10.
MERION, HAVERFORD, RADNOR
William Havard.
David Davis.
Richard Hughes.
David Price, Jr.
Morris Llewelyn.
Lewis Idloyd.
Benjamin Humphrey.
John David.
John Humphrey.
Robert ap Peter Jones.
Joseph Williams.
Thomas David.
Joseph Roberts.
Owen Jones's plantation.
John Roberts. (Pencoyd).
Eleanor Devan.
David Price.
Evan Harry.
Isachar Price.
Samuel Jordan.
John Evans,
James Dodmead.
Rees Thomas.
John Roberts, carpenter.
William Thomas.
Nicholas Repy.
Peter Jones.
Evan Rees.
Humphrey Jones.
Edward Edwards.
John Griffith.
Garret Jones.S
The regular assessment lists of 1740-43, show 101 tax- ables in Lower Merion. The collector was probable more diligent, and let none escape him.
That there was particular confidence in the Welshmen may be judged by the fact that so many of them were named to sign and number the Exchange Money, or Bills of Credit, for the trustees of the Loan Office of Pensylvania, in Nov- ember, 1755, as among the signers were Hugh Roberts, Daniel Williams, Christopher Jones, Joseph Morris, Owen Jones, Jonathan Evans, and Evan Morgan.
There has also been preserved a list of the taxables of Lower Merion, without date, but apparently about the year 1780, which gives the following inhabitants of the old "town," who were of Welsh extraction, and the number of acres they owned, out of a total of 153 names on the list. But in Upper Merion, at the same assessment, there were apparently only thirty-six having Welsh names out of 173 taxables. That is, among 326 taxables in the stronghold of the Welsh Friends, there were only 63 apparently of Welsh extraction, in their paternal lines. It may be noted
§He "perished under the snow," and was buried in the Merion Friends graveyard, 3mo. 30. 1765. See p. 134-5.
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WELSH SETTLEMENT OF PENSYLVANIA
that at this time there were no very large farms in Lower Merion, but at all times here the farms of the Welsh, who succeeded the pioneers, ere small, as primogeniture was not a custom among the Each son received land, often in equal proportion.
Thomas David Estate. 280
Eleanor Lloyd 50
Peter Evans 280
Thomas Morgan
100
John Evans (tailor)
Edward Price 200
Nehemiah Evans
50
Recs Price
15
Isaac Hughes 70
Henry Pugh 50
Thomas Humphreys (smith)
Joseph Roberts 150
Jesse Jones 100
Hugh Roberts (bach.) 130
Francis Jones
50
Algernon Roberts 224
John Jones 50
John Roberts 50
Ilugh Jones 334
Jesse Thomas (smith)
40
Jacob Jones
230
Abel Thomas
40
Silas Jones
140
John Llewellyn
350
Lewis Thomas (wheelwright)
80
Paul Jones
130
Walter Walter
Lower Merion, still the most populous of the three old Welsh "towns" (in 1910, it was over four times that of Hav- erford tp.), and the richest "township" in the world, accord- ing to assessments, at the period of our '76 Centennial, con- tained only 1,200 taxables in a population of 5,000. This cannot be considered a wonderful growth however, for this country, since in 1800, Lower Merion had a population of 1,422. That is, in seventy-five years the population had only a little more than trebled itself, but following this period it took only thirty years to treble it again. At this writing Lower Merion, according to the 1911 report from the Bureau of the Census, has a population of 17,671. This is a gain of 4,400 over the census of 1900, and an increase of 7,200 over that of 1890. The figures do not include the students of the colleges and boarding schools in the township. The valuation of property for taxation in Lower Merion, in 1876, was $4,000,000, but in 1911, it is $17,621,130, and this being only at the "farm rate" is not a fifth of the true value of the properties.
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MERION, HAVERFORD, RADNOR
Lower Merion, and the other "Welsh township:," even in the memory of some present-day men, were distinctively agricultural districts, and cont tined no towns, or even vil- lages, as there was no occasion for hem, for farmers do not need hem. There were only little groups of a few houses, hamlets, about a grist mill, or a smith's shop, or an inn. These have grown into villages, and towns, but only by the overflow of population from the nearby city. Of stores, there were a very few. Even at the time of our national centennial, Lower Merion had not developed in this direc- tion, as within its bounds there was only one drug store, one confectioner, one stove store, and one shoe store. Here primitive life and customs prevailed among the Welsh Friends, though it was the nearest to the city, and the most advanced of the three Welsh townships, fifty years after its settlement.
It was not t'11 in 1830, that there was a post-office in Lower Merion, and thirty years later, there were only three. One at the General Wayne Inn, the first established, a near neighbor of the Merion Meeting House. The Inn had ac- cumulated a blacksmith shop, a little country store, and & few dwellings, and the whole was dignified as the village of General Wayne, but this growth had been only since the Revolution. Another post-office was at Merion, Lower Mer- ion, or Merion Square, as variously called, a village now, called Gladwyne. Here too the inn was the nucleus for some dwelling houses and a store. In 1860, the other post-office was at a cabinetmaker's shop, about which were some dwell- ings, and the whole known as Cabinet, or Cabinetville, and later Athensville, a stopping place of the first railway through the township. This gave it some importance, and soon it became the largest of Merion's vil'ges, having in 1860, 28 houses, three stores, and a new tavern, the Red Lion, rebuilt in 1856, on the site of an older inn, on the Philadelphia and Lancaster Pike. In recent years, this settlement was re-christened Ardmore, and has become a town with about 6,000 inhabitants. These places were so in-
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