Southern Historical Press

Welsh Settlement of Pennsylvania Southern Historical Press

By: Charles H. Browning, Pub. 1912, reprinted 2022, 632 pages, Index, ISBN #0-89308-464-6.




The early Welsh immigrants to Pennsylvania were mostly Quakers who had borne the brunt of religious persecution in their English homeland. Given the opportunity to secure relief from their religious oppression, they were among the first to accept William Penn's offer to settle in his new colony of Pennsylvania. The Welsh Tract as it was known as, was approximately 40,000 acres located on the west side of the Schuylkill, north and west of Philadelphia. Its lies in present-day counties of Montgomery, Chester, and Delaware. These Quaker settlers began arriving around 1682 and by 1715 there were more than 23,000 of them. This book follows hundreds upon hundreds of Welsh Quaker pioneers moving into Pennsylvania thru the records of the various land companies who re-settled William Penn's famous land grant along the Schuylkill River. This book utilizes lists of settlers, land patents, plat maps, and biographical sketches to provide more information on the process of settlement in Merion and the adjacent townships of Haverford and Radnor. The genealogist will be delighted with the index which has over 5,000 entries of these individuals.