Rare manuscript of Quakers’ US exodus
'Many British Quakers escaped persecution in the seventeenth century by emigrating to the US.'
A rare manuscript has offered insight into the Welsh Quaker exodus into the US in the seventeenth century.
The 1682-dated indenture documents 200 acres of land in Pennsylvania bought by Margaret James, a spinster of the parish of Newchurch, Radnorshire, from Richard Davies, the prominent Quaker of Cloddiau, Welshpool.
Powys Archives bought the indenture which was witnessed and signed by several future Welsh immigrants, who essentially founded Radnor Township. It was later recorded at the registry in Philadelphia under the signature of Thomas Lloyd, master of the rolls and deputy governor to William Penn.
Speaking to The National newspaper, David Hall, chairman of the historical society Powysland Club, which helped buy the manuscript, said: ‘Rare manuscripts of this type are important and contribute to the rich heritage and culture of the county.’
The Powysland Club plans to publish a transcript of the 1682 conveyance in its next edition of the Montgomeryshire Collections.
‘Many families in America can trace their routes to the old counties of Radnorshire and Montgomeryshire, and this manuscript provides direct evidence of local people buying land and emigrating to Pennsylvania almost 340 years ago,’ Phil Bufton, chair of Powys Family History Society, said.
Many British Quakers escaped persecution in the seventeenth century by emigrating to the US. William Penn and other British Friends bought tracts of land, including a large part of what is now New Jersey.
Radnor Township is one of the oldest municipalities in Pennsylvania and was founded as a part of the ‘Welsh tract’.
