European Settlers
- Apr 15
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 29
From the Old World to the New
The Dutch were the first Europeans in Chester County, in 1616. The English followed in 1634; the Swedes in 1638; the Finns in 1640; and the Welsh-Quakers in 1682. In the late 1600’s the English Quakers and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians predominated in our southeastern Pennsylvania region.
William Penn founded Chester County in 1682 as one of the three original counties of the Colony of Pennsylvania. Chester County originally included Lancaster County which separated in 1729 and Delaware County which separated in 1789.
William Penn had encouraged the early formation of townships in Pennsylvania as a way to promote self-government. Many boroughs and townships had incorporated by the early eighteenth century, for example Caln in 1686, Kennett in 1704, and numerous others. But the Quakers who predominated in much of Chester County shunned town living, preferring life on their farms. Based on religious principles, Quakers showed little interest in formal governance of their territories. Except for the county seat, early towns carried few public responsibilities beyond providing small local marketplaces and serving as units for assessing taxes.
The name “Sadsbury” first appeared on a deed for land in 1708, but the area was not organized as a township until 1717. The name Sadsbury may have derived from a town called Sudbury, England; in some older records, Sadsbury was spelled as Sudsbury. In 1718, there were nine taxables in Sadsbury Township, including William Grimson, James Hamer, Thomas Hayward, John Musgrave, William Smith, John Whitesides, and John Moore. The first township officer mentioned was William Marsh, November 26, 1717.
A majority of the original settlers were Friends (Quakers) from England and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. A number of landowners owned hundreds of acres of land and were farmers who sometimes combined agriculture with other trades or occupations like grist mills, distilleries, and tanneries.
Sadsbury Township was advantageously located on the main market route between Philadelphia and Lancaster. While it was settled primarily by English and Scots-Irish, it was close enough to the more strongly Germanic regions of Lancaster County to be affected by that area’s culture and building practices. It therefore occupied something of an ethnic and economic crossroads.
The families of Boyd, Cowan, McClellan, Marsh, Moore, Parke, Truman, Williams, Hope, Gardner, and Richmond were early inhabitants. Among the noted citizens of this part of the county in the early days was Colonel Andrew Boyd, son of Reverend Adam Boyd, who was lieutenant of Chester County during the Revolutionary War. John Fleming Sr., another prominent citizen of this part of the county, was a member of the convention that framed the State Constitution in 1776, and he was a member of the Assembly in 1778. Dr. Joseph Gardner was an active Revolutionary patriot, a member of the Assembly, and was a member of the Continental Congress in 1784-85. John Gardner, son of Dr. Joseph Gardner, was sheriff of Chester County from 1781 to 1783.
The land area of the township was whittled away over a period of about 150 years. The township originally extended indefinitely westward from Chester County:
With the creation of Lancaster County in 1729, Octorara Creek became its western boundary. The portion of Sadsbury Township west of the creek became Sadsbury Township, Lancaster County.
In 1813, the line between Sadsbury and West Caln Townships was relocated and settled. In 1832, Sadsbury was again reduced in size by the formation of Valley Township; it had previously extended eastward to the Brandywine at Coatesville.
By an act of Assembly passed in March 1872, the borough of Parkesburg was created, reducing Sadsbury’s size again. In December 1887, the borough of Atglen was established (previously called Penningtonville).
In 1878, the township was divided into East and West Sadsbury Townships.
Sources:
The Delaware Valley in the Early Republic: Architecture, Landscape, and Regional Identity; Gabrielle Lanier, 2005.
Chester County and Its People, W.W. Thomson, 1898.
https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/locations/chester-county-pennsylvania/
Chesco.org, https://www.chesco.org/892/Facts-About-Chester-County#:~:text=The%20County%20was%20founded%20by,County%20which%20separated%20in%201789
An Illustrated History of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, William Henry Egle, 1876.