James Family Archives
• Researching the Past
• Education for the Present
• Preservation for the Future
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Upon their arrival in October of 1682, David, Margaret and Mary had many pressing matters at hand to contend with. Their arrival in mid Fall provided the family very little time to prepare for the upcoming winter season. There was no house or shelter waiting for them upon their arrival. There was no supply of food or fuel. All that lie before them was an uncharted wilderness with a claim to 200 acres of it - out there somewhere.
After gathering up what provisions he could muster, David led his family about 20 miles inland from the Delaware River, a full day’s walk. He followed the Schuykill River upstream for about 19 miles and then spotted a hill a little to the east. He then proceeded for another mile away from the Schuykill toward the hill where he found a cave near a fresh spring of water. Here is where David would lay his claim and shelter his family during the winter of 1682-83. Today this location is market by the Church that the James family constructed atop that hill in 1783 – The Radnor United Methodist Church.
One can only imagine the trials faced by the family during that first winter in Pennsylvania, the cold, wild beasts and native indians. Nevertheless, the family persevered. Thankfully, the local indians posed no threat to the family as William Penn had done a remarkable job negotiating the peaceful purchase of his lands from the local indigenous population and had managed to establish a working relationship with them based on mutual assistance and respect.
According to the oral history handed down through the family, following the winter of 1682-1683 David James began clearing his land and built a sturdy log cabin that would remain standing for five generations. The family dwelt in this log cabin for nearly eighteen years from 1683 to 1700. During this period David’s wife Margaret would give birth to their first child born in the colony, Thomas James who was born on or about 1690. In the years prior to 1700 David and his family would witness a large influx of new settlers into the area.
By 1684 the first surveyors hired by William Penn’s land commissioners began mapping the territory referred to as the Welsh Tract. Following these initial surveys, David and his neighbors were organized into a township called “Radnor” after the county in Wales from which they had come. Within the township, the land commissioners began “laying out,” that is subdividing the township into parcels that somewhat reflected the amount of lands contained within each of the original patents dating back to 1681. The problem with this highly subjective approach was that parcels “laid out” by the land commissioners on their maps of Radnor did not always reflect the actual locations where the residents of Radnor had settled. Such was the predicament of David James whose 100 acres of land including an additional 100 acres of “head land” were placed on the initial maps of Radnor Township directly to the south of where he actually settled. The problem, however, was not immediately evident as Radnor in these days was sparsely populated. As a result, the land that had been laid out for David James by the land commissioners ended up being occupied, at least in part, by another gentlemen, Stephan-ab-Evan. It was an imperfect method of distribution to say the least.
Another problem Penn’s land commissioners quickly confronted was that Radnor Township was placed inside a larger geographic and political unit declared to be Philadelphia County. This gave the Welsh Quakers a considerable political advantage over local governance, something that Penn was opposed to. So, in a scheme by the land commissioners to dilute the political influence of the Welsh Quakers, Radnor Township was separated from Philadelphia County and placed into a smaller geographic unit called Chester County. Through these shenanigans, David and his fellow Welsh Quakers soon found themselves at odds with Penn’s land commissioners and their selfish ambitions.