Uwclan Township (pronounced "uke-lin") was first surveyed and established as a township of Chester County, PA, in 1712. In the few years prior, Welsh Quakers settled the area and named it Uwchlan, which means "upland" or "land above the valley in Welsh.
Among those earliest settlers - David Cadwalader, John Evans, James Pugh, Cadwalader John, or Jones, Robert Benson, John David, Morris Rees, James Rees, David Evans, Humphrey Lloyd, David Lloyd, Griffith and Samuel John, Joseph Phipps, Noble Butler, Rees Jones, David Davies, Evan Evans, Thomas John, and the Philips family.
John Cadwalader moved to Uwchlan in 1711 and built a large log house on a 250 acre plot. In 1715 Cadwalader sold the property and left the region. He also granted a small lot to the Society of Friends for use as a meeting house and burial ground, the site of today's Uwchlan Meeting House. The Cadwalader house was later expanded and is now home of the Uwchlan Township Historical Commission.
Griffith and Samuel John (and Thomas, possibly a third brother) arrived at Philadephia from Wales in 1709. By 1714 the purchased and settled on properties adjacent to Cadwalader's
The Red Lion Inn was across the road from the meeting house. The village, originally called Red Lion, became Lionville when a post office was established in 1826 since there was already a Red Lion in York Co.When a post office was established in Eagle that postoffice was named "Uwchland."
Cadwalader House
