"The Welsh have had an impact upon Pennsylvania’s society and culture since the founding of the colony in 1681. ...The Welsh were especially influential from 1682 to 1730 in shaping the political, economic and social development of the colony....
"From 1682 to 1700, the Welsh were the largest group immigrating to Pennsylvania. By 1700 they accounted for approximately one-third of the colony’s estimated population of twenty thousand. After 1700, Welsh immigration remained significant, yet slowly declined; it practically ceased after 1720, ....The mass immigration of Welsh to Pennsylvania before 1700 was due largely to the desire of Welsh Quakers for religious freedom and escape from persecution, and for the creation of a separate colony or “barony” in America....In 1681 several Welsh Quaker gentlemen met with William Penn in London and obtained a tract of forty thousand acres in Pennsylvania. A verbal agreement was reached, reportedly, which assured the Welsh that their settlement would be indivisible and would constitute a “barony” with the right of self-government....
"The “Welsh Tract” covered the land north of Philadelphia and west of the Schuylkill River. From the Schuylkill it stretched northwestward along the southwest bank of the river, and westward and southwestward over southeastern Pennsylvania. Although the boundaries of the barony were laid out in 1682, they were not established officially until 1687. In general, its borders covered eleven and one-half townships in Delaware, Chester and Montgomery counties,...