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James Family Archives

• Researching the Past

• Education for the Present

• Preservation for the Future

The window of opportunity presented to David was not wide. Initial offerings for land in Pennsylvania commenced in June of 1681 and were being conducted by a man known as Richard Davies who had already purchased rights to 5000 acres of Penn’s land. By July 1682 David had purchased and signed an indenture entitling him to 100 acres of land within William Penn’s new colony. This indenture also entitled him to an additional 100 acres of “head land” and two city lots to be located within the boundaries of the City of Philadelphia. [5] By August of 1682, David had already packed up his wife and daughter and moved to Bristol while the ship that would carry them to the new world was preparing for departure.

So hastily was the decision made by David James to leave Wales that he failed to secure two very important documents prior to his departure. The first, a letter of reference from his home Church, which was considered essential in these days for anyone planning to move more than a day’s ride from their home. This letter of reference or “good standing” would be required of anyone before they were welcomed into a new community. The second document David failed to possess was a valid travel document entitling him to board the vessel that would carry his family to Pennsylvania.

Whether it was by providence or good fortune, David managed to overcome both obstacles in a very creative way. First, he was able to have his name and the names of his wife and daughter added to the certificate of travel issued to the family of Evan Oliver. Mr. Oliver was a prominent merchant, a former neighbor in the parish of Glascwm as well as a fellow Quaker who had a bill of lading to transport goods with him onboard the Bristol Factor. Hence, David and his family were permitted transit upon the certificate of travel issued to Evan Oliver.

Upon his arrival in Upland in October of 1682, David was excused by the arriving Quaker community from possessing his own letter of reference for a period of one year on the condition that one would be requested from the Quaker meeting in Bristol within the year. Sure enough, by 1683 David’s letter of reference and good standing within the Quaker community arrived from the Radnorshire Men’s meeting. This was a very important foundational requirement to be accepted into the Quaker community. For the most part, however, David and his immediate family were on their own following the first year of their arrival. David’s nearest relation, his sister, Margaret James who had married Samuel Miles on June 25, 1682 in the parish of Newchurch in Radnorshire before coming to Pennsylvania would not arrive until 1683. [6] But once present in the area identified as Radnor Township she and her family would afford David some measure of familial ties and support during these early critical years. What becomes clear is that a strong bond and alliance between the James family and the Miles family would quickly form and endure for many years to follow.

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5 See, The Statehouse Yard, And Who Owned It First After William Penn, by Charles Browning, published in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 40, No. 1 (1916), pp. 85-103 (19 pages) at pp. 100-101, “The adjoining property, Lot No. 15, was the "bonus lot" of David James, another Welsh Friend and a Radnor township land owner, by warrant dated 22 Nov. 1683.” And, “Lot No. 11 was another "bonus lot" of the Welsh man, David James, of Radnor township, in 1693, which his heiress, Mary James, sold to David Powell…”

6 See, Welsh Founders of Pennsylvania by Thomas Allen Glen; published in Oxford, England (1911), p. 179.

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