Pennsylvania and the Welsh Tract

William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania.

In 1681, King Charles II handed over 45,000 square miles of his American land holdings to a wealthy Quaker called William Penn.

The land was originally called New Wales, but later renamed Pennsylvania by the king. Many maintain that the name means Penn’s Woods, but Penn himself modestly explained that ‘pen’ means ‘head’ in Welsh, and suggested a more accurate meaning of the name would be ‘head of the woods’.

Vast numbers of Quakers began to emigrate to Pennsylvania, many of whom were Welsh speakers seeking a home in the New World. They settled just west of Philadelphia, and the area became known as the Welsh Tract.

Many of the original Welsh settlers spoke no English, and a failed attempt was made to establish an independent state whose language of governance would be Welsh.

In 1701, William Penn granted the Welsh a second Welsh Tract of 30,000 acres, which included what is now Pencader Hundred, Delaware and a part of Maryland. By this time, approximately one third of Pennsylvania’s population was Welsh.

Welsh-speaking farmers constituted the majority of early settlers, with a later influx of Welsh miners who were attracted by the coalfields of Pennsylvania.

A strong Welsh presence exists in America to this day – the numerous Welsh place names in Pennsylvania and other regions reveal the formidable influence of the Welsh pioneers, e.g. Bryn Mawr (large hill), Uwchlan (upper bank) and Gwynedd, a county in Wales.

Many streets in Pennsylvania also bear Welsh names – Llandrillo Road, Clwyd Road, Penarth Road and Derwen Road can all be found in the Bala Cynwyd district of the city. Bala and Cynwyd are two separate towns in north Wales.

Today, approximately 200,000 Welsh Americans live in Pennsylvania – more than in any other part of the United States.

Saint Cadog (Cadoc) Born 497.

25th September
Today is the feast day of Saint Cadog (Cadoc) Born 497.
St. Cadoc is one of the most important early Welsh saints. He was a contemporary of Dewi... Sant (St. David), St. Patrick of Ireland, St. Columba of lona, and tutor of St Illtyd. It is said that he rivaled St David as Wales' patron saint.

Cadoc was the son of Gwynllyw, ruler of the Kingdom of Gwynllwg and Gwladys, daughter of King Brychan of Brycheiniog. After the birth of his son, Gwynllyw went on a wild celebratory raid with a new band of fearless warriors. Among other livestock, he stole the cow of an Irish monk, St. Tathyw of Caerwent. St Tathyw was not afraid of Gwynllyw and boldly went to confront him, demanding the return of the cow. Gwynllyw would not let Tathyw leave with his cow until he baptized his newborn son into the Christian faith. On a sudden impulse, or perhaps guided by divine inspiration, Gwynllyw decided Cadoc would go to live under the monk's care and he was sent away to be educated at Tathyw's monastery in Caerwent.
In adulthood Cadoc refused to take charge of his father's army, "preferring to fight for Christ", he undertook a pilgrimage to Rome and Jerusalem and was reportedly distressed that the Synod of Llanddewi Brefi was held during one of these absences.
Legend says that once whilst hiding in a wood from enemies, he surprised a wild boar, that charged him, but dissapeared before striking him. Cadoc took this as a sign, and the location became the site of the great church and monastry at Llancarfan, near Cowbridge. Legend also says he once saved his brother monks in a famine by tying a white thread to the foot of a mouse; he then followed the thread to an abandoned, well-stocked, underground granary.
It is probable that in his later years he returned to the area around Abergavenny, where he was killed by Saxons in 570 when celebrating Mass
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadoc

• 
  

John Paul Jones (Scottish born, of Welsh descent)

23rd September
A battle between "Bon Homme Richard" of the Continental Navy of the American Revolution and the British "HMS Serepis", was fought on September 23rd 1779. It was a a bitter engagement of The American Revolutionary War, which cost the lives of nearly half the American and British crews.
The captain of the "Bon Homme Richard" that day, was John Paul Jones (Scottish born, of Welsh descent) and when the Bonhomme Richard began taking on water and fires broke out... on board, British victory seemed inevitable. The British commander asked Jones if he wanted to surrender , to which Jones gave his famous reply, "I have not yet begun to fight!" In the end, it was the British commander who surrendered and Jones is remembered for his indomitable will, his unwillingness to consider surrender when the slightest hope of victory still survived

John Paul Jones was born in a humble gardener's cottage in Kirkbean, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland and went to sea as a youth . Having taken up residence in Virginia, he volunteered early in the War of Independence to serve in his adopted country's infant navy and raised with his own hands the Continental ensign on board the flagship of the Navy's first fleet and is therefore seen by many as "The father of the US Navy.
He later took the war to Briain, where he was considered a pirate, with daring raids along the British coast. He was active in the waters around Tenby, where one of his officers by the name of Leekie Porridge came from. There is a beach named Jones on Caldey Island and his ghost is said to haunt the island.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Paul_Jones

See More

Wallace and Glyndwr will rise with their people!

Owain Glyndwr Day Sept. 16th!

Dafydd ap Gwilym

15th September

On Saturday 15th September 1984 a memorial stone was unveiled by a Prifardd to mark the site in the churchyard at Talley where a deeply-rooted tradition asserts that the poet Dafydd ap Gwilym (ca.1315-ca.1350) lies buried. For many centuries the rival claims of Talley and Ystrad Fflur have been debated as the burialplace of Wales’ foremost poet.
Tradition has it that he was born at Brogynin, Penrhyn-coch (at the time Llanbadarn Fawr parish), Ceredigion. His father, Gwilym Gam, and mother, Ardudfyl, were both from noble families. As one of noble birth it seems Dafydd did not belong to the guild of professional poets in medieval Wales, and yet the poetic tradition had been strong in his family for generations. It is believed that about one hundred and seventy of his poems have survived, though many others have been attributed to him over the centuries. His main themes were love and nature. The influence of wider European ideas of courtly love, as exemplified in the troubadour poetry of Provençal, is seen as a significant influence on Dafydd's poetry.
He was an innovative poet who was responsible for popularising the metre known as the "cywydd" and first to use it for praise. But perhaps his greatest innovation was to make himself the main focus of his poetry. By its very nature, most of the work of the traditional Welsh court poets kept their own personalities far from their poetry. Dafydd's work is full of his own feelings and experiences. His main theme is love, and many of his poems are addressed to women, but particularly to two of them, Morfudd and Dyddgu. He is also recognised as very fine nature poet.

Oliver Evans - inventor of the automobile

13th September
Born on this day 1755 in Newport, Delaware, to a family of Welsh settlers
Oliver Evans - inventor of the automobile
...

At the end of the 18th century Philadelphia had become a very busy port, but the harbour was prone to silting up, so Evans was Evans was commissioned by the Philadelphia Board of Health to help dredge out the city's dockyards. In 1804, he designed and built the Oruktor Amphibolos (Amphibious Digger), but at 15 tons and 30 feet long, it was a challenge in itself to get it to the dockyards. On the first attempt it had collapsed in Philadelphia's Centre Square, proving too heavy to be pulled by horses, so Evans, who had and had built steam engines for the flour industry previously used one of his steam engines to transport the monstrous digger to the docks. In so doing he had created the first automobile. He was however unable to capitalise on his invention, due to difficulty in getting financial support and patents and it was left to men such as richard Trevithick, to further the development of steam powered transport.
Evans also designed a refrigeration machine which ran on vapor in 1805 and as such is often called the inventor of the refrigerator, although he never built one and his design was modified by Jacob Perkins, who obtained the first patent for a refrigerating machine in 1834.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Evans