Historical Background of Caernarvon Township,
Berks County
Morgantown, Pennsylvania
1770 - 2015
Caernarvon Township and the Village of Morgantown
Introduction
Our story begins long ago in a village called St. David's (Radnor Township, Delaware County). There a group of Welshmen, including a man named William Davies, settled in the 1680s. Records show an Episcopal Church had been established by 1700 and in 1715 a stone structure was built to house the growing congregation on land donated by Davies.
Davies, an educated man trained as a physician, ran a mercantile and shipping business in Philadelphia and served as a member of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly from 1712 to 1714. Davies, along with other Welshmen, felt a deep disappointment when their dream of a Welsh Barony in Penn's new Province, collapsed. This inspired Davies to initiate a new effort to establish an exclusively Welsh settlement north and west of St. David's.
The Colonial Minutes record that, after a conference held at Philadelphia in 1715, the Indians voluntarily abandoned their land in the Conestoga Valley. Soon thereafter, in 1718, this land was surveyed and land warrants were issued to William Davies, his sons, sons-in-law, and other Welshmen, all of St. Davids. The new Welsh settlement ran from the head of the valley in the vicinity of Twin Valley Road, westward to Terre Hill, a distance of 8 miles on both sides of the Conestoga Creek.
http://www.caernarvon.org/history/background.html
