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The ‘Welsh Tract Land Indentures’ is a rare example of a manuscript containing an early record of Welsh settlement in North America. As a record relating to one of the first generations of people from Wales who crossed the Atlantic Ocean to to make a new home for themselves, this document represents the long and enduring cultural relationship between Wales and North America.
The volume was purchased by the National Library of Wales in 2024 and subsequently underwent extensive conservation and re‑binding to ensure its long‑term preservation. It has also been digitised, allowing readers in Wales and around the world, especially in the United States, to view and study it online.
Dating from 1683 to 1694, the indentures records the sale of land to Welsh Quakers in the area that later became known as the ‘Welsh Tract’ in Pennsylvania. The Quakers, formally the Religious Society of Friends, were a dissenting religious movement who worshipped outside the Anglican Church and faced persecution as a result. William Penn, himself a Quaker, received a grant of land in North America from King Charles II and sold approximately 27,000 acres to six Welsh Quakers, who in turn resold portions of it to other settlers.
The indentures were compiled at the office of Thomas Lloyd, the Master of Rolls in Philadelphia, who was also originally from Dolobran in Montgomeryshire. It records a substantial series of land transactions, including 56 sales to purchasers from counties across Wales. It also contains 22 additional transactions involving non‑Welsh purchasers from Wiltshire, Herefordshire, and other parts of England and Pennsylvania.
The manuscript makes no reference to the Indigenous peoples who had lived on these lands long before the arrival of Europeans. Although the document records transactions between agents and settlers, it reflects only the colonial legal framework of the period and not the histories or rights of the Indigenous communities whose homelands encompassed the region.