Places | Horsham Preservation and Historical Association

William Penn

William Penn Author: Kevin Winters Published: June 6,2025 William Penn William Penn is likely well-known to most readers as the founder/proprietor of the colony of Pennsylvania. While the township of Horsham is part of that colony it is likely that Penn had very little, if anything, to do with the township and likely never visited since the land was still wilderness with the 1st settler in Hatboro reaching this area only by 1701 (Smith 1945 p17 ) which is the year that Penn left the colony for good. (Independence Hall Association (3) -no date ) He had...

Citations

Posted in Places.

References Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson, “Letter from Anthony Wayne”, 14 September 1777, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Unpublished Material Case 14, Box 16, Philadelphia, PA (Gentile p4) Gentile, Nancy Jacquelyn The Penrose Family at Graeme Park 1801-1920 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ©1984 ISBN 0-89271-031-4 (Available at Graeme Park Visitor Center) Ousterhout,Anne M. The Most Learned Woman in America: A Life of Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson , Pennsylvania State Univ Pr (November 24, 2003), ISBN-10: 0271023112, ISBN-13: 978-0271023113 (Available at Graeme Park Visitor...

Penrose-Strawbridge Ice Barn

Posted in Places, Points of Interest.

There are ruins of a small bank barn located on Governor Road right at the the entrance to what was Graeme Park and is now on the current Penrose-Strawbridge Farm. The structure, dating to about 1735, is surrounded on three sides by the hillside. The front of the building, facing Governor Road, is open. An earthen ramp leads to what would have been a second floor and is located on the back side opposite the side facing the road. There do not appear to be any windows or doors cut into the stone. This structure was used by the Penroses and Strawbridges as an ice house to store ice...

William and Hannah Penrose

Posted in People, Places.

William and Hannah Penrose William Penrose is the second generation of Penroses to own and farm Graeme Park. William Penrose, the third child and second son of Samuel and Sarah Penrose, was 19 when he moved with his parents from Richland Township to Graeme Park in 1801. His older brother, Abel, remained in Richland. His older sister, Gainor, would marry Richard Jarrett (son of Jonathan and Hannah (Mather) Jarrett) of Horsham. He married in 1810 at age 28 to Hannah Jarrett (daughter of William and Ann (Lukens) Jarrett), also of Horsham. William and Hannah moved into a new home – a large...

Horsham Road

Posted in Roads.

Horsham Road was laid out in 1735, from Montgomeryville to Norristown Road, along one of the parallels of Thomas Holme’s map. Holmes ran parallel lines northwestward from the Delaware River at intervals of one and one-half miles; each alternate line established a division line between townships. The intervening lines formed median or base lines within the townships, from which individual grants of land were measured. County Line forms the township border on the north and Welsh Road on the south. Horsham Road runs through the middle. Horsham Road was originally known as the Montgomery...

Welsh Road

Posted in Roads.

Welsh Road forms the southern border of Horsham Township and follows one of the parallels first laid out by Thomas Holme in his 1687 map of Pennsylvania. It is one of the earliest roads in the township. Many of the area’s earliest settlers were Welsh Quakers. A first wave arrived in 1683 and settled in Lower Merion, Radnor and Haverford Townships, followed a few years later by settlement of a second “Welsh Tract” in an area they called Gwynedd (Welsh for “white” or “fair land”), which today encompasses both Upper and Lower Gwynedd. Some Welsh property owners held parcels that...