Bust of Lenape Chief Tamanend from the USS Delaware (Credit: Public domain)
Centuries before New Britain Township became a Bucks County suburb, it was once envisioned as the site of a vast English-style manor.
According to a recent column by Carl LaVO, in 1682, a group of wealthy Quaker merchants in London –calling themselves the Free Society of Traders – secured 20,000 acres from William Penn, intending to establish a feudal-style estate with lords and vassals.
Their “fiefdom” plan never took root, but the tract went on to shape the region’s early settlement.
The Lenape, led by Chief Tamanend, lived on the land well into the 1700s, and later Welsh families — including the Boones, whose son Daniel would become a famed frontiersman — settled in the area. This was a result of the London investors subdividing and selling off parcels, bringing in Welsh settlers.
Over time, New Britain’s boundaries shrank as nearby townships formed, though the community kept its identity through landmarks like Lake Galena and the Pine Valley Covered Bridge. Surrounding townships like Hilltown, Warrington, and Plumstead carved away at its boundaries, while the creation of Doylestown Township in 1819 consumed a third of its territory, according to the column.
Today, the township’s history lives on in both its landscapes and the legacy of Tamanend, once celebrated as the “Patron Saint of America” for his friendship with Penn.
