WELSH TRACK
PENCADER HUNDRED
1701
The 30,000 acre Welsh
Tract, southwest of Newark, three quarters of it in New
Castle county Delaware
and a quarter of it in Cecil county Maryland, was purchased from
William Penn by Baptist
settlers from Wales.
Within it's boundaries are
two notable features , Iron Hill, a large hill rising out
of the coastal plain which
surrounds it, and, the Welsh Tract Baptist church, that sits at
the
foot of the hill. The
church was erected in 1746 as the successor of the first Baptist
church
in Delaware, a log
structure built in 1706. The congregation, Primitive Baptist,
organize
in Wales in 1701 and
emigrated to America. In 1703 they purchased the Welsh Tract.
Iron ore was found in the
area of Iron Hill which was one thing that attracted the
Welsh to this section.
Both the church and Iron Hill are in Pencader Hundred, New Castle
county, pencader having a
Welsh meaning, “highest place”.
The Welsh Tract Baptist
Church is simple in line, one story in height, having a
hipped roof. The church
is built of brick, laid in Flemish bond, the bricks imported
from England to New Castle
, brought to Iron Hill in large baskets, panniers, on the backs
of mules. An iron plate
at the top of the front wall gives the date, 1746. The church yard
has a whitewashed stone
wall built anytime from 1827 on, shaded by huge old oaks
growing inside the wall, a
grassy lawn slopes down to Christina Creek.
Across the road are
the carriage sheds and the caretakers stone house.
Some of the early 18th
century grave stones are rough hewn from brown stone, Celtic
words crudely lettered on
them, showing marks of a chipping tool.
On one wall has a 'patch'
where a cannon ball hit the building during the Battle of
Cooches Bridge, in the
Revolution.
Abstract:; Delaware, A
Guide to the First State, published in 1938 by the
Federal Writers Project
of the WPA. Robert L. Melson. By Harrison H
May 29, 2018.
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