Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Robert WILLIAMS
HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PA. 1881 J. Smith Futhey & Gilbert Cope.
Robert William, of Merion, widower, was married at the house of Hugh
Roberts, 4.19, 1691 to Gwen Cadwalader. About the year 1700 they were settled in Goshen, probably on land then of Griffith Owen, at or near the present
Goshen Friends' Meeting. He was sometimes called the King of Goshen, and it is claimed that he was the first settler in the township. Tradition says
their first residence was a cave, and that on occasion, when their hearth-fire
went out, he had to go seven miles to get it renewed. Goshen Meeting was held
first, it is believed, at his house, though the record says at the house of
Griffith Owen, but the latter doubtless lived in Philadelphia. In 1715 they
lived in Uwchlan township, and in that year conveyed the Goshen homestead
to their son Ellis. Though he had considerable land in Goshen, he appears to
have been in straitened circumstances, so that in 1702 Friends of Haverford
contributed £19 9d.8s. to him to build a new house, he having received
Friends "kindly and openhearted," and keeping the meeting in his house.
In 1710, Edward Roberts complained of him for debt, and the meeting advised
him to sell some of his land to pay for it, and even appointed persons to
assist him in doing it. He died in 1734, at the age of eighty-seven years.
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