 |
|
|
Welcome to Charlestown Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Our township is about 25 miles west
of Philadelphia and very close to Valley Forge National Historical Park. It is rich in the history of
Pennsylvania. The township is about 12.515 square miles (8,010 acres) in area.
Our Purpose is to supply the most comprehensive information available on our township in an online format.
The name, Charlestown, honors Charles Pickering, the friend to whom William Penn granted 5,383
acres along the creek where Pickering and his friend John Tinker, believed (mistakenly) that they had
found silver. The two men dug a cave into the side of “Tinker Hill,” thus creating the first non-Indian
residence in the township. Drowned on a voyage back to England before 1700, Pickering willed his land
to sixteen friends. The acreage was combined with that of John Grey and of Penn’s sister, Margaret Lawther,
to become Charlestown Township in the first official survey of 1738. This included both Schuylkill Township
and the Borough of Phoenixville, areas removed from Charlestown before 1850. |
|
| |
|
|
