NINTH GENERATION
264. Nicholas WALN was born in 1650 on the farmstead of Burholme, parish of Slaidburn, district of Bolland, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. He died in 1721 in N Liberties, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Some accounts suggest that Nicholas came to America on the ship "Welcome" with William Penn in 1682. It appears though, that all those who left Bolland and who attended the Settle monthly meeting left on the Lamb.
Nicholas Waln, with his wife Jane and his children Elizabeth, Nicholas, and William (91-95), was one of the seven listed in the Settle certificate. The Liverpool port book for 1682 records that he put a lot of merchandise on the LAMB. The family went at once to Bucks County, where Nicholas had bought 1000 acres of land. He was the only one of that Yorkshire group who did not remain a farmer; he was on the assembly and was active in politics and religious work. He moved into Philadelphia..
Member of Provincial Assembly for Bucks County 1682/3, 1687, 1688, 1689, 1692, 1695, and for Philadelphia County 1696, 1697, 1700, 1701, 1713, 1715, and 1717. Died at Waln Grove, Philadelphia
'It is a prevailing and general mistake to suppose that the primitive emigrants made their way direct to Philadelphia. Such a place was not known before their departure from England. Therefore, those who arrived first and did not purpose to locate as farmers in the country had to wait the choice of a site and a survey.' Annals of Philadelphia...John F Watson, 1857, Vol 1, p. 13.
They were members of Settle Monthly Meeting of Friends in Yorkshire, which meeting, on June 7, 1682, issued a certificate of removal to Pennsylvania, for Nicholas Waln and his family, jointly with a number of other families all or nearly all more or less related to them, including the Hayhursts, Walmsleys, Wiggelsworths, Cowgills, Stackhouses and Croadales, all of whom accompanied the great founder of Pennsylvania in the "Welcome", on his first visit to his Province, and settled in his county of Bucks, where they and their descendants were the most prominent residents for many generations, some even to the present day. Nicholas Waln had purchased, before his departure from England, of William Penn, one thousand acres of land to be laid out in Pennsylvania. Five hundred acres of this land was laid out to him on the Neshaminy creek in Bucks county, on which he resided until 1696, when he removed to the Northern Liberties of Philadelphia, where he built "Waln Grove" one of the finest colonial mansions of Philadelphia, which still stands near the Frankford station of the Pennsylvania Railroad and where he resided until his death in 1721. He was the undoubted leader of the important colony of Friends who were practically the first settlers in Bucks county, and their representative in all that pertained to their relations with the proprietor and his government. The earliest meetings of the Friends were held at his house, prior to the erection of Middletown Meeting House, and he was the most prominent figure in their councils during his residence in Bucks, and held a like prominence in Philadelphia Monthly Meeting after his removal within their bounds, where he was also a large landholder.
Nicholas Waln was a representative in the first Provincial Assembly of Pennsylvania, which met in Philadelphia, March 12 1682-83, and represented Bucks county in the same body in 1687-88-89-92-95; was a member of its first grand jury; sheriff of Bucks county, May 4, 1685, to May 4, 1686, and prominently associated with the administration of its affairs in various other capacities. On his removal to Philadelphia in 1696, he retained his seat in the Assembly, for that year; was elected the following year; was again returned in 1700-01-12-13-14-15-17. He was also one of the directors of the public school of Philadelphia in 1711. He was a minister of the Society of Friends and travelled much in "the service of Truth" not only in Pennsylvania and New Jersey but in Maryland, Virginia and New England.
He was married to Jane TURNER in 1673 in Slainmerow, Slaidburn, England.
Children were:
i. Jane WALN was born in 1675 in , England.
