HistoricSiteMarkers
Colonial AmericaAmerican Revolution

St. David's Church

Radnor Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania

Marker Inscription

Erected 1715 by Welsh Episcopalians, renovated 1871. Commemorated by Longfellow's poem. Final burial place of Gen. Anthony Wayne, whose remains were brought from Erie in 1809.

Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission

The Story

Built in 1715 by Welsh Episcopalians who had come to Penn's colony in search of land and religious freedom, St. David's Church became one of the enduring landmarks of Pennsylvania's "Welsh Tract." Its weathered stones and quiet churchyard so moved Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that he immortalized the place in verse. The churchyard is also the final resting place of General "Mad" Anthony Wayne, the fiery Revolutionary War commander whose remains were carried here from Erie in 1809, years after his death.

Why it matters

St. David's binds together Welsh immigration, colonial religious life, Revolutionary War memory, and American literature in a single country churchyard, showing how one modest site can hold many layers of the national story.

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Related people

  • · Anthony Wayne
  • · Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Themes & tags

ImmigrationAmerican RevolutionChurch

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Radnor Meeting House

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In 1711, Welsh families who had crossed the Atlantic seeking room to worship freely gathered in the fertile Chester County countryside known as the Great Valley and organized a Baptist congregation. It became the second oldest Baptist church in Pennsylvania and, over time, the "mother" from which eight neighboring congregations grew. The present stone meetinghouse, the second on the site, was raised in 1805.

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