Timothy Matlack
Lower Providence Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Revolutionary patriot, state official, and member of Continental Congress, 1780-81. Colonel of a rifle battalion, Philadelphia Associators, 1775-76; served in Battle of Princeton. A founder, Society of Free (or "Fighting") Quakers, 1781. Member, Constitutional Convention of Pennsylvania, 1776; secretary of its Supreme Executive Council, 1777-82; and Master of the Rolls, 1800-09. Died April 14, 1829; he was buried in Philadelphia and reinterred near here in 1905.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Timothy Matlack was a firebrand of the Revolution who helped shape Pennsylvania's new government while taking up arms for independence. He sat in the Continental Congress, served as a colonel of Philadelphia Associators at the Battle of Princeton, and helped found the Society of Free (or "Fighting") Quakers for those expelled from the pacifist Meeting for supporting the war. Long a fixture of Pennsylvania's revolutionary government, he was reinterred near this spot in 1905, decades after his death.
Why it matters
His life captures the wrenching choice faced by Quakers who set aside a tradition of pacifism to fight for American independence.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Timothy Matlack
Related events
- · Battle of Princeton
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Horse-Shoe Trail Eastern Terminus
Upper Merion Township, PA
The Horse-Shoe Trail was blazed in 1935 as a bridle-and-hiking path linking the hallowed ground of Valley Forge — where Washington's Continental Army endured the brutal winter of 1777–78 — to the Appalachian Trail on Stony Mountain, winding 121 miles through the rolling farmland and wooded ridges of southeastern Pennsylvania. This granite marker, set in 1972 by the Horse-Shoe Trail Club, honors Henry M. Woolman, one of the volunteers whose vision knit together a footpath still walked today. Trails like this one grew out of the early-twentieth-century outdoor movement, when clubs of enthusiasts carved recreational corridors across the American landscape.
Village of Valley Forge
Schuylkill Township, PA · est. 1960
Before it became hallowed ground, Valley Forge was a working village that grew up around an iron forge started in 1742. When the British marched through in 1777, they burned the forge and part of the town. That winter of 1777–78, George Washington made his headquarters in Isaac Potts' house here while the Continental Army endured its legendary encampment nearby.
Village of Valley Forge
Schuylkill Township, PA · est. 1960
The famous winter camp at Valley Forge takes its name from a real working community that began around an iron forge built in 1742. British troops torched the forge and part of the village in 1777. During the encampment of 1777–78, George Washington quartered in Isaac Potts' house, a surviving piece of that original settlement.
Anderson Family Burial Ground
Schuylkill Township, PA
This burial ground holds the Anderson family and was dedicated by Isaac Anderson, who served as a first lieutenant in the Chester County militia during the Revolution in 1779 and later represented Pennsylvania in Congress from 1805 to 1807. His life traced the arc from citizen-soldier of the Revolution to lawmaker of the early Republic.