This
township was named from New Garden in the county Carlow, Ireland. It was
included in the survey made in 1700 by Henry Hollingsworth, of 30,000 acres of
which 15,500 were patented to Letitia Penn, the sister of William Penn.
The remainder, or 14,500 acres, was patented to William Penn Jr., May 24, 1706, by the
commisioners of property, Edward Shippen, Griffin Owen and Thomas Story, andlike his sister's Tract, received the name of the Manor of Stenning.
The township of New Garden, as it was before looking a
corner to London Britain, was that part of the manor which lay north of
the circular line, and was, according to an early estimate, 8913 acres.
Before obtaining the patent, William Penn Jr. had already appointed
Griffith Owen, James Logan and Robert Ashton as his attorneys, he being about to
return to England. The land was not immediately taken by settlers, but
after a few years several families of Friends arrived from Ireland, and settled
there, giving the name of New Garden to their new home in remembrance of that
place in Ireland. The first sale of land was, perhaps, in 1708, to Mary
Rowland. In 1712, Gayen Miller bought 700 acres, and in 1713 conveyance of
land was granted to John Miller, James Lindley, John Lowden, James Starr,
Michael Lightfoot, William Halliday, Joseph Hutton, Abraham Marshall and Thomas
Jackson; and in 1714 to Thomas Garnett and Joseph Sharp. Some of these,
however, had been settled on the land for 1 or 2 years before getting their
titles. The whole amount purchased by the above named persons was 5,413
acres, at the price of 20£ per hundred, or according to modern computations, $1
per acre.