GRUMBLES FROM THE PAST
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Notes for Evan Prydderch
EVAN PROTHRO, Gentleman, 1650-1709
Beginning the history with Evan and wife Elizabeth and two sons who came to America in 1683, from West South Wales, and settled in Pennsylvania, they had bought 500 acres of land in order to have a place to call home when they should arrive. They landed at Newcastle and went overland to Radnor, near Philadelphia. There they settled and lived peacefully many years. The families holding together planted and cultivated hemp and flax. These "related families" being Prothro, Morgan, Lewis, Phillips, etc., "descendants of one common ancestor, Cadivor the Great Lord of Blancuck". Evan had suffered persecutions in Wales and as late as 1670 had been taxed one-tenth the value of his household goods, amounting to 8 pounds and 10 shillings. Unjust taxation and surplus tithing were the factors that drove so many Welsh from their native land. Evan did not like social life in Radnor and is said to have been "persuaded" to attend the wedding of a good friend, Lewis Walker. Evan had little toleration for the laxity of Quaker dignity and had to correct his boys on several occasions.
The title of GENTLEMAN was, in Wales, a rank just below that of Duke or Lord -- a person of education as well as good breeding.
In Radnor, wonderful peace lasted nineteen years, according to Ridpath, and until the secession of Delaware in 1702. In this year a border line was surveyed between Delaware and Pennsylvania and the Quakers found themselves out of Pennsylvania and into Delaware and under a new and different government. What would William Penn do about this? They had paid taxes in Pennsylvania for many years since they arrived. Would this affect the title of their lands? Along with the land trouble came the alarming news that an epidemic of yellow fever was sweeping the country. Many families quickly packed and moved to South Carolina. Some stayed: and the epidemic passed them by for seven years.
But in 1709 Evan and Elizabeth lost their youngest son, Lewis and in December of that same year they too became victims of the fever, dying four days apart.
{From: The Prothro History
Genealogy 1089-1960
[as compiled by Mrs. Pearl Pumphrey of Gibsland, Louisiana]
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