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Folcroft
History
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The property of Folcroft was originally part of a 350 acre land
grant given to Obadiah Bonsall by William Penn. Bonsall rented the property
to Thomas Tatnall in 1725. Then him and his wife bought the property.
Tatnall added 150 acres to the property, but eventually he died and left the
property to Elizabeth, his only child. She married John Knowles and he
inherited the property when she died around 1775. Knowles kept adding to the
property and it was over 650 acres by 1776. He was the largest land owner in
the area back then. In 1778, Knowles died and his will said that his three
children, James, John & Hannah, take the land he owned in Berks County. In
1783, when the American Revolution was over, the three children divided the
estate. Hannah got 160 acres and married Joseph Shallcross. In 1788, they
built the house called Poplar Hall at Shallcross Avenue in what is today
Folcroft.
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