Exploring Westtown’s Quaker Roots

On September 20, Joseph Daniels, Chair of Westtown’s History and Religion Department, offered a presentation on the history of Westtown School and Westtown Township’s Quaker tradition. With support from School Archivist Sara Mullen, Daniels traced the story from the Lenape roots of the land and the arrival of Quakers, to the founding of Westtown School as a boarding school envisioned by Philadelphia Friends in the late 18th century, to the present day.

Highlights included the story of John Dickinson—known as the “Penman of the Revolution”—who advocated for the creation of a Quaker school, and the history of James Gibbons, who received the land as a wedding gift in 1708 and whose descendants sold it to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in 1795 for the new school. Daniels explored how Quaker ideals of “useful and practical” education shaped the student experience, how the township and school influenced one another across the 1800s and 1900s, and how these traditions continue to inform Westtown today.

The presentation was warmly received by an enthusiastic audience, offering a window into the connection between community, land, and Quaker education.