History
Lower Makefield Township
An Abridged History
The Lenape, or Delaware Indians, are the Indigenous people who inhabited the land now called Bucks County, Pennsylvania, prior to European settlers.
After being granted a large piece of land by King Charles II, William Penn arrived in 1682 and named the land Bucks County after his home, Buckinghamshire, England. Penn signed the Treaty at Shackamaxon with Tamanend of the Lenape in 1682.
Lower Makefield Township was established in 1692 when Makefield, one of Bucks County’s five original townships, was divided into Lower and Upper Makefield.
The township remained rural into the 20th century. Today, Lower Makefield Township is home to 33,000 individuals.
Resources
A Timeline of Bucks County History: https://www.mercermuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/A-Timeline-of-Bucks-County-History-1600s-1900s-rev-8-14-13.pdf
The Lenape: https://www.buckscounty.gov/1564/The-Lenape
About Bucks County: https://www.buckscounty.gov/733/About-Bucks-County
Lower Makefield Population and Census Data: https://www.lmt.org/information/about-us/population-census-data/
The Original People and Their Land: The Lenape, Pre-History to the 18th Century: https://collaborativehistory.gse.upenn.edu/stories/original-people-and-their-land-lenape-pre-history-18th-century
Image: The Landing of William Penn, Thomas Birch, 1850