Tredyffrin Township’s Baptist Church in the Great Valley (BCGV), founded in 1711 by Welsh immigrants, was featured on the August 1st tour of the Chester County Planning Commission’s thirtieth annual free summer series, Town Tours & Village Walks.
In addition to touring BCGV’s 1805 Meeting House, over 150 guests visited the graves and listened to the stories of four prominent members:
- Rev. David Jones (d. 1820), chaplain, patriot, and occasional courier for Gen. Anthony Wayne and a narrow escapee from the Paoli Massacre.
- Rev. Leonard Fletcher (d. 1859), leader of the anti-slavery Wilberforce Society in Chester County. His advocacy of abolition split in the church and led to the loss of his pastorate.
- Phillis Burr (d. 1872), one of two hundred Africans rescued from slavery in 1800 when the U. S. warship Ganges encountered two American vessels carrying slaves to Havana. The vessels were diverted to Philadelphia and their unwilling passengers freed.
- Rachel Cleaver, a laywoman, who, with her husband Isaac and five others, left the church in 1821 to become a medical missionary team to the Cherokee in Tennessee.
The Town Tours event was co-sponsored by the Tredyffrin Township Historical Commission, an advisory body to the township supervisors, which functions to build awareness of local historical structures and encourages their preservation.
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