Pencoyd (Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania)

Pencoyd (Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania) was a historic house (built c.1684-90, demolished 1964) and farm in Bala Cynwyd, Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Located along the north side of what is now City Avenue, the farm originally stretched from the Schuylkill River to Conshohocken State Road (PA Route 23). Settled by John Roberts in 1683, his descendants owned the property for 280 years.

Welsh Quakers faced religious discrimination and harassment in their native land. A group of Welsh Quaker businessmen met with William Penn in London in late 1681, and secured a tract of 40,000 acres (62 square miles, 160.6 square kilometers) in his new colony of Pennsylvania. The Welsh Tract was to be contiguous and stretch northwestward along the Schuylkill River from the outskirts of Philadelphia to Valley Forge. The understanding of the businessmen was that the Welsh Tract would be a separate county that they would control, and in which business would be conducted in their native language. The tract's boundaries significantly changed in Thomas Holme's 1687 survey, with two large riverfront estates for Penn's children carved out of it, along with properties that Penn granted to his creditors. In addition to the intrusions by non-Welsh landowners, Thomas Holme's 1687 survey placed most of the Welsh Tract in Philadelphia County, with a significant section in Chester County and miles from the Schuylkill River.

John Roberts, maltster, emigrated from Llanengan in North Wales. He joined a syndicate of Quaker families, the Edward Jones Company, that purchased 5,000 acres at the southeast corner of the Welsh Tract, prior to sailing to America. On November 16, 1683, he arrived at Philadelphia aboard the Morning Star, with a servant, and possibly his siblings Richard and Anne. On March 20, 1684, he married fellow passenger Gainor ap Robert, daughter of another member of the syndicate. Two of their four children, Robert and Elizabeth, lived to adulthood. His original parcel of land seems to have been 100 acres, with the additional 50 acres extending it to the river the gift of his bride's family. The combined 150-acre (60.7 hectare) parcel was the one closest to Philadelphia—a rectangle that ran about a mile west from the river along the Blockley Township line, then north a quarter mile, then east to the river, then south to the starting place. Downstream of the parcel, at the Falls of Schuylkill was Netopcum, a Native American seasonal settlement where Lenni Lenape came in spring to fish. Family tradition holds that he began building the stone house on his property in 1684, although scholars date its earliest portion to c.1690. Roberts and his servant cleared the wooded land to plant barley, for making malt. He named the property "Pencoid" – Welsh for "head of the woods."

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