John Evans

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"And this is the good authority for John ap John, the
first minister among Welsh Friends, having been the Father
of the "Welsh Tract" in Pennsylvania, and of the variously
called Merion, Haverford, or Radnor Monthly Tweeting, in
it, and it was natural that he should head the committee of Welsh Friends who first interviev/ed Penn about buying some of his land in America, and removing thither, and as
this was but shortly after he had entered into possession,
it is possible that John was in Penn's confidence, and had
the earliest information of the consummation of his bargain with the Kjng, and suggested to the Welsh to secure the best
lands.'
(snip)
There were others, among them Edward Prichard, William Jenkins, and John Burge, who went to talk with Penn
about the same time, but the list aforesaid includes the
leaders in the movement for Pennsylvania land (although
there is evidence that John Roberts and Robert Owen, who
came over to Pesylvania, were also present) , and who had
the interview with Penn, in London, in March, 1681, of which, unfortunately for the Welsh, no written report was kept, and was, as will be explained, the cause of a serious misunderstanding subsequently.

Of these gentlemen, the three "practitioners in physics," and Messrs. Bevan, Roberts, Ellis and Owen, removed to Pennsylvania and aided in settling the Welsh people on the lands purchased from them. What Penn particularly promised these gentlemen, if they would induce the members of their Monthly Meetings
to buy his land, and settle upon it, other than its fine quality, and his liberal guarantee of freedom from certain annoyances they had to put up with in Wales, was shortly, and
is yet, partly a matter of conjecture and surmise as to its details and particulars, for Penn's promises to them were
only verbally made. But these certain great expectations, with which these Welsh gentlemen claimed Penn had lured them to America, had vouching only by slender circumstantial evidence, and hearsay, his English lieutenants and alleged friends in Philadelphia held. Nevertheless, the Welshmen averred, and stuck to it, though little good it did them,
as we shall see, that Penn's encouragement was, in part, they should have their whole purchase, the "Welsh Tract,"
as a "Barony," or State, as it were, within his Province, "within which all causes, quarrels, crimes and dispetes might
be tried and wholly determined by officers, magistrates, and
juries of our language."
However, this committee having engaged to take and try
to dispose of by sale to the other Welsh Friends, 40,000, or more acres, of Penn's land, returned to their several Monthly Meetings, and reported, and published Penn's "Articles
of Conditions and Concessions" concerning his Province, to which they had subscribed before leaving London,—ideas of settlement he had re-written from the "Articles of Freedom
and Exemption" compiled by the Dutch West India Company for a like purpose. So alluring' were their statements, based on Penn's promises, fresh in their recollections, they had no trouble in getting Friends to subscribe immediately,
till their sales, and the lands they themselves would take, amounted to 30,000 acres, and thus it was that these well known, reliable gentlemen, in six Welsh counties, became
the first Pennsylvania real estate agents.
The men who interviewed Penn, and those concerned with
them, were nearly all of the highest social caste of the landed gentry of Wales, as has been frequently proved in recent years on investigation, for it is well known that in Wales the upper class readily embraced Quakerism, through the teachings of John ap John, one of themselves, while in England the gentry did not, as there converts were confined entirely to the "plain people"—the small lease-holding, the yeomandry, farmers, tradesmen, and shopkeepers,—and this fact has occasioned the astonishment that William Penn, an aristocrat by birth and association, against the wishes
of his family, became a Quaker. So it may be understood
that the committee of Welsh Friends were equals and peers
of Penn, and for this reason he may have readily agreed to any propositions they made, though afterwards he certainly was most jealous of concessions.
Surely, he must have been pleased to have the Welsh gentry head his list of grantees, and promise to remove their families to their purchases, for it would have a good effect on his sales, especially when it became known that the best
class of the Welsh were going, carrying refinement and education into his Province, for his was a tremendous proposition to undertake single-handed, and the countenance of his scheme by gentry was a great help to him.