Pennsylvania Colonial Records

History
The first European settlement in Pennsylvania was a Dutch settlement built in 1623 along the Delaware Bay. Virginians built a fort near the Schuylkill River in 1634, and the Swedes built a colony in 1643 on Tincum Island (it was taken over by the Dutch in 1655 and the British in 1664). In 1681 William Penn was granted proprietary rights, and English Quakers arrived the following year. As settlements grew, France claimed land in western Pennsylvania, and many British and French forts and settlements were besieged or destroyed during the French and Indian War prior to its end in 1763. Pennsylvania was one of the original thirteen colonies of the United States.