Southwestern Pennsylvania had been occupied by Indians, primarily Shawnee, Delaware and Mingo. Virginia laid claim to this territory granted by King James in 1609. Charles II included it in his grant to William Penn in 1681. The territorial dispute was not settled until 1779.
The first settlers in Southwestern Pennsylvania were Virginians and Marylanders, entered the region by way of Braddock's Road, securing land under Virginia titles. They were mostly English, though some were Scots-Irish and German, settling near the forts. The Proclamation of 1763 forbade settlement west of the Allegheny mountains because of trouble with the Indians.
At the end of the French and Indian War a vast new section of provincial land was opened for legal settlement. Purchased from the Indians in 1768, the region was called the New Purchase or the Purchase of 1768. At first, the region was divided into two counties: Bedford and Northumberland. Settlement moved westward so rapidly, however, that the county of Westmorland was soon formed from the western portion of Bedford County.
Settlers anxious to move into the area west of the Laurel Mountains and south of the Ohio river, found it easer to settle under Virginia rights. In 1779, Pennsylvania reached an agreement with Virginia to settle the jurisdiction dispute and determine the boundary line between the two states. Virginia authorities offered certificates to persons who had settled under Virginia rights. Settlers north of the new boundary line holding Virginia certificates were eligible for Pennsylvania warrants.
A large number of Scots-Irish came into Southwestern Pennsylvania from the Cumberland Valley, as well as from Ulster, with the opening of the land office in the New Purchase in 1769. Nearly all Presbyterians, they "came with there Bibles, their Confession of Faith, their catechisms, and their rifles," as was their custom. Their religious training instinctively drew them into groups for the worship of God on the Sabbath, that they might find Divine comfort and guidance in the dangers and hardships which in this new country were very real.
