AREA HISTORY:  The Township of Newberry, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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THE TOWNSHIP OF NEWBERRY – Page 623

In 1717, one year before the death of William Penn, Sir William Keith, then a 
distinguished Scottish nobleman, became lieutenant-governor of the Province of 
Pennsylvania.  Soon after this event, and before a complete title to lands west of 
the Susquehanna had been obtained from the Indians, a tract of land in the northern 
part of the present area of York County was designated as “Keith’s tract, called 
Newberry.”  June 15, 1722, Gov. Keith met the chiefs of three tribes of Indians – 
the Conestogoes, the Shawanese and the Ganaways – a few miles below the site of 
Columbia, and formed a treaty with them.  A few days afterward he directed the 
survey of Springetsbury Manor, which included the territory now around York.  Gov. 
Keith, in his letter of instructions to the surveyors, directs that the northern 
limit of the manor shall be the southern boundary of his settlement, called 
Newberry, which seems to have been in the present territory of Manchester Township.  
June 23, 1722, he wrote a letter here, which was carried by a messenger to the 
governor of Maryland.  It related to the troubles and conflicts likely to arise 
concerning the settlement of lands west of the Susquehanna, now embraced within the 
county of York.  This letter was written at “Newberry.”  He closed it as follows:  
“My fatigue in the woods has brought a small fever upon me. Which an ounce of bark 
has pretty much abated, so that to-morrow I shall return home by slow journeys, 
directly to Philadelphia, where I should rejoice to see you.”  The exact location of 
the Newberry Settlement can not be definitely stated.  It is quite evident, however, 
that the first authorized settlements, within the present limits of York County, 
must have been made by adventurers, who were on peaceful terms with the Indians, and 
located on Keith’s tract with some kind of permits to locate land for permanent 
occupancy.