Concord Township was established in June of 1683 by the 24 ‘first purchasers’ of land in the township. There were three tracts of land of 500 acres, and the rest were 300 or 100 acres. Originally, William Penn wanted land to be purchased in 1000 acre tracts but that proved too large a purchase for those who were interested in moving to Penn’s Colony, so he reduced the size to 500 acres and less.
Concord is unique in that it followed the ideal plan that Penn wanted: a square with rectangular tracts, and streets laid out north/south and east/west. Today remnants of those early planned roads can be seen in the last stretch of Thornton Road as it enters Thornbury Township, named Concord Street, and the last bit of Cheyney Road as it meets Concord Road, named Cross Street.
This early map was originally a survey by Charles Ashcom in 1683, and later copied by Isaac Taylor in 1703. Taylor was a prolific surveyor for Chester County, under Thomas Holme, Chief Surveyor for Penn, who designed the plan for Philadelphia. The Taylor family donated all the papers from Isaac Taylor and his son to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, which is where this copy was obtained.