Note: Portions of this quotes records spelled in Old English. Spelling as recorded in the records.

The name in many records is listed as Cartlidge and then later in time changed to Cartledge.

This Edmund – Sr. – was born in 1649 in Derbyshire, England and died in Darby, Delaware County, Pennsylvania on February 26, 1703. On November 28, 1682 in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England, he married Mary Need (a descendant of Edward III). Mary was born December 12, 1645 in Arnold, Notts, England and died in ??? in Darby, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. See page on Edmunds burial spot for info about where he’s buried. It is assumed Mary is buried in the same place.

Much was written in An Old Philadelphia Land Title about the Cartledges: Land grants in Philadelphia list Edmund. He was a warrantee of land on the 4th Street lot. The lot of ground was warranted to “first purchasers.” There were lots here and they were fronted on Walnut Street. Edmund later assigned his lot to John Fisher. ( Click here to see deed. Note: This deed is for Edmund Jr as it is dated 1725 and Edmund Sr. died in 1703) The third Warrantee was of Riddings, Parish of Alfreton, County Derby, England. The warrant and survey issued to him for the lot adjoining (Robert) Holgate’s, is recorded on page 52 of Book B. About two months after the survey was made he sold the lot to John Fisher. Cartlidge was one of William Penn’s “first purchasers,” of 250 acres of land, by deed of lease and release, dated April 10 and 11, 1682. (The original documents in 1880 were in possession of Samuel G. Levis.) Edmund Cartlidge was married 11 mo. 28, 1682 at Friends’ Meeting, in Nottingham, to Mary Need, of Arnold Parish, Nottinghamshire, daughter of Nathaniel Need. (When Thomas Coates of Philadelphia made his return visit to England in 1694, Edmund Cartlidge sent by him a shilling each to his father-in-law Nathaniel Need, and his brother-in-law, Richard Smith, of Riddings, “To drink with him.”) Bringing a certificate of removal, issued to him, 12 Mo. 8, 1682, by the Quaker Monthly Meeting at Breathhouse, in 1683, and were received as members of Darby Monthly Meeting. By Warrant, signed by William Penn, at Philadelphia, 5 mo. 2, 1683, 150 acres of Cartlidge’s Purchase, were surveyed the 12th of the same month on Darby Creek, now Upper Darby Township, Delaware County, and there Edmund Cartlidge made his settlement. His acreage was Patented to him, 12 mo. 5, 1683. He served as Constable at Darby, 1685; as Supervisor in 1693; and as Viewer in 1698. Dr. George Smith, in his “History of Delaware County,” suggests that the opinion is perhaps universal, “that our ancestors, who came from the County of Deby in England, corrupted the spelling of the name of their former place of residence when they, in kind remembrance, adopted it for their home in America.” He points out that the corruption, if it be one, was effected in England before they migrated to America, and that “in the ‘New World of Words’ published in 1671, Darby and Darbyshire ar given, but not Derby nor Derbyshire; and in the certificates brought over by early Friends, it is almost universally spelled with a instead of e.” The settlers in the New World, probably spelled the name just as it was pronounced. Edmund Cartlidge died 2 mo. 26, 1703. His will, signed five days before, on the 21st, mentions his wife Mary and son John; his brother-in-law Joseph Need; also his daughter Mary; and sister Mary, wife of Richard Smith; and her children, Thomas, Richard and Matthew; and another sister Helen Black. His tombstone is now built into the wall of the Friends’ Graveyard, at Darby. It was unearthed about 1862, by John H. Andrews of Darby, while he was digging a grave in the burial ground. It had probably been sunk out of sight intentionally, because of its somewhat ornamental character, or because of the pertinacity with which Friends had insisted for many years, upon the removal of all grave stones, as a protest against the vainglory and extravagance of monuments to the dead. If such views were generally accepted, monuments to the dead might be restricted (or even prohibited by law in these days of prohibition) and vast sums, now held in trust for the preservation of cemeteries, could be released for better uses. Edmund Cartlidge often served on juries in the early days of the Province, and his name recurs in the “Record of the Courts of Chester County, 1681-97” Some of the cases he sat on are quaint pictures of the times. In 1686, he tried Edward Hulbert, tailor, “for stealing severall goods and merchandize out of the house of Jeremy Collett.” The prisoner “was Arreigned and Pleads nott Guilty,” and “refers himselfe to God and ye Country,” The old docket recites that after hearing the evidence: “The Petty Jury returne their Verkickte and finds the Prisoner not guilty of the Indickment butt guilty of Suspicious circumstances in relation to the Indickment,” and he was thereupon “Bound to appear att the next Court.” How the Jury held Hulbert, after acquitting him, is hard to understand.

Edmund Cartlidge continued his activities in the Indian trade, chiefly with the redmen of the Trans-Allegheny region, his peltry in 1731 approaching £ 600. In 1732 he was employed in negotiations with these Indians for the Indians for the Province of Pennsylvania.

About that time he established himself in his final home, on a grant of land from Lord Baltimore, westward of the South Mountains, near Antietam Creek and the Philadelphia Wagon Road, then in Prince George County, now Washington County, Near Hagertown Maryland. He is stated to have had “considerable influence in those parts.”

“Cartlidge Path” and “Edumnd’s Swamp” (now Bucktown, Somerset County, Pennsylvania) named for him, are notable landmarks in Pennsylvania colonial cartography.

Seventeenth Century Colonial Ancestors, Vol. I lists:
Cartledge, Edmund ()1639-1703) Pa; m. Mary Need. Landowner

Edmund came to America from “Ridings in ye County of Darby” per Names of Early Settlers of Darby Township, Chester County, Pennsylavania. He was a Quaker in religion and came to America in 1683. Passengers and Ships Prior to 1684 explains: Among the settlers who must have been passengers in 1683 ships, some thirty are known to have brought certificates of removal (Note: a certificate of removal is a kind of church record which indicated removal to or arrival from another congregation. Most churches kept records of this type so that faithful members would be welcomed into the church when they moved to a new location. The Society of Friends (Quakers) called the certificates of removal.) which were entered in the records of various monthly meetings in Pennsylvania. In the following list of these emigrants, their names have been group chronologically together under the dates on which the certificates were granted, since such certificates were usually given just before the individual sailed. As the voyage across the Atlantic averaged between eight and ten weeks, an approximate date of arrival can be established from the dates on the certificates 12m (February) 1682(/3) entered in Darby Monthly Meeting records: Edmund Cartlidge (this would be Edmund Sr.) and wife (Mary), from Riddings, Derbyshire, “Breath House” Monthly Meeting. A. F. P. of 250 acres, he was granted a warrant for a city lot 2 5m (July) 1683 Note: the reference for this is the Digest of a List of the Births, Marriages, Removals and Burials Recorded in the Books of the Darby Monthly Meeting of Friends, 1682-1891