The land that eventually became Easttown Township was once part of the
Welsh Tract, a large expanse of land promised by
William Penn to a group of
Welsh Quaker settlers in which they would be able to speak and conduct business in the
Welsh language. Whilst the autonomous entity envisaged by some was never formed, it left its mark in the many Welsh place names that still exist, such as the
census-designated place (CDP)
Berwyn in Easttown and adjacent
Tredyffrin Township. The township is believed to have been incorporated in 1704 since that is the earliest date it has been found to be referred to in official records. However, a delineated community of that name appears in
Thomas Holme's c. 1687 map. Whilst the originators of the Welsh Tract were Quakers, the earliest settlers in the portion that became Easttown Township were mostly
Anglicans.
St. David's Episcopal Church, just past the eastern edge of the township, was constructed in 1715 by Welsh Anglicans when the original church sent them a minister. Revolutionary War leader
Anthony Wayne was born and lived in
Waynesborough house, in the western part of the township. He—or at least part of him—is buried at St. David's. A
Revolutionary War skirmish that occurred along a ridge in the center of the township was the only engagement of that war in the township. The name of the British commander,
Banastre Tarleton, was later given to a nearby mansion: Tarleton. Two sites in the township are listed on the
National Register of Historic Places:
Waynesborough and
Roughwood. The cluster of buildings that forms the village of Leopard, identified as a 'Significant Historic Cluster' in the Chester County Historic Sites Survey (1979–1982), is eligible for listing as well. In addition, the
Waterloo Mills Historic District has been designated. Although
St. David's Church is just over the line in Newtown Township, the church building and its graveyard (most of which is in Easttown) are listed together in the National Register. Easttown, along with neighboring
Tredyffrin Township, was the site of the
Berwyn School Fight, a boycott and legal campaign by local Black families to resist attempts to segregate public schools by race. Easttown Township is said to have the most-litigated zoning law in Pennsylvania, largely as a result of its efforts to avoid being swallowed up by the expansion of the suburbs of
Philadelphia. At least two major cases about minimum lot size were handed down by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court: the landmark case
Bilbar Construction in 1958 upheld the township's minimum lot sizes, while
National Land and Investment Co. struck them down as 'exclusionary' seven years later.
National Land further held that a municipality may utilize zoning measures that are substantially related to the protection and preservation of the municipality's proper interest in providing for the general welfare of its residents, but Easttown's zoning did not pass the test. Ironically, despite the developer-litigants' claimed interest in allowing poor people to live in Easttown, they built only houses that sold at well over the average value in Pennsylvania. ==Geography==