# Lower Nazareth Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania in the 1770s

> A German-speaking farming and church landscape, pulled into war while Moravian Nazareth remained tightly governed by its congregation.

- Place: Lower Nazareth Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania (40.753, -75.307)
- Years: 1770 to 1779
- Known then as: The Drylands around Nazareth
- Page: https://yorehistory.com/place/lower-nazareth-township-northampton-county-pennsylvania/1770s
- Step into it (interactive): https://yorehistory.com/?step=Lower%20Nazareth%20Township%2C%20Northampton%20County%2C%20Pennsylvania%2C%20United%20States&at=40.7530,-75.3070&year=1775

## Looking around

You stand in the Drylands, not yet the separate Lower Nazareth Township: a broad part of old Northampton County[1] where the later township will not be incorporated until after this decade. Around you are rich eastern Pennsylvania farmland[2] on ground remembered locally as once “barren.” To the west and north lie Moravian Nazareth’s planned places: New Nazareth, laid out in 1771[5], with Center and Main Streets meeting at a square[5]. The older stone and log Moravian buildings remain part of the settlement: Whitefield House and Gray Cottage[6] stand from the 1740s, and Nazareth Hall[4][5] rises from the 1755 manor house. Nearby religious life is not only Moravian: at Hecktown, the Dryland Union Church has existed since 1763[7]. Beyond the village, the county world is one of grain, horses, cattle, sheep, gristmills, and sawmills[3], watched by elected township officers and disturbed by militia notices.

## Work: Grain and useful trades

The surrounding county economy was no wilderness subsistence: the 1774 grain crop was counted in Conestoga-wagon loads, and mills, horses, cattle, and sheep filled the tax summaries[3]. In New Nazareth, Moravian members bought land and opened businesses[5] after the communal economy ended.

## Faith: Churches ruled the calendar

This was a mixed Protestant countryside: Reformed and Lutheran congregations greatly outnumbered other churches in Northampton County[3]. Locally, Dryland Union Church joined Lutheran and Reformed worship at Hecktown from 1763[7], while Moravian Nazareth remained tightly ordered.

## Law & power: Constables, courts, congregation

Civil power reached the countryside through township officers: the constable served warrants, ran township elections, and policed Sunday tavern drinking[3]. In Moravian Nazareth, the congregation supervised religious, social, and economic affairs[5] more closely than an ordinary township.

## In the air: Revolution came as argument

Politics was not distant: after Lexington and Concord reached Northampton in April 1775, the county committee ordered mobilization[3]. By May 1776, about 900 militiamen near Allentown backed replacing Pennsylvania’s provincial government[3].

## What people feared: War pressed into farms

The war’s pressure came through militia duty, suspicion, and absence from home: more than 2,300 county men joined township military associations in 1775[3]. After 1777, white men aged eighteen to fifty-three could be called for rotating two-month militia duty[3].

## Home & table: A young German county

The ordinary household world was youthful and mostly German-speaking: about 80 percent of county residents were of German ancestry[3], and half the county population was twenty-one or younger[3]. The exact look of farmhouses in the Drylands is harder to pin down because no street-by-street description survives online here.

## Who lived here: Moravians among many Germans

Moravians were visible but not the majority: Reformed and Lutheran churches dominated county worship[3]. Nazareth itself was exceptional because it was open only to Moravian residents and governed by the congregation[5].

## Roads & news: Easton carried the county

News, lawsuits, taxes, and strangers converged on Easton, a county seat of about 400 people with a courthouse and around 75 shops and houses[3]. Roads from Easton linked the county toward New York, Philadelphia, Reading, Lancaster, and beyond.

## Year by year

- **1771** (here): New Nazareth was laid out with Center and Main Streets crossing at a square.[5]
- **1774** (nearby): Northampton County had about 15,000 inhabitants, about 5 percent of Pennsylvania’s population.[3]
- **1774** (nearby): A mass meeting at Easton supported the colonial protest movement after Parliament’s punishment of Boston.
- **1775** (nearby): Lexington and Concord news reached Northampton County and brought orders to mobilize for self-defense.[3]
- **1776** (the country): The Declaration of Independence and Pennsylvania’s new revolutionary government made loyalty a public question.
- **1776** (nearby): About 600 Northampton militiamen marched in December to help defend Philadelphia from the British Army.[3]
- **1777** (the country): Pennsylvania’s militia law made military duty compulsory for most white men aged eighteen to fifty-three.[3]
- **1779** (here): Nazareth Hall’s boys’ school closed until 1785 amid wartime financial trouble and declining enrollment.[4]

## What the sources say

- Lower Nazareth Township did not exist as a separately incorporated township in the 1770s; local planning history says it was not officially incorporated until 1807. (from the sources)[1]
- The area later called Lower Nazareth was part of the Walking Purchase of 1737 and was locally known as the Drylands, with a township account describing it as rich eastern Pennsylvania farmland. (inferred)[2]
- Nazareth’s New Nazareth section was laid out in 1771, so it was new ground in this decade. (from the sources)[5]
- New Nazareth was planned in the shape of a cross, with Center and Main Streets intersecting at a square. (from the sources)[5]
- The Moravians began the Gray Cottage and Whitefield House in the 1740s; the borough history says Whitefield House later housed worship, schooling, a nursery, and seminary uses. (inferred)[6]
- Nazareth Hall was built in 1755 as a manor house, used as the community chapel, and from 1759 housed the Moravian boys’ school. (from the sources)[4][5]
- Dryland Union Church at Hecktown traces its documented beginning to 1763, when Lutheran and Reformed congregations formed a union church on Casper Wister’s land near today’s Steuben Road and Route 191. (inferred)[7]
- Across Northampton County in 1774, the grain harvest would have filled about 4,500 Conestoga wagons, and the county had 60 gristmills, 30 sawmills, 3,000 horses and mares, 3,400 horned cattle, and more than 1,000 sheep. (from the sources)[3]
- By 1774 Northampton County had about 15,000 inhabitants, about 5 percent of Pennsylvania’s population. (from the sources)[3]
- About 80 percent of Northampton County’s inhabitants in 1774 were of German ancestry, with Scots-Irish, English, Huguenots, Dutch, and Welsh making up most of the rest. (from the sources)[3]
- Half of Northampton County’s population in 1774 was twenty-one years old or younger. (from the sources)[3]
- Northampton County had three towns in the 1770s: Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton, with Easton serving as the county seat. (from the sources)[3]
- Easton, the county seat, had about 400 people, roughly 75 shops and houses, and the county courthouse; county residents came there four times a year for quarter sessions court. (from the sources)[3]
- Each Northampton township elected officers, including a constable who served warrants, presided over township elections, and enforced the ban on Sunday drinking in public houses. (from the sources)[3]
- Northampton County’s worship landscape included Reformed, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Moravian, and Mennonite congregations, but Reformed and Lutheran churches greatly outnumbered the others. (from the sources)[3]
- Nazareth was still a planned Moravian religious community in the 1770s; the congregation supervised religious, social, and economic affairs, and until 1856 the town was open only to Moravian residents. (from the sources)[5]
- The Moravian General Economy at Nazareth ended in 1764, but in the 1770s members bought land in New Nazareth and opened their own businesses. (from the sources)[5]
- The Moravian boys’ school at Nazareth Hall accepted non-Moravian boys by 1762 but closed from 1779 to 1785 because of financial difficulties, probably linked to declining enrollment during the Revolution. (from the sources)[4]
- When news of Lexington and Concord reached Northampton County in April 1775, the county committee ordered inhabitants to mobilize for self-defense. (from the sources)[3]
- More than 2,300 Northampton County men, most of the county’s male population between sixteen and sixty, joined township military associations in 1775. (from the sources)[3]
- In May 1776, about 900 Northampton militiamen assembled near Allentown and pledged support for replacing Pennsylvania’s provincial government. (from the sources)[3]
- Pennsylvania’s militia law of March 17, 1777 required white men aged eighteen to fifty-three who could bear arms to serve rotating two-month militia duty, with fines or substitutes as alternatives. (from the sources)[3]
- In December 1776 about 600 Northampton militiamen marched to help defend Philadelphia from the British Army. (from the sources)[3]
- No online source opened here gives a surviving street-by-street description of houses in the Drylands outside Moravian Nazareth during the 1770s. (not known)

## Sources

1. Lower Nazareth Township Open Space Master Plan. Lower Nazareth Township, 2019. https://conservationtools-production.s3.amazonaws.com/library_item_files/2235/2757/LNT_-_Open_Space_Master_Plan.pdf
2. The History of Lower Nazareth Township. Lower Nazareth Township. https://lowernazareth.com/Documents/Boards%20and%20Commissions/Zoning%20Hearing%20Board/Agenda%20and%20Minutes/2020/Minutes/062320-ZHB-Minutes.pdf?t=202511140936580
3. Sweet Land of Liberty: The Ordeal of the American Revolution in Northampton County, Pennsylvania. Penn State University Press, 2000. https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/0-271-02062-8.html
4. Digital Collections Spotlight #17: Nazareth Hall. Moravian Archives, Bethlehem, 2021. https://www.moravianchurcharchives.org/digital-access/digital-collections-spotlight-17-nazareth-hall/
5. Nazareth Borough, Northampton County, Pennsylvania. LivingPlaces.com. https://www.livingplaces.com/PA/Northampton_County/Nazareth_Borough.html
6. History. Borough of Nazareth. https://www.nazarethboroughpa.com/history
7. Our History. Dryland United Church of Christ. https://www.drylanducc.org/general-6

## The same place in other decades

- [Northampton County in the 1760s](https://yorehistory.com/place/northampton-county-pennsylvania/1760s/md)
- [Nazareth Township in the 1790s](https://yorehistory.com/place/nazareth-township-northampton-county-pennsylvania/1790s/md)

## Nearby, about the same time

- [Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania in the 1760s](https://yorehistory.com/place/easton-northampton-county-pennsylvania/1760s/md) (10 km)
- [Greenwich, Warren County, New Jersey in the 1780s](https://yorehistory.com/place/greenwich-warren-county-new-jersey/1780s/md) (27 km)
- [Greenwich Township, Warren County, New Jersey in the 1760s](https://yorehistory.com/place/greenwich-township-warren-county-new-jersey/1760s/md) (27 km)
- [Greenwich, Sussex/Warren County, New Jersey in the 1750s](https://yorehistory.com/place/greenwich-sussex-warren-county-new-jersey/1750s/md) (27 km)
- [Pittstown, Hunterdon County, New Jersey in the 1800s](https://yorehistory.com/place/pittstown-hunterdon-county-new-jersey/1800s/md) (35 km)
- [near High Bridge, Hunterdon County, New Jersey in the 1760s](https://yorehistory.com/place/near-high-bridge-hunterdon-county-new-jersey/1760s/md) (36 km)
- [Bedminster Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the 1760s](https://yorehistory.com/place/bedminster-township-bucks-county-pennsylvania/1760s/md) (38 km)
- [Point Pleasant area, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the 1780s](https://yorehistory.com/place/point-pleasant-area-bucks-county-pennsylvania/1780s/md) (49 km)

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Researched by Yore's AI historian (gpt-5.5) on 2026-10-11 from the sources listed. It is about the place and the time, not about any person. Statements marked "inferred" are conclusions, not records. Cite as: Yore, "Lower Nazareth Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania in the 1770s", https://yorehistory.com/place/lower-nazareth-township-northampton-county-pennsylvania/1770s