History

Three Arches Historic Home

"Three Arches", the John Sotcher Homestead, is an early documented stone house of Bucks County. The first owner of record is Thomas Atkinson who received the patent in the early 1680s. In 1712, John Sotcher, the chief steward to William Penn's manor, Pennsbury, from 1687 until 1709, bought the property. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

It appears that John Sotcher came to America with Penn as his friend as well as his servant. When Penn was making arrangements to return to England in 1701, he proposed leaving Pennsbury in Sotcher's charge. Sotcher stayed on as chief steward until 1708. After Sotcher gave up his stewardship, he established a ferry across the Delaware to Burlington, New Jersey. By 1712 Sotcher was chosen a Bucks County Representative in the Provincial Assembly; again in 1715 and continued thereafter until 1722. The house represents the period in Sotcher's life and subsequently in the life of his son, Robert, when the family found its own roots in Bucks County.