William Matlack, American progenitor of the Matlack family of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. was a native of Nottinghanshire, England, where he was born in 1648 in the village of Cropwell Bishop. He embarked from London, England early in 1677, on the ship "Kent" with Daniel Wills, to whom he was apprenticed as a carpenter, and arrived at New Salem, New Jersey on the Delaware River on June 23, 1677. He, along with his master, Daniel Wills, settled in Burlington, Burlington Co., New Jersey where they built several of the very first homes.
William's grandson, TIMOTHY MATLACK, was a Colonel (5th Rifle Bat. 1 which was commanded by Brig. Gen. John Cadwalader) during the Revolutionary War and he known as a "Fighting Quaker." He was the pennman who wrote the DECLARATION of INDEPENDENCE, he was a delegate to the Continental Congress fron 1780 to 1787 and the first secretary of the Supreme Executive Council of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.