Sarah Waln Bulkeley was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, as one of the four children of Jesse and Rebecca Waln. She was the fifth generation of her family to live in Pennsylvania, as part of a long line of Quaker ancesty in the Philadelphia region.

Nicholas Waln, Sarah Bulkeley’s great-great grandfather, emigrated from England to Pennsylvania in 1682. He was the child of Richard and Jane (Rudd) Waln, who lived in Yorkshire, England, and were early converts to Quakerism. The couple had at least four children, the eldest being Richard Waln, followed by Nicholas (b. around 1650), Anne (b. 1654) and Edward (b. 1657). Richard Waln died April 7, 1659, and his widow Jane married William Birket.

His son, Richard Waln moved to Pennsylvania in 1682, as did his daughter Anne Waln after she married James Dilworth (both ministers in the Society of Friends). Around this same time, Nicholas Waln—Sarah’s great-great grandfather—also immigrated to Pennsylvania, buying 1,000 acres of land from William Penn in April of 1682. He married Jane (Turner) Waln and was survived by eight children: Jane (b. 1675), Richard, Nicholas, William, Hannah, Mary, Sarah, and Elizabeth. We know that he owned, at his death, five slaves.

Nicholas and Jane Waln’s eldest son was Richard Waln, great-grandfather of Sarah. Richard married Anne Heath at some point prior to September of 1706. They lived in Northern Liberties area of Philadelphia and later in Montgomery County. The couple had seven children: Richard, Robert, Nicholas, Joseph, Ann, Susanna, and Mary.

Their second surviving son, Richard Waln (born June 5, 1717) was Sarah Waln Bulkeley’s grandfather. He lived “on the Waln plantation in the Northern Liberties” until his marriage to Hannah (unknown maiden name) in 1740, and the couple moved to Norriton township (now Montgomery County), where they were active in the Quaker community; they eventually retired to Germantown, outside of Philadelphia. Richard and Hannah had four children: Sarah, Jesse, Mary, and Ann.* Richard died in 1764.

Jesse, the only son, was born in 1750. Jesse Waln married Rebecca (maiden name unknown) and became "one of the most prominent and successful merchants of Philadelphia in his day," working closely with his cousin and Congressman Richard Waln. He helped found the Insurance Company of Pennsylvania in 1794. The couple had 7 children: Mary (married William Moore Wharton; died of consumption in 1800), Sarah, Jesse (1784-1848), Ann (1788-1789), Ann (1790-1875, married Samuel Burge Rawle), Rebecca (1792-1796), and Rebecca (birth unknown, married Edward Tilgham). Jesse Waln died in 1806. Elizabeth Drinker’s Journal notes: “Jessy Waln is dead. He died rather suddenly; some say of pleurisy, others of an apoplexy.” He was outlived by his wife, Rebecca, who died on November 4, 1820.

*Most of her genealogy has been collected from "Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Philadelphia", Ed. John W. Jordan (New York, 1911).