Krefeld is a city is western Germany, near the border with Netherlands and a few kilometers from the River Rhine. It was first mentioned in 1105 under the name Krinvelde.  In 1607 Mennonites arrived from neighbouring Roman Catholic territories where they were persecuted. The rulers of Krefeld at the time, the House of Orange-Nassau, were tolerant of the Mennonites. In 1657 their congregation was officially recognized and in 1693 they were allowed to built their own church. Quaker Evangelists also received a sympathetic audience among the larger German-Mennonite congregations.  In 1683, a group of 13 Mennonite families, 12 of which were Mennonite-Quakers) left Krefeld to settle in Pennsylvania in order to enjoy the religious freedom it offered. They said on the Concord and founded the settlement of Germantown (invited by William Penn himself) and thus began the Pennsylvania Dutch ethnic identity. Germantown was later incorporated into Philadelphia.