Editing Berks County, Pennsylvania (section)

==History==
Reading developed during the 1740s when inhabitants of northern [[Lancaster County, Pennsylvania|Lancaster County]] sent several petitions requesting that a separate county be established. With the help of [[Germans|German]] immigrant [[Conrad Weiser]], the county was formed on March 11, 1752, from parts of [[Chester County, Pennsylvania|Chester County]], [[Lancaster County, Pennsylvania|Lancaster County]], and [[Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania|Philadelphia County]].<ref>''The Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania from 1682 to 1809'', 18 vols. (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Wm. Stanley Ray, 1898), [https://archive.org/details/statutesatlarge06martgoog vol. 5 1744-1759], pages 133-140, 502-503, Chapter CCCXCII, "An Act for Erecting Part of the Counties Of Philadelphia, Chester and Lancaster into a Separate County," March 11, 1752, confirmed by the King in Council, May 10, 1753, creation of Berks County, digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org : July 26, 2018).</ref>

It was named after [[Berkshire]] the English county in which [[William Penn]]'s family home lay, of which the original town of [[Reading, Berkshire|Reading]] is the county town and which is traditionally abbreviated "Berks". Berks County began much larger than it is today. The northwestern parts of the county went to the founding of [[Northumberland County, Pennsylvania|Northumberland County]] in 1772 and [[Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania|Schuylkill County]] in 1811, when it reached its current size. 

In 2005, Berks County was added to the [[Delaware Valley]] Planning Area due to a fast-growing population and close proximity to the other communities.