Mans Jonasson, later known as Mouns Jones, descended from Swedes who settled the Philadelphia area and the lower Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers in 1638, became the first European settler in what would eventually become Berks County. In 1701 William Penn granted land along the Schuylkill River to seventeen Swedes in what is now Amity Township, and Mouns Jones was the only grantee to settle on his tract, establishing his plantation by around 1704. He and his wife, Ingeborg, part of an early Swedish river-oriented culture, made their home on the riverbank, where they settled with their six children in an area that later became known as Morlatton. Their first dwelling was probably a log house, but in 1716 they built the stone house whose date is recorded on a riverside date-stone. The house reflects Swedish settlers' gradual adoption of a more English way of life, with a hall-parlor plan, two-room floor plan, corner fireplace, and a cooking fireplace with a beehive oven at the northwest gable end. Though modest by modern standards, it was a substantial mansion for its time. Mouns Jones and his extended family became important members of the young community as prosperous farmers who worked with local leaders such as the Boone family, and Mouns, a former fur trader, hosted Native American delegations and arranged conferences at his farmstead between provincial officials and Native American leaders. The Jones family owned the homestead until 1745, when his son Andrew sold it, and after several later transfers the house was acquired in 1965 by the Historic Preservation Trust of Berks County through a gift from the Roy Schurr family, then placed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 21, 1974.