CHAPTER VI

THE COLONIAL HISTORY TO THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION

[Please note that this chapter is heavely footnoted.  The footnotes are indicated by an “*” and “(number*).]

The only hamlet in Pennsylvania which had received a distinctive name that was known to persons in England at the time Penn acquired title to the territory was Upland, and that that had done so was doubtless due to the fact that Robert Wade had already made it his home. He being a Friend in communication with members of that religious sect in the mother-country, that circumstance directed the attention of the Quakers, “a society,” says Acrelius, “that the realm could well spare,” to the little cluster of rudely-fashioned dwellings on the banks of the Delaware. Hence Friends (whom, fortunately for the United States, could be spared from Europe to plant on this continent those seeds of political truths and religious liberty which, germinating, have grown into a nation on the maintenance of which the future continuance of constitutional representative government on the earth largely depends), or Quakers, as popularly known, desiring to flee from persecution and ignominy at home, gladly availed themselves of the liberal conditions which Penn offered to persons anxious to leave England, and particularly did the latter meet the approval of those people whose poverty had been largely produced by reason of the heavy fines imposed on them simply because of the religious sentiments they maintained. That Penn originally intended to locate his proposed capital city at Upland can hardly be questioned, for his instructions to his commissioners, Crispin, Bezer, and Allen, particularly directing them “that the creeks should be sounded on my side of the Delaware River, especially Upland, in order to settle a great toune,” will bear no other legitimate construction. That this was his purpose is evident from all the surrounding circumstances, and he only abandoned it when he learned that Lord Baltimore, by actual observation, had discovered that the site of the hamlet was in the debatable land as to ownership. That the proprietary, after he had been informed of Lord Baltimore’s persistent claims, had resolved to build a city farther up the river, before he first came to his province, will not admit of doubt; hence the result of the visit of William Penn to James Sandelands, mentioned as having taken place almost as soon as the former landed at Upland, when it was “talk among the people that it was with Intent to have built a City” at that place, “but that he and Sanderlin could not agree,”* may perchance have interfered with some proposed improvement at the old Swedish settlement, but even had Sandelands assented to all that Penn may have required, it would not have eventuated in locating the contemplated “great town” at that point.** Under the circumstances the risks, owing to the disputed ownership of that part of his territory, were too great for Penn to assume.

Martin informs us on the authority of Mrs. Sarah Shoemaker, aged ninety-two years, who died in Chester in 1825, and who had heard her grandfather, James Lownes, often speak of the times of which I am now writing, that during the winter of 1682—83, Upland presented a very animated appearance. It was the only place then in the province, as stated, known to English ship-owners, and consequently, as the destination of all vessels was this port, most of the emigrants landed here, and several ships often rode at anchor at the same time off the hamlet. It is said that the water was deep near the western shore, and vessels could approach so closely to land that the trees would often brush their upper rigging.

The great influx of emigrants in the hamlet caused nearly every dwelling in it to be a house of entertainment, and as the people of that day, in the majority of instances, used beer instead of tea or coffee, that fact may account for the number of presentments by the grand juries of the residents along the Delaware “for selling beer, etc., without license, contrary to law.” The proprietary himself is believed to have made his home at Chester during the greater part of the winter of 1682—83, and while here, it is said (on Nov. 25, 1682), he divided the territory theretofore known as Upland into the three counties,— Chester, Philadelphia, and Bucks.

William Penn, having called the city of Philadelphia into being,— he had named it before it had any actual existence as a town,— summoned the freemen throughout the province to hold an election on the 20th day of the Twelfth month, 1682 (February, 1683), to choose seventy-two persons of most note for their wisdom, virtue, and ability to serve as members of a Provincial Council, to meet on “the 10th day of the First month next ensuing” (March, 1683), at the new capital. From each county twelve men were returned under this order, but the several sheriffs also presented petitions from the people in their bailiwicks praying that only three of the twelve men returned as councilors be vested with the duplex character of councilors and assemblymen, and the remaining nine as simply assemblymen. The petition presented by the people of Chester County was as follows:***

     “To WILLIAM PENN, proprietary and governor of the province of Pennsylvania and territories thereof.
     “The petition of the freeholders of the County of Chester respectfully showeth, That in obedience to the writ sent to our Sheriff wo have chosen twelve persons for our delegates to serve in the provincial Council, but considering that the numbers of the people are yet small, and that we have few fit for or acquainted with such public business, and also that we are unable to support the charge of greater elections and Assemblies. After our humble acknowledgments of the favor intended us therein, we take leave humbly to request that three of the twelve we have chosen may serve as provincial Councillors, and the other nine for the Assembly, which provincial Councillors are John Symcock (for three years), Ralph Withers (for two years), and William Clayton (for one year), leaving it to thee to increase the number, as occasion may serve, hereafter.

        (Signed) “JAMES BROWN & Co.”

The assemblymen thus designated from Chester County were John Hoskins, Robert Wade, George Wood, John Blunston, Dennis Rochford, Thomas Bracy, John Bezer, John Harding, Joseph Phippes.

These petitions, although in direct violation of the charter, were favorably acted on, but in the formation of Council Ralph Withers appeared as credited to Bucks County, while Christopher Taylor represented Chester. It is not my purpose to make extended reference to the proceedings of the second Assembly further than to notice that the seal of Chester County at that session was established, bearing as its distinctive design a plow.

The influx of immigrants into Pennsylvania for the few years immediately after Penn acquired ownership of the territory is unequaled in the history of the British colonial possessions in North America, and can only be likened in recent years to the marvelous growth of settlements in the oil region of this State, or localities west of the Mississippi, where precious metals are supposed to yield almost certain fortune to adventurers who locate there. Within the limits of the present county of Delaware, before the close of the year 1683, the population began to preponderate largely of members of the Society of Friends, and at Chester, Marcus Hook, Darby, and Haverford permanent settlements of Quakers had been made, from which centres their influence extended outwards, giving tone and character to the whole people. The few Swedes and Dutch who had preceded these Friends were soon absorbed in, and their individuality of thought and action was merged into that of the more intelligent majority, greatly to the benefit of the former. The Welsh immigrants, who had secured a tract of forty thousand acres in a whole from Penn previous to leaving the Old World, found, on arriving in the colony, that they could not locate it within the city, limits of Philadelphia, and were forced to push out into the then wilderness; and we find, in 1682, that their first lodgment with a few settlers was made in Merion and Haverford, from which they rapidly spread into Radnor, Newtown, Goshen, Tredyffrin, and Uwchlan.

It was the fixed policy of William Penn, in order to avoid all causes of trouble with the Indians growing out of disputed rights to the soil, to purchase from the aborigines, and extinguish the title to the territory as rapidly as civilization pushed outward into “the backwoods.” The ownership of the land within Delaware County was released to William Penn by the Indians in two deeds, both of which are interesting because of the consideration mentioned as having been paid to chiefs. The first deed was executed over a year before William Penn returned to England, in 1684. The old document is as follows:
     “We, Secane & Icquoquehan,—–Indian shackamakers, and right owners of ye Land Lying between Manaiunk, als Sculkill and Macopanachan, als Chester Rivers, doe this 14th day of ye fift month, in ye year according to English account 1683, hereby graunt and Sell all our Right & Title in ye sd Lands Lying between ye sd River, begining on ye West side of Manaiunk, called Consohockhan, & from thence by a Westerly Line to ye sd River Malopanackhan, unto William Penn Proprietr & Governr of ye Province of Pennsilvania &c., hiss heires & Assignes, for Ever, for and in Consideration of 150 fathom of Wampum, 14 Blanketts, 65 yds. Duffills, 28 yds. stroud watrs, 15 Gunns, 3 great Kettles, 15 small Kettles, 16 pr. Stockins, 7 pr. Shoes, 6 Capps, 12 Gimbletts, 6 Drawing Knives, 15 pr. Sissors, 15 Combes, 5 Papers needles, 10 Tobacco boxes, 15 Tobacco Tongs, 32 Pound Powder, 3 papers Beads, 2 papers Red Lead, 15 Coats, 15 Shurts, 15 Axes, 15 Knives, 30 barrs of Lead, 18 Glasses, 15 hoes, unto us in hand paid, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged have renounced all Claims & Demands for ye future from us or heires or Assignes, in or to ye prmises. In witness whereof we have hereunto sett or hands and seals ye day & year first above written.

“The mark of “The mark of
SECANE. ICQUOQUEHAN.
“Sealed and delivered in presence of

                        “PISERICKEM.

“The mark of PETER RAMBO,
“The mark of SWAN SWANSON,

        “PHILIP TH. LEHNMANN,
        “JOS. CURTEIS,

“CATEMUS, an Indian king.”(4*)

The second deed was made after Penn had returned to England. The Provincial Council, on the 22d of the Seventh month (September), 1685, was notified by Capt. Lasse Cock that the Indians were anxious to dispose of their land between Upland and Appoquinomy. Council immediately appointed Thomas Holme, surveyor-general, John Simcock, and Col. William Markham, the then secretary of the body, to meet the Indians and purchase from them the territory named. The following deed, executed in ten days after the date given, shows how expeditiously the authorities acted in carrying out the original intention of Penn, the extinguishment of Indian titles; but the indefinite bounds, “so far as a man can ride in two days with a horse,” clearly shows the superior bargaining abilities of the white man, and the success which attended this transaction might have prompted the noted “walking purchase” of a later date.

“THIS INDENTURE WITNESSETH That We Lare Packenah Tareekham Sickais Pettquessitt Tewis Essepenaick Petkhoy Kekelappan Feomus Mackalohr Melleonga Wissa Powey Indian Kings Sachemakers, Right Owners of all the Lands from Quing Quingus Called Duck Creek unto upland Called Chester Creek all along by the West Side of Delaware River and So between the Said Creeks Backwards as far as a man can Ride in two days with a horse for and in Consideration of these following good to Vs in hand paid and secured to be paid by Wm Penn Proprietary and Gouvnour of the Province of Pennsylvania and Territories Thereof, Viz Twenty Gunns Twenty fathom Matchcoat twenty Fathom Stroudwaters, twenty Blankets twenty Kettles twenty pounds Powder One hundred Barrs Lead forty Tomahawks 0ne hundred Knives Fourty pare Stocking One Barrel of Beer twenty pound red Lead One hundred Fathom Wamphum thirty Glass Bottles thirty Pewter Spoons one hundred Awl Blades three hundred tobacco Pipes One hundred hands of Tobacco twenty Tobacco Tongs twenty Steels three hundred flints thirty pare Sissers thirty Combs Sixty looking Glasses two hundred Needles one Skiple Salt thirty pounds Shuger five gallons Mollassis twenty Tobacco Boxes One hundred Juise Harps twenty Howe, thirty Guimlets thirty Wooden Screw Borers & One hundred Strings Beeds Wee hereby Acknowledge in behalfe of Our Selves as Only Bright Owners of the aforesaid Tract of Land to Bargain and Sell And by these Presents doe fully Clearly and Absolutely Bargaine & Sell Unto the said Wm Penn his heirs and Assignee for Ever without any molleatation or hindrance from or by Us and from or by any other Indians whatsoever that Shall or may Claime any Right Title or Interest in or unto the Said Tract of Land or any Part thereof. In Witness Whereof Wee have hereunto Set our hands and Seals at New Castle the 2d day of the Eighth month 1685.

“Signed sealed and delivered unto Capt Thomas Holme Surveyr Genl of ye Province of Pennsylvania to & for ye use of William Penn Esqr Proprietary & Govern” of ye aforesd Province & Territories thereunto

belonging in the presence of us.

“PIETER ALRICKS The Mark of
“LASSE COCK OWEG HAM
“PHILIP TH LEHNMANN The Mark of
“JAMES ATKINSON OWEG HAM
“CHRISTOPHER GORR The Mark of
“The Mark of Lik HAMM
“JOHN WALKER The Mark of
“EDWARD LAKE PATASKO
“JOHN MANDY. The Mark of
“The Mark of MACK RASHUTE.”(5*)
“TAMMA GWARAN

The general history of our county is very meagre of interesting incidents in the early days of the province other than the happenings which became matter for the intervention and adjudication of the courts; and as these subjects will be found collated and treated of in a distinctive chapter, no allusion will be made to them at this time.

The absence of William Penn from England afforded an opportunity to his enemies and for the friends of Lord Baltimore in the mother-country to press with earnestness objections to the former’s title to the “three lower counties,” now Delaware, as also to seriously menace his ownership of the greater part of the present county of Delaware (as well as others) in Pennsylvania. Hence it became imperatively essential that he should return to Great Britain; and preparatory to his departure he appointed Thomas Lloyd, James Harrison, and John Simcock— the former to be Deputy Governor, and, in the event of death, the others to succeed to that position in the order mentioned— to represent him in the province, and, in the contingency of his (Penn’s) death before other officers were selected, empowered them to be “Commissioners & Guardians in Government to my dear Heir, Sprigett Penn.” As the record shows that on Aug. 14, 1684, Penn presided for the last time in Council until he returned, nearly sixteen years subsequently, it is thought that he sailed not long after the date above mentioned.

At a Council held at Philadelphia, April 1, 1685, Thomas Lloyd presiding, the boundaries of the county of Chester were officially prescribed, as follows: “The county of Chester to begin at ye Mouth or Entrance of Bough Creek, upon Delaware River, being the upper end of Tinicum Island, and soe up that creek, dividing the said Island from ye Land of Andros Boone & Company; from thence along the several courses thereof to a Large Creek Called Mill Creek: from thence up the several courses of the said creek to a W.S.W. Line, which Line divided the Liberty Lands of Philadelphia from Several Tracts of Land belonging to the Walsh and other Inhabitants; and from thence E.N.E. by a line of Marked Trees 120 perches, more or less; from thence N.N.W. by the herford (Haverford) Township 1000 perches, more or less; from thence E.N.E. by ye Land belonging to Jno. Humphreys 110 perches, more or less; from thence N.N.W. by ye Land of John Eckley 880 perches, more or less; from thence continuing ye said Course to the Scoolkill River, wch sd Scoolkill River afterwards to be the natural bounds.” (6*)

Many complaints having been made respecting the manner in which Charles Ashcom, the deputy surveyor for Chester County, had encroached on the forty thousand acres which Penn had ordered set apart as the Welsh tract(7*) (including. Radnor and Haverford townships, in this county), in laying out lands for other purchesers, not recognized as distinctively Welsh settlers, in such a way as to interfere with the continuity of “the Barony,” and because the inhabitants of that territory were summoned to do jury and other public duties in both Philadelphia and Chester Counties, in 1688 a lengthy petition was prepared by them and forwarded by Col. William Markham the same year to Penn in England. It is not known whether the letter was ever received by Penn; at least so far as the writer has information no notice was ever taken by the proprietary of the communication.

The Welsh settlers in Radnor and Haverford, however, declined to recognize the division of the counties of Philadelphia and Chester, and silently refused to pay their proportion of the public taxes to the treasury of Chester County or to serve on juries. The authorities of the latter at length, having exhausted all means at their command to compel recognition of their jurisdiction, presented a petition from the justices and inhabitants of Chester County to the Governor and Council, March 25, 1689, in which they represented that the county was at first small, “not above 9 miles square & but Thinly seated, whereby ye said County is not able to Support the Charge thereoff” and that the Governor in “his Serious Consideration of our Weak Condition was pleased, out of Compassion to us, to grant an Enlargement of ye same,” which was subsequently done in the official boundaries before mentioned. To support the allegation that these limits had been approved by William Penn, John Blunstone testified “that a few days before Gover Penn left this Province that upon ye bank by John Simcock’s house I moved him to Deside this matter that had been so long Discoursed, who then, before me and Others did Declare that ye bounds Should thus runn from the mouth of Bow Creek to Mill Creek, wch should be ye bounds until it come to ye Land of Herford, and then to take in the Townds of Herford & Radnor; from thence to the Skoolkill, and take in his mannour of Springtowne, . . . then I asked him if he would be pleased to give it under his hand, to avoyd further Trouble, who answered he would, if any of vs would Come the next day to Philadelphia, in order thereunto; one was sent, but what then obstructed I am not certaine, but yt ye Goverr Departed about two days after.” Randall Vernon testified that William Howell, of Harford, “Signified unto me” that he had “asked ye Goverr to what County they should be joined or belong unto, & The Goverr was pleased to answer him that they must belong to Chester County.” Thomas Usher, sheriff of Chester County, testified that Penn said to him, “Thomas, I perceive that the Skoolkill Creek Comes or runs so upon the back of Philadelphia that it makes ye City almost an Island, so that a Robbery or the like may be there Committed, and ye offender gitt over ye Creek, and so Escape for want of due persute, &c., therefore I intend that ye bounds of Philadelphia County Shall Come about 3 or four miles on this side of the Skoolkill, and I would not have thee to take notice or to oppose that Sheriff on ye Execution of his office, about Kingses or the like, but I intend to enlarge this County downwards to Brandywine.” The Deputy Surveyor-General produced the official map, showing the county lines as before given, and stated that “it so is set out by order of the Governor and Provincial Council.” Governor Blackwell and the Council intimated that as the bounds had been published in the map of Thomas Holme, which had been distributed in England, and as land had been sold and located according to that map, to change the boundaries now might result in much confusion to purchasers. Besides, the Welsh settlers had refused to bear any part of the taxes or serve on juries in Philadelphia, as they had done in Chester County, claiming that they were a distinct “barony,” and although the Governor and Council intimated that clearly the Welsh Tract was a part of Chester County, yet they refused to announce their final conclusion until the next morning, when, if the Welsh settlers chose to show cause why they should not be part of Chester County, they would be heard. The next morning, Thomas Lloyd and John Eckley appeared on behalf of the Welsh, alleging that Penn had intimated to them that they would form a county palatine; but as they had no written evidence to substantiate that assertion, Council decided that the boundaries already shown to have been established must be confirmed. Thereupon the strong arm of the law was extended to compel the reluctant Welshmen to yield obedience to the decree that had been made. The Court of Chester County appointed John Jerman constable for Radnor, and John Lewis for Haverford, but these recipients of judicial favor failing to present themselves, the justices determined that the dignity of the bench should be maintained. Hence we find that at court held “3d day of 1st week, 3d mo., 1689, ordered that Warrants of Contempt be Directed to ye Sheriff to apprehend ye Bodyes of John Lewis and John Jerman for their Contempt of not entering into their respective offices of Constables (viz.) John Lewis for Harfort, and John Jerman for Radnor, when thereunto required by this Court.”

At the same session, David Laurence, who had been returned as a grand juror from Haverford, failed to attend, and for his neglect or refusal to appear was presented by the grand inquest. The court fined Laurence ten shillings. The jury also presented “the want of the inhabitants of the townships of Radnor and Hartfort, and the inhabitants adjacent, they not being brought in to join with us in the Levies and other public services of this county.” The movement to compel the Welsh to submit to the constituted authority did not cease, for at the following (June) court the commission of William Howell, of Haverford, was read, and he afterwards assumed the office and subscribed “to the solemn declaration” required. William Jenkins, of Haverford, at the same court, served as a juror. Haverford had yielded, but the court deemed it wise that public proclamation, as was then customary with all laws, should be made respecting this decree, hence we find this entry in the old record of the county: That at court, on Wednesday of the first week in June, 1689, “the Division Lyne between this County and Philadelphia was read, dated ye 1st of ye 2d moth, 1685.” At the December court following, John Jerman was qualified as constable of Radnor, and thereafter the two townships made no further objection to act with and pay taxes to the authorities of Chester County. In 1688 the inhabitants of the province were greatly alarmed by reason of a rumor diligently circulated that two Indian women from New Jersey had informed an old Dutch resident near Chester that the aborigines had determined, on a designated Thursday, to attack and massacre all the white settlers on the Delaware. To add to the general consternation, about ten o’clock at night of the evening fixed upon by the savages to begin the attack a messenger “out of the woods” came hurriedly into Chester with the report that three families, residing about nine miles distant, had been murdered by the Indians. The people of the town gathered to consider the startling intelligence, and at midnight a Quaker, resident at Chester, accompanied by two young men, went to the place named, where they found the three houses empty, but no signs of murder. The dwellers therein, alarmed by the rumor, had fled to the homes of their parents, about a mile distant on Ridley Creek. The further particulars of this alarm are thus given by Proud (9*)

“The master of one of these families being from home, had been informed five hundred Indians were actually collected at Naaman’s Creek, in pursuit of their design to kill the English; and as he was hastening to his home, he thought he heard his boy crying out and saying, ‘What shall I do, my dame is killed!’ Upon which, instead of going home to know the certainty of the affair, he ran off to acquaint the government at Philadelphia, but being met by a person of more prudence than himself before he got to the city he was persuaded by him to return.

“The report, notwithstanding, soon arrived at the city, and was told with such alarming circumstances that a messenger was immediately dispatched to Marcus Hook, near the said Naaman’s Creek, to enquire the truth of it. He quickly returned and confirmed the report, but with this variation, that it was at Brandywine Creek, at an Indian town, where the five hundred Indians were assembled, and that they, having a lame king, had carried him away, with all their women and children. These circumstances rendered the affair still more alarming, and with many amounted to a certainty.

“The Council were, at that time, sitting at Philadelphia on other affairs, when one of them, a Friend, supposed to be Caleb Pusey,(10*) who lived in Chester County, voluntarily offered himself to go to the place, provided they would name five others to accompany burn, without weapons; which, being soon agreed on, they rode to the place; but, instead of meeting with five hundred warriors, they found the old king quietly lying with his lame foot along on the ground, and his head at ease on a kind of pillow, the women at work in the fields, and the children playing together.

“When they had entered the wigwam the king presently asked them very mildly, ‘What they all came for?’ They told him the report which the Indian women had raised, and asked him whether the Indians had anything against the English. He appeared much displeased at the report, and said, ‘The woman ought to be burnt to death, and that they had nothing against the English,’ adding, “Tis true there is about fifteen pounds yet behind of our pay for the land which William Penn bought, but as you are still on it and improving it to your own use, we are not in haste for our pay; but when the English come to settle it we expect to be paid.’ This the messengers thinking very reasonable, told him they would undoubtedly be paid for their land.

“One of the company further expressed himself to the Indian King, in the following manner: ‘That the great God, who made the world, and all things therein, consequently made all mankind, both Indians and English; and as he made all, so his love was extended to all; which, was plainly shown, by his causing the rain and dews to fall on the ground of both Indians and English alike; that it might generally produce what the Indians, as well as what the English sewed or planted in it, for the sustenance of life; and also by his making the sun to shine equally on all, both Indians and English, to nourish them all, extending his love thus to all, for they were naturally bound to love one another.’

“The King answered, ‘What they had said was true; and as God has given you corn, I would advise you to get it in (it being harvest time); for we intend you no harm.’ They parted amicably, and the messengers returning put an end to the people’s fears.”

The Revolution of 1688 in England was a serious obstacle to the rapid development of this province. William Penn was known to be a warm personal friend of the deposed king, from whose hand he had received many favors; hence, when the new monarchs were told that Penn was a Jesuit of St. Omers, a self-devoted slave to despotism, and even charged with conspiring for the restoration of James II., the royal ears hearkened attentively to the wildest rumors circulated by his enemies. Penn was twice examined before the Privy Council, and he was even held to bail for his appearance, but the Court of King’s Bench discharged him, as no evidence was presented substantiating the charges lodged against him; there upon he decided to return immediately to his colony, and to that end had gathered about five hundred persons to accompany him, the government had even ordered a convoy for the protection of the emigrants, when an infamous wretch accused him under oath of attempting to incite a treasonable outbreak in Lancashire, and Penn escaping arrest, was compelled to abandon his proposed colony, entailing on him serious loss. Meanwhile in the province faction feelings and dissensions had been aroused until the three lower counties, now comprising the State of Delaware, actually separated from the three upper counties of Pennsylvania, their representatives refusing to act in conjunction with the authorities in Philadelphia. At last Penn, in the hope of maintaining order, was compelled to appoint, in the beginning of 1692, Thomas Lloyd to be Governor of the province, and William Markham to be Governor of the territory (Delaware). The new order of things, however, failed to produce the harmony desired, so that reports of the confused condition of affairs in the province which went abroad supplied the crown of England with an excuse for suspending the proprietary rule, which was done by a commission from William and Mary, dated Oct. 20, 1692, to Col. Benjamin Fletcher to be Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of Pennsylvania. The commission to Fletcher set forth three reasons for the act of suspension, but the real incentive was the doubt of Penn’s loyalty, which the latter’s enemies had awakened in the royal breasts. But whatever was the motive, the whole system of laws which had been enacted were revised, modified, and repealed by the throne in the authority vested in Fletcher. There is little of interest, specially in reference to the radical changes thus made, connected with the annals of Delaware County, apart from that of the State at large, but among the seven members of the late Governor Lloyd’s Council who protested so earnestly against any and all measures in contravention of Penn’s charter this county was ably represented. Governor Fletcher’s understanding of the situation was made clear in his reply to a subsequent address by the Assembly, that “These Lawes and that model of government is desolved and at an end.”

William Penn, than whom no more adroit politician (in the legitimate, not the conventional use of that word) appears on the pages of English history, waited for the royal distrust to subside in time, and by degrees the antagonistic feelings of the crown died away to such an extent that their Majesties themselves at last desired to restore Penn to the enjoyment of those rights of which they had arbitrarily deprived him. Hence, on Aug. 20, 1694, the commission of Governor Fletcher was annulled, and letters patent granted to Penn fully restoring to him the Province of Pennsylvania and its territories. The proprietary not having matters arranged that he could leave England at that time, commissioned William Markham Governor, which office the latter discharged until late in the spring of 1698, when he received a new commission as Lieutenant-Governor.

In the fall of 1699 the yel1ow fever visited Philadelphia as a pestilence. Many of the inhabitants died of the disease, and the utmost alarm prevailed throughout the province. Although we have no direct record that the malady made its appearance at Chester, that such was the case may be inferentially concluded from the fact that the September court adjourned without transacting any business, an incident without a parallel in our county’s history. Later on, in November of that year, William Penn came for the second time to his colony, and before leaving England he announced that it was his intention to make his permanent residence in the province. As the vessel sailed up the Delaware the proprietary caused it to be anchored off Chester, and, coming ashore, he for a second time became an honored guest at the Essex House. Robert Wade, his friend, was dead, but Lydia, his widow, welcomed Penn, and here he met Thomas Story, who had recently returned from a religious journey to Virginia. The next morning, as is related by Clarkson;(11*) Penn was rowed across the creek in a boat to the eastern side, “and as he landed, some young men officiously, and contrary to express orders of some of the magistrates, fired two small sea pieces of cannon, and being ambitious to make three out of two, by firing one twice, one of them, darting in a cartridge of powder before the piece was sponged, had his left arm shot to pieces; upon which, a surgeon being sent for, an amputation took place.” The young man, Bevan, thus injured died the following April, and the expenses attending the nursing and ultimate burial of the wounded lad were discharged by Penn.

The proprietary was not destined to end his days in his colony. William III., after the death of Mary, is believed to have regarded him in no friendly spirit, and when the proprietary learned that the ministry, with the intention of converting the provincial government into a regal one, had introduced a bill to that effect in Parliament, the consideration of which had been postponed until he could be present, the urgency of affairs compelled his prompt return to England. He sailed from Philadelphia, Nov. 1, 1701, never again to visit the commonwealth he had founded. Before his departure he established a Council of State, and appointed Andrew Hamilton as Deputy Governor.

The general history of our county, saving such incidents as relate to court proceedings, religious associations, organization of townships,and similar matters, which will be considered hereafter, is very meagre until the approaching struggle of the colonists with Great Britain threw the country into a commotion that tore asunder family ties, and strained the social and political fabric to its very foundation. In a great measure previous to that period, year had followed year without leaving any impression that has remained to our day. Even the absurd farce, on May 16, 1706, of the French invasion, in which Governor Evans played such a ridiculous part, seems to have made no lasting trace on our county’s records, yet doubtless the messenger who rode with such hot haste to Philadelphia, and whose tidings caused such widespread consternation in the latter place(12*) as he passed through Marcus Hook, Chester, and Darby, gave forth intimations that he was the bearer of momentous intelligence, for such a course would have been in full accord with the preconcerted scheme of the Governor to arouse general alarm in the province, and yet there seems not to be the faintest reference to this in our local annals.

On May 16, 1712, to the Provincial Council was presented “A Petition of a great number of the Inhabitants of the county of Chester, praying that ye Burrough of the Town of Chester, in this Province, may be made a free Port, was read & Considered; And it is the opinion of the board that the matter may be presented to the Propry., that he may take proper methods Concerning the same & Consult the Courts of the Queen’s Customs therein.”(13*) In all probability William Penn, whose energy was beginning to yield under the weight of years and constant pecuniary embarrassments, never gave this petition any serious consideration, his chief desire at that period appearing to be to rid himself of the trouble, vexation, and expense of the colony by its sale to Queen Ann for twelve thousand pounds. This transfer would doubtless have been effected had not a stroke of paralysis rendered Penn unable to formally execute the contract. During all the last century, as will be shown as we proceed in this narrative, Chester was a place where outward- and inward-bound vessels stopped for days together. On the 4th of Fifth month, 1730, at noon, James Logan dispatched a letter to his son, William, “on his voyage to Bristol, sent to him at Chester,” and during the British occupation of Philadelphia almost all their transports and men-of-war lay off the former town. As just stated, William Penn’s health became so impaired that he was unable to carry to an end his contemplated sale of the province to the crown, and from that time he never wholly rallied, his mind gradually becoming more and more feeble until his death, July 30, 1718.

The disputes respecting the northwestern boundary of the county of Chester, which had been, as supposed, officially determined in 1685, and after a protracted resistance had finally been accepted by the Welsh in 1689, in the early spring of 1720 again engaged the attention of Council, when at that time a petition of the inhabitants of the west side of Schuylkill was presented, setting forth that the commissioners of Chester County had compelled the payment by them of taxes levied by the assessors of that county, although they stated that ever since their first settlement they had paid their taxes to Philadelphia; that they had no trade with Chester, “seeing it is impossible for us to have any tolerably convenient road to Chester by reason of Rocks and Mountains,” and also urged other arguments, all concluding with a prayer that the counties might be so divided as to place them within Philadelphia.(14*) On Feb. 1, 1721, Council reported(15*) that the General Assembly had acted on the matter, and that the secretary had made full examinations as to the official boundaries as theretofore established, but that he expressed his belief that the line then run “was done arbitrarily by the Surveyor-General, and that in his opinion it would have been more regular to carry the Division Line along the side of Radnor and the upper part of that called the Welch Line, laying all those Tracts called Manors to Philadelphia County.” Council thereupon concluded that until the matter could “be more fully and effectually settled, the Commissioners and Assessors of Chester County should forebear to claim those Inhabitants . . . and that the said Inhabitants be permitted to pay their Taxes and do all other Duties to the county of Philadelphia as formerly.” Chester County, however, declined to accept this decree without resistance, for on March 28, 1722,(16*) David Lloyd (who at the time was chief justice of the province) and Nathaniel Newlin, in behalf of themselves, and the other commissioners appointed by the act of Assembly for Chester County, presented a petition to Council praying relief “from the unrighteous Attempts of the said persons to sever themselves from the said County of Chester.” Council called the attention of David Lloyd to the fact that no regular division of the counties, so far as known, had been made, and the interdiction of the commissioners of Chester County from levying taxes only applied to cases where persons had been assessed in and had paid taxes to Philadelphia County, for it would be unreasonable to require on the same estate taxes in both counties, and, besides, those who had thus paid their assessments to Philadelphia County were only six in number, but they were of opinion that it was of great importance that the division-lines should be adjusted without delay. David Lloyd replied that there were persons yet living who remembered the running of the division-line, which was done, he believed, about the year 1688, under the administration of Governor Blackwell, but the commissioners of Chester County did not know where to apply for the record “or written proofs of it, except to the secretary, in whose custody all things of that kind should be kept.” After an interesting statement relative to the custody of the papers of the former secretary, Patrick Robinson, Council instructed the then secretary, James Logan, and Attorney-General Andrew Hamilton, without delay, to make search for the missing documents belonging to the records of Council, and the secretary was “ordered to make further search for the proofs that have been mentioned of the Division Line between the Counties of Philadelphia & Chester.” With this announcement, so far as the minutes of Council are concerned, the whole matter dropped out of public notice, and adjusted itself in the manner suggested by Secretary Logan, by “laying all those Tracts called Mannors to Philadelphia County.”

At a meeting of Council held Feb. 6, 1728—29, a petition was presented by the inhabitants of the upper part of Chester County, setting forth that “by Reason of their Great Distance from the County Town, where the Courts are held, Officers are Kept and Annual elections made,” the inconvenience of attending court or obtaining writs and other legal process, being compelled to travel one hundred miles for such purposes, the want of a jail to imprison “Vagabonds and other dissolute People” who harbored among the frontier settlements where they believed themselves “safe from justice in so remote a Place,” a division of the county should be made between the upper and lower parts, and that the upper portion should be erected into a county.(17*) It is not within the scope of this work to follow the particulars of this movement, which finally resulted in the county of Lancaster being erected by the act of May 10, 1729.

We learn from the minutes of Council of Dec. 16, 1728, (18*) that the propriety of again making Chester the seat of the Provincial Government was seriously considered. It seems that a resolution had been carried in the General Assembly which set forth, “that inasmuch as there has been of late several Indecencies used towards the Members of Assembly attending the Service of the Country in Philadelphia by rude and disorderly Persons unknown to this House,” the Governor and Council were requested to select a place which they shall deem “more safe for the Members of Assembly and most convenient for the Dispatch of the Business of the Country.” The Provincial Council, on their part, after considering the inconvenience of removal at that season of the year and setting out other difficulties, concluded that “if on further Experience the House shall continue in the same Sentiments that a Removal is necessary, the Board are of opinion that the same out (ought) to be adjourned to Chester, as the most convenient place for their meeting next to Philadelphia.” The sober second thought of the indignant legislators, or the penitent petitions of the inhabitants of the Quaker city prevailed over the anger of the Assembly, and, on “further experience, the House” neglected to press the subject of removal, and thus Chester did not grasp the prize she was so willing to secure.

About 1730, the first mission of the Roman Catholic Church within the territory now comprising the present county of Delaware was located at the residence of Thomas Willcox at Ivy Mill, in Concord, to which fuller reference will be made in the history of that township. This religious sect did not progress very rapidly, for in 1757, in the census of Roman Catholics in Pennsylvania,(19*) the following return shows that in Chester County there were

“These were all who took the sacrament above twelve years of age or thereabout.”

On the afternoon of Aug. 11, 1732, Thomas Penn, the son of the proprietary, landed at Chester, and a messenger was dispatched to Philadelphia to apprise the Council and Assembly, then in session, of his arrival. The secretary of Council immediately came to Chester, with the congratulations of the authorities, and “to acquaint him— Penn— that tomorrow they would in person pay their respects to him.” The following day the Governor and Council, accompanied by a large number of gentlemen, visited the borough, and “waited on the Honorable Proprietary and paid him their compliments. After dinner the Proprietary with his company, now grown very numerous, set out for Philadelphia.” On September 20th of the following year, John Penn arrived at Chester, from England, and was there met and welcomed by his younger brother, Thomas, who, with a large number of gentlemen, had come from Philadelphia to greet the eldest son of the founder. After passing the night at Chester, the next morning the party rode to the city, where they were received with manifestations of popular rejoicing.

In 1789, when England declared war against Spain, an expedition was proposed from the colonies to invade the West Indies, and the Governor, in a proclamation calling for recruits “to inlist in the important Expedition now on Foot for attacking and plundering the most valuable Part of the Spanish West Indies,” notified the people of Chester and vicinity that those who proposed to recruit should call on James Mather in the borough, while Henry Hockley, Robert Finney, and Lazarus Finney were designated for like service in other localities throughout the then county of Chester. It seems that in this enterprise a number of redemption servants were enlisted, and notwithstanding the attention of Governor Thomas was drawn to that fact, he took no official action to prevent such recruiting, and the parties aggrieved were compelled to seek redress from the Assembly. That body promptly provided for the payment by the province of all losses sustained by masters whose servants had been accepted into the military forces, and accordingly, on June 3, 1741, to James Gibbons and Samuel Levis was issued an order on the loan-office for £515 11s. 9d., in payment for fifty-eight servants mustered by the officers in Chester County. Other claims for damages suffered by similar enlistments were urged and paid; in one instance it was alleged that ten servants were taken from the iron-works at Coventry and Warwick, and those establishments were obliged to cease operation for a time, because their skilled labor had been marched away as recruits.

On Dec. 22, 1741, the Governor presented to Council a petition from the justices of the county of Chester, setting forth that great abuses had been “committed” in the county by the use of defective weights and measures, and that they, the justices, at the instance of some of “the substantial Inhabitants,” as well as an address from the Grand Inquest, had “directed the purchasing of Standards of Brass for Weights & Measures, accordingly to his Majesty’s Standard for the Exchequer.” They therefore prayed that “the Governor would be pleased to appoint an Officer to keep the said Standards, and to Seal and Mark all Weights and Measures within the said County.” (20*) Isaac Taylor was the favored one who received the appointment, and the standards, we learn, cost the county £17 12s. 11d.(21*)

On March 29, 1744, war was declared between Great Britain and France, and on the 11th of June of the same year Governor Thomas issued a proclamation(22*) in which he not only announced the hostile position of the two nations, but strictly enjoined and required all persons in the province capable of bearing arms “forthwith to provide themselves with a Good Firelock, Bayonet, and Cartouch-Box, and a sufficient Quantity of Powder and Ball,” that they might be prepared to attack the enemy or defend the province from invasion. The Governor also urged the fitting out of privateers, not only as a war measure highly beneficial to the State, but “may bring great advantages to the Adventurers themselves.” The Assembly, however, in which the Society of Friends largely predominated, took no step of a decided military character; but Franklin, by his pamphlet, “Plain Truth,” aroused the public to a knowledge of the defenseless condition in which the province then stood. A meeting of citizens was called, a regiment was formed in Philadelphia, and money was raised by a lottery to erect a battery below that city, on the river. “These military preparations were necessary to intimidate a foreign enemy, and to curb the hostile disposition of the Indians, which had been awakened by several unpleasant rencontres with the whites.”(23*)

The crown having, on April 9, 1746, ordered that four hundred men should be raised in the province of Pennsylvania, to be part of the forces designed for the immediate reduction of the French Canadian colonies, Governor Thomas, on June 9th of the same year, issued his proclamation(24*) to that effect, and under it four companies were recruited, commanded respectively by Capts. Trent, Perry, Deimer, and Shannon. The latter, John Shannon, of New Castle County; Del., was commissioned June 25, 1746, as captain, and authorized to enlist one hundred men.(25*) Professor Keen informs us that the company was to be recruited on the Delaware River.(26*)

That the men were collected in New Castle and Chester Counties the names on the roll fully establish, and aside from that inferential proof, we have positive evidence that the organization was quartered in the borough of Chester, for in January of the following year the petitions of James Mather, David Coupland, John Salkeld, and Aubrey Bevan, then tavern-keepers in that town, were presented to the Assembly, asking payment “for the diet of Captain Shannon’s company of soldiers,” while Dr. Gandouit, a practicing physician in Chester at that time, also petitioned for payment for medicine furnished by him, as well as professional attendance on the sick soldiers.(27*) These companies were ordered to Albany, where they went into winter quarters. From a letter from Capt. Trent to Governor Thomas, written from Albany, Oct. 21, 1746,(28*) we learn that the troops were badly provided with blankets, and that the officers had been compelled to purchase a number for them, paying there-for in a draft on the Governor. He stated that had they not supplied the troops with those articles the whole body would have deserted. The weather was extremely cold, and as many as thirty men had already deserted from Capt. Shannon’s company, giving as their reason the want of proper covering, and that they might as well take the chance of being killed in trying to make their escape as by remaining to surely die. He related that one of Shannon’s men, “when the snow was knee-deep, in attempting to make his escape, got frost-bit, and his companions, fearing to undergo the same fate, left him, when he miserably perished.” The following month the captains of the four Pennsylvania companies united in an appeal to the Governor to supply the troops with necessaries, for “we have been making as near a calculation as possible of our provisions, & find, with the utmost frugality, we have, not more meat than sufficient to serve till the 19th January, & as to our Bread & Rum, it falls far short of that time.”(29*) The troops after being kept in cantonment until Oct. 31, 1747, were discharged by proclamation of the Governor, wherein he declared the reason that “the late intended expedition against Canada having been by his Majesty laid aside for the present.” (30*)

During the early summer of 1747 a French privateer entered Delaware Bay, and captured several inward- and outward-bound vessels.(31*) The intelligence of these acts reaching Philadelphia on July 4th, pilots were forbidden by proclamation “to conduct, Pilot, or bring up any foreign Ship or Vessel carrying a Flag of Truce . . . to any Port or place within this Province above that Tract of Land lying in Chester county, commonly called and known by the name of Marcus Hook,”(32*) unless special license was issued by the Governor. The following summer the Spanish and French privateers showed the utmost daring in cruising off the mouth of and in Delaware Bay.

On May 25, 1748, George Proctor, a prisoner of war, succeeded in escaping by swimming from the “St. Michael,” a Spanish privateer, carrying twenty-two guns and a crew of one hundred and sixty men, which was at the time moored off Salem Creek. The deposition of the Proctor was taken, and an express sent immediately to Philadelphia with the intelligence, which threw the city into the utmost consternation, a condition of affairs which was in no wise allayed when on the following day the escaped sailor was himself sent to Philadelphia, the bearer of a letter from the authorities, stating that the Spanish vessel, about ten o’clock that morning, came up within gunshot of New Castle, and there anchored, with a spring on her cable. The tide, together with a calm, being against her, she was prevented getting nearer to that town, and as the people opened fire upon her, she weighed, and by her boats was towed “stern foremost, giving three Huzzas & one Gunn, hoisted Spanish Colours, & went down the River again.” Council desired Capt. Ballet, commander of the sloop-of-war “Otter,” to go down the bay and engage the privateer, but that officer stated that he had an encounter with a large French ship, in which his vessel had received such damage that required her to be hoved down for repairs.(33*) The Spanish privateer, Unmolested, remained in the bay for some time, during which she made prizes of a number of vessels. The result of the alarm, however, was to arouse the public to the necessity of organization; hence the bodies known as Associators, which had been called into existence during the previous December by the voluntary action of the people throughout the province, became firmly established, and the military education imparted thereby to the populace was of the utmost consequence to the patriot cause when, a quarter of a century later, the Revolutionary contest was forced upon the colonies. The following is the list of the officers of the two Associate Regiments of Chester County in 1747—48 (34*)

In the autumn of the year 1748 a general sickness prevailed throughout the province. Kalm records that “the disease was so violent that when it attacked a person he seldom lived above two or three days, and of those who were taken ill with it very few recovered. It was a true pleurisy, but it had a peculiarity with it, for it commonly began with a difficulty of swallowing.” . . . “The physicians did not know what to make of it, nor how to remedy it.”(35*)

In 1751 the act of Parliament,(36*) which, as its title stated, was to regulate the commencement of the year and to correct the calendar then in use, was adopted. By its provisions Wednesday, the 2d day of September, 1751, was followed by Thursday, the 14th day of the same month, and as the act was intended to equalize the style in Great Britain, Ireland, and the colonies with that used in other countries in Europe, it was necessary that the Society of Friends should take action on so important a change. Hence the records of Chester Monthly Meeting respecting this alteration in style, as transcribed by Dr. Smith,(37*) are her given entire:
     “Agreed that as by the late Act of Parliament for regulating the commencement of the year, that it is ordered that the first day of the Eleventh month next shall be deemed the first day of the year 1752, and that the month called January shall be successively called the first month of the year, and not the month called March, as heretofore hath been our method of computing.
     “That from and after the time above mentioned, the Eleventh month, called January, shall thenceforth be deemed and reckoned the First month in the year, be so styled in all the records and writings of Friends, instead of computing from the month called March, according to our present practice, and Friends are recommended to go on with the names of the following months, numerically, according to our practice from the beginning, so that the months may be called and written as follows: That January be called and written the First month, and February called and written the Second month, and so on. All other methods of computing and calling of the months unavoidably leads into contradiction.
     “And whereas, for the more regular computation of time, the same act directs that in the month now called September, which will be in the year 1752, after the second day of the said month, eleven numerical days shall be omitted, and that which would have been the third day shall be reckoned and esteemed the 14th day of the said month, and that which otherwise would have been the fourth day of the said month, must be deemed the 15th, and so on. It appears likewise necessary Friends should conform themselves to this direction, and omit the nominal days accordingly.”

In 1753 the French and Indian war was actually begun by a direct violation of good faith on the part of the French, and the struggle then inaugurated, although Great Britain did not declare war until 1755, finally terminated in the white standard of France giving place to the red-crossed banner of St. George throughout that vast territory now known as British North America. When, in the summer of 1755, Gen. Braddock took up the line of march for Fort Du Quesne, there was but one impression in all the English provinces, and that was that victory was already assured to his arms. We know that on May 28, 1755, the justices, sheriffs, and constables of the counties of Philadelphia, Chester, Berks, and Bucks were notified that sixty wagons were required for the use of Braddock’s army, and that, if possible, they should be procured without harsh measures before the 8th day of June following, but if they were not willingly furnished they must be impressed. It is, however, very doubtful whether any soldier from the then county of Chester was present at the fatal field of the Monongahela,(38*) but when the news of the crushing defeat which made famous the rash, overbearing English general, who purchased with his life posthumous renown, came to astound the colonists as greatly as it amazed the English nation, many a young man from this locality enrolled himself in the hastily-recruited company which, commanded by Capt. Isaac Wayne, was sent into Northampton County to guard the frontier inhabitants from threatened Indian attacks,(39*) as also in that commanded by Capt. George Aston.(40*) When, in the summer of 1758, Brig.-Gen. John Forbes took command of the troops collected to reduce Fort Du Quesne, in not a few instances the garb of the peaceful Society of Friends gave place to the dark-scarlet coat, faced with blue, the uniform of the Royal Americans, or the fringed hunting-shirt of the Pennsylvania Provincial. Dr. Smith(41*) records that no less than eight young men in full membership with Radnor Meeting went into active military service in 1756, and were disowned by the society because of that open violation of its rules. After Braddock’s defeat, so intense was the feeling in Chester County(42*) among the masses that on Nov. 24, 1755, a letter was read in Council from Col. William Moore, informing the Governor that two thousand of the inhabitants of that locality were prepared to march to Philadelphia to compel the Assembly to pass laws providing for the defense of the province. As at the same meeting a letter from Mr. Weiser, of Berks County, of a like import, was read, the Governor issued orders to the authorities in Philadelphia to take proper precautions to preserve the public peace. Subsequently Moore’s letter played a prominent part in the legislative and gubernatorial quarrels of that day, which, being more particularly the history of the State, requires no further mention in this work.

In 1755 the English nation suffered a disgrace far greater than defeat to her arms, and that was the violent expatriation of the French Neutrals, or, as afterwards called, “Acadian exiles,” from Nova Scotia. These unfortunates were the descendants of French parentage, and by the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, Great Britain had stipulated that these people should retain their lands on taking the oath of allegiance to the English king, and were not to be required to bear arms against the Indians or the French. For nearly half a century both parties adhered to the terms of the treaty, but in 1755 the love of their ancient country animated a few of the Acadian young men to enlist under the standard of France, and at the capture of Beau Sejour three hundred were found in arms. A number of these, however, were unwilling soldiers, forced into the ranks. Governor Lawrence, of Nova Scotia, thereupon demanded of the whole population, amounting to over seven thousand souls, including those who had not been in arms, to take the oath of allegiance to the British monarchy unconditionally. This being refused, because it was a violation of the treaty, Lawrence expelled the Acadians from Nova Scotia, confiscated their property (excepting their money and household goods), burned their dwellings, and wasted their estates. In this wantonly cruel act husbands and wives, parents and children, were torn apart and transported to different parts of the British American colonies, while the vessels which carried them were so crowded that many died on the voyage. On Aug. 11, 1755, Governor Lawrence wrote to Governor Morris, of Pennsylvania, that he had shipped one hundred and sixty-eight men, women, and children to the latter province.(43*) This letter, which was brought by the vessels on which the Acadians came, was received November 19th, and Council immediately commanded that a guard should be placed over the ship to prevent the landing of the exiles, but fresh provisions and necessaries were ordered to be delivered on board, and continued to be sent until Council determined what should be done with these people.(44*) On the 25th of the same month Governor Morris, by message, informed the Assembly that he had the French Neutrals landed at Providence Island, as the doctor had reported that it would be dangerous to have them remain longer in the crowded vessel.(45*) Early in December it was officially reported that in the ships “Hannah,” “Three Friends,” and “Swan” four hundred and fifty-four out of the five hundred French Neutrals assigned to Pennsylvania had been received at Providence Island. Governor Morris, touched at the wrongs these unhappy exiles had suffered, strove earnestly to reunite those families which had been separated in transportation.(46*) On Feb. 20, 1756, the Assembly passed an act dispersing the Acadians in the several counties of Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, and Lancaster, and making, provision for their maintenance.(47*) By the act three commissioners were appointed in each of the counties named to distribute the Acadians among the people, locating only one family in a township, and to have a supervisory care over them. Nathaniel Pennock, Nathaniel Grubb, and John Hannum were the commissioners named for Chester County. The Governor failing to approve the bill promptly, on March 3d a committee from the Assembly waited on him to know what “he had done” with it, and on the 5th he signed it. When the law was attempted to be enforced, the Neutrals claimed to be prisoners of war, but Governor Morris and Council, after considerable delay, decided, six months subsequent to the promulgation of the act, that under the treaty of Utrecht they were subjects of Great Britain.(48*) Jan. 14, 1757, an additional act was approved, empowering the binding out and settling of the Acadians under age, and providing for the maintenance of their aged, sick, and maimed at the expense of the province. The unfortunate people, feeling the injustice that had been visited on them, having lost heart and refusing to work, were soon in the utmost want. One week subsequent to the passage of the law just mentioned, William Griffith informed Council that unless something was immediately done many of the French Neutrals would perish. Already death had been busy among them, for shortly after they landed more than one-half of them had died.(49*) On March 21, 1757, Governor Denny caused the arrest of five of the Neutrals at the request of Lord Lowdoun, two in the city of Philadelphia, one in Frankford, “Paul Bujaud in Chester, and Jean Landy in Darby,” because they were “suspicious and evil-minded persons, and have and each of them hath at divers Times uttered menacing speeches against his majesty and his liege subjects, and behaved in a very disorderly manner.”(50*) No wonder; for surely the poor men who were thrown in jail in Philadelphia had every reason to utter menacing speeches against the Hanoverian scoundrel who then sat on the throne of Great Britain. In Chester, before the act authorizing the overseers of the poor in the several townships to bind out the children of the Acadians, the former officials had in many cases refused to receive the exiles or minister to their wants, hence many of the latter had died with smallpox; but after the law of Jan. 14, 1757, became operative the condition of the Neutrals was considerably improved. The burden of their support, however, aroused the taxpayers of that day, and when four years later it was found that seven thousand pounds had been expended in the support of the exiles, a committee of the Assembly was appointed to inquire into the condition of these people, and to ascertain whether the cost of their maintenance could not be lessened. It was, after investigation, reported that the reason their children had not been bound out to service was mainly owing to the religious opinions of their parents, who feared that their offspring might be surrounded with objectional influences in the families of the English settlers or their descendants. The result of the report was finally the repeal of the law providing for the support of these exiles. The glamour of Longfellow’s genius has made the wrongs of these Acadians more familiar to the popular mind than any of the many harsh and unjustifiable acts of ministerial minions in American colonial history, but to the student, the story of the banishment of these ignorant French people is a mere incident, the happening of which had little or no influence in shaping the direction of events. Even at that time among the Northern colonies the impression was being made on some thoughtful minds that at no distant day there would be an absolute separation from the mother-country.

In the summer of 1758, Brig.- Gen. John Forbes, as before stated, with three hundred and fifty Royal Americans, twelve hundred (thirteen companies) of Montgomery’s Highlanders, twenty-six hundred Virginians, and twenty-seven hundred Pennsylvania Provincials, besides a thousand wagoners,(51*) set out from Philadelphia intending the reduction of Fort Du Quesne. Capt. John Hasslet, of New Castle County, recruited a company on the Delaware River, and the roll shows that Chester County contributed at least the following persons to the ranks(52*) of this organization:

Peter Allen, enlisted May 7, born in Chester Co., aged 22, and by occupation a saddler.

William Boggs, enlisted May 6, born in Chester Co., aged 40.

James Brieslin, enlisted May 12, born in Chester Co., aged 17.

Edward Gallagher, enlisted May 12, born in Chester Co., aged 17.

Thomas Harvey, enlisted May 12, born in Chester Co., aged 17.

John McAfee, enlisted May 8, born in Chester Co., aged 21, and by occupation a laborer.

James Thomas, enlisted May 8, born in Chester Co., aged 22, and by occupation a laborer.

Samuel White, enlisted May 10, born in Chester Co., aged 26.

In the same month and year Capt. John Singleton enlisted a company of soldiers for Forbes’ expedition. The list of that organization shows that the following men were certainly from Chester County, and probably the number from this locality was greater than here represented:(53*)

William Henry, aged 22, resident of Chester, PA., drummer.

Samuel Armitage, aged 27, resident of Chester, Pa.

William Bevard, aged 28, resident of Chester, Pa., weaver.

Thomas Callican, aged 20, resident of Chester, Pa.

Thomas Connolly, aged 17, resident of Chester, Pa.

John Cross, aged 25, resident in Chester, Pa., cordwainer, “pockpitt’d,” “stout made.”

John Cruthers, aged 16, resident of Chester, Pa.

Hugh Davis, aged 20, resident of Chester, Pa., smith.

William Foster, aged 25, resident of Chester, Pa.

William Kennedy, aged 25, resident of Chester, Pa., weaver.

John Long, aged 24, resident of Chester, Pa.

Edward McSorley, aged 22, resident of Chester, Pa.

Terence Kealy, aged 35, residing in Chester, Pa., “pock-pitt’d.”

John Richeson, aged 27, residing in Chester, Pa., “cocke nose and smooth faced.”

Patrick Roe, aged 22, residing in Chester, Pa., “bold looking.”

John Shannon, aged 23, residing in Chester, Pa., chandler, “Irishman.”

Edward Sheppard, aged 21, residing in Chester, Pa., “red hair and thin visaged.”

David Way, aged 24, residing in Chester, Pa., tanner.

Coupland David.

Besides these organizations there was a company of Pennsylvania Rifles under Capt. West, an elder brother of Benjamin West, the painter,(54*) who was present with his command when, on Nov. 25, 1758, the standard of Great Britain floated over the blackened and charred remains of the Fortress Du Quesne, and when the general, who had sworn the day previous to carry the works or leave his body beneath its walls, christened the heap of ruins Fort Pitt. The army having retraced its steps, the government the following year determined to rebuild the dismantled fortification, or to erect a new one on its site. Brig. Gen. John Stanwick was placed in charge of this expedition, he having, on the death of Gen. Forbes, succeeded to the command. Troops were ordered to be enlisted, and on May 4, 1759, Gen. Stanwick gave notice that a number of wagons would be required, and in order to avoid the impressment of horses or wagons, a certain rate of compensation had been fixed by the authorities, which would be paid to those persons who would willingly furnish teams. From the county of Chester sixty-four wagons and four times as many horses were required.(55*) In the same locality a number of men enlisted, and doubtless the whole company recruited by Capt. John Mather, Jr.,(56*) was credited to Chester County, because Mather himself was a resident of the borough of Chester, and the following men certainly resided in that neighborhood:

John Gorsel, aged 16, of Chester, Pa., enlisted June 8, 1759, laborer.

Evan Jones, aged 38, of Chester, Pa., enlisted May 27, 1759, laborer.

Jacob Kirgan, aged 19, of Chester, Pa., enlisted May 27, 1759, weaver.

Hugh Wallace, aged 17, of Chester, Pa., enlisted June 12, 1759, shoemaker.

In Capt. Robert Boyd’s company appear the following persons who were undoubtedly residents of Chester County:

James Campbell, aged 22, resides in Chester, Pa., enlisted June 13, laborer.

James Darragh, aged 20, resides in Chester, Pa., enlisted May 11, laborer.

Samuel Fillson, aged 18, resides in Chester, Pa., enlisted June 6, tailor.

James Hamilton, aged 21, resides in Chester, Pa., enlisted May 21, laborer.

George Matthews, aged 18, resides in Chester, Pa., enlisted June 2, laborer.

Robert Sandford, aged 23, resides in Chester, Pa., enlisted May 25, laborer.

John Small, aged 22, resides in Chester, Pa., enlisted May 1, laborer.

John Travers, aged 20, resides in Chester, Pa., enlisted May 14, tailor.

John Willson, aged 20, resides in Chester, Pa., enlisted May 7, tailor.

In Capt. James Armstrong’s company from Chester County were

William Moore, aged 17, resides in Chester, Pa., enlisted May 9, hatter by trade.

James Parr, aged 16, resides in Chester, Pa., enlisted May 9, laborer.

In Capt. Jacob Richardson’s company, Third Battalion provincial service, under command of Governor William Denny, appears the following:

William Cassiday, aged 21, resides in Chester, Pa., enlisted Aug. 20, carpenter.

These are all the persons which can absolutely be designated as belonging to Chester County, but the foregoing is but a very small part of the men who enlisted from this locality.

The wagons required by Gen. Stanwix, so far at least as Chester County was concerned, seem not to have been forthcoming, for on Aug. 13, 1759, he wrote to the Governor from Bedford,(57*) complaining that Lancaster County was the most backward, but that” Bucks and Chester have given us only Nominal Assistance, by sending us impressed Waggons, unfit for this Service, by the Weakness of the Horses and Carriages. The Managers meet with more opposition in these two Counties than in any of the others, as the Magistrates seem unwilling to disoblige them; and unless they are spurred by the fear of incurring your Displeasure, I am afraid they will not exert their Authority in such a manner as will Answer the Purpose.”

Notwithstanding the constant assertion of Gen. Stanwix, the number of horses and wagons furnished by Chester County, according to the account-book of Roger Hunk,(58*) was not inconsiderable, particularly when we consider that the expedition really was of little moment in the shaping of events, and was useful only in that it made permanent the settlement then first called Pittsburgh.

The history of the province at this period is exceeding interesting, but, strange as it may appear, for almost a decade no event of sufficient importance to impress itself on the fleeting years seems to have occurred in our county. The French war, which was most honorable to the colonial arms, was approaching its conclusion, and in 1761, after the subjugation of Canada was complete, the whole of the provincial forces raised by Pennsylvania were discharged, excepting one hundred and fifty men. Considerable alarm was felt along the Delaware and at Philadelphia when the intelligence was received that about the beginning of the year (January 4th) 1762 Great Britain had declared war against Spain. The defenseless condition of the city of Philadelphia, its wealth and importance, it was feared would attract the combined naval power of France and Spain to attempt its capture, therefore the Assembly, which had been hastily convened, appropriated twenty-three thousand five hundred pounds, the parliamentary allotment for 1759, to the defense of the city, and also voted five thousand pounds to erect a fort mounting twenty guns on Mud Island, at the site of the present Fort Mifflin. However, the province breathed more freely when, in January, 1763, news was received that on the 3d of November, 1762, peace had been proclaimed with both France and Spain.

In 1765 we find that no less than three lotteries were authorized by the Legislature for the benefit of churches within the territory of the present county of Delaware, viz.: St. Paul’s, at Chester; St. John’s, at Concord; and St. Martin’s, at Marcus Hook. 1768 “was a year of jubilee (60*) for our good people, for the commissioners and assessors, after inspecting into the affairs of the county, “find no necessity for raising a tax this year.”

The power and wealth exhibited by the colonies during the French war amazed the home government, hence Mr. Grenville, in his desire to relieve the pressure of taxation at home,— the result of that war,— as well as to personally acquire reputation as a shrewd financier, proposed to raise a revenue from the colonies for the direct use of the British treasury. The scheme was not devoid of arguments to commend it to a debt-ridden people, yet the history of the provinces ought to have clearly demonstrated that such a measure would be met with determined resistance. The decided stand taken by the latter in 1754, when a plan for colonial taxation was suggested, should have fully indicated the temper of the people, who, whenever called on, had freely contributed pecuniary aid to the king by a vote of the Assembly, but who had always denied the right of the English Parliament to levy taxes on the provinces unless the latter had representation in the home legislative bodies. And perhaps no more objectionable form could the duties be made to assume than that which levied a tax on colonial imports, which resulted in almost destroying the colonial trade with the Spanish and French West India islands. It is unnecessary for me to discuss further this topic of colonial taxation, the resistance to which finally culminated in the Revolutionary war, and subsequently the formation of the United States as a nation.

It seems that Chester was the outpost where the customs officer was stationed to board vessels and prevent violations of the revenue laws. We learn that on Saturday afternoon, Nov. 23, 1771, about four o’clock, Alban Davis, who was attached to the custom-house schooner then lying off Chester, noticed several vessels coming up the river, among the number a light brig and a pilot-boat. Capt. Thomas Muskett, of the revenue cutter, boarded the pilot-boat, and signaled the schooner to come alongside. The crew on the pilot-boat then stated they wished to go down the river, which brought the inquiry from the officer what was their cargo, and the command to open the hatches or he would seize the vessel. Those in charge of the craft being insolent, the officer “put the broad arrow on the boat’s mast.” Whereupon the captain of the latter said that, as he had no further business on the vessel, he would go ashore. The revenue cutter and her prize, lashed together, had sailed up abreast of Red Bank, when the ebb-tide compelled them to anchor. Shortly before ten o’clock that evening, a pilot-boat coming down the river stood directly for the government schooner, when Capt. Muskett ordered them to keep off or he would fire at them, and was answered that he might fire and be damned, the river was as free to them as the cutter. Bearing down, the pilot-boat came alongside, when a man leveled a blunderbuss at Capt. Muskett, and gave him the choice to surrender or have his brains blown out. Even before the captain could make the selection about thirty men, armed with cutlasses and clubs, boarded the schooner, knocked down the captain and two of his men, and threw them into the hold, then fastened down the hatches. The captors ran the schooner ashore, cut her rigging and sails to pieces, and, unlashing the prize, sailed away with it. On December 5th Governor Richard Penn issued a proclamation, offering a free pardon to any one who should give information by whom the act was done.(61*) But nothing was learned of the men who had thus boldly set the law at defiance.

The Navigation Act, which interdicted colonial trade with foreign nations, compelling the purchase of all goods from England directly, as before stated, aroused a storm of indignation, but the right of Parliament to regulate commerce was not questioned; hence the colonists could only retaliate by adopting the noted non-importation agreement. The Stamp Act and its subsequent repeal, in this locality as elsewhere, invoked popular resentment, and the line of demarkation between the ultra Whigs and the Loyalists became every month more distinct. In 1770 the act of 1767, imposing a duty on glass, paper, painters’ colors, and tea imported into the colonies, was repealed, save the threepence per pound tax on tea. The colonists, strictly adhering to their determination to use no goods on which the detested duty was collected, modified the non-importation agreement so that it applied to tea only. In 1773 but little had been imported into America, and the East India Company, which had then on hand nearly seventeen million pounds of tea, was permitted to export that commodity into any part of the world free of duty; hence, to the colonists, tea, even with the threepence tax, would be much cheaper than ever before, since the export duty of sixpence per pound was removed. The principle, however, of taxation without representation was still involved, and the colonists were violently excited, particularly when it was learned that the East India Company consented to ship cargoes to America only on the assurance of the British government that they should at least suffer no loss. The indignation consequent on this new attempt of Lord North to enforce the obnoxious duty was resisted at every port where tea-ships were consigned, and while in New England the destruction of the tea in the harbor of Boston on the night of Dec. 16, 1773, was more dramatic in its circumstances than the action taken by Philadelphia and the Whig populace along the Delaware River, the feeling of resistance was not more intense than at the latter place. In Philadelphia a public meeting of citizens was held in State-House yard on Oct. 16, 1773, when it was declared “that whoever shall directly or indirectly countenance this attempt (to send out the tea), or in any way aid or abet in unloading, receiving, or vending the tea sent . . . while it remains subject to the payment of a duty here, is an enemy to the country,” and strong measures were determined on to resist the landing of any tea in Philadelphia. On Nov. 29, 1773, Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet announced,—
     “The ship ‘Polly,’ Capt. Ayres, from London for this port, left Gravesend on the 27th of September with the detested TEA on board, and is hourly expected.”

The excitement consequent on this brief news item was intense. On December 5th a committee was appointed to inquire the cause of the sudden and extraordinary rise in the price of tea, and the report made eight days after was not calculated to appease the popular indignation. The air was filled with rumors of the arrival of the “Polly,” which proving premature, only added to the public anxiety and suspense. On Saturday (Christmas) the tea-ship “Polly” arrived at Chester, she having followed another ship up the river, for no pilot would dare, in the heated condition of the people’s mind, to bring that vessel to the city. The Whigs of Chester, as soon as they were convinced that the ship was lying off that town, dispatched a messenger post-haste to Philadelphia to announce the long-expected but unwelcome news. When he arrived, during the evening of that day, Gilbert Barclay, one of the consignees of the ship, who was a passenger in the vessel, had also gone to Philadelphia by post, and early the next morning he was waited on by a committee, who urged his renunciation of the commission so warmly that he deemed it the wisest plan to accede to their demands. This being accomplished, the committee appointed three of their number to go to Chester, and two others to Gloucester Point, to have an interview with Capt. Ayres, and acquaint, him with the public feeling respecting his voyage and the cargo with which the vessel was ladened. The three gentlemen who had set out for Chester, when some distance below the city, were informed that the “Polly” at noon had weighed anchor, and was on her way to her port of destination. They, therefore, returned to the city. About two o’clock she appeared in sight at Gloucester Point, where, as the news had spread in all directions, a large crowd had gathered. When the vessel came sufficiently near she was hailed, and Capt. Ayres requested to come on shore. This he did, and, the people dividing so as to form a lane, he was conducted to the members of the committee, who represented to him the general feeling and the danger to him personally if he refused to comply with the popular demand. They also requested him to go with them to Philadelphia, where he could learn fully the temper and resolution of the masses. The next morning eight thousand people gathered in the State-House yard, when it was resolved that the tea should not be landed; that the vessel should not be reported or entered at the custom-house; that the tea must be taken back to England immediately; that a pilot must take charge of the “Polly,” and on the next high-water take her to Reedy Island; that Capt. Ayres could stay a day in town to procure supplies for his return voyage; that he then should go to the vessel and put to sea immediately. On Tuesday, after being in the town forty-six hours, Capt. Ayres left the city where he had been so inhospitably received, and like a prudent man sailed for London, where he reported the unsatisfactory result of his voyage. On Feb. 5, 1774, Earl Dartmouth wrote to Governor Penn, that “the Insult that has been offered to this Kingdom by the Inhabitants of Philadelphia, in the Case of the ‘Polly,’ Capt. Ayres, is of a very serious nature, and leads to very important consequences.” In conclusion, the earl demanded that “a Circumstance, which at present Appears so extraordinary, should be fully explained.”(62*) If it was, no record seems to have been preserved of that fact.

In 1774, when the news of the determined resistance made by the colonists to the landing of the tea was received in Europe, England was greatly excited at the intelligence, and Parliament hastily enacted several bills relating to colonial matters extremely offensive in their provisions. Because of the destruction of the tea in Boston harbor, the vengeance of the ministry was particularly directed against that town, hence the law which was known as the Boston Port Bill was passed, interdicting all vessels from landing and discharging, or of landing and shipping wares and merchandise at that port. As soon as these acts were promulgated in the colonies, a storm of denunciation and defiance swept across the land. Staid, dignified Philadelphia even yielded to the tempest, and on Saturday, June 18, 1774, at a large meeting of the leading citizens of that city, was passed a series of resolutions, among which was a call for the holding of a Continental Congress, and instructing the committee thus appointed to take steps necessary to have the province of Pennsylvania represented in the proposed assemblage. Rev. Dr. William Smith, Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, who addressed that gathering, in his calm, dispassionate remarks, with prophetic vision saw that the business they were then about meant “perhaps nothing less than whether the breach with the country from which we descended shall be irreparably widened.” On June 28th, the committee sent a circular letter to every county in the province, particularly urging the appointment of a committee in the several counties to assemble in Philadelphia on Friday, the 15th of July, to meet the committee from the whole province. This letter was addressed to Francis Richardson, Elisha Price, and Henry Hayes, of Chester County, who by a peculiar coincidence issued the following call for a meeting of the people of the county on the day which two years afterwards was to become one of the most memorable in the world’s history:
    
     “To the Freeholders and others, inhabitants of the County of Chester, qualified by law to vote for Representatives in General Assembly.

“GENTLEMEN:
     “The large and very respectable committee for the City and County of Philadelphia have wrote to us, the subscribers, requesting that a committee might be chosen for this county as soon as possible, to meet the committee from the other Counties of this province, at the city of Philadelphia on the 15th day of this instant, to deliberate on matters of the greatest weight and importance, not only to us, but to all America. And we are now assured, that on the account of the Indian disturbances his Honor— the Governor— has found it necessary to call the Assembly to meet, in their legislative capacity, on Monday the 28th of this instant; and we also find, that it is not only the opinion and request of the said committee for Philadelphia, but also the opinion and desire of a number of respectable persons of this county coinciding with our own opinions, as lovers of civil and religious liberty, that the committee of the several counties of this province should meet at Philadelphia, on the said 15th of this instant, in order to assist in framing instructions, and preparing such matters as may be proper to recommend to our representatives, at this meeting the Monday following.
     “We have therefore thought proper on mature deliberation and by the advice of a number of gentlemen of this county, to appoint Wednesday, the 13th instant, at one o’clock in the afternoon, as a proper time for the inhabitants of this county to meet at the Court-House in Chester, to choose a number of our best and wisest men as a committee for this county, as shall be judged necessary to meet the other committees, at the time and place above mentioned, for the purpose aforesaid, and for such other purposes as may then be deemed useful and necessary. And we sincerely hope that the good people of this county will give their attendance on that day, and calmly and heartily join with (us) in doing the business proposed, which we earnestly wish and desire may answer the good proposed, and the good purposes intended by it.
     “CHESTER, July. 4, 1774.”

The following is the record of the proceedings of the meeting:
     “At a meeting of a very respectable number of the freeholders and others, inhabitants of the county of Chester, at the court-house, on Wednesday, the 13th of July, 1774, in consequence of public notice for that purpose given, Francis Richardson, Esq., chairman,—
     “This Assembly, taking into their serious consideration the present critical and alarming situation of American affairs and the unhappy differences now subsisting between Great Britain and her colonies, do agree and resolve, as follows, viz.:
     “1. That the inhabitants of this county do owe and will pay all due faith and allegiance to our lawful and rightful sovereign lord, George the Third, king of Great Britain and the dominions thereunto belonging.
     “2. That it is an absolute right, inherent in every English subject, to have free use, enjoyment, and disposal of all his property, either by himself or representatives, and that no other power on earth can legally divest him of it.
     “3. That the act of Parliament lately passed for shutting up the port of Boston is unconstitutional, oppressive to the inhabitants of that town, in its consequences dangerous to the liberties of the British colonies; and that, therefore, we consider our brethren at Boston as suffering in the common cause of America.
     “4. That the protection of the liberties of America is an indispensable duty, which we owe to ourselves who enjoy them, to our ancestors who transmitted them down, and to our posterity who will claim them at our hands, as the best birthright and noblest inheritance of mankind.
     “5. We do agree with the Committee of the City and County of Philadelphia, that a Congress of Deputies from the said colonies is the most profitable and proper mode of procuring relief for our suffering brethren, obtaining redress, preserving our rights and liberties, and establishing peace and mutual confidence between our mother country and her colonies on a constitutional foundation.
     “6. The inhabitants of this county ought and will cheerfully adopt, adhere to, and assist in executing all and singular such peaceable and constitutional measures, which may hereafter be agreed upon and determined by the said general Congress.
     “7. It is our opinion that it would conduce greatly to the restoration of the liberties of America, should the colonies enter into a solemn agreement not to purchase any goods, wares, or merchandise imported from Great Britain, under such restrictions as be agreed upon by the Congress. We, for our parts, sensible of the great advantages which must arise from promoting economy and manufacturing among ourselves, are determined to use as little of foreign manufactures, of what kind or quality soever, as our necessities will permit, until the several acts of the British Parliament, injurious to American liberty, be repealed.
     “8. That, as our brethren at Boston are now suffering in the cause of America, it is the duty of the inhabitants of this county, in common with the neighboring colonies, generously to contribute towards their support; and, therefore, the Committee hereafter appointed are requested immediately to open and set on foot a subscription for the said sufferers, and the money arising therefrom to be laid out and expended as the said committee, or a majority of them, shall judge best to answer the benevolent intention.
     “9. That the following persons, to wit: Francis Richardson, Elisha Price, John Hart, Anthony Wayne, John Sellers, Hugh Lloyd, William Montgomery, Francis Johnston, William Parker, Richard Riley, Thomas Hock icy, Robert Mendenhall, and John Fleming, or a majority of them, be and they are hereby appointed a committee for this county to meet and correspond with the committees of the several counties of this and the other colonies, and to join in such measures as to them shall appear necessary for the public good.
     “FRANCIS JOHNSTON, Clk. Com.”

The provincial meeting of deputies chosen by the severa1 counties in Pennsylvania was held at Philadelphia, July 15, 1774, and Chester County was represented thereat by Francis Richardson, Elisha Price, John Hart, Anthony Wayne, Hugh Lloyd, John Sellers, Francis Johnston, and Richard Riley. On the committee appointed to prepare and report a draught of instructions to be presented to the General Assembly asking that body to appoint delegates to the Continental Congress, then in session, Chester County was represented by Elisha Price. The Assembly unanimously concurred in the instructions and promptly appointed Joseph Galloway (their Speaker), Daniel Rhoads, Thomas Mifflin, John Morton, Charles Humphreys, George Ross, Edward Biddle, and (at a subsequent meeting) John Dickinson the delegates from Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress to be held at Philadelphia on the 5th day of September following. Of these, two—Morton and Humphreys— were resident within the present county of Delaware.

After agreeing to the Declaration of Rights Congress remained in session nearly eight weeks, having, on October 18th, adopted articles of confederation, signed two days thereafter, which date, Oct. 20, 1775, the late distinguished orator, Henry Armitt Brown, maintained should be accepted as the commencement of the American Union, based upon freedom and equality. On the 26th of October, after adopting an address to the people of Great Britain, a memorial to the inhabitants of British America,— the Canadian provinces,— and a loyal address to the king, the body adjourned to meet at Philadelphia, May 10, 1775. Before that Congress again assembled, in less than six months after it had adjourned, the April gales, as Patrick Henry had foreseen, sweeping from the North carried to the ears of the long-suffering colonists the clash of resounding arms, the last appeal had been made, and the Revolutionary struggle had actually begun.

* The Breviate, Penn vs. Lord Baltimore. folio 105; Professor G.B. Keen’s” Descendants of Jöran Kyn,” Penna. Mag. of Hist, vol. ii. p. 445.

** Latrobe’s “History of Mason and Dixon’s Line.”

*** Hazard’s Annals, p. 603.

(4*) Penna. Archives, 1st series, vol. i. p. 65.

(5*) Penna. Archives, 1st series, vol. i. p. 95.

(6*) Colonial Records, vol. i. p. 126. Dr. Smith (” History of Delaware County,” p. 155), says, “This line continues to be the eastern boundary of Delaware County to the north line of Haverford. The resolution of the Council makes the next course run easterly instead of westerly, and is probably a mistake, as Radnor township never extended farther easterly than it now does.”

(7*) The survey of the Welsh tract was authorized by the following warrant from the proprietary:
     “Whereas divers considerable persons among ye Welsh Friends have requested me yt all ye Lands Purchased of me by those of North Wales and South Wales, together with ye adjacent counties to ym, as Haverfordshire, Shropshire, and Cheshire, about fourty thousand acres, may be layd out contiguously as one Barony, alledging yt ye number allready come and suddenly to come, are such as will be capable of planting ye same much Wthin ye proportion allowed by ye custom of ye country, & so not lye in large and useless vacancies. And because I am inclined and determined to agree and favour ym wth any reasonable Conveniency & priviledge: I do hereby charge thee & strictly require thee to lay out ye ad tract of Land in as uniform a manner, as conveniently may be, upon ye West side of Skoolkill river, running three miles upon ye same, & two miles backward, & then extend ye parallell wth ye river six miles, and to run westwardly so far as till ye sd quantity of land be Compleately surveyed unto ym. Given at Pennsbury, ye 13th 1st mo. 1684.
     “WILL. PENN.

“To THe. HOLMES, Surveyor General.”

In pursuance of this warrant the Surveyor General, on the 4th of the 2d month (April), 1684, issued an order to his deputy, David Powell, he directing him to execute it. The survey was probably made before the end of 1684. See Smith’s “History of Delaware County,” pp. 164—65.

(8*) Colonial Records, vol. i. pp. 263, 265.

(9*) Hist. of Pennsylvania, vol. i. page 336.

(10*) Dr. Smith has correctly shown that Pusey was not a member of the Council that year. It is to be regretted that the name of this member of Council is not recorded, for his act was one of rare heroism. In all probability Proud has confused the incidents, in that he makes Pusey visit the Indians from Philadelphia, when doubtless— for he was of that stamp of noble men— the Quaker who at midnight rode from Chester, accompanied by two young men, to the scene of the alleged violence was Pusey.

(11*) Life of William Penn, vol. ii. p. 163.

(12*) Gordon’s “History of Pennsylvania,” p. 138.

(13*) Colonial Records, vol. ii. p. 546.

(14*) Ib., vol. iii. p. 111.

(15*) Futhey and Cope’s “History of Chester County,” p. 41.

(16*) Colonial Records, vol. iii. p. 158.

(17*) Colonial Records, vol. iii. p. 343.

(18*) lb., p. 340.

(19*) Penna. Archives, 1st series, vol. iii. p. 144.

(20*) Colonial Records, vol. iv. p. 507.

(21*) Futhey and Cope’s “History of Chester County,” p. 49.

(22*) Colonial Records, vol. iv. p. 696.

(23*) Gordon’s “History of Pennsylvania,” p. 245.

(24*) Colonial Records, vol. v. p. 39.

(25*) See his commission and instructions, Pennsylvania Archives, vol. i. p. 688.

(26*) “Descendants of Joran Kyn,” Penna. Mag. of Hist., vol. iv. p. 108.

(27*) Futhey and Cope’s “History of Chester County,” p. 49.

(28*) Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. ii. p. 680.

(29*) lb., p. 681.

(30*) Colonial Records, vol. v. p. 127.

(31*) lb., p. 234.

(32*) Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. ii. p. 682.

(33*) Colonial Records, vol. v. pp. 248, 252, 253,256, 260, 261, 263, 264.

(34*) Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. ii. p. 606

(35*) Kalm’s Travels, vol. i. pp. 376, 377.

(36*) 24 Geo. II., c. 23,1751

(37*) Hist. of Delaware Co., pp. 261, 262.

(38*) Andrew Wallace (better known as Sergt. Wallace, of Wayne’s Bridge), in a sketch of his life published in Hazard’s Register, vol. xiii. p. 53, says, “About the 1st of May, 1754, I entered as a volunteer at Chester, and was appointed orderly sergeant in a company commanded by Capt. John Hannum.” (This was about the commencement of what was termed the French war.) The company before referred to became a part of the regiment under the command of Col. Charles Dack, of Virginia. “We were afterwards marched from Chester to the Gum-Tree Tavern, in Chester County, and from thence to Carlisle, where we were placed under the command of Maj. Samuel Hughs. From the last-mentioned place we were marched to Fort Chambers, now Chambersburg; from thence to Fort Louden, to join the troops raised, and to be commanded by Gen. Forbes, whose division was a part of the army commanded by Gen. Braddock, In the year 1755, as no part of the immediate command of Gen. Forbes was in that engagement.” This statement was made by Wallace in 1833, when he was a petitioner for a pension, and he stated he was one hundred and four years old. The aged veteran was possibly in error in his date. He may have been in Forbes’ expedition in 1758. but Forbes was not with Braddock in 1755. At the time Wallace places Hannum in command of a company the latter officer was not fourteen years of age.

(39*) Col. Samuel Miles’ Manuscript, Feb. 4, 1802: Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. ii. p. 517.

(40*) Futhey and Cope’s “History of Chester County,” p. 51.

(41*) Smith’s “History of Delaware County,” p. 264.

(42*) Colonial Records, vol. vi. p. 729.

(43*) Colonial Records, vol. vi. p. 711.

(44*) lb., p. 713.

(45*) lb., p. 729.

(46*) lb., p. 45.

(47*) lb., vol. vii. pp. 14, 15.

(48*) lb., pp. 239, 240, 241.

(49*) Gordon’s “History of Pennsylvania,” p. 500.

(50*) Colonial Records, vol. vii. p. 446.

(51*) Penna. Gazette, 1758, No. 1553. Winthrop Sargent, in his” History of Braddock’s Expedition,” page 270, make a difference in the number of men in Forbes’ command. He places the Virginia troops at sixteen hundred men.

(52*) Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. ii. p. 551.

(53*) lb., p. 553.

(54*) Sargent’s “History of Braddock’s Expedition,” p. 274. Mr. Sargent cites, in reference to the search of Sir Peter Halket for the remains of his father, slain in Braddock’s defeat, a statement that the English nobleman was accompanied by Capt. West. Galt’s “Life of West,” p. 65.

(55*) Penna. Archives, 1st series, vol. iii. p. 628.

(56*) lb., 2d series, vol. ii. p. 588.

(57*) Colonial Records, vol. viii. p. 376.

(58*) Futhey and Cope’s “History of Chester County,” pp. 54—58.

(59*) Gordon’s “History of Pennsylvania,” p. 393.

(60*) Smith’s “History of Delaware County,” p. 274.

(61*) Penna. Archives, 1st series, vol. iv. p. 445; Colonial Records, vol. x. pp. 8—14. To show the unpopularity with which the custom-house officers were regarded, even among that class of the colonists whose feelings leaned towards the doctrine that the king could do no wrong, the following case is a good example: On Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 8, 1775, Francis Welsh, in a boat with four men, boarded the schooner “Isabella” off Gloucester Point, and was told that the vessel was in ballast from Portsmouth, New England, whereupon the officer ordered the hatches to be removed. Capt. John Ritchey drew a pistol, declaring the first man who should attempt to search the schooner “he would blow to h—l.” The pilot wanting to be put ashore, Officer Welsh remarked that no man should leave the vessel, but Ritchey ordered a boat manned, and the pilot was landed. Ritchey subsequently told Welsh that the schooner belonged to Capt. David Campbell, who was the sole owner, and every dollar he had in the world was in her and the cargo, which consisted of dry goods and other dutiable or contraband articles from Dunkirk, France. Welsh was permitted to look around the cabin, and saw, among other things subject to impost duties, thirty pounds of tea. That night, about nine o’clock, Capt. Campbell, the pilot, and two gentlemen came aboard, but the latter went away, and about an hour later three other gentlemen boarded the boat, who told the officer that he ought not to pursue Capt. Campbell, for it would ruin him. They offered Welsh twenty-five guineas, and promised him more if he would let the vessel go. About two o’clock at night Welsh formally seized the “Isabella” in the king’s name, and ordered his men to take the helm. Upon this Campbell said the king never paid for her, and, drawing a pistol, put it to the pilot’s head, swearing that if he did not run the vessel down the river without putting her ashore he would kill him. On the next ebb-tide the schooner was abreast of Chester. Welsh and Campbell went ashore to get something to eat, and while in the town the officer inquired for a justice of the peace. He went to Francis Richardson, but he was ill, and afterwards to Henry Hale Graham, whose sympathies leaned towards the crown, but he told Welsh that he had no authority to go on board any vessel. Welsh then called on Sheriff Vernon, the most pronounced loyalist in the county, and the latter stated he would go and summon some men to aid him, but he never came with the posse comilatus, and Welsh again boarded the boat, which, on the ebb, weighed anchor and got to New Castle before the tide changed. Here the officer tried to get assistance, but all the local authorities there begged to be excused. Welsh clung to the “Isabella” until she got within five miles of the Capes, when Capt. Ritchey ordered him and his men into their boat, and they were compelled at midnight to row for shore, which they reached after three hours’ constant work. The collector of customs complained to the Governor and Council against the magistrates who had refused to aid his officer, but he was informed that the jurisdiction of any county in the province did not extend to the river, and magistrates therefore could not legally give any assistance in these cases. See Colonial Records, vol. x. p. 230.

(62*) Penna. Archives, 1st series, vol. iv. p. 480.

Source:  Page(s) 24-40, History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, by Henry Graham Ashmead, Philadelphia: L.H. Everts & Co. 1884

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