USA > Maryland > Cecil County > History of Cecil County, Maryland, and the early settlements around the head of Chesapeake Bay and on the Delaware River, with sketches of some of the old families of Cecil County > Part 14
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located in a new country where the indispensable necessities of life claim the most prompt attention, and the demand for the exercise of his skill limited to the most simple pro- ducts of domestic use, he could do little more than act as a pioneer for succeeding artisans. In 1741 he removed with his younger children to Wilmington, Delaware, where he became the ancestor of the respectable citizens of the name in that vicinity.
Benjamin Chandlee, founder of the celebrated firm of Chandlee & Sons, of Nottingham, manufacturers of clocks, surveyors' compasses, and mathematical instruments of all kinds, was the son of Benjamin Chandlee, the emigrant, born at Nottingham about 1728, and resided on his father's farm till it was sold on his removal, to Joseph Trimble, in 1741, when he took up his residence on the lot left by Mary Cottey to his mother, adjoining the meeting-house land. Here he lived, and died 9th month, 18th, 1794,. in the 69th year of his age. In 1749 he " proceeded in mar- riage with Mary Fallwell, daughter of Goldsmith Ed- ward Fallwell, of Wilmington, according to the good order established among Friends." Mary survived him, and after a life spent in the fulfillment of Christian duty, died 10th month 6th, 1806, in the 78th year of her age, both being interred in East Nottingham Friends' graveyard. The em- inence attained by Benjamin Chandlee in the manufacture of scientific, mathematical, and chemical instruments, was probably not surpassed during his time by any other firm in America. After his decease the business was continued with credit and success by his sons, Isaac and Ellis, who inherited their father's taste and zeal, applying their inge- nuity to the production of most of the then known instru- ments used in the various measurements of time, the prop- erties of the magnet, electric currents, engraving, etc.
Isaac Chandlee was a member of the Society of Friends, taking part in its deliberations and laboring quietly in the
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moral and religious duties assigned him. He lived unmar- ried, but having secured the services of Susanna Fallwell, his mother's sister, as housekeeper, his domestic comforts were such as to occasion few regrets on that score. This excellent lady survived him, and died in the 2d month, 1816. Isaac departed this life, much regretted by his neighbors, the 10th of the 12th month, 1813, aged 62 years.
Ellis discontinued the business after the loss of his bro- ther. He had lived to see it rise, flourish and expire, and to note the departure of many of his generation. He died about the year 1820, leaving a family.
Cottey Chandlee, son of Benjamin, the emigrant, born at Nottingham about 1713, and died there in 1807, aged about 94 years, was a quiet, unobtrusive Quaker, and lived unmarried.
Joseph England was an approved minister in the Friends' Society ; son of "John England and Loue his wife ;" born in 1680 at Burton, on the river Trent, in Staffordshire. In 1710 he married Margaret, daughter of Samuel and Joanna Orbel, born at Deal in Kent, in 1685. They settled first at Deal, but removed to Burton, whence, in 1752, they came to America, bringing their children, John, Samuel and Joanna, with them ; Joseph and Lydia were born after their arrival. Joseph and Margaret departed this life, the latter in 1741 and the former in 174S. The fine tract of land on North East Creek that they called "Springfield" is still oc- cupied in part by their descendants, and by Joseph Hamilton, whose residence is on the site of the original homestead.
Among the early Friends who settled at Nottingham was Jehu Kay. He purchased a tract of land called "Hind- man's Legacy," which corners at Colora. The residence of the late John Tosh is upon it; also the depot and railroad buildings at Colora. The Friends have a tradition that this Kay was a descendant of the first male child born of English parents on the site of Philadelphia after it was laid out for a city. In consequence, Penn presented him with a
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square in the new town. His appreciation of this present was such that when he arrived at manhood he exchanged it for a horse, saddle and bridle.
The Browns, before spoken of, were noted as well for their zeal as ministers as for their enterprise and industry. The mill on North East Creek, known as Hurford's mill, was built by them ; and one of the sons of James Brown, who married and lived near Principio iron works, had an inter- est in them as early as 1718, in which year he died. In 1751 six of the Brown family, four men and two women, were ministers of Nottingham monthly meeting. A sub- stantial stone house built by Messer Brown is now (1881) standing about a mile southwest of the Brick Meeting- house, and is occupied by the descendants of John Church- man, one of whom intermarried with a descendant of Messer Brown.
Andrew Jobestablished the first tavern in Nottingham on lot number 35, about 1710, in a small brick house which is believed to be yet standing a few rods north of the house formerly called the Blue Ball inn, of which it was doubtless the forerunner. The Blue Ball tavern being at the junction of the Lancaster County and Nottingham roads, which were the great thoroughfares between those places and New Cas- tle a century ago, was well patronized, and for a long time was one of the most celebrated hotels in the county. The Henry Reynolds who settled in Nottingham, is the reputed founder of the village of Rising Sun, the original name of which was Sumner Hill, by opening a public house near the X Roads in the village. If tradition is to be relied upon, John White, who purchased lot number 29 from Robert Dutton about 1717, established at that time the X. Keys tavern, near the Brick Meeting-house, on the spot where his grandson, Abner White, many years after erected the Mesent brick edifice.
Although but a part of Welsh Tract is in Cecil County, it seems proper to give a short sketch of its early history,
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because of its close proximity to our county and intimate connection with and influence upon it. It was granted to a colony of Welsh Baptists in 1701. Talbot had disappeared some fifteen years before that time, and Penn was no doubt quite as anxious to interpose a barrier on the east of New Ireland by granting the Welsh their tract as he was to cut Susquehanna Manor in two by his grant of Nottingham to the Friends, which he did about three months afterwards. The three agents who, for themselves and the company for which they acted, obtained the grant of the Welsh Tract from William Penn were at that time residents of Radnor Township, then in Chester County, Pennsylvania., where for a short time most of the original Welsh settlers on the Welsh Tract lived. The agreement between Penn and the agents of the Welsh stated that they were to have "thirty thousand acres, if there be so much vacant in the place hereafter ex- pressed. That is to say, behind the town of New Castle westward, extending northward and southward; beginning to the westward, seven miles from the said town of New Castle, and extending upward and downward, as there shall be found room by regular, straight lines, as near as may be." The purchasers were to pay £12 10s. for every hundred acres, and were to pay for 7,000 acres at the expiration of the two years next after the purchase, and for the remainder of the tract at the end of the three following years; and if they failed to make the payments at the time specified, they were to pay one English pound for every one hundred acres as a yearly rent till such time as the other payments were made. They were also to pay one English silver shilling for every hundred acres as a yearly rent forever. The northeast corner of the Welsh Tract is a few hundred yards northeast of the depot of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad at Newark, Delaware, from which the north line extended 1,446 perches, or about four and a half miles, west to the northwest corner; from which the western line ran due south upwards of a mile, and then by a number of angles continued south, gradually bearing east, .
K
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to some distance south of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. The southern and eastern boundaries were quite as irregular as the western, the only straight line being the northern one. The northwest corner of the tract was not very far from the Big Elk Creek, and there is some evidence in the land records of New Castle County of that period that the land west of the upper part of the tract, and be- tween it and Big Elk Creek, was granted by Penn's agents, and for a time was considered as being part of New Castle County. The northwest corner of the tract is mentioned in the report of a commission which marked and bounded the lands of Samuel Wilson, who was the proprietor of the cele- brated place called Wild Cat Swamp in 1784, but owing to the division of the lands then marked and bounded, and the length of time since it was done, it is not easy to ascer- tain the location of the said corner at this time. Wild Cat Swamp has been known in modern times by the name of "Cat Swamp." It is located a short distance west of where the road from Elkton to Newark crosses Persimmon Run. Some of the residents of that locality had rather an unenvi- able reputation in former times, and at least two murders were committed on or near it. Owing to the bad reputation of the place it was hard to locate, and in time the name was applied to a large section of country extending some miles in every direction from the original Wild Cat Swamp. This section of country now contains some of the best farms and the most industrious, enterprising and moral people in the county.
Certainly one-eighth, possibly one-fourth, of the original Welsh Traet is now in Cecil County, a part of it being west of the boundary line located by Mason and Dixon more than half a century after it was granted by Penn to the Welsh. The object of Penn in granting this tract to the Welsh was the same he had in view when he granted Not- tingham to the Friends, viz., to extend his domain as near the navigable water of the Chesapeake Bay as he possibly could, and at the same time to circumscribe the limits of
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Maryland as defined in its charter, or rather to counteract and destroy any right that Lord Baltimore might have acquired by virtue of the erection and occupation of the fort before spoken of, which Talbot had erected on the Christiana Creek.
The Welsh found a few settlers on their tract when they took possession of it. These persons claimed under titles from Lord Baltimore, and the Welsh had some trouble in dispossessing them. One of them had planted a peach or- chard upon Iron Hill, and, as was very natural, he was loth to leave his home. The Welsh threatened to put some of these people in New Castle jail, and owing to causes hereto- fore mentioned, Lord Baltimore was unable to aid them in maintaining their rights, and the Welsh appear to have had an easy victory.
Why the Welsh located where they did has long been a mystery, for much of the land is too swampy now to be of any use for any purpose, and it must have been much worse a hundred and ten years ago. But probably the land in Welsh tract was better than the land in Wales, and very likely some inducements were offered the Welsh of which we are ignorant.
Prominent among the original settlers upon the Welsh Tract were the founders of the old Baptist Church upon Iron Hill, which was founded one hundred and seventy-seven years ago by residents of Pembroke and Carmarthenshire, South Wales.
The original entry in the church record is as follows: "In the year 1701 some of us who were members of the churches of Jesus Christ in the counties of Pembroke and Carmar- thenshire, South Wales, in Great Britain, professing believers baptism, laying on of hands, election, and final perseverance in grace, were moved and encouraged to come to these parts, viz., Pennsylvania. and after obtaining leave of the church, it seemed good to the Lord and to us, that we should be formed into church order, as we were a sufficient number and as one of us, Thomas Griffith, was a minister;" which
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was accomplished, and they brought letters commendatory with them, so that if they met with any others of like faith, they might be received by them as brethren in Christ.
Among the names of this pioneer band of Baptists are those of Thomas Griffith, Enoch Morgan, Mary Johns, Mar- garet Matthias, and James David. In June, 1701, this little band of Christians sailed from Milford Haven in the ship James and Mary, and landed in Philadelphia the September following. After their arrival the old church record states they lived much scattered for about a year, but like good Christians they were not forgetful of the apostolic injune- tion, but kept up their weekly and monthly meetings. During this time their number was increased by the arrival of twenty-two other members, among whom are the names of Reese and Catharine Ryddarcks, Peter Chamberline, and Thomas Jones, all of whom, except the first, have left de- scendants who yet reside within the bounds of this ancient congregation.
Reese Ryddarcks lies buried in the old church-yard be- longing to the church on Iron Hill. Tradition saith he was an officer and served in Cromwell's army during the trouble- some times that preceded the trial and execution of Charles I. A modest and unassuming tombstone marks the last resting-place of the hero of many battles, who sleeps his last sleep on the northern slope of the Iron Hill, near which the murmuring waters of the Christiana have sung his re- quiem for more than a century and three quarters. He seems to have been a man of distinction, for his tombstone has on it a Latin inscription, the only Latin one in the graveyard. It is as follows:
RICEUS RYTHROUGH NATUS, APUD. FFANWENOG IN. COMITATU CARDIGAN ET HIC SEPULKUS FUIT AN. DOM. 1707 ETATIS FUSE S7.
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of which the following is a translation: "Reese Ryddarcks, born at Hanwenog, in the county of Cardigan, and was buried in the year A. D. 1707, being 87 years of age."
This church was the third Baptist church founded in America. The present meeting-house was built in 1747, and is yet in a good state of preservation. It is said that the floor and ceiling joists of this building were taken from the first house, which was a log structure and stood near the site of the present house. The bricks used in the con- struction of this old house were imported from England, and transported from New Castle, where they were landed, in panniers upon mules. The difficulty of obtaining bricks probably caused the adoption of the peculiar style of archi- tecture that prevailed at this time in this country. The gables of this and some other old churches stop short of the height of the apex of the roof, a small part of which is pitched so as to throw the water falling upon it towards the end instead of the side of the building. This peculiarity gives the buildings a curious and unique appearance. Many of the original settlers on the southern part of Welsh Tract were Presbyterians, whose religious opinions and doctrine differed but little, except in the ordinance of baptism, from that of their countrymen who settled on the northern part. of it. These Presbyterians were the founders of the Penca- der Presbyterian Church at Glasgow, which in organization is probably nearly as old as the Baptist church at Iron Hill.
David Evans and William Davis, two of the persons who acted as agents in procuring the grant of the Welsh Tract from Penn, are believed to have been Presbyterians. At what time they erected their first house of worship is not known. The Welsh did not remain long at Radnor, where they first stopped, but some of them soon afterwards located at Trediffrein, in the great valley of Chester County, about the same time that others of them settled upon the Welsh Tract.
The Rev. David Evans was the first pastor of the Pen-
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cader Presbyterian Church. He was a native of Wales, and a son of the David Evans before referred to. He com- menced preaching without license or authority, but was promptly stopped by the Presbytery of Philadelphia, in whose jurisdiction the Pencader Church then was, which ordered him to cease preaching for one year and devote himself to study under the direction of one of the ministers of that body. He obeyed their order and went to Yale C'ol- lege, where he was graduated in 1713. He was licensed the next year, and had charge of the united congregations of Pencader and Trediffrein until 1720. It seems strange, now when churches are so near together, that two churches so far apart should be in the charge of the same pastor. But the pioneers of Presbyterianism were men that delighted in missionary labor, and were prepared to make any sacrifice or undergo any hardship in order to preach the gospel to those who then resided in the wilderness. It is said of some of them that they spent one-fourth of their time in work of this kind. They were eminently devoted and pious men, who, with a zeal and energy not unlike his who heralded the coming of our Saviour in the wilderness of Judea, were ever ready to spend their strength in their Master's service. To have offered them a vacation would have been to have offered them an insult. They fully recognized the fact that the warfare in which they were engaged would ad- mit of no truce and would only end when their Captain called them to go up higher ; hence it was not strange that this Welsh preacher, who probably was the only Presby- terian preacher in the colonies that spoke the Welsh lan- guage, should have charge of two churches fifty miles apart, and that he endured the hardships and labor incident to the faithful performance of his duty. David Evans was a man of much learning and ability, though eccentric and high- spirited. He was the first stated clerk of the Presbytery of New Castle, and was pastor of the Pencader and Trediffrein churches for about six years. Ilis successor was the Rev.
.
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Thomas Evans, who was a native of Wales and a relative of the first pastor. His pastorate extended over a period of about twenty years, until his death, which occurred in 1742. He was an excellent seholar and had an academy at Pen- cader. Near the close of his pastorate the Peneader Church was rent in twain by the controversy that grew out of the preaching of Whitefield. This division in the church led to the organization of the Presbyterian church at the Head of Elk, now Elkton. The gospel was preached in the Welsh language to the Pencader congregation till 1776. The same language is said to have been used for nearly a quarter of a century later in the Baptist church.
This brief sketch of Welsh Traet would be incomplete without a short reference to Rev. Samuel Davies, who was born there on November 3d, 1723. He received his classical education under the tuition of Rev. Able Morgan, a Welsh Baptist minister, who had received his education from Rev. Thomas Evans, at the academy at Pencader. He was of Welsh extraction, became President of Princeton College, and was one of the most learned and eloquent divines of the times in which he lived. He was the pioneer who planted Presbyterianism in Virginia, and was sent, at the request of the Synod of New York, to Europe to solicit contributions in aid of Princeton College. He was a true patriot, and like all the early Presbyterian divines, he was always found on the side of civil and religious liberty.
Peneader, which name is now applied to one of the Hun- dreds in New Castle County, is a Welsh name, and is said to mean "the highest seat." If that is the meaning of the word, it was probably applied to the Hundred because Iron Hill, which is so high as to have been called by the early Sweedish settlers "a great and high mountain," is in the north- ern part of it.
Iron Hill is so called from the large quantities of iron ore which it contains; and it is not improbable that the first settlers were induced to locate on the Welsh Traet that they
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might be near this deposit of useful metal. They had a furnace and forge in operation on the Christiana Creek, near the mine, about 1725. Abundant evidence is yet extant to show that their method of mining differed from that now in vogue, in this, that they sunk a shaft till they struck a vein of the ore, and then followed it for long distances, many feet under the earth's surface.
A few years ago the miners employed in the ore pit on Iron Hill, came upon one of the galleries made by the Welsh miners, and discovered a rude shovel and pick and a small tallow candle, the wiek of which was made of flaxen yarn. The candle, though probably a century old, was in a good state of preservation, but the shovel and pick were so badly rusted that the former could be readily picked to pieces with the thumb and finger.
CHAPTER XII.
Characteristics of the early settlers -- Augustine Hermen succeeded by his son Casparus -- Account of Casparns Heimen -- Farms on Bohemia Manor -Death of Casparus Hermen-Succeeded by his son Ephraim Augustine -- Sketch of Ephriam Augustine Hermen-His wives and children-John Lawson marries Mary Hermen -- Peter Bouchell marries Catharine Her- men-Peter Lawson-Catharine (Hermen ) Bouchell-Her death-Joseph Ensor-Quarrel about the possession of Bohemia Manor-Joseph Ensor, Jr .- Division of Bohemia Manor-Death of Peter Lawson.
IT is worthy of note that, although several of the centres of civilization in Cecil County were settled two centuries ago, the manners, customs and religion of the original set- tlers have been transmitted from generation to generation of their descendants ; and although not as distinctly marked now as they were at first, still they are yet easily distin- guished and readily noticed by the close observer.
Augustine Hermen and George Talbot differed in many respects from each other, but they were not more different than those who now live upon their respective manors. The Bohemian and the Hollander; the Irish Catholic; the En- glish Episcopalian; the Scotch-Irish Presbyterian ; and the meck and unassuming Quaker, have each left the well-de- fined impression of their nationality and religion upon that part of the county where they settled. With few exceptions, wherever a church was planted by the carly settlers, one of the same denomination yet exists. The old Catholic Church in Sassafras Neck, which is called Bohemia, though it is some miles south of Bohemia River, the Episcopal churches of St. Stephen and St. Mary Ann, and the Nottingham and Rock Presbyterian churches, are notable examples in proof of the truth of this assertion. The early extinction
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of the Labadists is an exception ; but they were more mer- cenary than religious, and their community, like most sys- tems of religion which have been founded upon a false basis, having had nothing but the cupidity of its devotees to hold it together, soon disintegrated and fell to pieces. It is also worthy of note that many of the leading families of the county at the present time can trace their connection back to the leading families of two hundred years ago. This is especially the case with the descendants of Hermen, many of whom have occupied positions of honor and responsi- bility.
It would be neither interesting nor profitable to give the exact date of the smaller grants of land in the county. It suffices to state that with the exception of a few tracts along the Sassafras River and the Elk Neck, which were taken up about the time that Augustine Hermen settled upon Bohe- mia Manor, the other portions of the county were not exten- sively settled until after the beginning of the seventeenth century. Probably nearly all of the land in the county had been patented previous to 1750, though much of it still re- mained uncultivated.
The reader's attention is now directed to the conclusion of the history of Bohemia Manor. The time of the death of Augustine Hermen, as before stated, is unknown, but it probably occurred in 1686. His oldest son, Ephraim George, survived him only a short time, when the vast estate which his father had been at such pains to acquire passed into the possession of his second son Casparus, who, in accordance with the will of his father, assumed the name of Augustine. IIe took possession of the Manor house on the 3d day of June, 1690, but did not long enjoy the honor of being Lord of Bohemia Manor. A law enacted in 1697 by the colonial legislature, empowering his widow Catharine to dispose of some of his real estate, shows that he died about that time. It is probable that there was some contention about the occupation of the Manor house. for there may be seen among
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