USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > A history of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and its people; Volume I > Part 22
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But even the Society of Friends was not, as a body, quite prepared at that period to view the institution as sinful. The monthly meeting, though it re- garded the tenor of the letter as "being nearly related to truth," found the questions involved therein too weighty for its decision, and accordingly, re- ferred the subject to the quarterly meeting, which, in like manner, and for a like reason, submitted the matter to the consideration of the yearly meeting. This body unquestionably represented the Society not only within the limits of
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the Province, and three lower counties, but also those settled in parts of New Jersey and Maryland. The following minute made upon the occasion should at least teach us to exercise an abundance of charity towards the people of the South who still regard the institution with so much favor: "A paper was pre- sented by some German Friends concerning the lawfulness and unlawfulness of buying and keeping negroes. It was adjudged not to be proper for this meeting to give a positive judgment in the case, it having so general a relation to many other parts; and, therefore, at present, they forbear it."
Such a decision, made by other nien, under other circumstances, might be regarded as a convenient shift to get rid of a disagreeable question they had not the moral courage to meet. But such a suspicion cannot attach to these early Quakers. Their faithfulness to what they regarded as the Truth, had been tested, in very many of them, by the severest persecution that the bigotry of the age dared to inflict. To them, it may be remarked, the institution was presented in its mildest form; and doubtless many of them had witnessed a moral improvement in the imported Africans distributed amongst them. They were really not prepared to give "a positive judgment in the case," but it ever after continued to be one upon which the Society was deeply exercised, until the total abolition of slavery was accomplished.
In 1696, Friends are advised by the yearly meeting, "not to encourage the bringing in any more negroes." It also gives wholesome advice in respect to their moral training. In 1711, the Quarterly Meeting of Chester declared to the yearly meeting, "their dissatisfaction with Friends buying and encouraging the bringing in of negroes." The advice of the yearly meeting only goes to the discouragement of the slave trade. The London Yearly Meeting was appealed to for advice, but none could be had, except that the importing of slaves from their native country by Friends, "is not a commendable or allowable practice." In 1714, a law was passed imposing a duty of £20 on each negro slave im- ported, on the ground "that the multiplying of them may be of dangerous con- sequence." This act was promptly disallowed by the home government.
In 1715 the Monthly Meeting of Chester had the subject of slaves again under consideration, and unanimously came to the conclusion "that friends should not be concerned hereafter, in the importation thereof, nor buy any." This buying, the quarterly meeting concluded, had only reference to imported slaves. If so, the action of the monthly meeting did not go one step beyond what had already been determined upon by the yearly meeting. There is some reason, however, to believe that the term was used in a more general sense, as will be seen by a minute adopted the following year.
Up to about this period, the dealings with offending members in the So- ciety of Friends, were, in general, for a violation of discipline, or for slight of- fences. No one had, as yet, been dealt with for a failure to pay his debts, and but few cases of a scandalous nature appear upon the minutes of the Society. But this generation of early Quakers, whose record for strict moral rectitude has scarcely a parallel in the annals of religious sects, was about passing away. to be succeeded by their descendants, who were mostly members by birthright.
II
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and whose faithfulness to their religious profession had not been tested by severe trials and persecutions. A greater laxity of morals is observable, though the number of cases brought to the notice of the several meetings is by no means large. To remedy this growing evil, an ill-judged public exposure of the offender was now for the first time resorted to. The following minute from the Darby Record is the prelude to this singular and rather unfeeling practice, in that meeting : "This meeting having considered that inasmuch as the Book of Discipline directs that all papers of condemnation be published as near as may so far as the offence hath reached the ears of the people, Do upon deliberation of the matter conclude that for the future all papers of con- demnations which the monthly meeting shall judge the offence to be a pub- lick scandal, shall be read as speedily as may be at first day meeting, and published further as there may be occasion." It is but fair to state that no such paper of condemnation was issued until repeated, and re-repeated efforts had been exhausted in endeavors to reclaim the offender.
There were a few Baptists located within our limits at a very early date. It is said that one Able Noble, who arrived in 1684, "formed a society of Bap- tists in Upper Providence, Chester county, where he baptized Thomas Martin a public Friend." Noble appears to have been a Seventh-day Baptist, and be- longed to a community that was afterwards known as Kiethian Baptists. Be- sides Thomas Martin, a number of baptisms are recorded as having taken place at a very early period, and at various places in the county ; but a highly interesting manuscript in the possession of Robert Frame, Esq., of Birming- ham, satisfies me that no regular church of the Baptist persuasion had been organized till 1715. Meetings, it is true, were held in private houses in Ches- ter, Ridley, Providence, Radnor, and Springfield, and baptism was performed according to ancient order, in the adjacent creeks, and even the Lord's Sup- per was administered, but these were the doings of variable congregations, rather than the acts of an organized church.
The paper referred to is in the nature of a constitution, and the organi- zation effected under it, afterwards assumed the title of the "Brandywine Bap- tist Church," by which it has continued to be known to the present time. It will be perceived that these early Baptists used the same designation for the months and days as the Quakers. Most of them had been members of that sect ; quite a large proportion were of Welsh origin.
The minute adopted by the Chester Monthly Meeting in 1715 in respect to negro slavery, is rendered explicit by the following, adopted by the same meeting this year : "The meeting desires the Quarterly Meeting will take into their further consideration, the buying and selling of negroes, which gives great encouragement for bringing them in, and that no friend be found in the practice of buying any, that shall be imported hereafter."
A preparative meeting was settled at Caln in 1716, by Concord Monthly Meeting.
From orders made by the court for the repair of the bridge over Chester creek, at Chester, it appears that its original construction with a draw was still
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maintained. From a similar order, "to repair ye bridge over Ridley creek in the great new road now leading from Chester to Philadelphia," it may be in- ferred that it did not contain a draw.
It would appear from the court records of this period, that but twelve traverse jurors sometimes attended at a court, and fifteen grand jurors. The sentences of the court change from time to time, sometimes in consequence of a change in the law, at others, from the whims of the justices. This year a sen- tence for larceny to the value of £8 was, that the defendant pay four fold and costs, "and be whipped 21 lashes, and to wear a roman T of a blue colour for the space of six months not less than four inches long each way, and one inch broad, and be committed till he comply with sª Judgment." This was not an unusual punishment.
In early times the office of sheriff was not so profitable as it now is, and as a sort of perquisite the sheriff was allowed to keep tavern. Hence we find Nicholas Fairlamb, a newly elected sheriff, petitioning to the court to be recom- mended for a license. In later times the tavern was kept in the dwelling apart- ment of the prison.
Governor Gookin had become very unpopular with all parties long before the close of his administration. He was superseded by Hon. William Keith, a Scotchman, who arrived at Philadelphia on May 31, 1717, and was sworn into office the next day.
Total abstinence from the use of intoxicating drinks was not thought of in early times ; but the subject of their excessive use was frequently brought before the business meetings of the Quakers. Selling rum to the Indians was attended with so many evil consequences, that it was frequently testified against by different meetings of the Society. But rum was regarded as an ar- ticle of necessity. It was in general use, and was sold by Friends of the high- est standing, and sometimes at the houses at which the earlier meetings of the Society were held. But the evils resulted from intoxication were too apparent to be passed over by a sect making high professions of morality, and hence we find frequent testimonies borne against drunkenness. The following is a speci- men from the minutes of Chester Monthly Meeting: "Friends being under a weighty concern for the preservation of good order at all times, and particu- larly in the approaching time of harvest, and it is desired friends avoid all ex- travagant customs and drinking to excess."
Meetings had for a long time been held at private houses in Birmingham, but no regular meeting-house was established till 1718, when the first was erected at or near the site of the present Birmingham meeting-house. It is said to have been built of cedar logs.
A new Friends' meeting-house was also built at Radnor this year. The minutes of the monthly meeting that relate to the erection of this edifice are given, to show the cautious manner in which such enterprises were entered upon in these early times. The first minute is dated at a meeting held at Hav- erford, 8th mo. Ioth of the previous year, and runs thus: "A letter from our Friend Benjamin Holm to this meeting, recommending to their consideration
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the stirring up of frds in ye building of their meeting house att Radnor, and with desires yt we should be concerned for y" prosperity of Truth, was read in this meeting and approved off. Likewise this meeting pursuant to Radnor frds desire acquiess wth ym in building a new meeting house and this meeting ap- points David Morris, David Lewis, Edd. Rees and Robert Jones, Richard Hayes and Samuel Lewis to assist ym In ye contrivance [and] ye building Thereof, and they meet together abt it on ye 21st of this instant, [and report] to ye next meeting."
The members of the committee all belonged to the preparative meetings of Haverford and Merion. The next meeting was held at Merion, and one of its minutes embraces the report of the committee: "Some friends of those ap- pointed to assist Radnor friends In ye Contrivance of a new meeting house then having acct. yt they have accordingly mett and given ym Their thoughts as to ye bigness and form thereof. To wch Radnor frds Then there present seemed generally to agree wth."
The monthly meetings were held alternately at Haverford, Merion and Radnor, and in course a meeting would be held at Radnor in the early part of December, 1718. This meeting was ordered to be held at Haverford, "their meeting house at Radnor being not ready." The west end of the present meet- ing-house at Radnor was the building then erected. The date of its erection is further attested by being cut on a tablet in the east gable.
For some years the intellect of William Penn had been so much impaired as wholly to exclude him from any participation in the affairs of the Province. His general health gradually declined till the time of his death, which hap- pened July 30, 1718. The news of this melancholy event did not reach Penn- sylvania till October, when it was formally announced to the Assembly, which was then in session.
Soon after the arrival of Governor Keith, the Supreme Court was so constituted as to hold a court of oyer and terminer at Chester, for the trial of the murderers of Jonathan Hayes. They were promptly tried, and Hugh Pugh and Lazarus Thomas were convicted, and sentenced to be hung. The con- demned petitioned the Governor for a reprieve, until the pleasure of his Ma- jesty the King could be known : but the Governor, who had attended the trial and being satisfied of its fairness, was so fully convinced of the guilt of the prisoners, that he at once rejected the petition, and in doing so he was sus- tained by a majority of his council. The grounds taken in the appeal to the Crown were :-
"Ist. Because seventeen of the Grand Inquest who found the bill of Indictment against them, and eight of the Petty Jury who found them guilty were Quakers or Reputed Quakers, and were Qualified no otherwise than by an affirmacon or Declaracon contrary to a statute made in the first year of your Matles Reign.
"2ndly. Because the act of Assembly of this Province, by which Judges, Jury & Witnesses were pretended to be Qualified was made & past the Twenty eighth Day of May, in the first year of your Majestie's Reign, which was after sd murder was sup-
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posed to be committed; and after another act of Assembly of the same nature was repealed by her Late Majesty, Queen Anne.
"3dly. Because sd act of Assembly is not consonant to Reason, but Repugnant & contrary to the Laws, Statutes and Rights of your Majestie's Kingdom."
It appears from the discussion in Council, that the condemned "had for several years appeared at the head of a lawless Gang of Loose fellows, com- mon disturbers of the public peace." The crime had been committed three years before the trial, during part of which time, the accused being out on bail, behaved in the worst possible manner. The appeal made to the Crown in this case is perhaps the only instance on record where any exception has been taken, by a defendant tried for murder, to the presence of Quakers on the jury.
A great alarm from piratical vessels being on the coast prevailed in 1718. Under an act of Grace, promulgated by the King, a number of these pirates had surrendered themselves, and had obtained certificates to that effect from the provincial authorities ; but it was suspected that these repentant outlaws still maintained a secret correspondence with their old associates. Measures were at once adopted by the Governor and Council to rid the Province of per- sons so dangerous to its peace and safety.
An act passed in 1718, "for the advancement of justice, and more certain administration thereof," removed most of the obstacles in the way of Friends participating freely in legislative and judicial concerns. This act was con- firmed by the King and Council in the following year. The act "for corroborat- ing the circular line between the counties of Chester and New Castle," that had been passed several years previously, met with a different fate; for what reason does not appear.
"John Wright, Richard Webb, Henry Pierce and Henry Nayle and their associates," now appear as justices of the "General Quarter Sessions of the Peace and jail delivery." The August court was held by John Wright alone. At this court, for an assault and battery committed on a female, the sentence was a fine of £50, "and to stand in the pillory at Chester between ye hours of IO and 2 on the 5th day of October, and that he give security for his good be- haviour during 7 years next ensuing."
A road was laid out in 1719 from Goshen to Philadelphia, commencing "at the intersection of the Goshen mill road with the Providence road." This road passed by what was formerly known as "the old Square," in Newtown township, and a short distance beyond that point it entered "the Great road leading to Philadelphia."
After the death of William Penn, his eldest son, William, claimed the right to administer the government of the Province, and accordingly issued a new commission to Lieut .- Gov. Keith. After consulting with his Council and also with the Assembly, the Governor declined the new commission, and con- tinued to act under his former appointment. This decision met with the ap- probation of the home government. William Penn, the younger, died two years after his father, and after some litigation, not only the Province, but the
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government of it, descended to John, Thomas, and Richard Penn, the surviv- ing sons of the Proprietary by his second wife, Hannah Callowhill.
The literature of the Province, so far as the people generally were con- cerned. was very much restricted to religious publications. These productions were standard works or controversial writings of the Society of Friends, pub- lished in England, and sometimes republished in Philadelphia. Such books were distributed with a profuse liberality by the several monthly meetings among their members. Besides Epistles and Testimonies concerning de- ceased members, few original works had been published in the Province.
Haverford Monthly Meeting had maintained a direct correspondence with the Yearly Meeting of Wales, and there is not wanting other proofs in the minutes of that meeting, that the attachment of the Welsh settlers for their native land was stronger than that which obtained among the English.
Ellis Pugh, a Welsh preacher of some eminence, at first settled in Radnor but subsequently removed to Gwynedd, where he died in 1718. He paid a religious visit to his native land in 1707. and, upon his return the following year, "a concern came upon him" to write a book, "to direct the unlearned Britains of low degree, to know God and Christ. the Life eternal :" which he wrote for the most part during his last sickness.
Though Haverford and Gwynedd now constituted separate monthly meet- ings, they united in the serious concern of publishing this Welsh book, each meeting having appointed a committee of twelve on the subject. Having been carefully examined and approved, it was formally recommended to "the over- seers of the Press at Philadelphia." The approbation of this tribunal, after some delay, was secured, shortly after which the Welsh edition of the book was published under the authority of the quarterly meeting. This is probably the first work ever published in America for the especial benefit of the mother country, and perhaps the only one printed in the Welsh language. This book was published in the English language in 1727. having been translated by Row- land Ellis, and corrected by David Lloyd. Disputes in respect to the line be- tween Philadelphia and Chester counties, north of Radnor, commenced in 1720, and were continued for several years. The road leading from Phila- delphia to Conestogo, through Merion and Radnor, was confirmed as far as Thomas Moore's mill, on the Brandywine, by the Governor and Council ; but two roads having been laid out beyond the Brandywine, by order of the Ches- ter court, all orders for opening them were for the present superseded.
Two brothers, John and Edmund Cartlidge, who were born and brought up in what is now Upper Darby township. after the death of their father, re- moved to the neighborhood of the Conestoga, and became Indian traders. Un- fortunately, these men became embroiled with a drunken Seneca Indian at some point west of the Susquehanna, and in some way the Indian lost his life. The brothers, and especially John Cartlidge, were accused of the homicide. News of this unpleasant event having reached the ears of the Governor and Council, they regarded it a matter of sufficient moment to require prompt in- vestigation, and accordingly James Logan and Colonel French proceeded im-
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mediately to Conestoga, with the sheriff of Chester county, arrested the parties, and, upon Indian testimony, brought the brothers to Philadelphia. John Cart- lidge held a commission as justice of the peace for Chester county at the time from which office he was immediately removed; and the government felt it necessary to enter into long and expensive negotiations with the Five Nations, as an atonement for this serious injury and insult offered to their nation.
This year, the Particular Meetings of Newtown, Goshen, and Uwchlan were constituted a separate monthly meeting, to be called Goshen Monthly Meeting. In these meetings the Welsh Friends were largely in the ascendancy, and on that account there was a peculiar propriety in thus uniting them in one ecclesiastical community.
The first instance of a disownment of a member by the Society of Friends. within the limits of this county, for a failure to pay his honest debts, occurs in the early part of 1722. It must be observed, however, that it was the constant practice of the Society to extend relief to members who were brought into pecuniary difficulty through misfortune.
The unsettled line between Pennsylvania and Maryland was the source of considerable difficulty. The officers of Cecil county insisted upon collecting taxes in Nottingham and other border townships, and they even went so far as to make prisoners of Isaac Taylor and Elisha Gatchel, for surveying lands in that vicinity. These gentlemen were both magistrates of Chester county, the former being also a Representative in the Assembly.
The public pound at Chester had been located west of the creek, but from the following minute extracted from the proceedings of the court, it will ap- pear that the most public situation in the borough was now secured for it : "Upon application of some of the inhabitants of Chester for a pound in the said town of Chester, whereupon the court orders, that there be a Pound erected in the Market place in the borough of Chester, forty foot square, well fenced with posts and railings, and a good rack in the middle of sd pound, and that Richd Marsden be Keeper of the pound, To act, do, and perform accord- ing as the act makes mention, &c." A pound was also ordered for Aston at the same court-John Carter to be the keeper.
There were no less than three persons under sentence of death at this time in Chester gaol. Petitions were presented to the Governor and Council, asking that the execution of the sentence might be respited, until such time as the pleasure of the king could be known therein. This application was successful in respect to two of the prisoners, one of whom was a woman ; but the third, William Battin, who had been convicted "of divers horrid complicated crimes," was ordered to be executed "and hung in Irons in the most public place, at such time as the Governor shall appoint."
The earliest list of taxables of the county of Chester, that has come to the notice of the author, is contained in the regular assessment of the county, made in 1722, which is still on file in the commissioners' office at West Chester. As the best means of showing the extent of the settlements that had been made at this early period, this assessment has been copied entire. (omitting ench per-
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son's tax), so far as relates to the townships embraced within the limits of Delaware county ; including, however, the whole of the townships of Birming- ham and Thornbury. The rate was 3d. in the pound, and os. poll tax on each single freeman.
By making a proper allowance for the parts of Birmingham and Thorn- bury not included in Delaware county, the taxables within its present limits at this early date, numbered about 500. As servants were not taxed. it will be safe to estimate six inhabitants to each taxable, making the population of the district now included in Delaware county, at this time, about 3000. As a gen- eral rule the assessment, or valuation, was at the rate of £2o per 100 acres of land, but there appears to have been a little variation in some of the townships. The whole amount of tax imposed within our county's limits was about £278 IOS. : equal to a little more than $700.
Beyond the limits of what is now Delaware county, this ancient assess- ment embraced "West Conestogoe township, containing 64 taxables ; East Con- estogoc, 147; Peque, '& part of & former District,' 13; Tren y Dyfrin, 31 ; White-Land. 13: East-Town. 12: Willis-Town, 20: Ywchlan. 20: Charles- Town, 19: Nantmel, 18: Skoolkil, 27: West-Town, 9: Sadsbury. 20; East Nottingham, 42: Marlborough, 39: West Nottingham, 29: Kennet, 67; Gosh- en, 19: Bradford. 38; Caln, 33: New Garden, 94, and the inhabitants adja- cent. belonging to New Garden. 18."-making in the whole of Chester county, which then extended to the Susquehanna, the number of taxables 1345, and the population about 8.070.
The very small population of some of the least remote townships, as Wes- town and Eastown, was owing to the large tracts of land held in those town- ships by non-residents. The large extent of territory embraced in some of the most distant townships, bordering on the Susquehanna, will account for the relatively large number of taxables returned from that region.
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