Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsylvania : comprising a historical sketch of the county, by Samuel T. Wiley, together with more than five hundred biographical sketches of the prominent men and leading citizens of the county, Part 4

Author: Garner, Winfield Scott, b. 1848 ed; Wiley, Samuel T
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Gresham Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 916


USA > Pennsylvania > Chester County > Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsylvania : comprising a historical sketch of the county, by Samuel T. Wiley, together with more than five hundred biographical sketches of the prominent men and leading citizens of the county > Part 4


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105


Dutch Trading Posts. - The Delaware bay was discovered by Henry Hudson, August 28, 1609, and in the following year was entered by Lord Delaware, after whom it is named. It has also borne the names of New Port bay and Godyn's bay. Iu 1614 Capt. Cornelius Hendrickson, in the


33


OF CHESTER COUNTY.


yacht Restless (the first vessel built in America by Europeans), ascended the Dela- ware bay until he came to the Delaware river, which he explored for some distance. This river has been known by various names. By the Indians it was called Pau- taxat, Mariskitton, Makerish-Kisken, and Lenape Whituck; by the Dutch, Zuyt, or South river, Nassau river, Prince Hendrick river, and Charles river; by the Swedes, New Swedenland stream ; and by the Eu- glish, Delaware river. The Dutch claimed the country along the Delaware river, by right of Hudson's discovery and Hendrick's exploration, as a part of New Netherlands ; and the Dutch West India Company, in 1624, sent Capt. Cornelius Mey to take possession of their sonthland country. He ascended the Delaware, or South river, to the mouth of Little Timber, in Gloucester county, New Jersey, where he erected Fort Nassau as a trading post. Four women and their husbands accompanied Mey, but the fort was vacated for a time the next year, and the garrison recalled to strengthen the Manhattan colony. The Dutch West India Company, whose great object was reprisals on Spanish commerce, had no de- sire for planting colonies, and only estab- lished posts to secure the fur trade of the Indians; yet they became alarmed in 1633 at the efforts of Gustavus Adolphus, of Sweden, to found a colony on the Delaware, or South river, which they endeavored to counteract by re-occupying Fort Nassan and establishing a colony in their southland possessions. Two of the directors of the company -Samuel Godyn and Samnel Blo- maert -had, in 1630, planted a colony of nearly thirty souls near Lewistown, Dela- ware, but they could not avoid contests with the Indians, and in less than two years


were destroyed by the savages. In 1634 Fort Nassau was re-occupied and strength- ened, and other trading posts established by the Dutch; and during the next year they captured and sent to Manhattan a few English colonists who attempted to settle on the Delaware river. From: 1635 to 1638 the Dutch held undisputed sway on the Delaware, where their possessions were often called the South county; but in the latter year a formidable foe appeared in a Swedish colony, led by Peter Minuet.


New Sireden .- The English challenged the elaims of the Dutch on pretense of earlier discovery, and the Swedes on account of non-settlement. Gustavus Adolphus, in 1626, in the interests of the commerce of his kingdom, and in view of the advantages to be derived from populous and prosperous colonies, sought to organize a company to found a colony on the Delaware, where religious liberty should exist and slavery should never be allowed. His death pre- vented the enterprise, and twelve years later Queen Christina and her great minis- ter, Oxenstiern, took up the matter, which had been presented to the Swedish govern- ment by Usselinx, the originator of the Dutch West India Company, with which he had become dissatisfied. Peter Minuet, the dismissed director of New Netherlands, was placed in charge of the colony of Swedes and Fins, which embarked on the Key of Calmar and the Griffin. He landed in Delaware, and erected Fort Christina, near the month of Christiana creek. He pur- chased a large body of land along the Dela- ware river from the Indians, and laid the foundations of New Sweden, which, how- ever, enjoyed but a few years of existence. The Dutch protested, but wisely forbore active hostilities on account of the prowess


3


34


BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY


of Swedish arms, for Banner and Torsten- son were then humbling Austria and Den- mark. In 1642 the Swedish governor, Printz, built a fort on Tinieum island, just below Philadelphia. Three years later a Swedish settlement was made at Upland (Chester), in Delaware county, and thus was founded the first settlement in Chester county and the State of Pennsylvania. The Dutch held their several forts, or trading posts, on the east bank of the Delaware, and built Fort Casamir close to the bay, while the Swedes and Fins increased their settlements on the west side of the river and bay. In 1654 the Swedish Governor Rysingh took possession of Fort Casamir by pretended orders from the Dutch West India Company, and the next year, when Peter Stuyvesant, the great Dutch war governor of New Netherlands, ascertained the truth of the matter, he organized an expedition of seven hundred men for the recovery of Fort Casamir and the conquest of New Sweden. The Swedish forts sur- rendered to him without resistance, and the province of New Sweden passed under the rule of the Dutch. Sweden had become too weak to recover the province, and the Duteh authorities of New Netherlands exer- cised control over the conquered territory, which then had about seven hundred pop- ulation, for one year; after which the West India Company sold its interests on the South river to the city of Amsterdam, which reorganized its acquired territory as the colony of New Amstel, whose existence was terminated in 1664, when it was wrested from the Dutch by the English under the Duke of York. In 1673 a Dutch squadron recaptured the country, but one year later Holland gave up her possessions sonth of the Delaware to England. Chris-


tiana, the seat of Swedish power, whose name was New Amstel under the rule of Amstersdam, was named New Castle by the English ; and New Sweden, together with New Netherlands, was blotted from the map of the new world's colonies.


Upland County .- This county, or juris- diction, seems to have derived its name from Upland, its seat of justice, and the first settled town in the State. The word Upland is said by one writer to be derived from the Swedish word Upsala. It is said that many of the Swedes who came in 1638 were from the Swedish province of Upsala, whose capital city of Upsala, in the midst of a vast and fertile plain, is the seat of the oldest university of Sweden, and during the middle ages was an ecelesiasti- cal capital of Scandinavia and northern Europe.


Christiana, now New Castle, Delaware, was the capital of New Sweden, and the place of holding all courts until 1676, when courts of justice were established on the Delaware at New Amstel, Hoern Kill, and Upland. The jurisdiction of the Upland court "extended provisionally from the east and west banks of the Kristina kill upwards unto the head of the river," and included nearly all of the present territory of Chester county. The first court for Upland county or jurisdiction was opened on November 14, 1676, and two years later it ordered a levy of twenty-six gilders to be made on every male inhabitant in the county between the ages of sixteen and sixty years. This levy was payable in money, grain, tobacco, pork, or wampum. The "tythables" re- turned, 136 in mumber, were as follows: Tacony district, 65; Carkoens lloek, 11; Calkoens Hoek, 14; Upland, 17; Marens Hook, 19; and Eastern Shoure, 10. The


35


OF CHESTER COUNTY.


tithables at Upland were: Claes Sehran, Robberd Waede, Jan Hendricx, Rich Bob- binghton, James Sanderling & Slane, John Test and servant, Jurian Kien, Rich Noble, Neels Laerson & Son, Henry Hastings, Will Woodman and servant, John Hayles, and Mich. Vzard. We have been unable to find which districts of the above named six embraced the present territory of Chester county. In 1680 the seat of justice was removed from Upland to Kingsesse, in the upper part of the county, where it remained but one year.


On the banks of the calm-flowing Dela- ware, in 1633, Gustavns Adolphus, the great- est of Swedish kings, sought to establish a mighty empire, free from slavery and reli- gions persecution, whose power for the benefit of the human race should be felt throughout the civilized world. But to other hands, a half century later, was left the founding of this grand ideal State, and upon the weak and feeble New Sweden of the warrior monarch was planted the strong, prosper- ons, and peaceful Quaker province of Wil- liam Penn, which is now the powerful and populous Keystone State of the American republic.


1158672


William Penn, the " Quaker King," in founding his province, provided an asylum for the good and oppressed of his day, laid broad and deep the foundations of popular power and a lofty civilization, and contrib- uted in a large degree to the birth of a nation whose magnificent progress has been the wonder of the world, and whose future career will largely control the destinies of humanity. Bancroft speaks eloquently of the faith of the people called Quakers, and says of William Penn: " His fame is now wide as the world; he is one of the few who have gained ahiding glory."


Penn's Purchase .- On March 4, 1681, the province of Pennsylvania was granted to William Peun, in liquidation of a debt of sixteen thousand pounds which the English government owed to his distinguished father, Admiral Sir William Penn, in honor of whom Pennsylvania was so named by King Charles II. Penn appointed William Markham as his deputy governor, and on November 30, 1681, the latter was presid- ing over the courts of Upland. At another court at the same place, over which he presided on September 12, 1682, was called the first grand jury that ever sat in Penu- sylvania. Their names were: William Clayton, Thomas Brassey, John Symcock, Thomas Sary, Robert Wade, Lawrence Cock, John Hart, Nathaniel Allen, William Woodmanson, Thomas Cocbourne, John Otter, and Joshua Hastings.


On August 30, 1682, William Penn sailed from Deal, England, for Pennsylvania, on board the ship Welcome, in company with over one hundred passengers, most of whom were Quakers from Sussex. While the Mayflower bore the Pilgrims to a rock- bound coast and the rigors of a winter which many never survived, yet the Wel- come, although bearing the Quakers to fertile fields in a warmer elimate, was scourged by small pox, from whose ravages thirty of their number died. Of her pas- sengers Edward Armstrong has collected a partial list, of whom the following were males : John Barber, died on the way: William Bradford, earliest printer of the province ; William Buckman. John Carver. Benjamin Chambers, Thomas Croasdale, John Fisher, Thomas Fitzwater and sons Thomas, George, and Josiah, of whom the latter died on the voyage: Thomas Gillett. Bartholomew Green, Nathaniel Harrison.


36


BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY


Cuthbert Hayhurst, Thomas Heriott, died on the voyage; John Key, Richard Ingels, Isaac Ingram, died on the way; Thomas Jones, Giles Knight and son Joseph; Wil- liam Lushington, Joshua Davis, David Og- den, Evan Oliver and sons David, John, Evan, and Seaborn; - Pearson, whose Christian name is supposed to have been Robert, and at whose suggestion Penn changed the name of Upland to that of Chester; Dennis Rochford, of county Wex- ford Ireland; John Rowland, Thomas Row- land, William Smith, John Songhurst, an eminent minister ; John Stackhouse, George Thompson, Richard Townsend and son James ; William Wade, died on the voyage; Thomas Walmesly and sons Thomas and Henry; Nicholas Waln, Joseph Woodroofe, Thomas Wrightsworth, and Thomas Wymme, of Wales.


Penn landed at New Castle, Delaware, on the 27th of October, 1682, and either on the 28th or 29th of that month arrived at Upland. Upon his arrival there he turned to his friend Pearson and said : " Providence has brought us here safe. Thou hast been the companion of my perils. What wilt thou that I should call this place?" Pear- son said " Chester," in remembrance of the city in England from which he came. Penn answered that Chester it should be called, and that when he came to divide the land into counties, one of them should be called by the same name. While Penn deprived the Swedish county of a name recalling the pride and glory of an old city and a great seat of learning, he gave it one associated with the memories of the carly history of west England, where the ancient city of Chester was known in remote times by the Welsh name of Caerlleon Vawr, which meant the great camp of the legion on the


Dee, and indicated a Roman origin as old if not older than that of Upsal in Sweden. Chester on the Dee, twenty miles from the open sea, stands where three Roman roads converged, and where the renowned XXth legion of Rome was encamped as early as the second century. It was fought over by Britons, Danes, and Saxons; was swept by the great plagne of 1647, is memorable for its terrible siege lasting from 1643 to 1646, and has often been honored by the presence of its monarchs. But not to the glory of its military record or to the proud distinc- tion that it is the only city in England which. still retains its walls perfect in their circuit, was the city of Chester indebted to the honor of having the first town of Penn- sylvania named after it. It was the mem- ories of many scenes of peace and hours of sweet communion with absent Friends passed within its walls that caused Pear- son to wish to give its name to the forest- surrounded town of Upland in the new world.


County Formation. - Chester county was created by Penn in 1682, and tradition says on November 25th. The county seat was established at Chester, and the first court was held in the same year by the following justices : John. Simcock, Thomas Brassey, William Clayton, Robert Wade, John Be- zer, Otto Ernest Cock and Ralph Withers. A clerk of the court was appointed, and English courts were held regularly thereaf- ter at Chester, until the removal of the county seat to West Chester in 1786.


Early Settlers. - Of those who first settled on the territory of the present county we have obtained but little informatlon. It is possible that some of the Swedes or Fins may have settled in the present southeast- ern townships of Chester county, but all the


37


OF CHESTER COUNTY.


accounts of early settlers that we have re- late to the English, Germans, Welsh and Seoteh-Irish who settled in the county be- tween 1682 and 1715. The names of these early settlers, so far as we have been able to obtain them, will be given in the history of the respective townships in which they lived.


The English settlers were chiefly Qua- kers, and settled in the eastern and central parts of the county. They were a peacea- ble, thrifty and law-abiding people.


The Germans were mostly Lutherans, German Reformed, Mennonites, Dunkers and Moravians; and they made homes for themselves principally in what is now East and West Vincent towuships, where they supplanted the few pioneer inhabitants of that section. They were honest, frugal and industrious, and soon became prosperous.


The Welsh were principally Baptist in religion, and settled on the famous " Welsh Tract," which embraces several of the town- ships in the eastern and northern parts of the county. They were au intelligent, en- ergetie, and enterprising people, who made the best of citizens.


The Scotch-Irish were of Presbyterian faith, and as early as 1790 commenced to come from the north of Ireland to the western part of Chester county. After 1718 they gradually spread over from the Mary- land line to the Welsh mountain. The Scotch-Irish are of pure Scotch blood, and derive their name from settling in Ireland, where they largely occupied the province of Ulster, which was confiscated by James I. in 1610, on account of the treason of its Irish proprietors. During the early part of the eighteenth century the English govern- ment persecuted the Scotch-Irish, and they commeneed to emigrate from the north of


Ireland to the American colonies, where they became earnest patriots, and active in the canse of American independence at the very commencement of the revolutionary war.


In 1693 Chester county, then including the present territory of Delaware and Lan- caster counties, had two hundred and seventy-six taxables in its fourteen town- ships, which were: "Ashtoune, Burning- ham, Chichester, Concord, Darbye, Edge- ment, Haverford, Marpoole, Middletowne, Neither Providence, Upper Providence, Ridley, Springfield, and Thornbury." Of these townships five-Birmingham, Thorn- bury, Edgemont, Newtown, and Radnor- are now the western townships of Delaware county, but as part of their territory was what is now the eastern part of Chester county, we give their lists of taxables for the year 1693 :


BURNINGHAM.


Peter Dix, William Branton, sr.,


Rich. Thateher. John Davis,


Jon. Thateher, Samuel Seott,


John Bennett, Jon. Compton,


William Branton, jr., John Joans.


THORNBURY.


George Pearce, Richard Woolworth,


Edward Bennett, Joseph Selshee.


John Willis,


EDGEMENT.


Thomas Worolaw, John Golden,


John Worolaw, Roger Jackson,


Joseph Baker. Joseph Baker,


Philip Yarnell, for John Fox.


John Holston,


NEWTOWN.


Jenkin Grifeth.


38


BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY


RADNOR.


John Evans,


Philip Evans,


David Meredith,


David Evans.


John Evans,


William Davis,


John Jarman,


Samuel Miles,


John Morgan, Richard Miles,


William David, Evan Prothero,


Richard Armes,


John Richard,


Matthew Joans,


Stephen Bevan,


Howell Jaimes, Thomas Johns.


In the period of time from 1693 to 1729, the population of the western part of the county had increased to such numbers that in the last named year it was erected into a separate county by the name of Lancas- ter. In 1736, when Thomas Cresap, in the interests of Maryland, invaded that part of Lancaster county which was claimed as Maryland territory, there were several per- sons in Chester county who sided with Cre- sap, and asserted that a portion of their own as well as Lancaster county belonged to Maryland.


Intercolonial Wars .- The first two of these four wars did not affect Chester county, but when the third or King George's war commenced, in 1744, it caused some uneasiness in Southeastern Pennsyl- vania. While this war was in progress some apprehension was felt in Chester county that the Indians, who had joined the French to a considerable extent, might invade the territory of the county. This danger led to the voluntary organization of two regiments known as "Associators." Col. William Moore raised one of these regiments, principally in the townships of East and West Nantmeal, Uwchlan, West Calm and Charlestown. The officers of the two regiments were: Colonels - William Moore and Andrew MeDowell ; lieutenant


colonels-Samuel Flower and Jolm Frew ; majors-John Mather, John Miller; cap- tains-David Parry, Roger Hunt, George Aston, William McKnight, Moses Dickey, Richard Richison, Andrew McDowell, John McCall, George Taylor, James Grahanı, Robert Grace, Hugh Kilpatrick, John Wil- liamson, John Mather, James IIunter, John Miller, William Clinton, Thomas Hubbert, jr., George Leggitt, Job Ruston, William Bell, Joseph Wilson, Henry Glassford, Wil- liam Boyd, William Reed and William Por- ter ; lientenants - Isaac Davis, Guyon Moore, Robert Morrell, Robert Anderson, John Boyd, John Cuthbert, John Cunningham, John Culbertson, John Vaughan, William Darlington, John Kent, William Buchanan, James McMahin, James Mather, Charles Moore, George Bentley, Morris Thomas, John Rees, Thomas Leggitt, Joseph Smith, Robert MeMullin, James Cochran, Robert Allison, John Culbertson, Thomas Hope and Robert Mackey; ensigns-Nathaniel Davis, William Little, Edward Pearce, Samuel Love, James Montgomery, John lIambright, George Mccullough, James Scott, Robert Awl, Francis Gardner, Jacob Free, William Cumming, John Johnson, Joseph Talbott, Benjamin Weatherby, Thomas Brown, William Carr, Anthony Pritchard, Archibald Young, James Dysart, Rowland Parry, Joseph Parke, John En- mitt, John Donald, Thomas Clarke and John Smith. These regiments were never called into service, as the Indians made no raids into the county.


The French and Indian war, the last of the four intercolonial wars, opened in 1754, by the contest of the French and English over the territory of western Pennsylvania ; and while the Quakers in Chester county took no part in the war, yet they threw no


30


OF CHESTER COUNTY.


obstacles in the way of those who wished to serve, although they disowned all mem- bers of their society who took up arms. There is no definite account of those who enlisted from Chester county, and of the militia raised in 1756 to defend the county from Indians, one company was formed as the St. Vincent and Pikeland association. Its roll was: Captain-Adam Heylman; lieutenant -John Hart; ensign - Adam Roontour; privates -John Lewis Ache, John Beker, John Bownd, Jacob Braun, Ritchard Brischert, Esaias Charles, Michael Conrad, Jacob Corner, Charles Cramp, John Crassert, Jacob Danefels, Jacob De Fran, Peter Demler, John Valentin Ernst, Yost Everhard, Ernst Fanstiel, Jacob Gebbard, George Good, Jacob Good, John Hartman, George Hartz, Valentine Henry, William Henry, Balth. Heylman, John Heylman, John Adam Heyhnan, Frederick Hasserus, Philip Lewis, Jacob Losch, Adam MeNally, John McNally, Frederick Mack, Jacob Mann, Adam Moses, Philip Muntz, George Nieler, Dietrich Roam, Michael Roth, Peter Selle, Conrad Sellner, Peter Sleider, Simon Sleider, Valentine Smidt, John Stein, Peter Steiger, Adam Stone, Frederick Swab, Adamı Swerner, Jacob Thomas, Jacob Vine, Valen- tine Vittler, and George Werny. This company saw no active service, as the In- dians never made any raid on the western border of the county.


Acadian Exiles. - In 1755 eight hundred Acadian exiles, or French neutrals, from Nova Scotia, were sent by the Brisish au- thorities to Philadelphia. Their ancestors had, in 1713, when Nova Scotia was taken from France, agreed to become British sub- jects on condition of never being called upon to take up arms in case of future war between France and England. After war


broke out in 1754, the English cruelly exiled these people on the ground of their being secret enemies of the British government. From Philadelphia a number of them were sent, in 1756, to Chester county, where they suffered terribly, and where many of them died with small pox. They were Catholics, and desired to be sent to France. Their support cost the State over seven thousand pounds, and the three Chester county com- missioners for seeing after their welfare were Nathaniel Pennock, Nathaniel Grubb and John Hannum.


In 1759 General Stanwix demanded sixty-five four-horse wagons from Chester county to hanl provisions and army supplies from various points in the State to Fort Pitt, and the most of these wagons were finally obtained without resort to impress- ment. In the same year Wolfe took Que- bec, and the great struggle between France and England for supremacy in the new world was closed with the English as victors.


Mason and Diron's Line .- We come now to make record of the south boundary line of the county. It is a part of a geographi- cal line which attained political significance in a State contest over its establishment, and came to be known by the name of its surveyors, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, two eminent English astronomers and surveyors, who came to America espe- cially to make that survey. Later this line came into national prominence, during the slavery agitation, as the dividing line be- tween the free and the slave States. To trace the history of this line of national fame and world-wide reputation, we must go back to the year 1609, when King James 1. of England, by right of discovery, granted to the Virginia company all of the territory of Maryland. This grant was revoked in


40


BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY


1624, and on June 20, 1632, Charles I. granted to Cecilius Calvert, the second Lord Baltimore, all the territory north of the Potomac river " to that part of the estuary of the Delaware on the north which lieth under the fortieth degree." Lord Balti- more's charter restricted him to uncultivated and unsettled lands; and on the ground that the Dutch had settled in Delaware prior to 1632, and that Baltimore planted no settlement on the Delaware, leaving the Swedes to found New Castle, the Duke of York claimed Delaware and all of the Maryland peninsula, which controversy was settled by the King's council, deciding in 1685 that the disputed territory should be divided by a line running north from a central point on a west line from Cape Henlopen to Chesapeake bay, and that the eastern part, or the present State of Dela- ware, should belong to the Duke of York.


Penn, when he purchased his province, supposed that the 40° of north latitude was at some little distance below the site of his proposed city of Philadelphia ; but the Duke of York wanted to reserve a strip of coun- try for twenty or thirty miles north of New Castle on the Delaware, and Penn objected because this reservation would have includ- ed a part of the site of Philadelphia, and left Penn with no good harbor ground on the river. Penn proposed the present north boundary line of Delaware, extending westward and northward to the Delaware river, as a part of a circle drawn with a radius of twelve miles from New Castle as the center, which the Duke of York ac- ecpted and placed in his charter.




Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.