USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Chester > Historical sketch of Chester, on Delaware > Part 17
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The struggle eventuated in the erection of the present iron structure in 1853. On the south-east end of the bridge, on the main stanchion, cast in the iron, is a shield, which informs the reader that the super-structure was built by F. Quickley, of Wil- mington, Delaware, in the year above stated, and that the County Commissioners during whose term in office the work was completed, were A. Newlin, J. Barton and W. H. Grubb. The bridge origi- nally was without sidewalks, which were added in 1868, to accom- modate the public who, up to that time, had been compelled to walk in the present roadway of the bridge, in passing from one Ward to another. In 1872, the County Commissioners made some repairs to the bridge-relayed the planking, which was worn and
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Historical Sketch of Chester.
decayed in many places, but so enormous is the demand now made on this bridge by the public, that no repairs can for any length of time keep it in good condition.
The Seventh street bridge was finished December 27, 1870, and is an iron super-structure. For some reason this bridge is not looked upon favorably by the public who have doubts as to the sta- ble character of the work.
The Ninth street bridge is really due to the exertions of Messrs. William Simpson & Sons, of Eddystone, whose petition for such an improvement was presented to the Court of Quarter Sessions, July 11, 1879, confirmed by the Court February 20, 1880, and June 27, 1881, the bridge was inspected and accepted by the county.
December 14, 1880, a lengthy petition, signed by almost all the manufacturers and owners of industrial works in the South and Middle Wards, was presented to Court asking for the appointment of a Jury of View, for a bridge at Second street, which was done, and, almost a year subsequently to that date, December 12, 1881, the Court of Quarter Sessions confirmed thie action of the Jury of View, which previously had been approved of by two Grand Juries. The bridge is now being built in a substantial manner, and when completed will be an important factor in developing the river front of the city. The untiring perseverance of Isaiah H. Mirkil, after many years, finally procured a patient hearing for his scheme of improvement, and culminated in having a bridge located at this point.
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CHURCHES AT CHESTER.
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FRIENDS' MEETING HOUSE.
The first record of a religious meeting of the Society of Friends, in the Province of Pennsylvania, is that held at the house of Ro- bert Wade, in Chester, in 1675, mentioned by William Edmund- son, an eminent minister of the Society, who was present on that occasion. Previous to the coming of Penn, at a monthly meeting held 11th of 7th month, (September) 1681, it was agreed " Yt a meeting shall be held for ye service and worship of God every First Day at ye Court House at Upland." In the statement of Richard Townsend (Proud's History of Pennsylvania, vol. 1, p. 220) after giving an account of his voyage in the " Welcome," he states: "Our first concern was to keep up and maintain our religious wor- ship, and in order thereunto we had several meetings, at the houses of the inhabitants, and one boarded meeting house was set up, where the city was to be, near Delaware." This " boarded " house in all probability, was located at Chester, inasmuch as Gordon (History of Pennsylvania, 59,) states that " the Quakers had three houses for public religious worship-shortly after the arrival of Penn-one at Chester, another at Shackamaxon, or Kensington, and another at the Falls of the Delaware." In this temporary build- ing, for it was hardly more than that, the Friends of that early day held their meetings for several years, until 1693, when their first permanent meeting house was completed, and it may be that the frame structure was located on the ground which Joran Keen sold to the Society, for the latter, the 6th of the first month, 1687, con- veyed to John Simcox, Thomas Brasey, John Bristow, Caleb Pusey,
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Historical Sketch of Chester.
Randal Vernon, Thomas Vernon, Joshua Hastings, Mordecai Mad- dock, Thomas Martin, Richard Few, Walter Fauset and Edward Carter, in trust, a lot on the west side of Edgmont avenue, south of Third street, sixty feet in front, and continuing that width be- tween parallel lines to the creek, " to the use and behoof of the said Chester-the people of God called Quakers, and their succes- sors forever."
In the same year Chester Monthly Meeting agreed that " Bar- tholomew Coppock, James Kennedy, Randal Vernon and Caleb Pusey do agree and contract with such workmen or men, as they think fit, to build a meeting house at Chester 24 foot square and 10 foot high in the walls." Nothing seems to have come of this or- der, and early in the year 1691, the quarterly meeting became ear- nest in its purpose, and a committee from Providence, Middletown, Springfield and Chester Meetings was appointed to collect the ne- cessary funds, and at a subsequent meeting it was agreed " that John Brinton and Caleb Pusey do forthwith agree with and employ workmen in the building of chis meeting house at Chester, on the place that was formerly bought for that. purpose; the situation of which, as also the manner of building the same is left to their dis- cretion, and that this meeting do defray the charge of the same, so that it exceed not above one hundred pounds, and there be one convenient chimney, at the least, and that the said John Brinton and Caleb Pusey do give account of what they have done."
This building however, dragged slowly along, for Dr. Smith says the first meeting house at Chester " appears to have been completed in 1693," a statement made from an examination of the official record. The place of worship which for forty-three years was used as such by the Society is incorrectly termed " the old Assembly House," confusing it with the building nearer toward Third street on the same side of Edgmont avenue, in which the Assembly actually did convene. William Penn, however, frequent- ly spoke in the old meeting house, which, it should be remembered, did not include the front part of the house as it can be recalled by many of the present residents of Chester. The part built in 1693 became the back building of the house atter it passed into the ownership of Edward Russell, in 1736, who added the two story front addition and changed it into a dwelling house.
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FIRST MEETING HOUSE OF FRIENDS, AT CHESTER, BUILT 1603.
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Churches at Chester.
In the year last mentioned the Society found it necessary to erect a larger building to accommodate its increasing membership, and April 18, 1736, Caleb Coupland conveyed the southern part of the lot on Market street south of Third street, on which the meeting house now stands, to Jacob Howell, Thomas Cummings, John Owen, Samuel Lightfoot, John Salkeld, Jr., and John Sharpless, and the latter the same day executed a declaration in trust setting forth that they held the land as trustees and for the use of the members of Chester Meeting. The land thus conveyed is certainly included within the patent, 1686, of one and a half acres to Thomas Brasey, yet it must have passed back to the ownership of the Proprietary, for the brief of title shows that William Penn, August 20, 1705, conveyed one acre and ninety-five perches to Caleb Pusey, who, December 20, of the following year, sold the premises to Henry Wounley, and June 24, 1714, the latter re-conveyed the premises to Caleb Pusey, and lie, by lease and release, March 25-26, 1723, conveyed the property to John Wright. The latter, who had been educated as a physician in England, settled in Chester in 1714, in 1717 was appointed one of the Justices, and elected a member of the Assembly from Chester county in 1717-'18, 1725-'26, when he removed to the " backwood," as it was then called. When Lan- caster courty was formed out of Chester county, in May, 1729, he was appointed the President Judge, and discharged the duties of the office without fear or cringing to the executive power when his judicial independence had earned for the Judge the indignation of Governor Thomas. December 19, 1728, John Wright released the fee simple title to Caleb Coupland, he having acquired the lease- hold from Caleb Pusey, at a date I have not learned. As the So- ciety waxed stronger they required more land, the meeting house having been located toward the northern line of the lot, hence April 29, 1762, they purchased from Jesse Maris, who had acquired the property by descent from his father, George Maris, who in turn purchased it from Phebe Coppock and Henry Lewis, executors of Thomas Massey, March 25-26, 1739, subject to a yearly rent of £6 to the heirs of James Sandelands. The trustees, Jous Preston, John Fairlamb, Caleb Hanison anl James Barton, to whom it was conveyed by Jesse Maris, May 1, 1762, executed a declaration of trust to Chester Meeting.
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حسية
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Historical Sketch of Chester.
The discussion which had prevailed in the Society of Friends du- ring the early part of this century respecting certain doctrinal points, culminated in an open rupture in 1827, when a division took place and those members sustaining Elias Hicks in his views re- tained their connection with Chester Meeting, while the orthodox branch severed th ir connection with the Chester body and erected the Sharpless Meeting House at Waterville.
In 1682, the Society of Friends purchased and enclosed a suit- able lot, located on the west side of Edgmont avenue, above Sixth street, for a burial place, and on the 5th of the 9th month, 1683, John Hastings and Thomas Vernon were appointed to "fence the burial grounds as soon as may." This ancient God's Acre was, af- ter almost a century had elapsed, walled about as we now see it, and to that end Grace Lloyd, by her will, 6th of 4th month, 1760, directed her executors to "pay £10 toward walling in the front part of the graveyard belonging to the people called Quakers in Chester with brick or stone." Joseph Hoskins, in his will, 31st of 12th month, 1769, bequeathed £10 " for the use of enclosing or fencing the burying ground belonging to the friends of Chester Meeting in such manner as their Preparative Meeting of Chester shall direct and appoint, which said sum of £10 I order to be paid by my executor * into the hands of John Eyre for the uses aforesaid," which proves that at the date of Joseph Hoskins' will the burial place had not been enclosed as it is now. Within its walls lie the bodies of most of the noted personages of the an- cient Borough. David Lloyd and Grace, his wife, Caleb and David Coupland, Henry Hale Graham, Davis Bevan, John Salkeld, John Mather and almost all the first settlers of the old family names of Chester sleep in that neglected plot, where the remains of hundreds of men who fled hither to escape persecution in Europe lie forgot- ten, because of the prohibition by the Society of stones to mark the graves of those who slumber within the burial grounds belong- ing to their meetings.
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Churches at Chester.
ST. PAUL'S CHURCH AND BURIAL GROUND.
A tract of ground was donated to the Swedish Church by " Arm- gardt Pappegoya" for glebe or church land in Upland, early in the history of the settlement. The plot of land on the south si le of Third street, east of Market Square, where the old burial ground now is and where the first St. Paul's Church buildling was erected, was, previous to that structure being placed there, a burying place for the dead of the Swedish colonists at Upland. This fact is es- tablished by the report of Mr. Ross, to the "Society for Propaga- ting the Gospel in Foreign Parts," in 1714, wherein he distinctly makes this declaration. He also states, they (the Swedes) " had likewise a Church endowed with a valuable Glebe not far from the place of burial, but of this building there remains no sign at this day." John Hill Martin thinks this reference is to the Blockhouse or House of Defence, which was torn down by order of Court in 1703, an opinion which is doubtless correct. Acrelius tells us that the Swedes held religious services usually in the forts and House of Defence. The fact is satisfactorily established that the Swedes were obliged to have sentinels regularly posted during public wor- ship to apprise the congregation within of any attempted attack by the Indians, of which the early settlers seemed to be constantly apprehensive. Every student of our early annals is aware that after the cargo of the " Black Cat," which had been ladened with articles of merchandise for the Indians, became exhausted, and the Swedish settlers' capacity for making presents had ceased, the savages seriously considered in Council whether the Europeans should be exterminated or permitted to remain. An old Indian succeeded in preventing a breach between the two races by assur- ing the young braves that courageous and vigilent men, armed with swords and muskets, would be difficult to subdue. The clergymen were particularly obnoxious to the savages, because the latter be- lieved that during divine services the minister-he alone speaking and all the rest remaining silent-was exhorting the congregation against the Indians. Acrelius also tells us that a blockhouse an- swered the purpose very well (as a church.) The Indians were not always to be depended upon that they would not make an incursion,
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Historical Sketch of Chester.
fall upon the Christians, and capture their whole flock. It was, therefore, necessary for them to have the religious houses as a place of defense for the body as well as the soul. The churches were so built that after a suitable elevation, like any other house, a projection was made some courses higher, out of which they could shoot : so that if the heathen fell upon them, which could not be done without their coming up to the house, the Swedes could shoot down upon them continually, and the heathen who used only bows and arrows, could do them little or no injury. That the blockhouse at Wicaco was used as a church we have record, hence, in all probability the like structure at Upland was employed for a similar purpose.
In 1700, Rev. Mr. Evans was sent to Pennsylvania by the " So- ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," and lo- cated in Philadelphia. He is frequently mentioned in the History of the Society, as going to Chester, Chichester, Concord and Rad- nor, each about twenty miles distant from Philadelphia, and while constant allusion is made to a church edifice existing in that city, no intimation is given of any such builling in either of the other places designated. I am aware that in taking down the old St. Paul's Church building in July, 1850, after it had stood one hun- dred and forty-eight years, two bricks, burned exceedingly hard and considerably larger in size than those in use at the present day, closely cemented together and with the figures 1642 cut upon them were found. These numerals must have been made upon them many years subsequent to that date, for in 1644 there was not a house standing in the present limits of Chester. Independently of that fact we have documentary record of the exact date of the building, so circumstantially set forth, that there is no room re- maining for doubt.
In " An Account of the Building of St. Paul's Church, Chester," furnished to the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts," Mr. Ross, the then Missionary of the Society, in his report June 25, 1714, says :
" In the Swedish Dormitory -the old Swedish burial ground- James Sandelands, of Chester, (or as it was first called, Upland,) Merchant, a man of good reputation in the country, was on account of affinity interred to keep up the memory of this founder of a growing family; twas agreed amongst his relations that his grave,
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Churches at Chester.
as also that of his kindred and family, who were or might be buried there should be distinguished & set apart from the rest of the burying ground by an enclosure or wall of stone. This design was no sooner formed & noised abroad, but it was happily suggested by a projecting fellow in Town, that, if it seemed good to Mr. Sande- lands' relations, the intended stone wall about the place of the in- terment might be with somewhat more charges carried up and formed into a small chapel or church. This new motion was well liked by ye sd relations and encouraged by everybody in the neigh- borhood that wished well to the church of England, but they who put life into this proposal & prosperously brought it to pass were Joseph Yeates, merchant in Chester, and James Sandelands, son to the above named Mr. Sandelands, the latter of which two gentle- men, besides other gifts, gave some land to enlarge the church yard, but the former, to wit: Mr. Yeates, a zealous asserter of our constitution in church and State, must be allowed to have been the main promoter of the founding of St. Paul's upon Delaware."
The report further alludes to other persons " Parishers who were chief helpers to carry on the work"-Jeremy Collett, John Han- num, Henry Pierce, Ralph Pile and Thomas Barnsly, but especially does he commend Thomas Powell for the gift of a valuable piece of land, " for a minister's house, garden and other conveniences." He also applauds Hon. Colonel Francis Nicholson, of whom he says : " We may safely say no man parted more freely with his money to promote the interest of the Church, in these parts, nor contributed so universally towards ye erection of Christian synagogues in dif- ferent and distant plantations in America."
The "small but compact fabric of brick," thus erected and said to be "one of the neatest on this Continent," was forty-nine feet in length by twenty-six feet in breadth, and was well and substan- tially finished inside. The main entrance which was wide and spa- cious, closed by double doors, was at the north side of the Church, and the access to the building was from Market street, through the yard.
Queen Anne, whom Horace Walpole dubbed " the wet nurse of the church," presented to the parish a handsome pulpit, a commu- nion table "well rail'd in and set out with a rich cloth, and a neat chalice ;" the two former articles were located at the east end of the edifice. This chalice and salver, the Queen's gift, as well as a similar chalice, presented to the congregation by Sir Jeffrey Jef- fries, are still in possession of the Church Wardens, and employed
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Historical Sketch of Chester.
in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper to this day, but the pulpit and communion table have long since been removed and their present whereabouts, if in existence. is entirely forgotten. The chalices and their salvers are of hammered and very pure silver, and the one presented by the Queen has engraved upon it the words, " Anna .Regina."
The inside of the Church was divided into four parts by two aisles, one extending from the double doors and the other from the pulpit to the extreme western part of the Church. The roof was oak, and the rafters white oak, hewed with a broad axe. The chancel was spacious and paved with brick, as were also the aisles In the west end of the Church and directly opposite the pulpit, built into the wall, was the well-known slab of gray sand stone, six feet in length by three in breadth, now in the Sunday School room of the new Church edifice, erected to the memory of James San- delands, the elder. Along the borders of the old slab in large capital letters are the words :
HERE LIES INTERRED THE BODIE OF JAMES SANDELANDS, MERCHANT IN UPLAND, IN PENSILVANIA, WHO DEPARTED THIS MORTAIL LIFE APRILE TE 12, 1692, AGED 56 YEARS, AND HIS WIFE, ANN SANDELANDS.
" Its face is divided into two parts, the upper bearing in cypher the initials J. S. and A. S., the arms of the Sandelands family- Argent, a band Azure, on the border dividing the upper from the lower part are the words, ' Vive Memor Lethi FFugit Hora.' The lower half contains many emblems of mortality, the tolling bell, the passing bell, the skull and cross bones, the empty hour-glass, an upright coffin bearing on its sile the words . Memento Mori,' ' Tilde Deum,' and in either corner crossed, a scepter and mattock, and a mattock and spade."
The tablet at the present writing is disintegrating, and in a few years more will, in all probability, crumble away.
James sandelands, the elder, was a Scotchman, and there is some reason to believe that his father was Captain Jacob Everson Sande- lyn-the name perhaps incorrectly spelled by the early annalists- who, as master of the ship " Scotch Dutchman," visited the Swed-
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Churches at Chester.
ish settlements on the Delaware in the year 1646, and sold to the Governor "duffel cloth and other goods" to the value of 2,500 guilders. His mother we know lived here in February 1683, for she is mentioned in the trial of Margaret Matson, of Ridley, for witchcraft before William Penn and the Provincial Council in that year. The first allusion to James Sandelands, is in the patent of August 6, 1665, " for two lots of land in Upland at Delaware. upon the North side of the creek or kill." On June 13, 1670, patents were granted to him for two other lots similarly situated, adjoining the property of his father-in-law, Joran Keen. Sande- lands was a soldier, for in 1669 his name occurs in the List of Dis- charged Soldiers, now in the office of the Secretary of State, at Albany, New York. In 1675, he was captain of a company of mi- litia, recruited from the territory within the jurisdiction of the Up- land Court. While in command of this company he was accused of " being the cause of the death of an Indyan," and pleading not guilty, was " cleared by proclamation.". Subsequently he was found guilty of some misdemeanor which Prof. Gregory B. Keen thinks may have been the same charge revived, and " it was or- dered that he pay the sum of 300 guilders-the one-halfe to bee towards the building of the new Church at Weckakoe, and the other to the Sheriff" and was " put off from being Captain."
In a deed in 1680, he is designated as " merchant," but there is no evidence to show what particular goods he dealt in, excepting a record that having purchased tobacco in Maryland, which was not de- livered according to agreement, "a Certayne great Boate or Siallop," belonging to the delinquent consignor, was attached and " publicqly sould " The records of the early Courts show that he frequently appeared as attorney for the suitors before that tribunal. In 1677, he is mentioned as the only person on the Delaware river, from Upland, northwardly, who owned a slave, and is recorded as one of the " responsible housekeepers " at this place. He was appointed by Col. William Markham, one of the Deputy Governor's Council in 1681, and was constituted one of the Justices of the newly or- ganized Upland Court. When William Penn arrived in the " Wel- come," he visited Sandelands, as the latter then owned the largest part of the present Middle and North Wards of Chester, and it was " talkt among the people " of that day " that it was with In-
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Historical Sketch of Chester.
tent to have built a City " at Upland, " but that he and Sanderlin could not agree." Hence it is due to his action that the metropo- lis of Pennsylvania was not located at this point. From 1688 to 1690, he was a member of the General Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania. He would seem to have been of a jovial tem- peramient, which contrasted decidedly with the Quaker stillness and sobriety of his English neighbors. He was presented by the Grand Jury " for keeping an ordinary att Chester without Lysence, as also for keeping disorders in his house upon the 1st day of the week. The Court dispences with his Keeping the ordinary until the Provincial Council shall sit, & reinit the other on his promising not to do so any more." However, at a meeting of the Council, " ye 18th of ye 3d no., 1686, upon ye Petition of James Sander- ling, for a Lycence to Keep an Ordinary, it was granted him." The house thus licensed was the Double House, heretofore men- tioned. James Sandelands died April 12, 1692, aged fifty-six years. I am thus particular in giving the circumstances of the life of this early colonist, as far as known, because St. Paul's was a memorial church, erected to keep him in the recollection of the in- habitants of Chester, wherein he had passed a busy and enterpris- ing life.
His wife, Ann, after a brief widowhood, married Peter Baynton, who subsequently abandoned her and returned to England, leaving her in such destitute circumstances that the Provincial Council, May 19, 1698, ordered her to appropriate the residue of his pro- perty in Chester for her support. He returned subsequently, and apparently was repentant for his misdeeds. Ann died, and Octo- ber 5, 1704, was buried by the side of her first husband, James Sandelands. As her name appears on the old tablet, in St. Paul's Church, it proves that the stone was not set up by the descendants of Sandelands until after thit date.
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