History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with genealogical and biographical sketches, Part 42

Author: Futhey, John Smith, 1820-1888; Cope, Gilbert, 1840-1928
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, L. H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1162

USA > Pennsylvania > Chester County > History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with genealogical and biographical sketches > Part 42

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"Pray inform + first what thou knows of R. Whitpain's Land in Westtown, what ye quantity is & whether not broke in upon.

"I am Thy real frd.

J. LOGAN."

A warrant was directed to Isaac Taylor on the 27th of 2d month, 1703, ordering him to resurvey all the tracts not yet resurveyed in the townships of Aston, Thornbury, Edgemont, Westtown, and Ridley. Another warrant to Isaac Taylor, Thomas Pierson, and Henry Hollingsworth, dated 20th 3d month, 1703, directed them to resurvey all ye lands "within ye whole Bounds of ye sd County of Chester and mannor of Rocklands."

"ISAAC TAYLOR.

"Loving frd. Upon the renewed application of Robert Wbarton, these are to inform thee (which notwithstanding I suppose is needleas,) that the instructions I gave thee to defer the execution of his and other warr'ts was only to @vent the loss of time about Resurveys, and therefore if thou canst find an opportunity that will be no bind- rance at all to the other, thou shalt have our free consent, but would not have those material points postponed. I must also inform thee that I believe we must of necessity gett tbee and Henry to extend your works up to Schuylkill, and then you will take in all between that river and Brandywine. D. Powell fails us notwithstanding his engagements, having putt off so long that he will not be able to go throw with it. The Welsh Tract being done by him is excepted.

"Pray your thoughts on this @ first that you may have a warr't from Thy Loving frd JAMES LOGAN.

" PHILAn'IA 12, Sbr 1703."

MANORS AND PROPRIETARY RESERVATIONS.

By the ninth article of " Conditions and Concessions" the proprietary reserved to himself 10,000 acres in every 100,000, and this was to be by lot, and to lic in but one place. This agreement was afterwards held to relate only to the first purchasers, and the same may be said of all the conditions and concessions, but it does not appear that there ever were any others agreed upon. As early per- haps as 1686 an attempt was made to locate such a reserva- tion in Chester County, as appears by draughts of adjoining lands, and, as near as can be determined, it must have been intended to embrace a considerable portion of what is now West Bradford township. This, however, was abandoned, and at the time of William Penn's second visit to the prov- ince, nothing more had been done in the matter. The fol- lowing warrant was directed to the surveyor of Chester County :

" According to the Primitive Regulation for laying out Lands in the Province, by which it was provided that one tenth part of all the lands therein surveyed should be appropriated to the Pro- prietary thereof, And by virtue of a warrant pursuant thereto under the hand and seal of the Proprietary & SEAL. Governour, to me directed, bearing date the Ist day of September, 1700.

"I do hereby authorize and require thee to survey and lay out to the said Proprietary's proper use and behoof, and of his heirs after him, five hundred acres in every Township, consisting of five thousand acres that shall be surveyed, and generally one tenth part of all the lands that shall be laid out in the county of Chester; and make due Returns thereof with a protracted figure of the field work into my offico, which are by the Proprietary and Governour's order to remain there. Given under my hand and seal at Philadelphia the 4th day of the Sth month, 1700.

" EDW'D PENINGTON, SURV. GEN. "To HENRY HOLLINGSWORTH, Deputy Surveyor."

On the back of the original. of the above appears this indorsement : " 500 in Marlburrow 5, 2 mo, 1701." In a list of proprietary reservations, prepared by Edmund Phy- sick about the year 1784, the following tracts are given as being in Chester County : A strip of land between Pike- land and Charlestown, 275 acres, 145 perches; a tract in

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PROPRIETARY INTERESTS AND LAND TITLES.

Marlborough of 500 acres ; 210 acres and 120 perches in Tredyffrin ; a tract in Fallowfield of 500 acres ; a tract on Schuylkill River, joining Bilton Manor, 160 acres ; a tract in West Caln township, 772 acres ; a tract called Springton Manor, 10,000 acres ; 63 acres in East Nantmeal ; 2 tracts in Caln township and one in Sadsbury, each containing 500 acres. These amount, in the aggregate, to less than 14,000 acres, thus falling very far short of one-tenth of the land in the county. The list is perhaps incomplete, as ap- pears by the following information, obtained from other sources. In Nottingham township, which was laid out in 1702, five lots of 490 acres each were reserved by surveys made on the 11th, 13th, 14th, and 15th days of 3d month, 1702, in pursuance of a warrant dated 7th of 1st month, 1701. Some, if not all, of these tracts may have been cut off by Mason and Dixon's line and left in Maryland. The tract in Tredyffrin was surveyed 26th of 2d month, 1765, by warrant of the 13th of the same month, in the name of Israel Davis. That on Schuylkill, joining the manor of Bilton, was surveyed 21st of January, 1733, by warrant of the 16th of the same month, and was in what is now Schuylkill township. The strip of land between Pikeland and Charlestown became a part of the latter township, but it appears to have been surveyed in ten different pieces. The 772 acres in West Caln were surveyed 20th of October, 1733, and of this 40 acres were sold to Jeremiah Piersall. Of the two other tracts in Caln, of 500 acres each, one was surveyed 30th of June, 1703, near what is now the north- east corner of Valley township. The other is in West Brandywine, and was probably laid out 4th of November, 1708, as it appears by Isaac Taylor's account that he sur- veyed such an amount at that date. Another tract was surveyed 9th of 2d month, 1703, on Beaver Creek, or one of its branches, near where it crosses the southern line of East Brandywine, but this was probably abandoned for a better location. The tract in Fallowfield was surveyed Oct. 13, 1714, and that in Sadsbury on the 31st of May, 1709.

With the exception of Springton Manor, none of these reservations were of much size, and even this was small, compared with some of the reservations in other counties. In York County a tract called Maske Manor contained 43,500 acres, and Springetsbury Manor, in the same county, including a tract on which Yorktown stood, and another tract of 2000 acres, contained 64,520 acres. As the adjoining lands became settled and improved these tracts increased in value, and about the year 1740 those in Chester County were estimated to be worth from thirty- five to forty pounds per hundred acres, or from two to three times as much as the common lands had been sold for. Although the Penns held these reservations as private property, they were not willing that they should be taxed for purposes of common defense, and this was the occasion for long and tedious disputes between the Assembly and different Governors of the province.

The manor of Springton, or Springtown, as it was gen- erally written, included nearly, if not quite all, the present township of Wallace, and also portions of the southeastern parts of Honeybrook and West Nantmeal. The south line of the manor remains as the north line of East and West

Brandywine, but the other sides consisted of many courses and distances, none of which appear on our county map. It is rather to be regretted that Spriogton, or Springtown, was not adopted as the name of the township, which coin- cided so nearly with the extent of the old manor. We have, however, a lingering reminder in the name of the church and post-office of Brandywine Manor.

The earliest mention of the name which has come to notice is under date of March 6, 1700, and appears as a memorandum of an order for survey, thus: "100,000 acres (qr. if not designed for 10,000), in one tract the nearest of Land, unsurveyed in the County of Chester, to be erected into a manor, and called by the name of Spring- town in Lieu of one formerly laid out."

The manor formerly laid ont was probably the one before referred to as embracing a large part of West Bradford. In 1709 a tract was surveyed "at the great meadow," on branch of Pickering Creck, and in the draught is represented as adjoining to the " Reputed Manor of Springtown." This location was probably abandoned on account of interfering with earlier surveys. On the 9th of 2d month, 1714, James Steel writes to Isaac Taylor that " Secretary Logan Desires thee to give him the best account thou can of the mannor of Springtown," and "Thou art alsoe desired to reserve some Land in that county for the Prop'r, & that the said mannor of Springtown may be found there." On the 17th of 7th month following he writes :

"Secretary Logan had thy letter but having took Physick this day could not answer it, he says thou need not lay out any more of what thou writ to him about, but be sure to remember Springtowne."

In a memorandum-book appears the following entry by John Taylor, under date of March 18, 1729-30 : " finished Springtowne manor."

The following correspondence, relating to this and some other matters of interest, is given in full :

" PHILADELPHIA, 14 12th mo., 1729-30. "My Friend JNO. TAYLOR,

" When thon was last here, as well as before, I particularly recom- mended to thee that unfortunate manor of Springtown, which bas been no less than three several times in as many different places laid out, and is the only spott left in the county of Chester, to answer the holding expressed in every patent for land granted in it; yet I am told, tho' I hope tis a mistake, that thou hast made some surveys of late in ye tract last surveyed for it, particularly for one Green, (if I remember the name right,) as also for some others, which can never be allowed for the reason above mentioned. If ye survey of that mannor be not yet in ye office Pray return it without delay, that it may at length be secured. . . .

"Thy real friend,

"J. LOGAN."

In the above letter reference is made to the fact that every patent for land in Chester County contains the state- ment that the same is lield " as of the manor of Spring- town." This is not strictly true, however, as will be seen by the patent for a tract including the township of Ken- net, and which extended into the county of New Castle, hence was held " as of our manor of Rocklands." The idea seems to have been that the manor was the seat of the chief " lord of the fee," and the other lands were held as dependencies thereof.

" Friend JOHN TAYLOR,

"Being informed that several persons have settled themselves on the tract of Land called Springtown manor, in Chester county, without

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HISTORY OF CHESTER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA;

any license for their soe doing, the Proprietor has ordered me to re- quest thee to charge those people to desist and forbear making any further spoile, for he will not suffer any of those traets laid out for mannors, to be settled, without his consent first obtained for such pur- pose, and that they must without delay remove from thence, or they will be prosecuted as the law directs.

"Thy friend,

" JAMES STEEL.

" PHILADELPHIA 7th, 9br, 1732."

" My Friend J. TAYLOR,

"I waited on the Prop'r with thy Letter in favour of Mich'l Graham. He was pleased to say that those who are settled on Springton mannor, and can readily pay for the Land they incline to hold, may have Grants for the same, at or abont the price which the two 500 acre lots in that neighborhood, belonging to the Prop'rs were sold for. But as there often happens to be a great inequality in the goodness of large Tracts of Land, it is not to be doubted but the like difference will ap- pear in this, and therefore those who are settled on the best spots ought to pay in proportion to its goodness, and those on the most ord'nary, in like manner an ahatement should be made, and for that purpose the Prop'r would have each Lot or settlement noated as well in respect of the goodness as quantity, the better to enable him in fixing the differ- ent rates or prices. He desires thee to acquaint the People of these Terms and those that cannot comply must remove from thenee. I am thy real, loving friend,

" J. STEEL.

"Those two lots were sold for £45 + ct.

" PHILADELPHIA, 22d -mo., 1737."

"To Mr. JOHN TAYLOR,

"Sir :- I have it on charge from the Proprietary to desire that im- mediately, or so soon as you ean conveniently, you will examine and adjust the lines of the manor of Springton, and divide the whole into Tracts of two hundred acres or thereabouts, that being the quantity His Honour would have all the plantations on the monor to consist of, or within a little of it, according to the nature of the place, except where ye mill stands and there is to be at least seven hundred acres Laid ont, or more, if when you come to lay it out, you shall think proper, and all this you are to do without regard to any improvements that have been presumed to be made within the Bounds of the manor.

"If you are obstrueted in the making any lines that may he neces- sary to answer the Proprietor's purpose, in the above order, it is His Honour's express direction, that you apply to the next Justice of the Peace for such Warrants and commitments as the Laws of this Prov- ince direet them to issue in cases of intrusion and Tortious Entry, or Breaches of the Peace.

"I am your Humble servant, " RICHARD PETERS.

"SECRETARIES OFFICE 26th October, 1739."

"My Friend JOHN TAYLOR,

"Since I last parted with thee (which I think was at Chester,) our Proprietor has frequently asked me if the manor of Springton was yet divided and the vacant lands in that neighborhood, Coventry and Nantmell, viewed and described as was desired to be done by thee. To which I could only answer him in the terms by thee given at Ches- ter, viz. : that so soon as the weather was fit to go into the woods for that purpose, thou would without further delay finish that work, but not having heard anything sinee relating thereinto, I now again request thee that if it be not already done, it may no longer be delayed.

"Thy assured friend,

" J. STEEL.

" PHILADELPHIA 23d 2d mo., 1640."

" May it please your Honor,

"Upon my return from the woods last night I received James Steel's letter of the 6th inst., signifying that your Honour required me to hring yon in a week's time a Draught of Springtown mannor, with the divisions therein, ss also Draughts of all your vacant Lands in the Townships of Coventry and Nantmell.

"The last part of this demand is more than any one surveyor can comply with in a month's time, and is ten times as much as your Honour ever before gave me in charge, your directions being only for Draughts of Lands taken up by Nutt and Branson, which were ac- cordingly prepared.

" But the danger of your displeasure in case of failure in any part, as signified in James Steel's letter, instead of hurrying me on so vast

a Task, has given me an entire discharge from all Drudgery of the kind, and I have no more to do than to wish you a better surveyor than one who is notorious to have done more for your interest, when your affairs seemed to call for the strietest assiduity, than any sur- veyor now living, and I can wish your Honour no greater felicity than to be as well pleased and easy as I am.

"Your most humble servant,

"JOHN TAYLOR.

"CHESTER, May 12th, 1740."

SERVANTS' OR HEAD LAND.

Those who came into the province as servants were to be allowed, at the end of their service, to take up fifty acres of land at a rent of one half-penny sterling per acre per an- num. This offer was held out by Penn as an inducement to a poor but industrious class of persons to become settlers in the new colony ; but this privilege was allowed to such only as came in with the first purchasers. Many who thus came as servants afterward became among the most useful members of society, and some attained to prominent posi- tions in government. The term of servants was not con- fined to such as performed the most common drudgery, but was applied to those who labored at any trade or calling for a certain salary. Thus Richard Townsend, a person of some note in the early settlement of the province, as a car- penter, was servant to the Society of Traders for five years, at a salary of £50 per annum. We are inclined to suspect that, in order to secure the benefit, the meaning of the term was sometimes stretched in its application as far as it would bear. The land thus obtained was called head-land, and, as previously stated, the whole amount surveyed for the right of servants was 45714 acres. The warrants of sur- vey. were sometimes in this style :

" Whereas, A. B. hath made it appear that he came into this prov- inee with the first adventurers a servant to C. D., and bath thereupon requested that we would grant him to take up his proportion of head- land," etc.

Some of them contain the words "in the townships al- lotted to servants," and there may have been a township at first intended for such a purpose, but it was not in Chester County. One warrant runs thus :

" At the Request of John Baldwin that we would grant him to take up one hundred aeres of head-land at one half-penny sterling Rent aere # annum, fifty thereof in right of his own service to Joshua Hastings and fifty in right of his wife Katherine, serv't to John Blun- ston. These are to authorize and Require thee to survey and lay out to the said John Baldwin the said number of one hundred acres of Land in the Tract appropriated to Servants or elsewhere in the prov- ince not already surveyed nor taken up," etc. Dated 30th 4 mo., 1702.

This land was surveyed in Caln township, as was also 150 acres more, but beyond this the township does not appear to have been "appropriated to servants." John Baldwin was a merchant residing in Chester, and in the assessment of 1722 his estate stands the third in value in a list of over sixty taxables in that township. Isaac Taylor purchased the rights of fourteen servants, amounting to 700 ncres, and of this 500 acres were laid out, at several surveys, on the east branch of Brandywine, in East Brad- ford, just north of the Strasburg road, and the other 200 acres in Marlborough, not far from the present village of Unionville. 800 acres were laid out in Sadsbury, and 250 in Bensalem (a short-lived township), all in right of ser-

"WHEATLAND -VILLA." RESIDENCE OF GEORGE YOUNG, NEWLIN.

"AGUA NEUVA." RESIDENCE OF JOHN M. YEATMAN, KENNET.

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PROPRIETARY INTERESTS AND LAND TITLES.

vants. The aggregate of these surveys amounts to 2000 acres, from which it appears that a good proportion of the servants' land was located in Chester County.

QUIT-RENTS.

As quit-rents have become obsolete, and many persons are ignorant of their nature, a short explanation may not be out of place here. They appear to have originated from the feudal system, under which all the land was supposed to belong to the king, and those who occupied lands were allowed to do so in consideration of personal services of various kinds, but chiefly those of a military character. These services were not always rendered immediately to the king, but often to an intermediate class, as the barons, who in turn were tenants under the king. From this arose the custom of paying a fee or fine in lieu of personal service, and by a quit-rent it is to be understood that the tenant goes quit or free of further service. In the course of time this institution, like many others, lost much of its original significance, and at the time William Penn sold lands in his province quit-rents were probably regarded merely as a judicious method for securing a revenue. He says, in his proposals to the early purchasers,-

"The shares I sell be certain as to the number of acres; that is to say, every one shall contain five thousand acres; the price one hun- dred pounds; and for the quit-rent, one English shilling, or the value of it yearly, for a hundred acres; which such as will, may now, or hereafter huy off to an inconsiderable matter; but as I hold by a small rent of the King, so all must hold of me by a small rent for their own security," etc.

This privilege of buying off the quit-rents to a small amount was embraced by some of the early purchasers of large amounts of land in Pennsylvania, but does not appear to have been continued by William Penn's successors. The early settlers regarded them as a grievance, and avoided paying them as much as possible, so that the collectors were often obliged to have recourse to the law to compel pay- ments. In a letter to Thomas Lloyd, dated 7th month, 1686, Penn complains that, although his quit-rents were in value at least £500 per annum at that time, yet he could not get one penny. A list was kept by the receiver-gen- eral of all the owners of land, with the situation, number of acres, etc., and this was called the rent-roll. By the terms of the charter, Pennsylvania was to be held by William Penn,-

"In free and common soccage by fealty only, for all services and not in capite, or by knight service; yielding and paying therefore to ns, our heirs and successors, two Beaver skins, to be delivered at our castle of Windsor, on the first day of January in every year; and also the fifth part of all gold and silver ore which shall, from time to time, appear to be found within the limits aforesaid, clear of all charges."

Some of the early purchasers obtained their lands from Penn at a merely nominal quit-rent, and the grants to the different branches of the family were on similar terms. Thus 10,000 acres are set down at an Indian corn, and 40,000 at a red rose for each 10,000 acres. The London company purchased 60,000 acres, on which the quit-rent was to be two beaver-skins per annum, while the Society of Traders obtained 20,000 acres, and other purchasers 101,760 more, at a quit-rent of one shilling for each thou-

sand acres. By the patent-books it appears that the land in Chester County was patented, under various quit-rents, in the following amounts : At one shilling per hundred acres, 262,031{ ; at one shilling per thousand acres, 13,524; at a penny per acre, 3933; at a half-penny per acre, 86,612} ; at a bushel of wheat per hundred acres, 5904; various tracts of 200, 93, 73, 202, 201}, 200, 400, 200, and 10 acres at one shilling each ; 900 acres at a peppercorn ; 124 at three bushels of wheat; 491 at 10 bushels, and 2} at one bushel ; 113 acres at £2 16s. 6d.

The act vesting the estates of the proprietaries in this Commonwealth abolished all quit-rents payable to them except in the tenths or reserved manors, and in these, we suppose, the owners have bought them off, or otherwise tbe custom has fallen into disuse. The township of Newlin was originally surveyed to the Free Society of Traders, who held their land at a quit-rent of one shilling per thousand acres, yet Nathaniel Newlin, who purchased the tract, sold the land at a higher rate of quit-rent, which was reserved to himself and his heirs, to whom it was paid for a long time. Of course there was nothing to prevent any one from selling land with such a reservation to himself and his heirs, provided he could find a purchaser, but under the circumstances the term of quit-rent would have none of its original meaning. We have something of a similar nature in irredeemable ground-rents.

TOWNSHIP SURVEYS.

From the " Conditions and Concessions," before referred to, it appears to have been a part of the original plan to lay out the province in regular townships of five or ten thousand acres, and the clause " according to the method of townships appointed" was inserted in the warrants of survey. It must soon have been found impossible to prc- serve regularity, yet this clause was continued in the war- rants until after the Revolution. In a letter to the Marquis of Halifax, dated 9th of 12th month, 1683, Penn says, --

"I suppose we may he 500 farmers strong. I settle them in villages, dividing five thousand acres among ten, fifteen or twenty families, as their ability is to plant it."

In Bucks and what is now Montgomery County there was rather more regularity in the township lines than in Chester County. Concord township, as originally laid out in 1683, probably represented the proprietary's ideal in this matter, as it contained a street or road through the centre from north to south, and the sub-divisions were all laid out with a proportionate width of front on the street, the whole comprising 6000 acres, but an addition has since been made to the southwest corner, destroying its rectan- gular form. The settlers were generally allowed to take up lands where they pleased, and the method of townships was soon lost sight of. There is now no township in Chester County which was laid out as such originally, though some of them, as Westtown and the two Pikelands, preserve the lines of early surveys. Marlborough was the only one within our present limits which appears to have been laid out according to method, but by the addition of adjoining land the original form is lost. Marlborough was laid out in 1700 and 1701, and contained a street running east and west through the middle, while the line separating the lands

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History of Chester County, Pennsylvania, with genealogical and biographical sketches, Part 42

Author: Futhey, John Smith, 1820-1888; Cope, Gilbert, 1840-1928 Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Philadelphia, L. H. Everts Number of Pages: 1162

Author: Futhey, John Smith, 1820-1888; Cope, Gilbert, 1840-1928
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Philadelphia, L. H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1162