History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 6

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1150

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uncertain traditions, and as the story that on the re- examination, in 1768, by Mason and Dixon, of the line surveyed in 1751 by Emory, Jones, Parsons, Shankland, and Killen, that the "middle stone," planted by the latter surveyors at the southwestern boundary of the State of Delaware, was found over- thrown by money-diggers, who believed because of its armorial bearing that it had been set up by Capt. Kidd to mark the spot where part of his ill-gotten treasures were secreted, had shifted its location many times, the impression became general that the stone planted by Mason and Dixon to mark the intersection of the three States had also been removed. Hence, in 1849, the Legislature of Pennsylvania authorized the Governor to appoint a commissioner to act in con- junction with similar commissioners representing the States of Delaware and Maryland to determine the points of intersection, and to place a mark or monu- ment thereon to indicate its location. On behalf of Pennsylvania, Joshua P. Eyre, of Delaware County, was appointed commissioner. George Read Riddle represented Delaware, and H. G. S. Key, Maryland. The commissioners made application to the Secretary of War to detail Lient .- Col. James R. Graham, of the corps of Topographical Engineers, who had acquired considerable prominence in adjusting the boundary of the United States and Mexico, to make the neces- sary surveys. On Oct. 30, 1849, the commissioners assembled at Annapolis, Md., where they had access to the notes of Mason and Dixon, as well as the agreement dated May 10, 1732, between Charles, Lord Baltimore, and the heirs and successors of William Penn, as also the subsequent agreement between Frederick, Lord Baltimore, and Thomas and Richard Penu, surviving heirs of William Penn, dated July 4, 1760, and the decree of Lord Chancellor Hardwick, May 15, 1750, which was the basis of the final settle- ment of the long controversy.

The commissioners, we are told by the accomplished historians of Chester County,4 at the northeast corner of Maryland-the commencement of the Mason and Dixon east and west line-found that the stone planted in 1768 to designate the spot, in a deep ravine, on the margin of a small brook near its source, was missing. That several years before the commissioners visited the place it had fallen to the earth, and had been taken away and used as a chimney-piece by a resident in the neighborhood, who, with some slight propriety, had driven a stake into the ground to mark the spot where the stone once stood. The commissioners at that point erected a new stone with the letter P on the north and east sides, and M on the south and west sides. At the junction of the three States the com- missioners set up a triangular prismatic post of cut granite, eighteen inches wide on each side and seven feet in length. It was inserted four and a half feet in the ground, and occupies the exact spot where the

1 Harper's Magazine, vol. liii. p. 549.

2 Dallas' " Lawe of Pennsylvania," vol. i. p. 105.

" This diary iu good preservation is owned by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, to whom it was presented by the late William D. Gil- pin, of Philadelphia. Gilpin atated that he found it among some old

· papers which had been seut to hie mill aa waste.

+ Futhey end Copa 's " History of Chester County, Pa.," p. 160.

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

old unmarked stone placed there by Mason and Dixon was found by Col. Graham in 1849, who had the old boundary mark buried alongside of its more modern and pretentious fellow. This new stone is marked with the letters M, P, and D, on the sides facing re- spectively towards the States of Maryland, Pennsyl- vania, and Delaware. On the north side, below the letter P, are the names of the commissioners in deep- cut letters, with the date 1849.

Col. Graham, in his report, says,-

"At the meridian or middle point of the arc, corresponding to the length of the chord as we actually found it, and at the distance of one hundred and eighteen and four-tenthe feet perpendicular from the middle point of said chord, a post of cut granite six feet long was inserted ia the ground four aod a balf feet of its length. This stone squares seventeen by fourteen inches. It is rounded ou the west side to indicate that it is on the curve, and on the east side the date 1849 is cut in deep figures.

" The circular boundary between Pennsylvania and Delaware from the point of junction of the three States to river Delaware being yet un- marked, and a number of citizens residing near the common border being in doubt whether as to which State they belonged, the survey was con- ducted with such precision as to enable us to describe that boundary correctly, as will appear upon our map, for a distance of about three and three-quarter miles northwestward from junction. We have determined the distance by computation at which a due east line from northeast corner of Maryland will cut that circular boundary, and find it to be four thousand and thirty-six feet, or seven sixty-six of a mile. We have also computed the angle with the meridian at the said northeast corner made by a line drawn from thence to the spire nf the court-house at New Castle, and find it to be 70 degrees, 20 miuntes, and 45 seconds east of south. At the distance of 3786 feet, measured by the said line from the aforesaid northeast corner, this line will intersect the circular boun- dary."1

As stated before, no survey of the circular line be- tween Delaware and Pennsylvania has ever been made since that run by Isaac Taylor and Thomas Pierson, in 1701, and it may be asserted without fear of contradiction that no person at this time knows exactly where the line dividing New Castle County, Del., and Delaware County, Pa., is, and where it en- ters the river.

CHAPTER IV.

WILLIAM PENN'S FIRST VOYAGE TO HIS PROVINCE IN 1682-THE CHANGE OF THE NAME UPLAND TO CHESTER, AND THE REASON IT WAS MADE.

As stated in the preceding chapter, as soon as Penn had acquired title to the three lower counties,2 -- the

present State of Delaware,-he made his arrangements · to visit his colony, and so energetically did he act that in less than one week after the execution of the deeds by the duke on the 30th day of the Sixth month (August,-for the Friends of those days computed the year as beginning on the 1st of March), he sailed for Pennsylvania from Deal in the ship " Welcome," of three hundred tons burden, Robert Greenaway, com- mander, accompanied by about one hundred com- panions, mostly Friends, from Sussex, England. The voyage was lengthy (smallpox having broken out on the vessel, of which disease thirty of the emigrants died on the passage), and on the 27th day of October, 1682, the " Welcome" stopped at New Castle, where Penn landed, and took possession of the three lower counties with all the pomp and circumstance usual at that time in the formal transfer of estates. It is known he stayed at New Castle all night, and the next day the vessel stood up the river and cast anchor off the mouth of Chester Creek, opposite the house of Rob- ert Wade, for, as is stated in the manuscript book of Evan Oliver, a passenger on the " Welcome," "We arrived at Upland in pensilvania in America, ye 28th of ye 8th month, '82." 3

Dr. Smith, in referring to the landing of Penn, says, " He landed at ; Upland, but the place was to bear that familiar name no more forever. Without reflection, Penn determined that the name of the place should be changed. Turning round to his friend Pearson, one of his own society, who had accompanied him in the ship 'Welcome,' he said, ' Providence has brought us here safe. Thou hast been the companion of my perils. What wilt thou that I should call this place ?' Pearson said, 'Ches- ter,' in remembrance of the city from whence he came. William Penn replied that it should be called Chester, and that when he divided the land into counties one of them should be called by the same name. Thus for a mere whim the name of the oldest town, the name of the whole settled part of the prov- ince, the name that would have a place in the affec- tions of a large majority of the inhabitants of the new province, was effaced to gratify the caprice or vanity of a friend. All great men occasionally do little things." 1

Although Dr. Smith cites Clarkson's Life of Peun and Hazard's Annals in support of this statement, it will not bear investigation. We know that Penn is- sned his proclamation three weeks after his arrival at Chester to the several sheriffs of the counties of Chies- ter, Philadelphia, and Bucks, as well as the three lower counties, to hold an election for a General As- sembly, to convene at " Upland." The original letter of Penn, now in the Historical Society of Pennsyl-

1 Col. Graham states that the waut of a proper demarkation of bound- aries between States is always a source of inconvenience end frequently of great trouble to parties residing therein, who are uucertain as to which State their taxes and personal services, jury duty and the like, are due. He tells us that they found that William Smith, who had served as a member of the Legislature of Delaware, resided fully half a muile within Peansylvenin, measured on the shortest direction from his dwell- ing-house to the circular boundary.

2 Futhey and Cope, in a note to their History of Chester County, page 20, etate, " Although the territory west of the Delaware had been gov- erned by the Duke of York, he at the time held no valid title to any part of it. King Charles II. made a regular conveyance to him of the country comprised within the present territorial limits of the State of Delaware

on the 22d of March, 1683; the deeds from the duke to Peun for the eame country were executed on the 24th of August, 1682. See Hazard's Register, vol. i. p. 429, 430 ; vol. ii. p. 27."

3 Note in Martin's " History of Chester," p. 62.

4 Smith's " History of Delaware County," p. 139.

WILLIAM PENN'S FIRST VOYAGE TO HIS PROVINCE IN 1682.

vania, addressed to several gentlemen requesting them to meet him on the following " so-called Thursday, No- vember 2, 1682," is dated " Upland, October 29, 1682," the day after his arrival, clearly indicating that he did not change the name of this city in the dramatic manner tradition has stated. There is no authentic list of the passengers on the " Welcome" extant, although Edward Armstrong has gathered the names of several of Penn's companions in the ship, which are generally accepted as well established by evi- dence, excepting that in that list the name of - Pearson appears, to which is added, “ supposed to be Robert," a statement that may well be questioned. As this mythical personage is represented to be an eminent member of the society of Friends, the rec- ords of meetings ought to disclose his Christian name, but it has never been found among the list of the early settlers. Hence we have reason to believe that the first person of the name of Pearson in this prov- ince was Thomas, and we know that neither of the Thomas Pearsons-for there were two of that name --- came here until the following year, 1683.1 The second of that cognomen in a diary memorandum written by himself, also in the Historical Society's collection, clearly states when he came. To quote his own words, after setting forth his various adventures, he says, " On ye 25th day of July, in ye year 1683, I set sail from Kingroad, in ye 'Comfort,' John Reed, Master, and arrived at Upland in Pennsylvania ye 28th of September 1683," almost a year after Penn's arrival. In the report of the vestry of St. Paul's Church, Chester, to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, in the year 1704, occurs this sentence : " The people of Chester County showed very early zeal to have the Church of Eng- land worship settled among them. This county is so called because most of the inhabitants of it came from Cheshire, in England. Chester, the chief town of the county, is finely situated on the river Dela- ware."

Bampfylde Moore Carew, the celebrated "King of the Mendicants," who, while escaping from banish- ment in Virginia, passed through Chester in 1739, in relating his adventures, records that he came "to Chester, so called because the people who first settled there came for the most part from Cheshire. . .. The place is also called Upland." Thirty years previous to Carew's coming, Oldmixon stated, in 1708, when mentioning the town of Chester, "This place is called Upland," and when he alludes to Chester County he gives the like and true reason for the name that Carew did: "so called because the people who first settled here came for the most part from Cheshire in Eng- land."2 The Labadist missionaries, Danckers and Sluyter, record, nearly three years before Penn's coming, in describing their journey down the Dela- ware in 1679, that "It clearing up towards evening we took a canoe and came after dark to Upland. This is a small village of Swedes, although it is now over- run by English." 3

In a letter from Penn, Nov. 1, 1682, the epistle is dated from Upland ; but subsequently, Dec. 16, 1682, from West River, Md., Penn writes, "That an As- sembly was held at Chester, alias Upland." These circumstances clearly establish that the official change of name had taken place previous to the last date and subsequent to the preceding one. In the letter of December 16th is the first time we have record of the name of Chester as applied to the old Swedish settle- ment at Upland.

The most rational conclusion is that Penn, when he changed the name of the town, doubtless within a few weeks after his arrival, and also designated the county of the like name when he divided the settled parts of Pennsylvania into three divisions, he did so in deference to the desire of the English settlers who had " overrun" the town, the major part of whom had come from that locality in England. As stated in the extracts quoted, the name of the shire-town soon became Chester, although its ancient name did not entirely disappear from familiar use until nearly three-quarters of a century had elapsed after William Penn's first visit to the province. The Pearson story for the first time appeared in our annals in Clark- son's " Life of Penn," a work which was not published until more than a century had elapsed after the inci- dents therein first recorded are said to have occurred. Until the publication of the work just alluded to, no writer makes any mention of the change of name having been suggested to Penn by " his friend Pear- son."

The Swedes, we are told by Acrelius, received the English proprietary and his companions with great friendliness, carried up their goods and furniture from

1 Martin's " History of Chester," page 499. See " Queries," Penna. Mag. of History, vol. iii. page 358, where the ubiquitous Mr. Pearson presents himself once more in a new light and demanding unexpected honors. The statemsot iu the volume just cited ie that is a recent life of Beu- jamin West it is said, "In the year 1677 or 1678, one Thomas Pear- soo, from England, settled in a cave ou the west bank of the Delaware River, now bslow Philadelphia. He was a blacksmith by trade, and, it Is said, wielded the first emith's hammer jo Pennsylvania. About the first work dege was to make small axes for his Indian neighbors, who in their short way termed him Tem or Tommy. In their language the word hawk signifiee any tool need for cutting, hence the origin of the word tomahawk." That this was " the Pearson" is settled by the state- ment in the same book queted frein that he was the grandfather ef Beu- jamin West. Here thea is the man who, before Penn came, was the only blacksmith ia Penneylvania making " little hatchets" for the In- dinoe, and from his Christiso oame and that of the article he produced caused the savages to coio the word "tomahawk." - Psarson (sup- posed to be Robert) turas up in 1682 a passenger on the ship " Wel- come," and the proprietary, especially for thie - Peersea's benefit, changes ths name ef "Upland" to " Chester" iostaatly and without re- flection. In the future some enterprising historian may yet discover the man who swallowed the first oyster, and I have no doubt that Friend Peareon will have hie claims present for that neteworthy act, and in all probability have that claim allowed.

2 " The British Empire in America," etc., by J. Oldmixou, in Hazard's Register, vol. v. p. 180.

3 " JenrasI of a Voyage to New York In I679-80," by Peter Sluyter and Jasper Danckers; Memoirs of the Long Island Historical Society, vol. i. p 183.

HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

the ships, and entertained them in their houses with- out charge, "as many aged Quakers still relate with great pleasure." 1

Penn, when he landed, resided temporarily at the dwelling-house of Robert Wade, and that fact has rendered the "Essex House" famous in our State annals. Penn remained but a short time there as the guest of Wade, for after his return to Chester from New York, whither he had gone to "pay his duty" to the Duke of York by a visit to the latter's repre- sentative in that place, as well as from his visit to Maryland, he lodged, according to tradition, at the Boar's Head Inn, a noted public-house at Chester in the early days, which stood until March 20, 1848, when it was destroyed by an incendiary fire.

CHAPTER V.

THE FIRST ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA, AND THE HOUSE WHEREIN IT MET.

ON the 18th day of November, 1682, three weeks after his arrival in the colony, William Penn issued his writs requiring the sheriff's of the several counties, in their respective bailiwicks, "to summon all the freeholders to meet on the 20th inst and elect out of themselves seven persons of the most note for wisdom, sobriety and integrity to serve as their deputies and representatives in General Assembly to be held at Upland, in Pennsylvania, December 6th (4th) next."

In pursuance of this proclamation the Assembly met at Chester on the day designated, Dec. 4, 1682, and organized by the election of Nicholas Moore, of Philadelphia County, president of the "Free Society of Traders," as chairman of that body. After the appointment of committees, four of the members were selected to apprise the Governor that the Assembly " humbly desired him to honor the House with a trans- mission of his constitutes."

It is an interesting historical fact that the very first record in the commonwealth regarding the meeting of a legislative body discloses that then, as now, " ways that are dark" were resorted to in the effort to secure the election of members in the interest of par- ticular individuals. On that occasion Edmund Cant- well, the sheriff of New Castle County, was charged with " undue electing a member to serve in Assembly from that county," in which effort he was ultimately thwarted, for the Committee on Elections and Priv- ileges reported adversely to Abraham Mann, the

sheriff's candidate, and in favor of John Moll, who was contesting his seat, in which conclusion the House concurred.

The first two days of the session were consumed in hearing the case of contested election just mentioned, the adoption of rules governing the meeting, passing the act of union, which annexed "the three lower counties" (those comprising the present State of Del- aware), and providing for the naturalization of the inhabitants thereof, as well as the Swedes, Finns, and Dutch settlers in Pennsylvania. On the third day they received from William Penn the "Printed Laws" and the "Written Laws, or Constitutions." The "Printed Laws" were "the laws agreed upon in England," which had been prepared by learned coun- sel there, at Penn's desire, and printed in that country, and the " Written Laws, or Constitutions," were the ninety bills presented to the Assembly by the propri- etary, out of which the meeting passed the sixty-one chapters of " the great body of the laws."? A strange fact is that not one of those enactments, as adopted, is now in force in this commonwealth. As soon as the statutes had been acted on, the members from the lower counties particularly became anxious to return to their homes, and so intimated to the Assembly. The Speaker considered this desire to adjourn as un- becoming in the members, and bordering on an insult to the Governor. A committee of two of the deputies was appointed to wait upon Penn respecting it, and he consented "that the Assembly be adjourned for twenty-one days, which was accordingly ordered by the Speaker." The body failed to meet again at the time designated by adjournment, and at the next reg- ular Assembly in Philadelphia it is recorded that the Speaker " reproves several members for neglecting to convene at the time appointed when the House last adjourned."

Nearly forty years ago an old structure stood on the western side of Edgmont Avenue, north of Second Street, which was commonly termed "The Old As- sembly House," because of the popular belief that it was in this building that the first Assembly convened in Pennsylvania, Dec. 4, 1682. Dr. George Smith, in his valuable " History of Delaware County," conclu- sively established the fact that this building was the first meeting-house of Friends in Chester, and was not erected until 1693, hence the first Assembly, which held its session more than ten years before that date, could not have met in that structure. We know that on the 6th day of the First month, 1687, Joran Kyn, or Keen, made a deed conveying a lot in Chester, ad- joining his "lot or garding," to certain persons in trust, " to use and behoof of the said Chester meeting of the people of God called Quakers, and their successors for- ever," and on this lot, now included in William P.

1 Acrelius, "History of New Sweden," p. 111. That anthor returned to Sweden in 1756, and doubtless he might have talked to old pereops who could recall the incidents connected with the arrival of the pro- prietary, as such an event would make a lasting impression on their young minde.

2 For o most interesting disquisition on the subject of the lawe, the number enacted at the session of the Assembly, and other valuable in- formation in relation thereto, see " Historical Notes, Part II., Appendix to the Duke's Book of Lawe," pp. 477-482.

THE FIRST ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Eyre's ground, on Edgmont Avenue, the ancient meet- ing-house was built.

Dr. Smith thereupon argues that the Assembly must have met in the court-house, or, as it was then known, " The House of Defense," which stood on the eastern side of Edgmont Avenne, above Second Street, and so projected into the roadway that, when Edgmont Avenue was regularly laid out as a street, it had to be removed. The doctor rightly thinks, "It was the only public building in Upland, at the time, of which we have any knowledge." Martin, in his "History of Chester," accepts the doctor's conclusions as un- questionably accurate. Nevertheless, both of these able historians are in error in this. The thought es- caped them that perhaps Penn saw that the " House of Defense" was too small for the purpose intended, and therefore a private dwelling was used for the meeting of the members.1

Mrs. Deborah Logan informs us in her notes to the " Penn and Logan Correspondence," 2 that the Assem- bly convened in the large, or, as then termed, " The Double House," by way of distinction, which James Sandilands, the elder, had erected for his own dwell- ing which stood near the creek, and subsequently, when the road to Philadelphia was laid out, near that highway. On an old plan of the borough of Chester, made about 1765, now owned by William B. Broomall, Esq., of that city, the lot on which "The Double House" stood is designated as beginning about one hundred and thirty feet southerly from the intersection of the present Edgmont Avenue and Third Street. The lot itself was about one hundred and twenty feet front on the west side of Edgmont Avenue. This house, which was spacious and pretentious for those times,- and would even now be regarded as an unusually large dwelling,-had unfortunately been built with mortar made of oyster-shell lime, which proved utterly value- Jess. In a few years the building showed signs of decay, then became a ruin, and as such continued until the be- ginning of the present century, when its foundations were removed. In time its very existence was gen- erally forgotten, so much so that, as is mentioned, some of our most accurate and painstaking historians were unacquainted with the fact that it had ever per- formed the important part it did in our early colonial anuals.

In considering the location of the house wherein the Assembly convened, it is unnecessary to refer to the first meeting-house of Friends. The fact that it was not huilt previous to 1693 is proved conclusively from the original minutes of the Society, which takes

it entirely out of the controversy. After standing one hundred and fifty-two years it was torn down in April, 1845, by Joshua P. and William Eyre, the then owners of the property.

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History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Part 6

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920 Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts Number of Pages: 1150

Author: Ashmead, Henry Graham, 1838-1920
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : L.H. Everts
Number of Pages: 1150