USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > History of Delaware county, Pennsylvania, from the discovery of the territory included within its limits to the present time > Part 26
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"A petition of a great number of the inhabitants of the county of Chester" was presented to the Governor and Council, " praying that ye Borough of the Town of Chester, in this Pro- vince may be made a free Port." The matter was referred to the Proprietary, that he might " take proper methods concerning the same & Consult the Comrs of the Queen's Customs therein."1 If this application had been successful, the improvement of the venerable borough would not have been left for the present generation to accomplish.
An act was passed in 1712 to prevent the importation of Negroes and Indians into this Province. The passage of this law was the first effort made to restrain the increase of Negro Slavery in Pennsylvania, but it was subsequently repealed by the Crown. This result was brought about by commercial con- siderations alone, regardless of the dictates of humanity or the interests of the Province.2
Wearied with his pecuniary incumbrances and the troubles that were incident to his Proprietary rights, which his increasing years and declining health rendered him less able to bear, Penn entered into a negotiation for the sale of the Province to the Queen. The price (£12,000), and other particulars of the sale, had been agreed upon, when the Proprietary was suddenly seized with a partial paralysis, from which he never sufficiently reco- vered to enable him formally to execute the contract.
A road was this year laid out " from Providence Lower road by Richª Crosby's mill to Edgment road." This is the first mention of Crosby's mill that has come to the notice of the author.
The following extract from the records of Haverford Monthly Meeting would seem to indicate that a pecuniary stimulant was necessary to secure a confirmation by the Crown of certain pro- vincial legislative enactments :
"It was signified by the Quarterly Meeting that some friends disbursed money on account of getting the affirmation act con- firmed, which are yet unpaid; and the proportion thereof be- falling upon this meeting appears to be one pound, fourteen
1 Col. Rec. ii. 546.
2 A similar law was passed the same year (1712) by the Legislature of Massachu- setts .- Holmes' Ann. ii. 84.
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[1715.
shillings one penny half penny, and Thomas Jones is ordered to pay the same according to the desire and order of the Quarterly meeting "1
Many persons have been led to believe from the date on the Friends' meeting-house at Merion, that the present edifice was erected in 1695.2 That date undoubtedly refers to the first meeting-house, a temporary structure of wood erected on the same site. The present meeting-house, which has been reno- vated within a few years past, was erected in 1713. The fol- lowing minute, adopted by Haverford Meeting on the 8th of the 8th mo. (October) of that year, is conclusive upon the subject :
" This meeting agrees that Merion frds shall have the money lent to Rees Howell and Joseph Evans, towards finishing their meeting house."
Another minute shows that "the five pounds old currency, lent to Rees Howell was paid towards finishing Merion Meeting house."
Haverford Monthly Meeting this year authorized a first-day meeting "in Upper Merion at the house of Rowland Ellis, and at David Meredith's house on the fourth day of the week * * *. "
In 1714 "friends inhabiting about Perquaming and this side of Schulkill in ye valley being desirous yt a meeting might be allowed y" every other mº, to be & begin att Lewis Walker's house the first in 2nd mº next and thence every other month, att Joseph Richardsons house until ye 9th mo. next."
Gwynedd was established as a monthly meeting in 1714. It included Plymouth, and probably other meetings.
The annual and semi-annual Fairs held at different villages had become places of so much disorder and vice, that Friends found it necessary to appoint persons to have an oversight of the youth who assembled there.
Queen Anne died on the first of August, 1714, and was suc- ceeded by George the First, but as no official announcement of the decease of Her Majesty had been made, the legislature that met in October adjourned over till February. David Lloyd was again returned to the legislature and elected Speaker.
The circular line between the Counties of Chester and New Castle, that had been run in 1701, was not confirmed by the Legislature till 1715.
By the death of the Queen, all commissions granted during
1 An affirmation act was among the earliest laws enacted by Penn, but this was an- nulled by Queen Anne in 1705, and consequently Friends were subjected to the form allowed in England, which was in these words : " I, A- B-, do declare in the presence of Almighty Gon, the witness of the truth of what I say, &c." Some Friends objected to this form of affirmation on account of the appeal made to the Supreme Being, and it was to remove this difficulty that the act in question was passed. The application for its confirmation was not successful.
2 Hist. Collections Penna. 484; also, Retrospect of Early Quakerism, 61.
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
1715.]
her reign expired. The following persons were appointed Justices for the County of Chester at the commencement of the reign of George the First, viz .: Caleb Pusey, Nicholas Pyle, Richard Webb, Henry Pearce, Henry Neal, Nicholas Fairlamb, John Blunston, Jr., and Richard Hayes.
Another affirmation Act was passed this year, and received the approbation of Governor Gookin. "By an act of Parlia- ment of 1 Geo. I. the Stat. of 7 & 8 Wil. III. was made per- petual in Great Britain, and was extended to the Colonies for five years. By a provision of this latter act, no Quaker by virtue thereof, could be qualified or permitted to give evidence in criminal cases, or serve on juries, or hold any office of profit in the Government.1 The Governor contended that this act repealed the provincial law, and had the same disqualifying effects upon Quakers here as it had in England. Most of the important offices in the Province were filled by Quakers; and the Justices of the Supreme Court hesitated to perform their duties in the face of the opinion of the Governor. Under these difficulties, criminal justice was not, for a time, administered throughout the Province.
One of the most important cases left untried, was that of Hugh Pugh, and others, for the murder of Jonathan Hayes, in Chester County. The criminals were eventually admitted to bail.2
The evidence is almost conclusive that the murdered man was the same Jonathan Hayes who resided in Marple, and who served for a long time as a Justice of the Court, and sometimes as a member of the Legislature. The murder excited great interest in the County. Three men were fined for refusing to aid the constable "in apprehending Hugh Pugh," who was charged as a principal in the murder; and so much interest attached to the case, that three persons were appointed by the Court to find a place more convenient than the Court-house for the trial of the murderers.
The subject of negro slavery had for some time engaged the attention of sundry members of the Society of Friends, and as early as 1688, a little community of German Quakers, at Ger- mantown, arrived at the conclusion that holding slaves was inconsistent with Christianity. These people presented the sub- ject to the monthly meeting to which they belonged, in a letter alike remarkable for the simplicity of its language and the strength of the arguments adduced against holding human beings in bondage.
But even the Society of Friends was not, as a body, quite prepared at that period to view the institution as sinful. The
1 Gordon's Hist. Penna. 169.
2 Col. Rec. ii. 660.
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
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monthly meeting, though it regarded the tenor of the letter as " being nearly related to truth," found the questions involved therein too weighty for its decision, and, accordingly, referred the subject to the quarterly meeting, which, in like manner, and for a like reason, submitted the matter to the consideration of the yearly meeting. This body unquestionably represented the Society not only within the limits of the Province, and three lower counties, but also those settled in parts of New Jersey and Maryland. The following minute made upon the occasion should at least teach us to exercise an abundance of charity towards the people of the South who still regard the institution with so much favor:
"A paper was presented by some German Friends concerning the lawfulness and unlawfulness of buying and keeping negroes. It was adjudged not to be proper for this meeting to give a positive judgment in the case, it having so general a relation to many other parts; and, therefore, at present, they forbear it."1
Such a decision, made by other men, under other circum- stances, might be regarded as a convenient shift to get rid of a disagreeable question they had not the moral courage to meet. But such a suspicion cannot attach to these early Quakers. Their faithfulness to what they regarded as the Truth, had been tested, in very many of them, by the severest persecution that the bigotry of the age dared to inflict. To them, it may be remarked, the institution was presented in its mildest form ; and doubtless many of them had witnessed a moral improve- ment in the imported Africans distributed amongst them. They were really not prepared to give "a positive judgment in the case," but it ever after continued to be one upon which the Society was deeply exercised, until the total abolition of slavery was accomplished.
In 1696, Friends are advised by the yearly mecting, "not to encourage the bringing in any more negroes." It also gives wholesome advice in respect to their moral training. In 1711, the Quarterly Meeting of Chester declared to the yearly meet- ing, "their dissatisfaction with Friends buying and encouraging the bringing in of negroes." The advice of the yearly meeting only goes to the discouragement of the slave trade. The Lon- don Yearly Meeting was appealed to for advice, but none could be had, except that the importing of slaves from their native country by Friends, "is not a commendable or allowable prac- tice." In 1714, a law was passed imposing a duty of £20 on each negro slave imported, on the ground " that the multiplying of them may be of dangerous consequence." This act was promptly disallowed by the home Government.
1 Mitchener's Retrospect of Early Quakerism, 335.
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
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This year, the Monthly Meeting of Chester had the subject of slaves again under consideration, and unanimously came to the conclusion, "that friends should not be concerned hereafter, in the importation thereof, nor buy any." This buying, the quarterly meeting concluded, had only reference to imported slaves. If so, the action of the monthly meeting did not go one step beyond what had already been determined upon by the yearly meeting. There is some reason, however, to believe that the term was used in a more general sense, as will be seen by a minute adopted the following year.
Up to about this period, the dealings with offending members in the Society of Friends, were, in general, for a violation of discipline, or for slight offences. No one had, as yet, been dealt with for a failure to pay his debts, and but few cases of a scandalous nature appear upon the minutes of the Society. But this generation of early Quakers, whose record for strict moral rectitude has scarcely a parallel in the annals of religious sects, was about passing away, to be succeeded by their descendants, who were mostly members by birthright, and whose faithfulness to their religious profession had not been tested by severe trials and persecutions. A greater laxity of morals is observable, though the number of cases brought to the notice of the several meetings is by no means large. To remedy this growing evil, an ill-judged public exposure of the offender was now for the first time resorted to. The following minute from the Darby Record is the prelude to this singular and rather unfeeling practice, in that meeting :
" This meeting having considered that inasmuch as the Book of discipline, directs that all papers of condemnation be pub- lished as near as may so far as the offence hath reached the ears of the people, Do upon deliberation of the matter conclude that for the future all papers of condemnations which the monthly meeting shall judge the offence to be a publick scandal, shall be read as speedily as may be at first day meeting, and published further as there may be occasion." It is but fair to state that no such paper of condemnation was issued until re- peated, and re-repeated efforts had been exhausted in endeavors to reclaim the offender.
There were a few Baptists located within our limits at a very early date. It is said that one Able Noble, who arrived in 1684, "formed a society of Baptists in Upper Providence Chester County, where he baptized Thomas Martin a public Friend."1 Noble appears to have been a Seventh-day Baptist, and belonged to a community that was afterwards known as Kiethian Baptists. Besides Thomas Martin, a number of bap-
1 Haz. Ann. ii. 73.
15
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
[1717.
tisms are recorded as having taken place at a very early period, and at various places in the County ; but a highly interesting manuscript in the possession of Robert Frame, Esq., of Birming- ham, satisfies me that no regular church of the Baptist persua- sion had been organized till 1715. Meetings, it is true, were held in private houses in Chester, Ridley, Providence, Radnor, and Springfield, and baptism was performed according to ancient order, in the adjacent creeks, and even the Lord's Supper was administered, but these were the doings of variable congrega- tions, rather than the acts of an organized church.
The paper referred to is in the nature of a constitution, and the organization effected under it, afterwards assumed the title of the " Brandywine Baptist Church," by which it has continued to be known to the present time. It will be perceived that these early Baptists used the same designation for the months and days as the Quakers. Most of them had been members of that sect ; quite a large proportion were of Welsh origin .- See Appendix, Note I.
The minute adopted by the Chester Monthly Meeting in 1715 in respect to negro slavery, is rendered explicit by the following, adopted by the same meeting this year :
"The meeting desires the Quarterly meeting will take into their further consideration, the buying and selling of negroes, which gives great encouragement for bringing them in, and that no friend be found in the practice of buying any, that shall be imported hereafter."
A preparative meeting was settled at Caln in 1716, by Con- cord Monthly Meeting.
From orders made by the Court for the repair of the bridge over Chester Creek at Chester, it appears that its original con- struction with a draw was still maintained. From a similar order, " to repair ye bridge over Ridley Creek in the great new road now leading from Chester to Philadelphia," it may be in- ferred that it did not contain a draw.
It would appear from the Court Records of this period, that but twelve traverse jurors sometimes attended at a Court, and fifteen Grand Jurors. The sentences of the Court change from time to time, sometimes in consequence of a change in the law, at others, from the whims of the Justices.
This year a sentence for larceny to the value of £8 was, that the defendant pay four fold and costs, "and be whipped 21 lashes, and to wear a roman T of a blue colour for the space of six months not less than four inches long each way, and one inch broad, and be committed till he comply with sd Judgment." This was not an unusual punishment.
In early times the office of Sheriff was not so profitable as it
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1718.]
now is, and as a sort of perquisite the Sheriff was allowed to keep tavern. Hence we find Nicholas Fairlamb, a newly elected Sheriff, petitioning to the Court to be recommended for a license. In later times the tavern was kept in the dwelling apartment of the prison.
Governor Gookin had become very unpopular with all parties long before the close of his administration. He was superseded by Hon. William Keith, a Scotchman, who arrived at Philadel- phia on the 31st of May, 1717, and was sworn into office the next day.
Total abstinence from the use of intoxicating drinks was not thought of in early times ; but the subject of their excessive use was frequently brought before the business meetings of the Quakers. Selling rum to the Indians was attended with so many evil consequences, that it was frequently testified against by different meetings of the Society. But rum was regarded as an article of necessity. It was in general use, and was sold by Friends of the highest standing, and sometimes at the houses at which the earlier meetings of the Society were held. But the evils resulting from intoxication were too apparent to be passed over by a sect making high professions of morality, and hence we find frequent testimonies borne against drunkenness. The following is a specimen from the minutes of Chester Monthly Meeting :
"Friends being under a weighty concern for the preservation of good order at all times, and particularly in the approaching time of harvest, and it is desired friends avoid all extravagant customs and drinking to excess."
Meetings had for a long time been held at private houses in Birmingham, but no regular meeting-house was established till 1718, when the first was erected at or near the site of the present Birmingham meeting-house. It is said to have been built of cedar logs.
A new Friends' meeting-house was also built at Radnor this year. The minutes of the monthly meeting that relate to the erection of this edifice are given, to show the cautious manner in which such enterprises were entered upon in these early times. The first minute is dated at a meeting held at Haverford, 8th mo. 10th of the previous year, and runs thus :
" A letter from our Friend Benjamin Holm to this meeting, recommending to their consideration the stirring up of frds in ye building of their meeting house att Radnor, and with desires yt we should be concerned for ye prosperity of Truth, was read in this meeting and approved off. Likewise this meeting pursuant to Radnor frds desire acquiess wth ym in building a new meeting house and this meeting appoints David Morris, David Lewis,
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY.
[1718.
Edd. Rees and Robert Jones, Richard Hayes and Samuel Lewis to assist ym In ye contrivance [and] ye building Thereof, and they meet together abt it on ye 21st of this instant, [and report] to ye next meeting."
The members of the Committee all belonged to the preparative meetings of Haverford and Merion. The next meeting was held at Merion, and one of its minutes embraces the report of the Committee.
" Some friends of those appointed to assist Radnor friends In ye Contrivance of a new meeting house, then having acct. yt they have accordingly mett and given y" Their thoughts as to ye bigness and form thereof. To weh Radnor frds Then there present seemed generally to agree wth."
The monthly meetings were held alternately at Haverford, Merion and Radnor, and in course a meeting would be held at Radnor in the early part of December, 1718. This meeting was ordered to be held at Haverford, "their meeting house at Rad- nor being not ready."1
The west end of the present meeting-house at Radnor was the building then erected. The date of its erection is further at- tested by being cut on a tablet in the east gable.
For some years, the intellect of William Penn had been so much impaired, as wholly to exclude him from any participation in the affairs of the Province. His general health gradually declined till the time of his death, which happened on the 30th of July, 1718. The news of this melancholy event did not reach Pennsylvania till October, when it was formally announced to the Assembly, which was then in Session.
Soon after the arrival of Governor Keith, the Supreme Court was so constituted as to hold a Court of Oyer and Terminer at Chester, for the trial of the murderers of Jonathan Hayes. They were promptly tried, and Hugh Pugh and Lazarus Thomas were convicted, and sentenced to be hung.
The condemned petitioned the Governor for a reprieve, until the pleasure of his Majesty the King could be known; but the Governor, who had attended the trial, and being satisfied of its fairness, was so fully convinced of the guilt of the prisoners, that he at once rejected the petition, and in doing so he was sus- tained by a majority of his council. The grounds taken in the appeal to the Crown were ;-
" 1st. Because seventeen of the Grand Inquest who found the bill of Indictment against them, and eight of the Petty Jury who found them guity were Quakers or Reputed Quakers, and were
1 As late as 1721, committees were appointed in Haverford and Merion for raising funds for the completion of Radnor meeting-house.
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Qualified no otherwise than by an affirmacon or Declaracon con- trary to a statute made in the first year of your Maties Reign.
" 2ndly. Because the act of Assembly of this Province, by which Judges, Jury & Witnesses were pretended to be Qua- lified was made & past the Twenty eighth Day of May, in the first year of your Majestie's Reign, which was after sd murder was supposed to be committed; and after another act of Assem- bly of the same nature was repealed by her Late Majesty, Queen Anne.
" 3dly. Because sd act of Assembly is not consonant to Rea- son, but Repugnant & contrary to the Laws, Statutes and Rights of your Majestie's Kingdom."1
It appears from the discussion in Council, that the condemned " had for several years appeared at the head of a lawless Gang of Loose fellows, commom disturbers of the public peace." The crime had been committed three years before the trial, during part of which time, the accused being out on bail, behaved in the worst possible manner. The appeal made to the Crown in this case, is perhaps the only instance on record, where any excep- tion has been taken, by a defendant tried for murder, to the presence of Quakers on the Jury.
A great alarm from piratical vessels being on the coast pre- vailed in 1718. Under an act of Grace, promulgated by the King, a number of these pirates had surrendered themselves, and had obtained certificates to that effect from the provincial authorities; but it was suspected that these repentant outlaws still maintained a secret correspondence with their old associates. Measures were at once adopted by the Governor and Council to rid the Province of persons so dangerous to its peace and safety.
An act passed in 1718, " for the advancement of justice, and more certain administration thereof," removed most of the obstacles in the way of Friends participating freely in legisla- tive and judicial concerns.2 This act was confirmed by the King and Council in the following year. The act " for corro- borating the circular line between the Counties of Chester and New Castle," that had been passed several years previously, met with a different fate; for what reason does not appear.
"John Wright, Richard Webb, Henry Pierce and Henry Nayle and their associates," now appear as Justices of the " General Quarter Sessions of the Peace and jail delivery." The August Court was held by John Wright alone. At this Court, for an
1 Col. Ree. iii. 31.
2 It has been said that the privileges acquired by the Friends, in the passage of this aet, " was the inducement for adopting the sanguinary rigor of the English penal law, in violation of the humane policy which had previously influenced the legislature of Pennsylvania, on the subject of crimes and punishments."-Lows Penna. Bioren's Ed. i. 130. Note.
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. [1720.
assault and battery committed on a female, the sentence was a fine of £50, " and to stand in the pillory at Chester between ye hours of 10 and 2 on the 5th day of October, and that he give · security for his good behaviour during 7 years next ensuing."
A road was laid out in 1719 from Goshen to Philadelphia, commencing " at the intersection of the Goshen mill road with the Providence road." This road passed by what was formerly known as "the Old Square," in Newtown township, and a short distance beyond that point it entered "the Great road leading to Philadelphia."
After the death of William Penn, his eldest son, William, claimed the right to administer the government of the Province, and accordingly issued a new commission to Lieut .- Gov. Keith. After consulting with his Council, and also with the Assembly, the Governor declined the new commission, and continued to act under his former appointment. This decision met with the approbation of the home Government. William Penn, the younger, died two years after his father, and after some litigation, not only the Province, but the government of it, descended to John, Thomas, and Richard Penn, the surviving sons of the Proprietary by his second wife Hannah Callowhill.
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