USA > Pennsylvania > Delaware County > Upland > The record of the court at Upland, in Pennsylvania, 1676 to 1681, And a military journal, kept by Major E. Denny, 1781 to 1795 > Part 12
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" Verdrietige Hoeck," or corner of land, also called Trinity Hook, lay between Shellpot 1 and Stony Creeks. It contained about 800 acres, and was granted in two patents, of 1663 and 1664; afterwards confirmed by Nicholls, in 1667, to Johan Hendricks and others. (New York Patents, ii. 283, Office Secy. State, Albany, Breviat. 38.) It ran for about the distance of 13 miles along the Delaware, and terminated on the north at "Stone Point." The creek which empties into the river at Dupont's landing, and which at present has no name, ran through about the centre of the tract; and, at the point where the railroad crosses, is 4500 yards in a direct line from the Brandywine Light House. Verdrietige, a title which has ceased to be applied for about a century, was derived from the Dutch "verdrietigh," signifying "grievous," or " tedious," owing to the character of the navigation in approaching that point. (Book of Surveys, N. Castle.)
1 Vulgarly so called - a corruption of "Skilldpadde," the Swedish for "turtle."
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"Single Tree Point" is now "Oldman's Point," on the N. Jersey shore, one mile below the mouth of Oldman's Creek. It was also called " Een boom," the Dutch for single tree, and by the Indians "Emaijens." (Penn Arch. i. 34.)
Stony Creek remained the division-line until the King's Charter fixed the boundary of the Province " on the south by a circle drawn at the dis- tance of 12 miles from New Castle northward and westward * * "; accord- . ingly, we find that the Court at Upland or Chester, on 14th March, 1681, recognized Naaman's Creek as the boundary line, and so does Holmes in his Map; and Penn afterwards declared his intention, but which was never car- ried out, of enlarging the County to the Brandywine. The matter was sub- sequently discussed in the Council ; when, on 9th Aug., 1693, it was, " after full debate " by that body, resolved, that for the "present convenience," and " not for an absolute and finall proprietarie division, and that the in- habitants might know to which of the two counties to pay their levies, that the bounds of New Castle Countie shall extend northward to the mouth of Naaman's Creek, and upwards along the southwest side of the northernmost branch." (Col. Rec. i. 349, and id. pp. 72, 74, 76, 220, 222, 224, 340.) This was but an approximation to correctness, and the line was still unsettled. A disagreement had arisen between the Terri- tories and the Province; a separation was imminent, and it was of import- ance to adjust the boundary ; and, on the 20th, 7th mo., 1701, the Assem- bly, among other requests preferred, petitioned Penn, " that the division Lines between the County of New Castle and Chester be ascertained, allowing the bounds according to the Proptr's Letters Patent from the King"; to which the Governor replied, "It is my own inclination, and I desire the Representatives of New Castle and Chester forthwith, or before they leave the Town, to attend me about the time and method of Doing it." (Col. Rec. ii. 39, 43.) In pursuance of this conference a warrant, dated 28th, 8th month, 1701, was issued by the Governor, directed to Isaac Taylor and Thomas Pierson, authorizing them to accompany the magistrates of the counties of New Castle and Chester, and " to admeasure and survey from the town of New Castle the distance of 12 miles in a Right line up ye sd River, and from ye sd distance according to ye King's Letters Pattent and Deeds of Enfeoffment from the Duke, and ye sd cir- cular Line to be well marked two-third parts of ye semi-circle." The survey was commenced 26th, 9th mo., 1701, and finished 4th, 10th mo., 1701. The "end of the Horse Dyke" in New Castle was established as the beginning of the line, "and they came to the Delaware on ye upper side of Nathaniel Lamply's old Hous at Chichester, running two-third
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parts of the semi-circle." The trees along the line were marked by them with three notches.
The above facts were obtained from a copy of a MS. draft in the Phila- delphia Library, and the survey is recorded in the Book of Surveys, N. Castle, p. 99, No. 16.
This survey, so far as I can discover, has been noticed but by one writer, Mr. Veech, and that incidentally ; and is but vaguely referred to in the "Breviate," "Penn vs. Ld. Baltimore," that rare source of information on the earlier history of the controversy. The history of the question has been ably, and more or less fully, treated in the Report of Col. James D. Graham, U. S. A., Senate Journ. Penna., 1850, ii. 475; Hist. of Mason and Dixon's Line, by J. H. B. Latrobe; Mason and Dixon's Line, by James Veech.
NOTE B.
(Page 121.) This curious passage, and another referring to Lloyd's purchase, presently mentioned, would seem, with the exception of the own- ership of the Society of Friends, to be all that remains to indicate the existence of any ecclesiastical rights at Chester prior to 1702, the year in which the Episcopal church was established at that place. In 1699 (I. Colonial Records, p. 557) David Lloyd represented to the Provincial Council that he had purchased a piece of land at Chester, called " The Green," fronting on the creek and river; upon which having laid out streets and a market-place, according to a map and plan made by the Sur- veyor General, he asked for a confirmation of the same. Mr. Jasper Yeates resisted the application, on the ground that it was church land, " appropriated by donation to that use for ever ;" that it "was from them Lloyd derived his pretended title ," and asked that persons might be heard " on behalf of the Church."
The deeds for the property here referred to are in possession of Doct. J. D. Logan, and the premises were conveyed by David Lloyd to Jasper Yeates, by deed of 22d Sept., 1703, recorded at Chester in Deed-Book H, No. 10, p. 180 - endorsed, "For the Green before Jasper Yeates' door."
The deed recites that the land was formerly granted by warrant from William Penn, 31st March, 1684, and laid out by the Surveyor-General, 11th Oct., 1684, for the use of the Swedes' minister, and afterwards con- firmed by patent from the Commissioners, 23d May, 1690, unto Swan Swanson, Andrew Bankson, Lasse Cock, Casper Fish, and Peter Rambo, " the Church- Wardens of the Swedes' Congregation, for the use of the
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minister then present or to come;" and that the said patentees, by order and consent of the Swedes' Congregation of Wicaco and Crane Hook, on 29th Dec., 1693, conveyed the premises to David Lloyd. The objection to the title was removed by a release from Penn of 24th Oct., 1701, Pat. Bk. A, 223. The "Green" extended along the river from Chester Creek nearly to Welsh street; but the map of the market-place is not to be found at Harrisburg, and the street, called New street, which ran parallel with the Delaware, has been long since washed away.
Although the position of the lots mentioned in the text is not given, I am not aware of any reason for supposing that the premises were identical with those conveyed by Swanson and others to Lloyd, but think there are reasons which may warrant the inference that they belonged to an early Episcopal organization at Chester. So far as it related to that church in New York, it does not appear that it was founded earlier than 1693, and here until a later period ; but the existence of an enactment in the " Duke's Laws" concerning "The Publique worship of God," which in 1677 was in force as well here as in New York, seems to have been over- looked by writers.
This law directed that a church should be built in each parish, of a size to accommodate 200 persons; that, for the purpose of making and propor- tioning levies for the building of churches, providing for the poor and maintenance of ministers, " eight of the most able men " should be chosen by the major part of the householders, by whom two should be chosen yearly out of their number to be church-wardens. Any minister was per- mitted to officiate upon producing testimonials to the Governor that he had received ordination from some protestant bishop or minister within some part of his majesty's dominions or the dominions of any foreign prince of the reformed religion. "That the minister shall preach every Sunday, and pray for the King, Queen, Duke of York, and Royale family," &c. Freedom of religious worship was conceded in the following terms : " nor shall any person be molested, fined, or imprisoned, for differing in Judgment in matters of religion, who profess Christianity." (Green Book, vol. xx. p. 1, Land Office, Harrisburg; Arnold's Hist. of Col. Church, ii. 661, 662, iii. 372; Humphrey's Historical Account, Lond., 1730, 151 ; Minutes of St. Paul's, Chester.)
That prior to the date in the text, the only town north of New Castle should not have had some means of religious worship, seems hardly pro- bable. In view of the fact that, notwithstanding the comparatively copious information on the subject of the Swedish churches, there is no allusion to the existence at any period of a Swedish congregation at Upland-in view, also, of the directions of the law just quoted, the liberal aid afforded in the
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establishment of St. Paul's church, the early strength and great success of that congregation, - I reiterate the opinion, that a prior Episcopal ownership existed in the " glebe land" referred to in the text; although the church may have been feeble, and have almost ceased to exist at the period of the establishment of St. Paul's upon a prosperous basis.
NOTE C.
(Page 137.) The "House of Defence," or Block-House, which Jurgin had been directed " to fitt up and furnish fitt for the Court to sit in" (ante, 78), was built upon the land of Neales Laersen. We are able to fix its position and probable size by the description in a deed from Lydia, the daughter of Robert Wade, to Robt. Danger, 10th Oct., 1697 (Deed-Bk. A, 270, W. Chester). It stood on the east side of, and at an angle to, the present Front street, which was laid out after its erection, and the eastern line of which street ran through the centre of the building, from its S. E. to its N. W. corner. If it was rectangular in shape, its size was 14 by 15 feet ; and, according to measurement, its S. E. corner stood about 84 feet from the N. E. corner of Front and Filbert. The northern portion of the house of Mrs. Sarah P. Coombe occupies about eleven feet of the south end of the site of the House of Defence.
What appears to have been the second Court House stood nearly oppo- site to the House of Defence, at the distance of 259 ft. 6 inches from the S. W. corner of Front and James sts. It was built in 1695, upon a lot, the title of which was conveyed to the county by John Hoskins (Deed-Bk. A, 190, W. Chester), and its lower floor was used as a prison. A portion of its old wall is yet to be seen, having been preserved in the erection of the northern gable of the building occupying the site. The Old Assembly- Building, now taken down, stood to the north of it, and its south end was about the distance of 230 ft. 6 inches south of the S. W. corner of Front and James streets. It was at one time occupied by the Friends as a Meeting-House, and Penn had often preached in it. (Col. Rec. i. 402, 441; Minutes of Court, Deed-Bk. A, 29, 265, 280, E 5, 442, W. Chester ; Deed-Bk. C, 571, Media ; Statement of Samuel Lytle, ÆE. 85.)
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NOTE D.
(Page 178.) "Kreupel-gras" is defined to be "Knott-grasse" - Hex- ham's Dutch & Eng. Dict. 1647 -and it is not improbable that the re- semblance which the Dutch colonists saw between the kreupel-grass of Holland, and grass which grew here, led them to designate as a " Cripple" - the place where it flourished.
This application of the word Cripple to a place, seems to be unknown in England, and in this country was not known to Webster and others who have compiled dictionaries. It is in common use in the region bor- dering on the Delaware river.
NOTE E.
(Page 185.) An examination of the records affords no other proof, than that presented in the text, of the grant to the parties named. "Ha- taorackan," so variously spelt in the original, may be a corruption of the proper Indian title "Hackazockan," which is the nearest approach to it of any of the numerous Indian names set down by Lindstrom (MS. Map), and by which he designates the region which was afterwards known as Pennsbury Manor. As the tract was in the vicinity of the present Bristol, and the two extreme points of the Survey are given, I find that the general bearing thus obtained, as well as the direction of the Hataorackan Creek, correspond pretty accurately with the Coast Survey, as the course of Scott's Creek-which ran through the Manor-and the shore between that stream and Newbold's Island, are there laid down. With no other portion of the river will the bearings of the Survey so well accord. The fact that the grant was made but a few months before the Duke's posses- sion ceased, and perhaps remained unseated, may account for the absence of any further allusion to it in the records, and for its probable absorption into the manor of Pennsbury.
1
مي
MILITARY JOURNAL
MAJOR EBENEZER DENNY, OF
An Officer in the Revolutionary and Indian @Wars.
WITH AN
INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR.
BY WILLIAM H. DENNY.
MIRROR OF ANCIENT FAITH! UNDAUNTED WORTH! INVIOLABLE TRUTH! Dryden's Eneid.
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MEMOIR.
EBENEZER DENNY was born in Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, on the 11th of March, 1761. He was the eldest child of William Denny and Agnes Parker. William, and his brother Walter, came to Cumberland from Chester County, in 1745. Walter Denny settled two or three miles south of Carlisle, where he owned a large tract of land, now divided into five farms. He raised a company for the Revolutionary struggle, was killed at the battle of the Crooked Billet; and his son taken, and kept three months on board a Jersey prison- ship. David Denny, for many years pastor of the Pres- byterian church at Chambersburg, was a son of Walter. William lived in Carlisle. He was the first Coroner west of the Susquehanna, and a Commissary in the war.
The mother of Ebenezer Denny, Agnes, was the daughter of John Parker, and grand-daughter of Richard Parker. Richard, as early as 1730, acquired lands on the Cannadaguinnet, three miles west of Carlisle. These lands continued for two or three generations afterward in possession of his descendants. It was there that his
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grandsons, in the intervals of their military service, turned their swords into plowshares. All three-Alex- ander, Richard and Andrew-were actively engaged in the war. Alexander furnished two teams, at his own expense, when the army was at the White Plains. He was commissioned in Colonel Irvine's regiment, Second Lieutenant in Company No. 1, Captain Hay, January 9th, 1776. Marched in April following, from Carlisle to New York and Canada-promoted a First Lieutenant in Company No. 4, Captain Rippey, June 9th, 1776, and Captain, 31st July, 1777, in Colonel Irvine's regi- ment. In the first campaign against Quebec, he and his cousin, John Parker, who was one of his sergeants, suf- fered great hardships, and narrowly escaped being taken prisoners. At the close of the Revolutionary War, whilst Richard and Andrew emigrated to Kentucky, Alexander Parker settled in Western Virginia, on lands which he acquired by settlement and purchase, at the mouth of the Little Kanahwa, on which is now the town of Parkersburg. His only surviving child, Mary, whilst on a visit to her relative in Pittsburgh, was married to William Robinson, Jr., of Allegheny. On that occasion her cousin from Kentucky, a grandchild of Richard Parker, afterward Mrs. T. Crittenden, was her brides- maid.
Agnes, the mother of Ebenezer Denny, was an uncom- mon woman, of great energy and intelligence. She was of middle height, fair complexion, blue eyes, bright sandy hair ; beautiful in her younger days, attractive at all times, and prepossessing in her old age. Her nume- rous friends and relatives approached her always with
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confidence in her affection, her sympathy, her good tem- per and sound judgment. A devout Christian-with her Bible, in every sense, by heart. She never failed to ascribe the many deliverances of her son Ebenezer, to a particular providence-as other pious persons did to the prayers of herself, his good mother.
Her father left his large estate to his sons; as was the custom in those days. Agnes inherited nothing. Her husband, a highminded and gentlemanly man, fell away in his habits and circumstances. Ebenezer, therefore, felt that he ought to endeavor to assist them, as well as to support himself. At the age of thirteen, he obtained employment as a bearer of dispatches to the com- mandant at Fort Pitt. He crossed the Allegheny moun- tains alone, lying out in the woods with any party of pack-horsemen whom he overtook at nightfall. His friend in after years, Samuel Murphy, of "Murphy's Bend," on his first visit from Bullskins to Fort Pitt in 1774, met him at Turtle Creek, on his return from the fort: "a slender, fair, blue-eyed, red-haired boy, two or three years younger than himself, between eleven and thirteen years old." Murphy expressed, at the time, his surprise that the public authorities would intrust a mere lad to carry important dispatches through a wilderness infested with savage enemies. Twenty years afterward, Murphy was a lieutenant in a military expedition to Presqu' Isle, commanded by the person who was that night at Turtle Creek his camp-mate and bed-fellow. Once during that expedition, whilst suppressing a mutiny, and again, when returning, he fell out of his perogue, the
14
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life of the commander was saved by that brave and ath- letic soldier. "When I met him at Turtle Creek," said Murphy, "he must have been on his return from the fort. I know him too well to suppose that he would have disclosed to me the nature of his business, until after it was executed." On two of these missions to Fort Pitt, at the Loyalhanna and at Turkey-foot, he was chased into Fort Loudon by the Indians.
He was afterward employed in his father's store in Carlisle. Fresh from his bridle path on Chestnut Ridge and Laurel Hill, and familiar with its danger, it was hardly to be expected that he would be content at home behind a counter, whilst his uncles, of whom he was justly proud, risked everything in the war.
A letter of marque and reprisal was about to sail to the West Indies. He repaired to Philadelphia and shipped as a volunteer. The captain intended to intercept a British merchantman, with a valuable cargo, bound from the Bahamas to Halifax. But entertaining a party of friends who accompanied him down the Delaware, was unable to command his ship when, outside the capes, the expected prize came in sight. He made amends for this disappointment afterward by a vigilant, daring and successful cruise. His ship became noted in the Gulf. On one occasion, off Martinique, he had a running fight with three armed British cruisers. In that chase and ac- tion, Ebenezer attracted the notice of the captain by his alacrity and intrepidity, as he had throughout the voy- age by his modesty and fidelity. Observing that in every emergency he was not less brave than any of the
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crew, whilst he was always reliable and trustworthy, the captain, on the voyage home, promoted him to the com- mand of the quarter deck.
To overcome his scruples and aversion to what seemed so much like highway robbery, that even the love of ad- venture could not gloss it over, he was offered the privi- lege of supercargo, to induce him to embark again in another cruise. This tempting offer reached him in the family cabin at Carlisle, surrounded by his mother and sisters, whose affectionate endeavors to dissuade him from its acceptance only increased his desire to earn something for himself and them. He decided to go back to sea. He invested his share of the prize money in whisky and flour, and had crossed the Susquehanna with his wagon on his way to Philadelphia, when he received a commission of Ensign in the First Pennsylvania regi- ment. He gladly disposed of his produce at Harrisburg, and joined the army at Little York. This was shortly after the mutiny in the Pennsylvania line. In his mili- tary journal, which then commences, he describes the pain he felt at being obliged to witness the execution.
Then followed Wayne's forced marches into Virginia, and the first action of the Pennsylvania troops, under Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Butler, near Williamsburg, where they had a desperate encounter with Simcoe; the British partisan and his rangers being very much emboldened by their recent success at the junction of the Rivanna and Fluvanna rivers, at which point, with a de- tachment of yagers, infantry and hussars, they fright- ened the Baron Steuben into a night retreat of thirty
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miles, and destroyed the greater part of his stores scat tered along the river bank; although he was at the head of five hundred Virginia regulars, with some militia, sep- arated from the enemy by deep water, and the boats all on his own side. This was Steuben's first and only sep- arate command.
Soon after, Wayne, who also was credulous, but in the opposite way, attempted to surprise Cornwallis. He ex- pected to find his army partly crossed over and divided by the James river. Our young ensign, the extent of whose marching of late had been the length of his quar- ter deck, frankly confesses that he could not keep up with his company. As they were coming into action, his captain and fellow townsman, falling behind and walk- ing by his side, quietly said to him, "Now, Eb., for the honor of old Carlisle, do not disgrace yourself." Mont- gomery made this rallying appeal to the memory of their native place, supposing that his young townsman was going into his first action; probably not knowing that the youngster was fresh from the perils of the sea, and famil- iar with the smoke of gunpowder on the deck of a pri- vateer. The boldness of their commander advanced them into a position of great danger, from which they were extricated only by still greater daring. Cornwallis, astonished at the hardihood of the attack, sent a regi- ment of infantry to meet him, and cautiously deploy- ed his whole army to the right and left. The regi- ment of British infantry, in front of the American line, marched up in open order, with perfect regularity; Wayne reserving his fire until they were within a dis-
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tance of seventy paces, when both lines enchanged shots for a few minutes. The hero of Stony Point was in full uniform-his horse prancing in front of the Pennsylva- nia infantry, his face glowing with pleasure. He seemed to Ensign Denny, who stood near him, to be amused with the loss of his plume, which was cut off by a ball on the first fire. Nearly all the field officers were dismounted.
A young officer, acting in the staff, whose pantaloons were rubbed by some bleeding horse, imagining himself wounded, fainted, and was carried off the field. Being very handsome, one of the few young men of fortune in the army who could afford to dress well, he was envied by his brother officers, who made the most of the acci- dent to laugh him out of the service. Ensign Denny was the only officer in the company who was not wounded. The captain and lieutenant were disabled at the first fire. The troops retreated by companies. Montgomery's fell to the command of the ensign. They recrossed the swamp by the narrow causeway, in good order, but with such expedition, that he could again hardly keep up with the men. But "thanks to the veteran first sergeant, the most important officer," he remarked, "in a company, they were kept together."
The unexampled hardihood of Wayne, persisting to advance, and actually fighting after he must have been aware that the whole British army were at hand, perplexed Cornwallis, made him apprehend an ambuscade, and hesitate in his pursuit. Otherwise, Wayne and all his force would have been taken. The loss of the Americans in this battle, according to Mr.
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Denny's account, was one hundred and eighteen killed wounded and prisoners, including ten officers.
Subsequently, at the siege of York, on the night of the 14th October, Ensign Denny was in the advance at- tack on the redoubts, in which the Pennsylvania troops distinguished themselves under the lead of Hamilton. In the ceremony of the surrender, Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Butler, ( afterward General Butler, killed at St. Clair's defeat,) in honor of his recent services and the signal part his regiment had taken in the capture of the redoubt, was appointed to plant the first American flag upon the British parapet.
Colonel Butler, who was a short heavy person, detailed for this service his youngest ensign, in his figure and stature a contrast to himself; probably partial to him, as coming from his own town, Carlisle. The young officer mounted the parapet, in the presence of the three armies, and was in the act of planting the flag-staff, when the Baron Steuben rode out of the lines, dismounted, took the flag, and planted it himself. The disappointed and mortified subaltern had nothing to do but submit. But not so his colonel, the hero who had avenged the Baron's flight from Simcoe. He, that night, sent the arrogant foreigner a message, as every one ex- pected, and it took all the influence of Rochambeau and Washington to prevent a hostile meeting.
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