The Court, Bench, And Bar Of Delaware County.

At the advanced age of ninety-three, Judge Lloyd died of paralysis. "The old machine had broken down and can't be repaired," he remarked to those who, hearing him fall to the floor, ran to his assistance. Two days thereafter he died.

Benjamin Brannon was appointed by Governor Mifflin, June 5, 1794, one of the judges of the courts of Delaware County. I have gathered very little information respecting Judge Brannon. He resided in Upper Darby, was an earnest Whig, and during the year 1776 was appointed to instruct the people of Chester County in the mode of making saltpetre for the State powder-mills. In 1777 he was one of the sub-lieutenants of the county, and on June 11th of that year applied for cannon to arm several artillery companies formed in his jurisdiction, and on July 29th five hundred pounds was given him to pay bounty to substitutes. He was county commissioner in 1779, and in 1782 he was a representative in the Assembly from Chester County. Other than the facts stated I have no record of Judge Brannon.

John Crosby, of Ridley, was appointed by Governor Mifflin, April 26, 1799, one of the associate judges of Delaware County. He, like his fellow-associate, Hugh Lloyd, was a descendant of the early English settlers who emigrated to Pennsylvania when Penn acquired title to the province. He was born at the family homestead, on Ridley Creek, March 11, 1747/8. In 1776, in his twenty-ninth year, he entered the service as first lieutenant in a company of the First Battalion of Pennsylvania militia, attached to the Flying Camp, which had been recruited by his brother-in-law, Capt. Culin. It is related that on the day the organization was mustered in at the White Horse Tavern, one of the privates, enraged at something said by Capt. Culin, shot that officer, inflicting a wound of which he died. Crosby thereupon succeeded to the command, and as such marched the company to the encampment at Perth Amboy. After the capture of Philadelphia by the British, in the fall of 1777, Crosby (a militia officer and not in the Pennsylvania troops enlisted for the war) was with Governor Porter, intercepting the foraging parties of the enemy.

One night in the winter of 1777-78 he was at his home in Ridley when a boat's crew from a British man-of-war, lying off Chester, ascended the creek and took him prisoner. Crosby was in the act of washing his face at the pump, near the house, when he was captured. He was taken to New York and confined on the British ship "Falmouth." During his imprisonment, which lasted six months, his hair turned white, consequent on the harsh treatment received and insufficient food then furnished to the American prisoners of war. He was finally released on parole, his wife going to New York, at great personal risk, to intercede with the English authorities in his behalf. John Crosby, as stated, was commissioned, in 1799, associate judge of Delaware County, and continued on the bench until 1826. He died about the date given as the conclusion of his judicial career.

On Jan. 5, 1823, John Peirce was appointed associate judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He died in Nether Providence in December, 1833, aged seventy-nine years, but beyond his appointment and death I have no further information respecting Judge Pierce. Henry Myers was appointed to the place on the bench made vacant by his death.

William Anderson was born in Virginia² in 1762, and although only fifteen years of age, joined the Continental army, serving therein five years, and was present at the siege of Yorktown and the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. After the war he settled in Chester, and became the landlord of the Columbia House, which hostelry he purchased in 1796. In 1803 he erected the Anderson mansion, at Fifth and Welsh Streets, Chester. He was a member of the Eleventh and Twelfth Congresses of the United States, and served for a third term in the Fifteenth. In 1824 he was chairman of the committee of Delaware County³ on the reception of Lafayette. When the committees from Delaware, Chester, and Montgomery Counties, together with a committee from the immediate vicinity of Valley Forge, met the marquis at the State-House, in Philadelphia, September 29th of that year, Maj. Anderson, being a Revolutionary soldier, was selected to make the address, on behalf of all the committees, to the "Nation's Guest," and when the latter came to the borough of Chester he accepted the major's hospitality. On Jan. 5, 1826, Governor Shulze appointed Maj. Anderson one of the judges of the county courts, which position he resigned to accept an office in the custom-house in Philadelphia. His daughter, Evelina, became the wife of Commodore David Porter. Maj. Anderson died Dec. 16, 1829, aged sixty-seven years.

³ The committee from Delaware County consisted of the following gentlemen: William Anderson, Dr. Samuel Anderson, Joseph Engle, George G. Leiper, Samuel Edwards, Esq., Archibald T. Dick, Esq., William Martin, and Henry Myers.

Joseph Engle, of Nether Providence, was born Jan. 10, 1770. He was thirty-six years of age before he attained any office of prominence in the county, being elected in 1806 one of the commissioners, and on May 24, 1809, was commissioned prothonotary, recorder, register, and clerk of the courts, to which office he was recommissioned on Jan. 14, 1812, and again on Dec. 20, 1814. In 1824 he was one of the committee