Civil Lists.

"The grand jury also report that bonds of the company which have been paid or exchanged have not been properly cancelled, merely an erasure of the commissioners' names, and that some of these partially cancelled bonds have in some manner disappeared from the commissioners' office, and have been wrongfully used, and that the coupons on those bonds have been presented and paid out of the county treasury since the cancellation of the bonds. The grand jury consider that these matters should be more fully and thoroughly investigated, and urge upon this department of the public trust a more careful and economical administration. The treasurer further reports that for 1875 there has been paid out of the treasury for road damages the sum of $4608, and the grand jury deem it proper to say that it is questionable whether such expenditure is warranted in the condition of the county finances, as perhaps many of the roads laid out must benefit, with the number already improved, but few of the citizens."

This action of the grand jury directed public attention directly to the gross mismanagement of public affairs, but as it subsequently proved the greater part of the objectionable transactions were done by the absconding commissioner, without the knowledge of his fellow-member of the board, the authorities were powerless to punish the offender.

Under the Constitution of 1874 the following commissioners were elected for the period of three years, the term of service beginning in the year set opposite to their names: 1876, Owen W. Yarnall, Abram C. Lukens, Edward H. Engle; 1879, Owen W. Yarnall, Abram C. Lukens, Jesse Brooke.

In that year Jesse Brooke, the regular Democratic candidate, was elected over Edward H. Engle, Independent Democrat, by two votes, and proceedings were instituted to test the validity of Brooke's election by the friends of Engle. The matter was referred to an examiner, but pending the hearing the contest was abandoned.

1882, Owen W. Yarnall, Benjamin F. Pretty, Jesse Brooke.

County Treasurer. - In the early time the office of county treasurer appears to have been a gift at the disposal of the commissioners and assessors, and it must have been remunerative other than the salary or commissions attached to the office, for John Taylor, in 1741, offers to perform the duties of the office "without bringing any charge against the county," and the same year two other patriots, Joseph Brinton and Joshua Thomas, also offered to serve the public gratis. Brinton, who was the incumbent, succeeded in retaining the position. In 1790, when the board of assessors ceased to be, the commissioners adopted the plan of appointing the outgoing commissioner county treasurer, or, as it was then called, the commissioner's treasurer, and continued generally to observe that rule until 1838, when under the Constitution of 1837, the office was made elective.

The following is the list of county treasurers of the old county of Chester:

1695, Jeremiah Collett; 1697-1702, Walter Martin; 1704, Caleb Pussy; 1706-9, Walter Martin; 1720-23, Henry Pierce; 1724-26, Philip Taylor; 1740-46, Joseph Brinton; 1756-60, Robert Miller; 1761-64, Humphrey Marshall; 1765, Jesse Maris, Jr.; 1766-69, Lewis Davis; 1770-76, James Gibbons; 1770-72, Richard Thomas; 1775, Philip Taylor; 1775-77, John Brinton; 1778, Thomas Levis; 1779, William Evans; 1780, Persifor Frazer (March 22d); 1781, David Cloyd; 1785, Andrew Boyd and David Cloyd; 1786-87, William Evans; 1788, Andrew Boyd.

1790, Edward Richards: 1799, Seth Thomas; 1806, Joshua Lewis; 1809, John Thompson; 1812, Robert Fairlamb; 1815, John Thompson; 1822, Robert Fairlamb; 1825, John Russell; 1827, Homer Eachus; 1830, William Eyre; 1833, Oborn Levis; 1835, Samuel T. Walker; 1838, William Eyre; 1839, Davis Beaumont; 1840, William Eyre; 1840, William Eyre, Jr. (unexpired term of William Eyre); 1841, John Miller; 1844, Richard F. Worrell; 1846, Benjamin F. Johnson; 1848, Marshall Eachus; 1850, Edmund Taylor; 1852, Samuel Dutton; 1854, Joseph H. Hinkson; 1856, Jackson Lyons; 1858, Charles R. Williamson; 1860, Charles Johnson; 1862, David R. Ralston; 1864, William Hinkson; 1866, William H. Eves; 1868, William F. Mathews; 1870, John J. Hoopes; 1872, John D. Howard; 1874, Alvin Baldwin; 1876, Henry B. Taylor; 1879, William P. Yarnell; 1882, Stephen Clowd, Jr.

Directors of the Poor. - The early settlers were not unmindful of their duty in providing for the sick, infirm, and destitute, who could not care for themselves. At a court held on the sixth day of Eleventh month, 1684, it was

"Ordered that y^e Inhabitance of Concord, Bethel and Chichester meet on the 3^rd day of the next weeke att Henry Renolds to conferre together how to Provide a maintainance for Miriam Thomson and her child."

The court, on March 25th of each year, appointed for the several townships two persons, who were to act as overseers of the poor in the township where they resided, and such persons were usually selected from the wealthiest men in the locality. The court records are filled with cases respecting the settlement of paupers, hence to avoid much of that contention the act of May 31, 1718, was passed, to define the law governing residence of those persons needing relief from the public. This act required that all persons who should be receiving public assistance, including the wives and children of such pauper, if residing with him, "Shall upon the Shoulder of the right Sleeve of the upper Garment of every such Person in an open and visible manner, wear such a Badge or Mark as is hereinafter mentioned and expressed, That is to say, a large Roman (P) together with the first Letter of the Name of the County, City or Place whereof such Person is an Inhabitant, cut either in red or blue Cloth, as the Overseers of the Poor it shall be directed or appointed."

The failure of "any such poor person" to comply with this provision rendered him or her liable to be taken before a justice of the peace, when, in the discretion of the magistrate, the public allowance could "be abridged, suspended, or withdrawn," or the offender committed to the House of Correction, "there to be whipped and kept at hard Labour for any Num-