Aston Township.

daughter about the same age as Miss Martin. The next morning the two girls went to the headquarters of Lord Cornwallis, where complaint was made personally to that officer or Gen. Howe, who, with an escort of dragoons, had that day visited Cornwallis' extreme outpost, three-quarters of a mile west of Chester, in the neighborhood of the present Cartertown. Dr. Smith, who heard the incident related by Thomas Dutton and Joseph Mencil, stated that Gen. Howe "promised that if they could point out the men, they should be punished. The troops were at once formed into line, when the girls passed along and pointed out the robbers, after which they retired to some distance. The officers then put the troops through various evolutions, leaving the men in different positions. The same men were again pointed out by the girls as the guilty parties. The operation was again repeated with a like result. The men were then searched, when some of the stolen property was found upon them. They were tried by a court-martial and all convicted. Two of them were sentenced to be hung, and the third to perform the office of executioner. Upon whom the extreme penalty should be inflicted, the question was decided by casting lots. The two men were hung on the limb of an apple-tree on the property owned by George L. Nield, in Aston, and what is remarkable, tbey were allowed to remain hanging after the army moved away."¹ The two men, we learn from Capt. Montressor's journal, were executed on the 15th of September, and that one was a grenadier and the other a light infantryman.² That night at eight o'clock Cornwallis moved his whole command toward the Lancaster road, and at eleven o'clock the next day Gen. Howe made a junction with the troop of the former, the commander-in-chief having marched with the bulk of the army from near Dilworthtown by the Turk's Head (West Chester), Goshen meeting-house, and the hotel, the sign of the Boot.

² Penna. Mag. of Hist., vol. vi. p. 38.

Damages sustained by the inhabitants of Aston township from the British army in September, 1777:

Thomas Dutton, the centenarian, used to relate that on the evening of the 13th of September, when the British troops, under Cornwallis, encamped at Village Green, extending in a crescent form westwardly to Mount Hope, he was afraid the soldiers would kill his mother's cows, which were then pasturing in close proximity to the troops, so, lad as he was, not ten years of age, he marched boldly to the camp and drove the cattle home. An officer noticed the boy's action, and doubtless thinking that where those cows belonged good cheer could be had, ordered four soldiers to follow while he walked with young Dutton to his home. The latter, child-like, answered every question put to him by the officer, and when the house was reached the soldiers waited without to guard against the capture of their commander, who had entered the dwelling. The widow Dutton was much alarmed, but the officer assured her that the soldiers did not come to rob the people, but advised her as long as the troops lay in the neighborhood to bolt and bar every door and window, for the camp-followers, under a pretence of lighting a pipe, a drink of water, or other trifling matter, would strive to get access to the house and plunder it. The brave fellow who had lost one of his hands in Flanders paid for his meals, and the timely warning in all probability saved the widow from loss.³ This lad, born in Aston, Feb. 2, 1769, died Sept. 12, 1869, in the same township, his span of life having been extended to one hundred years, seven months, and eleven days. When twenty-one years of age, he having learned the tanning business, obtained permission from his grandfather to build a tan-yard on the former's estate in Aston, and Thomas Dutton erected a dwelling partly of stone and partly of logs, and a tan-house, into the wall of which is built a stone bearing the initials T. D., and the date 1790. The young man, who had married, appears to have devoted himself to his trade, and not only did he establish a reputation in business, but his industrious habits so favorably impressed his grandfather that Richard Dutton conveyed "in consideration of the natural love and affection he bore" his grandson, the two acres on which the dwelling and tan-yard were located. Subsequently by his grandfather's will he received a large tract of land surrounding these two acres. Here he continued until 1808, when he removed to New York State, but in 1817 resumed his trade as tanner at the old location, using a steam-engine at the work purchased of William Parrish, a manufacturer of Philadelphia, the first, it is said, ever set up in Delaware County. The good people of that day shook their head doubtingly at the ultimate success of his "new-fangIed notions." Here he continued until 1848, at which time, being nearly eighty years of age, he ceased to take an active part in business. He could distinctly remember hearing the cannon which were fired in Philadelphia in commemoration of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, and was of sufficient age to vote for Washington at his second election, and excepting the first term of Monroe, had voted at every Presidential election, casting his ballot for the last time for Gen. Grant, in November, 1868.⁴

⁴ Ib., pp. 57, 58.