The Colonial History to the War of the Revolution

year without leaving any impression that has remained to our day. Even the absurd farce, on May 16, 1706, of the French invasion, in which Governor Evans played such a ridiculous part, seems to have made no lasting trace on our county's records, yet doubtless the messenger who rode with such hot haste to Philadelphia, and whose tidings caused such widespread consternation in the latter place¹ as he passed through Marcus Hook, Chester, and Darby, gave forth intimations that he was the bearer of momentous intelligence, for such a course would have been in full accord with the preconcerted scheme of the Governor to arouse general alarm in the province, and yet there seems not to be the faintest reference to this in our local annals.

On May 16, 1712, to the Provincial Council was presented "A Petition of a great number of the Inhabitants of the county of Chester, praying that y^e Burrough of the Town of Chester, in this Province, may be made a free Port, was read & Considered; And it is the opinion of the board that the matter may be presented to the Propry., that he may take proper methods Concerning the same & Consult the Courts of the Queen's Customs therein."² In all probability William Penn, whose energy was beginning to yield under the weight of years and constant pecuniary embarrassments, never gave this petition any serious consideration, his chief desire at that period appearing to be to rid himself of the trouble, vexation, and expense of the colony by its sale to Queen Ann for twelve thousand pounds. This transfer would doubtless have been effected had not a stroke of paralysis rendered Penn unable to formally execute the contract. During all the last century, as will be shown as we proceed in this narrative, Chester was a place where outward- and inward-bound vessels stopped for days together. On the 4th of Fifth month, 1730, at noon, James Logan dispatched a letter to his son, William, "on his Voyage to Bristol, sent to him at Chester," and during the British occupation of Philadelphia almost all their transports and men-of-war lay off the former town. As just stated, William Penn's health became so impaired that he was unable to carry to an end his contemplated sale of the province to the crown, and from that time he never wholly rallied, his mind gradually becoming more and more feeble until his death, July 30, 1718.

The disputes respecting the northwestern boundary of the county of Chester, which bad been, as supposed, officially determined in 1685, and after a protracted resistance had finally been accepted by the Welsh in 1689, in the early spring of 1720 again engaged the attention of Council, when at that time a petition of the inhabitants of the west side of Schuylkill was presented, setting forth that the commissioners of Chester County had compelled the payment by them of taxes levied by the assessors of that county, although they stated that ever since their first settlement they had paid their taxes to Philadelphia; that they had no trade with Chester, "seeing it is impossible for us to have any tolerably convenient road to Chester by reason of Rocks and Mountains," and also urged other arguments, all concluding with a prayer that the counties might be so divided as to place them within Philadelphia.³ On Feb. 1, 1721, Council reported⁴ that the General Assembly had acted on the matter, and that the secretary had made full examinations as to the official boundaries as theretofore established, but that he expressed his belief that the line then run "was done arbitrarily by the Surveyor-General, and that in his opinion it would have been more regular to carry the Division Line along the side of Radnor and the upper part of that called the Welch Line, laying all those Tracts called Manors to Philadelphia County." Council thereupon concluded that until the matter could "be more fully and effectually settled, the Commissioners and Assessors, of Chester County should forebear to claim those Inhabitants . . . and that the said Inhabitants be permitted to pay their Taxes and do all other Duties to the county of Philadelphia as formerly." Chester County, however, declined to accept this decree without resistance, for on March 28, 1722,⁵ David Lloyd (who at the time was chief justice of the province) and Nathaniel Newlin, in behalf of themselves, and the other commissioners appointed by the act of Assembly for Chester County, presented a petition to Council praying relief "from the unrighteous Attempts of the said persons to sever themselves from the said County of Chester." Council called the attention of David Lloyd to the fact that no regular division of the counties, so far as known, had been made, and the interdiction of the commissioners of Chester County from levying taxes only applied to cases where persons had been assessed in and had paid taxes to Philadelphia County, for it would be unreasonable to require on the same estate taxes in both counties, and, besides, those who had thus paid their assessments to Philadelphia County were only six in number, but they were of opinion that it was of great importance that the division-lines should be adjusted without delay. David Lloyd replied that there were persons yet living who remembered the running of the division-line, which was done, he believed, about the year 1688, under the administration of Governor Blackwell, but the commissioners of Chester County did not know where to apply for the record "or written proofs of it, except to the secretary, in whose custody all things of that kind should be kept." After an interesting statement relative to the custody of the papers of the former secretary, Patrick Robinson, Council instructed the

⁵ Colonial Records, vol. iii. p. 158.