Birmingham Township.

owned by George Gilpin was occupied by Gen. Howe as his headquarters, and there the commander-in-chief remained until the following Tuesday, when the British army moved to the Boot Tavern, in Goshen township. The farm, with the old dwelling standing thereon, is now owned by Elias Baker, and the latter every now and then in plowing turns up British pieces of coin, dropped by the invaders of a century ago.

Francis Chadsey, or Chads, as the name afterwards came to be written, - now frequently and improperly spelled Chadd, - emigrated from Wiltshire, England, early in 1689, with his wife, and resided at or near Chichester until about 1696, when his name appears on the list of taxables for Birmingham. It is presumed that he located on the five hundred acres surveyed to Henry Bernard, or Barnet, early in March, 1684, and conveyed to Daniel Smith, March 28, 29, 1686, which tract included all the present village of Chad's Ford. Francis Chads did not, however, acquire title to the estate until Nov. 24, 1702, and on May 4th of the following year he purchased one hundred and eleven acres adjoining his estate to the southeast, from Edmund Butcher. Chads served as a member of the Assembly from Chester County for the years 1706 and 1707, and about that time, it is believed by Gilbert Cope, he erected his corn-mill, the first in Pennsylvania, on the Brandywine, for dying in 1713 he devised to one of his sons "a half share in my corn-mill." This mill, which is supposed to have been a log building, was permitted to go to decay, until in time its very site was forgotten; indeed, that it had ever existed passed out of the memory of man, until in 1860 in making the excavations for the foundations of the brick mill erected by Caleb Brinton, a short distance west of the station of the Baltimore Central Railroad, at Chad's Ford a log with an old wrought-iron spike was found, with other evidences establishing the location of Chads' mill. That this was the first mill on the Brandywine, as is frequently asserted, cannot be successfully maintained, for as early as May 17, 1689, a petition of "ye Inhabitants of Brandywine River or Creek against ye dam made upon ye creek, wch hinders ye fish passing up to ye great damage of ye inhabitants,"¹ shows conclusively that a mill of some kind had then been erected. We know that twenty years before Chads' mill was built, on April 2, 1667, "Cornelius Empson's petition Concerning a Bridg Road and Water mill on Brandywine Creek was Read."² This mill, however, was in Delaware.

² Ib.,p. 199.

John Chads, who received the larger part of his father's estate, after his marriage to Elizabeth Richardson, in 1729, is believed to have built the old stone house close to the spring, still standing, the most northern one in the village of Chad's Ford, which was opposite the then ford of the Brandywine. In 1829, when the bridge was erected, the petition for its construction being presented to court July 17, 1828, the road crossing the stream was carried to the south, its present course.

The tradition in the neighborhood is that the log cabin of Francis Chads had stood near by where the present stone building now stands. As the tide of emigration moved westward public travel necessarily increased, and as the Brandywine in rainy weather and in spring-time was so swollen that it was almost impossible to cross it, John Chads was solicited to establish a ferry at that place, and to aid him in that public work the county loaned him thirty pounds to meet the expense he was put to in building a "flatt or schowe." He seems to have been ready to enter into the duties required in 1737, for on August 30th of that year the following records appear in the proceedings of the Court of Quarter Sessions:

"John Chads having petitioned the court setting forth that by the concurrence of the Justices and by order of the Commissioners and Assessors, a ferry being erected over Brandywine creek on the road leading from Philadelphia to Nottingham, and no rates for the same established, prays that such rates be set for the same, as to the court may seem reasonable: Whereupon the court taking the same into consideration, have adjudged the rates hereafter mentioned may be demanded and taken by the said John Chads,or his assigns or successors in the said ferry:

"For

Every horse and rider, four pence. Every single person on foot, three pence; if more, two pence each. Every ox, cow, or heifer, four pence each. Every sheep, one pence. Every hog, three half-pence. Every coach, wagon, or cart, one shilling and six pence. Every empty wagon or cart, nine pence. Every steed, four pence.

"To the aforesaid rates the justices have subscribed their names:

"Richard Hayes, "John Crosby, "Henry Bates, "Samuel Hollingsworth, "John Parry, "Abraham Emmitt, "Caleb Cowpland, "Elisha Gatchell, "Joseph Brinton."

The story of the ford is so intimately connected with the tavern at that point that all further reference to it will be found in the narrative of the license houses of Birmingham, excepting the fact that in 1760, the year of John Chads' death, it appears that the old flat was worn out, and for "rebuilding the Flatt" he charged the county £44 3s. 6d., one of the items in the bill rendered being "To five weeks diet to boat-builder at six shillings per week £1 10s." The post planted on the west side of the Brandywine to fasten the ferry rope to, was still standing in 1827, but the rope, windlass, and boat had disappeared. About the date given Hetty Brown, a colored woman, who kept a small store at the ford, where she sold cakes and beer, for a small sum would ferry passengers across the creek in a boat, which she shoved with a pole. John Chads' widow was living at the ford on the day of the battle of Brandywine, in the stone house already mentioned. Dr. Darlington related that Amos House, a