Birmingham Township.

great road which leads to the ford, about a mile east of the Brandywine. It was of stone, two stories in height, with a hipped roof, and became the property of Eli Harvey in 1807, after the death of Benjamin Ring. Eli Harvey was the great-grandson of William Harvey, the immigrant, who, at the age of thirty-four, in 1712, came to Pennsylvania, and settled on a tract of three hundred acres in "the woods of Kennett " on the west side of the Brandywine and above the ford. William, the immigrant, was succeeded on the home farm by his son, William, he by his son, Amos, he by his sons, Marshall and Eli, Jr. Eli Harvey. of Chad's Ford, was the father of Hannah (who married Robert Peirce), Joseph P., Amos, Chalkley, Edith (who married Isaac Watkin), Evelina (married Thomas Brinton Darlington), Ellwood, Lewis P., Philena (married Mordecai Lewis), and Mary (who married Watson P. Magill).

William Harvey, the grandson of the immigrant, resided on the east bank of the Brandywine, this land extending from below the Delaware line above and beyond Chad's Ford. Below the Delaware line the crossing of the stream is still known as Harvey's Ford, and the day of the battle his house at Chad's Ford was in the line of the American cannon, and was damaged by a shot from Proctor's gun. The ball, which buried itself in the ground after passing through William Harvey's house, is still in the possession of his relatives, as is also an oak chair which was brought to the colony by the immigrant.

William Harvey, another grandson of the immigrant, lived on the ground occupied in part by the American army at the Chad's Ford battle, and being a Friend, commonly called a Quaker, and a non-combatant, took no part on either side, but remained about his work as if nothing unusual was going on. When the British passed by his house in pursuit of the retreating Americans, they made him a prisoner, and marched him near the front of the army. As they went up the hill east of his house, on the brow of which was a fence covered with bushes, he saw the Americans pointing their guns towards him and the British through the bushes, and was almost stunned by the fearful flash and roar of their simultaneous discharge. He was astonished to find himself alive, and still more on observing that not a man was killed or wounded. The Americans had fired over their heads. The British, or, more correctly, their Hessian allies, then rushed up to the fence and fired at the retreating Americans with deadly effect. When the British reached Dilworthtown, William Harvey, with a few other prisoners, were confined in the cellar under the tavern, from which they made their escape by wrenching out the window-frame. On his way home through a woods, he saw a pair of laced boots protruding from a hollow log, and upon closer investigation discovered his colored girl hidden there. He remained a Quaker, but on account of the active interest he manifested in the cause of the revolting colonies, after the battle of Brandywine, he was called by the title of major to the end of his life.

The inhabitants of Birmingham suffered greatly from the British foraging parties. The following is a list of damages sustained:

	£	s.	d.
From William Dilworth by the British army, under Sir William Howe (and damages), while encamped at Dilworthtown after the battle of Brandywine, September 11th to 16th.	48	2	0
From Charles Dilworth "property taken, damages, waste, spoil, and destruction done and committed by the army of the King of Great Britain and their adherents under the immediate command of Sir William Howe,"1 September 11th to 16th.	820	15	3
From Joseph Dilworth, ditto.	522	12	21/2
From Charles Porter, "a very poor man," ditto.	8	7	6
From William Chapman, ditto.	16	3	3
From John Martin, September 12th to 16th.	242	4	6
From William Harvey, Jr., "taken and destroyed the 11th day of September (and thereabout) by the army of his Britanic Majesty, commanded by Sir William Howe, K. B., Supporter of Tyranny, Falsifier of his word, and plunderer of private property."	562	16	6
From John Bennett, September 11th to 16th.	401	1	4
From George Brinton, ditto.	544	11	8
From Rachel Hannings, ditto.	47	12	6
From Caleb Brinton,2 ditto.	592	18	8
From Israel Gilpin, ditto.	607	12	6
From Thomas Hanuum, September 11th.	42	2	0
From John Henderson, September 11th to 16th.	536	6	11
From John Chamberlain, September 13th to 16th.	57	0	3
From Gideon Gilpin, September 11th.	502	6	0
From Jesse Graves, September 11th to 16th.	212	14	8
From Thomas Davis, ditto.	24	5	7
From James Dilworth, ditto.	13	0	0
From Charles McCrea, September 11th to 17th.	41	13	4
	----	----	----
	5844	6	71/2

² Including "two books, - 'Barclay's Apology,' and 'Young Man's Best Companion.'"

The lands of Lewis P. Harvey, "the National Kaolin Company," was formerly part of the manor of Rockland. - the manor located in the county of New Castle, but crossing the Brandywine into Birmingham, - and part of the land of the kaolin-works was included in the warrant for two hundred and fifty acres given to Robert Chalfant in 1701, he having settled there two years before that date. From him it is believed the Chalfant family have descended.

Churches - Presbyterian. - In the bend of the road leading down to Corner Ford, on the properly of William H. Seal, the Lower Brandywine Presbyterian Church formerly stood, and some of the old gravestones in the little burial-ground can be seen there. The Presbyterians early in the last century had churches in this vicinity, - in log buildings, - one located at Marlborough, known as the Upper Brandywine, and the one on the Seal farm, called the Lower Brandywine Church. It was established here in 1720, and for a long period of years services would occasionally be held in this unpretentious structure, but finally, after the Revolution, it was abandoned, the congregation assembling for worship at the "old log meeting" at Centreville, Del. Rev. Mr. Reed was the pastor in charge of this little wayside sanctuary during the war of independence, and tradition states that it was this clergyman who, in the darkness of the morning of Sept. 9, 1777, guided Washington when the American army moved from Stanton, Del., to Chad's Ford,