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Chapter VI
The Colonial History to the War of the Revolution | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
tended expedition against Canada having been by his Majesty laid aside for the present."1 During the early summer of 1747 a French privateer entered Delaware Bay, and captured several inward- and outward-bound vessels.2 The intelligence of these acts reaching Philadelphia on July 4th, pilots were forbidden by proclamation "to conduct, Pilot, or bring up any foreign Ship or Vessel carrying a Flag of Truce ... to any Port or place within this Province above that Tract of Land lying in Chester county, commonly called and known by the name of Marcus Hook,"3 unless special license was issued by the Governor. The following summer the Spanish and French privateers showed the utmost daring in cruising off the mouth of and in Delaware Bay. |
1 Colonial Records, vol.v. p. 127
2 Ib., p. 234 3 Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. ii. p. 682 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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On May 25, 1748. George Proctor, a prisoner of war, succeeded in escaping by swimming from the "St Michael," a Spanish privateer, carrying twenty-two guns and a crew of one hundred and sixty men, which was at the time moored off Salem Criek. The deposition of the Proctor was taken, and an express sent immediately to Philadeiphia with the intelligence, which threw the city into the utmost consternation, a condition of affairs which was in no wise allayed when on the following day the escaped sailor was himself sent to Philadelphia, the bearer of a letter from the authorities stating that the Spanish vessel, about ten o'clock that morning, came up within gunshot of New Castle, and there anchored, with a spring on her cable. The tide together with a calm, being against her, she was prevented getting nearer to that town, and as the people opened fire upon her, she weighed, and by her boats was towed "stern foremost, giving three Huzzas & one Gunn, hoisted Spanish Colours, & went down the River again." Council desired Capt. Ballet, commander of the sloop-of-war "Otter," to go down the bay and engage the privateer, but that officer stated that he had an encounter with a large French ship, in which his vessel had received such damage that required her to be hoved down for repairs.4 The Spanish privateer, unmolested, remained in the bay for some time, during which she made prizes of a number of vessels. The result of the alarm, however, was to arouse the public to the necessity of organization; hence the bodies known as Associators, which had been called into existence during the previous December by the voluntary action of the people throughout the province, became firmly established, and the militaxy education imparted thereby to the populace was of the utmost consequence to the patriot cause when, a quarter of a century later, the Revolutionary contest was forced upon the colonies. The following is the list of the officers of the two Associate Regiments of Chester County in 1747-48:5 |
4 Colonial Records, vol. v. pp. 248, 252, 253, 256, 260, 261, 263, 264.
5 Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. ii. p. 506. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Colonels, William Moore, Andrew McDowell. Lieutenant-Colonels, Samuel Flower, John Frew. Majors, John Mather, John Miller. In the autumn of the year 1748 a general sickness prevailed throughout the province. Kalm records that "the disease was so violent that when it attacked a person he seldom lived above two or three days, and of those who were taken ill with it very few recovered. It was a true pleurisy, but it had a peculiarity with it, for it commonly began with a difficulty of swallowing." ... "The physicians did not know what to make of it, nor how to remedy it."6 In 1751 the act of Parliament,7 which, as its title stated, was to regulate the commencement of the year and to correct the calendar then in use, was adopted. By its provisions Wednesday, the 2d day of September, 1751, was followed by Thursday, the l4th day of the same month, and as the act was intended to equalize the style in Great Britain, Ireland, and the colonies with that used in other countries in Europe, it was necessary that the Society of Friends should take action on so important a change. Hence the records of Chester Monthly Meeting respecting this alteration in style, as transcribed by Dr. Smith,8 are here given entire: |
6 Kalm's Travels, vol. i. pp. 376, 377
7 24 Geo. II., c. 23, 1751 8 Hist. of Delaware Co., pp. 261, 262 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||