The City Of Chester.

Laban had been killed in the dwelling, being struck on the bead with an axe, whose blood was said to have made an indelible stain behind the door where he fell, and whose spirit wandered around the place of his untimely death, they were of a class that could not afford to pay remunerative rent for the premises.

After the death of David Bevan, his son, Matthew Lawler Bevan, sold the property to John Ford, who petitioned, in 1827, for license for "the Steamboat Hotel" stating that having lately purchased that certain large brick messuage, situated on Market Street, at the upper pier, he is "desirous to keep the same as a public house of entertainment for the accommodation of watermen passing up and down the river Delaware, and also of travelers." This petition was accompanied by a recommendation from the masters, pilots, etc., of vessels of the port of Philadelphia, in which they "certify that if license was granted to keep a public house, situate at the Upper Pier in Chester, it would be a great convenience and accommodation to watermen passing up and down the river Delaware, more especially in the winter season, during the time of ice, etc." The business seems not to have been successful, for in June, 1831, Jelin Broomhall sold the property to Samuel Smith, who leased it to Henry T. Reese, who was succeeded the next year by Welcome D. Niles, for at the August court, 1833, the court directed that a rule should be entered against Niles, to appear on the first day of the November Court of Quarter Sessions to show cause "why the license hereinbefore granted to him should not be forfeited, on account of his suffering disorderly riots and improper conduct" in the house. In 1835, Nelson Wade was the landlord. He was followed by Crossman Lyons, a well-known citizen of Chester, the son of a Revolutionary soldier, who, when a young man, had joined Washington's army in its retreat through New Jersey, had followed the fortunes of the Continental troops through the war until its close, when he settled in Chester, and married Mary Gorman, a woman of extraordinary nerve, whose busy hands dressed many of those wounded at the battle of Brandywine, who were brought to this city for attention. She it was who waited on and dressed the wounds of Marquis de Lafayette, on the evening of that disastrous day. Crossman Lyons, Oct. 12, 1844, purchased the property, and a few years subsequent he leased it to Howard Roberts, who, after keeping the hotel for about three years, declined to continue the business longer, and Mr. Lyons resumed the post of "mine host" until Nov. 12, 1851, when John Goff, who had been the landlord the year previous, purchased the property. After his death, in 1857, his widow continued the hotel, and she having died in 1883, the old hostelry is presided over by her son, John Goff.

The Lafayette House. - The house at the southwest corner of Third Street and Edgmont Avenue is one of the oldest buildings in our city, and in a deed from James Sandelands, the younger, Sept. 10, 1700, to Stephen Jackson, the property is described as a house and lot, thus showing that the structure antedates that instrument. Stephen Jackson, on June 17th of .the following year, transferred the property to John Worrilow, and he in turn conveyed it, Aug. 29, 1704, to Philip Yarnall. The latter, after retaining title to the estate for twenty-nine years, sold the dwelling and lot to John Mather, Sept. 26, 1733, who in his will, May 28, 1768, devised it to his daughter, Jane. She first married Dr. Paul Jackson, who dying in 1767, the following year she married Dr. David Jackson. The latter and his wife, Feb. 27, 1775, conveyed the property to James Sparks, a merchant of Philadelphia. The probabilities are that Dr. David Jackson had lived in this dwelling, for in 1769 he was a resident of Chester. In 1784, William Kerlin owned and resided there until his death, in 1804, when the property descended to his son, John, subject to his mother's life estate. John dying in 1817, his executors sold the house to James Chadwick, who devised it to his son, John. The latter, while owning the property, purchased two frame buildings at Marcus Hook, and placing them on scows, had them floated up to Chester, where he erected them on the eastern end of his property on Third Street. Both of these houses are now owned by the estate of Henry Abbott, Sr., deceased. This was considered a marvelous feat in those days.

The dwelling, in 1830, became the property of Charles Alexander Ledomus, whose heirs still own it. In 1875 it was leased to Caleb P. Clayton, who obtained license for the old house and gave it the name Lafayette House, tradition having credited the dressing of the wounds of the French general in that building.

Schanlan's Tavern. - In the historical introduction to William Whitehead's "Directory of the Borough of Chester," for the years 1859-60, it is stated, "In the second house from the corner of Work Street [now Fourth] on the east side of Market, was a hotel kept by John Scantling, an Irishman, and the resort of all the sons of the Emerald Isle." That the house in which John Brooke now carries on the manufacture of harness was at one time an inn, the records of the old county of Chester before the erection of Delaware County fully establish. At that time only the dwelling, afterwards the residence of Dr. Terrill, was on the same square to the north of John Brooke's store. It was in the store-building Schanlan - for that was his name, not Scantling - kept public-house. It was erected by Thomas Morgan previous to 1756, for the building was there when it was sold in that year to William tyre, of Bethel. The latter rented the premises to Davis Bevan, who kept tavern there from 1765 to 1771, when he was succeeded by John Schanlan. At first the court turned away from Schanlan, but he obtained the judicial favor and continued to receive it until 1783, when Dennis McCartney had the license there. The fol-