The City Of Chester.

the discretion of the judges. As the early settlers traveled almost wholly by water, it was very essential that there should be free access from the creek to the public buildings, and this means of communication the pugnacious Laerson seems to have interrupted until the strong arm of the law dealt summarily with him. It appears that the court-house was then a place where articles were exposed by the public for sale. The court, on 3d day of First month, 1684, determined that a revenue might be derived from this source; hence the old record shows this strange entry:

"Ordered that all people that shall make use of the Court House for sellerage of any goods shall for every Tonne pay after ye rate of three Shillings fourpence a Tonne for any time not exceeding a week, And for what time it shall continue afterwards half so much."

How long the House of Defense was used as the public buildings of the county is not known, but in 1703, after two other buildings in succession had been occupied by the court, the grand jury presented the old block-house "as being a nuisance, and dangerous of taking fire, and so would endanger the town." "The Court," - so runs the old entry on the docket, - "in deliberate consideration, ordered the said house to be pulled down, and that Jasper Yeates, Chief Burgess of the Borough of Chester, shall see the order performed." Previous to 1683 - there seems to have been no place for the detention of prisoners in Chester for two years before that date - "John Ward for sundry Felons, committed to the custody of the Sheriff, and made his escape with irons upon him."

The third court-house, or the third building wherein court was held, was built in 1684-85. Dr. Smith says, "A jail was erected at the same time, but there is reason to believe that it was built near the creek, and that there was a street laid out between the two buildings." Henry Hollingsworth, who was a Friend, "for cutting the eaves of the new prison," was dealt with by meeting the same year. This court-house Dr. Smith located on the east side of Edgmont Street, which John Hill Martin thinks is an error, and that it was on the west side of that highway, an opinion which meets the approval of the present writers. The student of our ancient annals will find more confusion in the authorities respecting the sites of the several court-houses than in any other details of the early days of the colony. This last building, after it was no longer used for county purposes, was ordered by the court, at the March session, 1701, "to be set on sale the 6th day of the Third month next, papers to be set up to give notice that it is to be sold at Vandew."

Whether the sale was had according to this order does not appear, but the property must have passed to Ralph Fishbourn, of Chester, gentleman, for in the latter part of the year 1705 the Legislature passed an act "to assure, grant, and convey unto Ralph Fishbourn one messuage, cottage-house, or tenement, and lot of ground thereunto belonging, situated in Chester, in the county of Chester, formerly known by the name of the 'Old Court-House.'"

The fourth court-house, so far as its foundation is concerned, is still standing on the west side of Edgmont Avenue nearly opposite the House of Defense, its precise location being two hundred and fifty-six feet six inches from the southwest corner of Edgmont Avenue and Third Street. It was built by John Hoskins in 1695, and he conveyed the lot to the county the same year. The old building, now owned by Jonathan Pennell, has a part of the wall of this court-house standing in the northern gable of the present structure, between the two end windows, and extending up nearly to the second story. The old part of the wall, and that which was added after it ceased to be the county building, is still easily discernible. The jail was in the cellar, and the iron rods which formerly barred the prisoners' escape from confinement, while admitting fresh air to the cells, still remain in the weather-stained frames in the foundation walls. The court-rooms and jury-rooms were in the first and second stories.

At the same court, March, 1701, at which the sale of the old court-house erected in 1684 was ordered, the prison being found inadequate to retain the culprits, Jasper Yeates, Ralph Fishbourn, Joseph Cobourn, and Andrew Jobe were appointed supervisors to build a new prison on the grounds of James Sandelands, the younger, and were instructed that the erection should be twenty-five feet in length by eighteen feet in width in the clear. This structure, so far as the prison was concerned, was built, for the old draft of Chester, now owned by William. B. Broomall, Esq., locates this building as south of the court-house built by Hoskins in 1695, and Sandelands, by his attorney, David Lloyd, in open court, delivered a deed for the land to the commissioners of the county.

We have serious doubt whether the court-house alluded to in the report of the grand jury of the 24th of February, 1701, was ever built. The grand inquest on that occasion called the attention of the court to "the necessity of a Court Hous and prison hous," but stated also that "there is little money in the bank, and that many have not paid their moiety 1/2 rate of the last assessment, desire that such may be forced." They also recommended the speedy gathering of the county tax remaining unpaid, and requested the justices to issue warrants therefor, and end their report with the declaration that in their opinion "Law and Justice cannot have its perfect courc without such housis for their distribution as aforesaid." We know that at the December court, 1701, the justices ordered repairs to be made "to the court and prison hous," and appointed Walter Martin, John Hoskins, and Henry Worley to be supervisors and oversee the work, with power to provide materials, employ workmen, and to finish the repairs as speedily as possible. The supervisors were also in-