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Chapter XXXVIII
Lower Chichester Township. | |||
customed to indulge in the wildest disorder and drunken debauches.1 At the meeting of the Provincial Council in Philadelphia, Aug. 11, 1716, Governor William Keith called I the attention of Council to "the great losses which this colony has already sustained beyond any of its neighbors by our Trade being blocked up and infested with pirates at the Capes of this river and bay," and further informed them "that one Trench, a noted pirate, who has done the greatest mischief of any to this place has been lurking for some days in and about this town."2 We know that on Friday, Sept. 1, 1698, a pirate ship and tender landed fifty armed men and plundered Lewistown.3 In May, 1701, a French pirate appeared above Bombay Hook,4 and for many years thereafter the colonial records show the constant alarms the province was subjected to by fears of piratical demonstration on the settlements on the river. In 1698, when Gabriel Thomas wrote his quaint "History of Pennsylvania," he specified, among the four great market towns, Chester as enjoying that privilege, and "likewise all those towns have fairs kept in them." It seems that Marcus Hook, shortly after this statement was made, desired to invest itself with the dignity of a market and fair, for at the Council at Philadelphia, May 16, 1699, at which Governor Markham presided, the minutes show:5 "Upon reading the petition of some of the Inhabitants of Chichester, in the Countie of Chester, Requesting a weeklie markett & two fairs in the year; After a full debate yrupon, the Leivt Gov & Council granted ym a weeklie market on friday's to be keept in broad street as is desired." On Feb. 14, 1700, Penn having returned, and personally presiding over the deliberations of Council, on the minutes of that body under the date given is the further reference to Marcus Hook as a market town:6
"The petition of the ffreeholders in and about the Town of Chichester was read, setting forth that Lieut. Gov. Markham & Council, had granted to the said Town of Chichester, the privilege of a fair and Market, and therefore humbly- requests that what was then imperfectly done, the Gov. would be pleased fully to Compleat and perfect."
"Resolved, That they shall have a Charter for a ffair & Market, with this proviso: That because some Complaints have been made agst fairs in General, their fairs should, notwithstanding anything Contain'd in the said Charter, be put down whenever it should be thought fitt that the other fairs of the Government should be also suppressed." It was not, however, until seven months after Penn had consented to grant a charter to Marcus Hook that he actually gave the ambitious borough the Charter, with all the rights and privileges, defined in an official document. The following is a copy of that charter, and it is very interesting, inasmuch as it locates the habitations of the prominent men of that day residents there, and presents other historical data:
"William Penn, True & Abzolute Propr & Governor in Chiefe of the Province of Pensilvania & Terri'es thereunto belonging:
"To all to whom these p'sents shall come Sendeth Greeting:
"Whereas, the ffreeholders & Inhabitants of the lower parts of the County of Chester, on the river Delaware in the sd Province, through a laudable desire & inclination of improving the sd parts, by setling more close together, & enlarging of commerce, have humbly besought mee that I would erect into a market town a certain comodious place, well situated for that purpose, aforetime commonly called Marcus Hook, with the privilidges of a Fair & Weekly Market to be held therein.
"Know Ye, Therefore, That I, favoring the just & reasonable request of the sd freeholders & Inhabitants, by virtue of the powers by the King's Letters Patent to me & my heirs given & granted, have erected, & do, for me, my heirs & successors, by the tenour of these p'sents, erect into a MarketTown the sd place, aforetimes called Marcus Hook, or such part thereof as is hereinbefore described, under the bounds & limits hereinafter mention'd. That is to say, all that tract or space of ground lying & being situate on the river Delaware: Beginning at the upper point of the land of Jonas Sandilands upon the river & extending along the sd river to the lower point of the land of Nathaniel Lamplugh, about two hundred & fifty perches, be it more or less; and from the river Dellaware extending backwards about one thousand feet, by lines at right angles with the river, from the sd two points to the sixty foot road leading to Chester; which town, as above bounded, I will shall be called Chichester, as of late it has usually been called, and I doe hereby grant unto the inhabitants of the d town free ingress and egress, by land & water, to & from the sd town, through |
1 Trench, or Drummond, let his family name be what it may, was as grotesquely conspicuous a villain as can be found in the annals of crime. Blackbeard, for that was his piratical name, in person tall, of swarthy complexion, and with an exuberant black beard of extraordinary length covering his whole face, from which his sobriquet was derived, and which he used to twist into numberless small tails, the ends tied with bows of brightly-colored ribbons, was a picture sufficiently repulsive, one would think, without calling in, as additional decoration when in battle, three braces of huge pistols dangling across his shoulders, and lighted matches protruding from beneath his hat to illuminate his dusky face and savage eyes with a supernatural glare. His was, indeed, when prepared for action, a figure to be gazed upon with fear and apprehension. Socially he was a sensual polygamist, whose harem of fourteen wives was the scene of brutalities such as even his hardened crew could not witness unmoved with pity, and yet which no one dared to reprove. To reader his power over his lawless men absolute, he announced that he had entered into a compact with hell, and once, when at sea, a mysterious personage appeared on the ship, sometimes aloft, sometimes on deck, sometimes below, who spoke to no one but Blackbeard, and who disappeared as secretly as he had come among them. The crew firmly believed that this was the veritable devil himself, and that this was but one of many dark communications their chieftain held with the powers of evil. At another time when afloat, it is recorded he said, maddened with drink, "Come, let us make a hell of our own, and try how long we can bear it." Going below with some of his crew, he caused the hatches to be closed, and had several large tubs filled with sulphur and other combustible articles, to which he set fire; then while the thick choking vapors rolled in dense columns throughout the ship, he danced and filled the sickening air with his profanity, until those above released the half-suffocated and fainting men from their perilous situation, which, apparently, gave the piratical chieftain no respiratory uneasiness. His convivial pleasantries were also of a similar hideous character; for once when drunk, seated at the head of his cabin table, he blew out the candles, cocked his pistols, and crossing his hands fired on each side at his associates, one of whom was wounded so desperately that he never recovered. This incident Blackbeard often himself related in gleeful moments, stating in conclusion, "If I did not now and then kill one of my men, they would forget who I am." In the fall of the year 1718 the Governor of Virginia sent Lieut. Maynard with two vessels to cruise for Trench, and on the 21st of November he encountered the pirate, who, fortunately, then had but a small crew on board his ship. A bloody fight resulted, - Maynard and Blackbeard contested hand to hand, - and it is related that the corsair received over twenty wounds with swords, and almost as many bullets struck him, before he was slain. Maynard cut off the dreaded pirate's head and affixed it to the bowsprit of his vessel, and then he entered Hampton Roads with the ghastly, grinning token of his success exposed to public view. 2 Colonial Records, vol. iii. p. 54. 3 Ib., vol. i. p. 539. 4 Ib., vol. ii. p 21. 5 Ib., vol, i. p. 558. 6 Ib., vol. ii. p. 12. | ||