Lower Chichester Township.

birth occurred March 27, 1771. Their children were Sarah (Mrs. James H. Walker), William, Josiah, Mary (wife of Capt. Frank Smith), and David. Mr. Trainer died Feb. 29, 1846, in his seventieth year, and his wife, July 29, 1849, in her seventy-ninth year. Their son, William, the subject. of this sketch, was born Dec. 10, 1806, in Lower Chichester township, where his life has been spent. After such advantages of education as were obtainable in the neighborhood were enjoyed, he became for six months a pupil of Benjamin Tucker, a celebrated Quaker instructor resident in Philadelphia. Returning to his home, the labor of the farm engaged his attention until twenty-one years of age, after which a year was spent in travel in the West. Another year was employed as superintendent of the work connected with the Delaware breakwater, after which he embarked in the business of store-keeping at Marcus Hook, and in 1838 resumed the labors of a farmer. He was married, in 1832, to Miss Mary P., daughter of Israel Heacock, of Darby township, whose children are Emma (wife of Joseph McElrey), Henry Clay, David E., and William, - all married and residing in Philadelphia. The death of Mrs. Trainer occurred, after a most useful and exemplary life, on the 12th of September, 1883. Mr. Trainer, after his marriage, inherited the farm which is his present home, and continued its cultivation until 1883, when he abandoned active labor. In politics he was early a Federalist, afer which he became an earnest supporter of the Whig principles of which Henry Clay was the able exponent, and now votes the Republican ticket. He was formerly active in local politics, and for many years director of the poor of the county. Under his supervision the old almshouse property at Media was sold, and land purchased at advantageous figures in Middletown township, on which the present spacious buildings are located. Mr. Trainer was educated in the Quaker faith, but with his wife, in 1837 became a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Marcus Hook, though at present one of the congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Church of that place.

Concord Township.

Concord Township, the largest municipal division in the county of Delaware, is first mentioned at the court "held at Chester, for the County of Chester, on the 27th of the 4th month, called june, 1683," at which session John Mendenhall was appointed constable for "Concord liberty." The name it bears is believed to have been bestowed because of the harmonious feelings which in early times prevailed among the settlers there. The township was laid out originally in a rectangular form, and a road exactly in the centre (called Concord Street) ran from Bethel, on the south, to Thornbury, on the north, dividing it in halves. This street, laid out in 1682, appears never to have been opened to public travel. The southwestern end of Concord, which intrudes into Birmingham, rendering the boundary-lines of that township the most irregular in the county, resulted from the fact that the lines of the manor of Rockland, in New Castle County, ran along the western boundary of Concord, and, after the division of Pennsylvania and Delaware, the Rockland manor lands were patented to settlers who, doubtless, selected and were annexed to the township in which they wished their lands located. This idea is inferentially established by the fact that no land, either in Concord or Birmingham townships, within the manor was patented previous to 1701, in which year Penn authorized the division between Pennsylvania and the three lower counties - the present State of Delaware - to be made. That part of the Rockland manor which is now in Concord was patented by four persons. George Lee, Dec. 23, 1701, had surveyed to him two hundred acres bordering on Bethel to the Concord line. Nathaniel Newlin received two patents, June 2, 1702, for six hundred acres, - one of two hundred and the other of four hundred acres, - beginning at the eastern boundary of the original township and extending to the present western line of Concord. His patents were located on the north of Lee's tract, and included almost all the lands between parallel lines, except one hundred and thirty and a half acres, which were surveyed to Francis Chads, April 9, 1702. This tract began a short distance west of Elam, and ran eastward to the original township-line. The irregular piece of land, which juts to a point almost northwest into Birmingham, was patented to John Chevers, as two hundred acres, Oct. 28, 1708.

Early in the history of the township the savages, whose custom was to roam undisturbed wheresoever they pleased, hunting for game and killing the swine, became an annoyance to the settlers in the "back woods" of Concord. This disposition on the part of the red men created much trouble, and soon became so detrimental to the residents that on Nov. 16, 1685, they presented a petition to the Provincial Council respecting it, which is of record as follows:

"The Complaint of ye friends, Inhabitants of Concord and Hertford" (Haverford), - widely separated townships, - "against the Indians, for ye Rapine and Destructions of their hoggs, was Read.

"Ordered that ye Respective Indian Kings be sent for to ye Councill with all speed, to Answer their Complaint.

"The Inhabitants of the Welsh Tract Complains of the same, by an Endorsement on ye aforementioned Complaint."¹

What ultimately resulted from this action of the Concord settlers does not appear of record, nor has tradition preserved anything respecting it.

At the southwestern end of the original township of Concord was a tract of three hundred acres, which