Concord Township.

County of Wexford, and accompanied William Penn in the "Welcome." His wife, Mary, died on the passage in that plague-smitten vessel, as did also two of his daughters. He settled on the estate in Concord, and in 1683 was a representative from Chester County in the Assembly. On Oct. 6, 1691, Thomas Green purchased four hundred acres of the Rochford lands. He, with his wife, Margaret, and two sons, Thomas and John, settled in Concord in 1686, possibly on the tract he subsequently bought. From him the Green family of Delaware County trace descent. The remaining one hundred acres bordering on the Bethel line was sold to William Clayton, Jr., Feb. 14, 1684/5, but he never resided on the land in Concord.

Concord Friends' Meeting-House. - The land for a Friends' meeting and graveyard at Concord, the sixth in the county, was conveyed or rather leased to trustees, by John Mendenhall, in 1697, they paying "one peppercorn yearly forever." In that year a sum was obtained by subscription for fencing in a burial-ground at Concord, and at a monthly meeting held at the house of George Pearce, on the 10th day of Fourth month, 1697, the following paper was read:

"Whereas, the has been some differences by some that have separated from Friends in their subscriptions towards their building of meeting-houses, &c., for the service of Truth, We, whose names are hereunder subscribed, do promise and oblige ourselves hereby, that if we, or any one or more of us, should separate ourselves from the Society and Communion of these Friends of Concord, Birmingham, and Thornbury, that now we walk in fellowship with, either in doctrine, life or conversation, we will make no trouble amongst these people by reason of any right we, or any one of us think we have because of this, or any other subscription that was, or may be, towards building a meeting-house or making a burial-place for the youse of the said people of God called Quakers. And we further promise to relinquish and lay aside all pretence of right or claim whereby any disquiet may arise among the aforesaid people of God called Quakers, of Concord, Birmingham, and Thornbury. According to the purport, true meaning and intent of the written as above said, we subscribe as follows:

Although this sum was subscribed for the building of a meeting-house in Concord, it seems not to have been completely ready for use until 1710, and was then a frame or log structure, which, in 1728, gave place to a brick edifice. In the early times the meeting-houses had no stoves in them, but were partially warmed by charcoal fires, which were built on large stones in the centre of the building, which were allowed to die out before the hour set for meeting, or were warmed by open wood-fires in wide chimney-places. Concord meeting-house was warmed by these latter means, large wood-fires being built in the attic at each end of the building, to which members would resort previous to assembling in the apartment below. Concord meeting-house having become too limited in its dimensions to meet the wants of Friends of that neighborhood, a movement was made looking to its enlargement or the building of an entirely new edifice. In the winter of 1788, while Friends had assembled to consider that question, the house caught fire from the soot in one of the chimneys, and despite the efforts of those present was burned, leaving only the brick walls. Immediate steps were taken to rebuild the house, the expense being borne jointly by Concord Monthly and Quarterly Meetings, the former agreeing to pay six hundred pounds, one-third of the estimated costs, and the six Monthly Meetings in Chester County obligating themselves to discharge the remaining two-thirds. The present Concord meeting-house was built under these circumstances, the old walls being used, an addition being made thereto. The cost of the structure exceeded largely the estimate, and a call was made for three hundred and seventy-five pounds additional to complete the meeting-house. In this old building for seventy years the question of human slavery was discussed, and by degrees the feeling grew that it was unjust, until on 20th day Second month, 1800, at Concord Quarterly Meeting for the first time appeared on its record this announcement: "Clear of importing, disposing of, or holding mankind as slaves." At two o'clock on Friday, Sept. 12, 1777, Maj.-Gen. Grant, with the First and Second Brigades of the British army, marched from Chad's Ford to Concord, and some of his men were quartered in the old meeting-house, while foraging parties scoured the "country and woods" near by, picking "up Waggons, Horses, Ammunition, Provision and cattle, and several Rebels that had secreted themselves.''¹ Tradition records that the meeting-house was made a hospital by the English for their wounded, but the inference is more probable that disabled American soldiers, in striving to escape, were found in the woods by the English scouting parties, were brought there, and on Sunday following, when Dr. Rush with three surgeons came to "attend the wounded Rebels left scattered in the Houses about the field of Battle, unattended by their Surgeons till now," he visited that building on his errand of mercy. Gen. Grant, tradition also asserts, occupied as his headquarters, while he tarried at Concord, a house built in 1755, near St. John's Church, which in recent years has been removed to make room for needed improvements. The English officer, when he advanced to unite with Lord Cornwallis at Village Green, left a guard at the meeting-house for the short time intervening before the whole British army marched away from that neighborhood never to return. The venerable Friends' meeting-house had