Darby Township.

10, 1682, to William Smith, and to the west of the Smith land, in irregular lines, were one hundred acres patented to Peter Erickson, Nov. 30, 1681, the Matthew Baird estate is partly located on this tract. The property was subsequently absorbed, May 29, 1685, into the large plantation of Joseph Wood, on which the village of Darby was originally laid out.

In December, 1739, George Whitefield, the celebrated preacher, left Philadelphia for Chester accompanied by about one hundred and fifty horsemen.¹ On his way he stopped at Darby. Bamfylde-Moore Carew, the noted king of the English mendicants, who was escaping from servitude in Virginia, records that while on his way from Chester to Darby, "but before he reached there, he was overtaken by hundreds of people going to hear Mr. Whitefield preach. He joined them, and they all proceeded to Darby, where he found Mr. Whitefield preaching in an orchard, but could not get near enough to hear his discourse by reason of the great concourse of people." The artful rogue, however, afterwards went to the house where the clergyman was stopping, and by a forged letter and a piteous story succeeded in obtaining several pounds in the paper money of Pennsylvania from Whitefield, as he had done the day before from Mrs. Turner, in Chester.

Watson, the annalist, informs us that William Taylor, who came from England in 1726 and settled at Darby, was the first person to make a pair of smith's bellows in the English colonies, if not in North America. We know that in 1739 the commissioners appointed to adjust the boundary-line between Maryland and Pennsylvania, in surveying to ascertain the proper starting-point for the due west line, passed through the township, for Friday, April 13, 1739, they reported, - " The Surveyors proceeded on the Line till Evening, and left off in the lands of Thomas Worth, in Darby Township,"² which was located in the northern end of the present township, and east of Darby Creek.

The marshes of Darby Creek, until after the middle of the last century, were often covered with water, until by that reason many of the farms adjacent became almost valueless. The advantage of the bottom-lands as places for pasture was appreciated by some of the early farmers, but it required a few years before a sufficient number could be educated to urge the passage of the act of March 4, 1763, which impowered the owners and possessors of the southern district of Darby marsh or meadow ground to embank and drain such lands, and to keep the outside banks and dams in good repair forever. The act authorized the raising of a fund, and by certain compulsory process to enforce payment from unwilling land-owners. The land thus reclaimed has become of great value and is very productive.

Roads. - On the 25th of May, 1695, a petition was presented to the Provincial Council from the residents of Chester, asking for a "ferrie att the rocks," which prayer was acceded to and Benjamin Chambers, who had received a patent for lands on the western side of the Schuylkill, was authorized to keep a ferry there, which previous to 1747 had passed into the ownership of George Gray. On Sept. 3, 1701, a complaint was laid before the Provincial Council "by some of the Inhabitants of Darby Township against some parts of a road laid out by the Govr's order, from B. Chamber's fferry, through Darby Township to Edgmont. Ordered that Nicholas Pyle, Sam'l Levis, Geo. Maires, & Randal Vernon, all of Chester County, do on y^e sixth day next, that one being y^e 12th instant, view the controverted parts of the said Road, beginning at the said fferry, and upon a Due Consideration of the allegations on both sides, to give their judgment whether the s^d Road is conveniently laid out for a Cart Road, as it now is, or whether it may not, with equal Conveniency for the said purpose and advantage to the Public, as well as Justice to each particular in all respects, be laid out otherwise according to the complaint's desires, and make report thereof to this Board in writing, at the next session."³ If any report was ever made it does not appear in the official papers of the State, as published.

At a court held Feb. 9, 1687, the following report was approved by the court, which road is still used, and now known as the Radnor and Darby road:

"A Highway laid out by y^e grand Jury and other neighbours betwixt Hartfort and Darby vpon y^e 7th day of the twelfe moneth, 1687. Beginning at Widdow Panthir's, and from thence on y^e head lyne betwixt y^e said Widdows land and y^e land of John Levis, from thence crosse y^e land of William Howell, from thence crosse y^e land of Arthur Bruce, from thence crosse y^e land of Henry Levis, thence Entering the Township of Darby, from thence Crosse y^e land of Adam Roads, thence Crosse ye land of John Kirk, thence Crosse y^e land of William Garrett, then crosse ye land of Michael Blunstone, then Crosse ye land of George Wood, then Crosse ye land of Robert Smith, then Crosse y^e land of Thomas Worth, then coming vpon the land of Joshua ffirne, soe downe y^e Towne street of Darby to ye Kings Road, and soe to y^e Landing; this Highway to be sixty foote as needs requires.

The Queen's Highway. - The Southern Post road from Darby to Chester, Edward Armstrong states, was the earliest highway laid out by authority in Pennsylvania. While that assertion may be correct, there is no evidence, so far as the records show, to establish the fact that the road was ordered by the Governor and Council, the only power authorized to make such ways. Previous to the coming of William Penn all roads led to Chester, not to Philadelphia; and while we hear of suspervisors for Darby, Ridley, and Chester townships soon after Penn's arrival, there is no evidence to show the public requirement of a road to Philadelphia. Hence we may accept the latter way as simply a compliance with the