Upper Darby Township.

within the said Township; because they believe them uncalled for by the public convenience and demoralizing in their influence, tending to the spread of intemperance with its train of evils. The only licensed house heretofore called for by the wants of the township is to be continued as one for public entertainment conducted on temperance principles, while we are surrounded on every side by licensed Taverns in numbers clearly beyond the wants of the community, as is sufficiently shown by the many demoralizing shifts to which they are driven for a living business. The undersigned, therefore, pray the Court to aid them in their efforts to stay this crying evil so far as in their power by refusing all appplications as aforesaid."

When temperance principles became the dominant sentiment in Upper Darby, Mr. Sellers, the owner of the lands and building, consented that the old inn-sign should be taken down. The day when this was done a large number of people assembled, and when the old, weather-beaten black horse was lowered to the ground amid the cheers of those present, one citizen, in the excitement of the moment, exclaimed, "I'm going to give the old animal four quarts of oats; he must be mighty hungry standing up there so long." John Hawkins became the landlord of the Black Horse Inn, which he kept as a temperance house until the Howard House was built, a short distance farther west on the same highway, when he took charge of the new building.

No license was granted in Upper Darby thereafter until 1875, when the local-option law was repealed, and in that year William McFadden received license at Clifton, and James Gallagher, at Kellyville, which houses have continued from that time to receive the court's approval.

The Bonsall Murder. - Perhaps no judicial investigation was ever held in Delaware County which concentrated public interest to its detail to the same extent as did the trial of Michael Monroe, alias James Wellington, and his accessories, for the murder of William Bonsall, of Upper Darby. The killing was so deliberate on the part of the murderer, and so unprovoked by the victim, that popular indignation was aroused beyond any previous incident of the like character in our history, and the sixty years which have elapsed since have failed to present its parallel.

On the highway leading from the village of Darby to the West Chester road, and about two miles and a half northward of the village, in 1824, resided Mrs. Mary Warner (a widow), who kept a store in part of the house, and William Bonsall, his wife, and infant son, these four persons comprising the inmates of the dwelling. About half-past nine o'clock on Saturday evening, May 22d of that year, four suspicious-looking men came to the house and informed Mrs. Warner that they desired to talk with "the young man," - Bonsall, - with whom they professed to be acquainted. The latter, who was slightly ill at the time and had retired, dressed himself, came down-stairs, and was greeted most cordially by the visitors. Bonsall, notwithstanding he stated there must be a mistake and that he did not remember ever to have met any of the men before, hospitably invited them to be seated and attempted to draw them into conversation. After a few ordinary remarks had been made one of the strangers, abruptly turning to Bonsall, demanded his money. The latter replied that he had only a dollar and a half in the house, which he said they might have. No answer was made to this remark, but one of the men, cutting a clothes-line which was stretched across the kitchen, threw the cord around Bonsall's neck, drawing it so tight that he was almost choked, and to prevent strangulation the latter raised his hand to his throat to loosen the rope. Wellington, for it subsequently proved to be he, struck at Bonsall's raised arms with a razor, laying the flesh open to the bone from the shoulder to the elbow. The wounded man, bleeding profusely, was held in the chair by his assailant, while the other cut-throats compelled Mrs. Warner, whose arms they had also bound with a piece of the clothes-line, to conduct them into the store, which was closed, as she supposed, until the following Monday.

While the store was being rifled Wellington sat in a chair immediately in front of Bonsall, and just as Mrs. Warner was coming out of the store with the burglars, Wellington said something in an angry tone, and then with a well-worn shoe-knife stabbed Bonsall several times in the abdomen, both the murderer and his victim being seated at the time. In attempting to withdraw the knife the last time the handle came off, leaving the blade in the wound. Mrs. Bonsall, who was shortly to become a mother, hearing the noise, came down-stairs, when the two men in the house, for the other two had retreated to the front door, threatened to inflict on her atrocious cruelties unless she informed them where her husband had secreted his money. She, not knowing that her husband had been mortally wounded, bade them take everything in the house but to spare the lives of the family. The ruffians took every article of clothing belonging to Bonsall excepting his military suit, and with the goods taken from the store they made two large packages, which they carried away when they left the house, but before leaving they brutally insulted the dying man. Bonsall lived until the next day, Sunday morning.

On Monday it was learned that at midnight on Saturday, after the deed was committed, the murderers crossed Gray's Ferry bridge, walking in the direction of Philadelphia. The same day, May 24th, Joseph Watson, mayor of that city, at the request of many citizens of Delaware County, offered a reward of three hundred dollars for the apprehension and conviction of the criminals. Nothing was learned until Friday, June 5th, when three men whose description seemed to answer that set forth in the mayor's proclamation were noticed in the vicinity of Swedesborough, N. J., walking in the direction of Woodbury, and when it was known that they had attempted to pass a Mexican or Peruvian dollar, a hue and cry was instituted, the men were overtaken near Timber Creek bridge and conducted to Woodbury, when they