Haverford Township.

one of the others died in the service, the other strayed. He has received of Mr. Lindsay one pound sixteen and nine pence, and of me two pounds. Given under my Hand at Bedford this 30th day of Oct^r, 1759.

Lieut. Ourrey was then in command of Fort Bedford, Bedford Co., Pa.

In 1760, Charles Humphrey, then township clerk, afterwards member of the Colonial Assembly and of the Continental Congress, made the following record in the township book:

"On first day of March, and at night, we had a violent Northeast Snow Storm, when, Considering the season of the Year and the time it Lasted (for about 18 hours), there was the greatest fall of snow that has been known since the Settlement of the Province, being upwards of Two feet deep, and lasted upwards of 8 days on the ground.
"March 16, 1760."

For many years all public meetings and elections were held "in the meeting-house," meaning Friends' Haverford meeting-house. In March, 1762, however, the township election was held "at the school-house."¹ This probably was about the date of building the first school-house, though it has not been ascertained where it was situated.

Charles Humphrey, township clerk in 1764, again says, "The following is an account of a surprising phenomenon which Happened on the 25th of July, 1764, at 40 minutes past 7 o'clock in the evening. There was a Ball of fire near the north east, about 50 degrees above the Horizon. It took its Course near northwest, its diameter at times Considerably bigger than that of the Sun. Especially at one time it opened, so as seemingly it would have separated itself; it appeared like huge, flaming, sheets of fire, inclining together like that of a new-blown Rose; its sound, as it went (which was very swift) was Like that of a great fire urged by a strong wind. It kept near of one Heighth all the way, till it had crossed the Meridian to the north, aboute 20 degrees, where was a small Cloud, which seemed as if it attracted it. It mounted Higher, and just as it seemingly touched the Outward Edge of the Cloud it Broke into Thousands of pieces like that of springing a mine, when the pieces and particles would all be in a flame. When, as near as Could be guessed, in aboute 30 seconds of Time came the Report which was like the firing of Large Cannon. The sound of it Lasted one full minute, it had something Exceedingly Remarkable in its Centre like a bar of iron which appeared to be very Hot out of which there Came Sparks of fire as it went."

At the beginning of the Revolutionary war, 1775, the township taxables numbered seventy-one, representing a total population of about three hundred and fifty. After the American defeat at Brandywine and the consequent occupation of this region by the British army, the people of Haverford suffered terribly by depredations committed by British troops. A few days subsequent to the battle of Brandywine, Gen. Washington with the American army marched from Germantown, on the Lancaster road, to and several miles beyond the Buck Tavern, in Haverford, for the purpose of again engaging Howe's army, but a violent and protracted rain-storm forced him to suspend further operations and retire. On the 10th, 11th, and 12th days of December, 1777, Cornwallis, with a detachment of the British army, made a sally from Philadelphia into Haverford and adjoining townships, and at that inclement season of the year stripped many families of all their provisions, their stock and provender, and many articles of household furniture. The losses then sustained by the inhabitants of Haverford amounted to more than three thousand four hundred pounds sterling.

"The month of February, 1779," says township clerk Charles Humphrey, "was a Remarkable fine, warm, and spring-like wether all thro, the frogs crying and spawning, Maple and alder blossoms in full Bloom, peach blossoms in many places, English Cherry trees very forward, some blossomed out, apple tree buds beginning to leaf, insomuch that vegetation was moved in allmost every vegetable. Corn in the ground looked well and promising, but March turned the face of everything, Rain, frost, and snow, high winds and storms, every other Day all thro."

In 1780, when steps were taken for the gradual abolition of slavery in Pennsylvania, twenty-six slaves were held in Haverford, but none in Radnor.

In 1786 the taxable inhabitants of Haverford were as follows:

William Brooke, William Burns, Jonathan Buckman, Thomas Cornogg, Abraham Cornogg, John Cornogg, Lewis Davis, Jesse Davis, John Davis, Caleb Davis, William Davis, George Dunn, Peter Dehaven, Sarah Ellis, Jesse Ellis, David Ellis, Jonathan Ellis, William Free, Griffith Davis, Andrew Frederick, Samuel Gracy, Samuel Griffith, Han. Humphrey, Edward Hughes, Mary Hayworth, George Hayworth, Robert Holland, Aaron Johnson, Hugh Jones, Samuel Leedom, John Lindsay, David Lowden, David Lyon, Simon Litzenberg, Catharine Lukens, Anthony Lewis, Abraham Lloyd, Francis Lee, Mary Miller, William McClure, John Moore, Nicholas Pechine, Henry Lawrence, Joseph Powell, George Powell, Hugh Quinn, John Ross, Philip Sheaff, Richard Willing, Obadiah Wiley, Felix Wershing, Joseph Worrall, Martin Wise, Nathan Jones, Thomas Terry, Richard Humphrey, and Johnson Vaughan.

Inmates. - Duncan Johnson, William Downey, John Hayworth, Samuel McClure, Richard Tippons, Samuel Burrows, Joseph Webster, Jonathan Haycock, Michael Timple, Zachariah Long, Daniel McElroy, Edward Hughes, and William Sheaff.

Freemen. - William Lincoln, John Graville, John Free, John Point, John Stevens, John Holland, Jacob Vaughan, Edward Leedom, George Stump, William Lloyd, and Jonathan Worrall.

The Philadelphia and Lancaster turnpike road crosses the northeast corner of the township. The company was incorporated in 1792, and the road was completed in 1794, at a cost of four hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars. It was the first turnpike road constructed in America.

At the beginning of this - the nineteenth - century Haverford's taxables were mentioned as follows:

William Brooke (brigade inspector), Jane Burns, Thomas Brooke (miller), Benjamin Bevan, George Bonsall (blacksmith), Joseph Bond, William Bittle (innkeeper), Amos Bradshaw (grist- and saw-mill), Isaac