Haverford Township.

number, whose life is here briefly reviewed, was born in 1796 in Merion township, Montgomery Co., and spent his youth upon the farm of his father. During this time he received such advantages of education as were obtainable in the neighborhood, and subsequently made farming the business of his early life. He married, at the age of twenty-five, Mary M., daughter of Elisha Worrell, of Springfield township, Delaware Co., and had children, - Myra W. (Mrs. Charles Worrell, whose death occurred in 1879), John, Maris W. (who died in 1873), and Joseph. Mr. Leedom, after his marriage, engaged in the business of milling, and became the proprietor of a mill located on Darby Creek, in Haverford township, belonging to his wife. This pursuit was continued until 1851, when he retired, and since that date has not been actively engaged in business. Mr. Leedom, first as a Whig and later as a Republican, has evinced a keen interest in the political issues of the day. He has ever been a strong partisan, and filled at one time the office of director of the poor for Delaware County. His religious creed is that of the society of Friends, his membership being in connection with the Haverford Meeting. Mr. Leedom is a man of modest demeanor, who, by his consistent character and sound common sense, has won the respect of the community. His surviving children are Joseph, who married Emily Pyle, of Haverford, to whom were born six children, and John, who married Hannah T. Worrell, and has had five children.

Marple Township.

At the court on the 5th day of the Sixth month, 1684, occurs the first mention of Marple in the records of Chester County, at which time Jonathan Hayes and James Stamfield were appointed tax-collectors "for the Publicke Aid for Marple," and at the same court Thomas Pearson was appointed "Constable and Supervisor for the highway for Marple." In many of the early records the name is spelled Marpool; but Holmes, on his Map of the Improved part of Pennsylvania, gives this township according to the modern spelling, and as the first court record adheres to the same orthography, the word Marpool is doubtless an error. Why the locality was so called is now unknown.

The great road of Marple, which enters the township at its southern boundary just above the Springfield meeting-house, was laid out in 1683, and ran almost due north through the centre of this district, when it diverged in a westwardly direction, uniting with the West Chester road a short distance south of Newtown line. At the southwestern end of Marple was a tract of three hundred acres, which was patented to George Willard, 22d of Eleventh month, 1684. Richard Maris, a son of George Maris, of Springfield, subsequently became the owner of one hundred and thirty acres of this land, on which he resided, and was assessed for in 1715. The remaining part of the tract was conveyed to Jonathan Coppock, Nov. 4, 1708, but beyond that fact nothing further respecting him is known to the writer. Immediately above the Willard land were three hundred acres, one hundred of which was taken up by Ralph Draycott, Dec. 2, 1689, and two hundred acres by Elizabeth Draycott, Nov. 5, 1690, neither of whom seem ever to have resided on the estate, which passed to Thomas Pearson, Dec. 29, 1697. Tradition states that this Pearson came with Penn in the "Welcome," in 1682, and it was on his suggestion that the name of Upland was changed to Chester. The records of the arrivals of the early immigrants to Pennsylvania, in the possession of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, show that Thomas Pierson, - for so the name is spelled in the list, - was by trade a mason. Margaret, his wife, John, his brother, and Mary Smith, his sister, came from Ponnall-fee, in Cheshire, England, in the ship "Endeavour," of London, arriving in the colony on the 29th of Seventh month (September), 1683, nearly a year after Penn's arrival. Sarah Pearson, the daughter of Thomas, intermarried with John West, and became the mother of Benjamin West, the noted American artist. Mary Smith, the sister of Thomas Pearson, just above his tract, took on rent, Oct. 6, 1683, fifty acres of ground. Through this land and that of her brother the road leading from Upper Providence to Springfield meeting-house was laid out May 2, 1721. Above Mary Smith's land were two hundred and fifty acres surveyed to John Pearson, who came with his brother Thomas, in the "Endeavour," in October, 1683, which subsequently became the property of Robert Pearson. On Oct. 13, 1685, Francis Stanfield, who had purchased prior to leaving England, received a patent for six hundred acres. He settled on this tract prior to the summer of 1684, for, as already mentioned, at the August court of that year he was appointed one of the tax-collectors for Marple. This large estate subsequently was divided into smaller holdings, of which Peter, John, and Joseph Worrall had various-sized plots, as also Joseph and John Rhoads. In 1713 three hundred acres of the Stanfield land became the property of Robert Pearson, who was assessed for it in 1715. Dr. Bernhardus Vanlear, in 1720, acquired two hundred and forty-eight acres of this estate, and here he resided until his death, Jan. 26, 1790, at the extraordinary age of one hundred and four years. His death being largely due to the fact that in 1788, when he was one hundred and two years old, his house was entered by burglars, and because of his refusal to inform them where he had secreted his treasure, cruelly maltreated him. Above the Stanfield tract, on Oct. 27, 1683, three hundred acres were surveyed to Peter and Joshua Worrall. The family of Wor-