Marple Township.

rells (for the latter is the modern spelling of the name) are believed to be descendants of Sir Hubert de Warel, who lost three sons at the battle of Hastings, which victory gave to William the Conqueror absolute possession of England. Peter Worrell (or Worrall) was a tanner, from whom the Worrals of Marple are descended; of Joshua, nothing seems now to be known. John Worrall, who settled in Chester township in 1648, came from Oare, Berkshire, England, and as he named one of his children Peter, and Peter called one of his sons John, it would appear that if not brothers, they were at least very nearly related to each other. John Worrall, Peter's son, with Bernhardus Vanlear, early in the last century, went to Germany, and graduated as a physician. Above the Worrall tract were seven hundred and fifty acres surveyed to John and Charles Bevan, June 28, 1684, which was part of the two thousand acres purchased by John Bevan from Penn, in England. It subsequently became the property of Jonathan Hayes, who, on July 30, 1684, received a patent for six hundred acres immediately to the north of the Bevan patent. He was the largest landholder in the township. He was a member of Assembly in 1689, and again in 1697, and one of the justices of the court from 1703 to 1711. In 1715 he was murdered by Hugh Pugh, a millwright, and Lazarus Thomas, a laborer. The trial of the assassins is the first case of homicide known in the records of Chester County.¹

Lying directly south of Radnor was a tract of three hundred and thirty acres, surveyed to Thomas Ellis July 10, 1683, which was conveyed to David Morris June 10, 1695, and on a resurvey, in 1703, proved to contain four hundred acres. Through this property and the one below it the Radnor and Chester road was laid out, April 20, 1691. Morris was believed to have been a Welshman, and was one of the projectors and owners of "Haverford New Mill." He resided on his plantation in Marple until his death, in 1720. South of the Morris lands were two hundred acres, which were surveyed to William Howell June 13, 1684. He appears never to have resided on this tract, which, on March 9, 1705, was conveyed to John Pugh, who certainly did not live in Marple in 1715. Immediately south of the Howell lands was a tract of five hundred and fifty acres, surveyed Oct. 30, 1683, to Robert Taylor, who was a native of Little Leigh, in the county of Chester, England, who came to Pennsylvania in 1682, and settled in Springfield, never residing on his Marple estate. Bayard Taylor was a descendant of Robert Taylor. The property passed to his sons, Jonathan and Josiah Taylor. In 1715, Robert Taylor, perchance a grandson of Robert, the immigrant, was a resident of Marple, and assessed as a real estate owner in that year. South of the Taylor lands was a tract of four hundred acres, surveyed to John Howell Oct. 22, 1683, of whom little appears to be known. Immediately south of Howell's tract were five hundred acres, surveyed to Ebenezer Langford Oct. 21, 1683, who may have lived there for a short time, inasmuch as he gave his name to the stream flowing into Darby Creek, known as Langford's Run. Bartholomew Coppock subsequently became an owner of part of this estate. The next plantation to the south, which comprised three hundred acres, and extended to the Springfield line, was surveyed to John Nixson Oct. 20, 1683. On April 12, 1687, he sold the estate to Bartholomew Coppock. Dr. Smith says it was bought by Bartholomew Coppock, Sr., while Smith's Atlas of Early Grants makes Bartholomew Coppock, Jr., the purchaser. Bartholomew Coppock resided there in 1715, and the land is assessed to him. Bartholomew Coppock, the elder, is positively asserted to have resided on this tract, and to have died there in 1717.² Certain it is that in 1715, only one Bartholomew Coppock was assessed in Marple, and he was a resident of the township.

Although Marple, during the Revolution, was removed in a great measure from the clash and din of war, nevertheless, the British foraging parties and their Tory allies caused considerable injury to several residents of Marple. The accounts filed of the losses thus sustained, which is doubtless but a small part of the gross sum, are the following:

"In the winter of 1788," says Dr. Smith, "a very tragic affair happened on Darby Creek, where it forms a line between Marple and Haverford, in the death by drowning of Lydia Hollingsworth, a young lady of great worth and beauty, who was under an engagement of marriage to David Lewis. The party, consisting of Lewis, Lydia, another young lady, with the driver, left the city in the morning in a sleigh, and drove out to Joshua Humphrey's, near Haverford meeting-house. From thence they drove to Newtown; but before they returned the weather moderated, and some rain fell, which caused Darby Creek to rise. In approaching the ford (which was on the road leading from the Presbyterian Church to Coopertown), they were advised not to attempt to cross, but were made acquainted with the existence of a temporary bridge in the meadows above. They drove to the bridge, but the water was rushing over it, and the driver refused to proceed; whereupon Lewis took the lines, and missing the bridge, plunged the whole party into the flood. All were rescued but Lydia, whose body was not found till the next morning. The feelings of Lewis can be more readily imagined than described. This young lady was buried at