Middletown Township.

Freeman. - Hans Hamilton, Peter Tregoe, James Tregoe, George Martin, Francis Ferrel, Thomas Smith, William Chamberlain, Simon Barton.

In 1799 the taxables were returned as follows:

John Baker, Joseph Baker (storekeeper), Henry Baker, Samuel Worrell, Aaron Baker (cooper), Thomas Beatty, John Moncil, Amos Bond, Jacob Happerset, Joshua Clayton, James Day, Jesse Darlington, Jonathan Button, John Evans, Dell Pennell, Issachar Edwards, Isaac Edwards, James Emlen estate (grist-mill), Frederick Fairlamb, Robert Fairlamb (cordwainer), Isaac Frame, William Johnson, Henry Gorman, Thomas Pennell, David Garrett (blacksmith), Robert Glenn, Henry McGill, Prudence Sloughter, Jacob Hibberd, John Hill (saw-mill), Nathan Heacock (joiner), John Heacock, Ann Hemphill, Joshua Harrison, John Happersett, Thomas Hutchinson (little wheelmaker), James Hemphill, William Salyards, James Hunter, John Heacock, Samuel James, John Ingram, Jr. (blacksmith), Joseph Jobson, John Knight (physician), John Lungren, Edward Lewis (miller), Seth Levis (paper-maker, paper-mill, grist-mill, saw-mill), William MaCarty (tailor), John Moncil, Philip Miller, Jacob Menshall, Thomas Menshall, Jacob Malin (weaver), James McGuire, John Ottey, Robert Pennell, Abraham Pennell (saw-mill), Lydia Pennell (innkeeper), Oliver Pharaoh (shoemaker), Aaron Batten, Thomas Ryan, Deborah Sutton (store-keeper), William Sharpless, Nathan Sharpless (grist-mill, saw-mill), John Sharpless, Daniel Sharpless, Benjamin Stokes, Ambrose Smedley, William Smedley, Thomas Trimble, Joseph Taylor (carpenter), John Thompson, Joseph Roman (blacksmith), Thomas Worrell, John Wilcox (hatter), John Worrell (saw-mill), Edward Woodward (saw-mill), Caleb Yarnall, Joseph Yarnell (wheelwright), Negro Tom, Negro Cyrus, Frederick Janer, Lewis Pennell.

Inmates. - William Broomall, James Broomall, John Broomall, David Broomall, James Cumings, James Crossley, William Doyle, Virgil Eachus (joiner), John Hughes, Jacob Happerset, William King, Patrick McGuckin, Daniel Mahoney, Michael McCloskey, George Malin (hatter), William Pitt (shoemaker), William Pennell, Joshua Sharpless (shoemaker), Albert Stervant, James Starr, Daniel Thompson, Patrick Welch, Joseph Webster, Thomas Worrell, John Ottey.

Single Freemen. - John Dutton, John Lewis, and Nathan Yearsley, millers; Seth Evans, weaver; William Fairlamb and William Griffith, shoemakers; John Heacock, Enoch Heacock, and Benjamin James, carpenters; Joseph Starr, wheelwright; Job Vernon, tanner; Thomas Walker, blacksmith; Cyrus Baker, John Connell, Hugh Connor, George Dougherty, Richard Dutton, John Harris, Seth Levis, Gardner Leonard, John McMickel, William McCune, Alexander McCune, Patrick Mullin, James McMullin, Patrick Mulvany, Andrew Nelson, Robert Pennell, John Rickey, Robert Sims, John Sharpless, Thomas Sharpless, Alexander Thompson, Hugh Trimble, William Webster, Peter Worrell, Obadiah Russell.

The following is a list of the justices for Middletown township:

The Murder at Bancroft Bank. - On Saturday night, Oct. 17, 1863, Ellen Jones and John Blair, a stonemason, were brutally murdered. The scene of the tragedy was a small dilapidated log house which stood on the left of the road, on the west side of Ridley Creek, almost directly opposite the factories. Ellen Jones vended liquors surreptitiously, and it was supposed she had accumulated one hundred dollars by the illegal traffic, which sum she was known to carry on her person. On Sunday morning following a neighbor learning from the children of the dead woman - the eldest a girl of six and the youngest an infant of two years - that something unusual had happened at the secluded cabin, repaired thither. Upon the floor near the door of the lower room - the house contained but two apartments, a room below and an attic above - lay the body of John Blair, his throat cut in several places, and the flesh from the forehead to the chin on the right side of his face almost entirely cut from the bones, his forehead broken in, and the right eye torn from the socket. About two feet away from the corpse of Blair lay the body of Ellen Jones, the upper portion of her head cloven, leaving a huge cavity, from which the brains had oozed. Near the dead woman was an axe clotted with blood from edge to butt, indicated the weapon with which the deed was done. The only witness of the murder was the six-year-old daughter of Ellen Jones, who, hearing the noise in the lower room, was aroused from her slumbers, and through the cracks in the floor of the attic saw the murderer strike the fatal blows. The testimony seemed to implicate George Wilkinson, a young man of about twenty-two, who was arrested at Hestonville on Monday night following, and was detained at Philadelphia until the Friday after the murder, when he was brought to Media jail. The trial of the accused began Feb. 23, 1864, the commonwealth being represented by Francis M. Brooke, district attorney, and the prisoner by James Barton, Jr., Charles D. Manley, and John M. Broomall. On Friday, February 26th, the jury rendered a verdict of "not guilty."¹

A Centenarian. - On April 25,1851, Charity White, better known as "Aunty Charity," a colored woman, died at Middletown, said to be over one hundred years of age. She had been a slave in the Eastern Shore of Maryland, but on the death of her master, prior to the beginning of this century, was permitted to remove to Pennsylvania, and located in Middletown.

Remarkable Mortality. - In November, 1837, Norris Hannum, of Middletown, lost by death in twenty days all his children, - five in number. The disease, which proved so fatal, baffled the physicians, who could not at that time designate the malady by name.

A Heavy Man. - In the summer of 1866, Henry Breckinridge, of Middletown, was announced by the Delaware County Republican as the heaviest man in