Middletown Township.

Thomas Cobourn, after which it was "to be nailed up at the mill he is building":

"To Thos. Cobourne, of Cheater County:

"Whereas we, the Proprietary Deputies, upon complaint made to us by Caleb Pusey, that thou wast about to set up a mill in Chester Co., to the great damage of the mill then under the charge of the s^d Caleb pusey, which hath been of vast charge to the owners thereof, & but of little profit towards defray^g any parts thereof, did on the 22d Inst. obligingly send to thee to give thee notice thereof, and to desire thou wouldst y^e 29th following answer the s^d complaint before us in the Council-Room at Phil., but instead thereof. thou sent a letter of the 26th inst. by wh^ch we perceive thou dost not only contemn the proprietary's authority & endeavor to subvert his dominion over all the water and soile within this, his province of Penns^a, as he is chief prop^y thereof, but likewise intended to persist in the build^g the mill afores^d, to the damage of the other mill and contempt of the proprietaryship.

"We therefore, in the prop^ys name, will and require thee to desist from building the s^d mill (with^t positive orders from the prop^y for the same) or any way hinder the true course of the water of the s^d Cr. or any part thereof by draw^g it out of its own proper channel or stop or any other way molest the same upon thy peril. Givⁿ &c., 30th, 5th mo., 1687."¹

The mill thus built by Thomas Cobourn was at the site of the present Forest Dale or Dutton's mills, and from the date of its erection was within the limits of Chester township until after 1829, when by a change of the township line the mill property was embraced within Middletown, where it is now located. On Nov. 28, 1682, three hundred acres of land abutting on Chester Creek was surveyed to Thomas Cobourn. The latter was erecting his grist-mill there in the summer of 1687, and after Council had set aside the injunction granted by the commissioners of property, he doubtless speedily completed the building. In 1695, when the assessment for a county levy was made by the grand jury and justices, the grist-mill of Joseph Cobourn was appraised at fifty pounds. The mill was doubtless a log structure, and old Thomas Cobourn, who was a carpenter, assisted by his sons, Joseph and William, did the greater part of the work in its erection. About 1750 a new stone grist-mill was built, taking the place of the log structure. At a subsequent date the title to the mill and land passed to ------ Lewis, whose heirs, Mary Cox and John Lewis, on Feb. 14, 1775, conveyed the premises to Nicholas Fairlamb. The deed designated that there was then on the tract "a water corn-mill or grist-mill, boulting-mill, and saw-mill." Fairlamb retained ownership of the mills until Nov. 12, 1792, when he sold them to Jonathan Dutton. The mills were placed in the control of his son, John, when the latter became of age, who retained possession of the estate, it having become his property at the decease of his father, in 1820. Jonathan Dutton succeeded his father, John Dutton, in the ownership of these mills. During the great flood of 1843, and while endeavoring to place some of his property out of the reach of the flood, so rapid was the rise of the water that Jonathan Dutton was compelled to retreat from one story of the building to another until he reached the upper one, shortly after which the building began to yield to the force of the torrent. Knowing that the situation had become perilous, he leaped from a window and succeeded in reaching the shore, about one hundred yards below. A few moments after he left the mill it was swept away. The mills were rebuilt in 1844. Jonathan Dutton died Sept. 18, 1880, aged seventy years. The property is now owned by George G. Dutton, representing the four generations of Duttons in whose ownership these mills have been for nearly a century. At the present time there is a stone grist-mill, a sawmill, and a turning-mill on the estate.

Knowlton Mills. - On the 16th of January, 1789, Nicholas Fairlamb (who at that time also owned the Cobourn or Dutton Mill) conveyed to John Sharpless the tract of land on which the Knowlton Mills are situated. No mention is made in this deed of a mill or mill-seat. Indeed, in 1800, "the site of Knowlton was a perfect wilderness."²

On Sept. 30, 1802, John Sharpless conveyed the same tract to Jonathan Tyson, with the right of a certain dam thereon. On November 15th of the same year, Tyson purchased of Elizabeth Grissell (Griswold) fourteen acres in Aston township, located on Chester Creek, opposite to the tract he had bought of Sharpless; the deed specifically mentions the dam rights, etc.

On May 25, 1807, Elijah Tyson, a son of Jonathan, bought of his father two hundred and fifty acres of land in Middletown, embracing the mill-site, dams, and water rights, and, July 25th of the same year, the fourteen acres in Aston, with right to abut dam against the shore of the creek. In this year (1807), for the first time, the name of Tyson appeared on the assessment-roll in connection with mills, and at that time Elijah Tyson was assessed on a saw-mill. He continued to control the business until July 27, 1813, when he sold eight acres in Middletown, including the mill, mill-dam rights, etc., and fourteen and a half acres in Aston township, opposite, with water rights, to Judah Dobson, of Philadelphia, who changed the saw-mill to a rolling-mill. Little information has been gained concerning this mill, but tradition asserts that it was a copper-mill, and the road leading from the place to Village Green is still known as the Copper-Mill road. The venerable Hon. Edward Darlington, of Media, now in his eighty-ninth year, states the mill was known as Dobson's copper-mill, and was used for rolling copper into sheets. The mill does not appear on the assessment-rolls for 1817, 1818, 1819, 1820, nor in that of 1821.

On Nov. 6, 1822, John Vaughan and John Hart, assignees of Thomas and Judah Dobson, conveyed to Samuel Love "all that rolling-mill and four tracts of land," one of which is described as in Middletown, on Chester Creek, containing eight acres, adjoining lands of Elijah Tyson, Abram Trimble, and others.