Middletown Township.

on an average for ten cents per pound, the capacity being increased gradually until in 1826 one hundred and fifty tons of nails were manufactured, and in 1832 the annual production had reached four hundred tons. In the latter year Richard Smith, a wholesale hardware dealer in Philadelphia, was compelled to take the works to cover advances made to Capt. Moore, and he leased the establishment to Howard & Massey for several years, they using the building for a machine-shop. It later passed to Bernard McCready, was used as a cotton-factory by James Roe, and still later by Robert Boyd, under whose occupancy it was partly destroyed by fire. The property was purchased by Alex. Balfour, who erected the present building and rented it to Joseph Richardson, Nicholas Walter, and H. P. Griffiths, who manufactured cotton and woolen goods for about two years. It later passed to Samuel Riddle, who operated it a few years and removed the machinery to his other mills.

Glen Riddle Mills. - On Nov. 9, 1683, three hundred and seventy acres of land were surveyed to Richard Crosby, it being part of the five thousand acres bought by John Ap (Bevan), John and Thomas Wynne, in England, of William Penn, to be located as the purchasers might desire on any unseated lands. Crosby sold one hundred acres of that land to Robert Pennell on April 6, 1685, and the latter conveyed it, Dec. 12, 1717, to his son, William Pennell. The latter had prior to the last date purchased sixty acres from John Taylor, and some years after erected at the place now Glen Riddle a saw-mill. In 1766, William Pennell is assessed on a saw-mill and a grist-mill, which he retained ownership of until his death, in 1783, although he did not have the charge of the mills, for during the Revolution they were operated by Abraham Pennell. At the time of William Pennell's death he was the owner of seven hundred and thirty-five acres of land in Middletown, two hundred and fifty-eight acres being located in the upper part of the township known as Grubb's, a tract of four hundred and seventeen acres, and sixty acres on which was the grist-mill and saw-mill. A tract of one hundred acres was across the creek in Aston township, on which the "Old Sable Forge" was located, and two hundred acres belonging to the estate was in Fallowfield township, Chester County. The residence of the Pennell family is still standing, now the property of William Webster. The children of William Pennell were Abraham, Robert, Dell, Rachel (Mrs. Nathan Sharpless), Esther (who afterwards became Mrs. David Garrett), William, Aaron, Jesse, Mary, and Samuel. The last had been absent for several years when his father died, and was believed to have died "beyond the sea." On June 29, 1785, the real estate was appraised at £6754 25s. 9d., and the Orphans' Court made a decree that Abraham, the eldest son, should be awarded the real estate, on condition that he paid to each of the other heirs their share in the property.

Under this adjudication, on Nov. 15, 1785, the heirs united in a deed to Abraham Pennell for the estate, and the following day (November 16th) he conveyed to Dell Pennell two hundred and six acres of the Middletown tract, and the one hundred acres in Aston, on which the forge was located. The same day he also conveyed to Nathan Sharpless and Rachel (Pennell), his wife, and Esther Pennell the sixty acres of land on which the grist-mill and saw-mill had been built many years before. Nathan Sharpless operated the mills, and in 1790 the owners of the mill-tract erected a stone house, which still stands, the date-stone being marked "S. G. 1790." These letters indicate that the dwelling was built by the husbands of the two daughters of William Pennell. The letter "S" standing for the initial of Sharpless, Nathan having married Rachel, and "G" for Garrett, Esther Pennell having married David Garrett. In this house both families lived for a time, but in 1794, Nathan Sharpless erected a small stone house, which still stands, and in its walls is inserted a date-stone marked "N S R 1794." To this dwelling Sharpless removed, the Garrett family remaining in the 1790 house. On Nov. 7, 1798, David Garrett and Esther, his wife, conveyed to Nathan Sharpless the "water corn or Grist mill" and part of the sixty acres of land. On May 21, 1802, Dell Pennell sold to Nathan Sharpless the right of the water of Chester Creek, for use of the "Sharpless Grist Mill Dam where it now stands and has long stood across the creek above our Forge Dam, . . . and water sufficient to turn two overshot water wheels of fifteen feet diameter driving each one pair of mill stones of four feet six inches diameter."

In 1815, Nathan Sharpless erected a woolen-factory and fulling-mill, which he operated until February, 1817, when he assigned the property to Abraham Sharpless, Francis Wisely, and John Peirce. The real estate on which the mills were erected, comprising fifteen acres, was offered at public sale May 3, 1818, and was purchased by Isaac Sharpless and Gideon Hatton, who changed the woolen-mill to a cotton-factory. After the building was completed it was leased to John Hastings, who fitted it with the most approved machinery of that period, and continued to operate it until Oct. 23, 1823, when, becoming financially embarrassed, he was compelled to sell the machinery and the leasehold. The capacity of the factory is shown by the following enumeration of "all the machinery requisite for carrying on a large and extensive cotton manufactory, consisting of four Throstles of 492 spindles, two mules of 408 spindles, ten Carding Engines, 12 Roving Heads, 12 Drawing Heads, one Stretcher of 96 spindles, four Reels, one Grinding Machine, one willowing Machine, one Picker and Blower, three winding Blocks, one Banding Machine, and one Yarn Press, together with all the rest of the Machinery."

During the time that Hastings had the cotton-factory, Joseph Mancill was lessee of the grist-mill. In 1825 the woolen-factory and falling-mill were leased