Newtown Township.

tol, said, "Good-day, gentlemen!" and moved out of the door facing the people in the room as he retired. No one attempted to molest him in anywise.

An aged resident of Springfield, who died many years ago, would frequently relate the following incident, which happened to him when a lad serving his apprenticeship in Newtown. One morning in the early spring of 1778, Mr. Shillingford stated, he (then a blacksmith's apprentice) had just arrived at the shop, which was located near the Fox Chase Tavern, on the West Chester road, and was employed in starting the fires preparatory to the appearance of the master smith and the journeymen. While thus engaged a fine-looking, athletic young man, with sandy hair and ruddy complexion, mounted on a horse that to a practiced eye gave indications of strength, speed, and endurance, drew rein at the door of the forge, and said, -

"Young man, my horse has cast a shoe, do you think you can put one on?"

"I think I can."

"Well, I'll let you try," said the stranger, dismounting and hitching his horse.

The apprentice was much pleased at this opportunity to exhibit his skill, and taking hold of the horse's foot, began to trim and prepare the hoof.

"Young man," said the stranger, "just give me one of those aprons, and if you'll blow the bellows, I'll try my hand at the job just to see what sort of a blacksmith I'd make."

"It's a dangerous thing to drive a nail into a horse's foot," replied the lad. "You may lame him so that he will be ruined."

"I'll take the chances," was the reply of the stranger, as he tied the apron on. "If I lame him I'll be responsible for all damages."

He at once began his work, and the apprentice soon saw that the man was thoroughly master of his art. After the horse had been shod, the lad said, -

"You are well armed, sir, I see; are you in the army?"

"It's dangerous traveling these roads alone, is it not?" answered the stranger. "They tell me there is a Capt. Fritz or Fitch, who frequents this neighborhood, and the people are much afraid of him, I've heard."

"Many people are afraid of Fitzpatrick," was the youth's reply.

"Have you ever seen him?"

"No, sir, but I've often heard him described."

"Do I answer the description you have heard of Fitzpatrick?" asked the stranger.

"I don't know that you do," was the cautious answer.

The man mounted his horse, and throwing a coin to the apprentice, said, "Pay your master for the shoe and keep the rest for yourself. So, my young man, you have never seen Fitzpatrick, and don't know whether I answer the description you've heard of him. I'm going now, and I might just as well say to you that Fitzpatrick happens to be my name." And the stranger rode rapidly away.

After Fitzpatrick was captured and was in irons at Chester, the apprentice, who chanced to be at the county-seat, pressed into the crowd to see the noted prisoner, when the latter recognized him, and, manacled as he was, stretched out his hand and gave that of the lad a hearty shake, saying, "How are you, brother chip?"

On Hunter's Run, in Newtown township, and extending to the line dividing Newtown from Marple, was a tract of one hundred and seventy-two acres "strict measure," owned by Matthias Aspden, who was declared an attainted traitor to the colony by act of March 6, 1778, unless he surrendered himself and submitted to a legal trial "for such his treason" before the 1st day of April, 1781. This Aspden failed to do, and the property was seized by the commonwealth authorities and sold to Edward Bartholomew, to whom the State issued letters patent Aug. 26, 1786. Aspden, who was one of the wealthiest merchants in Philadelphia, had fled to England, returned to America in 1785, but fearing that his life was in danger he again went to England. In April, 1786, Matthias Aspden was pardoned by the State, and much of his estate returned to him. His will subsequently gave rise to the most extensive litigation ever had under the confiscation acts. In 1824 suit was brought to determine the rightful heir under his will, he having devised his estate, real and personal, "to his heir-at-law." The claimants numbered upwards of two hundred, and were divided into three classes. The first were the heirs of Mary Harrison, a sister of the half-blood on the father's side, and the heirs of Roger Hartley, a half-brother on the mother's side; the second were the Parker family, cousins of the whole blood, which was a very large and constantly-increasing class of claimants, who had instituted the suit; and the third were the English Aspdens, relations of the whole blood of the father, and who would have been heirs at common law. Judge Grier decided that the issue of the brother and sister of the half-blood were lawful heirs, and the persons entitled to receive the estate, valued at over half a million of dollars. The Supreme Court of the United States subsequently affirmed this decree. The conclusion of the case was as notable as the entire contest, for March, 1853, a Philadelphia paper published this following local item:

"Romance in Real Life. - John Aspden, whose sudden death on Monday was noticed in our columns, is to be buried this afternoon. Mr. Aspden was one of the English claimants of the immense estate left by Matthias Aspden. Before the case was decided by the Supreme Court in favor of the American heirs, the latter proposed to the deceased to compromise the matter, and offered to pay him the sum of two hundred thousand dollars to relinquish his claim; this he refused to do, and the decision of the court cut him off without a farthing. On Monday morning the estate was divided between the heirs-at-law, and almost at the same moment, John Aspden fell dead at a tavern in Carter's Alley, of disease of the heart, supposed to have been induced by disappointment and mortification. At the time of his death his pockets contained a solitary