Newtown Township.

by itself, the polls were still retained at this house, and continue to this time there to be held. In 1845 Hull gave place to John King, who remained there only one year, for in 1846 he removed to the Fox Chase Inn, and James McClelland followed him as landlord of the Newtown Square Inn, for, although the old name does not appear on any petition for license until 1846, I am told it was so known during McClelland's occupancy of the house. The latter in 1852 gave place to John Paschall, Jr., and he, in 1856, to Joseph H. Hozer, and in 1859 George Eppright had license thereat. He, however, in 1867, rented the Fox Chase, and William T. Davis took out the license and so continued until 1876, when Robert Cunningham became the landlord, and in 1878 William T. Davis again became the host of the Newtown Square Inn, and continues there to the present time.

As before stated, the public-house of Joseph Hawley was located near the site of the noted Fox Chase Tavern on the West Chester road, and it may be that Benjamin Powell, in 1775, had license for the old inn. John Hill Martin states that Alexander Bartram, a Scotchman, and a leading merchant in Philadelphia previous to the Revolution, owned the Fox Chase, the ground connected therewith comprising sixty acres. That he took side with the English, was declared a traitor to the United Colonies, and his estate confiscated. In 1782 John Fawkes was granted the right to keep a public-house, and although the name is not given in his application, it was doubtless in the building that was so long known to the people of the county as the Fox Chase. In 1785 Thomas Carpenter kept the house, to be superseded in 1788 by Richard Fawkes, Jr., who, after the county of Delaware had been erected, continued to be approved until 1799, when Rebecca Terrill was licensed for Fawkes' Tavern. After two years' experience she yielded the honors of the house again to Richard Fawkes, and he continued as "mine host" until 1809, when Josiah Fawkes assumed the duties of the place. In 1813 John Fawkes had the license, and the following year in his petition the name "Fox Chase" first appears of record. James Miller was landlord in 1823 to 1825, when for three years the house seems not to have had license, until, in 1828, John Jacobs received the privilege and continued yearly to do so until 1839, when Richard Millison took his place, to be followed by John King in 1845. The latter had the year previously kept the Newtown Square Inn. On Dec. 5, 1845, King was stabbed and seriously wounded by Eli Massey, who had been in his employ, discharged and forbidden to come to the house. At date stated, Massey came to the Fox Chase, and went into the kitchen where his wife and several other persons then were. King, learning that Massey was in the house, - for the latter had threatened bodily harm to the former, - went to the kitchen and ordered him to leave the premises. When Massey had gone a few steps beyond the threshold he turned, struck at King, who had followed him to the door, with his knife and wounded the landlord in the abdomen. The assailant was arrested, tried at the February court following, and convicted of an assault and battery. Judge Bell sentenced him to nine months' imprisonment in the county jail. John King, at the Fox Chase, continued to receive license until 1856, when, he being dead, the privilege was granted to his widow, Edith Ann King. The next year she was followed by Thomas B. Evans, and he in 1861 by Abner Baldwin, Jr. In 1864 R. M. Speakman had license for the tavern; in 1866 Jefferies Williamson superseded him, and the latter, in 1867, gave place to George Eppright, who had formerly been the host of the Newtown Square Inn. In 1869, David Rickabaugh was the landlord of the Fox Chase, as also in 1870, since which date it disappeared from the licensed public-houses of Delaware County.

William Beaumont, the father of the subject of this biographical sketch, married Hannah Davis, of Newtown township, Delaware Co. Among their children was Davis, born in 1790, who, at the age of two years, removed to Newtown Square, where his father purchased the property embracing the hotel and store. He received an excellent English education, which was made available in later life, and acquired a reputation as an expert penman. At the age of twenty-one, after having rendered valuable assistance to his father in his various business pursuits, he removed to Philadelphia, and for about three years engaged in teaching. On returning again to Newtown he became proprietor of the store at the "Square," where he remained until his marriage, in 1816, to Elizabeth Cochran (sister of the wife of the late William Black), of Chester, Delaware Co., whose four children all died in infancy. In 1845 he was again married, to Abbie West, daughter of Isaac and Hannah West, of West Manor township, Chester Co. To this marriage were born two daughters. Ella is the wife of Garrett Williamson, son of Garrett and Hannah Williamson, of Marple township, whose children are Davis B. (named after his grandfather), Herman, Clinton, Elbert, and Ira. Irene, the youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Beaumont, died at the age of seven years. Mr. Beaumont, after his first marriage, purchased a farm in Upper Darby township, where he remained until the death of Mrs. Beaumont, in 1843. On the death of his father the hotel and store at Newtown Square were bequeathed to him, the former property having been held by the family for a period of seventy-four years. He also purchased, in 1848, a farm in the same township, which is now the residence of his widow. He