Radnor Township.

officiated as "mine host" of the Sorrel Horse eight years, of the Unicorn one year, of the Spread Eagle, in Radnor, eight years, and of the Eagle, in Haverford, eight years. He married Mary Griffith, of Chester County. Of four children born to them - George, Jesse, Rachel, and Benjamin - all are living with the exception of Benjamin. George and Jesse are residents of Philadelphia, while Rachel, the wife of Thomas Crosby, resides at Rosemont. Mary Ann married Evans Way, of Chester, Pa. He was prominent in his day, and served as sheriff of Delaware County. Simpson, a saddler by trade, passed the most of his life in Chester County, Pa. Samuel, a noted athlete and runner, was a butcher by occupation, and resided at Media all his lifetime. Rachel, the youngest child of Benjamin and Rosanna Kirk, married Maurice Deshong, long known as a prominent hotel-keeper in Chester, Pa., where she still resides.

Thornbury Township.

The origin of the name of this township is purely conjectural, but is doubtless the correct reason for the title which was given to this municipal district. George Pearce was one of the earliest and wealthiest settlers in the township. The place of his wife's (Ann) nativity was Thornbury, in Gloucestershire, "hence we can readily account for the name of the township, and at the same time cannot fail to appreciate the tender affection that prompted this pioneer settler in its selection in preference to the name of his own native town."¹ The first recognition of Thornbury as a municipal district occurred in 1687, when Hugh Durborow (Darborough) was appointed constable for the township.

The present boundaries of Thornbury are not those recognized in colonial days, for by the provisions of the act of Assembly of Sept. 26, 1789, creating Delaware County, the original township was divided, three-fourths of the territory being retained within the new county and the other fourth constituting the township of the like name in Chester County. This adjustment of the lengthened quarrel in the old county of Chester over the removal or retention of the seat of justice at the borough of Chester was unsatisfactory to the residents of that part of Thornbury which remained in Delaware County, hence, on Nov. 30, 1789, a petition from "the inhabitants and freeholders of the township of Thornbury, Delaware Co., remonstrating against the act for erecting the said county, and praying they may be re-annexed to the county of Chester," was presented to the Legislature, but that body refused to consider the proposition²

The meddling with the township lines of Thornbury was again renewed by the Legislature, when, fifty-three years thereafter, on July 30, 1842, an act was passed annexing all that part of Aston lying north of a line beginning immediately south of Stony Bank churchyard, and extending east and west from Chester Creek to Concord township, was annexed to Thornbury. In considering the early land-grants and the settlers, the present township lines will be observed.

In that part of the township which was formerly Aston, Joseph Baker, John Worrilow, and Daniel Hoopes on First month 12, 1699, took up five hundred acres, part of John Simcock's grant of fifteen hundred acres, four hundred of which comprised almost all the territory lying in Aston. Joseph Baker never settled on this tract, but settled in Edgmont, to which township his brother, John, gave the name it now bears; nor did John Worrilow locate there, but he, too, made Edgmont his place of abode, and Daniel Hoopes, who was a son-in-law of John Worrilow, settled in Westtown prior to his purchase of this land. The greater part of this tract in 1724 was purchased by John Taylor, who erected at Glen Mills the noted Sarum Forge. All the land that juts into Edgmont, and is bounded on the south by Middletown, was seated by William Bostock, March 2-3, 1681. It was entered as five hundred acres, but on a resurvey to Joshua Bispham, in 1734, it proved to contain five hundred and thirty-five and a half acres. In 1707, Cheyney Bostock owned the land; but it had passed out of his possession prior to 1715. The upper half of this tract in 1735 was purchased by Abel Green. West of the Taylor tract, and on a straight line drawn across the township from the southwestern part of Edgmont, where the latter overlaps Thornbury, to Birmingham line, to John Simcock on March 15-16, 1681, was surveyed fifteen hundred acres of land, extending to the present village of Thornton and embracing all the land lying between Concord and the line already spoken of running from Edgmont to Birmingham. The Taylor land was originally included in this tract. This estate subsequently passed into the ownership of a number of persons. Five hundred acres east of Westtown road were purchased by Randolph Vernon, which in 1715 was owned by his son, Jacob Vernon. The five hundred acres lying west of Westtown road became the property of John Kingsman. The upper part of this tract containing two hundred acres, extending as far south as Thornton, was purchased by George Pearce; it abutted on his four hundred and ninety acres lying to the north; and the lower part was divided into two plantations. The eastern, containing two hundred acres, was purchased by Elizabeth Hickman, while the western passed to Joseph Edwards. West of Thornton Edward Brown took up five hundred acres on Feb. 13, 1683, which subsequently became the property of Robert Pyle, Dec. 12, 1698, and doubtless he settled