Thornbury Township.

furnace for making steel in any of the said Colonies," and required the Governors in the American colonies should certify the number, as well as "a particular account" of such business establishments in the territory under their several jurisdictions. In obedience to the act of Parliament, Lieutenant-Governor James Hamilton issued a proclamation on Aug. 16, 1750, commanding the sheriffs of the counties in Pennsylvania to make return by the 25th of September following of all such establishments" within their several and respective Counties." In response to this proclamation, John Owen, sheriff of Chester County, made the following return:

"To the Honourable James Hamilton, Esqr., Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief of as Province of Pensilvania and Counties of Newcastle, Kent, and Sussex, on Delaware.

"I, John Owen, Sheriff of the County of Chester, in the said Province, do Certify and make known, That there is but one Mill or Engine for Slitting and rolling Iron within the County aforesaid, which is situate in Thornbury Township, and was Erected in the Year One thousand Seven Hundred and forty-Six, by John Taylor, the present Proprietor thereof, who, with his Servants and workmen, has ever Since, untill the twenty-fourth day of June last, Used and Occupied the Same. And I do hereby further certify that there is not any Plateing fforge to work with a Tilt-Hammer, nor any ffurnace for making of Steel within the said County of Chester. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and Seal, this Eighteenth day of September, in the Year of our Lord one thousand Seven Hundred and fifty.
"John Owen, Sheriff." [L.S.]¹

Although the sheriff distinctly states that John Taylor erected Thornbury Forge in 1746, there is evidence to establish the fact that the forge was erected three years, if not for a longer period, prior to that date. In 1742, John Taylor had a store at the present Glen Mills, and from the following order, found among his papers, appears to have been using iron at that time. This ancient document is as follows:

"Son Isaac, - Let Sister Mary (Brogdon) have goods to the value of three pounds, five shillings, being for half a Tun of Pig-Iron, & charge it to account.
"Jno. Taylor.²
"July 22, 1742."

In the petition of Obadiah Bonsall for license to keep a tavern in Thornbury, dated Aug. 31, 1743, the house for which he craves the court's bounty was on "the road leading from the French Creek Iron Works to Thornbury Forge," and as a particular reason why an inn should be located there for the accommodation of the public he urged that there were "many people resorting to and working at and near to the s^d Forge." This petition is the first absolute knowledge we now have that a forge had been erected there. On Jan. 18, 1745, John Taylor made an agreement with Thomas Wills, forgeman and finer, to work in the forge two years in making anconies at 22s. 6d. per ton, and on June 10, 1746, Reese Jones agreed to coal (burn charcoal) for John Taylor two hundred cords of wood in Middletown at 11s. 8d. per hundred bushels, "half money, half goods, as customary."³ The last agreement is the only one which does not antedate the year given by John Owens as the date when Taylor built the rolling- and slitting-mill, which was the first in Pennsylvania. The seeming contradiction between the fact that John Taylor was a worker in iron in 1742 and that the sheriff of Chester County in 1750 reported that he built the rolling- and slitting-mill in 1746 has been attempted to be reconciled by asserting that the forge was located there in 1742, while at the time designated by the sheriff the rolling-and slitting-mill was established.

The fact that Obadiah Bonsall, in 1743, alludes to the "many people resorting to and working at and near to the sd. Forge" seems to be sufficient answer to the suggestion that at that time simply a blacksmith forge was located there. When it is remembered that not one horse in fifty at that time was shod, and wagons were but little used, it certainly precludes the idea that an ordinary blacksmith-shop in a remote and sparsely-settled neighborhood could give employment to "many persons." A recent writer records that the business enterprises carried on by John Taylor "were upon an extensive and varied scale, and included the manufacture of nails as well as nail rods. The tradition is preserved by his descendants that soon after the erection of the slitting-mill his storekeeper, in making one of his periodical visits to England to replenish his stock, surprised the Liverpool merchants by telling them that he could buy nails at Taylor's mill at lower prices than they quoted, - a revelation which added weight to the clamor then prevailing in England for the suppression of slitting-mills and similar iron establishments in America, and which agitation resulted in the passage, in 1750, of an act of Parliament which prohibited the further erection of such works."⁴

John Larkin, the first of this name in Bethel, was one of the early forgemen at Sarum Iron-Works.

In the fall of the year 1748, Peter Kalm, the Swedish naturalist, who tarried for a brief season at Marcus Hook, stated that "from an iron work, which lies higher up in the country, they carry iron bars to this place [Marcus Hook] and ship them." Acrelius, writing of the period of 1756, refers to the works thus: "Sarum belongs to Taylor's heirs, has three stacks, and is in full blast."⁵ In that year John Taylor died, and the works are said to have been conducted by his son, John Taylor, for some time. Certain it is that in 1766 Sarum Forge was operated by John Chamberlain, and he was in occupancy of the four acres upon which the mill stood. In 1770, John Thomson had succeeded Chamberlain in possession of the works. In 1775 the estate was divided between the heirs of John Taylor, and in February of that year Anthony Wayne, who was then following his calling of civil engineering, surveyed the property preparatory to the