Ridley Township.

noted stone-quarries which were afterwards opened in that neighborhood. Prior to that date at the court held at Upland Nov. 12, 1678, a plantation of one hundred acres along the same stream and adjoining "Stone Point" on the south, was surveyed to Jacob Hendricks. This land, which was afterwards absorbed in the Jacob Simcock resurvey, is thus described in the old court docket:

"By virtue of a warrant from the Court att upland nouember, 1677, Layd out for Jacob Hendrickson a parcell of Land Called Jacob's Lott, scituate and being on the west side of Delawar River, and on the north East side of the Crum Kill, being att a cornor marked white oak standing att the side of the creek or kill, being a corner tree of the Land of the orphants of Hendrix Johnson, from thence Running N.E. by E., by their Line of marked trees two hundred and fourteen perches to a corner marked white oak standing in ye said Line, from thens N. W. by N., by a Line of marked trees one hundred perches to another marked white oak standing on a Leavell, from thence southwest by W., by a Lyne of markeed trees one hundred and fifty and two perches to another cornor marked white oake, standing att the side of the said Crum kill, and from thens following the said creek or kill to the first-mentioned white oak containing one hundred acres of Land surueyed. "By me (signed) Walt. Wharton,
"Surv^r."¹

Immediately south of "Jacob's Lott," Charles Ashcom, the surveyor, took up three hundred and thirty acres. This tract followed the east bank of Crum Creek to the mouth of Little Crum Creek, and then along the west bank of that stream northward until about the point where the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad crosses Little Crum, and then extending eastward so as to include the greater part of the lake at Ridley Park, from which point a line at right angles to Crum Creek marked its boundaries. Within this survey, the present village of Leiperville is included. Thomas Holmes, the surveyor-general, obtained the greater part of the Ashcom land, containing two hundred and eighty acres, on Second month 20, 1693, and the following year it passed to John Cook. On Seventh month 7, 1690, Richard Crosby purchased eighty-three acres on the east side of Crum Creek, extending to and including Leiperville, which below that and to Little Crum Creek, George Van Culin acquired title to sixty acres. On the south side of the latter stream, John Van Culin, on Feb. 6, 1684, took up fifty acres.

The early settlements in Ridley are more confusing than in any locality in Delaware County, owing to the fact that Charles Ashcom, the early surveyor of Chester County, paid little or no regard in laying out land to the prior Swedish, Dutch, or even the patents given by the Duke of York. Hence in part of the tract of three hundred and thirty acres entered in his own name, he absorbed a considerable part of the land included in a patent, dated October, 1675, of one hundred and fifty-four acres to Henrick Johnson and Bartoll Eskells. Along the river front east of Crum Creek, John and Andrew Hendricks took up sixty-five acres, which extended nearly to the mouth of Darby Creek, leaving then, however, a tract of forty-five acres reaching to Stone Creek, which was taken up early in the last century by John Morton, eighteen acres, Andrew Morton, nineteen acres, and George Van Culin, eighteen acres; the latter, on Nov. 5, 1715, had received a patent for one hundred and twenty-five acres immediately north of the forty-five acres tract, which extended to a point on the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, a short distance west of the station at Ridley Park. East of this Van Culin tract, extending to Mokornipates Kill or Muckinipattus Creek, was the territory designated as Amosland. Acrelius tells us that "Amosland was first called Ammansland. A midwife formerly lived at the place where Archer's farm now is; thence that place, and subsequently the whole tract around it, received the name of Amman's Land, now Amosland."² That this locality must have been early in the history of the settlement known by that name, is evident from the order of Governor Lovelace, dated Aug. 8, 1672, wherein he directed the court at Upland to inquire into a dispute regarding the title to an island "over against Calcoone Hooke," respecting which "Jan Cornelis, Mattys Mattysen, and Martin Martinsen, Inhabitants at Amosland in Delaware River," had entered complaint to him.³

³ Penna. Archives, 2d Series, vol. v. p. 621.

Immediately adjoining to the east the tract of George Van Culin, on Stone Creek, on Sept. 2, 1675, two hundred and eighty acres, "more or less," were surveyed to Hendrick Torton. There proved to be over eighty acres "more" when subsequently resurveyed. Ridley Park is on that part of the tract lying north of the Queen's Highway. Directly east of the Torton land were one hundred and fifty-four acres, surveyed to Henrick Johnson and Bartoll Eskells, October, 1675, which tract stretched along Darby Creek to the mouth of Amosland Run, and thence at right angles westward to Ridley Park, which was most liberal measure, under the claim of "one hundred and fifty-four acres more or less." Eastward of this land all the remaining part of the present township, beginning at the northwest corner of J. L. Moore's farm, and following the north line of his plantation eastward, extending it through the Neal Duffy farm and that of the late James G. Knowles, to the Muckinipattus Creek, then down to that stream to Darby Creek, and along the last-mentioned water-course to Amosland Run, was patented, May 18, 1672, to Jan. Cornelis, Mattys Mattysen, and Martin Martinson. That these parties resided on the land said to be two hundred acres we know from the order of Governor Lovelace, already referred to; and that Jan Cornelis was there later appears from the proceedings of court April 1, 1678, when the following interesting historical event is recorded, inasmuch as it is claimed the first asylum for the insane, rude as it may have been, was