Ridley Township.

house of Entertainment for selling Beer or Cider on the great Road Leading from Chester, Called and Known by the name of the half way house, in the Township of Ridley," and now wishes "Recomendation to the President and Councill of the province of Pensilvania for their Lycense to Keep a public house of Entertainment at the aforesaid place." John Andrews, Samuel Crozer, John Wharton, John Sketchley, John West, and fifteen others indorsed his application, but the court marked on the petition, "allowed for beer & Syder only." Archer must at a subsequent court have received full license to keep a public-house, for he yearly appears on the clerk's list of approved petitions, and was continued until 1746. On Aug. 31,1742, however, he was compelled to fight again for his privilege, for when he applied for license he found a remonstrance had been filed by Jonas Culin, Feb. 22, 1742, asking that it should be withheld, because, as Culin stated, Archer had been "entertaining ye Petitioner's Servant Man a Tippling and Spending money." The remonstrance was rejected, and indorsed, "disregarded for want of proof," as also was the fate of a similar paper filed by Ann Torton, who complained of Archer "for getting John Torton to sign notes while drunk." Notwithstanding these allegations the license was granted to the petitioner.

In 1746, Isaac Gleave succeeded Adam Archer in business, and was in turn followed by Edward Fitzrandolph, in 1754, at which time the hotel was known as The White Horse, for in the preceding year it is so spoken of by the signers to the petition asking that that part of Ridley now in Nether Providence, between the Ridley and Crum Creek, should be attached to Nether Providence.¹ In 1764, Jacob Fritz had the hotel, and in 1766, John Bryan followed Fritz. In 1776, a company of American militia, attached to Col. Morgan's regiment of the "Flying Camp," commanded by Capt. Culin and John Crosby, first lieutenant, were being mustered in at the White Horse, when one of the privates shot Capt. Culin, killing him instantly.² Bryan dying in 1778, Barbara Bryan, the relict of John Bryan, had license until 1782, when John Aquandrill followed her, and in 1786, Joseph Pearson had the license, and annually thereafter until 1799. During the early part of that year a peddler, who had stopped for the night at the house, was found a few days afterward in Ridley Creek, drowned, and although no one suspected that the proprietor had done anything amiss, the circumstances surrounding the case excited so much comment in the county that the justices withheld license from the White Horse and The Plow Inns. Subsequently, in that year, Marmaduke Ford applied for license at the White Horse Inn, but was refused. The following year, 1800, and until 1803, Joseph Pearson's application was favorably acted on by the court. He having died, in 1804, Elizabeth Pearson became the landlady, and remained so until 1812, when Charles Pearson succeeded her in the business.

² Ante, p. 242.

In 1817, Jonathan Bond received license for the General Jackson Tavern, formerly the White Horse, where he remained until April 1, 1819, when Joseph Carr succeeded him. During the following years, until 1825, the house was not licensed, but Edward Horn having rented the tavern at the latter date, secured the grace of the court for the Drove, late the White Horse Inn. In 1827, Horn having taken the old Painter house, Garrett Pyewell became the presiding spirit of the White Horse, for it had now retaken the ancient title, and remained there until 1830, when George Scott was "mine host." He was followed, in 1835, by Patrick McCloskey, and the latter, in 1836, gave place to George Jordan. During the year just mentioned, while Jordan was the landlord of the inn, Mary Miller, a colored servant in his employment, without any discoverable occasion, mixed arsenic in the food served to the family, and Mr. Jordan and his son, Andrew J., were so severely poisoned that they had liked to have died from the effects of the drug, while the remainder of the household were rendered exceedingly ill after partaking of the meal. The girl was subsequently tried for the crime and convicted on two of the three indictments pending against her, but to the third, the charge of poisoning Andrew J. Jordan, as she already had been convicted of the same act toward all the family, she interposed the special plea of "former conviction," and was acquitted on that indictment under the instruction of the judge. In 1846, Jordan gave place to Jonathan P. Newlin, who remained as landlord of the White Horse until 1869, when William H. Woodward had license, and was succeeded in the next year by John P. Newlin, who in turn was followed by William F. Simes, in 1871. The latter continued until the local option law deprived the old tavern of the legalized sale of liquors. After the repeal of that act, in 1875, James A. Stevenson received license, and the following year William F. Simes was the landlord. In 1877, Edward Griswold superseded Simes, and in 1878, James E. Ford was the landlord, and continued as such until 1882. John J. Morgan received the license, and who, at present, is the host of the ancient tavern.

Leiperville Hotel. - The public-house now known as the Leiperville Hotel was established in 1830, and was the outgrowth of the business of supplying stone to the Breakwater from the Ridley Creek quarries. Judge George G. Leiper and most of the owners of quarries in that neighborhood petitioned for the house, which they described as being near the intersection of the old Queen's Highway with the Springfield road, alleging that the license was necessary to furnish accommodations to men employed by them in conveying the stones to the Breakwater, which at that time was one of the largest industries in the county. The court acceded to their petition, and