The Erection Of Delaware County

no longer the place where the weary suitor waited on the law's delays, or the culprit cringed in the dock; no longer did the court-house ring to the eloquent sentences of Wilson, Bradford, Chew, Levy, Sergeant, Reed, Rush, Laurence, and a score or more of noted lawyers, who, in that early day, rode circuit with the Supreme Justices, nor yet of Elisha Price and Henry Hale Graham, who made the old town their place of residence. The staffs of office had fallen from the tipstaves' clutch, the crier's often repeated admonition of "Silence in the court-room!" had become a verity; the jangling bell ceased to announce that the justices had taken their places on the bench, and the innkeepers would no longer mark with anxious longings the time for holding the quarterly courts, when their hospitalities should be taxed to the utmost, and money flow to their coffers. Now the vacant jail stared at the occasional passer-by with its barred windows, and the empty building returned a hollow echo to the blow of the reckless urchin who could summon courage to rap on its iron-bossed door. The very town seemed to stagnate, and the twinkle of triumph in the eyes of the Goshen and Western township people when in the spring of the year they journeyed hither to buy fish, was aggravating to the people of Chester beyond endurance. It was too much for the residents of the eclipsed county-seat to bear, hence they earnestly bestirred themselves in manufacturing public opinion looking to the erection of a new county, and so earnestly did they labor to that end that on Sept. 26, 1789, the following act was approved, authorizing a division of the county of Chester and the erection of a part thereof into a new county:

"Whereas, The inhabitants of the borough of Chester, and the southeastern part of the county of Chester, having by their petitions set forth to the General Assembly of the State, that they labor under many and great inconveniences from the seat of jiistice being removed to a great distance from them, and have prayed that they may be relieved from the said inconveniences by erecting the said borough and southeastern parts of the said county into a separate county; and as it appears but just and reasonable that they should be relieved in the premises,
"2. Be it enacted, etc., That all that part of Chester County lying within the bounds and limits hereinafter described shall be, and the same is hereby erected into a separate county, that is to say, Beginning in the middle of Brandywine River, where the same crosses the circular line of New Castle County; thence up the middle of the said river to the line dividing the lands of Elizabeth Chads and Caleb Brinton, at or near the ford commonly known or called by the of Chads' Ford; and from thence on a line, as nearly straight as may be, so as not to split or divide plantations, to the great road leading from Goshen to Chester, where the Westown line intersects or crosses the said road; and from thence along the line of Edgmont, Newtown, and Radnor, so as to include these townships, to the line of Montgomery County, and along the same to Philadelphia County line, and along the same to the river Delaware, and down the same to the circular line aforesaid, and along the same to the place of beginning, to be henceforth known and called by the name of 'Delaware County.'
"3. All that part of the township of Birmingham, which, by the line of division aforesaid, shall fall within the county of Chester, shall be one township, and retain the name of Birmingham; and all that part of the said township, which, by the division-line aforesaid, shall fall within the county of Delaware, shall be one township, and shall retain the name of Birmingham; and all such part of the township of Thornbury, which, by the division-line aforesaid, shall fall within the county of Chester, shall be one township, and shall retain the name of Thornbury, until the same shall be altered by the Courts of General Quarter Sessions of the said counties respectively.
"4. The Inhabitants of the said county of Delaware shall, at all times hereafter, enjoy all and singular the jurisdictions, powers, rights, liberties, and privileges, whatsoever, which the inhabitants of any other county of this State do, may, or ought to enjoy by the constitution and laws of this state.
"5. The elections for the said county of Delaware shall be held at the old court-house, in the borough of Chester, where the Freemen of the said county shall elect, at the times and under the regulations directed by the constitution and laws of this State, a councillor, representatives to serve them in General Assembly, censors, sheriffs, coroners, and commissioners, which said officers, when duly elected and qualified, shall have and enjoy, all and singular, such powers, authorities, and privileges, with respect to their county, as such officers elected in and for any other county may, can, or ought to have, and the said elections shall be conducted in the same manner and form, and agreeably to the same rules and regulations as now are or hereafter may be in force in the other counties of this State.
"The justices of the Courts of Quarter Sessions and Common Pleas, now commissioned within the limits of the county of Delaware, and those that may hereafter be commissioned, or any three of them, shall and may hold Courts of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace and Gaol Delivery, and County Courts of Common Pleas, for the said county of Delaware, and shall have all and singular such powers, rights, jurisdictions, and authorities, to all intents and purposes, as other justices of the Courts of General Quarter Sessions and justices of the County Court of Common Pleas, in the other counties of this State, may, can, or ought to have in their respective counties.
"The sheriffs, coroners, treasurers, and collectors of excise hereafter to be appointed or elected in the said county of Delaware, before they, or any of them, shall enter upon the execution of their respective offices, shall give security for the faithful execution of their respective offices."

By the provisions of the act, John Sellers, Thomas Tucker, and Charles Dilworth were appointed commissioners "to run and mark the line dividing the counties of Chester and Delaware," and they scrupulously performed their duty. The act, probably hastily drawn, provided that the western boundary of Delaware County should begin in the middle of Brandywine River, where it crosses the circular line of New Castle County. Strictly following this direction, the result was a severing of a fraction of territory from the rest of the county of Chester. An examination of the map¹ shows that a short distance above Smith's bridge the circular line separating Pennsylvania from Delaware is crossed by the Brandywine, and that stream then makes a bend northward, and returning touches the circular line about half a mile northwest of the point where the river first enters the State. Delaware being erected out of Chester County, only that territory expressly coming within the designated lines of the new county could be included within it, hence this small tract of land lying between the circular line and the bend of the river remained a part of Chester County. The commissioners were directed to run the "line as nearly straight as may be, so as not to split or divide plantations," and while they fully carried out the latter