BRANDYWINE—WELSH 679 
maintained her merchants just as the farms and mills of the region 
collectively motivated the trading interests of Philadelphia. The 
flour mills of Wilmington, generally referred to as the “Brandywine 
Mills,” shared coequally with facility of transportation in making 
this Delaware town such an important adjunct of the flour trade 
that during the last quarter of the 18th century this community was 
“famous all over America for its Merchant Mills” (9). 
The Brandywine Mills during the 18th century had few rivals, 
but in the following century real competition began for preeminence 
in the milling industry. The development of other merchant mills 
and new marketing centers considerably modified the repute of the 
flour millers at Brandywine. As the 18th century ended, the mills 
of the Ellicotts, at Ellicott City west of Baltimore, and the Gallego 
and Haxall mills, at the falls of the James River, were just com- 
mencing extensive activities. These mills, plus those at Rochester 
and Oswego in western New York State, expanded their operations 
as the Piedmont and back country areas became more heavily popu- 
lated. When the wheat belt extended farther west, New York, 
Baltimore, and Richmond replaced Philadelphia as the chief mar- 
keting center and flour port in the United States; and simultaneously, 
canalization made the natural transportation facilities of the Brandy- 
wine less important than they were originally (10). 
But how did it all begin? 
In 1742 Oliver Canby, a Bucks County Quaker, moved to Wilming- 
ton seeking the opportunities which seemed abundant in a new place 
where Friendly ways were practiced and where members of the local 
meeting dominated the affairs of the town. Canby, a millwright by 
trade, realized the Brandywine’s potential as a millstream and quickly 
began a milling business. In less than 15 years, Canby had gained 
control of important water rights and had built the first mill of size 
or consequence near the head of navigation on Brandywine Creek. 
Furthermore, during this period he had married the heiress of the 
town—Elizabeth Shipley. Canby’s initial work was followed by that 
of Thomas Shipley, who, in concert with several others, managed 
to have a mile-long millrace dug and the four mills completed on 
the south bank of the creek at the tidewater. Now, for the first time, 
efficient use could be made of the waterpower so readily available 
and of the water highway which led straightway to the markets of 
the world (11). 
But what of the little hillside village between the Christina and 
the Brandywine? In 1736 the itinerant Quaker Thomas Chalkley 
had predicted it would be “a flourishing Place, if the Inhabitants 
take Care to live in the Fear of God,” always preferring heavenly 
reward to the material “Things of this World.” Notwithstanding 
