BRANDYWINE—WELSH 685 
20. John A. Munroe, Federalist Delaware, 1775-1815, p. 28, New Brunswick, 
1954; Henry Seidel Canby, Family history, Cambridge, 1945, and The Brandy- 
wine, New York, 1941; and William Guthrie, A new system of modern 
geography ; or A geographical, historical, and commercial grammar; and Present 
state of the several nations of the world, vol. 2, p. 459, Philadelphia, 1795. 
Guthrie enumerates the mill industries in New Castle County near Wilmington. 
Besides a cotton mill of “‘considerable forwardness (on the Brandywine)” and 
a bolting cloth manufactory, there were “several fulling-mills, two snuff-mills, 
one slitting-mill, four paper-mills, and sixty mills for grinding grain, all of 
which are turned by water.” In 1791, four years prior to Guthrie’s enumer- 
ation, in addition to the flour mills, there were on the Brandywine, in the 
vicinity of Wilmington, six sawmills, a paper mill, a slitting mill, a barley 
mill, and a snuff mill, giving employment to over 100 persons and indirectly 
supporting scores of coopers, blacksmiths, weavers, cotton card makers, car- 
penters, and millwrights. By 1815 the flour mills were at their zenith, and 
an infant textile industry was assuming some importance; within 5 miles 
of the town, the Brandywine turned at least 36 water wheels and had “fall 
sufficient remaining for nearly an equal number.” Near Wilmington, ‘Within 
a Semicircle of 20 Miles,’ there were said to be “i4 Establishments with 
more than three Thousand Spindles, for manufacturing wool, & 27 Cotton 
Mills contlainin!g more than 25,000 Spindles,’ and in a petition to the Dela- 
ware legislature in January 1816, it was stated that: “The Utility and mag- 
nitude of the Mills and Works upon the Brandywine are not more celebrated 
than felt in every part of the United States....’ See Return of manu- 
factures, tradesmen, &e in Wilmington Delaware & its vicinity including 
Brandywine Mills... November 28th, 1791, Alexander Hamilton papers, 
Library of Congress, and reproduced in H. Clay Reed, ed., Readings in Dela- 
ware history, economic development (mimeographed), p. 39, Newark, 1939; 
Wilmington, Delaware, and its vicinity, Niles’ Weekly Register, vol. 9, p. 93, 
1815-16, Minutes of the proceedings of the manufacturers of Wilmington, town 
hall 11 mo. 25th 1815, William Young papers, Historical Society of Delaware; 
and Memorial of the Brandywine millers opposing the altering of mill 
dams... January 26, 1816, legislative papers, Delaware State Archives, 
Dover, Del. 
21. See Brandywine Millseat Company Survey, 1822, MS., Hagley Museum, 
Wilmington, Del. This survey shows the flour mills at their zenith. In 
addition, see The Delaware Statesmen, Wilmington, May 9, 1812. 
22. J. Leander Bishop, History of American manufacturers from 1608-1860, 
vol. 1, p. 145, Philadelphia, 1861-68. By 1821, these mills ground 620,000 bushels 
annually and represented a combined capital investment of $336,000. See Can- 
by, et al., Census schedules, Census of manufacturers of 1820, New Castle 
County, Delaware, National Archives, Washington, D.C. The importance of the 
flour trade to Wilmington’s millers and townspeople is reflected in many sources, 
for example: J. P. Brissot de Warville, New travels in the United States of 
America performed in 1788, pp. 188, 421-422, London, 1792; Broom, Hendrick- 
son, and Summerl, Letter book, 1792-1794, MS., Historical Society of Delaware; 
Delaware Gazette, June 27, 1789, April 10, 1790, March 4, 1796, and June 26, 
1799; Ledgers and journals of Thomas Lea and Joseph Tatnall, Historical 
Society of Delaware; and Samuel Canby diary 1779-1796, MS., Yale University 
Library, New Haven, Conn. 
23. Mirror of the times and general advertiser, Wilmington, May 21, 1806; 
Peter Bauduy to E. I. du Pont, August 20, 1802, Bessie G. du Pont, Life of 
HE. I. du Pont, vol. 6, pp. 104-106; and for an estimate of the value of the water 
