INTRODUCTION. V 



(Irawing up his narrative had labored under the disadvan- 

 tage of not being in possession of all the important facts 

 connected with his subject ; that the authors upon which 

 he relied were mostly compilers and frequently incorrect, 

 and in addition, his narrative was so very voluminous, 

 that the labor of abridging it would be greater than that 

 of re-writing the whole. It was painful to the author to 

 exclude the whole of the manuscript of Mr. Edwards, but 

 he is happy in having the opinion of one of his most intel- 

 ligent relatives, that the course adopted was proper and 

 judicious. 



It thus became necessary to enter upon a thorough ex- 

 amination of every work having a bearing upon the his- 

 tor}^ of the territory embraced within our County, from 

 the time it first became known to Europeans. This has 

 been the most pleasing part of the labor. But it was soon 

 found that the most interesting facts connected with the 

 early history of the County were scattered through the 

 voluminous manuscript records of the Society of Friends ; 

 the records of our early Courts, and other records of the 

 County, now^ in the offices at West Chester ; the records 

 in the Surveyor-General's office at Harrisburg, and in the 

 several offices of the city of Philadelphia. These have 

 been carefully examined so far as they relate to early 

 times ; and although their examination required the expen- 

 diture of much time and labor, the reward has been so 

 ample, that it may now be safely said, that no history of 

 the County would have been worthy of the name which 

 did not embrace the numerous local facts derived from 

 these sources. 



It will also be seen that the unpublished records at 

 Albany, N. Y., and those at New Castle, in the State of 

 Delaware, have been examined with the view of ascer- 

 taining as many local facts as possible connected with the 

 settlements on the Delaware, prior to the establishment of 

 the government of William Penn. These examinations, 

 though not so prolific of new facts as that of our o-wn re- 

 cords, it will be observed, have not been by any means 

 fruitless. 



The examination of these records made the author 



