122 HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. [1679. 



p^'sent at ye makeing of ye bargaine, and did heare that ye 

 agreem* was that Edmund draufton should Teach Dunkes chil- 

 dren to Read in ye bybell, & if bee could doe itt in a yeare or a 

 halfe yeare or a quarf, then bee was to haue 200 gilders."^ 



Edmund Draufton is the earliest schoolmaster within the ju- 

 risdiction of Upland Court of which any account has been pre- 

 served. The location of his school is not certainly known.^ 



The "House of Defence," appears to have been built on 

 the private property of Neels Laersen. At the first Court held 

 this year he was ordered "to make or leaue a lane or street 

 from Upland creeke to ye: house of defence or Country house," 

 or in default to be fined at the discretion of the Court. The 

 appellation "Country house," sufiiciently indicates the uses to 

 which the "House of Defence" was now appropriated. We have 

 seen that its completion was urged in order that the Courts 

 might be held there, and it is probable that it was used as a 

 place for the transaction of public business generally. For what- 

 ever other purpose the House of Defence may have been used, 

 it was certainly the Ji^st Court house within our limits. 



The attention of the New Castle Court was frequently occu- 

 pied with church disputes and difi"erences. The following is the 

 most remarkable instance of the interference of the Upland 

 Court in ecclesiastical affairs: 



"It being Represented to y^ Court by the Church Wardens of 

 Tinnagcong and Wicaco Churches that the fences about y' 

 Church yards, and other Church buildings are mutch out of re- 

 pair, and that some of the People, members of y^ s** Churches are 

 neglective to make the same Up etc: The Co"'' haueing taken y* 

 premises into Consideracon, doe find itt necessary to order, au- 

 thorize k Impower, and doe by these p'"sents order, authorize & 

 Impower the Respective members of y* s'' Churches, from tyme 

 to tyme, and att all tymes when itt shall bee found necessary, to 

 build, make good and keepe in Repair the s*^ Church yard fences, 

 as also the Church and other the appurtenances thereof, and if 

 any of the s"" members upon warning doe proove neglective In 

 the doeing of their proportion to the same, They and each of them 

 to forfeit fifty gilders for each such neglect, to bee Levyed out of 

 their goods and Chattels Lands and Tenements."^ 



It has been alleged that Richard BuflSngton, the first male 

 child born of English parents in Pennsylvania, was born at 



1 Reo. Upland Court, 131. 



2 As early as 1667 a patent was granted by Gov. Richard Nichols to Dunkin Wil- 

 liams and nine others for a tract ot land " known by the name of Passayunk." contain- 

 ing 100 acres, and located within the bounds of the old township of Passayunk, now 

 in the city of Philadelphia, and as Dunk Williams is a tydahle within the district that 

 included this grant, it is most reasonable to conclude that this primitive school was lo- 

 cated at Passayunk. See Patent Book A. i. 329, Sur.-Gen. oflBce, Harrisburg. 



s Rec. Upland Court, 152. 



