1682.] HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. 139 



A letter addressed to Epliruim Herman in respect to summon- 

 ing a Court to be held at New Castle on the 2d of November, 

 and dated at Upland on the 20th of October,' shows that he had 

 then arrived at his scat of Government. He may have arrived 

 the day before. The fancy of the artist has portrayed the 

 landing of Penn at Uj)land; but neither the hour, the day, nor 

 the manner of his landing, is certainly known. 



He landed at Upland, but the place was to bear that familiar 

 name no more for ever. Without reflection, Penn determined that 

 tlie name of this place should be changed. " Turning round to 

 his friend Pearson, one of his own society, who had accompanied 

 him in the ship Welcome, he said, '■Providence has brought us 

 here safe. Thou hast been the companion of my perils. What 

 wilt thou that I should call this place ?' Pearson said 

 ' Chester,' in remembrance of the city from whence he came. 

 William Penn replied that it should be called Chester, and that 

 wlien he divided the land into counties, one of them should be 

 called by the same name."" Thus from a mere whim, the name 

 of the oldest town ; the name of the whole settled part of the 

 province ; the name that would naturally have a place in the 

 affections of a large majority of the inhabitants of the new 

 province, was eifaced, to gratify the caprice or vanity of a 

 friend. All great men occasionally do little things. 



Immediately after Penn's arrival, he dispatched messengers 

 to Lord Baltimore, evidently for the purpose of procuring an 

 interview and a settlement of their difiiculties. He at the same 

 time went to New York, to "pay his duty" to the Duke by way 

 of a visit to his government. Upon his return he caused three 

 counties to be laid off — Chester, Philadelphia, and Bucks. The 

 precise time and manner of making these divisions will probably 

 be ascertained when the Record of the doings of Governor 

 Markham and his Council is discovered. The lines on either 

 side of Chester County, it will hereafter be seen, were not very 

 definitely fixed for some time. 



In pursuance of Writs of Election sent to the Sheriffs of the 

 several Counties, elections were held for members of Assembly. 

 No list of the members elected has been discovered ; the names 

 of several appear in the imperfect minutes of their proceedings. 



The first Assembly was held at Chester, 4th of 10th mo. 

 (December) 1682, being the 2d day of the week. The first 

 business was the appointment of a Committee on Election privi- 

 leges, consisting of Christopher Taylor for Bucks County ; 

 President Moore for Philadelphia, John Simcock for Chester, 

 William Clark for Deal,^ and Francis Whitwell for Jones. "A 



1 Haz. Ann. 599. — Clarkson saj's he visited New York before going to Upland. 



•■i Clarkson's life of Penn, i. 259.— Haz. Ann. 695. 



3 Jones and Deal were then the names of the two counties below New Castle. 



