1683.] HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. 147 



that Richaril Townsend was chiefly instrumental in the erection 

 of these mills, which was not the case, he being only one of ten 

 partners who furnished the means. 



The partnership was established by virtue of a verbal agree- 

 ment in 1G82, probably l)efore the partners left England, " for 

 the erection of one or more water mills, by them intended to be 

 built and erected in said Province [of Pennsylvania], ami in 

 gears, utensils and implements, proper for such an undertaking, 

 and in all such lands buildings and conveniences as might be 

 necessary to accommodate the same." The whole concern was 

 divided into thirty-two equal parts, of which William Penn " was 

 to have and bear five parts thereof, both in profit and loss;" 

 Philip Ford, 5; John Bellars, 5; Daniel Whorley, 5; Daniel 

 Quare, 2; John Barker, 2; Richard Townsend, 4; John Bickley, 

 2; Thomas Burberry, 1; and Caleb Pusey, 1. These partners 

 agreed that Caleb Pusey should be agent and manager " of the 

 joint concern," who accordingly, "soon after the first arrival of the 

 Proprietary in the Province, obtained two warrants from him, for 

 taking up lands to set the said mills upon." By virtue of these 

 warrants two parcels of land — one on each side of Chester 

 Creek — were surveyed for the use of the mills; the whole con- 

 taining but twenty acres. " Upon or near' this land, Caleb 

 Pusey, " with the advice of the said Proprietary, and such other 

 of the said partners, as then were in the Province, in the year of 

 our Lord 1G83, did at the joint charge of all the said partners, 

 erect a corn mill," &c. These facts are taken from the recital 

 of a deed^ for the premises, executed in 1705, and no doubt give 

 a correct account of the establishment of what may be regarded 

 as the first mill erected within the borders of Delaware County, 

 unless the Swede's mill stood on the western side of Cobb's 

 Creek, \yhen a saw-mill was attached to the Chester mill, is 

 not known. A further account of this early improvement, with 

 the disasters which befel it, will be given in the proper place, as 

 we proceed. 



The peculiar population, that in three or four years was to 

 occupy the whole territory now embraced within the limits of our 

 County, had, before the close of 1683, gained a very permanent 

 footing at four difi'erent points, viz: Chester, Marcus Hook, 

 Darby and Haverford. From these points the new settlements 

 rapidly diverged, and spread over the adjacent townships. At 

 each of these places except Haverford the first Quaker immi- 

 grants sat themselves down in the midst, or in the vicinity of a 

 civilized people. The Welsh, who had in their native land 

 bargained for a separate Barony of 40,000 acres, being ex- 

 cluded from the city liberties, were forced, at once, to plunge 



1 Recorder's office, West Chester, Book B. i. 



