160 HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. [1684. 



charge of the Court-house^ and prison att Chester by a public 

 levie, it was ordered that, according to law in that case pro- 

 vided, every man possessed of lands should pay towards the 

 levie after the rate of one shilling for every 100 acres within 

 this county ; and every freeman should pay sixpence, being 

 above sixteen years of age and not exceeding sixty ; and 

 every artificer not exceeding the aforesaid age of sixty, and 

 above sixteen, l.s. 6f?., by the pole, and every servant three- 

 pence ; and also non-residents, having land in this County, and 

 not occupying the same, shall pay for every hundred acres after 

 the rate of one shilling sixpence per hundred." 



This is the earliest notice of a Court-house contained in the 

 Chester Court records. In what building did the Court sit, 

 from the arrival of Governor Markham up to this time ? Is it 

 not most reasonable to conclude that it was in the " House of De- 

 fence," or " Country House," spoken of in the Upland Court 

 Records ? This building had been finished and fitted up, 

 " fitt for the Court to sittin," only about seven years previously, 

 and although the Records of the Court are silent in respect to 

 the building in which its sittings were held, the minutes of the 

 monthly meeting show conclusively, that up to September, 1682, 

 they had been held in an edifice that was well known as " the 

 Court House at Chester." This being the case, is not the con- 

 clusion almost irresistible, that up to the period of the erection 

 " of the Court house and prison," for defraying the expenses of 

 which a levy is now being made, that the Court, as well as the 

 " First day" meetings of the Friends, was held in the House of 

 Defence ? And in the absence of every other kind of evidence 

 but tradition^ is it not most reasonable to conclude that the first 

 Assembly also sat in the same building ? Additional facts will 

 be presented in their regular order that will corroborate these 

 conclusions.^ 



The appointments by the Courts of collectors " to gather 

 the assessments" made for the erection of a Court-house and 

 prison, and other appointments made during this year, give a 

 good idea of the progress that had then been made in the settle- 

 ment of the county, and show the municipal districts into 



1 The location of the " House of Defence," as correctly made out by Edward Arm- 

 strong, Esq., has been given. The evidence is conclusive that the Court-house now 

 about being erected, was located on the same side of Filbert street, and a little north 

 of the House of Defence. 



2 It may also be rea.sonably concluded, that Governor Markham and his Council 

 held their sittings in the " House of Defence." The earliest mention of any building 

 in Upland under the appellation of a Court-house, that has come under the notice of 

 the Author, is contained in the Records of New Castle County. It will be found in 

 an order from (Jovcrnor Andros, in respect to taking up lands and quit-rents, dated 

 October 25th, 1678, and is in these words : 



"This order to bee forthwith published and sett up at the Court houses of Upland, 

 New Castle and Whoorkill in the Delaware."— Xj6e/- A. 320. 



