1691.] HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. 181 



the result was not in the end really prejudicial to the inhabitants 

 of the two townships, it was certainly in violation of a solemn 

 promise made to many of them before leaving their native coun- 

 try. The Welsh people, though placed in two municipal districts, 

 in each of which they were greatly in the minority, did not for a 

 long time lose tln-ir distinctive characteristics. The Welsh lan- 

 guage j)revailed for many years; and if tradition is to be relied 

 u])on, there were many Welsh Quakers who could not understand 

 William Penn when he preached at Haverford meeting in 1700-1. 



The strict impartiality with which the Grand Juries acted has 

 been mentioned. As an instance of this impartiality, Caleb 

 Pusey was foreman of the Grand Jury this year, and yet we find 

 his name included in the following presentment : 



" We the Grand Jury present, Richard Parker, Caleb Pusey^ 

 George Foreman, James Sandilands, John Hoskins & Roger 

 Jackson, for selling Beer &c. without license contrary to law." 



The following presentment contains the first intimation of the 

 existence in the county of the instrument of punishment to which 

 it refers: "We [the Grand Jury] also present Edward Eglinton 

 for breaking the Stocks in the town of Chester, and unlawfully 

 letting out a prisoner against the Peace of the King & Queen 

 &c." It will be seen hereafter that stocks were established at 

 other places besides Chester, Punishment by means of the stocks 

 was mostly for petty offences, and was inflicted by authority of a 

 magistrate or chief Burgess of the village in which they were 

 " set up." This punishment rarely forms any part of a sentence 

 of the Court. 



The very temporary character of the prison erected since the 

 establishment of Penn's Government, a period of about ten years, 

 may be judged of from the action now taken by the Court in re- 

 spect to the erection of a new one. 



" The want of a prison having been presented by the Grand 

 jury it was this Court (Oct. 1691) debated concerning the build- 

 ing of a new prison and work house for felons; and it was agreed 

 by the Court that one should be builded, eighteen foot and twenty 

 six foot, all builded of stone, and John Bristow and James Sandi- 

 lands are intrusted and impowered by the Court as near as they 

 can to complete the charges and make return of the same at the 

 next County Court." It will be seen that this order of Court 

 was not carried into effect. 



Heretofore, it has been the practice for the Justices of the 

 Court to hold an Orphans' Court at specified times, when the 

 other Courts were not in session. The present mode of proceed- 

 ing is now initiated, with the exception that when the Court turns 

 its attention from other business to that properly cognizal)le by 

 the Orphans' Court, the record informs us that '' An Orphans' 



