1701.] HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. 203 



ligion spread so wide, that there arose soon several conf^regations, 

 in other parts of the country ; Mr. Evans was forced to divide his 

 lahours among them, as often as he conveniently could, till they 

 niiglit he formed into Proper Districts, and the ministers sent 

 over to them." 



" lie went frequently to Chichester, Chester and Concord, to 

 Montgomery and Radnor, each about 20 miles distant from Phi- 

 ladelphia, and to Maidenhead in West Jersey, 40 miles distant. 

 This travelling was both fatiguing and expensive, yet he fre- 

 quently visited those places, being determined by all means, to 

 lose none of those he had gained. But Montgomery and Radnor, 

 next to Philadelphia had the most considerable share in his 

 labors." There is no notice of a church edifice at either of the 

 places named, except Philadelphia. Mr. Evans was, in part, 

 supported by the Royal bounty of King William and not at all 

 by the Society.' 



Since the establishment of a mill at Darby, the Swedes' mill 

 appears to have attracted less attention. A conveyance^ made 

 this year by the widow of Noals Laerson, and her son, Andreiv 

 Friend., of one twenty-third part of this mill and appurtenant 

 land, to William Cobb, shows that it had been held by a joint- 

 stock company of S»vedes. Having passed into the hands of 

 William Cobb, the creek on which the mill was located, after a 

 time, acquired his name. 



The people of the town of Chichester [Marcus Hook], were 

 not satisfied without the privilege of holding a Fair which, it 

 appears they had enjoyed under the Administration of Governor 

 Markham. "Because some complaints had been made against 

 Fairs in general," the grant of a Fair to Chichester was made 

 by the Council conditionally ; it was to be suppressed when the 

 Government thought fit to suppress others. 



The people of the town of Chester concluded that this grant 

 of a Fair to Chichester was intended to supersede one of the two 

 Annual Fairs that their town had enjoyed for about eleven years, 

 under a grant from the Governor and Council. Upon applica- 

 tion a Fair, in the usual course, was ordered to be held, and the 

 privilege of holding two Annual Fairs and a Weekly Market, 

 was soon afterwards confirmed to the inhabitants of Chester by 

 a charter from the Governor.'' 



It is exceedingly difficult fully to comprehend the action of the 



1 See p. 148 of that Hist. 



» Recorder's Office, West Chester. 



' The safety of both Chester and Darby from accidents by fire was provided for by 

 legal enactment. Persons were not permitted to set their chimneys on fire to cleanse 

 them, nor to sufi'er them " to become so foul as to take fire and blaze out at the top." 

 Every housei<eeper was obliged " to keep, in his or her house, a swab, at least 12 or 14 

 feet long, as also two leather buckets." 



