1703.] HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. 211. 



at which times it was ordered " to be kept, at David Jones' at 

 Whitcland in the Great Valley." There was also a meeting 

 ordered to be kept at " the Goshen meeting house," every sixth 

 day. The " Goshen meeting house,'' here referred to, is the 

 meeting place at Robert Williams, as will be seen hereafter. 

 The next year the Whiteland Meeting was discontinued, and 

 ordered to be held at *' Robert Williams in Goshen." 



Although a meeting-house had been erected at Springfield 

 for some time, the deed for the ground (two acres) was not de- 

 livered till 1703. It was conveyed by Bartholomew Coppock, Jr. 



The earliest record that has come under the notice of the 

 author, in which a burying-place at Chester is mentioned, 

 (other than that of the Quakers,) is the will of John Johnson 

 [Jan Jansen] " of Markes Creek," dated 1684-5. He desires to be 

 buried "in Chester alias Upland."' The testator was a Dutch- 

 man, and doubtless an Episcopalian, and hence it may be 

 inferred, that the burying-place mentioned was one belonging to 

 an organized congregation of Episcopalians at Chester. But 

 the fact that the testator designates the burying-place by the 

 name of the tow)i, and not by that of the church, is very strong, 

 though not conclusive evidence, that no church edifice had been 

 erected at the time of making this will ; and that the establish- 

 ment of an Episcopal burying-place at Chester, by that Society, 

 preceded the erection of a church edifice, of any kind, many 

 years. 



The ground at Chester, known in ancient times as " The 

 Green," was church land, but it belonged to the Swedes. It was 

 much nearer the river than St. Paul's Church. The Swedes 

 never had a church at Chester, and the fact, that in parting with 

 their church lands at that place, they make no reservation of a 

 burying place, is most satisfactory evidence that no part of 

 these lands had been appropriated to the interment of the dead. 

 From all the facts and circumstances that have come to the know- 

 ledge of the author, he has arrived at the conclusion that the 

 Episcopalians had no church edifice at Chester, prior to the erec- 

 tion of the old St. James' brick church, recently demolished, 

 and that it was erected between the years 1702 and 1704. See 

 Appendix, Note F. 



The presentments now made by the Grand Juries have become 

 very numerous. The necessity of a pair of stocks and a whip- 

 ping-post,- in the town of Chester, is again presented, and the 

 township of Chester is presented for not erecting the former, 

 and for not clearing the road. In fact many of the presentments 

 are "for not clearing the roads." 



1 Register's Office, Philadelphia. Book A. 324. 



* The township of Chester is again presented the nest year, " for not erecting a 

 pair of stocks and whipping post in said town." 



