1713.] HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. 221 



certificate to visit England and Wales. Many such religious 

 visits might be enumerated. 



There appears to have been a congregation of Seventh day 

 Baptists organized in Newtown about this period. It is referred 

 to in a minute of Chester Monthly Meeting, in which complaint 

 is made that a member inclines to join that sect, and hath fre- 

 quented their meetings. 



"A petition of a great number of the inhabitants of the 

 county of Chester" was presented to the Governor and Council, 

 " praying that y" Borough of the Town of Chester, in this Pro- 

 vince may be made a free Port." The matter was referred to 

 the Proprietary, that he might " take proper methods concerning 

 the same & Consult the Comr' of the Queen's Customs therein."' 

 If this application had been successful, the improvement of the 

 venerable borough would not have been left for the present 

 generation to accomplish. 



An act was passed in 1712 to prevent the importation of 

 Negroes and Indians into this Province. The passage of this 

 law was the first effort made to restrain the increase of Negro 

 Slavery in Pennsylvania, but it was subsequently repealed by 

 the Crown. This result was brought about by commercial con- 

 siderations alone, regardless of the dictates of humanity or the 

 interests of the Province.^ 



Wearied with his pecuniary incumbrances and the troubles 

 that were incident to his Proprietary rights, which his increasing 

 years and declining health rendered him less able to bear, Penn 

 entered into a negotiation for the sale of the Province to the 

 Queen. The price (£12,000), and other particulars of the sale, 

 had been agreed upon, when the Proprietary was suddenly seized 

 with a partial paralysis, from which he never suflBciently reco- 

 vered to enable him formally to execute the contract. 



A road was this year laid out " from Providence Lower road 

 by Rich^ Crosby s mill to Edgment road." This is the first 

 mention of Crosby s mill that has come to the notice of the 

 author. 



The following extract from the records of Haverford Monthly 

 Meeting would seem to indicate that a pecuniary stimulant was 

 necessary to secure a confirmation by the Crown of certain pro- 

 vincial legislative enactments : 



" It was signified by the Quarterly Meeting that some friends 

 disbursed money on account of getting the affirmation act eon- 

 firmed, which are yet unpaid ; and the proportion thereof be- 

 falling upon this meeting appears to be one pound, fourteen 



1 Col. Reo. ii. 546. 



* A similar law was passed the same year (1712) by the Legislature of Massachu- 

 setts. — Holmes' Ann. iL 84. 



