1722.] HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. 233 



the Commissioners' Office at West Chester. As the best means 

 of showing the extent of the settlements that had been made at 

 this early period, this assessment has been copied entire, (omit- 

 ting each person's tax), so far as relates to the townships em- 

 braced within the limits of Delaware County; includin<;, how- 

 ever, the whole of the townships of Birmingham and Thornbury. 

 The rate was 8d. in the pound, and 9s. poll tax on each single 

 freeman. (See Appendix, Note G.) 



By making a proper allowance for the parts of Birming- 

 ham and Thornbury not included in Delaware County, the tax- 

 ables within its present limits at this early date, numbered 

 about 500. As servants were not taxed, it will be safe to esti- 

 mate six inhabitants to each taxable, making the population of the 

 district now included in Delaware County, at this time, about 

 3000. As a general rule the assessment, or valuation, was at 

 the rate of X20 per 100 acres of land, but there appears to have 

 been a little variation in some of the townships. The whole 

 amount of tax imposed within our county's limits was about 

 ^278 10s. ; equal to a little more than $700. 



Beyond the limits of what is now Delaware County, this an- 

 cient assessment embraced West Conestogoe township, contain- 

 ing 64 taxables; East Conestogoe, 147; Peque "& part of & 

 former District," 13 ; Tre° y Dyfrin, 31 ; White-Land, 13; East- 

 Town, 12; Willis-Town, 20; Ywchlan, 20; Charles- Town, 19; 

 Nantmcl, 18 ; Skoolkil, 27 ; West-Town, 9 ; Sadsbury, 20 ; East 

 Nottingham, 42; Marlborough, 39; West Nottingham, 29; 

 Kennct, 67; Goshen, 19; Bradford, 38; Cain, 33; New Gar- 

 den, 94, and "the- inhabitants adjacent, belonging to New Gar- 

 den, 18, — making in the whole of Chester County, which then 

 extended to the Susquehanna, the number of taxables 1345, and 

 the population about 8,070. 



The very small population of some of the least remote town- 

 ships, as Westown and Eastown, was owing to the large tracts of 

 land held in those townships by non-residents. The large extent 

 of territory embraced in some of the most distant townships, 

 bordering on the Susquehanna, will account for the relatively 

 large number of taxa])les returned from that region. 



The wide-spread reputation of Penn's government, for free- 

 dom and religious toleration, had attracted settlers from different 

 countries, and of different religious beliefs. A large proportion 

 of these settled in the district now embraced in Lancaster 

 County, while very many of the earliest settlers in Chester 

 County, as it is now constituted, emigrated from that part of the 

 original county of that name, out of which Delaware County was 

 formed. 



But little of local interest transpired in 1723. The act passed 



