1729.] HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. 239 



On account of " several indecencies havin<^ been used towards 

 the members of Assembly attending the service of the country in 

 Philadelphia, by rude and disorderly persons," a proposition was 

 made to change the place of meeting, and Chester was desig- 

 nated as the most suitable place. The Governor suggested a 

 continuance of the sittings of the Assembly for some time at 

 Philadelphia, but that if upon further experience the members 

 continued of the same sentiment, he and the Council agreed that 

 they should adjourn to Chester. This threat to remove the seat 

 of Government no doubt had the effect of securing tlie members 

 from any further indignities, and prevented Chester from being 

 a second time the capital of Pennsylvania. 



Early in 1729, Lancaster was organized as a County, without 

 any specified boundary, except the line that separated it from 

 Chester County. This line was run by John Taylor, aided by 

 eleven Commissioners. The name of Lancaster for the new 

 County was suggested by John Wright, one of the Commis- 

 sioners, who had emigrated from Lancashire, England, in 1714, 

 and settled in Chester, but had removed to Columbia in 1726.- 



An act was passed this year authorizing the emission of 

 <£30,000, in bills of credit, and also one laying a duty on negroes 

 imported into the Province. This latter act was repealed by the 

 home government. The evils of slavery were apparent to many 

 of the inhabitants of the Province, especially the Quakers, and 

 it may be supposed that the act in question was intended more 

 as a restraint upon the importation of slaves than as a source of 

 revenue. 



It had been a long time since the Quakers first took the sub- 

 ject of slavery under serious consideration, and although the 

 action of their meetings had not resulted in anything of much 

 practical utility, many individuals of the Society testified strongly 

 against the practice of buying and selling of slaves. In 1729, 

 Chester Monthly Meeting adopted the following minute, which was 

 much better calculated to abolish the slave trade than the duty 

 imposed by the legislature: — 



''This Monthly Meeting directs its representatives to lay be- 

 fore the Quarterly Meeting, that as they were by the discipline 

 prevented from fetching or importing negro slaves from their own 

 country, whether it is not reasonable we should not be restricted 

 from buying them when imported, and if so the Quarterly Meet- 

 ing to lay it before the Yearly Meeting for concurrence." The 

 subsequent efficient action of the Society towards the abolition 



spective oath and affirmacon. do say that the aP* John Winter and Walter Winter are 

 Guilty of y* murder af"* and must be hanged by the necks until they and each of 

 them be dead." 



2 Hist. Lancaster Co. 240 ; Col. Rec. iii. 377. 



