260 HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. [1750. 



sand seven hundred and forty six, by John Taylor the present 

 Proprietor thereof, who, with his servants and workmen, has 

 ever since until the !:^4th day of June last, used and occupied 

 the same." The Sheriff also certifies, " that there is not any 

 plating forge to work with a tilt hammer, nor any furnace for 

 making Steel," within the County of Chester.^ 



As has been mentioned, the iron works of John Taylor occu- 

 pied nearly the present site of the Glenn Mills of the Messrs. 

 Willcox ; but it is a little remarkable that the iron works within 

 two English miles of Chester, mentioned by Peter Kalm, in his 

 journey from that place to Philadelphia, should have so suddenly 

 gone into disuse. The existence of such works, in 1748, at the 

 point mentioned, cannot be doubted, for the Swedish naturalist 

 was too accurate an observer to have been mistaken in a matter 

 of this kind. 



Labor in Pennsylvania was, at this period, of three kinds : 

 free hired labor, bought servants for a term of years, and slaves 

 for life. The wages of the first class for a year, with food and 

 lodging, in the country, was about X16 for a man, and from £8 

 to XI for females. The second class consisted of such persons 

 as annually came from different countries of Europe to settle. 

 Real or supposed oppression brought many of them here, but most 

 of them were very poor, and came to better their fortunes. 

 Being without means to pay their passage, which was not more 

 than from six to eight pounds sterling for each, they, by agree- 

 ment with the captain of the ship in which they arrived, were 

 sold for a term of years to pay this small amount. 



The usual term of service was four years, and the price ad- 

 vanced for that term, appears at this period to have been about 

 £14, which would leave a surplus for the redemptioner, unless 

 it was used in the payment of charges by the government. 

 Children were frequently sold for a longer period to pay the 

 passage-money of their parents. At the expiration of their 

 terms of service, each was supplied with a new suit of clothes, 

 as is now, and was then, the case with apprentices. Some of 

 these foreigners who were possessed of sutficient means to pay 

 their passage, preferred being sold, as the period of service 

 afforded them time to learn our language and the ways of the 

 country, and at the end of that period, the funds they brought 

 with them were invested in the purchase of a permanent home. 



This kind of labor being the cheapest, and within the means 

 of a majority of the settlers, it appears to have been substituted 

 for that of the African slave, and at this period had nearly put 

 an end to the importation of slaves into the Province. It was, 

 however, more used further in the interior than Avithin the limits 



• Penna. Archives, ii. 57. 



