334 HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. [1780. 



County, a collector named William Boyd, while discharging his 

 duties was murdered by John and Robert Smith, probably bro- 

 thers. Determined to make an example of the perpetrators of 

 this outrage, the council at once offered a reward of ^20,000 for 

 their apprehension. They were shortly afterwards arrested, had 

 their trial at Chester on the 26th of June, and being convicted 

 were sentenced to be hung. It rested with the Council to fix the 

 day of execution. The matter was brought before that body on 

 the 30th of June, when the sentence of the Court was ordered to 

 be carried out on Saturday the first of July, being the next day. 

 The murder occurred about the 12th of May. 



To persons who had been plundered by the enemy and who 

 had paid their taxes, small amounts were paid upon orders 

 granted by the Commissioners from time to time. Many of 

 these orders appear on the books of the Commissioners, but how 

 the amount payable to each person was estimated, does not 

 appear. 



The Continental money had depreciated so much before the 

 middle of 1780 that £2400 were paid for six head of cattle, and 

 X700 for twenty head of sheep. 



The year 1780 is memorable in the annals of Pennsylvania 

 for the passage of the act for the gradual abolition of slavery in 

 this State. This act, which was passed on the first of March, 

 provided for the registration of every negro or mulatto slave or 

 servant for life or till the age of thirty-one years, before the 

 first of November following, and also provided " that no man or 

 woman of any nation or color, except, the Negroes or Mulattoes 

 who shall be registered as aforesaid, shall at any time hereafter 

 be deemed, adjudged or holden within the territories of this Com- 

 monwealth, as slaves or servants for life, but as free men and 

 free women." The servants of members of Congress, foreign 

 ministers, and persons passing through or sojourning not longer 

 than six months were also made an exception. 



The registry for the County of Chester, in pursuance of 

 the provisions of this act, was carefully made, and is now 

 kept in the office of the Clerk of the Court of Quarter Sessions 

 at West Chester. The name, age and time of service of each 

 negro or mulatto, and also the name of the owner and township 

 in which he or she resided are given. The following list, made 

 out from this registry, shows the number of slaves registered in 

 the several townships now constituting Delaware County : 



