336 HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. [1780. 



The county records do not appear to have been returned to 

 Chester for some time after the enemy left these parts. On the 

 30th of June the Commissioners of Chester County granted an 

 order on the Treasurer to pay Thomas Taylor, Esq., £135 " for 

 hauling the records belonging to the Register's and Recorder's 

 oiEce, from Westown to John Jacobs, thence to Joseph Parker's 

 Esq, and from thence to Westown again." 



The rapid diminution in value of the Continental money is 

 elucidated by the two following orders granted by the County 

 Commissioners : 



Sept. 8d, 1779. " Ordered that the Treasurer pay to Joshua 

 Vaughan Gaoler £1663 3s. "Id. for the repairs of the Gaol and 

 court house, maintaining State prisoners &c." 



Nov. 18th, 1780. " Ordered the Treasurer to pay Joshua 

 Vaughan £3127, it being in lieu of a pay order granted Sept. 

 3rd 1779 for £1663 3s." 



Notwithstanding the great extent of Chester County, its seat 

 of justice had continuously remained, since the establishment of 

 Penn's government in 1681, at the town of Chester, on its south- 

 eastern border. An effort was now made to secure its removal 

 to a more central situation, and the fact that this eifort was 

 made during the continuance of the war, and before the people 

 had recovered from the depredations committed by the enemy, 

 is conclusive evidence that those of the remote parts of the 

 county were keenly alive to the injustice they suffered from the 

 location of their seat of justice. 



This early removal effort resulted in the passage of an Act of 

 Assembly " to enable William Clingan, Thomas Bull, John 

 Kinkead, Roger Kirk, John Sellers, John Wilson and Joseph 

 Davis, to build a new court-house and prison in the County of 

 Chester, and to sell the old court-house in the borough of Ches- 

 ter." These gentlemen, or any four of them, were authorized 

 by the terms of the act to purchase a piece of land, " situate in 

 some convenient place of the county," and to build or cause to 

 be built a court-house and prison thereon. The act contains no 

 restriction in regard to the location of the new seat of justice, 

 beyond a strong expression in the preamble against the inconve- 

 nience of its present location ; nor was any time specified within 

 which the Commissioners should purchase and build. 



A majority of these gentlemen were probably opposed to a 

 removal of the county seat, and did not enter upon their duties 

 with much energy. They, however, took the first step in the 

 business, by purchasing a lot of land in the township of East 

 Cain for the accommodation of the buildings. The Commis- 

 sioners had a wide discretion, which they may have abused, or 

 they may have been discouraged from proceeding further by 



