842 HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. [1786. 



building. Here an act of indiscretion had nearly brought on a 

 renewal of hostilities. For one of Major Harper's men. having 

 entered the fort, struck down the flag which their opponents had 

 raised upon the walls. Highly incensed at this treatment of their 

 standard, the removalists snatched up their arms, and were with 

 difiSculty prevented from firing upon the Major and his com- 

 panions. Some exertion, however, on the part of the leaders, 

 allayed the irritation of the men, and the parties at length 

 separated amicably without loss of life or limb." 



The' foregoing account of this almost-a-battle, is extracted 

 from the History of Chester County, by Joseph J. Lewis, Esq., 

 published in the Village Record, in the year 1824. It has come 

 to the author traditionally, that the attack of the Chester people 

 was instigated by the removalists proceeding with the buildings 

 after the passage of the Suspension Act, and that a promise to 

 desist from the work was a prominent article in the treaty of 

 peace — a promise that was only kept while the attacking party 

 remained in sight and hearing. The attempt by the non-removal 

 party to batter down the unfinished buildings, was a high-handed 

 outrage which rendered those engaged in it amenable to the laws. 

 The fact that they were allowed to escape with impunity is rather 

 corroborative of the idea that the attack was not altogether un- 

 provoked, and renders it probable that the cause for it assigned 

 by tradition is the true one. 



The Suspension Act had probably been procured by misrepre- 

 sentation, or in some underhand manner. The representation 

 "■ that a general dissatisfaction and uneasiness did prevail and 

 subsist among the greater part of the good people of the County 

 of Chester" with the intended removal of the seat of justice 

 "from Chester to the Turks Head in Goshen township," as con- 

 tained in the preamble to that act, was doubtless untrue. At 

 all events, at the next session of the Legislature, the removalists 

 were enabled to show "that a great part of the good people of 

 said County were much dissatisfied with the courts of justice re- 

 maining at the borough of Chester, and readily obtained an act 

 to repeal the suspending act. The title of this act, which was 

 passed on the 18th of March, 1786, is remarkable for its phrase- 

 ology. It commences thus : " An act to repeal an act, entitled 

 An act to suspend an act of General Assembly of this Common- 

 wealth, entitled A supplement to an act entitled An act to en- 

 able William Clingan, Thomas Bull, &c." By this act the vexed 

 (juestion was finally settled, though its passage was not eS"ected 

 without the most spirited and bitter opposition. It may not be 

 amiss to let the good people of West Chester know in what estima- 

 tion the site of their town was then held by the non-removalists. 

 In one of the missiles addressed to the Legislature, it is de- 



