344 HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. [1789. 



of Chester and the south-eastern parts of the County," however, 

 became restive under their new relation to the seat of justice, 

 and by their petitions, " set forth to the General Assembly that 

 they labored under many and great inconveniences^ from the seat 

 of justice being removed to a great distance from them," and 

 prayed that they might be relieved from the said inconveniences, 

 " by erecting the said borough and south-eastern parts of said 

 county into a separate county." 



Unfortunately for the pecuniary interests of a large majority of 

 the inhabitants of the part of the County mentioned, the Assem- 

 bly regarded their petition as "just and reasonable," and by an 

 act passed on the 26th of September, 1789, authorized a division 

 of the County of Chester, and the erection of a part thereof 

 "into a new County." The first section of this act provides 

 that all that part of Chester County lying within the bounds and 

 limits thereinafter mentioned, shall be erected into a separate 

 County : " Beginning in the middle of Brandy wine river, where 

 the same crosses the circular line of New Castle County, thence 

 up the middle of the said river to the line dividing the lands of 

 Elizabeth Chads and Caleb Brinton, at or near the ford com- 

 monly called or known by the name of Chad's ford, and from 

 thence, on a line as nearly strait as may be, so as not to split or 

 divide plantations, to the great road leading from Goshen to 

 Chester, where the Westown line intersects or crosses said road, 

 and from thence along the lines of Edgemont, Newtown and Rad- 

 nor, so as to include those townships, to the line of Montgomery 

 County, and along the same and the Philadelphia County line 

 to the river Delaware, and down the same to the circular line 

 aforesaid, and along the same to the place of beginning, to be 

 henceforth known and called by the name of Delaware County." 



By this act the townships of Birmingham and Thornbury were 

 divided ; but provision was made, that the parts falling in each 

 county should each constitute an independent township, and 

 each new township should retain the name of the original town- 

 ship from which it was taken. 



The petitioners for the new county, to make things sure, had 

 contracted in advance with Mr. Kerlin, the owner of the old 

 court-house and prison, for the purchase thereof, " at a price far 

 beneath what such buildings could be erected for, which they 

 were willing and desirous should be conveyed for the use of the 

 [now] county, on repayment of the sum agreed upon." Henry 

 Halo Graliam, Richard Reiley, Josiah Lewis, Edward Jones, and 

 Benjamin Brannin, or any three of them, were constituted trustees 

 by the act, to take assurances and conveyances of the property, 

 "for the use of the inhabitants." A conveyance of the old 

 building with the appurtenant grounds was accordingly executed 



