354 HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. [1820. 



He was subsequently arrested in the northern part of the State, 

 where he was engaged in chopping wood, being identified by a 

 fellow wood-chopper from the description in the advertisement, 

 offering a reward for his apprehension. He was tried and con- 

 victed in the following April at Chester, and soon after exe- 

 cuted. 



On the 8th of November, 1819, the first newspaper published 

 in Delaware County was issued from the ofBce of Butler & Wor- 

 thington, at Chester. This paper, which made a very neat ap- 

 pearance, was called the "Post Boy." Its dimensions were 

 seventeen by twenty-one inches. 



Dissatisfaction had for some time existed among the people 

 of the upper part of the County on account of the seat of jus- 

 tice being situated on its southern margin. The people of the 

 township of Radnor, residing much nearer to Norristown, the 

 seat of justice of Montgomery County, than to Chester, peti- 

 tioned for the annexation of their township to that County. 

 The fact that the taxes of Montgomery were lowej than 

 those of Delaware, is also said to have had an influence in pro- 

 moting this movement. Be this as it may, the prospect of losing 

 one of the best townships in the County was a matter of serious 

 alarm, when its small dimensions were taken into consideration. 

 The discontented in the other remote townships seeing that the 

 loss of Radnor would weaken their strongest ground of com- 

 plaint, determined to test the question of a removal of the seat 

 of justice of the County to a more central situation. Accord- 

 ingly a general meeting of the inhabitants of the County, "both 

 friendly and unfriendly" to the proposed removal, was con- 

 vened on the 8th of June, 1820. The meeting was unusually 

 large and very respectable, and after the subject of removal had 

 been discussed very fully and rather freely, a vote was taken 

 which resulted in favor of the removalists. Removal now be- 

 came the leading topic of discussion throughout the County. 

 All party distinctions became merged in it, and the most ultra 

 politicians of opposite parties united cordially on a removal or 

 anti-removal platform. Meetings were helcl and nominations 

 were made accordingly. The ballot-box showed the anti-remo- 

 valists in the majority. George G. Leiper, of Ridley, and Abner 

 Lewis, of Radnor, both anti-removalists, were elected to the 

 Assembly. The anti-removalists, by the nomination of Mr. 

 Lewis, had secured nearly the whole vote of Radnor — under the 

 belief that the election of the anti-removal ticket afforded them 

 the only chance of being annexed to Montgomery County. The 

 test was not regarded by the removalists as satisfactory, and 

 they petitioned the Legislature for redress, but certainly with 

 but small hopes of success. In their memorial, which is very 



