384 HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. 



ConcordviUe, at which the Friends' meeting-house is situated, 

 is a beautifully located village. A building designed for a board- 

 ing-school was erected at that place the present year. 



DAKBY. 



Both Darby and Upper Darby constituted but one township 

 up to 1786, though separated previously to that time for many 

 purposes. Under Penn's government, the settlement of Darby 

 commenced in 1682, and progressed for a time more rapidly 

 than any other settlement in the County. It is first recognized 

 as a municipal district in 1683, when Thomas Worth was ap- 

 pointed constable by the Court. The ancient district of Calcon 

 Hook was annexed to Darby in 1686. It then contained six 

 settlements, viz., those of Morton Mortonson, Peter Peterson, 

 Hance Urin, Swan Boone, Hance Boon, and Matthias Natsilas. 



Perhaps the opinion is universal, that our ancestors, who came 

 from the county of Derby, in England, corrupted the spelling of 

 the name of their former place of residence when they, in kind 

 remembrance, adopted it for their home in America. The cor- 

 ruption, if it be one, was eflFected in England before our ances- 

 tors migrated to America. In the "New World of Words," 

 published in 1671, Darby and Darhyshire are given, but not 

 Derby nor Derbyshire ; and in the certificates brought over by 

 early Friends, it is almost uniformly spelled with a instead of e. 

 The author of the work referred to, makes the name of the 

 English town a contraction of the word Deriuentby^ "because it 

 standeth on the river Derwent.'' This would make the proper 

 spelling of the name Derby ; but it is clear that our ancestors 

 brought the name with them as it was generally written when 

 they migrated to America, and so it has remained, notwithstand- 

 ing some fastidious persons have made efi"orts from time to time 

 to change it. 



Some specimens of legislation by the early town meetings of 

 Darby have been given. The following is another specimen : — 



" Agreed at a town meeting 1697, that all plantations, y* 

 lands not Joyning upon the road, that four of the Neighbours 

 shall be chosen to lay out a convenient way as they shall see 

 meet to the next convenient road, and being so done, shall stand 

 firm and not be blocked up with trees or plantations. 

 " Signed on behalf of the 

 " Town by 



" Tho. Worth." 



And again, in 1715, the town meeting, after having directed 

 a tax of a half penny in the pound to be levied on the township, 

 enacted the following humane ordinance : — 



