394 HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. 



He was succeeded by his son Henry, who resided there many 

 years. About the middle of the last century, we find the estate, 

 then consisting of nearly four hundred acres, owned and occu- 

 pied (at least in the summer season) by a Capt. John Wilcox, 

 (sometimes spelled Wilcocks,) who erected upon it a mansion, of 

 which the annexed cut is an exact representation, and gave it 

 the name of " Clifton Hall." Capt. Wilcox surrounded his 

 estate with a ditch of some depth, most of which, within the 

 recollection of many now living, could be readily traced, and 

 some parts of it are still visible. It is said, on the authority of 

 tradition, that Capt. Wilcox caused this ditch to be dug in order 

 to give employment to his negroes, of whom he owned a consider- 

 able number. 



About the year 1760, Charles Cruickshank, a Scotch gentle- 

 man of wealth, who held a captain's commission under the British 

 government, and who had seen service in the Netherlands, came 

 to America, and in 1761 purchased the "Clifton Hall" estate, 

 but changed its name to the "Grange," or "Grange Farm." 

 Soon after the year 1770, (when the annexed sketch was drawn 

 by Capt. Cruickshank,) the mansion-house was enlarged and 

 variously modified. It is also probable, that about this period 

 the terraced walks were cut, the green-house established, and 

 that the almost unequaled natural beauties of the place were 

 fully developed by the appliances of art, under the direction of 

 a well cultivated taste. The land attached to the Grange was 

 partly in three Counties — Chester, (now Delaware,) Philadelphia, 

 and Montgomery, which Capt. Cruickshank increased by pur- 

 chase. 



In 1768, Mr. John Ross, also a Scotch gentleman, and an 

 extensive merchant of Philadelphia, married Clemantina, the 

 daughter of Capt. Cruickshank, who at the close of the Revolu- 

 tionary war sold the Grange to his son-in-law, Ross, and returned 

 with his family to his native country. Mr. Ross added to the 

 buildings, and also increased the quantity of land to an aggre- 

 gate of six hundred acres. After the death of Mr. Ross in 1806, 

 the estate was sold to his son-in-law, John F. Mifflin, who, in 

 1810, sold the mansion to John H. Brinton, the maternal grand- 

 father of Gen. George B. McClellan. In 1816, Mr. Brinton 

 sold the mansion, with another part of the estate which he had 

 purchased in 1811, to Manuel Eyre, Esq., who made it his coun- 

 try residence till his death in 1845, a period of twenty-nine 

 years. About that time the Grange was purchased by John 

 Ashurst, Esq., the son-in-law of Mr. Eyre, who still occupies it 

 as his country seat. 



At an early period, particularly during its occupancy by 

 Charles Ross, the Grange was fitted up in the most exquisite 



