398 HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. 



MIDDLETOWN. 



This township probably received its name from its supposed 

 central location when the name was conferred upon it. The 

 author has seen no evidence that it was organized as a municipal 

 district prior to 1687, though it possibly may have been. 



The first organization within this County of a Presbyterian 

 congregation was in this township, and doubtless their first 

 church edifice was erected on or very near the site of the present 

 Presbyterian Meeting-house, which itself, notwithstanding the 

 recent repairs it has undergone, bears the marks of a respectable 

 antiquity. Thomas Dutton, now in his ninety-fourth year, in- 

 formed me that the present meeting-house was built in the time 

 of his grandfather. "That he, although a Quaker, subscribed 

 money towards the building of it, as he was willing that the 

 Presbyterians should have a suitable place to hold their meetings 

 in." 



The church records have been lost or destroyed, but fortu- 

 nately a memento of high interest has been preserved, that not 

 only bears testimony to the early establishment of the Middle- 

 town congregation, but also to the deep interest that was felt in 

 its prosperity by one of the most eminent of the dissenting 

 divines of England. A folio volume, belonging to the church, 

 has the following memorandum, believed to be in the hand- 

 writing of the donor, inscribed on the inside of the cover: 



" This Book call'd M'. Baxter's Directory was given by y® 

 Reverend D"' Isaac Watts of London to the Protestant Dissenters 

 usually assembling for Worship at Middletown Meeting-house in 

 Pennsylvania ; that people who come from far, & spend their 

 whole day there, may have something proper to entertain them- 

 selves with, or to read to one another between the seasons of Wor- 

 ship morning and afternoon : & 'tis for this end intrusted to y" 

 care of [the] Protestant Dissenting Minister who preaches there, 

 and to his Successors, to be used by him or them in their weekly 

 Studys, when they please, and to be secured & devoted to the 

 Use of the Congregation on y Lords days." 



"Jan^ 30'^ 1735-6." 



"The Book is committed to the care of M'. Benj. Hawley to 

 be carried over to Pennsylvania, and after he has kept it in his 

 own hands and made the best use of it for six months, that is 

 till the 30"': of July next, he shall deliver it to the hands of the 

 present Protestant Dissenting Minister for the purposes before- 

 mentioned." 



The book is at this time in the custody of the Rev. James W. 

 Dale, the minister now in charge of the Middletown church, who 

 kindly furnished a copy of the above writing for this work. 



