)0-t 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



given to litigation previous to its es- 

 tablishment. 



Stanfield, Francis, with his wife 

 Grace and family, were among- the 

 earliest settlers of Marple township, 

 (1683.) They were Friends, and proba- 

 bly advanced in years at the tune of their 

 arrival from England. Francis died in 

 1692, and his wife one year earlier. 

 James Stanfield. the son of Francis, in- 

 termarried with Mary Hutchinson of 

 Buriington, N. J., in TeSO. His daugh- 

 ters were Mary, who intermarried with 

 William Huntly of Birmingham ; Eliza- 

 beth, with Thomas Hoops ; Grace, with 

 Francis Chadds, and Hannah, with 

 Isaac Few. Francis Stanfield repre- 

 sented Chester County in the Provincial 

 Assembly in 1685. One or more meet- 

 ings of Friends was held at his house 

 before a meeting was established at 

 Bartholomew Coppock's. 



Steedman, Joseph, with his wife 

 Margaret, had migrated from England, 

 and settled in Springfield township as 

 early as 168-i. Tiiey were Friends in 

 good standing. Joseph died in 1698, 

 but it does not appear that he left any 

 children. The next year his widow 

 married John Blunston of Darby. 



Stille, Oloff or Oele, one of the 

 earliest of the Swedish Colonists " came 

 from the lordship of Penningby and 

 Nyanes, in the dutchy of Lodermania, 

 about 30 miles south of Stockholm," 

 which at his birth was in possession of 

 the noble family of Bielke. He may 

 have accompanied the first Swedish 

 expedition to the Delaware, though 

 there is no certain evidence of his 

 l)resence on the River, till after the 

 arrival of Governor Printz. He brought 

 with him a passport or certificate of 

 character bearing date December 2, 

 1('..{4. This would seem to indicate 

 that he had intended to join an expedi- 

 tion projected earlier than that which 

 arrived under Minuit. Still it is quite 

 probable that he came with Governor 

 Print/,. In 1646, we find him employed 

 by that functionary in carrying an 

 official protest to Andreas Iludde, 

 against the encroachments of the Dutch 

 West India Company upon the rights 

 of the Swedes. From this period for 

 many years, he was one of the princi- 

 pal men of the Colony ; and even while 



the Dutch held the ascendancy on the 

 river, in 1658, he was appointed one of 

 four Commissioners to administer jus- 

 tice among the inhabitants embraced 

 in the Upper Settlements. His planta- 

 tion within the limits of this County, 

 was at the mouth of Ridley Creek, and 

 on Lindstrom's map is marked " Stilles 

 land." By the Indians it was called 

 Techorassi, who styled Oloff, " the man 

 with the black beard." In 1661, he 

 became dissatisfied with the Dutch rule 

 on the river, and, with a few Finns 

 visited Maryland, for the purpose of 

 taking up land and emigrating there ; 

 but not finding his friends, settled on 

 the Sassafras River in a satisfactory 

 condition, he abandoned the project. 

 He may have parted with S/ille's land at 

 this time. At all events, that property 

 passed into the hands of Laurentius 

 Carolus, the Swedish clergyman, and 

 we next find Oloff a resident of Moya- 

 mensing — a taxable and purchaser of 

 land there. In 1673, he served bj- ap- 

 pointment of Upland Court as an arbi- 

 trator in determining a dispute about 

 land in Kingsessing. To the award of 

 the arbitrators, he signs his name 

 " Oluff Stilla." When his death occur- 

 red is not known, but he was certainly 

 alive in 1678, when he resided in Moya- 

 mensing, and made application to the 

 Court to take up Marsh lands near that 

 place. He was the ancestor of the 

 present Stille family. 



Stille, John, son of the above 

 named Oloff, was born near Tinicum in 

 1646, and died on the 24th of April, 

 1722. His remains were interred in the 

 burying ground of the Wicaco Church, 

 where his tombstone still remains. He 

 was one of the original trustees of that 

 church, and the pastor in recording his 

 death adds: "He lived a godly life 

 in this world." It is not known, that 

 Oloff Stille had any other child. 



SwAKFER, William, arrived in the 

 country, and settled in Nether Provi- 

 dence about the year 1684. He was 

 unmarried, and like his brother James 

 Swalfcr, and nearly every other im- 

 migrant at this period, he was in mem- 

 bership with Friends. There is reason 

 to believe that he migrated with his 

 brother from Cheshire, England. In 

 1694, he was married to Mary Cald- 

 well. Their ciiildrcn were, Rebecca, 



