moderate people. The whigs had injured them, and they sought revenge at the hazard of their lives.

Dr. John Watson, of Bucks county, contributed to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania a very interesting account of the primitive state of society in Buckingham and Solsbury. From his account I add a few particulars. See Appendix, p. 119.

When wheat and rye grew thick and tall on new land, and all was to be cut with sickles, many men, and some women, became dexterous in the use of them, and victory was contested from many a violent effort. About the year 1744, twenty acres of wheat were cut and shocked in half a day in Solsbury. Rum was drunk in proportion to the hurry of business on all such occasions. In fact, rum being a British liquor, had to be used, if at all, as the common beverage. A bottle of rum was handed about at vendues, each taking his draw from the neck of it, by a swallow or more. At wedding regales, and even at funerals, mixed and stewed rum, called spirits, was an expected and common entertainment. Rum was even put on their toasted bread occasionally. It led to its evils, and serious and considerate persons got an act of assembly prohibiting the use of spirits at vendues. Now temperance societies impose its disuse in every thing; and we know of good apple orchards there, now, of which they will no longer make even cider. Apple pies, both green and dried, have ever been in plentiful use all the year round in this county.

The first settlers, and many of their successors, were accustomed to wear a strong and coarse dress-such as enduring buckskin. It was used for breeches, and sometimes for jackets; oznaburgs, made of hemp tow at 1s. 4d. a yard, was used for boys' shirts; sometimes flax, and flax and tow were also used. Coarse tow for trowsers, wool hat, strong heavy shoes, brass buckles, two linsey jackets, and a leathern apron, made out the winter apparel. Such apparel for the labouring class was common down to 1750.

A higher class, however, had means to procure such suits as would have purchased two hundred acres of land! The coat of broad-cloth had three or four plaits on the skirts; they were wadded to keep them smooth, as thick as a coverlet. The cuffs very large, went nearly up to the elbows. The hat was a good broad-brimmed beaver, with double loops, drawn nearly close behind, and half raised on each side. The ladies, in full mode, wore stiff whalebone stays, worth eight or ten dollars. The silk gown much plaited in the back. The sleeves were short and nearly twice as large as the arm; the rest of the arm covered with a fine linen sleeve, nicely plaited, locket buttons and long-armed gloves. The head was covered with a Bath bonnet and its cape. On marriage occasions the bride dressed in a long black hood without a bonnet. Two yards of rich paduasoy made such a hood, and used to be loaned for nuptial occasions. In time, came up the straw plait, called the bee-hive bonnet, and with it the blue or green apron.

VOL. II.-N

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Before the use of upland grass and clover, they could only form or procure their grass in plains or swamps-often at several miles from home, in which case it was stacked on the spot, and bauled home as needed, on sleds during the winter.

In those days it was common to go ten or twelve miles to mill ou horseback; the same distance to get any smith work and repairs. Horses were seldom shod, and blocks to pound hominy were used, in imitation of the Indians.

The Indians were still much among them, very often bringing presents of game, beans, &c., and refusing any pay. The Indian children were very sociable and fond of play.

The prices, from 1724 to 1735, as seen marked in books of the time, set wheat at from 3 to 4s.; rye, 2 to 3s.; middlings, fine, 7 to 8s.; coarse, 4s. 6d. ; bran, 18.; salt, 4s.; beef, 2d.; bacon, 4d.; pork, 2d. Swine were easily raised and fattened. Venison roasted and in stew-pies, were luxuries of frequent use in their homely log cabins.

Indian corn was not attempted to be raised in large quantities before the year 1750. Wheat was the great article for making money, it was cultivated with open fallows, and was generally ploughed three times a year.

In the neighbourhood of Doylestown is considerable of Indian remains, such as their graveyard, &c.; and on the Neshamony near there, is said to be the grave of the celebrated chieftain Tamance, after whom we have now the popular name of "Saint Tamany."

It is said also, that the first court held in Pennsylvania was held in this county; and the oldest record to be found in our state, is to found in the county office at Doylestown. It is a record, or register of ear marks, for sheep and cattle, and showing, by a drawing of the head of the animal, the different crops upon the ears, as well as an accompanying description in words, and in the name of the individual who assumed it as his designating property. This record, it is said, was made a little before Penn's landing, and was continued in practice for a number of years subsequently. The date is now effaced, but was certainly as early as 1681.

The next record, in point of time, is a record of the Orphans' Court, No. 1; its first entry bears date the 4th day of 1st mo., 1693, and was held at the private dwelling of Gilbert Wheeler. "Present, the governor, Wm. Penn, with justices James Harrison, Jonathan Otter, Wm. Yardley, Wm. Beaks, and Thomas Fitzwater. Phineas Pemberton, clerk." The next court was held at Pennsbury; the next again at Gilbert Wheeler's, on the 7th of 8 mo., 1684.

At a court of Quarter Sessions, held the 10th of 10th mo., 1684, the eldest of Clark's orphans was bound to Richard Noble, until she attained the age of twenty-one, and was then to receive as her freedom, one cow and calf, and one sow. The above record book is complete to October 1692; and after that time the court was suspended or omitted for several years, having at times the record, "No

court then held." On the 10th of 8 mo., 1697, a court is again held, when the record closes with "No court then, nor since, for orphans." The first record book for deeds commences in 1684.

It is to be supposed, that if all the records were well examined by an industrious hand, and by a mind of proper tact for olden time inquiries, that something strange, amusing, or useful, might be found to gratify the present generation. But who shall do it?

TheCrooked Billet," now known as Hatborough, was originally settled by John Dawson, a hatter, of London. The first name was derived from the first house there built, it being used as a public inn, with the sign of a crooked billet of wood hung out as its token, and the place, when made a town, was changed to the name of Hatborough, in reference to the employment of the first resident. His descendants have informed me, that when he first came there he built a cabin, and afterwards a stone house, with his own hands; and was assisted with stone and mortar, by his daughter Ann, who married Bartholomew Longstreth, who came from Yorkshire in 1699. The same John Dawson moved to Philadelphia in 1742, and dwelt in the house south-west corner of Second and Church alley, made notable there as "the first built brick house." His relative, Wm. Clinkenbeard, a farmer in Plymouth, lived to be one hundred and eight years of age.

Bartholomew Longstreth first opened the York road from the Billet to Neshamony. When he built his house, one hundred and twentyeight years ago, now occupied by Daniel Longstreth, he sawed all his joist with a whip saw, from hewn squared logs. That family still retain the bell-metal mould in which he used, like other farmers, to make his own pewter spoons. Think of that specimen of household economy then! They have also preserved the same iron with which old John Dawson used to smooth beaver hats.

Old Jacob Heston, who died about ten years ago, had resided at, and died on the spot, and perhaps at the same house, that was first built in Wrightstown by his ancestors, who emigrated from New England at the time of the Quaker persecution. A remarkable providence attended them, deserving of some record here. The family was obliged to escape in the night, and eventually to cross the Delaware, not knowing whither they were going. They sat down in the woods, and to their surprise and satisfaction, found an old neighbour who had also fled on the same night, without the knowledge in either of them of their several intentions! Here, amongst wild beasts and Indians, they found that security and repose that was denied them elsewhere.

The road from Philadelphia to Buckingham, prior to the opening of the York road, was across the Neshamony at Galloway's ford, one mile above Hulmeville, through Langhorne park, thence by Attleborough, &c.

Near that ford, once stood Growden's old fire proof, in which were kept the records of Bucks county; and when Joseph Galloway went

off with the British in '78, the office was broken open, and the records strewed about, to the use of any who might choose to possess them. Thomas Paxson, who saw them so strewed about on the ground the next morning, got hold of a MS. journal of a voyage down the Ohio, that was curious and interesting, and being lent about, has disappeared.

The first built mill on the Pennepeck was Gwin's mill, the same place where James Varee now has his rolling mill. An old log house of a Swede still remains, near the Neshamony, which has such superior construction as to be remarkable. All the logs are so grooved thus, one above the other, as to turn all winds and rains, without the use of intermediate mortar, except in very thin quantity. John Watson, now of Buckingham, who is in himself a walking library in matters of local antiquity, especially in Buckingham valley, where the family first settled in 1691,-besides the MS. book of occurrences, (made by his father, Dr. John Watson,) which he has bestowed on the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, has been a strenuous advocate of the "poor Indians," who, as he and others of Bucks county allege, were cheated out of their lands by the agents of the Penn family, at the time of the notable "great walk." He has written and given to the Philosophical Society, for their library, his circumstantial narrative of that "great walk." It was once a very exciting subject of animadversion and general discussion in Bucks. The agents publicly advertised a fee of £5 for the greatest walker for one day, and procured Marshall, who ran over four times as much ground as the Indians expected. He argues, and supposes, that all the country north-west of Wrightstown meeting-house, was taken from the Delawares without compensation. [Nicholas Scull, the surveyor general, made oath, in 1757, that he was present when James Yeates, and Edward Marshall, together with some Indians, walked one and a half days back in the woods from Wrightstown; that they walked but eighteen hours, and made out fifty-five miles; did not run, or go out of a walk; that B. Eastburn, surveyor general, and T. Smith, sheriff, were also along, and were satisfied of the same; and that no objections were expressed by the Indians at the time.] The Indians always cherished a spirit of revenge against Marshall; and a party of warriors once came from their settlement, at Wyoming, to seek his life. He was from home, but his wife was made prisoner, and his children escaped, by an Indian thoughtlessly throwing his match coat over a bee hive, which caused the party to be so attacked and stung, that they went off withcut the children. The mother, being pregnant, could not keep up with the party, and her bones and remains were found, six months afterwards, on the Broad mountain.

In the revolutionary war, the Indian warriors again returned from west of the Ohio, into Tinicum, or Noxamixon townships, still aiming at Marshall, and he again escaped by being from home; they then went back through Jersey. This they told themselves after

the peace. The most of these facts, above told, are not in his "Narrative of the Walk," as above mentioned; but, coming from his own mouth, are to be respected and believed, as the relations of an honest and intelligent gentleman: for such he is.

The "Log College," of Tennant, still remains near the Neshamony; and lately it was so, that a gentleman called and offered five dollars for a piece of its log, and scared the occupants, as if the enthusiast was demented!

It would seem, from family names existing in Bucks, that many of the Dutch must have been primitive settlers there, most probably under grants from Governor Andros, of New York. There is a place, beyond Abington, called Holland, which even now is much settled with Dutch names, such as Wynkoop, Vanmeter, Vansant, Corell, &c. The Presbyterian church too, at Abington, founded in 1717, was originally got up by the people near there of the Reformed Dutch faith, the descendants of Dutch forefathers. These facts were confirmed to me by the present pastor, the Rev. Mr. Steele. New Britain was settled by the Welsh.

Pennsbury.

This was the name of Penn's country place and mansion-sometimes called his "palace,"-in Bucks county, situated on the margin of the Delaware river, below Bordentown. There William Penn and his family lived, during part of his stay among us in the years 1700 and 1701. There, he often entertained Indians, and held treaty covenants, religious meetings, &c. The place was constructed in 1682-3, at great expense for that day, having cost £7000, and having considerable of the most finished or ornamental materials brought out from England. The mansion was sixty feet in front, by forty feet in depth; the garden, an ornamental and sloping one, lay along the river side in front of it, and numerous offices were in a front line with the dwelling. All that now remains is the house now occupied by Robert Crozier-the same building of wood which was originally formed for Penn's family "brew-house."

After Penn had gone back to England, his place was retained some time in hopes of his return. His furniture was long preserved there, and finally got sold and spread about in Bucks county. His clock, and his writing desk and secretary, I have seen. For many years the people of Burlington used to make visits to the place, because of its associations with so distinguished a man-"a hallowed haunt, though but in ruins seen.” Beneath a great grove of walnut trees they used to regale, and take their refreshments. A leaden reservoir on the top of the house, kept there for retaining water as a security against fire, got to leaking, and caused the building to fall into premature decay, so that at the era of the revolution, it was torn down, with an intention to rebuild another; but the war prevented