NOTES
[1] It was not until after the Declaration of Independence that these “Counties upon the Delaware” received the name of Delaware State, and not until 1792 that it was called the “State of Delaware.”
[2] Edmund Burke spoke of Penn’s Charter to his colonies of Pennsylvania and Delaware as “a noble charter of privileges, by which he made the people more free than any people on earth, and which by securing both civil and religious liberty caused the eyes of the oppressed from all parts of the world to look to his counties for relief.”
[3] This account of the life in Delaware before the Revolutionary War is taken from a letter from Thomas Rodney, a younger brother of Caesar Rodney.
[4] The land upon which Dover stands was bought from the Indians in 1697, for two match coats, twelve bottles of drink and four handfuls of powder.
[5] Rodney, Read and McKean were appointed Delegates in March, 1775.
[6] While Caesar Rodney’s famous ride is a story of which Delaware is proud, the exact time when he started, and the place he started from have been much disputed. One tradition says that he left Sarah Rowland’s house at Lewes, and another tradition insists that he started from his own house near Dover. As for the hours of starting and arrival, the archives show how different the versions are. After much thought and trouble, the Colonial Dames have decided to choose the most detailed tradition as being possibly also the most accurate. They do not claim to decide the matter, which will always, probably, remain unsolved.
The following was the Congress express rider’s time from Lewes to Philadelphia: Leave Lewes at noon, reach Wilmington next day at 4 o’clock, A. M. Or leave Lewes at 7 o’clock, P. M., Cedar Creek, 10:30; Dover, 4:15; Cantwell’s Bridge, 9:05; Wilmington, 12:55; Chester, 2:37; arrive Philadelphia 4 o’clock P. M., or 21 hours. (See American Archives.)