The entire number of schools set up by the above named meetings was eighteen or nineteen.
CHAPTER VIII
SCHOOLS OF DELAWARE COUNTY
The meetings
The activity of the several monthly meetings in Delaware County in the establishment of schools will be considered under the heads of the respective meetings in the following order, Chester, Darby, Radnor, and Concord. These are four of the earliest monthly meetings established in Pennsylvania, the dates of their establishment being: Chester, 1681; and Darby, Radnor, and Concord in 1684.[648] The aim of this chapter, as of the others dealing with the several counties, is to present, first the source material which has been found to have any bearing on the establishment of schools and the attitude of the monthly meetings toward them.
Naming of Chester
Penn having come to New Castle on October 27, 1682, and performed the ceremonies of taking possession of the province,[649] appears to have gone thence to Upland, from whence he sent a letter to Ephriam Harman (dated October 29, 1682) regarding summoning a court to be held at New Castle (November 2, 1682).[650] But Upland was not destined to remain the name of the city, as Penn’s biographers tell us. It is stated that Penn, having arrived and being filled with emotion at having had a successful journey, turned to a friend and said, “What wilt thou that I should call this place?” He replied, “Chester.”[651]
Education before coming of Quakers
In passing it should be mentioned that an interest in education does not date entirely from the coming of the Quakers and the establishment of Penn’s colony. The records of the court of Upland inform us (1679) that, without a doubt, some children received the advantages of an education. It may have been very restricted, we cannot determine that. The records of that date state, however, that: “The Plt demands of this Deft 200 Gilders for teaching this Defts children to read one yeare.”[652] There is no doubt that Friends were not concerned with education in this case.[653]
The first meetings of Chester Monthly Meeting were held in the Court House[654] at Chester, and meetings for worship usually among the members at their homes, previously designated.[655] In March, 1686, Urin Keen conveyed in trust to John Simcock, Thomas Brassey, John Brinton, Caleb Pusey, Randall Vernon, Thomas Vernon, Joshua Hastings, Mordecai Maddock, Thomas Martin, Richard Few, Walter Faucet and Edward Carter, a piece of ground in Chester