On 27 Sep 1678 (Julian Calendar) a tract of about 400 acres called Hopewell of Kent was surveyed by Walter Wharton surveyor as follows:
1. Beginning at a black oak tree (called Lemoky) on the land of Albert Hendricks on the south–west side of Upland (now Chester) Creek at the mouth of a small run Run from thence running south south west up the run 136 perches to the head of the run.
2. From thence south west 155 perches to a marked black oak “of the Land of marker hookill” (Chester Creek).
3. From thence west south west 80 perches to a marked white oak.
4. From thence north north west 266 perches to a marked black oak.
5. From thence east north east 296 perches to a marked poplar stsnding at the side of a small Run.
6. From thence east south east down the run 22 perches to the main creek.
7. From thence down the said creek to the first mentioned black oak.
Note: a perch = 16.5 feet.
The above description is from Edward Armstrong ed.,Record of Upland Court from 14th of November, 1676 to the 14th of June, 1681 (Philadelhia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1860), p. 126.
The map is from Benjamin H. Smith, Atlas of Delaware County Pennsylvania: Containing Nineteen Maps Exhibing the Early Grants and Patents Compiled from Official Records Together with A History of the Land Titles in the County ( Philadelphia: Press of Henry B. Ashmead, 1880), p. 38. Available at ancestry.com.
John Test’s 100 acres toward the bottom of the map extending north from the Delaware River is referenced in The Record of the Court at Chester:
Upon the Peticon of John Test the Cort doe grant & permit him to take up on ye westsyde of this River of Delowar wthin ye Juristiction of this Court; one hundered acres of Land wch heretofore hath not ben Granted taken up or Improoved; Provyded the sd Peticonr makes present Settlement & Improovemt thereon according to Lawe Regulacons and orders.
Approximation of size and location of Hopewell of Kent depicted on Google Earth Map.
Notice that just to the west Test’s Hopewell of Kent is the Upper Chichester Twp property of Thomas Withers. Withers was the father of Mary Withers who married William Hewes III brother of Deborah Hewes (who married Zaccheus Dunn in 1728). William Hewes III is mistakenly but widely believed to have immigrated to frontier Virginia.
November 11, 2020