as well as native—that religious liberty is an endowment of the Almighty and not at all the gift of a sovereign, whether the sovereign be a people or a king or emperor. Anciently foreigners did not enjoy �these and similar rights which citizens and subjects did in the countries and nations where they

early Columbia. But I assume that the general lines and outlines of that history are well known to you all. At any rate, a locality so long honored by the life and presence of a consummate and tireless historian as was your town, could not help having been informed of the lively past of all this region

they may be seen today. The location fixed on is that between the Susquehanna and Conestoga Rivers. 1698 At this date there was no settlemen in Pennsylvania farther west than 28 miles from Philadelphia. Sarah Meredith who died at the age of 90 years in 1770, went when a young woman of 18 with her

by a small creek. I men- tion this only to show that the Ster- rett ancestry lived in the western part of Lancaster county, around Donegal, as we all know, and in other sections. Chief Justice Sterrett, of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, descended from them. In the issue of April 7, 1740, there is

original letters, etc. These, as a whole, il- lumine the early activities of our people before 1729. The minutes of land granting here, as well as in the other parts of Penn- sylvania, from 1686 are printed in Vol. 19, Sec. Series of Pa. Archives. They give a great deal of side light light upon many early

were settled by Cymric Quakers in 1682, and quotes Proud, saying that the Welsh took up the said two townships and also Mer- ion, and a little later settled three townships more, Newtown, Goshen and Uwchland (See page 38). He says that the first settlement in Mer- ion was made by Dr. Edward Reese and a

�Bucks Countians lodged as follows: Isaac Van Horne at Nauman's and Ralph Stone and James Erwin at John Musser's corner of East Orange and Lime Streets and Gerardus Wynkoch at Judge Henry's. The Chester County legislators divided: Jos. Hemphill lodged at A Scott's on Orange Street; Jas. Hannum at

recovered against him and costs or surrender himsels to prison to serve imprisonment sor debt. This bail was demanded in all suits. The first or bail below was not. So sometimes a desendant's liberty was not disturbed from the time suit was entered until sour days aster return day, which might be three or