THE HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, CHAPTER XXX, THE WALKING PURCHASE, 1737 from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time by W. W. H. Davis, A.M., 1876 and 1905* editions.. Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Donna Bluemink. dbluemink@cox.net USGENWEB NOTICE: Printing this file by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. _____________________________________________________________________________ Transcriber's note: Liberty has been taken with numbering footnotes so as to include all footnotes from both the 1876 and 1905 editions, plus any additional text and pictures in the 1905 edition. All 1905 material will be noted with an asterisk. Note: Where names differ, the 1905 edition spelling is applied. _____________________________________________________________________________ CHAPTER XXX THE WALKING PURCHASE 1737 Indians dissatisfied. -First purchase in 1682. -Treaty of 1686. -Treaty of 1737. -Preliminary walk. -Courses and distances. -Steel's letter to Smith. -Great Walk arranged. -Marshall, et al. -The starting. -Monument erected. -Jennings and Yeates give out. -Distance walked. -Head-line drawn. -The walk and the Indians. -Terms of treaty. -About treaty of 1686. -Treaty of 1718. -The Charles Thomson map. -The exact starting point. -Location of chestnut tree. -Testimony of witnesses. -Fairness of the walk. -Testimony of the Chapman family. -Location of spruce tree. -Towsisnick.. -Head-line of purchase of 1682. -Solomon Jennings. -Edward Marshall. -His wife killed. -His death. -Marshall's rifle. (See map of Walking Purchase) No event in the early history of the county gave so much dissatisfaction to the Indians, or led to as severe criticism of the Penns as the "Walking Purchase." This was the treaty of 1737, which confirmed to the Proprietaries all that part of Bucks county above a line drawn from the Neshaminy through the lower part of Wrightstown to the Delaware at the mouth of Knowles' creek. We purpose, in this chapter, to give an account of this celebrated purchase, and the manner in which it was carried out. The first purchase of land in this county of the Indians, as we have already stated, was in 1682, by William Markham. This embraced all the territory between the Neshaminy and the Delaware as high up as Wrightstown and Upper Makefield. After Penn's arrival he purchased the land lying between the Pennypack and the Neshaminy. The next treaty is said to have been made the August 30, 1686, although such treaty or deed has never been found, by which the Indians conveyed to Penn all the land above the upper line of the treaty of 1682, extending as far inland "as a man can go in one day and a half," to be bound on the west by the Neshaminy, and on the east by the Delaware. After this treaty white settlers established themselves in considerable numbers on the lower part of the purchase, and some settled in the country about the Lehigh. The Indians became uneasy at these encroachments and desired to have the limits of the treaty of 1686 marked by definite metes and bounds. They had several meetings with the Proprietaries to carry out the provisions of the treaty of 1686. The first was held at Durham in 1734, (1) which was continued at Pennsbury in May 1735, and concluded at Philadelphia August 25, 1737. At these meetings or treaties the limits of the tract described in the treaty of 1686 was confirmed, and it was agreed that the northern boundary should be determined by walking a day and a half in a northwest direction from a point in the head line of the purchase of 1682. (1) This historic event took place in the meadows along Durham creek some time in October 1734. See letter of James Logan to the Proprietaries, Pennsylvania Archives, Series II, Vol. 7, pages 182-183.* To ascertain how far the walk could be made to extend, the Proprietaries caused a preliminary walk to be made while the treaty of 1737 was in negotiation. This was arranged in Philadelphia about April 1735 by Timothy Smith, sheriff of Bucks county, and John Chapman. They were to procure three persons "who can travel well," to be accompanied by two others on horseback, with provisions and to assist them on their return. To show the anxiety to have the trial walk before the treaty was concluded, we need but quote the letters of James Steel, receiver-general under Thomas Penn, who wrote to Timothy Smith April 25, 1735: "The Proprietaries are impatient to know what progress is made in traveling over the land that is to be settled in the ensuing treaty that is to be held with the Indians at Pennsbury, on the fifth day of the next month, and therefore I now desire thee, without delay, to send down an account of what has been done in that affair," and on the 29th of the same month he again wrote to Smith and John Chapman: "The Proprietaries are very much concerned that so much time hath been lost before you begin the work recommended so earnestly at your leaving Philadelphia, and it being so very short before the meeting at Pennsbury, the 5th of next month, that they now desire that upon the return of Joseph Doane, he, together with two other persons who can travel well, should be immediately sent on foot on the day and a half journey, and two others on horseback to carry necessary provisions for them, and to assist them in their return home. The time is now so far spent that not one moment is to be lost; and as soon as they have traveled the day and a half journey, the Proprietaries desire that a messenger may be sent to give them account without any delay, how far that day and a half traveling will reach up the county." Steel promised that the Proprietaries would "generously reward" those who engaged in this business. The parties started on the preliminary walk on April 22, 1735, and occupied nine days. John Chapman went along in the capacity of surveyor, and from John Watson's notebook, who may have been of the party, we obtain the courses and distances, as follows: "From Wrightstown, where the first Indian purchase came to, to Plumstead, is a little to the north of the northwest along th road, (2) nine or ten miles, and the several courses of the road from Plumstead to Catatuning hill, (3) is northwest eight miles to the head of Perkiomen branch, northwest by north four miles to Stokes's meadow, (4) north one mile by the old draught, northwest by north sixteen miles to the West Branch, (5) thence by the same north thirty chains, north-northwest twenty-five chains, northwest six ditto, north ninety ditto, north-northwest one hundred and seventeen ditto, north seventy-four ditto, north-northeast thirty ditto, and northwest by north four hundred chains to the mountains." The trees were blazed through the woods so the route could be followed at the subsequent walk. As the Penns caused this walk to be made without the knowledge of the Indians, our readers are able to judge of the morality of the act. (2) Probably Durham Road. (3) [Haycock*] mountains. (4) Applebachsville. (5) Lehigh. Immediately the treaty of August 25, 1737, had been concluded, Steel acquainted Timothy Smith of the fact, and asked him in the name of "Our Proprietor to speak to that man of the three which traveled and held out the best when they walked over the land before, to attend that service at the time mentioned, when Solomon Jennings is expected to join and travel the day and a half with him." Smith and Chapman were both expected to accompany the walk, and the former was to provide needful provisions. The time fixed for the walk, under the treaty, was the September 12th, but as the Supreme Court, and Quarter Sessions of Bucks county would both be in session then, it was postponed to the 19th. The preliminaries were all arranged in advance, and Edward Marshall, James Yeats and Solomon Jennings, all famous walkers, and no doubt one of them "that man which held out the best" in the trial walk, were employed by the Proprietaries to make the walk. It was agreed that the Indians should send several of their young men along to see that the thing was fairly done. The walkers were promised £5 in money and 500 acres of land, but Marshall always maintained that he never received any remuneration. The place of starting was fixed at a large chestnut tree that stood in the corner of the field where the road from Pennsville meets the Durham road, near the Wrightstown meetinghouse. This tree was selected because it was a well-known point, and near the northern boundary of the Markham purchase. The walkers were accompanied by several persons on horseback, and provisions were carried for them. A number of persons had assembled at the place of starting. Marshall, Yeates, and Jennings stood with their hands upon the chestnut tree, and as the sun showed his face above the horizon, the word was given by Sheriff Smith, and they started. Guided by the compass, they walked in as direct a line as the obstructions would permit, some of the way being on the bed of the Durham road. Bets were made on the speed of the walkers. Yeates led the way with a light step, and next to him, but some way behind, came J ennings and two of the Indian walkers, and Marshall came last, far behind Jennings, swinging a hatchet in his hand, and walking in a careless manner. They reached Red Hill, (6) in Bedminster, in two and a half hours, and took dinner in the meadow near Wilson's, an Indian trader on Durham creek, supposed to have been about where the old furnace stood. They crossed the Lehigh a mile below Bethlehem, at what is now Jones' island, and passed the Blue mountains at Smith's gap, in Moore township, Northampton county, and that night they slept on the north side of the mountain. The walk was resumed the next day at sunrise, and the extremest point reached at twelve, M., when Marshall, who alone held out, threw himself at length on the ground, and grasped a sapling which marked the end of the line. Jennings first gave out, about two miles north of the Tohickon, about ten or eleven o'clock of the first day, and then lagged on behind in the company of the curious. He left them on the Lehigh, and returned to his home above Bethlehem, but never recovered his health. Yeates, who fell in the creek at the foot of the mountain the morning of the second day, was quite blind when taken up, and lived but three days. Marshall lived to the age of ninety, and died in Tinicum. The walk is said to have followed an Indian path that led from the hunting-grounds of the Susquehannas down to the Delaware near Bristol, the same which the Indians followed on their visits to Penn at Pennsbury. The Indians showed their dissatisfaction at the manner in which the walk was conducted, and left the party before it had been concluded. It is said they frequently called upon the walkers not to run. The distance walked, according to the measurements we have, was sixty-one and one-fourth miles. Nicholas Scull says it was fifty-five statute miles, while some estimate the distance as great as eighty-six miles. The following courses and distances were discovered during our investigations, and purported to be those of the walk of 1737, but beyond this we cannot vouch for them: No. 1--N. 34 degrees W., 13 7/8 miles. No. 2--N. 19 degrees W., 3 _ miles. No. 3--N. 37 degrees W., 14 7/8 miles To Lehigh river 32 _ miles. No. 4--N. 66 degrees W., 3 1/4 miles. No. 5--N. 31 degrees W., 8 _ miles. No. 6--N. 35.30 degrees W., 8 miles No. 7--N. 30 degrees W., 9 miles. TOTAL 61 1/4 miles. A day and a half's walk. (6) On Saturday, September 22, 1900, a memorial tablet was dedicated near Red Hill, (Ottsville) Bedminster township, to commemorate the great walk of 1737. It was the 163rd anniversary. The walkers passed near the place. Charles Laubach, Durham, delivered a suitable address. The memorial was the gift of J. W. Emery, and erected at his expense. * When the walkers had reached the furthest point possible to the northwest, from the place of starting at Wrightstown, it remained to run the line to the Delaware. This the Indians expected would be drawn in a direct line to the river at the nearest point, but instead it was run at right-angles to the line of the walk, and struck the river at or near the Laxawaxen. These lines embraced all the land within the Forks of Delaware, the celebrated Minisink flats, and in fact all the land worth anything south of the Blue mountains. This also included territory that belonged to the Minsi Indians which the Delaware had no right to convey. This northern line had not been fixed by the treaty, which left it open for the Penns to make their own selection of the course. They are accused of intentionally including in the purchase all the good lands south of the Blue mountains. The southwesterly line of the purchase is the line between Bucks and Montgomery counties, or nearly so. It is said in extenuation of the conduct of the Proprietaries that it was the intent of the deed to run the northwesterly line from the point where that from the white oak marked "P" strikes the Neshaminy, up the most westerly branch of that stream to its utmost limit, then in a straight line back into the woods as far as a man could go in a day and a half. In the earlier deeds of purchase, where the same or similar words are used to signify the line that was to run back into the country, it was meant to be right-angles to the general course of the river from New Castle to the bend above Pennsbury, and was so run when these lines came to be surveyed. The general course of the river is from northeast to southwest, hence the southwesterly line of the purchase from the utmost limit of the westerly branch of the Neshaminy must be northwesterly, the direction the line was run by the surveyor-general, Mr. Eastburn. When he came to run the head-line he considered it but just and reasonable that it should be at right-angles to the southwesterly line, and it was so run. The quantity of land embraced in the purchase was about 500,000 acres. James Steel wrote to Letitia Aubrey, in November 1737 that it required about four days to walk from the upper end of the day-and-a-half's journey, and "that after they crossed the great ridge of mountains they saw very little good or even tolerable land fit for settlement." This walk gave great dissatisfaction to the Indians, and was the subject of much controversy. It was mainly the occasion of the general Indian council at Easton, in 1756, where the matter was fully discussed. The two main causes of complaint were, first, that the walk should have been made up along the Delaware, and second, that it was not fairly made, that the walkers walked too fast, and too constantly, but should have stopped occasionally to shoot game, smoke and eat. As to the first cause of complaint the Indians had no case. The deed of purchase says, expressly, that the finishing and closing line of the boundary shall be down the Delaware, by its several courses, to the place of beginning at the spruce tree. The exact spot to begin the walk was left optional with the contracting parties, but it was intended to be at some point toward the western extremity of the head-line of the purchase of 1682. There was nothing to prevent fixing the point of starting where the headline crosses the Neshaminy, but Wrightstown was probably selected because it was convenient, and on a public highway. Now as to the unfairness of the walk. By the terms of the treaty the purchase was to extend as far back into the woods "as a man can go in one day and a half." The agreement was clear and explicit, and the Proprietaries were only carrying out the treaty. The walk was intended to be just what was provided for, a real, earnest, business affair, and not an idle walk without object. There was nothing in the terms of the treaty that confined the men to walking, who could have gone at a fast gait had they been so disposed, but there is no evidence that they went faster. The conditions of the deed were probably hard for the Indians, and they may have been overreached in the treaty of 1737, but when the Proprietaries came to have the terms of the purchase carried out, they claimed no more than they were entitled to. "As far as a man can go in a day and a half," back into the woods was to be the limit of the purchase. At the time, the Indians made no objection to beginning the walk at Wrightstown, but this as a cause of complaint was an afterthought when they realized the quantity of land embraced in the purchase. The witnesses all testify that the walk was fairly made in eighteen hours, with the necessary intermissions for one night's rest, and meals. There is serious question whether there ever was any treaty of 1686. After Penn's death a document was found among his papers, in England, which was endorsed "Copy of the last Indian purchase." It was not an attested copy, and the handwriting of the endorsement was not known. The "Report of council" on the subject of the complaints of the Indians, made in 1758, states that the paper found was in the handwriting of Philip Thlehuman, then a noted clerk in the offices of the secretary, and land-office, who died in 1687. The report further states that the endorsement was by Thomas Holme, also that mention was made in an ancient diary of William Markham's, that he and Holme treated with the Delaware Indians for the purchase of the lands in the Forks of Delaware just before the date of the deed in 1686. There was never any attempt to prove the deed by calling the persons who witnessed it; and the only personal evidence is that of William Biles and Joseph Wood, who declared they remembered a treaty being held, but did not know that a deed had been executed. The place where the treaty was made is not mentioned anywhere. At the treaty at Easton, in November, 1756, Teedyuscung, chief of the Delawares, denounced the deed of 1686 a forgery, and said that the land at the Forks had been taken from him by fraud. In all the negotiations touching the deed of 1686, and its affirmations, no mention is made of the deed of 1718 executed at Philadelphia. The chiefs of the Delaware Indians imagining they had not been paid for all their lands, a number of them came to Philadelphia in 1718 to demand what was due them. Their complaint was heard in council, and a great number of deeds they had previously made with the Proprietary were presented. They were satisfied from the deeds that they had been paid for their lands from Duck creek (at the head of Delaware bay), to near the Forks of Delaware, and executed a release for all those lands and of all demands whatsoever, on account of purchases between these points. This deed was executed September 17, 1718, and embraced all the land between Duck creek and the South mountain. This treaty and the deed under it appear to have settled all controversy between the Proprietary and the Indians down to that period. The deed of 1686 does not appear to have been mentioned in this transaction, or, if it was, this new deed was thought to cover the purchase provided by it. The terms of the deed are: "We therefore, in gratitude for said presents, as well in consideration of the several grants made by our ancestors and predecessors, as of the said several goods herein before mentioned, the receipt whereof we do hereby acknowledge, do, by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, grant and remise, release and forever quit claim unto the said William Penn, his heirs and assigns, all the said lands situated between the said two rivers of Delaware and Susquehanna from Duck creek to the mountains on this side Leechay," etc. The map accompanying "Charles Thomson's Inquiry," and drawn in 1759, shows the "Leechay hills" stretching away from near the mouth of the Lehigh to the Susquehanna, above the mouth of Conestoga creek. The map has various Indian purchases marked out upon it, and among them is that which "describes the lands granted by the Indians' walking sale, as lately walked out by W. Peason, containing 330,000 acres." The line begins at the Neshaminy where that from the spruce tree strikes that creek, and which it follows up to the "Leechay hills," thence along these hills to the Delaware, and down the same to the spruce tree. When was this walked out and what for? The deed of 1718 confirms the purchase of all of Bucks county above the purchase of 1682. It leaves no room for doubt. From it we learn that the Delaware Indians had no title to lands south of the Lehigh, and the Proprietary had no right to claim the lands north of that river. So far as the deed of 1718 is considered, it seems to have adjusted all differences between the Proprietary and Indians that had grown up under previous deeds. In 1727, when some persons wanted to take up lands in the Minisink, James Logan wrote John Watson, the surveyor of Bucks county, to prevent it; nor would he permit land to be surveyed four miles above Durham, on the ground that it had not yet been purchased of the Indians. The Indians were a good deal provoked because Thomas Penn caused a number of tracts to be surveyed in the Forks of Delaware under his lottery scheme of 1733-34, several of which were taken up and settled upon. There has been considerable controversy as to the exact point from which the walkers started on the morning the September 19, 1737. Some contend that the chestnut tree stood below Wrightstown meeting-house, while there are not wanting those who believe it was as low down as Newtown. A witness of that period, Thomas Janney, stated that he saw Yeates, Jennings, and Marshall pass through Newtown on the Great Walk; while Samuel Preston states that Marshall related to him an account of his great walk from Bristol to "Stillwater." Of course there is no truth in these statements so far as the walk of 1737 is concerned. One simple fact is sufficient to controvert these statements, that the walk was to start from the headline of the purchase of 1682, which ran from the mouth of Knowles' creek, in Upper Makefield, through the lower end of Wrightstown to the Neshaminy. It is not probable that the Proprietaries would begin the walk several miles below the line fixed upon, and thus reduce the extent of the purchase. Nevertheless we will bring a few witnesses upon the stand and let them tell what they know about the starting point. Among those who accompanied the walkers was Thomas Furness, a saddler of Newtown, who had learned the particulars of what was to take place of James Yeates, one of the walkers. He went to the place of starting on the morning in question, "at a chestnut tree, near the turning out of the road from Durham road to John Chapman's." who lived on the road from Wrightstown meetinghouse to Pennsville. They had gone when he arrived, but pushing on he overtook them before they reached Buckingham, and continued with them to the end. He was probably on horseback. Besides fixing the place of starting, Furness gives some incidents of the walk. He states that the Indians left the afternoon of the first day, being dissatisfied with the manner in which the walk was made. The first day twelve hours were walked, and it was twilight some time before they stopped to give them the exact time, that they had a piece of rising ground to ascend and that he called out to them to "pull up," which they did, and that when he said the time was out, Marshall clasped his arms about a sapling for support, and on the sheriff asking what was the matter, he said he was almost gone, and could not have walked many polls further. They lodged in the woods that night, and could hear the Indians shouting at a cantico which they held in a town near by. Before the Indians left the walkers, they complained of the unfairness of the walk, that the walkers would pass all the good land and it was not worth while for them to go any further. The Indians refused to resume the walk the next morning. As the parties returned from the walk, coming near the Indian town, an Indian made a hostile demonstration with a gun, but he did nothing further. Joseph Knowles, a nephew of Sheriff Smith, and lived with him at the time, went with him on the walk and assisted to blaze the trees. In a public statement made 30 years afterward, he agrees with Furness as to the place of starting, which, he says, was "at John Chapman's corner, at Wrightstown." John Chapman, who owned the land on which the tree stood, accompanied the walk, and his grand-nephew, Edward Chapman, who was born and died in the township, at the age of 91, had a recollection of the chestnut tree, which blew down about 1765. He said the tree stood where located by his uncle, on the south side of the Pennsville road where it strikes the Durham road, and now in a corner of the Wrightstown meeting property. Steel writes to Nicholas Scull August 28, 1737, requesting him and John Chapman to run the head-line of the purchase of 1682, from the Delaware to Neshaminy, and he sent the Indian deed to Scull, to aid them in running it. The Proprietaries wanted this done because "from the second course or line from the spruce tree, the day-and-a-half journey, is to begin. " No doubt this line, which crossed the Durham road about where the chestnut tree stood, was a re-run, and the tree fixed upon as the starting point, because it was a well-known landmark. Scull, afterward Surveyor-General, in a sworn statement made before the provincial council in 1757, says that he accompanied the walk, that besides himself were Benjamin Eastburn, Surveyor-General, and Timothy Smith, Sheriff of the county, that the distance was about 55 statute miles, that they walked 18 hours, and that it was fairly done, that the night after the walk was completed, he and Eastburn, and some others stayed at an Indian towns called Poahopohkunk, where there were many Delaware Indians, among whom was one known as Captain Harrison, a noted man among them, but he did not remember that he or any other Indians complained of any unfairness in the matter, that the men walked, but did not run, and the walk was begun at a place near Wrightstown. (7) There is a discrepance among the witnesses in regard to eating on the road, some of them saying that the victuals were served to the men while they walked, others that they halted at noon for dinner, and of course breakfasted before they started in the morning, and ate supper after they stopped in the evening. After the walk was made surveyors were sent to mark out the tract included in the purchase, which enabled the authorities to fill up the line left blank in the treaty. (7) In the early history of the county, the townstead in this township was known by the name of Wrightstown, and no doubt surveyor-general Eastburn makes this reference when he says the walk "began at a place near Wrightstown." The traditional and other testimony of the Chapman family of Wrightstown should be sufficient to fix the starting point at the chestnut tree without question. Edward Chapman, who died about 1853 at the age of 91, said the chestnut tree stood in the field now owned by Martha Chapman at the southwest corner where the Pennsville road comes into the Durham road and then belonged to John Chapman, the surveyor. Edward went to school in a house that stood near by, and said the he had swung upon the branches after it was blown or cut down. The author was told by John Knowles, sexton of the Wrightstown meeting, and a resident of the neighborhood for over 40 years, that Edward Chapman pointed out to him the stump of the chestnut tree in the corner of what is now Martha Chapman's field. Abraham Chapman, the brother of John, the surveyor, lived on the Durham road near where the chestnut tree stood, was married in 1715 and had a family of six sons and two daughters, John, the eldest, born in 1716, and Joseph, the youngest, in 1733, all born prior to the Great Walk. Several were old enough, and no doubt were present at the starting, and had a distinct recollection of it. Some of them, father and sons, held positions of trust - members of Assembly, justices of peace, and one trustee of the loan office, and all men of undoubted integrity and veracity. Many of their children lived to an advanced age, and died in the memory of persons now living, and the children of others deceased conversed with them on the subject, and they all unhesitatingly declared the starting point was the chestnut tree that stood on the corner where the road from Pennsville joins the Durham road. They must have often heard their father and uncles speak of the matter, and being born and brought up on the spot, their opportunity of obtaining correct information could scarce be equaled. Some of them fixed the spot more particularly as a little west of the northwest corner of the graveyard. [The Bucks County Historical Society, 1886, erected a fitting monument to mark the starting point in the Walking Purchase. Action was first taken at the Quarterly meeting, held at Wrightstown, July 31, 1883, at which a committee was appointed to carry out its views. It was composed of John Cooper, Mrs. Cynthia A. Holcomb, Eleazer F. Church, Miss Annie Scarboro, Thomas C. Knowles, and George C. Blackfan, who were instructed "to wait upon the present owner of the land where the old chestnut tree stood, at which the Walking Purchase, 1737, was begun, and get permission to place a stone or mark of some other character, upon the spot; to furnish some plan for the mark, or other device and to report, etc. No further action was had until January 19, 1886, when the committee reported, recommending a pyramidal monument of fine hard sandstone or granite, the shaft about four feet high, resting on a base of symmetrical size placed on a sodded mound two feet high. It was erected that season at a cost of $101 and on three sides is the following legend: "TO THE MEMORY OF THE LENNI LENAPE INDIANS ANCIENT OWNERS OF THIS REGION THESE STONES ARE PLACED AT THIS SPOT THE STARTING POINT OF THE INDIAN WALK SEPTEMBER 19, 1737" [Martha Chapman gave the land, 621 square feet, she deeding it to Edward Atkinson and wife, and they to the Bucks County Historical Society. It stands about on the site of the chestnut tree, near Wrightstown meeting property.*] In this connection it is of interest to locate the corner marked spruce tree by the Delaware, from which the northern boundary of the purchase of 1682 was run. This tree was standing in 1756, and according to measurement of John Watson, the surveyor, it was 140 perches, measured by the bank of the river, "above the mouth of the Great creek, so called," and now known as Knowles' creek. In 1722 Samuel Baker (8) owned a tract of 552 acres in Upper Makefield, on both sides of this creek, and extending 90 5/10 perches above it, which is good reason why the creek was then called Baker's creek. It is the only creek in that section of the county which has high hills along its northern bank, which is not the case with Hough's creek, which some claim was Baker's. The white oak, mentioned in this grant, Watson supposed to stand, at the time he measured the distance of the spruce tree from the mouth of the creek, near the northeast corner of Joseph Hampton's land, on a branch of the aforesaid Great creek, and that Playwicky, an Indian town or plantation, was about Philip Draket's mill, below Heaton's mill. Towsisnick creek, near the head of which the town of Playwicky was situated, is supposed to have been the southerly branch of Knowles' creek, which then headed on Hampton's farm. The line from the white oak across part of Upper Makefield and Wrightstown, was marked by a line of blazed trees. John Penquite, who deceased about 1756, remembered, when a lad, to have seen the marked trees across his father's farm, and to have heard the Indians tell his father that it was the line between them and Penn, and they ordered him to till the ground on Penn's side only, and not to meddle with theirs. This line ran west, southwest to the Neshaminy. (8) Under date of May 11, 1898, Richard Randolph Parry, New Hope, wrote the author as follows: "I find among my papers an old deed, unrecorded, from Joseph Knowles and Catharine Knowles, his wife, to John Knowles, dated July 4, A.D., 1759, for a tract of land in Makefield township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, which deed describes it as a part of the "Knowles tract" of 540 acres more or less, in Upper Makefield, owned, 1722, by Samuel Baker, who, it recited, conveyed in the month of December 1725 to John Knowles, the elder, of Upper Makefield township. In General Davis's HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, page 495, it is noted as being upon both sides of "Knowles Creek," and contents given 552 acres, owned by Samuel Baker, in A. D. 1722. (This land seems to have gained 12 acres over the land office survey.) This doubtless covers the historic "Knowles Cove," from where the boats were taken for "Washington's Crossing." The deed ought to be recorded, as it forms a valuable link in a chain of historic events. The deed was not acknowledged, being a family affair, until June 22, 1772, when it was done before John Harris, Esq., J. P., who took Catharine Knowles' acknowledgment in person, and that of Joseph Knowles, presumably deceased, by the affidavit of John Beaumont, that he saw Joseph Knowles sign it, and also John Watson, Jr., one of the attesting witnesses, affix his signature to the deed - Watson also probably being deceased." * Of the three white men who started upon the Great Walk of 1737, Marshall is the better known. Jennings, who gave out first, lived on what was long known as the Geisinger farm on the south bank of the Lehigh, two miles above Bethlehem. When he settled there it was the extreme frontier of the county in that direction, and the house he lived in was one of two in that neighborhood when the Moravians came. His son John was sheriff of Northampton county in 1762, and again in 1768, and was a good officer. Solomon Jennings was a commissioner of the county in 1755, and was often on road-views. In 1756 he passed through Nazareth at the head of a company of militia en route for the scene of the Indian massacre on the frontiers, to search for and bury the dead. Beside a son John, he had a son Isaiah, and daughters Judith and Rachel, one of which married Nicholas Scull. He died February 15, 1757, and was buried in the family graveyard on the farm. After the death of his widow, in 1764, the 200 acres were sold at public sale to Jacob Geisinger, of Saucon township, the ancestor of the present owner, and also 164 acres adjoining. James Yeates lived in Newtown, but probably died before he reached his home. He came from New England. Edward Marshall was a native of Bustleton, Philadelphia county, where he was born in 1710, which makes him 27 years old when he performed the Great Walk. He was a hunter by occupation and choice. He was twice married and was the father of 21 children. It is not known at what time he came into the county, but we first find him living with his first wife near where Stroudsburg, Monroe county, stands. In his absence from home hostile Indians came to his house, when his wife fled, but was overtaken and killed, with two unborn infants. From this time Marshall swore vengeance against the Indians, and never lost an opportunity to kill one. He would at times simply remark, when questioned about his Indian experience, that when he saw one "he generally shut one eye, and never saw him afterward." After the death of his wife, Elizabeth Mease kept house for him, and, during that time, the Indians attacked it again while he was away from home. His son, Peter, loaded the gun and Elizabeth fired out the window, keeping the Indians at bay until Marshall returned. He afterward married her, and she had eight children. He was probably a single man at the time of the walk, and did not move up to Monroe county until afterward. The Indians were hostile to him because of the part he took in the Great Walk. He subsequently removed to an island in the Delaware, opposite Tinicum, which bears his name, where he died. His body was brought to the Pennsylvania side and buried from a house that stood on the site of one now standing just below the mouth of Tinicum creek. His place of interment in the Marshall burying-ground, is marked by a stone, with the following inscription: "In memory of Edward Marshall, senior, who departed this life November 7th, 1789, aged seventy-nine years. "Unveil thy bosom faithful tomb, Take this frail treasure to thy trust, And find these sacred relics room, To slumber in the silent dust." Another stone is "in memory of Elizabeth Marshall, who departed this life October 12th, 1807, aged eighty years," his second wife. Of his children William died at the age of eighty, at the mouth of Tinicum creek, Catharine was the maternal grandmother of many of the Ridges of Tinicum, and Marshall's island, which contained 250 acres when Edward Marshall lived on it, was given to his sons, Martin and William. Moses died about the last of June 1828, on Marshall's island. He said that his father did not move to the backwoods until after the Indian war of 1756, and that he escaped when his mother was massacred by hiding under a bench on which were several bee-hives, and upon which the Indians threw their match-coats while they went to scalp his mother. He used to relate several incidents of the walk. His father wore very thin and flexible moccasins, and carried a hatchet, and a few light biscuits. None of the streams on the route were to be crossed in boats except the Lehigh, but were to be forded, neither were the walkers permitted to run and jump over a creek, but might go first to the edge and make an observations, and then return and jump it. The walkers did not leave the Durham road until they reached the furnace, when they followed blazed trees through the woods. The rifle that Edward Marshall carried is now owned by his grandson, William Ridge, of Tinicum, who lives on the Delaware a short distance below the mouth of Tinicum creek. It is a flint-lock, in good condition, and the name of the German maker, or the place where made, stamped on the barrel. The family tradition is that Marshall killed 1,003 deer with it, besides other animals, and unnumbered Indians. Eliza Kean, his granddaughter, and a daughter of his son Thomas, 82 years old, in 1876, was then living on the New Jersey side of the Delaware, just below Frenchtown, owned his eight-day clock, in good running order, and his chest of drawers, 300 years old, which his grandfather brought from England. Philip Hinkle has a shot-gun that belonged to Edward Marshall. END OF CHAPTER XXX. END OF 1905 EDITION, VOLUME I.