Thornbury Township: Divided Since 1789

Thornbury Township: Divided Since 1789. Squire Cheyney Farm Park. "Chester's Mother", During the 1780s squabble over removing the county seat to West Chester, both sides ranted in the newspapers. This excerpt from the ditty, "Chester's Mother," satirises Chester citizens who feared losing their public dependent livelihoods., "Poor Chester's Mother's very sick; , Her breath is almost gone; , Her children throng around her thick, , And bitterly do moan., Cries little 'Lisha the first born -- , "What will become of I, , A little orphan, held in scorn, , If Mama she should die?, "Not only I will be opprest, , I younger brothers have , Who cannot do without the breast , When Mama's in her grave.", And then poor helpless Billy cries -- , "Oh! How shall I be fed? , What shall I do, if Mama dies? , I cannot work for bread.", [Map caption] , Notice that in 1883 nineteen farms filled nearly all of the township. Its irregular , border with Thornbury Township, Delaware County is evident. , (Detail from Breou's Atlas, 1883. Courtesy of Chester County Historical Society.) . , Thornbury Township is named after a town in Gloucestershire, Eogland. When it was formed in 1687, Thornbury Township was sparsely populated, having only five or six families. Legal transactions required a costly and time consuming trip to Chester, the county's seat., The growing number of citizens in the county's western parts petitioned in 1766 to have the seat moved further inland. Fourteen years later, the Pennsylvania Assembly approved building a new courthouse and jall in what is now West Chester. When construction began in 1784 it aroused the ire of Chester citizens to the point of armed confrontation at the new courthouse's site in the spring of 1785. Violence was narrowly avoided., Pennsylvania Assembly reaffirmed the formal removal of courts and jail to West Chester in 1786 but residents in the Chester area remained upset. So in 1789, Pennsylvania created Delaware County with Chester as its seat. The dividing line ran through Thornbury and Birmingham townships., Property owners could select which county they wished to reside in, accounting for the very irregular boundary between the two Thornbury townships. Most farmers chose to be in the new Delaware County. Only one-quarter of the original township's land stayed put, making Thornbury Township, Chester County, at less than four square miles, the smallest township in Pennsylvania., Once almost entirely agricultural. Thornbury today is characterized by eighteenth and nineteenth century houses and post World War II suburban subdivisions. Its greatest historical moment came in 1777, when the Battle of the Brandywine was waged on its western edge. Squire Thomas Cheyney (1732-1811), whose English-born parents moved to the township in the 1720s, gained fame that day helping to save the American army. This park is named in his honor., In 1800, Thornbury Township's population was only 169. By 1950, it only grew to 298 residents. However, by the year 2000, Thornbury's population exploded to 2,678., For Additional Information Visit: www.thornburytwp.com, [at lower left corner of plaque] , Green , Region , The PECO Open Space Program , This project funded in part by the PECO , Green Region Open Space Program.