Battle of the Brandywine

Battle of the Brandywine. Jefferis' Ford. The metal truss bridge that stands before you marks the location of Jefferis' Ford. The ford is named after the Quaker family of Emmor Jefferis, the Revolutionary War-era owner of Blue Rock Farm located at the intersection of Lucky Hill and Allerton Roads.

During the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777, British Generals Howe and Cornwallis marched 11,000 Crown Force soldiers through the farm and across the east branch of the Brandywine at Jefferis' Ford in the 14-mile flanking effort against General George Washington's American forces stationed at Chadd's Ford. Emmor Jefferis was forcefully coerced into serving the British as a guide beyond the east side of the ford, while the invading troops purportedly plundered his house and barn. General Howe began to realize that his tactical flanking maneuver had worked once he emerged on the east side of Jefferis' Ford and, much to his surprise, was not met by Washington's troops.

Emmor Jefferis survived the war and his family later operated the farmhouse (ca. 1714) as a tavern for travelers moving along the route of today's Allerton Road. The tavern became known as the "Sign of the Eel's Foot Tavern" and closed around 1845. The truss bridge that you see today was constructed in 1905 and was originally located over the Doe Run in nearby West Marlborough Township. It was relocated to its current site in 1953 to replace a wooden covered bridge that had burned down.

"...our eyes were caught on a sudden by the appearance of the army coming out of the woods into the fields belonging to Emmor Jefferis, on the west side of the creek, above the fording-place. In a few minutes the fields were literally covered over with them, and they were hastening towards us. Their arms and bayonets, being raised, shone as bright as silver, the sky being clear and the day exceedingly warm..." -- Joseph Townsend's firsthand account of the British Army arriving at Jefferis' Ford

Captions

Jefferis' Ford Covered Bridge
Photograph taken in 1932, by Frank R. Zabley, of the Jefferis' Ford covered bridge, built in 1833 and destroyed by fire in 1953. Courtesy of Delaware Public Archives

Sign of the Eel's Foot Tavern
Photograph of the Sign of the Eel's Foot Tavern, known today as Blue Rock Farm, former home of Emmor Jefferis, taken in 1899 by Douglas E. Brinton. Courtesy of Chester County History Center

"The Trap is Sprung" Painting by Barclay Rubincam, West Chester, Pennsylvania, United States, 1970, Oil on canvas, Courtesy of Lydia Willits Bartholomew