The Extent of Simon Hadley's Land

Autumnwood (in blue) and the
Hadley-Dennison House (in red)

Many of the investigations I do these days are instigated by questions posed to me by readers and/or interested and curious folks. Sometimes these are deep or deeply personally-related questions, while other times they may be seemingly lighter, quick questions. However, sometimes even "quick questions" in the category of "maybe of no interest to anyone other than me" can lead to deeper understanding of a subject. This happened recently when I was asked if a certain neighborhood was ever part of a particular person's holdings. I knew of the person (and had even done a post mentioning him), but hadn't actually tried to figure out exactly where his property had been until prompted by this inquiry.

To be more specific, the neighborhood in question is Autumnwood, located on Little Baltimore Road just west of Valley Road (circled in blue in the illustration). The question posed to me was, "Was what's now Autumnwood once part of Simon Hadley's land?" Hadley's was a name that had come up a few times many years back on the blog, including in a 2011 post about the Hadley-Dennison House -- the oldest part of which was built by Simon Hadley in 1717. In looking at the area today the answer seems obvious, but on a closer inspection, maybe not so. Yes, the Hadley-Dennison House sits only about 100 yards north of the edge of Autumnwood (circled in red in the illustration), but there's a pretty clear line of demarcation there. So, did the Irish Quaker's land extend south to include the modern development, or was this part of a neighbor's farm?

First, let's circle back a bit and review, and see how we got here. Simon Hadley was born in Ireland in 1675, and in 1712 emigrated to America with his wife Ruth. Unsurprisingly, as members of the Society of Friends, their first destination was Pennsylvania and they initially settled in Chester County. However, they soon made their way to Delaware and in September 1713, Simon purchased a 1000 acre tract from William Penn, Jr., son of the Proprietor. He also bought more land a few years later, but the area we're concerned with now was all part of that original 1000 acres. I knew of the 1000 acres back during the writing of the 2011 post, and that they extended into Chester County, but I didn't know much beyond that.

The metes and bounds of Simon Hadley's original 1000 acres

In trying to answer the question regarding Autumnwood, I was able to find Hadley's original 1713 deed, written in a handwriting that makes it look more like a medieval manuscript than a colonial-era deed. It even pre-dates the Georges, so it's dated "the first and twentieth day of September in the twelfth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lady Anne Queen of Great Britain and of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and thirteen". It then gives a long explanation of how William Penn, Sr. granted his son 14,500 acres in 1704, how this land is part of that tract, and how this sale is being done through the Penns' lawyers in Philadelphia (it's an indenture tripartite!). Finally we get to the metes and bounds, using the usual posts, white oaks, and lands of the neighbors. It also borders on the east with the Manor of Stenning, the 15,000 acres granted to the young William's sister Letitia. To the best of my ability, Simon Hadley's 1000 acres can be seen in my illustration below, and as you can see, it does indeed extend up into Chester County, and down below Little Baltimore Road.

My approximation of Simon Hadley's 1000 acre tract

But back to our story, we've now answered the basic question, and shown that the land Autumnwood occupies was, in fact, part of Simon Hadley's original 1000 acre tract. But if we dig a bit further, it gets more interesting and unusual. Normally when you look a map or an aerial image of a modern housing development, you can clearly see the boundaries of it. Far more often than not, at least some of those boundaries (if not all of them) will coincide with the property lines of the farm that it almost certainly used to be. And at least some of those lines can date back to the original sales of the tracts. There are many people who have no idea that their backyard property line was first laid out in the 1700's, or even in the 1600's!

But as we can see from the outline of Hadley's 1000 acres, Autumnwood is well inside this tract. So, great. The 90 acres or so of the development was broken off into a farm at some point, then eventually sold to the developer, right? Nope. That's what usually happens, but in this case it's a bit more complicated. In fact, the land that now comprises Autumnwood was part of three different tracts, all sold off of the original farm by the Hadleys. One of them was sold fairly early on, and the other two went after the 1756 death of Simon Hadley, when the remainder of his property was handed down to his grandsons. We don't need to go into everything that happened, but the main part of the farm, just above Autumnwood and where the Hadley-Dennison House sits, was sold in 1762 by Simon's grandson Simon Hadley. That property is still basically intact today, as it was in 1762.

What was essentially the southern half of the original 1000 acres was sold off in four sections. The southeastern portion (which did not contain any of Autumnwood) was held onto the longest, being purchased by Thomas Mitchell in 1796. He purchased it from another of Simon Hadley's grandsons, and the Mitchell family still owns their Woodside Farm today. This means that the land has been owned by only two families since Ben Franklin was seven (and almost 20 years before Washington was born)! Think about that the next time you're sitting there eating your (very delicious) Woodside Farm Creamery ice cream.

The lot containing the southwestern portion of  Autumnwood

The first of the three tracts that do comprise Autumnwood to be sold, which I've dubbed "Lot 2", was sold by Simon himself in 1726 to his son Joshua Hadley. This square, 200 acre farm comprised basically the southwest corner of the 1000 acre tract. In addition to covering the southernmost portion (where the entrance is) of Autumnwood, it now contains the developments of Tenby Chase and Hitchen's Farm on the south side of Little Baltimore Road. Joshua Hadley eventually sold this farm to Robert Johnson in 1745, and Johnson sold to a merchant named Samuel Young in 1763.

"Lot 1", containing the northwestern part of Autumnwood

Lot 1, a vaguely L-shaped (or distended Delaware-shaped) tract, comprised the northwest portion and was willed to yet another one of Simon Hadley's grandsons, Simon Lindley. He was the son of Hadley's daughter Ruth, and her husband Thomas Lindley. By the time of Simon Hadley's 1756 death, the Lindleys had already moved away to Orange County, North Carolina, and not being in the area, Simon Lindley sold his inherited 157 acre farm to the same Samuel Young in 1759. This makes Young's purchase of Lot 2 four years later a southern extension of his property. Young would hold on to both of these properties until his death in 1781. Eventually, much of this would be purchased by Thomas Moore, who would sell it to his Walker step-sons. They were the "Baltimore Walkers", from whom the name of Little Baltimore would derive.

"Lot 3", comprising the eastern part of Autumnwood, and Hampton Pointe

Lot 3, on the northeastern edge of our area of concern, is a mostly rectangular (or keeping with the state theme, sort of a low-res Pennsylvania-shaped), 61 acre property that now covers the eastern end of Autumnwood, as well as the development of Hampton Pointe. As with the other two, this lot was also owned by Samuel Young. I was unable to determine when he purchased it, but it was obviously used as a rental property (which the others probably were, too -- he was identified as a merchant in any deed that listed an occupation). Young sold this farm in 1768 to John Buckingham, but unfortunately, unlike most deeds, it does not specify when and how Young came into possession of the property. It does, however, specify that it sells "unto the said John Buckingham all that messuage plantation or tract of land now in the possession of said John Buckingham". This seems to say that Buckingham was already living on the farm, leasing it from Young.

As an aside, this seems like a good place to clear up a related misunderstanding. If you google Simon Hadley, you'll likely see reference to his home, often called "Messuage Plantation". I admit that when I wrote my original post about the house in 2011, I used this term as well. I've since learned that this is actually a generic term (really, terms) and not the given name of Hadley's residence. "Messuage" is just the term for a residence, along with related outbuildings. A "plantation" meant a farm on which someone lived, and there really should be a comma between them. Usually the deeds state, "messuage, plantation or tract of land". I've since changed the wording of my Hadley-Dennison House post to remove references to "Messuage Plantation".

But to finish up our story, John Buckingham sold the 61 acre Lot 3 to Joseph Philips in 1773. Philips was a blacksmith, who later also purchased part of the oddly-shaped tract directly east, which had been one of the later acquisitions of Simon Hadley. Philips quickly sold 2-1/2 acres of it along Limestone Road to another blacksmith, Ezekiel Reece. This property is part of another story, because the Reece property will much later be owned by the Bulah family, who initiated one of the school desegregation cases that eventually ended up as part of Brown vs. Board of Education. Its neighboring property was Tweed's Tavern.

The Hadleys were one of a handful of families that were prominent in the earliest years of European settlement in the area, but who pretty much disappeared from the region by the end of the 18th Century. Although I knew that Simon Hadley owned 1000 acres (mostly) in MCH, it wasn't until prompted by the question regarding Autumnwood that I had a good idea of exactly where his land lay. I was surprised that the land that became the development had such a complicated backstory. It's always fun when such a simple-seeming question opens up such interesting doors on our local history.