The Saunders-Currinder Farms -- Part One

Nathaniel Bryan's 200 acres, sold in 1776 to Thomas
Shields, later owned by the Saunders and Currinders

Across today's landscape, the features we think most about and use most to describe locations would be our roads. However, throughout most of history and well into the 19th Century the vital features were the waterways. In this post we'll look at farms that today I'd describe as being (mostly) just south of the highway, but in their day would probably be described as being "along the creek" instead. It may not be an area most people think much about -- unless you happen to live there. But this area has taken an interesting journey over the past 300 or more years -- it began as a larger tract, was divided and broken up, then later much of it was re-combined into a large property again, but under a different family.

The property we're looking at this time is located on the south side of Kirkwood Highway (mostly), roughly (although not exactly) bordered by the highway, White Clay Creek, Harmony Road, and Red Mill Road. The earliest deed I have found for this land, then at 200 acres, is a sale in November 1776 from Nathaniel Bryan to Thomas Shields. Unfortunately, this deed does not give any information on when and from whom Nathaniel acquired the land. As best as I can tell, the Bryan family seems to have been primarily from Pencader Hundred, although in 1735 Nathaniel purchased 212 acres from his father John, land which sat just across on the south side of White Clay Creek.

It's unclear if that is in any way related to the 200 acres on the north side. Nathaniel could have acquired the Mill Creek Hundred farm soon after, or not until later. When he sold it in 1776 (about a year before he died) he was described in the deed as being "of Mill Creek Hundred" -- and the sale was for "All that Messuage Plantation and Tract of Land" -- all of which implies that he was living on the property at the time of sale. I'm even more certain that the next owner, Thomas Shields, did not live here. He resided and plied his trade in Philadelphia -- described in the newspapers as a goldsmith, and in these deeds as a silversmith. His shop (and presumably his home) was on Front Street near Dock Street, in the area now known as Penn's Landing.