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| The 7 Stars Inn at 5 Points in Aston Township shortly before it was torn down in September of 1950. The Inn was built about 1762 and was owned by the Massey Family for over 100 years. The Inn stood about where Zac's Hamburgers is today at 3600 Concord Rd. |
July 25, 1899
SEVEN STARS TAVERN
Anniversary of the Battle of Brandywine Creek – An Anecdote of
Farragut
In
the northwest angle, made by the crossing of Marcus Hook and Concord Roads at
village Green, Delaware County, is located “The Seven Stars,” a tavern which
has been a public house since Colonial days.
In the middle of the last century the prosperous Sarum Forge from Works
were a Glen Mills and the ore there melted was conveyed by wagons from Marcus
Hook, then an active shipping place. The
manufactured bars were in turn carted to Marcus Hook, where they were loaded on
vessels for transportation to Philadelphia.
The
number of teamsters thus employed as well as the general heavy travel to the
then “backwoods,” required the location of an inn at an intermediate point and
“The Seven Stars” was the outgrowth of this public need. Thy the tavern was so called is not certainly
known, but tradition tells that its name was bestowed in honor of the Ursus
Major, the beauty of whose seven suns had excited the admiration of an
astronomical student, closely connected in sentiment or kin with one of its
earlier proprietors.
The
records show that prior to the Revolutionary War it bore that title. The reason the little hamlet which has grown
about it was known as Village Green is lost.
Our information goes no further than the fact that it went by that name
early in Colonial times.
IN
REVOLUTIONARY DAYS – More than a century has elapsed since the battle of
Brandywine but the incidents of that eventful period at Village Green are yet
the glory of “The Seven Stars”. It was a
sultry morning that Thursday, September 11, 1777, and a thick fog clung to the
earth, shutting out the autumnal landscape.
The children of the neighborhood had gathered at the school, for while
to the matured dread and dismay came with the news of the approach of the
British Army and the certainty that the crash of arms between it and the
Continental forces, which then lay at Chadd’s Ford, only ten miles away, could
not be long averted, it is nowise lessened the ardor of the urchins’ play in
the school yard.
Yet
even the youngest pupil noticed that the aged theater, James Rigby, appeared
depressed, and with difficulty could follow the mumbling scholars in their
recitations. So merged was this
impression that Thomas Dutton, the centenarian, then a lad of 8 years, remarked
the circumstances. Shortly after 10
o’clock when the fog lifted, disclosing a cloudless sky, the distant booming of
a cannon startled the master and pupils.
Colonel Proctor, of the Pennsylvania Artillery, at Chadd’s Ford, had
opened fire on Knyphausen’s advance.
The
reverberations had hardly died away when another booming sound followed, which
was followed in quick succession by others.
James Rigby for a short time strove to continue the usual exercises, but
the excitement of the hour was so intense that finally he said: “Go home children, I can’t keep school
today.”
All
that afternoon stragglers from the field of battle hastened along the highway
to Chester, but when the American army was driven backward by the English
advance, many of the Continental troops lost all company organization and fled,
each intent only on personal safety.
When Knyphausen forced the passage of the Brandywine compelling Wayne to
retire from Chadd’s Ford, the Pennsylvania militia, under General Armstrong,
although it had taken no active part in the contest, broke in a body and joined
the demoralized throng that well nigh choked the Concord road with a struggling
mass of panic-stricken men, hastening wildly in the direction of Chester.
The
artillery jolted and surged onward as rapidly is the weary horses, under the
goading lash, could be forced to move, while the baggage wagons crowded to the
front, compelling the foot-sore men to make room for them to pass. The oaths of the teamsters and the soldiers
clearly indicated that the army in Flanders was not alone given to profanity. Fortunately the early evening was still and
clear, and the moon looked down kindly on the defeated troops, who, jaded with
their long march, had recovered in a measure from their panic e’re they reached
the Seven Stars. When General Greene’s
division, which had acted as a rear guard of the army, marched by the ancient
tavern shortly after midnight it was in order such as became the brave soldiers
who that day had proved themselves to be on the heights of Brandywine.
CORNWALLIS
WAS THERE – Two days later at 4 o’clock on the afternoon of Saturday, September
13, Lord Cornwallis and his staff reached Village Green, where they drew rein
before the side porch of “The Stars”, James Fennell, the landlord, despite his
political bias, hid his chagrin with a host’s smile and watched with interest
the unusual spectacle. Cornwallis
naturally was the center of attraction.
His tall stately form, his rich musket coat loaded with gold lace and
decorations, his white sheepskin britches, tog boots and his superior
horsemanship all combined to render him a figure never to be forgotten by those
who envy the able soldier on that occasion.
The
urchins gazed with open-eyed amazement as the group of grandly equipped
officers and listened with awe to the tingling of their swords and spurs and
the chomping of the bits by the horses as the men dismounted at the tavern door
that raw autumn day. His lordship stood
on the porch and watched the soldiers of the Second Battalion of British
Infantry, Second Battalion of Grenadiers, which accompanied him and the first
and second Brigades under General Grant, as they entered the fields, south of
the Concord Road, their left resting at Mount Hope and their right extending a
short distance east of the road leading to Marcus Hook.
The
few Hessians, not the advance, were objects of the utmost curiosity to the
rural lookers on, for they, for the first time, saw those men who “were their
beards on their upper lips.” In the dusk
of the evening the campfire stretched in a semi-circle more than half a mile. That night Cornwallis slept at “The Seven Stars,”
and early next morning accompanied the advance to Thaw’s Mill – now Upland,
where he seized a large amount of flour, which he forwarded, under guard to the
headquarters of the army.
On
Sunday evening, September 16, three soldiers who had been of a party of
foragers, straying away from the main body and crossing Chester Creek above
Dutton’s mill, entered the dwelling of Jonathan Martin, where they plundered
the family of many articles of value, among these, some personal trinkets
belonging to his daughter, Mary Martin.
The latter was a lass of 18, who fearlessly upbraided the men for their
dishonest and cowardly acts. One of the
soldiers became enraged at the girl, angrily struck at her with his bayonet,
inflicting a slight wound on the hand, with which she had attempted to ward off
the blow.
The
men the same evening went to the residence of Mr. Cox, nearly a mile distant,
where they committed similar acts of pillage, among the articles stolen being a
silver watch. Miss Cox was about the
same age as Miss Martin and early next morning the two girls in company
repaired to the British headquarters where they had an interview with General
Howe, just as the latter was about to visit Cornwallis’ extreme outpost at
Upland.
It
chanced that the troops encamped at Village Green were mustered for inspection
and Howe stated to the young women that if they could recognize the men who had
been guilty of the theft they should be punished as prescribed in his general
order. The commander-in-chief- with the
girls at his side, walked in front of the lines its entire length and the women
pointed out three men whom they declared were the culprits. That there should be no mistake the officers
were instructed to march the troops by a given point, and again the girls selected
the same men, and a third trial resulted in their recognition out of the three
or four thousand soldiers then assembled.
Howe ordered the men searched, and some of the stolen articles were
found secreted on their persons.
They
were immediately tried by court martial and as the evidence was direct and
contradicted, they were found guilty and sentenced to death, but only two of
the three were hanged, the third was required to act as executioner for his
companions. The one who should do
service as Jack Ketch was determined by lot.
That evening after General Howe and his escort of dragoons returned from
Upland, the sentence of the court was complied with. An apple tree near the roadside was used for
the gallows in full sight of the officers who stood on the porch of the tavern
watching the ghastly sight. Tuesday
morning the British army broke camp and marched away. General Grant, who four days thereafter,
perpetuated the massacre at Paoli, gave no attention to the dread case and
their lifeless bodies were left dangling from the limb, fearful silhouettes outlined
against the leaden sky.
On
the porch of the Seven Stars, in 1817, David Glascoe Farragut, then a young
midshipman on leave, whiled many an hour during the intervals of study, for he
was then a student under Joseph Weef, a Frenchman, who established a school in
Philadelphia founded on the system in vogue at the noted Pestallozzi in
Switzerland, which he subsequently removed to Village Green. The future admiral homely in face and
diminutive in stature, at that day carried himself very erect and wore an ample
neckerchief to stiffen his head, because as he frequently declared, he could
ill afford to lose a fraction of an inch in his height. An elderly lady of striking physique, even in
her declining years, who died nearly twenty years ago, told the writer than on
one occasion at a sleighing party at the Seven Stars she danced with Farragut,
and they were the target of the would-be wits.
But when the boy midshipman in after years became one of the giants of
the world the fact that she had been his partner in that dance was the proudest
memory of her life.
New Book and signing's this week!!
Growing Up Lansdowne
is a personal and creative account of childhood and adolescence experienced in a conservative Philadelphia suburb during the 1950s and 1960s.
The 519 page book is composed of 171 diverse essays depicting growing up years in Lansdowne including eight sections of “Random Remembrances, ” where dozens of additional recollections are displayed. Enhancing the text are over thirty period photographs and supportive images.
The author’s childhood memories deliver a nostalgic and unusually candid account that will endear and entertain readers. A revealing snapshot of family life during the era is also presented.
Growing Up Lansdowne further touches upon memorable historical events and sensitive social issues of the times and their impact on adolescent transition to adulthood.
Growing Up Lansdowne is part innovative memoir, part local/national history, part social landscape, and part love story.
Book Signings by the author are below:
Friday Jan 15 Vinyl Revival Records Lansdowne Theater Building 6-8 PM Lansdowne
Saturday Jan 16 Cathy"s Half Price Books 1305 West Chester Pike 4-6 PM Havertown
Saturday Jan 16 Cathy"s Half Price Books 1305 West Chester Pike 4-6 PM Havertown
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