In-deed: History on display

Yes, it is true. Chester County used to include Delaware County, its now-neighbor to the east.

The first real estate deed recorded in the original Chester County took place 330 years ago on March 10, 1688. The deed is for a Quaker meetinghouse now located in Chester, the town along the Delaware River where William Penn first set foot in the territory that would bear his name six years earlier.

“As one of the first three counties in Pennsylvania, Chester County originally spanned a much wider area encompassing what is now Chester County and Delaware County,” said Rick Loughery, the Chester County Recorder of Deeds. “Even though this first recorded deed is now within the boundaries of Delaware County, it is appropriate that it records the transaction of a Quaker meetinghouse, given Chester County’s William Penn– Quaker origins.”

The grantor listed on the deed was Urin Keen and the grantees were trustees of the Society of Friends. As part of the 330th anniversary recognition, the deed is on display through the end of March at the Chester County

Historical Society in West Chester.

According to the county’s Department of Archives and Records Services, the earliest deed transaction for land in the current Chester County boundary was recorded on July 2, 1688, for a grant from William Penn to James Dicks, for 250 acres of land in Birmingham.

The county’s historic deeds are part of those archives, created in 1982 — the 300 anniversary of the county’s founding, to preserve and make available as many of the county’s historic records as possible. The archives holds more than 2,940 volumes and 1,823 cubic feet of original public records of enduring historic and cultural value. It is located at the county’s Government Services Center in West Goshen.

SUBMITTED PHOTOS Pictured is Chester County Recorder of Deeds Rick Loughery looking at the deed book.

The book in the glass case is Chester County’s first deed currently on display at the Chester County Historical Society.

SUBMITTED PHOTO Chester County Recorder of Deeds Rick Loughery and Chester County Commissioner Terence Farrell joined Delaware County Recorder of Deeds Tom Judge and the Delaware County Historical Society to visit the property site of Chester County’s first deed...