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supplanted by the turnpike. The course of the former road can still be traced through the hollow where the pumping station stands, thence westward up the hill by a row of cedars just back of the Church of the Good Samaritan. The house did not appear as a landmark until long after the Revolution.

In the August session of the Court of General Quarter Sessions held at Chester in 1769, the following petition was presented to the Judges:

"The petition of Joshua Evans Humbly Showeth. That whereas there is no house of public entertainment between the Yellow Springs and the Square in Newtown, on the road leading through a large body of the upper part of this country by the Valley Church1 to Chester, Darby, &c., which is too great a distance for one stage, being fourteen miles apart, and of consequence must be attended with great disadvantage to the large concourse of people passing that way and as your petitioner has a very commodious house situated in the township of Tredyffrin, on Lancaster road, where the aforesaid road meets with the same, as the great road leading down through Newtown to Darby and Chester branches therefrom, and as your petitioner humbly considers a public house in the aforesaid place would be of great use not only to those passing to Chester and Darby, but also to travelers going and coming that way from Philadelphia, &c., &c., your petitioner therefore humbly requests your Honors to recommend him to his. Honor, the Governor, for a license to keep a public house of entertainment in the aforesaid place and your petitioner as duty bound shall ever pray.

(Signed) JOSHUA EVANS.

The recommenders signing this document were Anthony Wayne, Lewis Gronow and sixteen others, most all of them being prominent members of the Valley Church.1

The petition, however, it is said was strenuously opposed by the widow Weatherby of the Blue Ball, one mile east of the new candidate for public patronage, as well as by Lynford Lardner, the landlord of the Admiral Warren, two and a half miles further west, who in his petition to the Court in 1770 sets forth that he was but three and a half miles from the Blue Ball, and that there was no necessity for the new tavern which had been set up in the previous year between his place and the Ball.

Notwithstanding this strong opposition to the recommendation of Evans for license, the Judges seem to have thought that an inn was necessary at this point, and the application was endorsed "allowed"; they were probably influenced in their action by the good character of the applicant, together with the known respectability of his recommenders.

No doubt the patriotic spirit then rife in the province had something to do with the selection of the name of the inn. The new tavern was called "The General Paoli Tavern."

It was named after Pascal Paoli, a Corsican General and patriot, who at that time was living in exile in England, and who though unsuccessful was still the ideal patriot and champion of liberty of the day.

In 1755 Paoli had been elected generalissimo of the Corsicans, who were then struggling against the Genoese; he waged the war so successfully as to confine the enemy within the narrow limits of their fortified seaports. His next care was to enact wise laws, introduce reforms, and encourage agriculture. But all his noble labors were rendered abortive by the Genoese selling the Island to France. After a heroic struggle against the invaders Paoli once more became an exile. Very little is known of the Paoli

tavern during the first years of its existence; it was not until the outbreak of the Revolution that the new tavern came into prominence, owing to the proximity of the house to the homes of Anthony Wayne, Rev. David Jones, the Bartholemews, Andersons, Gronows, Pearces, and other patriotic minded men of the vicinity. The inn soon became a favorite gathering place of the patriots; meetings were held, when the affairs of the province and the situation were talked over and plans laid for future action.

No records remain us as to the losses sustained by the owner of the Paoli while the country was overrun by the British after the battle of the Brandywine, in September, 1777. The history of the affair on the night of the 20th of September, one and a half miles southwest of the inn, known in history as the "Massacre of Paoli," is too well known to repeat here. On that eventful night were two regiments of British troops (the fortieth and fifty-fourth infantry) under the command of Colonel Musgrave, stationed at the road crossing here, so as to intercept the patriots should they attempt to retreat in this direction; these troops were not in action during that night.

After Philadelphia was evacuated by the British forces in June, 1778, the Paoli, together with all the roadside inns on the way to Lancaster, commenced to reap the harvest caused by the great increase of travel on the great road from Philadelphia.

It was no doubt about this time that the first addition was made to the house. This addition is still discernible in the rear of the large house; it was built of limestone or blue marble of the Valley, the joints were pointed; it was about 27 x 30 feet and the house still fronted on the Valley road, the gable end being towards the Provincial road.

This enlargement became necessary on account of the

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THE BIRTHPLACE AND HOME OF GEN. ANTHONY WAYNE.

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