Darby Township- This township was settled soon after the coming of Penn, being recognized as a place of permanent settlement in 1683. In 1684, Darby Friends' Meeting had been established, the members meeting at the house of John Blunston. In the same year the first official record of Darby appears in the list of collectors, "to gather the assessments for the building of the court-house." Thomas Worth and Joshua Fearne were appointed "for Darby," Mons Stacker and William Cobb for "Amosland and Calcoone Hook." The latter was recognized as a separate municipal district until i686, when it was made a part of Darby township, and Amosland annexed to Ridley. Calcon or Calkoens Hook comprised all the territory between Cobb's creek on the east, and Muckiniattas creek on the west, but later became restricted to a lesser area. A patent was issued June 18, 1668, by Governor Lovelace to Israel Helme, Hendrick Jacobson, Ole Kock and Jan Minsterman, that included almost all the land in the township south of the Queen's Highway and west of a line drawn due south from the toll gate on that road. This great area of land is now covered with the buildings constituting several thriving boroughs, making the former farms appear like one continuous settlement, a present map of that section of old Darby township reveals but a small area left under township government. After the Revolution, Upper Darby was set off as a separate township, and in that district are also now several thriving boroughs. In 1747, the township was divided by authority of a township meeting, for every purpose except the support of the poor, the permanent total division occurring In 1786. The mills at Darby were built about 1696, and arementioned as "three water grist mills and a fulling mill." The mills, schools and churches of the township will be found in separate chapters on these subjects. The Queen's Highway, the Southern post road from Darby to Chester, was laid out in 1706, and caused a great deal of bitter feeling against the commissioners for the manner in which it was surveyed. One of these men, Jasper Yeates, was accussed of having the road enter Chester at the point it did, to the benefit of his own and his father-in-law's estate. "God and Nature," it was asserted, "intended the road to cross directly across the creek, but the Devil and Jasper Yeates took it where it was located." On this highway Washington marched his army on Sunday, August 24, 1777, moving southward to give battle to Howe at Brandywine, and over it on the following September 12 the beaten Americans "poured through Darby on their way to Philadelphia." On December 22, Howe with 7000 troops camped on Darby Heights, and during the entire time the British remained in Philadelphia, Darby township suffered excessively from the spoliation of the soldiers foraging, especially the Friends. The latter never made claim for their losses, so they cannot be stated. Other claims from the inhabitants of both Upper and Lower townships aggregated £1475. The population of the township in 1910 was 1763,

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