484
 

HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY
 

CHAPTER  XXX.
 

THE WALKING PURCHASE.
 

ITST.
 

Indians dissatisfied.—First purchase in 1682.—Treaty of 1686.—Do. of 1737.—Pre¬
liminary walk.—Courses and distances.—Steel's letter to Smith.—Great Walk ar¬
ranged.—Marshall et al.—The starting.—Jennings and Yeates give out.—Dis¬
tance walked.—Head-line drawn.—The walk and the Indians.—Terms of treaty.
—About treaty of 1686.—Treaty of 1718.—^The Charles Thomson map.—The ex¬
act starting point.—Location of chestnut tree.—Testimony of witnesses.—Fairness
of the walk.—Testimony of the Chapman family.—Location of spruce tree.—Tow-
sisnick.—Head-line of purchase of 1682.—Solomon Jennings.—Edward Marshall.
—His wife killed.—His death.—Marshall's rifle.
 

No event in the early history of the countj^ gave so much dis¬
satisfaction to the Indians, or led to as severe criticism of the Penns
as the "Walking Purchase." This was the treaty of 1737, wdiich
confirmed to the Proprietaries all that part of Bucks county above a
line drawm from the Neshaminy through the low^er part of Wrights¬
town to the Delaw'are at the mouth of Knowles' creek. We pur¬
pose, in this chapter, to give an account of this celebrated purchase,
and the manner in wdiich it was carried out.

The first purchase of land in this county of the Indians, as we
have already stated, was in 1682, by William Markham. This em¬
braced all the territory between the Neshaminy and the Delaware
as high up as Wrightstowm and Upper Makefield.    After Penn's