HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY
 

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CHAPTER  XLVII.
 

OUR COURTS; COUNTY-SEAT; DIVISION OF COUNTY; BUILDING OF

ALMS-HOUSE.
 

Justice under Swedes and Dutch.—Earliest courts at Upland.—First law-suit in
Bucks.—Penn's courts.—First court in the county.—Our quarter sessions.—
Derrick Jonson.—First execution.—A verdict by lot.—Attorneys —-Pleadings.—
Seal of county.—Bird Wilson, and successors.—Members of the bar.—Chapman;
Fox; Ross, et al.—A. M. Griffith.—The present bar.—Early court-houses.—
County-seat at Bristol.—Removed to Newtown.—The public buildings.—County-
seat changed to Doylestown.—The opposition.—Buildings erected.—Division of
county.—Erection of alms-house.—Previous keeping of the poor.
 

Under the Swedes and Dutch the administration of justice on the
Delaware Avas a very simple thing. The population was sparse and
offenses fcAv, and some of these Avere punished in a suiumary Avay.
When the river fell into the hands of the English, in 1664, Governor
Lovelace attempted to establish the English system of courts, but he
encountered many difficulties, and the machinery of civil adminis¬
tration Avas not fairly in operation until 1670. Three judicial dis¬
tricts were organized, that of Upland extending up the river to the
falls, and embracing Bucks county to that point. DoAvn to the ar¬
rival of William Penn the fcAV inhabitants of*this county Avere obliged
to o-o doAvn to Upland, noAv Chester, to transact their public busi¬
ness. Upland is first mentioned as a settlement in 1648, but it Avas
probably settled by the Swedes as early as 1643, and Avas named
after a province in middle Sweden. The earliest court held there
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