518                           HISTOR Y OF B UCKS CO UNTY.

when William Penn sent John Sotcher, of Falls township, and
Edward Farmer, of Whitemarsh, to that river to ascertain the in¬
tention of the Indians. White men were on the river at that early
day. On the 21st of March, 1701, Penn informed his council that
a yonng Swede who had just arrived from "Lecliy" reported that
on the 5tli of the month, wdiile some young men w^ere out hunting
they heard frequent reports of fire-arms, and suspected the presence
of Seneca Indians. No doubt Sotcher and Farmer were sent on this
information. The same month Penn caused the goods of John Hans
Stiehlman, of Maryland, wdio had been endeavoring to open trade
wdth the Indians at the "Forks of Delaware," to be seized. Of
course the Proprietary had knowledge of this fine country before
that time, and he traversed a portion of it in his journey to the
Susquehanna. We are unable to tell in wdiat year the pioneer im-
mio-rants pushed their way over tbe present limits of our county, but
sotne adventurous Germans and Scotch-Irish were there before the
Indian title was extinguished, and by 1750 there was considerable
population scattered throughout the wilderness up to the foot of the
Blue mountains,2 and even beyond.

Three tracts are known to have been taken up on the south bank
of the Lehigh pricr to 1740. In the spring of 1736 Wdliam Allen
confirmed two hundred acres to Solomon Jennings, two miles above
Bethlehem. It was held as part of the manor of Fermor, or Dry¬
lands, and paid an annual quit-rent of a silver shilling for each hun¬
dred acres. This tract passed into the possession of the Geisinger
family in 1757, and is stid owned by them. On the 12th of April,
1738, Nathaniel Irish purchased one hundred and fifty acres near
the mouth of Saucon creek, who bought other lands at diflferent
times, and in 1743 he was the owner of six hundred acres in a body.
The same year he conveyed the whole tract to George Cruikshank,
from the West Indies, wdio settled on it, and btiih a cabin near the
mouth of Saucon creek. He w^as a man of learning and taste, and
his location was a delightftd one, with beautiful scenery, and an
abundance of game on the hills, and fine trout in the streams.
Himself and family became almost hermits living so far from civilized
society. It was at his house that Wilham Satterthwaite, John
Watson, and Pellar used to meet to talk poetry and otherwise enjoy
themselves w^hen Watson was surveying public lands in that section.
Irish erected the first mill on the Lehigh, about where Shimersville
 

2 The lands in the Lehigh valley were thrown open to settlement in 1734;.