OK folks......I'm gonna try to give you a thumbnail sketch of my very fast but exceedingly satisfying trip to Delaware/Chester Counties and to "Dutton Country" last weekend. There's much too much....to tell you about it ALL at one sitting!! If you don't mind, I'm gonna do it in "chapters" - on a daily basis....until I've shared it all. I'll try to follow the Dutton story chronologically, so that you will understand where we are!! When I have pictures to show you of the locations I'm talking about.....I'll number them in the message.....but I'll have to e-mail them to you individually. (If you're interested in seeing them, you must ask to see them and add your e-mail address to my list.) I'll scan them in small jpeg files. I'm so sorry but RootsWeb isn't able to handle attachments on the list. So fasten your seat belts....and here we go!! My first stop was NOT for Duttons ;-)....but rather a quick side trip across the river to New Jersey to look for another one of my other ancestors, Thomas Van Buskirk - in a cemetery that I've longed to visit for years. Thought I'd grab the opportunity while I could.....but had forgotten how much fun the New Jersey Turnpike can be!! Around me at a dizzying speed came an 18 wheeler and about the time we were side by side....he lost the tread off of one of those enormous tires.....which was thrown up and hurled against my just-rented WHITE Nissan Sentra!! It only had about 4000 miles on it....a really great little car that served me very well this whole trip......but NOW, it had this nasty black rubber tire mark down the entire side of it!! From headlight to tail-light!! It also sounded like I had been hit by a tank!! What a way to start this trip!! You'll be happy to know that I stopped at the first PepBoys store I could find.....bought some rubbing compound, begged an old rag from one of those guys.....and out in the parking lot.....on my hands and knees....worked away on that long black ugly mar k.....till I was able to get it all off.....and the rental people were never the wiser!! Thank the Lord it didn't leave any dents! ;-))) (....and I didn't find Thomas Van Buskirk either!! ;-{ So it was back across the Ben Franklin Bridge to Philadelphia. Penn's Landing is a great spot to visit if you're in the area and I have some great pictures.....but since the Duttons got off the ship BEFORE it got to that Philadelphia landing.....we'll skip that stop! SOMEwhere in my research.....I read that John Dutton died while he was in Philadelphia and was buried at the Friends Meeting on Race Street. I'm trying to remember where I got that....so I don't know at this moment if the source was reliable or not. We'll need to look into that a bit more. However, a few months ago, I put a query on the Philadelphia list...asking if there was still a Friends Meeting on Race Street. I got several replies that yes, the Quakers still owned the property between 15th and 16th but that the Meeting was gone and with it any trace of a graveyard. I also learned that for a period of time, the Quakers frowned on any use of tombstones as being too ostentatious so IF he was buried there....he may never have had a stone anyhow. Undaunted.....I drove up Race Street....crossed Broad Street - waved "hello" to William Penn up there high on top of City Hall as I crossed that intersection....and found 12th and Race. The first two pictures #1 and #2 show you what's at that location today. The entire block is covered with this modern brick building.....the FRIENDS CENTER (the Quaker Information Center).....and I think you'll enjoy seeing the lovely piece of sculpture there in their garden entry. That's my little white Sentra in the foreground....after I had cleaned off the black rubber tire marks! The sculpture can be seen in that view....directly above the drivers seat of the car. The person who answered my query told me that the graves in that location were removed to the Friends Western Burial Ground in Upper Darby sometime about 1888. I'm also told that the old Meeting House here on Race Street was closed down in the 1920's. So....if in fact, our John Dutton died and was buried in Philadelphia.....he's no longer there - if he ever was! If you have a Pennsylvania map.....it would be helpful to follow along as we head south on I-95....back past the airport and south along the Delaware River to UPLAND. It doesn't take very long....from the airport it can't be more than 15-20 minutes. (It's close to one of the bridges that crosses over to Jersey.) Before William Penn ...the area was inhabited by a few Swedes and Finns....who called it Oop'tland! Upland Creek flows thru the area (but it is now called Chester Creek.) Now then....the question is whether or not John Dutton and his family arrived on 'The Welcome' with William Penn. It appears that there are more people who claim they were on that ship......than the ship would hold!! An excellent assessment of the subject is found in a book entitled "The Welcome Claimants, Proved, Disproved and Doubtful, with an Account of Some of Their Descendants," Penn's Colony, v.2. by George E.McCracken. A respected historian and scholar, he believes that the Duttons were not on board. Whether they were or not, William Penn's ship did stop briefly at Upland. The location "Penn's Landing" in Upland is designated today by a small park, a memorial stone and a historical plaque. It is located in a badly deteriorated neighborhood of collapsing buildings, burnt out shells of garages and storehouses, abandoned cars.....and heavy industry....not a place I wanted to stay very long! In fact I had been discouraged from even going there at all - and certainly not alone! It was also raining....which made the whole visit very disagreeable. How could they call it Penn's Landing when I couldn't even see any water!! So I drove another block or two and onto the grounds of the Kimberly-Clark plant until I could finally see the Del. River.....and did take a couple of quick pictures out the car window. It's about as ugly a spot as you can dream up. Those long pipes are huge....9 or 10 feet in diameter....and they carry coal into the plant! What a dreadful place!! You can see it all in pictures #3 and #4. My next stop was much more pleasant!! Still in Upland, I found my way to number 15 Race Street. It was up (Chester) creek a ways - in a much nicer part of town! There I found the house of Caleb Pusey. Caleb was a manager and agent for William Penn and built his house as well as a saw and grist mill here - the first to be established by Penn in the new colony. Caleb came here in 1682......and was no doubt acquainted with John Dutton.(Maybe they were all on the same ship!) It's possible that the Dutton's stayed with Caleb and his wife.....maybe in this house....or more likely in a previous temporary dug-out sod house, before they started out on an Indian path to find where their own land had been laid out. The Caleb Pusey house stands beside Race Street, the small road paralleling the millrace that would power his mills. It is the only building still standing which can claim documented association with Wm.Penn and which he is known to have visited on several occasions. It is small....only two rooms.....and NO inside stairs up to the second floor. When it was time for bed, the family climbed a ladder up the outside of the house and pulled the ladder up behind them.......for safety against the Indians who were still living in this area! You can see this house in picture #5. It can also be see at the following website: http://www.cyberhighway.net/~mworley/pusey.htm prepared by a descendant of Caleb Pusey's second wife (by her 1st husband). You'll notice there's also a family connection with Thomas Brassey, another familiar name in the Dutton story. And now it's late.....so that's all for tonight. Tomorrow, we tramp up Chester Creek to Aston Township where Thomas Rowland has laid out some land for John Dutton. Phyllis