Being descended from the Gilpin family of Chester County, I have this referring to Lafayette's return visit. During the Revolutionary War, George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette established headquarters near Chadds Ford where the British were expected to cross the river. General Lafayette and his officers quartered in the house of Gideon Gilpin. The Gilpins, as a Quaker farm family, opposed to war, and when their home was commandeered, the family found itself unwittingly embroiled in the bitter action. At the time, five of their seven children were living there. Lafayette was wounded on the second day of fighting and brought back to the Gilpin house. After the battle, the Gilpin property was plundered by foraging British soldiers. Gideon filed a claim for losses totaling 502 English pounds that included 10 milk cows, 1 yoke of oxen, 48 sheep, 28 swine, 12 tons of hay, 230 bushels of wheat, 50 pounds of bacon, a history book and one gun. According to "The History of Chester County" by Futhey and Cope, "Forty-eight years later, General Lafayette returned to America and Chester County amid much ceremony and honor on the invitation of President Monroe. During his tour, Lafayette insisted upon calling upon the Gilpin family at their Chadds Ford home. He found Gideon aged, ill and abed. 'The sick man was gratified at the sight of the veteran, who pressed his hand cordially and wished him every blessing.'" The house was restored in the 1950's and is associated with the Brandywine Battlefield Park. To digress a bit farther back, I find the arrival of Joseph Gilpin in Chester County from England to be an interesting story: At the time of his marriage, Joseph was a weaver in Dorchester, England, about 2 miles from the Thames River. In the fall of 1695 Joseph, his wife Hannah (Glover), their two children; and Joseph’s relatives, John West and his family, followed William Penn to America after being subjected to persecution as Friends in England. Joseph's grandson, Isaac Glover Gilpin records the family's arrival in America after landing on the banks of the Delaware River and taking off on foot with everything they owned, "About ten or eleven miles distant from New Castle, night overtook them. In this situation they applied at the habitation of an early settler for shelter, which was refused them... Fortunately some of the natives lived near, into whose wigwams they were received and treated kindly, and they lodged there for their first night ashore in America... Next morning, being refreshed, they went on and arrived in Birmingham township, Chester County... They had at first to dig a cave in the earth (on the banks of Brandywine Creek) and went into it, in which they lived for four or five years, and where two children were born... After Joseph Gilpin had resided in the cave for four or five years, he built a house and barn near the cave, but this was burnt, and then (about 1720) he built a frame house a few hundred yards to the westward. It was built two stories high 16 feet by 18 feet, a superb edifice for the time (in 1730 he built a large brick addition). ...There were a number of Indian wigwams on the farm of Joseph Gilpin, and the account we have is that they all lived together in perfect harmony... Joseph Gilpin's house was seldom clear of the Indians who frequently slept there, perhaps a dozen or more at a time - men, women and children, all peaceably and with much friendship... The children of Joseph Gilpin gave very pleasant and interesting accounts of their sports and games with Indian boys, of their shooting with them for days at a time with bows and arrows. There was no quarreling or fighting." After some modifications, the house is still standing after passing on through the generations. The Gilpin's hospitality was also extended to all newly arrived emigrants, in contrast to their own reception the night after their landing. Isaac Gilpin writes, "As he was so well known there great numbers of families on coming over, came to his house, where they were kindly received and entertained week after week. As an evidence of this writer, who was an inmate of Joseph's family, knew that he killed upwards of 30 hogs and 7 or 8 beeves in the fall season, and the meat was all duly and frugally consumed by the next harvest. Hannah Gilpin was the best of housewives, and superior to most in intellect and friendly conduct." Thomas Chalkey, the Quaker preacher and traveler, makes the following note in his journal in 1740, "Lodged at the widow Gilpin's, whose husband, Joseph Gilpin, was lately deceased; there was true Christian Love and Friendship between us for above fifty years. When first I saw Joseph in Pennsylvania, he lived in a cave in the Earth, where we enjoyed each others Company in the Love and Fear of God. This Friend had fifteen children, who he lived to see brought up to the States of Men and Women, and all but two married well and to his mind." Joseph and Hannah presented their marriage certificate and letter of membership from England which were recorded in the Concord Meeting of 10 February 1695. Joseph's will was written in 1739. Most of Joseph and Hannah's children died before the Revolutionary War, but son George, then living at Alexandria, Virginia, quickly entered the army, becoming a colonel of the Fairfax militia. George Washington knew him, and the two became close. Joseph was with the General in the Battle of Dorchester Heights, Massachusetts, and remained with him until the close of the war. Later, George was intimately associated with Washington in a navigation investigation of the Potomac River, and the close friendship between the two men endured until the death of Washington. Col. George Gilpin was one of the pallbearers at Washington's funeral. Beth McMakin