Cross Keys Inn

In 1783, Joshua Vernon had leave to keep a tavern known as The Blue Ball, at which house he was superseded, in 1787, by James Oliver, who had license only for that year, while Joshua Vernon received the privilege to keep an inn at a house located on the Concord road a short distance beyond Chelsea. The ancient hostelry, well known as the Cross-Keys, no longer as a public-house, is now owned by Michael McGinnis. In 1789, the last year the justices of Chester County granted license for the territory now comprising Delaware County, Joshua Vernon was the only person in Concord to whom the judges show partiality. Under the new order of things, at the first court held at Chester, after the division, he received license, and was continued yearly to be favored until 1796, when James Jeffries succeeded him at the Cross-Keys. The latter was the landlord until 1799, when Ann Vernon had the license, and in 1800, George Mattson followed her. Thomas Ring had the house in 1802 ; Samuel Chapman was there in 1805, and the next year he gave place to Jonathan Paul, Jr., who, in 1807, was succeeded by Amos Waddell. In 1809, Curtis Jeffries was " mine host," but he surrendered the honors to Amos Waddell the next year, and the latter, in 1811, to Peter Harper. In 1812, James Marshall took the responsibility of the Cross-Keys on himself, and sustained them during the second disagreement with England, and for three years after the cruel war was over, when, in 1818, David Howes succeeded him, to be superseded the next year by William Baldwin. The latter remained there for eight years, until 1828, when Reece Pyle had license for the inn, and in 1833, Nathaniel Stevens became the last landlord of the Cross-Keys of Concord, for after 1836 it disappears from the list.[bib]703[/bib]