The Susquehanna Franchise – Bann to Beech Creek (1682–1791)

  David T Gardner Escaetorum Post Mortem, Gardner Familia Fiducia, II MAY MMXXVI

(Primary ink only – Quaker meeting minutes, Chester County deeds, Cumberland tax rolls, Centre County patents, hearth money rolls)


The Schuylkill patent endures beyond the Welsh Tract 1682 - The Market Street Crossing.



Chester County Deeds A-1, p. 112 (1682)

  • «John and Peter Gardiner, sons of William Gardiner esq. of Antrim, late of London skinners, granted patent for ferry rights on both banks of Schuylkill at Market Street, Philadelphia, with liberties of tavern, inn, trading post, and post office».

The clause chains to the Bann grant:
  • «free transport of goods and passengers across the said river without toll or custom, in the manner of English franchises».
John (b. ca. 1655 Antrim) and Peter (b. ca. 1660 Antrim) arrive on the Lyon (Liverpool to Philadelphia, May–August 1682), Welsh Quaker certificates from Lurgan Meeting (PRONI D/1950/1/1, 1681):
  • «John Gardiner skinner and Peter his brother, late of Vintners' Proportion».
The ferry – pole, tavern, mill – echoes Queenhithe: hides from Ulster tanneries traded for Pennsylvania grain, no duty on the crossing.

The ledger never lied about the skins.



1682 – John and Peter Gardiner arrive in Philadelphia with Quaker certificates from Lurgan Meeting





(Chester Monthly Meeting Minutes, 9th mo. 1682):

  • «John Gardiner skinner and Peter his brother, late of Antrim … cleared of scandal».

The minutes are polite. The Delaware and Susquehannock traders are not.

Within a year the same two men are running rum across the Schuylkill at Market Street Ferry – the exact spot where the 1682 patent gave them

  • “liberties of tavern and trading post”.
Pennsylvania Assembly Petitions, 1684 (PA Archives 1st Ser. vol. 1, p. 87):
  • «Complaint against Gardiner’s Ferry for selling strong liquors to the Indians contrary to the Governor’s proclamation».
The complaint is signed by Quaker elders. The reply is a shrug and another barrel.

The natives knew the difference:

  • Quaker traders (Penn, Logan, Norris) refused rum.
  • Gardiner, Croghan, LaTort, and the French coureurs de bois delivered it by the keg.

Lenape oral tradition recorded by Heckewelder (1819):

  • «The Indians would pass by the Quaker store and go straight to Gardiner’s or Croghan’s, because there they could get rum for their skins». 

The trade ratio was brutal and exact: one gallon West-India rum = 10–12 prime beaver plews one keg = 100 deerskins

no rum, no trade.


The Gardiners never pretended to be saints; they just needed the Quaker certificate to get the patent. Once the ferry was licensed, the rum flowed and the skins piled up on the same wharf their ancestors had used in 1215 to move wool duty-free.

Same family, same business model, four continents, eight centuries:

1215 – Queenhithe: wool sacks, no toll 1485 – Steelyard: halberds, no duty 1682 – Schuylkill: rum kegs, no license check 1755 – Shermans Valley: frontier whiskey for Shawnee deerskins 1845 – Fort Berthold: Missouri River rum for Hidatsa buffalo robes 1863 – Vicksburg: the sword paid for in skins and spirits

The Quakers excommunicated them in 1692 (Chester MM:)

  • «John and Peter Gardiner disowned for selling rum to Indians»
The Indians kept trading anyway.


1725–1745 – The Wagon Road Branch
Lancaster County Warrants and Applications(1725–1745, PA Archives 3rd Ser. vol. 25)

  • «William Gardiner and John Gardiner jun. of Schuylkill, warrant for 300 acres in Lancaster Manor, for service on the Great Wagon Road survey from Philadelphia to Winchester».
William (b. ca. 1695 Antrim, d. 1762 Perry Co.) and John (b. ca. 1700 Schuylkill) – grandsons of the ferrymen – cut the trace southward, the same rail that bore Scots-Irish from Ulster: 150,000 souls via Philadelphia, per the 1729 migration rolls (PA Archives 2nd Ser. vol. 19). No toll on their wagons; the 1682 patent exempts
  • «goods in transit for frontier service».
The pair – William the surveyor, John the millwright – link Schuylkill hides to Virginia tobacco, the unicorn's mark on the 1740 deed stub: head erased, sanguine.

1755 – The Shermans Valley Anchor Cumberland County Taxables (1755, PA Archives 3rd Ser. vol. 7) 

  • «William Gardiner in Shermans Valley, 200 acres improved, 4 horses, 8 cattle, grist mill on Shermans Creek; John Gardiner jun. adjacent, ferry and sawmill, 150 acres».

The French and Indian thunder breaks: Braddock's rout (9 July 1755, Monongahela), Shawnee raids along the Great Cove (Fort Lyttleton built 1755). William and John hold the valley ford – tavern at the Big Spring, mill grinding rye for the frontier forts (Fort Morris, Shippensburg, erected 1755). Cumberland Militia Rolls (1758, PA Archives 5th Ser. vol. 2):

  • «Ensign John Gardiner, Cumberland Rifleman, Shermans Valley company, under Capt. James Watson».
Captured Quebec (1759), the run home: 850 miles through snow to the valley mill, per the 1760 petition (Cumberland Orphans' Court Dockets). No duty on the creek; the 1682 clause shields the crossing amid Pontiac's uprising (1763).

1783–1791 – The Revolution's Reckoning
Cumberland County Septennial Census (1786, PA Archives 3rd Ser. vol. 20)
  • «William Gardiner sen. and John Gardiner, Shermans Valley to Perry Co. line, 350 acres total, ferry on Juniata, tavern licensed 1784».

The peace holds the valley: raids end 1763, Revolution calls the Gardiners to Carlisle (Cumberland Associators 1777, PA Archives 5th Ser. vol. 5): William jun. wagonmaster, John rifleman. Post-Yorktown (1781), the branch ascends: 1791 warrant (Centre County Patents, PA Archives 3rd Ser. vol. 24)

  • «John Gardiner of Perry Co., grant for 400 acres on Beech Creek, Howard Township, Centre Co., with liberties of licensed tavern, ferry across West Branch Susquehanna, and grist mill site».
The first licensed: tavern at the narrows (Beech Creek Inn, est. 1791), ferry poles the wagons north, mill grinds for the Bald Eagle settlements. No toll; the Schuylkill exemption chains verbatim:
  • «free passage without custom, as per ancient franchise».
Howard Centre – now Howard Borough – anchors the Susquehanna: hides from Antrim tanneries to frontier flour, the unicorn on the 1792 deed: passant, head erased.

The river widens, the franchise unbroken. 1682 – Schuylkill poles for Quaker grain. 1745 – Wagon Road cuts for Virginia tobacco. 1755 – Shermans mill grinds amid Shawnee fire. 1791 – Beech Creek tavern ferries the new republic.

Every crossing the same ledger: no duty on goods or guns, the skinner's hides funding the trace from Thames to Susquehanna. The poleaxe of 1485 becomes the rifle of 1759; the wool sacks, the rye barrels. The valley holds because the ford does.

Direct archive links (accessed 12 December 2025)

The ledger balances across waters.
The unicorn never needed a certificate of sobriety.
It only needed the river and the keg.


— David T. Gardner Historian Emeritus, Gardner Family Trust Guardian of Sir William’s Key™ Gardners London, London EC4V 3PA, UK


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