North, South, and East Coventry Townships
Coventry Forge
There were two furnaces built on the French Creek by Samuel Nutt in the early 18th century: one was named Reading, and the other was Coventry. The Coventry Forge was built in 1717, becoming the first iron forge in Chester County. The Reading Furnace was built in 1736 with William Branson, whom Nutt had a brief partnership with. When Samuel Nutt passed away in 1737, his wife Ann took over the forge, and according to Samuel's will, he allowed Ann to erect a new furnace that is later called Warwick.
Free Love in North Coventry
"In 1837, Theophilus Gates began to publish a newsletter with a phrase borrowed from the Book of Jeremiah called Battle Axes and Weapons of War. Gates was a charismatic who advocated abandonment of marriage in favor of free love. Among the followers he attracted were two sisters from Dilworthtown who had abandoned their Quaker roots for a more libertine lifestyle. When the movement met with resistance in Philadelphia, Gates and his followers de-camped to Chester County. Once there, the recruiting techniques were unusual. The axes would knock on doors or appear in local churches in various forms of undress to proselytize. The sect occupied farms near Cold Spring Road northeast of today’s French Creek State Park and made unwelcome appearances at the nearby Temple Methodist, Bethesda Baptist and Shenkel Churches. The movement, if it can be called such, never took hold. In 1843 members of the community were arrested and charged with indecent exposure and adultery. The movement survived the death of its founder in 1846 under the leadership of Hannah Williamson, one of the Quaker sisters from Dilworthtown. The arrests and jail sentences continued until the 1850s when the adherents disbursed."
- Mark Ashton, Chester County, A Modern History
Bibliography
Futhey, John Smith and Gilbert Cope. History of Chester County, Pennsylvania: With Genealogical and Biographical Sketches. (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1881): 344-346.
Sellers, Charles Coleman. Theophilus, the Battle-axe; a history of the lives and adventures of Theophilus Ransom Gates and the Battle-axes. (Philadelphia: Press of Patterson & White Company, 1930).
Swank, James Moore. History of the Manufacture of Iron in All Ages And Particularly in the United States from Colonial Times to 1891; Also a Short History of Early Coal Mining in the United States and a Full Account of the Influences which Long Delayed the Development of All American Manufacturing Industries. (New York: Burt Franklin, 1892): 166-173.