Establishing a Township

Historically, a Township was “incorporated”, ”settled”, “chartered”, “founded” or “established” when existing landowners petitioned the County to downsize their tax collection area to a more manageable area. Below is an example of a typical Court Decree from when Sadsbury Township was split into East and West Sadsbury in 1728. This Court decree was issued by the Chester County Court in the city of Chester, Pa (the city of Chester was still part of Chester County at this time - the County was split into Chester and Delaware Counties in 1789).

The map below shows establishment dates for New Garden's neighbors:

1705 Kennett Township established.
1723 London Grove Township established.
1725 London Britain Township established.
1729 East and West Marlborough Townships established from Marlborough Township.
1770 Pennsbury Township established from Kennett Township.
1852 Franklin Township created from New London Township.

So when was New Garden Township established? The official “Court Decree” giving the residents of New Garden the status of “Township” is lost - there is no record of it in the County Archives.