Ref: April 14, 1800 document signed by Joseph Green and George Green, in which Yardley conveys to the Greens the entire Yardley Ferry enterprise including the Tavern and Ferry House along with 25-acres of land used for the ferry operation.

Your Yardley Ferry document cited above, mounted on archival tissue the way it is, really made this transaction come to life. Here was Thomas Yardley, Jr. (d. 1803) who owned and operated the Yardley Ferry for most of his life, now selling that enterprise. The buyer is none other than the family of Richard Green, Jr. (d. 1797), long time owner of Green's Ferry just across the river at Greensburg, the sale being consummated by Joseph & George Green shortly after his death. This was not just a simple conveyance of an existing lot whose metes & bounds were already described by an existing deed. Nor was it a case where a large parcel was purchased by some one who planned to open a new ferry somewhere on the site. The 1800 document describes property lines for the long-established Yardley Ferry site, property lines that were being created for the first time. Therefore the  [ legal description ]  should provide insight into the Yardley Ferry operation.

CHARACTERISTICS OF YARDLEY FERRY SITE

Reference:
"American Ferry Boats" by John Perry, New York: Wilfred Funk 1957, 175 Pages. The story of the ferries and ferrymen who transported passengers and goods across American waterways... profusely illustrated with old prints, engravings, and photographs.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 56-10711

What I have attempted to do here is to identify the various elements of the Yardley Ferry Site as it existed from 1721 to 1775/1800, and to establish a framework for ongoing analysis. Up until 1987  [ Kathryn Ann Auerbach Study ]  almost nothing was known. "Few records [of ferryboats] were ever kept, and of these, not many survive. Those which do exist are scattered, frequently as part of collections in which ferries and ferry crossings figure merely incidentally." [Quotation is from John Perry's excellent book]

A - 1,200-ft River Frontage...

• "free floating" ferry - lands further down the river on its return trip

• "pole ferry" - "the exact place of landing cannot be controlled"

• fixed point of embarkation at the upper end - high ground with long ferry ramp down to the water's edge

• landing at lower end of site - wide and low lying ground - ramp not required

• Standard Variables:

a) Width of River
b) Range of River Velocities
c) Low Water Elevation
d) Berm Elevation
e) Length of Ramp Serving Ferry Road
f) Location of Downriver Landing
g) Width of Landing Area
h) Location of Ferry Road

B - Strip of Land out to Main Street...

• Private road provides access from landing area - connects to public road network at Main Street ---we found no "road return."

• Bearing or angle of Leg 3 of survey along [College Avenue] from to the corner [at S. Bell] points straight toward the landing just below College Avenue. Janney's Landing would abut the other side of this road out to Main Street.

• Although River Road existed by 1794, incoming traffic from New Jersey should logically be separated, to avoid traffic around the Grist Mill on Ferry Road.

The assumed road to Main Street must have been abandoned when the canal was built and the ferry replaced by the Yardleyville Bridge ---maps do not show a camelback at College Ave. Instead, a more centrally located camelback was placed at Letchworth Avenue perhaps also replacing any other still existing old ferry roads.

C - High Elevation Ridgeline Along Bell Avenue...

• High ground along Bell Avenue extends almost to rear fences of the homes beyond which it drops sharply to a drainage swale. This ridgeline was a prominent feature of what was being conveyed for the ferry operation.

Possible use as service road connecting the upper and lower ends of the ferry site, and may at one time performed similar function from Yardley Ferry House (at Belville) ---we found no "road return."

D - Ferry Ramp...

• Top of Ramp Distance to River (low water mark) = (100/5) x 15 = 300-ft
(Based on 5% grade and 15-ft assumed height of berm above low water-mark)

• The distance between Main Street and the river varies fairly uniformly ---it becomes narrower in the upriver direction toward Brock Creek.

• The 1,320-ft length of the first leg of the 1721 Ferry Road survey would tend to fall short of the river if it were positioned too far south.

• The beginning point of the first leg of the 1721 Ferry Road survey "at a Marked Spannish Oak sapling standing on the Bank of the River Delaware..." is not fixed.

Not knowing the location of the Spanish Oak, my selected location for the 1721 road is based on an analysis of early property surveys along the road, ground contours, the cemetery wall, the alignment of Langhorne Road at Tomlinson's Store, analysis of the riverbank, depth of river, and similar type information. The length of the ferry ramp may also be a factor in developing a scenario for the site.

E - Unidentified Structure...

Located at or near the site where the 1923 funeral home was built, the earlier unidentified "mystery" structure is shown or not shown as follows on the various maps.

MAPS
 [  1794 Survey ]  (River Road) - Nothing shown.
 [  1834 Hough Plan ]  - It's probably one of the two lightly drawn structures.
 [  1850 Map ]  (Yardleyville) - Prominently shown.
 [  1875 Map ]  (Yardleyville) - Very prominently shown and with extra wide river frontage.
 [  1893 Subdivision ]  (Longshore Estate) - Nothing shown.

The 1893 map clearly shows structures located elsewhere, which means it's very likely nothing of any consequence existed at the site of the unidentified structure by that time. One possibility... a large wooden "boat house" built by the Greens around the year 1800 and dismantled, burned, or otherwise reduced to inconsequence by 1893.

F - Ferry Road (1721)...

Location of Ferry Road has been firmly established back to 1790 as explained elsewhere on this web site. The location where the 1721 Ferry Road met the river has been tentatively established as being near the funeral home driveway (plus or minus 50-feet) base on fieldwork and engineering analysis. But we could not find any document showing the abandonment of the Ferry Road segment from Afton Avenue to the Funeral Home driveway, which must have occurred sometime between 1775 and about 1794. However, it does appear that the known location of the 1794 road from the point where it is closest to mill to point where it meets Afton Avenue is on a straight-line projection to intersect the point where we have located the 1721 road point of beginning.

LOCATING YARDLEY FERRY SITE ON THE GROUND TODAY

Beginning at the river...
At a point located below College Avenue - moved here from previous downriver location 0 vacated landing no longer required for Green's Ferry is now known as Janney's Landing.

1) Thence South 37 West a distance of 1,617-ft to [Main Street]...
First leg runs roughly parallel to College Avenue, along a line just behind the houses on the left side of College up to S. Bell where College Ave. takes a bend, then continuing on the same straight line passing through the former St Ignatius Church lot to the centerline of Main Street.

2) Thence North 45 West a distance of 264-ft along [Main Street] to [College Avenue]...

3) Thence North 45 East a distance of 858-ft...
Along the centerline or maybe the north side of College Avenue to South Bell.

4) Thence North 54 West a distance of 1204.5-ft...
Along the rear property lines of houses on Bell Avenue, passing the N.E. side of Khalsa Clinic to a corner in Brock Creek.

5) Thence down the creek [as it existed at that time] to the river and...

6) Thence down the river to the point of beginning.

It should be noted that typical problems with legal descriptions based on early surveys in Yardley include: 1)Permanent stones were not installed, 2)Distances were not measured on the horizontal, 3)Traverses were not closed, 4)Lines that ran along creeks and rivers were frequently not surveyed at all ---they were left open. The surveyors certainly knew how to overcome all these problems ---the owners were probably just not willing to pay for it.

Copy: Bill O'Neal, Ewing Township
March 9, 2006