Darby Township

Darby Township is a community with a rich history. We are home to multiple parks, an outstanding relationship with industrial businesses, and excellent municipal services.

Our Township strives to be the best in serving the community and its residents. We have an extensive recycling program and procedures to keep the environment clean.

We are always working harder to better the community and do our best to support a clean township.

History

Darby Township was settled in 1683 by English and Swedish immigrants who became friendly with Indians who lived in wigwams along the Muckinapates Creek. Darby Township became then and is now an important link in the line of transportation from Philadelphia to Chester and points south. Its farms and mills provided meat, vegetables, and meal to its immediate neighbor to the North, Philadelphia, and over the past 300 years it has left its mark in the historical records of the United States.

Early Settlement

'The area, now known as Darby Township, was settled almost immediately after the coming of William Penn (1682), and in 1683 was recognized as one of the localities where a permanent lodgement had been made but despite that fact, it is believed that the population was sparse for more than a quarter of a century. In 1684 Darby Friends’ Meeting had been established. In the same year the first official record of Darby occurs in the list of collectors “to gather the assessment for the building of the courthouse.” Thomas Worth and Joshua Fearne were appointed to those offices for Darby, and Mons Stacker and William Cobb “for Amosland & Calcoone Hook.” The latter was recognized as a distinct municipal district until1686, when Calcoone Hook was made a part of Darby Township, and Amosland was annexed to Ridley. Calcon or Calkoen's Hook comprised all the territory between Cobb's Creek on the east, and the Mokormpates Kill or Muckinipattas Creek on the west, and derives its name from the Swedish word Kalkon (a turkey) and Walda Kalkoen (wild turkeys). Later the territory known by that name became restricted to that part lying south of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad, while its eastern boundary was Morhorhootink, as shown in the atlas of the early grants in Delaware County.