FLING, David, of East Bradford, weaver, married Abigail, widow of Edward Seed, and daughter of Richard (and Alice?) Buffington.  She died in April, and was buried May 1, 1813, in her ninety-second year.  The children of David and Abigail were Alice, m. ____ McNamee, and went to Hagerstown, Md.; John; Phebe, b. Mary 1755, d. June 23, 1748, m. Joseph Baldwin; Hannah; David, d. April 5, 1844, in his eighty-second year.  The father was living in or near Bradford in 1737.  James Fling, a grandson, died near Marshallton, Jan. 30, 1873, and from an obituary notice which soon after appeared we take the following:

'He was born Oct. 24, 1801, and lived with his parents on a farm in East Bradford township, on the Brandywine, near Seeds' Bridge, during a period of thirty-five years.  When quite a boy he showed strong desires to learn and become a mathematician.  He was sent to school in the winter season, helping his father on the farm at other seasons, yet any leisure moments he might have while thus engaged were taken advantage of, and for the time being his slate and pencil were his only friends.  Were these not accessible, he could frequently be found chalk in hand busily engaged in solving some knotty question in algebra, the barn floor being a substitute for the slate, while his team took their noon rest underneath.  Through his powerful and determined efforts, together with the assistance of such teachers as Joseph Strode, Jonathan Gause, and Moses Cheyney, he became one of the best mathematicians in our county.  Through the winter, and sometimes in the summer seasons, he taught school during a period of forty years.  In 1836 he and his father moved to a little property about a quarter of a mile south of this village, and made this his home during the remainder of his life.  He taught school at one time in Delaware County, at Hockessin, in Delaware State, and in our county in Goshen township, at West Chester, Unionville, Romansville, Locust Grove, and Marshallton, in the latter place for nineteen years.  As a teacher he possessed rare qualifications; he was but little known, however, outside of his schools and neighborhood, except as a surveyor; his extreme modesty and simplicity of manners not being calculated to gain the notice and favor of the great mass of mankind, who can appreciate nothing unless the exterior be finely clad and highly polished.'