Philadelphia, First

Posted by Michael O'Malley on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Philadelphia, First If it happened, it happened in Philadelphia,” so goes an old adage. And one not terribly far from the truth, either. Philadelphia has witnessed much of the history of the early United States. The sign­ing of the Declaration of Inde­pendence, probably the nation’s most hallowed docu­ment, drew the colonies’ lead­ing statesmen – including George Washington, Thomas...
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Old Rights Warrant to First Purchaser Humphrey Morrey

Posted by Willis Shirk on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Old Rights Warrant to First Purchaser Humphrey Morrey William Penn granted Old Rights Warrant D-69-63 on “23 Fifth Month [July] 1683” to Humphrey Morrey (circa 1650–1716), a prominent Quaker slave owner residing in New York, for 250 acres of land in Philadelphia County. As a First Purchaser, Morrey also received three Philadelphia town lots. Within two years, by August 1685, he had acquired several additional town lots and erected a large timber...
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Our First Friends, the Early Quakers

Posted by Rae Tyson on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Our First Friends, the Early Quakers Armed with a charter granted by England’s King Charles II, William Penn (1644-1718) and one hundred travel-weary Quakers arrived in the New World aboard the Welcome on October 27, 1682, with the intention of establishing the founder’s “holy experiment,” a colony that would be free of the religious persecution they suffered abroad. Once safely docked in the Delaware Bay at...
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