PENN, WILLIAM | Land grant signed, Philadelphia, 4 May 1684

PENN, WILLIAM

Land grant signed, Philadelphia, 4 May 1684

1 page on vellum (8 x 11 1/2 in.; 203 x 292 mm); matted, glazed on both sides and framed with a portrait of Penn. 

The founder of Pennsylvania makes one of the earliest land grants of land in downtown Philadelphia. The grant conveys a "Lott of land in Philadelphia, situated between the Third & Fourth Street from Delaware … bounded Northward with the Swamp … Southward with Walnutt street …" to Thomas Minchall, one of the first purchasers of Philadelphia lands after Penn laid out the town. The site was opposite the famed Quaker Alms-house and in the same block with the mansion later built by Bishop William White. Minchall, a native of Stoke, England, purchased 625 acres in Philadelphia County in 1684.