Blockley Township is a defunct
township
A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries.
Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, ...
that was located in
Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the most populous county in Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, Philadelphia County had a population of 1,603,797. The county is the second smallest county in Pennsy ...
. Incorporated in 1704,
the township was incorporated into the
City of Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
under the 1854
Act of Consolidation.
History
An irregularly shaped area of 7,580 acres (31 km²), Blockley Township was located on the west side of the
Schuylkill River, north of
Kingsessing Township; bounded on the east by the Schuylkill; extending south from the county line, opposite to, but a little below, the mouth of the
Wissahickon, down to the Nanganesy or
Mill Creek, below the Woodlands; then by the same creek up to Chadd’s Ford Turnpike, known in later years as the
Baltimore Pike; along the same to
Cobb’s Creek; then by the courses of the same to the county line adjoining
Lower Merion Township,
Montgomery County, and along the same to the
Schuylkill River.
Within its boundaries were the villages of
Hamilton Hamilton may refer to:
People
* Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname
** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland
** Lord Hamilto ...
,
Mantua
Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and '' comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the province of the same name.
In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture. In 2017, it was named as the Eur ...
, West Philadelphia, Hestonville and
Haddington.
It was traversed by the Darby Road (today's Woodland Avenue) and Chadd’s Ford or Baltimore Pike, the road to
West Chester, to
Haverford and to
Lancaster.
The name is derived from
Blockley
Blockley is a village, civil parish and ecclesiastical parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England, about northwest of Moreton-in-Marsh. Until 1931 Blockley was an exclave of Worcestershire.
The civil and ecclesiastical par ...
, a parish in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
in
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of ...
from which the township's founder, William Warner, hailed. In Philadelphia, "Blockley" was synonymous with the
Blockley Almshouse
The Blockley Almshouse, later known as Philadelphia General Hospital, was a charity hospital and poorhouse located in West Philadelphia. It originally opened in 1732/33 in a different part of the city as the Philadelphia Almshouse (not to be conf ...
that opened here in 1832. The township also contained The Woodlands; the former estate of William Hamilton, grandson of
Andrew Hamilton, which was converted in 1840 to
the Woodlands Cemetery.
The boundaries and area changed on February 17, 1844, when the area encompassing Mantua and Hamilton were incorporated into the
Borough of West Philadelphia, dividing the remaining township into two almost unconnected sections.
The township was incorporated into Philadelphia proper by the 1854
Act of Consolidation.
References
Resources
''Chronology of the Political Subdivisions of the County of Philadelphia, 1683-1854''()
*
courtesy o
ushistory.org'
- excerpted from the book at the ushistory.org website
{{PhilaCnty1854
Municipalities in Philadelphia County prior to the Act of Consolidation, 1854
1854 disestablishments in Pennsylvania