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, Ca ...

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 largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

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 The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river running northwest to southeast in eastern Pennsylvania. The river was improved by navigations into the Schuylkill Canal, and several of its tributaries drain major parts of Pennsylvania's Coal Region. It fl ...

, 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 Wissahickon may refer to the following in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania: *Wissahickon, Philadelphia, a section or neighborhood of Philadelphia *Wissahickon Creek, a tributary of the Schuylkill River **Wissahickon Memorial Bridge, spans the above c ...

, 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 The Baltimore Pike was an auto trail connecting Baltimore, Maryland, with Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Today, parts of the road are signed as U.S. Route 1 (US 1), US 13, and a small portion of Pennsylvania Route 41 (PA 41). A section of the road ...

; along the same to Cobb’s Creek; then by the courses of the same to the county line adjoining

Lower Merion Township Lower Merion Township is a township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. It is part of the Philadelphia Main Line. The township's name originates with the county of Merioneth in north Wales. Merioneth is an English-language transcription of the ...

, Montgomery County, and along the same to the

. 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 Hamilt ...

Mantua Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard language, Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture ...

, 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 parish ...

, 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 b ...

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 Gl ...

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 Woodlands is a National Historic Landmark District on the west bank of the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. It includes a Federal-style mansion, a matching carriage house and stable, and a garden landscape that in 1840 was transformed into a ...

. 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