Who was the first European to settle in Pennsylvania?
Pennsylvania. The first permanent European settlements in Pennsylvania were due to the Swedes, who established New Sweden with its capital near present-day Philadelphia.The Dutch drove out the Swedes in 1655 and held the territory until they were in turn displaced by the English in 1664.
When did the settlers first move to Pennsylvania?
Settlement started in 1800 by Joseph Schoerg and Samuel Betzner, Jr. (brothers-in-law), Mennonites, from Franklin County, Pennsylvania. Other settlers followed mostly from Pennsylvania typically by Conestoga wagons.
What was the first town settled in Pennsylvania?
What was the first town in Pennsylvania? C hester Chester is the oldest City in Pennsylvania. In 1681, William Penn acquired the colonial settlement as a safe haven for Quakers. One year later he landed on the ship Welcome and renamed the settlement Chester, after the city in England.
Who settled in Pennsylvania first?
Timeline
- 1608 - English explorer Captain John Smith sails up the Susquehanna River.
- 1609 - Henry Hudson claims much of the region for the Dutch.
- 1643 - Swedish settlers found the first permanent settlement.
- 1664 - The land comes under the control of the British.
- 1681 - William Penn is given a large tract of land by King Charles II. ...
What is the oldest settlement in Pennsylvania?
ChesterChester is the oldest City in Pennsylvania. In 1681, William Penn acquired the colonial settlement as a safe haven for Quakers. One year later he landed on the ship Welcome and renamed the settlement Chester, after the city in England.
Who first settled Pennsylvania?
One of the original 13 colonies, Pennsylvania was founded by William Penn as a haven for his fellow Quakers. Pennsylvania's capital, Philadelphia, was the site of the first and second Continental Congresses in 1774 and 1775, the latter of which produced the Declaration of Independence, sparking the American Revolution.
When were the first settlers in Pennsylvania?
1643In 1643, New Sweden Governor Johan Björnsson Printz established Fort Nya Gothenburg, the first European settlement in Pennsylvania, on Tinicum Island.
Who settled Pennsylvania and who settled?
The Charter King Charles II owed William Penn £16,000, money which his late father Admiral Sir Penn had lent him. Seeking a haven in the New World for persecuted Friends, Penn asked the King to grant him land in the territory between Lord Baltimore's province of Maryland and the Duke of York's province of New York.
What was Pennsylvania called before?
Penn named the territory New Wales. A Welsh member of England? s Privy Council objected, so Penn called it Sylvania (woods). The king changed the name to Pennsylvania, in honor of the admiral.
What Indian tribe was in Pennsylvania?
Native Peoples of Pennsylvania and Delaware The original inhabitants of what is now Pennsylvania included the Lenape, or Delaware, tribe and the Susquehannock tribe. Other tribes, particularly the Nanticoke and the Shawnee, migrated into Pennsylvania and New Jersey after the Europeans arrived.
Who were the first settlers in Philadelphia?
Philadelphia, a city in Pennsylvania whose name means City of Brotherly Love, was originally settled by Native American tribes, particularly the Lenape hunter gatherers, around 8000 B.C.
Why did the Quakers settle in Pennsylvania?
Pennsylvania was founded to be a haven for Quakers and other religious minorities seeking escape from persecution. William Penn, a Quaker, received a royal charter granting him the land, which he established as a colony for Quakers wanting to move from Great Britain.
Why did the Quakers choose to settle in Pennsylvania?
William Penn and settlement in colonial Pennsylvania Pennsylvania made guarantees of religious freedom, and kept them, attracting many Quakers and others.
Why was Pennsylvania the best colony?
The Pennsylvania Colony exported iron ore and manufactured iron products to England, including tools, plows, kettles, nails and other items. Major agriculture in the Pennsylvania Colony included livestock, wheat, corn, and dairy. Manufacturing in the Pennsylvania Colony included shipbuilding, textiles, and papermaking.
What is PA famous for?
Pennsylvania has been one of the nation's most important industrial centers for coal, steel and railroads, especially before War World II. The state is also famous for its leading mushroom production, which reaches 425 million pounds annually with a value of more than $330 million.
What was a major town in Pennsylvania?
PhiladelphiaPittsburghHarrisburgScrantonErieAllentownPennsylvania/Cities
Why did the Swedes settle in Pennsylvania?
THE SWEDISH COME TO AMERICA. established settlements here beginning in the 1630s. William Penn and his Quaker settlers arrived in Pennsylvania in 1682, pursuant to a grant made by the Crown shortly before, to discharge a debt owed to Admiral Penn, the Quaker leader's father.
Who were the first settlers in Philadelphia?
Philadelphia, a city in Pennsylvania whose name means City of Brotherly Love, was originally settled by Native American tribes, particularly the Lenape hunter gatherers, around 8000 B.C.
What country founded Pennsylvania Colony?
December 12, 1787Pennsylvania / Founded
Who lived in the Pennsylvania Colony?
The Pennsylvania Colony included immigrants from England, German, Scotch-Irish, and African Americans. The Pennsylvania Colony was on good terms with the Native Americans. There was an unsworn treaty in place that was never broken. The Quakers never helped the New Englanders during the Indian Wars.
Where was the first permanent settlement in Pennsylvania?
In 1643, Governor Johan Printz arrived and built Fort Elfsborg and Fort New Gothenburg at Tinicum Island, nearby today’s Philadelphia airport. A small park with a statue to Printz commemorates the location. This marks the first permanent settlement by Europeans in Pennsylvania.
Why did the king change the name of Pennsylvania?
The king changed the name to Pennsylvania, in honor of the admiral. The founding of Pennsylvania, about 40,000 square miles, was confirmed to William Penn under the Great Seal on January 5, 1681. Penn induced people to emigrate, the terms being 40 shillings per hundred acres, and "shares" of 5,000 acres for 100 pounds.
What did Penn do with the Leni Lenape?
Within a few days Penn made a treaty with the Leni Lenape to purchase his grant of land from them, even though there was no law requiring him to do so. The treaty's duration was for "as long as water flows and the sun shines and grass grows." Penn and Taminend, Leni Lenape chief, exchanged wampum belts under the Shackamaxon elm in Philadelphia.
When did William Penn set sail?
William Penn set sail from England in August, 1682, with Captain Greenway, in the ship Welcome. The ship was filled with additional passengers, mostly Quakers, with good estates. They arrived at New Castle on October 27, 1682, the next day arriving at Philadelphia. Penn and his friends came up from Chester in an open boat and landed on the low and sandy beach at Dock Creek, it is believed. Penn at that time was 38 years of age.
Where did the enslaved people come from?
Enslaved Africans and Enslaved descendants of Africans were brought into Pennsylvania, mostly by the English, Welsh, and Scotch-Irish.
Who was the first person to visit Delaware Bay?
In 1610 Virginian Captain Samuel Argall visited Delaware Bay (he named it for Lord de la Warr, governor of Virginia). Dutch navigator Cornelis Jacobszoon May was provided a patent to explore the Delaware region more thoroughly and Dutch trading posts were established up and down the Delaware Bay starting in 1620.
Who claimed the land of the West Indies?
The English (1497, John Cabot), the French (1524, Verrazano), the Spanish (1492, Columbus in the West Indies, and other Spanish explorers reaching North America perhaps by 1520), and the Dutch (1609, Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the service of the Dutch East India Company, on his ship the Half Moon) all claimed lands.
Who were the first Europeans to settle in Pennsylvania?
Swedes were the first European settlers in Pennsylvania. Traveling up the Delaware from a settlement at the present site of Wilmington, Del., Gov. Johan Printz of the colony of New Sweden established his capital on Tinicum Island (New Gothenborg) in 1643. Other Europeans, primarily the Dutch, established trading posts within Pennsylvania as early ...
When was the first oil well in Pennsylvania?
First oil well in the United States, built in 1859 by Edwin L. Drake, Titusville, Pennsylvania.
What was the name of the territory of Admiral Penn?
The charter, which was officially proclaimed on April 2, 1681, named the territory for Admiral Penn and included also the term sylvania (“woodlands”), at the son’s request. Penn, William. William Penn.
What tribes lived in the Delaware Valley?
The Delaware, or Lenni Lenape, occupied the Delaware valley; the Susquehannock were in the lower Susquehanna River valley; the Erie and various groups of the Iroquois Confederacy — Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, and Oneida —were in northern Pennsylvania. Tribes of the Ohio River valley lived in the central and western parts of the state.
What did Gettysburg contribute to the Civil War?
Learn how the home state of Gettysburg contributed iron and ammunition along with soldiers to the Union army and navy. Overview of Pennsylvania's role in the American Civil War. The Pennsylvania Emancipation Act of 1781 had pledged the gradual abolition of slavery in the state.
What was William Penn's goal in the colony?
William Penn intended that the colony provide a home for his fellow Quakers (members of the Society of Friends ). While still in England, he drew up the first of his “frames of government” and sent his cousin, William Markham, to establish a claim to the land and also to establish the boundaries of what became the city of Philadelphia. Penn arrived in 1682 and called a General Assembly to discuss the first Frame of Government and to adopt the Great Law, which guaranteed freedom of conscience in the colony. Under Penn’s influence, fair treatment was accorded the Native Americans, who responded with friendship in return. When Penn returned to England in 1684, the new Quaker province had a firmly established government based on the people’s will and religious tolerance.
What was the purpose of the Pennsylvania Emancipation Act of 1781?
The Pennsylvania Emancipation Act of 1781 had pledged the gradual abolition of slavery in the state. The southern boundary of Pennsylvania, ratified in 1769, was the Mason and Dixon Line, which became the dividing line between the slave and the free states before the American Civil War. Once the war broke out, Pennsylvania once again became a centre of military and political activity. At Gettysburg the Union army achieved one of the decisive victories of the war, against a Confederate force led by Gen. Robert E. Lee.
What was the first settlement in the 17th century?
Pennsylvania as described in 1843. [1] The earliest settlements made by Europeans within the limits of Pennsylvania were by a colony of Swedes, who in the year 1638 purchased from the natives the land upon the western shore of Delaware River and Bay, from Cape Henlopen to the falls opposite the present city of Trenton.
Where was Philadelphia founded?
Fresh arrivals of emigrants poured into the province from England, Wales, and Germany. The Welsh settled upon the Schuylkill some miles above Philadelphia, and the Germans, establishing themselves on the north, founded the village of Germantown. Four years after the grant of the charter to Penn, the province contained twenty settlements, and Philadelphia two thousand inhabitants.
What was William Penn's role in the colony?
William Penn, the son of Sir William Penn, a distinguished admiral in the British navy, having embraced the religious sentiments of the people called Friends, or Quakers, suffered much persecution on that account, and seems to have looked towards the new settlements in America, as a place where he might found a colony as an asylum for his persecuted brethren. Accordingly, in 1680, he petitioned King Charles II for a tract of land lying north of the patent previously granted to Lord Baltimore, and west of the Delaware. This was readily granted to him in consideration of a debt of sixteen thousand pounds, due to him in right of his father, from the government. The charter was dated March 4, 1681, and constituted William Penn and his heirs true and absolute proprietaries of the province of Pennsylvania, saving to the crown their allegiance and the sovereignty. (This Charter is yet preserved and hangs in a frame in the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth at Harrisburg .) He and his heirs and deputies were empowered to enact laws with the assent of the freemen of the province, to erect courts of justice, and generally to administer the government, provided that nothing should be done repugnant to the laws or sovereignty of England. No tax or duty was to be laid on the people or their property by the king, unless by consent of the proprietary, governor or assembly, or by act of parliament.
What were the laws of Pennsylvania?
This first legislature of Pennsylvania, during a session of three days, enacted three laws. 1) An act annexing the Lower Counties to the province. 2) An act naturalizing the Swedes, Dutch, and other foreigners in the province. 3) The "great law," comprising the laws agreed on in England as a general system of jurisprudence.
Where was John Penn's house?
The house which he occupied, and in which his son John Penn was born, is still standing at the southeast corner of Second Street and Morris Alley.
Who brought the Swedes to New York?
The Dutch West India Company, however, also laid claim to this territory under a grant from the government of Holland, and in 1654 they subdued the Swedes, and brought them under the dominion of the government of New Netherlands, now New York, which then belonged to the Dutch.
Who settled in Delaware Bay?
The Dutch claim to the area was established by Henry Hudson, when he sailed into Delaware Bay in 1609. In later years, Cornelius Hendricksen followed up on Hudson's reports, further explored the region and established a settlement near present-day Philadelphia .
What was the original name of the colony of New Wales?
Penn's original name for the colony was to be New Wales, but that suggestion was rejected. Instead, he chose Sylvania (meaning "woods") and it was modified by the King to "Pennsylvania" in honor of Penn's father. See Early Development.
