Passyunk Township is a defunct township that was located in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. The township ceased to exist and was incorporated into the City of Philadelphia following the passage of the Act of Consolidation, 1854.[1]
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Passyunk, spelled in old deeds and records Perslajingh, Passayunk, Passyonck, Passajon, Passajungh, Passaming and Paisajungh, the name of a Native American village. It formed a tract of land computed at 1,000 acres (4 km²), originally granted by Queen Christina, August 20, 1653, to Lt. Swen Schute in consideration of important services rendered to the Swedish colony of New Sweden by the said gallant lieutenant.[2]
Fort Beversreede, a New Netherland factorij, and Fort Nya Korsholm, a New Sweden trading post, were both located in the area.
On January 1, 1667–68, Governor Richard Nichols, of New York, granted Passyunk to Robert Ashman, John Ashman, Thomas Jacob, Dunkin Williams, Francis Walker, and others, at a quit-rent of ten bushels of wheat per year. Passyunk was the first tract of land above the marsh-land in the Neck, which latter has since become fast land. It fronted on the Schuylkill River from Point Breeze up to a little stream called Pinneys Creek. From the head of Pinneys Creek the boundary extended in a straight line towards the southeast, to a point which formed the boundary of Moyamensing, thence south by west to the limit of the fast-land and over in irregular shape to the Schuylkill. The northeastern boundary was about on the parallel of Twelfth Street.
Passyunk occupied something more than a full quarter of the fast-land south of Philadelphia. It became a township at a very early period. The limit of the township was extended from the South Street city line along the Schuylkill and the Delaware and Back Channel to a point beyond the eastern end of League Island, whence it ran north by west and struck the city line at South Street between Schuylkill Fifth (Eighteenth ) and Sixth (Seventeenth) Streets.[3]
The township was estimated to be in its greatest length 3¾ miles; greatest breadth, 3 miles; area, 5,110 acres (21 km²). There were no villages in this township, but it was at no time a favorite place for country-seats. It was traversed by the Federal Road, afterwards called Federal Street, from the Delaware to Grays Ferry, by a portion of Moyamensing Road across to Greenwich Island, Passyunk Road, Long Lane and the Irish Tract Lane. [4]