Ferry Rights in Philadelphia County, 1746

FERRY RIGHTS IN PHILADELPHIA COUNTY, 1746 F erries were vital to Philadclphial a city wedged between the Schuykill and Delaware rivers. As in the other American colonies, one could not imply decide to establish a ferry. One had to be granted the right by the appropriate governing body or bodies. The Rent Rolls for Philadelphia contain block-by-block descriptions of prop rty from original patentee to current resident. The "Rent Roll for the County of Philadelphi~ No. 5 "pag 27, also contains a list of ferry rights at that time. 1 Ferry's in the County of Philad[ elphia] Ralph Ashton a Ferry over Schuylkill 2 for 31 years at !/[shillings]: p[e]r Ann[um]. Pat: 1:1:1733/4. • The Mayor & Commonalty of Philad[elphia] a Ferry from Philad[elphia] to the Jerseys forever. Pat: 4.12.1735 at one Beaver Skin p[e]r Ann[um). Sam[ue]l Bleinston a Ferry over Schuylkill for 7 years from the year 1740. Pat: 24.12.1735 at £30.[0].[0] Curr[en]cy p{er] Ann[um]. Rich[ar]d Renshaw: Licence for a Ferry from G [sic] the South bounds of Philad[elphia) to Glocester in the Jerseys. Pat: 1.1.1738 at 1/[shillings]: p[e]r Ann[um). Robert Roberts a Ferry over Schuylkill below the Falls for seven years. Pat: 2.1.1740/1 at 40/[shillings]: Cur[ren]cy p[e]r Ann[um]. Peter Righter3 a Ferry on the E. side of Schuylkill River for Seven Years in Roxbury Town[shi]p. Pat: 30:Jan:1741 at 5/(shillings] p[e]r Ann[um]. 1 "Quit Rent Book A & C, Rent Rolls 1703-1744, v. 1-12," Pennsylvania State Archives Record Group 17, 1 roll of microfilm, #0468. Originals are at the Bureau of Archives and History, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commis ion, Harri burg. In addition to the Pennsylvania Archives Reading Room in Harl'isburg, this microfilm ls at the Family HiStory Library in Salt Lake City (FHL #l,032,840 and 1,035.090, item 2) and the Genealogy Section of the Dallas [Texas] Public Library. Although the record-group labels indicate that the roll terminated in 1744, there arc references therein to patents at least as late June 1746. 2 Page 7, "'Schulkill and lands on it's we.st side," indudcs a listing for Ashton' 250 acres •on which ferry house stands." This property was or(ginally patented to WilUam Powel 3 For more on thjs ferry, cc Mildrew Goshow, ..A Study of the Righter-Reiter fami~ lies of Philadelphia County in the Eighteenth Century," Pennsylvania Geneak>glcal Magazine 21(1958): 7-8. Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine Vol. (2006) 351