Northern Liberties Township, Pennsylvania
The Liberties was a term applied by William Penn to certain tracts of land lying north and west of the city.It contained what was called "the liberty land or free lots" because the proprietaries gave to the first purchaser of ground in the colony, according to the extent of his purchase, a portion of the land within those limits free of price.[clarification needed] The original idea of Penn was to lay out a great town of 10,000 acres (16 sq mi; 40 km2); but when the commissioners came to survey this space of ground it was found somewhat difficult, and when Penn arrived in 1682 he determined to divide the great town into two parts, one to be called the city and the other the Liberties.The Liberties extended north of Vine Street to the mouth of Cohocksink Creek and up the same so as to go round the lands of Jurian Hartsfelder, which had already been granted away before Penn came to the colony.There were Swedish, Dutch, and English grants of land made before Penn came to be proprietor that had to be respected, so that the Liberty lands were very irregular in their boundaries, and ran by various courses along the Cohocksink, Wissinoming, Tacony, Wingohocking and other streams, and Germantown and Bristol townships, to the Schuylkill, and over the same and out to Cobbs Creek, and down the same and along the west side of the Schuylkill to a point opposite Vine Street, at the north city line, and along the same to the place of beginning.