Chester County Townships in 1712: From the Chester County Archives online, See Maps and Atlases at the Archives for similar maps from other time periods.
Properties Now in E New London and W Franklin Townships, 1720s. North on this map is to the right, West is up. From the archives of the New London Area Historical Society.
New London Properties, c.1720. This map was created by the New London Area Historical Society to show the lands of Susanna McCane (or McKean), grandmother of Thomas McKean. From the archives of the New London Area Historical Society.
Detail of Susanna McCane's Lands, Early 1700s. Another map created by the NLAHS, showing as well the lands inherited and acquired by her sons Thomas and William McKean. Wiliiam is the father of Thomas McKean, signer of the Declaration of Independence. From the archives of the New London Area Historical Society.
Lands of the London Company, Surveyed 1709. North is to the right, West is up. From the Pennsylvania Archives and Fold3.com: “London Land Company Survey of 5,000 Acres, Chester County. Surveyed by Thomas Fairman, August 19, [1709]. Printed, in color. Laminated, 1 section. From: Published Pennsylvania Archives, 3rd Series, 'Appendix I-X,' No. 16.”
Chillas Map of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware in 1739, showing the London Company lands and the Nottingham Lots. In the original, North is to the right and West is up, but this image has been rotated so that North is up. Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, The New York Public Library. "A map of part of the Province of Pennsylvania and of the counties of Newcastle, Kent and Sussex on Delaware: showing the temporary limits of the jurisdiction of Pennsylvania and Maryland, fixed according to an order of his Majesty in Council, dated the 25 day of May in the year 1738 : surveyed in the year 1739" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1852. The unrotated original is here.
London Tract and Other London Company Lands is plotted on a modern relief map of SE Chester Co. Prepared by the Franklin Township Historical Commission for the talk on Ben Franklin's relationship to the Township. This map is an attempt to show the details of the Chillas and Fairman maps with respect to the London Tract on a modern Franklin Township map.
New Munster and the Society Tract, 1763. North is to the left, East is up. New Munster is now largely in Maryland, but part of it extended into S Franklin Township. From the Pennsylvania Archives and Fold3.com: “Tracts of Land called New Munster and Society, December 13, 1763. Shows: mill, dwelling house, Rankin's field. Printed, in color. Laminated, 1 section. From: Published Pennsylvania Archives, 3rd Series, 'Appendix I-X,' No. 12.” The Alexanders, who settled in what is now S Franklin Township, were awarded land in New Munster, which was a Calvert grant. There is more info on the Alexanders in the the Snapshot Histories section of the Histories page.
Present-day Franklin Township with London Company Lands and New Munster. Prepared by the Franklin Township Historical Commission for the Ben Franklin talk, this shows the approximate location of New Munster as it extended into the modern Township.
The Lands of George McCleave, Later of Benjamin Franklin, 1760s and 1770s. Plotted on a present-day map of Franklin Township by the Franklin Township Historical Commission, based on information in the Chester County Historical Society archives. Also prepared for the Ben Franklin talk, this map shows modern property lines as they were at the time the Commission made the map, and can be used to see if Ben Franklin once owned your property.
Franklin and London Britain Property Owners and Roads in 1777 was prepared by the Chester County Archives as part of an atlas of the county in 1777 for the Battle of Brandywine project. Similar maps for other county townships, as well as more information on the atlas, can be found on the 1777 Chester County Property Atlas page.
A Map of Chester County as Constituted in 1780. Published by Gilbert Cope in 1914. This map shows both the county's townships as they existed in 1780 as well as the earlier historic manors (large Penn land grants) located in the county.
New London Township, 1847. Franklin Township was then part of New London, and did not become a separate township until 1852. Detail from the 1847 Painter-Bowen map of Chester County. The complete county map is available from the Library of Congress.
Franklin Township, 1856, is a detail from the 1856 T. J. Kennedy map of Chester County. The complete county map is available from the Library of Congress.
Franklin Township, 1860, detail from the 1860 T. J. Kennedy map of Chester County, which shows residents of the the Township at the time. The complete county map is available from the Library of Congress.
Franklin and London Britain, 1873. Plate 25 from the Atlas of Chester County, Pennsylvania, 1873. Like the 1860 map, this one shows the location of residents of the Township at the time. Scan of a map belonging to a local resident.
Franklin and London Britain, 1883, is from Breou’s Official Series of Farm Maps of Chester County, 1883, pp. 260-261. This maps shows both residents at the time and property boundaries. Scan of a map belonging to a local resident.
Kemblesville, 1883, is a detail from Breou’s Official Series of Farm Maps of Chester County, 1883, p. 145. It also shows residents and property boundaries, though the property owners listed do not always match those shown in the preceding map, which is from the same atlas. Scan of a map belonging to a local resident.
Composite Topographical Map, 1896 and 1906, was prepared by the Franklin Township Historical Commission from U. S. Geological Survey maps. The northern portion of the map is from 1906, the southern from 1896, with the suture of the two maps occurring east to west in the vicinity of Kemblesville (which is why the village is labeled twice).
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