Philadelphia in 1775

Philadelphia on the verge of Independence was the largest city in British North America. The greater city (which included the contiguous jurisdictions of Southwark and Northern Liberties) had a population of more than 37,000 people. ¹  According to a 1777 British Army intelligence report, the greater city had 6,057 houses. Most scholars estimate that at the time of the Revolution New York had a population of 25,000 people, and Boston and Charleston 12 to 16,000.

This historical map provides a glimpse into the population of the city in 1775 by showing exactly where people were living. It combines for the first time information from the 1775 tax records (Constables' Returns) for the City of Philadelphia compiled by Nancy R. Hagedorn with data drawn from the Philadelphia County deed records compiled by J.M. Duffin. By putting these two sources together it is possible to know exactly where each person was living in Philadelphia.

Because roughly 70 to 80% of the residents in the 1770s were renting their homes, these types of tax records are the only way for one to locate where people were living in Philadelphia before the first city directories were published annually in the 1790s.

The map depicts the property lines (light grey) as they existed in the city in 1777 and are essentially the same for 1775. Each property owner is given a color and all the lots owned by that same person have the same color. In several cases, adjacent lots will appear with one color indicating they were owned by the same person.

When the resident listed in the 1775 Constables' Return has been identified for a specific lot their name appears on the map in regular font. If the lot was vacant or it is not clear who the resident was, the name of the owner in 1777 appears in italic font. When you click on a property line (not the center of a lot), a pop-up window will appear that provides more information about the resident and/or owner, such as their occupation. Where residents have been identified, there will also be a link to the image of the pages (left and right) in the original Constables' Return.

The underlying basemap is the  Clarkson and Biddle map  of Philadelphia published in 1762. The buildings shown on the map are those standing in 1762. Many more building buildings were constructed between 1762 and 1775. Unfortunately, there are no published maps for the 1770s with the same level of building detail as the Clarkson-Biddle map. It is, however, possible to infer additional buildings by looking at the lot configurations superimposed on the 1762 map and clicking on the property line to see if there was a resident at a particular location in 1775 which would indicate that house was there in 1775.

Portions of the original Clarkson-Biddle map were adjusted on this webmap to fit the actual location of some of the alleys that subdivided the larger squares.

What are the Constables' Returns?

The Constables' Returns were the first step in the tax assessment process for the Province of Pennsylvania. The Constable would walk through every street and alley in the city and conduct a census of all the residents to determine what, if any, taxes they may owe. In addition to recording the names and occupations of the principal resident of each property and the annual rent paid, they enumerated the number of children and enslaved people in the household and their age range. They also counted servants and other adult freemen. What makes the Constables' Returns a valuable historical resource is that they include names of heads of households who did not possess taxable property and therefore were not taxed and do not appear in the final tax lists (which can be found in the Philadelphia City Archives and Pennsylvania State Archives for the 1770s and 1780s).

The 1775 Philadelphia Constables' Returns lists heads of households, regardless of final tax status, for all the wards of the City of Philadelphia. Some of the larger wards, such as Mulberry, North, and Dock are broken out into two sections.

In 1775, the Constables gathered the following information from the head of household at each residence:

• Householder (i.e. resident)
• Occupation
• House landlord
• House rent (annual)
• Ground landlord (owner of any ground rents due from the property)
• Ground rent (annual).
  • Ground rents in Pennsylvania were not a rent connected to a lease or leasehold (like the "House rent"). They were tied to the ownership of the land as a financial obligation of the property owner and a form of investment for the ground rent owner that operated much like paying interest on a mortgage debt does today.
• Inmates (married men who were in the household of another person)
• Hired servants
• Bound servants and their ages (apprentices/journeymen/indentured servants)
• Children and their ages
• "Negroes" and their ages (enslaved people)

The 1775 Constables' Returns is part of the holdings of the Philadelphia City Archives. The record can be found  here .

Map from " Revolution at Penn? " Exhibit (reduced scale):

Key:

• A. First Campus of the College of Philadelphia/University of Pennsylvania, 1750 – 1802
  • Home of the Charity School from 1751 to 1877. The Provost’s House built in 1775 was at the corner of 4th and Arch.
• B. William Shippen’s Anatomical Theatre, 1765 – ca. 1786
  • Used for lectures by the School of Medicine.
• C. Philadelphia County Goal Provost
  • William Smith was incarcerated by the Pennsylvania Assembly and taught classes from his cell here in 1758.
• D. Benjamin Franklin’s Home (partially extant)
  • Many of the Trustees’ meetings of the revived College of Philadelphia were held here in the late 1780s.
• E. Pennsylvania Assembly House/Independence Hall (extant)
• F. Second Campus of the University of the State of Pennsylvania (extant), 1789 – 1791
  • The University rented this new building from American Philosophical Society after it was forced to vacate the property at 4th and Arch to the College of Philadelphia.
• G. Anatomical Hall, 1787 – 1807
  • Used by the School of Medicine for anatomical lectures before moving to 9th and Market Streets

Related Source:

An interactive and searchable Google Map interface of property owners in greater Philadelphia area for October 1777 can be found on the  Mapping West Philadelphia website .