Wolle Swanson

(1639-1693)

Wolle Swanson was born at sea when family emigrated to New Sweden on the Kalmar Nyckel in 1639. His father Sven Gunnarsson was stationed at the Fort Christina plantation where worked on a tobacco farm until he earned his freedom in 1645. His family eventually settled on a former Indian settlement called Wiccaco, where Gunnarsson was granted 1125 acres of land from the Dutch Governor in 1664.

When William Penn became Governor, his council established an Act of Naturalization in 1682 which gave landowning foreigners residing in Pennsylvania three months to become naturalized. Wolle and his brothers Andrew and Sven were amongst the first group of Swedish settlers to be naturalized. By doing so, they received the same rights as their English born neighbors and were allowed to maintain their land holdings. The Swanson brothers landholdings included the river frontage that William Penn needed to create the city of Philadelphia. In 1683, the Swanson brothers agreed to provide Penn with the northern part of their landholdings, leaving each brother with 230 acres each in Wiccaco.