HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY,
 

785
 

CHAPTER L.
 

MANORS  AND   LARGE   LAND   GRANTS.
 

Reserved tracts of land,—Pennsbury manor.—The Indian owner.—Granted to Cap¬
tain Hyde and others.—Manor of Grimstead.—Penn succeeded to it.—Area.—
Biddle's island.—Free Society of Tnvflers.—Privileges of the corporation.—Its
location.—Manor of Richlands.—Its contents.—Ox->ened to settlers—Manor of
Perkasie.—A gi-ant to University of Pennsjdvania.—Manor of Highlands.—^Tlie
London company.—Their lands in Tinicum.—Their sale and purchase.
 

At the settlement of the state, William Penn reserved, within the
present limits of Bucks county, several large tracts which were laid
off into proprietary manors, and for other purposes. Idiese were
the manors of Pennsbury, Highlands, Perkasie, and Richlands, and
the large tracts owned by the Free Society of Traders and the
London company. All these tracts have long since been cut up and
sold to numerous purchasers.

Pennsbury manor, the home of William Penn, and the most im¬
portant and interesting of the manors, was situated in Falls, and em¬
braced nearly half the township. It was once a royal domain, called
Sepessi?i, or Sepessing, and was purchased of an old Indian king, the
reputed owner, but probably not until after Penn's arrivah There
are several opinions as to the derivation of this name. That which
conies nearest to it among the aborigines is "Nipissings,'' the name
of a band of Algonqtdns, who lived on the banks of lake Nipissing,
near lake Huron, when Champlain first penetrated these wilds in
1615. The name is the same that Lindstrom gives on his map of
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