Editing Chester, Pennsylvania (section)

===Early history===
[[File:Penn Landing Stone 2.JPG|thumb|Commemorative marker at the [[William Penn Landing Site]] where [[William Penn]] first landed in the [[Province of Pennsylvania]], in 1682]]
The indigenous tribe that owned the land where Chester now stands were the [[Okehocking people|Okehockings]], removed by order of [[William Penn]] in 1702 to other lands in Chester County.{{sfn|Ashmead|1884|p=328}} The original indigenous name of Chester was Mecoponaca,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ferris|first1=Benjamin|title=A History of the Original Settlements on the Delaware|date=1846|publisher=Wilson & Healde|location=Wilmington|page=[https://archive.org/details/historyoforigina00inferr/page/135 135]|url=https://archive.org/details/historyoforigina00inferr|access-date=22 June 2017}}</ref> which means "the stream along which large potatoes grow".{{sfn|Martin|1877|p=3}}

The first European settlers in the area were members of the [[New Sweden]] colony. The settlement that became Chester was first called "Finlandia" (the Latin name for [[Finland]]) and then "Upland" after the Swedish province of [[Uppland]]. The New Sweden settlers built Fort Mecoponacka in 1641 to defend the settlement.<ref>''Narratives of Early Pennsylvania, West New Jersey and Delaware 1630–1707'', ed. [[Albert Cook Myers]]. New York: [[Charles Scribner's Sons]] (1912){{ISBN?}}</ref>

In 1644, the present site of Chester was a tobacco plantation operated by the New Sweden colonists.{{sfn|Ashmead|1883|p=2}}

By 1682, Upland was the most populous town of the new [[Province of Pennsylvania]]. On October 27, the ship ''Welcome'' arrived bearing [[William Penn]] on his first visit to the province. Penn renamed the settlement after the English city of [[Chester]].{{sfn|Ashmead|1884|p=20}}