William Penn first lodged in America at Essex House on this site on October 28, 1682, as the guest of Robert Wade. Wade was the earliest Quaker settler on this side of the Delaware River, arriving in 1676, and had purchased the property, then called Printzdorp, from its earlier occupant, Armecot, widow of Johan Papegoia, who had been Vice Governor of New Sweden from 1653 to 1654. She had succeeded to ownership from her father, Johan Printz, the Swedish first Governor in present Pennsylvania from 1643 to 1653.