In the year 1856, I was called on by an old friend with a request to give one of a course of Lectures then being delivered under the auspices of the Rev. B. Wister Morris, at the Schoolroom of St. Davids Church, Manayunk, I consented, and took for my subject "Manayunk:" Its early history, rise, and progress. To do justice to the subject, I found it necessary to begin with the village two miles below Manayunk, the Falls of Schuylkill, where originated the Schuylkill Navigation Company, which, by creating the water-power or mill seats at Manayunk, was the primary cause of its origin. As I progressed there came up fresh on my mind so many interesting facts and circumstances, that I soon discovered I could not do justice to the subject in a single lecture. I therefore gave two, one on the Falls of Schuylkill, the other on Manayunk. What is contained in the following pages is the substance of those two lectures, which, at the repeated request of many persons, I have concluded to publish.