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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
3 1833 02230 2217 REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
GC 974.802 G317P
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016
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The
Settlement of Germantown Pennsylvania
and the
Beginning of German Emigration to
north America
BY
HON. SAMUEL WHITAKER PENNYPACKER, LL.D. PRESIDENT JUDGE OF THE PHILADELPHIA COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, NO. 2, AND SENIOR VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
WILLIAM J. CAMPBELL, PHILADELPHIA. 1899.
THREE HUNDRED COPIES PRINTED .
FROM TYPE.
COPYRIGHT BY SAMUEL W. PENNYPACKER 1899 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PRESS OF THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY LANCASTER, PA.
Samt W. Pennypacker
uncut custo. fitLustry illust aleu.
1
This book has brought as high as $64.00 at auction. There were only 300 copies printed, and they were all sold with . eleven da after publication, the orders amounting to many moro. Judge Rennypacker by his long study of the subject was pre-en:ir ently fit to write the book. It is now one of the scarcest and most valued of recent Americana. The libraries that are fortunate en' igh to ( copies should keep them in their locke cases, and those that have not should telegraph for this copy.
1158265
PREFACE.
S it seemed to be a duty which could not be avoided, I have written the fol- lowing history of the settlement of one of the most interesting of the Amer- ican burghs. A descendant of Hen- drick Pannebecker, Abraham Op den Graeff, Paul Kuster, Cornelius Tyson, Peter Conrad, Hendrick Sellen, Hans Peter Umstat and probably of William Rittenhouse, all of them among the early residents of Germantown, for thirty years I have been gradually gathering the original materials from over the world. The task was one of great difficulty, presenting ob- stacles not encountered elsewhere and requiring the ex- amination of almost inaccessible books and papers in the Dutch, German, French and Latin, as well as the English languages. An article written by me in 1880, since copied en masse as to facts, language and notes, in Cassel's History of the Mennonites, and used by other authors, has here been reconstructed. The careful and thorough investigations of the late Dr. Oswald Seidensticker, the work of Julius F. Sachse upon the German Pietists, the papers of the late Horatio Gates Jones and the article of H. P. G. Quack, of Amsterdam, upon Plockhoy's Sociale Plannen have been used freely. I am indebted likewise to Mr. Sachse for the production of the illustrations.
NOTE-Initial from Plockhoy's Kort en Klaer Ontwerp.
iii
Jan
Vanity.
LIST OF ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS.
I Portrait of the Author . Frontispiece.
2 Coat-of-Arms of the Pennypacker family Preface.
3 Letter from Plockhoy's Kort en Klaer Ontwerp .
4 Coat-of-Arms of German Society
I
5 Arms of Crefeld 3
6 Autograph of William Penn .
7 Menno Simons . 8
8 Caspar Schwenckfeld I3
9 Autograph of Thomas Story 14
IO Arms of the Netherlands . 20
II Arms of Frankfort. 21
12 Johanna Eleanora von Merlau . . 22
13 Arms and Autograph of Jacob Van de Wall . 22
14 Arms and Autograph of Daniel Behagel .
22
15 Seal and Autograph of Dr. Johann Wilhelm Petersen . 16 Dr. Johann Wilhelm Petersen
24
17 Title page of the Hertzens-Gespräch .
25
18 Title page of the Offenbahrung Jesu Christi
26
19 Arms and Autograph of Johannes Kemler .
27
20 Arms and Autograph of Thomas von Wylich 28
21 Seal and Autograph of Johann Jacob Schütz . 29
22 Arms and Autograph of Balthasar Jawert .
32
23 Agreement of the Frankfort Land Company . 32
24 Arms and Autograph of Gerhard von Mastricht . 34
25 Arms and Autograph of Johan Le Brun . 36
26 Letter of Attorney from the Frankfort Land Company to Johannes Kelpius .
27 Autograph of John Henry Sprogell . 39 44
28 Arms of London .
50
30 Arms of Pastorius
5I
3I Autograph of Francis Daniel Pastorius.
52
32 Title page of the Disputatio Inauguralis of Pastorius . 55
33 Title page of the Beschreibung der Pennsylvania, 1700. 65
34 Page from the Beschreibung . 67
35 Title page of the Beschreibung, 1704 . 68
36 Title page of the Vier Kleine Tractatlein 69
V
29 Page from the Bee Hive of Pastorius 50
24
I
vi
Illustrations.
37 Title page of the Beschreibung des Windsheim 70
38 Title page of Ein Send Brieff 7I
39 Title page of Four Boasting Disputers 72
40 Seal of Pastorius 74
41 Letter of Pastorius 80
42 Arms of William Penn
8I
43 Arms of the Jacquet family 89
44 Title page of Missive van Cornelis Bom 103
45 Seal of William Penn IIO
46 Arms of the Palatinate III
47 Shoes of the Palatines .
II2
48 Title page of Croese's Quaker Historie .
II3
50 Title page of Croese's History of the Quakers II5
51 Autograph of Peter Shoemaker . II7
II8
52 Autograph of Hendrick Pannebecker
I22
53 Flomborn
54 Seal of Germantown .
I23
55 Letter of Pieter Hendricks
I27
56 Comet of 1680 I26
57 Bible of Hans Peter Umstat I28
58 Copper plate of Dirck Keyser . 130
59 Tobias Govertz Van den Wyngaert 132
60 Title page of works of Menno Simons 132
61 Title page of Some Letters from Pennsylvania . I35
62 Imprint of Reynier Jansen . I36
63 Autograph of Benjamin Furly 137
64 Imprint of Reynier Jansen . 138
65 Tombstone of Cornelius Tyson . 140
66 Erasmus by Albert Durer 142
67 Arms of the Holy Roman Empire I43
68 Arms of Amsterdam .
I44
69 Autograph of Hermann op den Graeff
150
70 Rittenhouse Paper Mill 162
71 Arms of Mühlheim I62
72 Title Page of Frame's Description of Pennsylvania .
73 Water Mark of Rittenhouse paper .
I66
74 Mennonite Meeting House . I68
75 Title page of The Christian Confession 1712 I7I
76 Title page of The Christian Confession 1727 . I72
77 Title page of Appendix to the Confession of Faith of the Mennonites . I73
78 Autograph of Hendrick Sellen I74
163
49 Title page of Croese's Historia Quakeriana
I22
vii
Illustrations.
79 Mennonite Meeting House . 175
So Vignette from Plockhoy's Kort en Klaer Ontwerp . 177
SI Letter written by Matthias Van Bebber 182
82 Title Page of the Kort en Klaer Ontwerp 196
83 Page from the Kort en Klaer Ontwerp .
209
84 Kelpius' Arms .
212
85 Book plate of Benjamin Furly
86 Cave of Kelpius 214
222
87 Autograph of Johannes Kelpius
223
88 Diploma of Christopher Witt . 224
225
90 Portrait of Kelpius . 226
91 Page from Journal of Kelpius 229
92 Autograph of Daniel Falckner 230
93 Title page of Sprogell's Tractatlein. 232
94 Autograph of Justus Falckner 233
95 Penn Arms
234
96 Title page of Falckner's Curieuse Nachricht .
242
97 Title page of the Continuation of the Beschreibung der Pennsylvania. 243
98 Germantown Colonial Doorway
253
100 Title page of Book of Laws
254
102 Title of Laws and Ordinances
266
103 John of Leyden .
10
104 Map of Germantown, 1688
278
105 Page from Book of Laws 280
106 Mill on Cresheim Creek . 288
107 Seal of Philadelphia 293
99 Arms of Rotterdam 254
IOI Autograph of Matthias Van Bebber. 255
89 Title page of Hymns of Kelpius
THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN, PA., AND THE BEGINNING OF GERMAN EMI- GRATION TO NORTH AMERICA.
CHAPTER I.
CREFELD AND THE MENNONITES.
HE settlement of German- town in 1683, was the initial step in the great movement of people from the regions bordering on the his- toric and beautiful Rhine, ex- tending from its source in the mountains of Switzerland to its mouth in the lowlands of Holland, which has done so Mappen von Krefeld. much to give Pennsylvania her rapid growth as a colony, her almost unexampled prosperity, and her foremost rank in the development of the institutions of the country. The first impulse, followed by the first wave of emigration, came from Crefeld, a city of the lower Rhine within a few miles of the borders of Holland. This city has in re-
I
2
The Settlement of Germantown.
cent years grown greatly in wealth and population, through the evolution of extensive manufactories of silk and other woven goods from the weaving industries established there centuries ago by the Mennonites.
On the 10th of March, 1682, William Penn conveyed to Jacob Telner, of Crefeld, doing business as a merchant in Amsterdam, Jan Streypers, a merchant of Kaldkirchen, a village in the vicinity, still nearer to Holland, and Dirck Sipman, of Crefeld, each five thousand acres of land to be laid out in Pennsylvania. As the deeds were executed upon that day,1 the design must have been in contempla-
1 Mr. Lawrence Lewis has suggested that under the system of double dating between January Ist and March 25th, which then prevailed, it is probable that the date was March 10, 1682-83. The evidence pro and con is strong and conflicting. The facts in favor of 1682-3 are mainly :
I. It is manifest from an examination of the patents that the cus- tom was, whenever a single date, as 1682, was mentioned within those limits, the latter date, 1682-83, was meant.
2. A deed to Telner, dated June 2, 1683 (Ex. Rec., 8, p. 655), recites as follows : " Whereas, the said William Penn by indentures of lease and release, bearing date the ninth and tenth days of the month called March for the consideration therein mentioned, etc." The presumption is that the March referred to is the one immediately preceding.
3. The lease and release to Telner March 9th and Ioth, 1682, and sev- eral deeds of June, 1683, are all recited to have been in the 35th year of the reign of Charles II. It is evident that March 10, 1681-82, and June, 1683, could not both have been within the same year.
This would be enough to decide the matter if the facts in favor of 1681-82 were not equally conclusive. They are :
I. It is probable, a priori, and from the German names of the wit- nesses that the deeds to the Crefelders, except that to Telner, were dated and delivered by Benj. Furly, Penn's agent at Rotterdam, for the sale of lands. In both Holland and Germany the present system of dating had been in use for over a century.
2. A patent (Ex. Rec., Vol. I., p. 462) recites as follows : " Whereas, by my indentures of lease and release dated the 9 and 10 days of March Anno 1682 . . . and whereas by my indentures date the first day of April, and year aforesaid, I remised and released to the same Dirck Sip- man the yearly rent . . . . " The year aforesaid was 1682, and if the
3
Crefeld.
tion and the arrangements made some time before. Tel- ner had been in America between the years 1678 and 1681, and we may safely infer that his acquaintance with the country had much influence in bringing about the pur- chase.2
On the IIth of June, 1683, Penn conveyed to Govert Remke, Le- nart Arets, and Jacob Isaacs Van Bebber, a baker, all of Crefeld, one thousand acres of land each, and they, together with Telner, Streypers, and Sipman, constituted the original Crefeld purchasers. It is evident that their purpose was colonization, and not speculation. The arrangement between Penn and Sipman provided that a certain number of families should go to Pennsylvania within a specified time, and probably the other purchasers
quit rent was released April 1, 1682, the conveyance to Sipman must have been earlier. If on the 25th of March another year, 1683, had intervened, the word "aforesaid " could not have been correctly used. This con- struction is strengthened by the fact that the release of quit rent to Streypers, which took place April 1, 1683, is recited in another patent (Ex. Rec., I, p. 686) as follows : "Of which said sum or yearly rent by an indenture bearing date the first day of April for the consideration therein mentioned in the year 1683 I remised and released."
3. The lease and release to Telner on March 9 and 10, 1682, are signed by William Penn, witnessed by Herbert Springett, Thomas Coxe and Seth Craske, and purport to have been executed in England. An Op den Graeff deed in the Germantown book recites that they were executed at London. Now, in March, 1681-82, Penn was in England, but in March, 1682-83, he was in Philadelphia.
4. Pastorius says that Penn at first declined to give the Frankfort Company city lots, because they had made their purchase after he (Penn) had left England and the books had been closed, and that a special ar- rangement was made to satisfy them. Penn left England Sept. 1, 1682. The deeds show that the Crefelders received their city lots.
2 Hazard's Register, Vol. VI., p. 183.
4
The Settlement of Germantown.
entered into similar stipulations.3 However that may be, ere long thirteen men with their families, comprising thirty-three persons, nearly all of whom were relatives, were ready to embark to seek new homes across the ocean. They were Lenart Arets, Abraham Op den Graeff, Dirck Op den Graeff, Herman Op den Graeff, Willem Strey- pers, Thones Kunders, Reynier Tyson, Jan Seimens, Jan Lensen, Peter Keurlis, Johannes Bleikers, Jan Lucken, and Abraham Tunes. The three Op den Graeffs were brothers, Hermann was a son-in-law of Van Bebber, they were accompanied by their sister Margaretha and their mother, and they were cousins of Jan and Willem Streypers, who were also brothers. The wives of Thones Kunders and Lenart Arets were sisters of the Streypers, and the wife of Jan was the sister of Reynier Tyson. Peter Keurlis was also a relative, and the location of the signatures of Jan Lucken and Abraham Tunes on the certificate of the marriage of a son of Thones Kunders with a daughter of Willem Streypers in 1710 indicates that they, too, were connected with the group by family ties.4 On the 7th of June, 1683, Jan Streypers and Jan Lensen entered into an agreement at Crefeld by the terms of which Streypers was to let Len- sen have fifty acres of land at a rent of a rix dollar and half a stuyver, and to lend him fifty rix dollars for eight years at the interest of six rix dollars annually. Lensen was to transport himself and wife to Pennsylvania, to clear eight acres of Streyper's land and to work for him twelve days in each year for eight years. The agreement pro- ceeds, " I further promise to lend him a Linnen weaving
3 Dutch deed from Sipman to Peter Schumacher in the Germantown Book, in the Recorder's office.
4 Streper MSS. in the Historical Society. The marriage certificate be- longed to Dr. J. H. Conrad.
5
Crefeld.
stool with 3 combs, and he shall have said weaving stool for two years and for this Jan Lensen shall teach my son Leonard in one year the art of weaving, and Leonard shall be bound to weave faithfully during said year." On the 18th of June the little colony were in Rot- terdam, whither they were accompanied by Jacob Telner, Dirck Sipman, and Jan Streypers, and there many of their business arrangements were completed. Telner conveyed two thousand acres of land to the brothers Op den Graeff, and Sipman made Hermann Op den Graeff his attorney. Jan Streypers conveyed one hundred acres to his brother Willem, and to Siemens and Keurlis each two hundred acres. Bleikers and Lucken each bought two hundred acres from Benjamin Furly, agent for the purchasers at Frank- fort. At this time Janes Claypoole, a Quaker merchant in London, who had previously had business relations of some kind with Telner, was about to remove with his family to Pennsylvania, intending to sail in the Con- cord, Wm. Jeffries, master, a vessel of five hundred tons burthen. Through him a passage from London was en- gaged for them in the same vessel, which was expected to leave Gravesend on the 6th of July, and the money was paid in advance.3 It is now ascertained definitely that eleven of these thirteen emigrants were from Crefeld, and the presumption that their two companions, Jan Lucken and Abraham Tunes, came from the same city is consequently strong. This presumption is increased by the indications of relationship and the fact that the wife of Jan Seimens was Mercken Williamsen Lucken. Fortunately, however, we are not wanting in evidence of a general character. Pastorius, after having an interview with Telner at Rotter- dam a few weeks earlier, accompanied by four servants,
5 Letter book of James Claypoole in the Historical Society.
6
The Settlement of Germantoun.
who appear to have been Jacob Schumacher, Isaac Dil- beck, George Wertmuller and Koenradt Rutters, had gone to America representing both the purchasers at Frankfort and Crefeld. In his reference to the places in which he stopped on his journey down the Rhine he nowhere men- tions emigrants except at Crefeld, where he says: " I talked with Tunes Kunders and his wife, Dirck Hermann and Abraham Op den Graeff, and many others who six weeks later followed me." For some reason the emigrants were delayed between Rotterdam and London, and Clay- poole was in great uneasiness for fear the vessel should be compelled to sail without them, and they should lose their passage money. He wrote several letters about them to Benjamin Furly at Rotterdam. June 19th he says : " I am glad to hear the Crevill ffriends are coming." July 3d he says : " Before I goe away wch now is like to be longer than we expected by reason of the Crevill friends not com- ing we are fain to loyter and keep the ship still at Black- wall upon one pretence or another ;" and July roth he says : " It troubles me much that the friends from Crevillt are not yet come."6 As he had the names of the thirty-three per- sons, this contemporary evidence is very strong, and it would seem safe to conclude that all of this pioneer band, which, with Pastorius, founded Germantown, came from Crefeld. Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg says the first comers were platt-deutch from the neighborhood of Cleves.7 De- spite the forebodings of Claypoole the emigrants reached London in time for the Concord, and they set sail west- ward on the 24th of July. While they are for the first time experiencing the dangers and trials of a trip across the ocean, doubtless sometimes looking back with regret,
6 Letter book of James Claypoole.
7 Hallesche Nachrichten, p. 665.
7
The Waldenses.
but oftener wistfully and wonderingly forward, let us re- turn to inquire who these people were who were willing to abandon forever the old homes and old friends along the Rhine, and commence new lives with the wolf and the savage in the forests upon the shores of the Delaware.
The origin of the sect of Mennonites is somewhat in- volved in obscurity. Their opponents, following Sleidanus and other writers of the 16th century, have reproached them with being an outgrowth of the Anabaptists of Mun- ster. On the contrary, their own historians, Mehrning, Van Braght, Maatschoen and Roosen, trace their theo- logical and lineal descent from the Waldenses, some of whose communities are said to have existed from the earliest Christian times, and who were able to maintain themselves in obscure parts of Europe, against the power of Rome, in large numbers from the 12th century down- ward. The subject has of recent years received thorough and philosophical treatment at the hands of S. Blaupot Ten Cate, a Dutch historian.8
The theory of the Waldensian origin is based mainly on a certain similarity in creed and church observances ; the fact that the Waldenses are known to have been numerous in those portions of Holland and Flanders where the Men- nonites arose and throve, and to have afterward disap-
8 Geschiedkundig Onderzoek naar den Waldenzischen oorsprong van de Nederlandsche Doopsgezinden. Amsterdam, 1844.
A nearly contemporary authority, which seems to have escaped the ob- servation of European investigators, is " De vitis, sectis, et dogmatibus omnium Haereticorum, &c., per Gabrielem Prateolum Marcossium," pub- lished at Cologne in 1583, which says, p. 25 : " Est perniciosior etiam tertia quae quoniam a Catholocis legitime baptizatos rebaptizat, Anabaptistorum secta vocatur. De quo genere videntur etiam fuisse fratres Vualdenses ; quos et ipsos non ita pridem rebaptizasse constat, quamuis eorum non- nulli, nuper adeo, sicut ipsi in Apologia sua testantur miterare Baptismum desierint ; in multis tamen eos cum Anabaptistis conuenire certum est."
8
The Settlement of Germantown.
peared ; the ascertained descent of some Mennonite families from Waldenses ; and a marked similarity in habits and occupations. This last fact is especially interesting in our investigation, as will be hereafter seen. The Waldenses carried the art of weaving from Flanders into Holland, and so generally followed that trade as in many localities to have gone by the name of Tisserands, or weavers.9 It is not improbable that the truth lies between the two theories of friend and foe, and that the Baptist movement which swept through Germany and the Netherlands in the early part of the 16th century gathered into its embrace many of these communities of Waldenses. At the one extreme of this movement were Thomas Munzer, Bernhard Rothman, Jean Matthys and John of Leyden; at the other were Menno Simons and Dirck Philips. Between them stood Battenberg and David Joris, of Delft. The common ground of them all, and about the only ground which they had in common, was opposition to the baptism of infants. The first party became entangled in the politics of the time, and ran into the wildest excesses. They preached to the peas- antry of Europe, trodden beneath the despotic heels of Church and State, that the kingdom of Christ upon earth was at hand, that all human authority ought to be resisted and overthrown, and all property be divided. After fight- ing many battles and causing untold commotion, they took possession of the city of Munster, and made John of Leyden a king. The pseudo-kingdom endured for more than a year of siege and riot, and then was crushed by the power of the State, and John of Leyden was torn to pieces with red hot pincers, and his bones set aloft in an iron cage for a warning.10
9 Ten Cate's Onderzoek, p. 42.
10 Catrou's Histoire des Anabaptistes, p. 462.
THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN.
MENO
SIMONIS
M.D.C.L
F.St.
111
hus tiệm Kupfer but kinghu gu kra love. Doy was for buyfiche dor MENO for youdon"
Da dufin worthen Haus Kluhete zu fricken und Brifing Ky su ficha . Er war on treuer kinh
So mufs unparthefilm stine Schriften gelin
9
The Mennonites.
Menno Simons was born in the village of Witmarsum in Friesland, in the year 1492, and was educated for the priesthood, upon whose duties early in life he entered. The beheading of Sicke Snyder for rebaptism in the year" 1531 in his near neighborhood called his attention to the subject of infant baptism, and after a careful examination of the Bible and the writings of Luther and Zwinglius, he came to the conclusion there was no foundation for the doctrine in the Scriptures. At the request of a little com- munity near him holding like views he began to preach to them, and in 1536 formally severed his connection with the Church of Rome. Ere long he began to be recognized as the leader of the Doopsgezinde or Taufgesinnte, and gradually the sect assumed from him the name of Menno- nites. His first book was a dissertation against the errors and delusions in the teachings of John of Leyden, and after a convention held at Buckhold, in Westphalia, in 1538, at which Battenberg and David Joris were present, and Menno and Dirck Philips were represented, the influ- ence of the fanatical Anabaptists seems to have waned.11 His entire works, published at Amsterdam in 1681, make a folio volume of 642 pages. Luther and Calvin stayed their hands at a point where power and influence would have been lost, but the Dutch reformer, Menno, far in advance of his time, taught the complete severance of Church and State, and the principles of religious liberty which have been embodied in our own federal constitution were first worked out in Holland. 12
The Mennonites believed that no baptism was efficacious
11 Nippold's Life of David Joris. Roosen's Menno Simons, p. 32.
12 Barclay's Religious Societies of the Commonwealth, pp. 78, 676; Menno's " Exhortation to all in Authority," in his works. Funk's edi- tion, Vol. I., p. 75; Vol. II., p. 303.
IO
The Settlement of Germantown.
.
unless accompanied by repentance, and that the ceremony administered to infants was vain. They took not the sword and were entirely non-resistant.13 They swore not at all.14 They practiced the washing of the feet of the brethren,15 and made use of the ban or the avoidance of those who were pertinaciously derelict.16 In dress and speech they were plain and in manners simple. Their ecclesiastical enemies, even while burning them for their heresies, bore testimony to the purity of their lives, their thrift, and homely virtues.17 They were generally husbandmen and artisans, and so many of them were weavers, that we are told by Roosen, certain woven and knit fabrics were known as Mennonite goods.18
The shadow of John of Leyden, however, hung over them, the name of Anabaptist clung to them, and no sect, not even the early Christians, was ever more bitterly or persistently persecuted. There were put to death for this cause at Rotterdam seven persons, Haarlem ten, the Hague thirteen, Cortrijk twenty, Brugge twenty-three, Amsterdam twenty-six, Ghent one hundred and three, and Antwerp two hundred and twenty-nine, and in the last named city there were thirty-seven in 1571 and thirty-seven in 1574, the last by fire.19 It was usual to burn the men and drown the women. Occasionally some were buried alive, and the rack and like preliminary tortures were
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