USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Vol. III > Part 61
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John Shinn, son of Jacob and Hannah (Rakestraw) Shinn, born November 25, 1757, died February 13, 1833. He married Mary Norton, daughter of Wil- liam and Susanna Norton, thought to be of New England ancestry.
Colonel John Shinn, father of Catharine Lucy Stevenson (Shinn) Had- dock, was a son of John and Mary (Norton) Shinn, and was born in Springfield township, Burlington county, New Jersey, August 19, 1784. He came to Phila- delphia when a young man, and became a prominent manufacturing chemist. He became a member of the First City Troop in 1806, and in 1812 volunteered as a member of Captain Swift's company, the Washington Guards, in the First Pennsylvania Regiment, with which he served in the Second War for Inde- pendence, attaining later the rank of major of the regiment. He was trans- ferred to another regiment, of which he was commissioned colonel, and was stationed at Fort Mifflin. Colonel Shinn acquired a great reputation as a chemist and scientist. He gave a full course of lectures on chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, and was one of the principal organizers of the Academy of Natural Sciences, whose first collections were gathered and stored by him in his residence. He married, at Philadelphia, June 2, 1805, Mary White, daughter of Dr. John White and his wife Elizabeth Stanley.
Dr. John White was born in the city of New York, June 25, 1759, and was a son of John and Catharine (Van der Hoven) White. He was baptized at the First Presbyterian Church of New York, July 8, 1759. He received the rudi- ments of an education under the tuition of Dr. Peter Wilson, an eminent teach- er, at Hackensack, New Jersey, afterwards a professor of languages at Colum- bia University. At the commencement of the Revolutionary struggle, Dr. White was a student at Princeton College. The universal excitement following the bat- tle of Lexington put an end to any practical application to study at the college, as many of the students and instructors left to join the Patriot army. Dr. White left the college and came to Philadelphia to study medicine, and in July, 1776, joined a company of Philadelphia Associators in the battalion commanded by
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Colonel Thomas Mckean, with which he marched to Perth Amboy, where Mc- Kean's battalion was stationed at the time of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and for some two months thereafter, when it was disbanded and returned to Philadelphia. He resumed his medical studies, and in January, 1777, was appointed surgeon's mate in the General Hospital at the "Bettering House," Philadelphia, when he continued his arduous duties in caring for the sick and wounded soldiers until the approach of the British army. He was twice near death from contagious fevers contracted from the afflicted soldiers. On the ap- proach of the British he was transferred to a military hospital at Burlington, New Jersey, and also served as surgeon at Princeton, New Brunswick, Valley Forge, Yellow Springs, and Lightfoot's Barn. On the evacuation of Philadel- phia by the British in 1778, he was again returned to the hospital at the Better- ing House, where he remained until August, 1779, when he was commissioned surgeon on the Privateer "Morning Star", Captain Gardner, in which he made two cruises in company with Captain Decatur, the elder. He was next appointed surgeon on board the "Rising Sun," a twenty-gun ship built at Egg Harbor, and was with it when it was captured by the British frigate, "Medea, July 1, 1780. He with the rest of the crew was carried to Charleston, South Carolina, where he was confined for four months in a prison ship, where many of his compan- ions died. He was later transferred to New York and confined in the infamous prison ship "Jersey." He was among 150 prisoners selected under pretense of being exchanged, who at midnight were distributed among the war vessels of the British fleet near Sandy Hook, in an effort to compel them to take service with their country's enemies. Dr. White was one of twenty-seven put on board the flag-ship, "London," ninety guns. He however represented his unfitness for the service, and prevailed upon the officers of the "London" to return him to the prison ship. Here his condition was soon somewhat alleviated from the fact that the British surgeons were willing to avail themselves of the services of Amer- ican surgeons among the prisoners in the care of contagious cases on board the hospital ships. Entering this service, he was permitted the privilege of a boat to visit the hospital ships, and also occasionally to go ashore for medicines and provisions for the sick. After about four months detention on the "Jersey," Dr. White was in this medical service, a prisoner in New York City, for seven months, when he was exchanged and returned to Philadelphia. He took up the practice of medicine in that city, which continued to his death, in connection with the business of a manufacturing chemist during a portion of the time. He died July 7, 1838, in his eightieth year. Dr. White married Elizabeth Stanley, daugh- ter of Valentine Stanley, of Philadelphia, and his wife Susanne, daughter of Pierre Chevalier, of Philadelphia, and his wife Elizabeth Wood.
Mary (White) Shinn, daughter of Dr. John White and wife of Colonel John Shinn, was born in Philadelphia, November 7, 1785, and died there February 18, 1875.
Catherine Lucy Stevenson Shinn, who, on February 17, 1838, became the wife of Daniel Haddock Jr., was born at the Marine Settlement in Illinois, during a short sojourn of her parents at that place, January 3, 1819, but her life from the age of three years was mostly spent in Philadelphia. She and her husband cele- brated their golden wedding February 17, 1888.
Mrs. Haddock united early in life with the Presbyterian Church, and as her
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husband's worldly affairs prospered she became more and more interested in charitable, benevolent, and missionary enterprises and projects connected with that church. Her eldest son was killed at the battle of Chancellorsville, in the Civil War, and this sad bereavement intensified her interest in the project of providing a home for indigent and crippled soldiers and the education and main- tainance of the orphans of soldiers. She was active in the promotion of the fair held at Philadelphia to raise funds to establish Soldiers' Home. She was also instrumental in the establishing of the Presbyterian Orphanage. She was president of the Sea Side Home, at Cape May, a summer home for children of the orphanage, and poor women of Philadelphia ; president of the Woman's Mis- sionary Society of America for Heathen Lands; vice-president of the Presby- terian Home for Widows and Single Women; vice-president of the Women's Bible Readers' Society of Philadelphia; manager of the Domestic Missionary Society for the Support of the Gospel in the Almshouse, etc., etc. She died August 29, 1898, survived by three children, fourteen grandchildren, and fourteen great- grandchildren. By her will she made special provision for the establishment of the Haddock Memorial Infants' Home, intended for the care of infants under three years of age, giving for this purpose her home and residence at 806 Pine street, where she had lived for forty-four years, and endowed it with the sum of $125,000.
HELENA LOUISA HADDOCK, fifth of the seven children of Daniel Haddock Jr. and his wife Catharine Lucy Stevenson Shinn, was born in the city of Philadel- phia, June 26, 1844. She married Rev. William Wilberforce Farr, of Philadel- phia, now deceased, by whom she had four children: Catharine Lucy Farr, born April 26, 1868, married Alexander Patterson Robinson ; Grace Alice Farr, born November 8, 1869, married (first) William Paul Martin (second) Judge Carr, of Philadelphia; William Haddock Farr, born May 26, 1872, residing in Philadelphia; and Daniel Haddock Farr, born February 1, 1876, residing in New York City. Mrs. Farr is much interested in church work, giving much of her time in active service in benevolent enterprises.
JOHN SPARHAWK WURTS
JOHN SPARHAWK WURTS is of Swiss, German, Dutch, French, Scotch, Irish, Welsh and English ancestry, which has been traced back several centuries on many different lines, and on one line back to Adam and Eve, naming the direct ancestor in every generation back to the Garden of Eden.
On the paternal line the family of Wirz, as the family patronymic was spelled in Switzerland, is traced back through a long line of the Rittern or knights of the lower nobility of the Unterwalden, to Hunfred, or Hunfridus, son of the Magis- ter Palatti of Charlemagne, in 750, A. D. Hunfred had a son Adalbert, sur- named "The Illustrious", whose son Burkhardt, Count of Coire, in the present canton of Grisons, Switzerland, was assssinated in a popular assembly in the year 9II, A. D .. with his younger brother, Adelbert, "The Most Just", at the instance of Solomon III., Bishop of Constance. The estates of Burkhardt were confis- cated and his two sons, Burkhardt and Uadalricus, banished.
BURKHARDT WIRZ, the eldest son, returned from exile in 914, and raising an in- surrection became Duke of Alemania. He married Regilinda, a descendant of the Counts of Nellenberg, who in the tenth century were Counts of Zurich. They had three children: Berchta, who married Rudolph II., King of Burgundy ; Uadalricus ; Burkhardt. Burkhardt, the father, lost his life while invading Italy, as an ally of his son-in-law, Rudolph II., and his son Burkhardt III. became Duke of Allemania in 954, but died without issue in 973, whereby the elder male line of the great family became extinct.
However, at about this date, the monastery of Einsiedeln conveyed Uerikon, an extensive estate bordering on Lake Zurich, in the present Canton of Zurich, Switzerland, to descendants of Alelbert, "The Most Just", Count of Thun, who was assassinated, with his brother Burkhardt, in 911, and the grantees and their descendants in the elder male line were thereafter known as the "Nobles of Uerikon."
Ulrich von Uerikon was the second son of Rudolph von Uerikon, and a knight and vassal of Rudolph of Hapsburg, who became Holy Roman Emperor of Ger- many. He married, in 1280, the Baroness von Wandelburg, daughter of the Lord High Steward of Rappenschweil, Zurich, Switzerland.
Burkhardt von Uerikon, son of Ulrich von Uerikon, and his descendants for eight generations were Ammanns or chief magistrates and burghers of the town of Zurich, his son Heinrich taking the surname of Wirz, thereafter borne by the family.
HEINRICH WIRZ, son of Burkhardt, and grandson of Heinrich, above named, was living at the time of the Reformation in Switzerland, and became a con- vert of Zwingli. He and his two brothers, Jacob and Johannes, "the honor- able and pious brothers, called the Wirzen of Uerikon" were granted the honor of knighthood by "Albrecht von Bonstetten, Dean at Einsiedeln, by the grace and will of the most Serene, most High and Mighty Invincible Prince and Lord, Frederic Roman Emperor" at Einsiedeln "on Tuesday after St. Nicholas Day in
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the month of December, * 1492." "That they may forever and ever be called true knights," etc. And they were granted an escutcheon and armorial bearings described in the grant, to be borne by them and their legitimate issue as Wirzen of Uerikon. This Heinrich Wirz was chief magistrate of Uerikon and almoner of the princely abbey of Einsiedeln. He married (first) in 1498, Agnes Von Cham, and (second) Verena Wedischwiler.
JACOB WIRZ, son of Heinrich Wirz by his second wife, born 1506, also held the office of chief magistrate at his death in 1536.
CASPAR WIRZ, son of Jacob Wirz by his wife, Margaretha (Vachtigen) Wirz, was born April 16, 1532. He became a burgher of Zurich in 1558. He mar- ried, February 9, 1553, Anna Kleiner.
JOHANNES RUDOLPH WIRZ, eldest son of Casper Wirz, born 1554, married (first) June 1, 1577, Verena Aeni, and (second) June 30, 1602, Dorothy .Richt- mann. He was a weaver and a member of the weavers' guild.
FRANZ WIRZ, third son of Johannes Rudolph Wirz, born February, 1581, died October 4, 1658. He married October 15, 1603, Margaretha Horner. He was also a weaver.
REV. JOHANNES CONRAD WIRZ, eldest son of Franz Wirz, born May 20, 1606, was adınitted to the ministry of the gospel, March 16, 1628, and became a preacher of considerable eminence. He died December 31, 1667. He married Juditha Knemm.
REV. JOHANNES CONRAD WIRZ, son of Franz Wirz, born August 27, 1631, died November 30, 1682. He took the oath and became "verbi Dei Minister" in 1654, and was pastor of churches at Rappenschweil, 1656; Uerikon, 1658; Rich- tenwell, 1661 ; deacon of the church at Zurich, 1668, and its first archdeacon in 1680. He married, January 17, 1660, Ursula Holzhalb.
JOHANNES CONRAD WIRZ, eldest son of Rev. Johannes Conrad and Ursula (Holshalb) Wirz, was born at Zurich, May 5, 1661. He became a minister of the gospel and was pastor of St. Peter's Church, Zurich, for a time, and after filling several other positions became pastor of a church at Kerensen, Switzer- land, where he died April 20, 1730. He married, November 3, 1685, Magdalena Klinger, born September 14, 1664, died 1729, and had six sons and six daugh- ters.
JOHANNES CONRAD WURTZ, the American immigrant, was the fifth son of Rev. Johannes Conrad and Magdalena (Klinger) Wirz, and was born in Zurich, Switzerland, November 30, 1706. His name as signed to the qualification as subject to the British crown in Philadelphia, May 28, 1735, was "Conrad Wurtz, and it later appears as "Wuertz", though the records at Zurich, even that referring to his having gone to America, give it as "Johannes Conrad Wirz."
When a young man he entered the service of the King of Netherlands, as a cadet, probably led thither from the fact that the husband of an elder sister was an officer in the Dutch service, and residing at The Hague. He soon abandoned the military profession, however, and returning to his native city of Zurich, en- gaged in the practice of law.
Early in the year 1734, Rev. Moritz Goetschy, or Goetschius, born in Zurich, September 26, 1686, a son of Rudolph and Magdalena (Kolloker) Goetschy, who had been a minister at Salentz, in the Canton of Zurich, but who had been deposed from the ministry in 1731, began to organize a colony of Swiss to go
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with him to the Carolinas. Goetschius was an eminent scholar especially in the Oriental languages, and religious history, and of an eminently pious character. Many of his people remained attached to him after he was deposed, and even men eminent in the church manifested a disposition to show him kindness, be- lieving that he had suffered an injustice at the hands of the ecclesiastic authori- ties. At that time the desire to emigrate to the Carolinas was at fever heat, ow- ing to the publication of pamphlets describing it as a second Canaan. On July 15, 1734, there was advertised for sale in the Nachrichten von Zurich a news- paper published by Hans Jacob Lindinner, a publication entitled, "Eine Be- schreibung von dem gluckligen Carolina, allwo die Eimwohner, sonderich, die Schweitzer, kem Hemweh bekommen, um 4 ss." (A description of fortunate Carolina, where the people, particularly the Swiss, have no homesickness). The description of Pennsylvania was evidently not so highly coloured, it being re- puted to be cold. In the same paper on September 30, 1734, appears a notice asking for the loan of a booklet entitled "Pennsylvania Nicht Canaan."
Goetschius succeeded in his efforts, and on October 4, 1734, three large boats floated down the river Zimat, having on board Goetschius, his wife and eight children, and a party of Swiss, men, women and children, variously estimated in numbers from 174 to 256 persons, including Johannes Conrad Wurtz, as com- missary of the party. They were bound for Rotterdam where they expected to take ship for the Carolinas. An account of their embarkation published in the Nachrichten von Zurich for October 7, 1734, gives the number as 174, while ac- counts written by the Goetschy family give it as 256. One, Ludwig Weber, a niember of the party who accompanied them to Rotterdam, where becoming dis- satisfied he abandoned them and returned to Zurich, later wrote an account of the trip down the Rhine in detail, which states that 194 embarked from Basel, after 31 of the original colony had started from that point to travel through France to Rotterdam, and were never after heard from.
He also states that they were joined at Basel by 80 Piedmontese refugees, who travelled with them to Rotterdam in a separate boat. The party encountered many difficulties on their way to Rotterdam, not the least of which was the ab- sence of passports which the Swiss government refused to give them for the reason that they were opposed to the expedition, fearing it was the forerunner of a still greater exodus. They were frequently detained and forced to pur- chase both German and French passports, the French and Austrian armies oc- cupying banks of the Rhine at different points and were boarded, searched, robbed and subjected to various indignities.
At Neuwid, on the Rhine, four couples went ashore and were married by a Reformed clergyman, among them "Commissari Hans Conrad Wirtz, and Anna Goetschi", daughter of the leader of the expedition. They finally arrived at Rotterdam, from whence Goetschius was at once summoned to The Hague, he having dispatched three messengers in advance of the party, from Riespach, who were to proceed to Rotterdam and make suitable arrangements for the transpor- tation of the party to England. From the fact that a letter written by Goetschius is dated at The Hague, November 26, 1734, it would appear that the party ar- rived in Rotterdam about the middle of November, though the date has been repeatedly given as December.
This letter, addressed to Treasurer Fries of the town of Zurich, narrates the
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principal events of the trip to Rotterdam. Among other things he states that they were detained six days at Basle for a French passport, which cost forty florins, but that they received many benefits and alms at that place. Were again stopped at Schweitzingen, by Huzzars, and obliged to obtain a passport from the Duke of Wirtemberg at a cost of thirty florins; stopped at Eulenburg in Gelder- land, for five days on account of bad weather, where he preached to numerous congregations of several thousand people, who were so edified that they col- lected for the use of the emigrants one hundred florins, great quantities of food and seven tuns of beer. They were informed by the English minister Walpole, that they could not be received in England, as his majesty, the King, declined to receive into the American Province of Georgia, only those who had been per- secuted for religion's sake in France and Germany, and into Carolina, only those that had means to provide for their own sustenance. Goetschius, however, rep- resented that von Felsen, First Minister at The Hague, had given him a hearty reception and strong hope that' in Pennsylvania, where there were eight towns and several hundred villages comprising 60,000 souls, he might obtain the op- pointment of general superintendent of the Reformed churches with a remunera- tion of 2,000 thalers, provided he passed a satisfactory examination before the Synod of the Dutch Clergy, and could produce a certificate from the Swiss gov- ernment, which he earnestly solicited the treasurer to procure for him.
Johannes Conrad Wurtz accompanied his father-in-law to The Hague, and through their joint influence the Dutch government made an appropriation of 2,000 guilders, with the provision that they receive a trustworthy account of the churches in Pennsylvania.
Henry Goetschius, son of Rev. Moritz Goetschius, then seventeen of age, also wrote to Switzerland that Mr. von Felson had promised that in case the testimonials requested by his father were favorable, he, Henry, should finish his studies at the University at Leyden at the public expense and be sent to Pennsylvania as the sucessor of his father. The testimonials, however, did not arrive until Goet- schius and a part of his party had sailed for Pennsylvania, and though giving him credit for extraordinary learning, were not quite as favorable as was ex- pected.
In the meantime a portion of those who had come to Rotterdam with Goetschius sailed for England. According to the narrative of Ludwig Weber, this party comprised eighty-eight persons, the names of the heads of the fami- lies and number in each family being given, as well as the town from whence they came. He likewise gives a list in the same manner of those who registered to go with Goetschius to Pennsylvania, making the number 140, but does not include Goetschius and his wife and eight children, or Wurtz and wife. This latter party sailed from Rotterdam in the ship "Mercury", February 24, 1735, and arrived in Philadelphia, May 29, after a dreary passage of over twelve weeks, during which they suffered great hardships from lack of food and cruel treatment from a merciless captain. The passengers on the "Mercury" num- bered sixty-four men, fifty-one women, thirty-seven boys and thirty-four girls, whose names and ages are given in the list published in the Pennsylvania Archives. The male adults were marched directly to the State House where they took the oath of allegiance required by the Act of 1727, in the presence of "the Honourable Patrick Gordon, Lieu. Gov", Thomas Lawrence and Charles
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Read." The original record may still be seen at the Department of State, with the autograph of "Conrad Wurtz," at the head of the list.
Goetschius was not well when they landed at Philadelphia, being worn out by the trials and worries of the trip and his mission. The elder of the Re- formed Church of Philadelphia came on board to welcome him and greeted him with enthusiasm as the pastor of their church. He was not well enough to accompany the party to the State House, but was taken ashore the next day, May 30, 1735, so weak that he could not walk unaided. He was carried ashore in a chair and brought to where the people of the church were to meet and talk with him. On arriving at the place he complained that all appeared dark be- fore his eyes, and desired that he might be permitted to lie down and sleep. The first floor being noisy with people coming and going, an attempt was made to carry him to the second floor, but when about the middle of the flight of stairs he desired them to let him sit down, whereupon he folded his hands across his breast, lifted his eyes to heaven and expired without a struggle. On the third day thereafter he was buried in the church-yard of the Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia with elaborate ceremonies, the funeral procession, which was con- siderable, including the consistories and many members of the Reformed Church.
The condition of the Goetschius family was deplorable indeed, but the seven- teen-year-old son, John Henry, was a precocious youth, and when the Reformed people saw his excellent testimonials from the schools of Zurich, accompanied by the statement that he was a worthy student of the ministry, they insisted that he must preach for them, and under his leadership the family and most of the colony settled near Skippack, where he became minister.
Johannes Conrad Wurtz probably remained with the remnant of his wife's family near Germantown for a time. His first child, Anna Maria Magdalena, was baptized at Christ Church, Philadelphia, August 20, 1735, when three days old. We next hear of him as schoolmaster at Old Goshenhoppen, now Mont- gomery county, and later at Conestoga, Lancaster county. The record of land warrants in the Pennsylvania Archives show that he was granted a warrant of survey for one hundred and fifty acres in Philadelphia county, dated September 14, 1738. This land was probably located in what became Montgomery county in 1784, or Berks county in 1752.
He early turned towards the ministry and proceeded to qualify himself for that high office. In 1742 he became pastor of Egypt Church in Whitehall town- ship, then Bucks, now Lehigh county. During the first year of his ministry a little log church was erected with loose planks laid on blocks of wood for seats. During the two years of his pastorate he baptized fifteen children. In 1744 he became the first pastor of Trinity Reformed Church, at "Schuggenhaus", in Springfield township, Bucks county, and by 1747 had charge of the congregations at Saucon, Forks of Delaware, and Lehigh, beside that at Springfield; "Lehigh" probably being his old charge. All these years he seems to have preached with- out being regularly ordained, as the Rev. Michael Schlatter, who was the direct representative of the Holland Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church in Pennsylvania, writes in his diary, under date of October 14 and 15, 1746, as fol- low :
"A certain J. C. Wirts, of Zurich, came to visit me, who endeavoured to excuse himself `for having served as a minister for several years in some congregations in this country,
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