Historical and Biographical Sketches

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HISTORICAL

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES,

SAMUEL W. PENNYPACKER.

Dan solle

vnd leerend. dit- Oberkeit rnoge und * * vnd Gloubens sachen niit annehmen.

sy lialteiid styff das widerspyl,

sich

der

Religion

Es bednnckt die Toutfer vngebiii-lich syn, dass in der kircheu ein ander schwardt dan nun dess Gr6ttlichen worts solle gebruclit werden vnd noch vil Vngebiirlicher, dass man mensclien, das ist, denen die in der Oberkeit :

sind, solle die sachen der Religion oder

Gloubens hendel vnderwerfl'en.

Bullinger's Widertoufferen Vrsprnug, p. 165, printed

by Froschower, at Zurich, 1560.

PHILADELPHIA, PA.

ROBERT

A.

:

TRIPPLE,

1883.

Entered 'according to Act

ol

By ROBERT

Congress, in the year 1883, A.

TRIPPLE.

In the Of&ce of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.

PR EFACE. The

who

philologist,

of the primeval

man

Pyrenees, the Basques,

time the

seeks to

of

know something

of the language

Europe, finds amid the mountains of the

who have preserved down

tongue of these remote

to the present

The ethnologist

forefathers.

studies the habits of prehistoric races not by the uncertain light of

early legends, but by going to the Islands of the South

Pacific,

was before the dawn of

civiliza-

where savage

The

tion.

he can see

ways

hymn

the same methods of investi-

face to face with the Reformation,

Mennonites of Lancaster County,

visit the

the

it

who pursuing

historian,

would stand

gation,

as

still exists,

life

still

in

need only

Pennsylvania, where

rigorously preserved, the thought, the faith, the habits,

and even the dress of that important epoch. The

of living,

book

in

ordinary use by the Amish was written

the 16th

in

Century, and from

it

they

who was drowned

at

Zurich, in 1526, and Michael Sattler,

had

the

1527.

in

results of

interesting people

Whether we regard

who came

to

death because of his

trivial.

A

America. There

State,

is

history,

scaicely a family

theirs,

the

sufferings of

Pilgrim and

hundred years before the time Penn,

of

Roger

reformer

the Dutch

for

tlie

complete severance of Church

and the struggles

for

religious

Menno Simons contended and

personal

traced to some ancestor burned to

George Fox and William

"Williams,

who

death at Rot-

Their whole literature smacks of the

faith.

Beside a record like

Quaker seem

their

to

Mennonites were the most

their teachings, the

among them which cannot be

fire.

zealously sing about Felix Mantz,

tongue torn out and was then burned

his

tenburg or

still

and

political

liberty,

which convulsed England and led to the English colonization of

America doctrines

in

the

Seventeenth

Century,

advanced by the Dutch

and

the one which preceded.

:^7«217

were

results

of

German Anabaptists

in

logical

4

PRKFAOK. About

ten

ago

years

formed

I

history of the Mennonites in America.

a task of extrerue difficulty. of the

German and Dutch

had ever been made

It

It

required

No

languages.

was

many

for

the

reasons

preliminary knowledge

a

collection of their books

country, nothing of value had been

this

in

of writing

the design

published concerning them except some papers

in

Ihe

"

Pennsyl-

vania Dutch," which were descriptive rather than

liislorical,

and

the structure had to be erected from

More than

all,

the

conviction

vanities,

them

by them that fame

entertained

and the desire

foundation.

its

for it

is

only one of the

but a form of worldliness, has led

rather than to preserve, those materials

in the past to destroy,

•which are the ordinary souices of historical information.

book was written the name meeting house was

of the author did not appear

built, no tablet told the date

raised to his

and the exacting demands

of a professional

if

;

memory.

was buried, no stone wa?

life

;

When

a

when

a

and when a man These

have so

difficulties

far retarded,

not prevented, the completion of the design, and the results up to

the present time have been a

manuscripts, and

and

the

somewhat seven

first

full collection of their

books

papers gathered into this

volume.

Though

a torso,

thorough, and

if

work

believe the

I

so far as

has gone to be

it

should not progress to the end,

it

I shall at least

have the satisfaction of having contributed something to the tory of a people

study, and

who

who

way worthy

are in every

will sooner or later attract

The circumstances under

whicli

his-

of the most careful

wide attention.

the other papers were written

are for the most part explained in the notes accompanying them.

All of those which have heretofore appeared •Ihe

day are

•corrected

elsewhere

so described in tlip i^ub-titles,

made

for assistance

all

been here

and

of the labors of other investigalors.

It

ought, however, to be said, that

Stone

the magazines of

credit has been given in the notes

and enlarged. Full for the use

in

and they have

I

am much

and suggestions

upon David Rittenhouse. Pmr.ADKi.i'Hi.v. April nth,

1,9,^.^.

indebted to Mr. F. D.

in the prep;i ration of the article

CONTENTS. 1.

Thk Settlement

of Germaxtowx,

causes which led to

it,

2.

David Kittenhouse,

tlie

S.

Christopher Dock,

the

.

.... A

Mennonite Emigration to Pennsylvania, Abraham and Dirck op den Graeff,

7.

ZiONITISCHER

^.

William Moore of Moore Hall,

9.

Samuel Richardson,

Germantown, 1739,

155

.

.

175

.

.

201

.... .... .... ....

11.

Samuel John Atlee, Musketry Battalion

in

.

223 229

13.

14.

Henry Armitt Brown. Charles Frederick Taylor,

15.

Six

Uniform, being Service

.

.

241

257

Pennsylvania

the Revolutionary

James Abram Garfield,

in

.

.

Colonel of the

12.

Military

.

.

a Councilor, Judge and Legis-

Olden Time,

Captain Joseph Richardson,

Weeks

.

WeYRAUCHS HcGEL ODER MyRRHEN

10.

the

89

Spie-

Noteworthy Book,

6.

lator of the

•

7 .')9

Pious Schoolmaster on the

Ephrata, Pa., 1748.

Berg.

the

.

Der Blutige Schau-platz, odek Martyrer gel.

5.

and

American Astronomer,

Skippack, and his AVorks, 4.

Pa., •

.

Army,

.

.

.

269 285

293 299

the record of a term in

of the United

Gettysburg Campaign of 1863,

.

States in the .

.

305

a?iiEj

Settlement of Germantown, Pa AND THE

CAUSES WHICH LED TO

From

IT.

the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. Vol. IV, p. 1.

THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN,

Hail to posterity men of Germanopolis

PA.

!

Hail, future

Let the young

!

generations yet to be

Look kindly upon this. your fathers left their native land, how Think sacred hearths and homes Dear German land, !

A^nd where the wild beast roams

In patience planned

New

forest

homes beyond the mighty

sea,

There undisturbed and free To live as brothers of one family.

What What

pains and cares befell, trials

and what

fears,

Kemember, and wherein we have done well Follow our footsteps, men of coming years Where we havo failed to do Aright, or wisely live.

Be warned by us, the better way pursue. And knowing we were human, even as you, Pity us and forgive.

Farewell, Posterity;

Farewell, dear

Germany;

Forever more farewell

When

the

history

thoroughly understood,

man, as he 1

From

is

of it

!

Whittier.^

Pennsylvania will

comes

to

be

be found that the Dutch-

generally called, occupies

a position

by

the Latin of Francis Daniel Pastorius in the Germantown first published by Pi of. Oswald Seidensticker.

Records, 1688,

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

10

no means so inconspicuous as that which the most of us

apt

are

to

assign

to

admit that

to

him

him.

to is

perity for which this State

butter

his

fat,

barns

his

are

sweet,

is

capacious

is

is

is

willing

no noted, that his hogs are

his ;

lands are well

but

anything distinguished in his career,

Every one

due rnucb of the material pros-

the

claim

origin, or

tilled,

that

and

there is

brilliant in his

seldom made, and that he has approached his

English associates in knowledge of

politics, literature, or

who get our Saxon blood by way of Thames would quickly deny. The in his favor, however, are many and

science those of us

the Mersey and the

which

facts

tell

Pastorius possessed probably more literary at-

striking.

tainments, and produced more

literary

work than any

other of the early emigrants to this province, and alone, of a

of

New

literature

he

them all, through the appreciative delineation England poet, has a permanent place in the Willem Rittinghuysen, in of our own time.

1690, built on a branch of the Wissahickon Creek the

The Bible was printed America thirty-nine years before it appeared in English, and in the preface to his third edition in 1776, Saur was still able to say, " to the honor of the German first

paper-mill in the Colonies.-^

German

in

people

—

in

for

no other nation can assert that

been printed

'

in their

it

has ever

language in this part of the world.

Jones's notes to Thomas's History of Printing, vol.

i.

"^

p. 21.

knowledge concerning the Germans amounts at Dr. William Smith wrote in 1753 a letter, recently printed, in which he said they were in danger of " sinking into barbarian ignorance," while in another sentence he ^

The lack

of

times almost to obtuse ness.

complained with the utmost naivete that " they import many foreign books, and in Penna. have their printing houses and their newsThe editor of the Magazine of American History lately papers." gave space to a controversy as to whether Collin's Bible or Thomas's

THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMAISTTOWN.

No

other

known

literary

work undertaken

11

in tlie Colonies

equals in magnitude the Mennonite Martyrs' Mirror of Van

Braght, printed at Ephrata in 1748, whose publication re-

men

quired the labors of fifteen

Speaker

of the first

House

for three

years.

The

under the

of Representatives

Federal Constitution and seven of the Governors of Penn-

The statue selected to represent in the capitol at Washington the military reputation of Pennsylvania is that of a German. Said Thomas Jefferson of DaAnd Rittenhouse "He has not indeed made a world, but he has by imitation approached nearer its maker than any man who has lived sylvania were

men

of

German

descent.

:

from the creation to this day."^

There are no Pennsyl-

vania names more cherished at home, and more deservedly

known

abroad, than those of Wister, Shoemaker, Muhlen-

berg, Weiser, Hiester,

Keppele and Keim, and there are

few Pennsylvanians, not comparatively recent

who cannot be carried back along some tral

lines to the

country of the Rhine.

of the earliest settlement of the nia,

in

examination

Pennsylva-

and a study of the causes which produced

value of our State history. the

An

Germans

therefore, well be of interest to all

first

wave

of emigration

arrivals,

of their ances-

who

it

may,

appreciate the

The first impulse followed by came from Crefeld, a city of

the lower Rhine, within a few miles of the borders of

Holland.

On

the 10th of March, 1682, William

Penn

Jacob Telner, of Crefeld, doing business as a merchant in Amsterdam, Jan Streypers, a merchant of Kaldkirchen, a village in the vicinitv, still nearer to Hoi-

conveyed

to

was the " First great Quarto Bible in unaware that Saur was a half century

Bible, both printed in 1791,

America,"

apparently

earlier. '

Jefferson's

Notes on Virginia.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

12

and Dirck Sipman,

land,

of Crefeld, each five thousand

As

acres of land to be laid out in Pennsylvania.

the

deeds were executed upon that day,^ the design must Mr. Lawrence Lewis has suggested that under the system of

^

double datinghetween Jan. 1st and March 25th, which then prevailed, The evidence it is probable that the date was March lOth, 1682-3. pro and con

is

The

strong and conflicting.

facts in favor of

1682-3

are mainly 1. It is manifest from an examination of the patents that the custom was, whenever a single date, as 1682, was mentioned within those limits, the latter date, 1682-3, was meant.

2.

A

deed to Telner, dated June 2d, 1683 (Ex. Rec. 8, p. 655), " Whereas the said William Penn by indentures

recites as follows 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.

and release to Telner March 9th and 10th, 1682, and several deeds of June, 1683, are all recited to have been in the 35th 3.

The

lease

year of the reign of Charles II.

It

evident that

is

March

10th,

1681-2, and June, 1683, could not both have been within the same year.

This would be enough to decide the matter of

if

the facts in favor

1681-2 were not equally conclusive. They are 1. It is probable, a priori, and from the German names of the

witnesses that the deeds to the Crefelders, except that to Telner,

were dated and delivered by Benj. Furly, Penn's agent at RotterIn both Holland and Germany the prefor the sale of lands.

dam

sent system of dating

A

2.

patent (Ex.

had been Rec.

in use for over a century.

vol.

i.

p.

462)

recites

as

follows

Whereas by my indentures of lease and release dated the 9 and and whereas by my in10 days of March Anno 1682 dentures dated the first day of April, and year aforesaid, I remised and released to the same Dirck Sipman the yearly rent. The year aforesaid was 1682, and if the quit rent was released April 1st, 1682, the conveyance to Sipman must have been earlier. If on the 25th of March another year, 1683, had intervened, the "

....

word tion

aforesaid could not have been correctly used.

is

strengthened by

This construc-

the fact that the release of quit rent to

THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. have been

in contemplation

some time

before.

io

and the arrangements made

Telner had been in America between

we may safely infer that country had much influence in

the years 1678 and 1681, and his acquaintance with the

bringing about the purchase.^

we

In November, 1682,

find the earliest reference to

the enterprise which subsequently resulted in the formation of the Frankfort

heard of

it for

the

Company.

first

time,

and

At

that date Pastorius

he, as agent,

bought the

London between the 8th of May and 6th The eight original purchasers were of June, 1683.^ Jacob Van de Walle, Dr. Johann Jacob Schutz, Johann Wilhelm Ueberfeldt, Daniel Behagel, Casper Merian, lands

when

in

George Strauss, Abraham Hasevoet, and Jan Laurens, an intimate friend of Telner, apparently living at RotBefore Nov. 12th, 1686, on which day, in the

terdam.

language of the Manatawny patent, they Streypers, which took place April 1st, 1683,

patent (Ex.

E,ec.

1, p. 686) as follows:

is

formed them-

recited in another

"Of which

said

sum

or

day of April for the year 1683 I remised and

yearly rent by an indenture bearing date the the consideration therein mentioned in

"

first

released."

The

3.

and release

lease

to

Telner on March 9th and 10th, 1682, are

signed by William Penn, witnessed by Herbert Springett,

Thomas

Coxe, and Seth Craske, and purport to have been executed in Eng-

An Op

den Graeff deed in Germantown book recites that Now in March, 1681-2, Penn was they were executed at London. in England, but in March, 1682-3, he was in Philadelphia. 4. Pastorius says that Penn at first declined to give the Frankfort Co. city lots, because they had made their purchase after he (Penn) had left England and the books had been closed, and that land.

Penn left Enga special arrangement was made to satisfy them. The deeds show that the Crefelders received land Sept. 1st, 1682. their city lots. ^

Hazard's Register, vol.

^

Pastorius

MS.

vi. p.

183.

in the Historical Society of

Pa.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

14

selves into a

company," the

last

nanied four bad with-

drawn, and their interests had been taken by Francis

Von

Daniel Pastorius, the celebrated Johanna Eleanora

Merlau, wife of Dr. Johann Wilhelm Peterson, Dr. Ger-

hard

Von

Mastricht, Dr.

Thomas Von Wylich, Johannes Johannes Kemler.

Lebrun, Balthasar Jawert, and Dr.

That pany

this

was the date

dp

executed in 1700.^

seem

of the organization of the

to

power

Com-

of attorney

which they

to the 8th of June,

1683, they

also recited in the

is

have bought 15,000 acres of land, which were

increased to 25,000 acres. Of the eleven members nearh^ all were followers of the pietist Spener, and five of them lived at Frankfort, two in Wesel, two in Lubeck, and one in Duisberg. Though to this company has generally been ascribed the settlement of Ger-

afterwards

niantown, and with of

German

the credit of being the originators

it

emigration,

came

no one of

its

members except

and of still more significance is the fact that, so far as known, no one of the early emigrants to Pennsylvania came from Frankfort. On the 11th of June, 1683, Penn convej^ed to Govert Kemke, Lenart Arets, and Jacob Isaacs Van Bebber, a Pastorius ever

baker,

all

to Pennsylvania,

of Crefeld,

one thousand acres of land each,

and they, together with Telner, Btreypers, and Sipman, constituted the original Crefeld

purchasers.

It

is

evi-

dent that their purpose was colonization, and not specu-

The arrangement between Penn and Sipman provided that a certain number of families should go to lation.

Pennsylvania within a specified time, and probably the

^ The power of attorney says, "and desswegen in Kraffts dess den 12 Novembris, 1G86, beliebten brieffes eiiie Societat geschlossen." Both the original agreement and the letter of attorney,

with their autographs and

seals, are in

my

possession.

THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN.

15

How-

other purchasers entered into similar stipulations.^ ever that

may

be, ere long thirteen

were

relatives,

their fami-

all of

whom

were ready to embark to seek new homes

across the ocean.

Op

men with

comprising thirty-three persons, nearly

lies,

They were Lenart

den Graeif, Dirck

Op den

Graeff,

Arets, Abraham Hermann Op den

Willem Streypers, Thones Kunders, Reynier Tyson, Jan Seimens, Jan Lensen, Peter Keurlis, Johannes The three Bleikers, Jan Lucken, and Abraham Tunes. Op den Graeffs were brothers, Hermann was a son-inlaw of Van Bebber, they were accompanied by their sister Margaretha, 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 near 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 Graeff,

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 Lensen 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 infamily

ties.^

terest of six rix dollars annually.

port himself and wife to

Lensen was

Pennsylvania, to

to trans-

clear eight

work for him twelve days The agreement proceeds, " I

acres of Streyper's land and to

each year for eight years.

in

further promise to lend

him a Linnen-weaving

Dutch deed from Sipman to Peter Schumacher town Book in the Recorder's office. ^

^

Streper

MSS.

in the Historical Society.

cate belongs to Dr. J. H. Conrad.

stool

in the

with

German-

The marriage

certifi-

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

16

3 combs, and he years

.

.

Leonard

in

and

shall

have said weaving;

for this

Jan Lensen

two

stool for

my

shall teach

son

one year the art of weaving, and Leonard

bound to weave faithfully duiing said year." On the 18th of June the little colony were in Rotterdam, whither they were accompanied by Jacob Telner, Dirck Sipman, and Jan Streypers, and there many of their business arrangements were completed. Telner conshall be

veyed 2000 acres of land

to the brothers

Op den

GraefF,

his attorney. and Sipman made Hermann Op Jan Streypers conveyed 100 acres to his brother Willem, and to Seimens and Keurlis each 200 acres. Bleikers and Lucken each bought 200 acres from Benjamin

den Graeff

Furly, agent for the purchasers at

Frankfort.

At

this

time James Claypoole, a Quaker merchant in London,

who had

previously had business relations of some kind

with Telner, was about

to

Pennsylvania, intending to

remove with sail

in

the

his

family to

Concord,

Wm.

master, a vessel of 500 tons burthen.

Through him a passage from London was engaged for them in the same vessel, which was expected to leave Gravesend on the 6th of July, and the money was paid in advance.^ It is Jeffries,

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 presumption ship,

is

and the

increased fact

is

consequently strong.

by the

that the

Mercken Williamsen

we

city

wife of Jan Seimens

Lucken.

This

indications of relation-

Fortunately,

was

however,,

are not wanting in evidence of a general character.

Pastorius,^ after having an interview with Telner at Rot-

*

Letter-book cf James Claypoole in the Historical Society.

^

Christian Pastorius, a citizen of Warburg,

was the father of

THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. terdam a few weeks

who seem

earlier,

17

accompanied by four

ser-

have been Jacob Schumacher, Isaac Dilbeeck, George Wertmuller, and Koenradt Rutters, had gone to America representing both the purchasers at Frankvants,

to

Martin Pastorius, assessor of the court gitta,

at Erfurt,

who married

daughter of Christian Flinsberger of Muhlhausen.

son, Melchior

Adam, was born

at Erfurt, Sept. 21st, 1624,

cated at the University of Wuertzburg.

He

Bri-

Their

and edu-

studied both law and

theology, and having married Magdalena, daughter of Stephen Dietz

Margaretha Fischer, and having been converted to the proWindsheim, where he held several offices, and finally became elder burgomaster and judge. Francis Daniel Pastorius, the son of Melchior and Magdalena, was born at Somer-

and

of

testant faith, he settled at

When he was seven years old his father Windsheim, and there he was sent to school. Later he

hausen, Sept. 26th, 1651.

removed

to

spent two years at the University of Strasburg, in 1672 went to the high school at Basle, and afterwards studied law at Jena.

He

was thoroughly familiar with the Greek, Latin, German, French, Dutch, English, and Italian tongues, and at the age of twenty-two publicly disputed in different languages upon law and philosophy. On the 24th of April, 1679, he went to Frankfort, and there began the practice of law but in June, 1680, he started with Johan Bonaventura Von Rodeck, " a noble young spark," on a tour through Holland, England, France, Switzerland, and Germany, which occupied over two years. On his return to Frankfort in November, ;

1682, he heard from his friends the Pietists of the contemplated

emigration to Pennsylvania, and with a sudden enthusiasm he deto join them, or in his own words, "a strong desire came upon me to cross the seas with them, and there, after having sseen and experienced too much of European idlenes^s, to lead with them a quiet and Christian life." He immediately began his prepara-

termined

by writing to his father to ask his consent and obtain some and by sending his books to his brother. He sailed from London June 10th, 1683, and arrived in Philadelphia August 20th. His great learning and social position at home made him the most conspicuous person at Germantown. He married Nov. 26th, 1688, Ennecke Klosterman, and had two sons, John Samuel and Henry. He describes himself as " of a Melancholy Cholerick Complexion, tions

funds,

and, therefore (juxta Culpepper,

p. 194), gentle,

given

to Sobriety,

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

18

In bis references to the places at which

and Crefeld.

fort

he stopped on his journey down the Rhine he nowhere

mentions emigrants except at Crefeld, where he says

"I

:

talked with Times Kunders and bis wife, Dirck, Her-

mann, and Abraham Op den GraefF and many others, who six weeks later followed me."^ For some reason Shamefaced, timorous, pensive, con-

Solitary, Studious, doubtful,

stant

and true

in actions, of a

slow wit, with, obliviousness, &c..

any does him wrong. He can't remember't long." If

From his father and other relations he received altogether 1263 Eeichsthaler, of which he says, " Tot pereunt cum tempore Nummi."

He

wrote punning poems in various languages, and a host of books,

of which a few were printed, and

lowing letter "

is

characteristic

many have been

The

lost.

fol-

:

Dear Children John Samuel and Henry Pastorius: Though you

are (^Gennano sangaine naii) of high Dutch Parents, yet

remem-

ber that your father was Naturalized, and y* born in an English

Colony, Consequently each of you Anglus Natus an Englishman

by

Therefore,

Birth.

it

would be a shame

for

you

if

you should be

ignorant of the English Tongue, the Tongue of your Countrymen

;

may learn the better I have left a Book for you both, and commend the same to your reiterated perusal. If you should not get much of y® Latin, nevertheless read y" the English part oftentimes OVER AND OVER AND OVER. And I assure you that Seynper alibut that you

quid

hcerehit.

For the Dripping of the house-eaves in Time maketh

Non vi sed scepe cadendo, and bad Cloath that by often dipping will take no Colour. a hole in an hard stone.

it

is

very

Lectio lecta placet, decies repetita p)lacebit

Quod Natura

negat vobis Indastria prccstet.

— F. D. P."

whom

Pemberton, a pupil fourteen years old, on

Israel

first

time

I

saw him

an angry master. his nose, for

He ^

vol.

I

He

told

my

asked

which he called

he had

" The would prove thought so by

used the rod, wrote concerning him 13th of 6th mo. 1698

:

father that I thought he

me why so I me a prating :

told

him

I

boy."

died Sept. 27th, 1719.

Pastorius ii.,

MS.

p. 142.

cited

by Seidensticker

in the Deutsche Pionier,

THE SETTLEMENT OF GEEMANTOWN.

19

the emigrants were delayed between Rotterdam and London, and Claypoole

was

in great uneasiness for fear the

vessel should be compelled

without them, and

to sail

He

they should lose their passage money.

them

eral letters about

Benjamin Furly

to

wrote sev-

Rotterdam.

at

are coming."

am glad to hear the Crevill fPriends July 3d he says, " before I goe away wch

now

be longer than

June 19th he is

says, " I

like to

we expected by reason of we are fain to loyter and Black wall upon one pretence or an-

the Crevill friends not coming

keep the ship other

;"

still

at

and July 10th he

says, " It troubles

me much

that

As he had

the friends from Crevillt are not yet c6me."-^

the names of the thirty-three persons, this contemporary

evidence

is

clude that

very strong, and

all of this

it

would seem

founded Germantown, came from Crefeld. chior

Muhlenberg says the

first

Despite the forebod-

London

ings of Claypoole the emigrants reached

of July.

and they

While they are

Henry Mel-

comers were platt-deutch

from the neighborhood of Oleves.^ for the Concord,

safe to con-

pioneer band, which, with Pastorius,

set sail

in

time

westward on the 24th

for the first

time experiencing

the dangers and trials of a voyage across the ocean, doubtless

sometimes looking back with

fully

who

and wonderingly forward, these people were

who were

regret, let us

but oftener wistreturn to inquire

willing to abandon for-

ever the old homes and old friends along the Rhine, and

commence new

lives with the

wolf and the savage in the

upon the shores of the Delaware. The origin of the sect of Mennonites

forests

involved in obscurity.

is

somewhat

Their opponents, following Sleid-

anus and other writers of the 16th

Book

century,

James Claypoole.

^

Letter

^

Hallesche Nachrichten, p. 665.

of

have

re-

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

20

proached them with being an outgrowth of the Anabap-

On

Munster.

tists of

Van

Mehrning,

the contrary, their

own

historians,

Braght, Schynn, Maatschoen, and Roosen,

and lineal descent from the Walwhose communities are said to have exfrom the earliest Christian times, and who were

trace tlieir theological

some

denses, isted

of

able to maintain themselves in obscure parts of Europe,

against the power of

Rome,

numbers from the

in large

The

12th century downward.

subject

has of

recent

years received thorough and philosophical treatment at

Ten

the hands of S. Blaupot

The theory

of the-

Dutch

Gate, a

Waldensian origin

is

historian.*

based mainly on

a certain similarity in creed and church observances fact that the

Waldenses are known

;

the

have been numer-

to

ous in those portions of Holland and Flanders where the

Mennonites arose and throve, and to have afterward appeared

families from

Waldenses

habits and occupations. estino;

in

;

carried

of

This last fact

our investio-ation, as

The Waldenses

dis-

some Mennouite and a marked similarity in

the ascertained descent

;

will

is

especially inter-

be hereafter seen.

the art of weaving from Flan-

ders into Holland, and so generally followed that trade as in

many

localities to

have gone by the name of Tisser-

Geschiedkundig Onderzoek naar den Waldenzischen oorsprong van de Nederlandsche Doopsgezinden. Amsterdam, 1844. A nearly contemporary authority, which seems to have escaped the observation of European investigators, is '' De vitis, sectis, et dogmatibus omnium Ilnereticorum, &c., per Gabrielem Prateolum ^

Marcossium,'' published

at

Cologne in 1583, which says,

p.

25

:

" Est perniciosior etiam tertia qua;

baptizatos rebaptizat,

quoniam a Catholocis legitime Anabaptistorum secta vocatur. De quo genere Vualdenses quos et ipsos non ita quamuis eorum nonnulli, nuper adeo,

videntur etiam fuisse fratres

pridom rebaptizasse

;

Apologia sua testantur, iterare Baptismum desierint tamen eos cum Anabaptistis conuenire certum est."

sicut ipsi in in multis

constat,

THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. ands, or weavers.^

It

is

21

not improbable that the truth,

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 16tli cen-

lies

tury gathered into

its

embrace many of these communi-

At the one extreme of this moveThomas Munzer, Bernhard Rothman, Jean ment were Matthys. and John of Leyden at the other were Menno of

ties

Waldenses,

;

Between them stood BattenDelft. The common ground of

Simons, and Dirck Philips.

burg and David Joris 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 peasantry of Europe, trodden beneath the despotic heels of

Church and

State, that the

earth was at hand, that resisted

all

and overthrown, and

After fighting

many

battles

kingdom

human all

of Christ

upon

authority ought to be

property be divided.

and causing uotold commo-

they took possession of the

city of Munster, and 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 tion,

made John

of

set aloft in an iron cage for a warning.^

Menno Simons was born

at the village of

Witmarsum

1492, and was educated for the 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 in Friesland, in the year

priesthood, upon

subject of infant baptism, and after a careful examination

^

Ten

^

Catrou's Histoire des Anabaptistes, p. 462.

Gate's Onderzoek, p. 42.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

22

and the writings

of the Bible

he came

of

Luther and Zwinglius,

was no foundation for it little community views he began to preach to them,

to the conclusion there

At

in the Scriptures.

near him holding like

the request of a

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 MenHis first book was a dissertation against the nonites. errors and delusions in the teachings of John of Leyden, and after a convention held at Buckhold in Westphalia in 1538, at which Battenburg and David Joris were present, and Menno and Dirck Philips were represented, the influence of the fanatical Anabaptists seems to have waned.-^ His entire works, published at Amsterdam in Luther and 1681, make a folio volume of 642 pages. Calvin stayed their hands at a point where power and inand

in

fluence

would have been

Menno,

advance of

far in

but the Datcli reformer,

lost,

his time, taught the

complete

severance of Church and State, and the principles of re-

which have been embodied in our own federal constitution were first worked out in Holland.^ The Mennonites believed that no baptism was efficacious ligious liberty

by repentance, and that the ceremony They took not the sword and were entirely non-resistant.^ They swore hey practiced the washing of the feet of not at all.'^ the brethren,^ and made use of the ban or the avoidance

unless accompanied

administered to infants was vain.

'1

^

Nippold's Life of David Joris. Roosen's

^

Barclay's Religious Societies

Menno's 676 Funk's edition,

"

;

^

Matthew

^

John

Exhortation to

vol.

i.

p.

75

;

vol.

xxvi. 52.

xiii. 4,

17

;

I.

of the all ii. ^

Timothy

Menno Simons,

Commonwealth, pp.

in Authority," in p.

803.

Matthew

v. 10.

p. 3:2.

v.

32

to 37.

78,

his works.

THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMAN TOWN. of those

who were

pertinaciously

23

In dress and

derelict.-^

speech they were plain, and in manners simple.

Their

enemies, even while burning them for their

ecclesiastical

heresies, bore testimony to the purity of their lives, their

They were genmany of them erally husbandmen and were weavers that, we are told by Roosen, certain woven and knit fabrics were known as Mennonite goods.^ 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 thrift,

and homely

frugality,

virtues.^

artisans,

persecuted.

or persistently

and

so

There were put

death

to

Rotterdam 7 persons, Haarlem 10, 20, Brugge 23, Amsterdam 26, Ghent 103, and Antwerp 229, and in the last-named city there were 37 in 1571 and 37 in 1574, the last by fire."* It was usual to burn the men and drown the cause

for

this

the

Hague

women.

at

Cortrijk

13,

Occasionally some were buried alive, and the

rack and like preliminary tortures were used to extort confessions, sect.

and get information concerning others of the gives, in a letter written to his brother

Ydse Gaukes

from prison, a graphic description of his own treatment. After telling; that his hands were tied behind his back, he continues

:

"

Then they drew me up about a

foot

from

the ground and let

me

tried to be quiet.

Nevertheless, I cried out three times,

^

Matthew

xviii.

17

;

I.

hang.

I

was

in great pain, but I

Conntliians v. 9, 11

;

Thes.

11.

iii.

14.

On ne peut disconvenir que des sectes de Says la sorte n'ayent ete remplies d'assez bonnes gens et assez reglees pour les moeurs." And page 103, " Leurs invectives contre le ^

Catrou, p. 259, "

luxe, contre I'y vrognerie, et contre incontinence avoient je

ne scai

quoi de pathetique." ^

Life of Gerhard Roosen, p. 9.

*

Geschiedenis der Doopsgezinden in Holland,

etc.

,

Ten Gate,

p. 72.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

24

and then was and

letting rae

me

asked

They

silent.

said that is only child's "play,

down again they put me on

fastened an iron bar to

my

a stool, but

They and hung

said nothing to me.

and

no questions,

feet with

two chains,

When

on the bar three heavy weights.

they drew

me up

again a Spaniard tried to hit rae in the face with a chain,

but he could not reach

while I was hanging I struggled

;

hard, and got one foot through the chain, but then

weight was on one but I fought with laugh, but I

burned 1571.

to

my

all

was

They

leg.

tried

death by a slow

at

fire

fasten

it

all

the

again,

That made them all He was afterward

strength.

great pain."

in

to

May,

Deventer, in

Their meetings were held in secret places, often

^

middle of the night, and in ojder to prevent possible exposure under the pressure of pain, they purposely avoided knowing the names of the brethren whom they in the

met, and of the preachers

ward

of

who

100 gold guilders was

factors were promised pardon

Tjaert Ryndertz

if

A

baptized thera.^ offered for

re-

Menno, male-

they should capture him,^

was put on the wheel

in

1539

for

hav-

ing given him shelter, and a house in which his wife and children had rested,

He

cated.

unknown

to its owner,

was

confis-

was, as his followers fondly thought, m.iracu-

lously protected however,

died peacefully in 1559, and

own cabbage garden. The natural reThe prosthis persecution was much dispersion. communities at Hamburg and Altona were founded

was buried in his sult of

perous

by

'

refugees, the first

Van

Braght's Blutige

Ephrata, 1748, vol. "

Van

'

A

ii.

Braght, vol.

Mennonites

in

Prussia fled there

Schauplatz oder Martyrer Spiegel.

p. 632.

ii.

p. 468.

copy of the proclamation

may

be seen in Ten Gate's Gescbie-

denis der Doopsgezinden in Friesland,

etc., p.

63.

THE SETTLEMENT OF GKRMANTOWN.

25

from the Netherlands, and others found their way up the Rhine.^

Orefeld

silk, linen,

is

chiefly noted for

its

manufactures of

and other woven goods, and these manufac-

tures were first established

by persons

fleeing from re-

ligious intolerance.

From

the

Mennonites sprang

churches of England, the

of

general

Baptist

them having an

eccle-

connection with the parent societies in Holland,

siastical

and

first

the

their organizers being

Englishmen who, as has been

members of the Mennonite church for the benefit of these Englishwas at Amsterdam.^ It men that the well-known Confession of Faith of Hans de Ries and Lubbert Gerritz was written,^ and according to the late Robert Barclay, whose valuable work bears every evidence of the most thorough and careful research, it was

discovered, were actual

from association with these early Baptist teachers that

George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, imbibed his

We

him and discipline of the ancient and stricter party of the Dutch M-r-nnonites."^ If this be correct, to the spread of Mennonite teachings we owe the origin of the Quakers, and

views.

Says Barclay

:

"

are compelled to view

as the unconscious exponent of the doctrine., practice,

Gerhard Roosen,

Reiswitz unci Waldzeck, p. 19.

^

Life of

*

Barclay's Religious Societies, pp. 72, 73, 95.

*

The preface

p. 5.

to that Confession,

Amsterdam, 1686, says " Ter Engeland gevlncht ware, om :

cause, also daer eenige Engelsche uyt

de vryheyd der Religie alhier te genieten, en alsoo sy een schriftelijcke confessie

(van de voornoemde) hebben begeert, want veele

van hare gheselschap inde Duytsche Tale onervaren zijnde, het selfde niet en konde verstaen, ende als dan konde de ghene die de Tale beyde verstonde de andere onderrechten, het welche oock niet is ghebleven, want na overlegh der saecke met de voernoemde Gemeente vereenight."

onvruchtbaer en

*

P. 77.

2

zijn

sy

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

26

the settlement of Pennsylvania.

The

doctrine of the inner

was by no means a new one in Holland and Germany, and the dead letter of the Scriptures is a thought common to David Joris, Caspar Schwenckfeldt, and the modern Quaker. The similarity between the two sects has been manifest to all observers, and recognized by light

William Penn, writin