1710 Hans Herr, and five others, wrote a letter thanking the Rotterdam brethren for help in reaching London from Amsterdam. Dated June 24. [1]
1710 The ship "Maria Hope" sailed into Delaware Bay, on September 16, after a comparatively uneventful trip from London. The ship, although small, was heavily laden with freight for the thriving colony of Pennsylvania, and had a combined passenger and crew list of 94 persons. The master, John Annis, in his anxiety to get his ship within the safety of the bay, out of danger from pirates and privateers which infested coastal waters that year, ran his vessel aground on a low tide. As a result, the voyage was delayed several days, and it was not until September 20th, that anchor was dropped off New Castle, Delaware. Here the ship remained several days before continuing its voyage to Philadelphia, where it arrived September 23rd, more than a week after entering the bay. Among the 20 or so Swiss passengers, who were Mennonites, were Hans Herr (son of this Hans Herr) and Martin Kendig. When Maria Hope arrived, the bountiful harvest was in full swing. [2]
1710 The ship Maria Hope arrived in Philadelphia on September 23. Hans Herr has been named as being on the ship [3].
1710 Johan Rudolph Bundeli, a member of a burgher family of Bern, Switzerland, who had come to Pennsylvania from Switzerland less than 10 years before, appeared before Penn's property commissioners on two successive days and obtained warrants for the survey of 10,500 acres of land in the unsettled country back of Chester county. The first warrant for 10,000 acres stated that the land was to be divided among "Swissers who lately arrived in this Province". The men named with Bundeli in the warrant, which was issued October 21, 1710 (dated October 10, old style), were Martin Kendig, Jacob Miller, Hans Herr, Christian Herr, Hans Groff, Martin Oberholtzer, Hans Funk, Michael Oberholtzer, and Bauman. Several surveys were made and the Pequea area was surveyed May 8th and by 11 July, patents had been given to ten heads of families for 5500 acres in that area. [4] [5]
1711 John Herr received a patent, dated June 30, for 530 acres of land in Chester County, Pennsylvania. [6] Others who received patents in July 1711 were Christopher Franciscus, Martin Meili, Martin Kendig, Jacob Miller, Hans Funk, Wendall Bowman, and Christian Herr.
1717 A land patent reported that Martin Kendig and Hans Heer were granted a warrant, dated November 22, for 5000 acres of land. The patent was recorded May 25, 1762. [7]
The commissioners of property granted Martin Kindig … and Hans Heer a warrant 22 Nov. 1717 for 5,000 acres to be surveyed in several tracts among the surveys lately made on the Conestoga and Pequea Creeks, the 5,000 acres to be paid for at the rate of 10 pounds per hundred acres at the time the various surveys were returned. Martin Kindig and Hans Heer sold to Isaac Heere, late of Lancaster County but now deceased, a brother of said Hans Heer, 800 acres. … The dwelling house of Isaac Heer happening several years ago to be burnt down and totally consumed with all his household goods and the title deeds to all his lands, including the deed from Martin Kindig and Hans Heer for the 800 acres … The new survey showed the tract adjoining Henry Heer, … the same day a patent was issued to Henry Heer, son of Isaac Heer, for 318 acres …
1718 John Heer 40 [pounds] £0.10.0 appeared on the tax list for Conestogoe Rate, Dutch Inhabitants, Chester County, Pennsylvania. [8]
1719 John Heere value 54 pounds was taxed £0.14.8 in Conestogoe Twp. [9]
1728 John Herr, perhaps this one, received a land patent, dated September 25, for 1100 acres in Chester County that had been warranted by Richman Herman on October 22, 1715. [10]
1751 John Hare senor, John Hare junor, Christian Hare junor, Christian Hare, and Abraham Hare were named on the tax list for Lampeter Twp, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. [11]
1756 John Hare of Lampeter Twp, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, dated his will on February 20, 1756. The probate date was November 6, 1756. The will mentioned a wife Frances and children of John Burkholder and deceased daughter Ann: John and Jacob Burkholder. Also sons John and Christian, daughter Frances Breckbill widow, sons-in-law Christian Furee and Martin Bare. Sons John and Christian were named executors. [12]
1756 John Herr died on September 12, at age 79. [13] [14]
1759 John Hare, miller, and Melchor Brenneman of Lampeter Twp gave a mortgage to Rudolph Souder for land in Donegal Twp, to pay a debt that Souder owed to merchant Michael Gross of the borough of Lancaster. Dated December 31. The land was next to land of Melchor Brenneman, John Grove, Christian Fox, Reverend Mr Tate, and the Susquehanna River. The mortgage was paid satisfactorily. [15]
Research Notes:
John Herr, born 1685 and died 1765 married Frances. Names 6 children. Revised edition (p 787) names wife Francis Brackbill, who died after 1756. Born 1685. Died 12 Sept 1756. Their bible is at the Lancaster Mennonite Historical Society. [16] [17]
John Herr married Frances Brackbill. [18]
[1] Henry Frank Eshleman, Historic Background and Annals of the Swiss and German pioneer Settlers of Southeastern Pennsylvania (Lancaster, PA: 1917), 148, [GoogleBooks], [HathiTrust].
[2] Martin H. Brackbill, "New Light on Hans Herr and Martin Kendig," Historical Papers and Addresses of the Lancaster County Historical Society 39 (1935), 73.
[3] Richard Warren Davis, "Swiss and German Mennonite Immigrants from the Palatine, 1704-1717," Mennonite Family History 13 (1994), 9-16, at 11.
[4] Martin H. Brackbill, "New Light on Hans Herr and Martin Kendig," Historical Papers and Addresses of the Lancaster County Historical Society 39 (1935), 75.
[5] Leo Schelbert, Swiss Migration to America: the Swiss Mennonites (1966), 287, [GoogleBooks].
[6] Pennsylvania Land Patent, A4-238, [PAPatentBookLinks].
[7] Bureau of Land Records, Pennsylvania Land Patent Books, AA3-296, [FamilySearchImage], [FHLCatalog].
[8] Chester County, Pennsylvania Tax Records, [FamilySearchImage], [FHLCatalog].
[9] Chester County, Pennsylvania Tax Records, [FamilySearchImage], [FHLCatalog].
[10] Pennsylvania Land Patent, A6-77, [PAPatentBookLinks].
[11] Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Tax Records, [FamilySearchImage], [FHLCatalog].
[12] Pennsylvania Probate Records, 1683-1994, Lancaster, Will B-144, image 211, [FamilySearchImage].
[13] Leo Schelbert, Swiss Migration to America: the Swiss Mennonites (1966), 178, [GoogleBooks].
[14] Martin H. Brackbill, "New Light on Hans Herr and Martin Kendig," Historical Papers and Addresses of the Lancaster County Historical Society 39 (1935), 97, footnote 44, The flyleaf from a German bible, which was the possession of Benedicht Brechbuehl, grandson of Hans Herr, contains the record of his death in 1756 and also records his age as 79 years.
[15] Recorder of Deeds, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Deed Book F, 9-12, [9], [10], [11], [12], [FHLCatalog].
[16] Theodore Herr, Genealogical Record of Rev. Hans Herr and his direct Lineal Descendants (1908), 1, 2, [InternetArchive], [HathiTrust].
[17] Theodore Herr, Genealogical Record of Rev. Hans Herr and his direct Lineal Descendants, Revised (1980), 787, [GoogleBooks].
[18] Jane Evans Best, "Martin Kendig's Swiss Relatives," Pennsylvania Mennonite Heritage 15 (January, 1992), 2-18, at 16.