Janet and Robert Wolfe Genealogy --- Go to Genealogy Page for Wendel Meyer

Notes for Wendel Meyer

1778 On 3 February, "The examination of Wendle Meyer" was recorded and describes a trip to Philadelphia to purchase horses and his arrest. Wendle is described as "he", so Wendle might not have been present. [1]

Research Notes:

Wendel Meyer was arrested and hanged at Lancaster because he was a loyalist who was supplying the enemy with horses. His brother John was also a loyalist but escaped capture. According to the examination of several witnesses, a British officer named Henry Mansin obtained help from the Rein family who lived on the Mill Creek south of New Holland in Lancaster County. They with the help of Rein's young neighbors, John and Wendel Myer, sons of Vincent Meyer, bought two horses from George Bare and a man named Oberly.

The Meyer boys rode the horses to Philadelphia for the British. Wendel Meyer then returned to Lancaster with Mansin to purchase more horses for the British but were both captured by the Americans. Wendel's brother John escaped capture. On March 16, 1777, Wendel Meyer and Henry Mansin were brought to the gallows. After they both confessed to supplying the enemy with horses they were hanged.

Wendel was mentioned in the court papers after his brother John, which may indicate that Wendel was the younger of the two brothers. John was born in 1751, followed by Christian, born in 1752, Barbara in 1754 and then Maria in 1758. It would appear that Wendel was probably born in about 1756.


Footnotes:

[1] Samuel Hazard, Pennsylvania Archives, First Series, Volume 6. (General Assembly 1777) (1853), 225, [InternetArchive].