This piece contains much about Hendrick Pannebecker. Quoted here are only the parts that relate to Johannes Umstat. You can read the full article at https://archive.org/stream/jstor-20085366/20085366_djvu.txt
"On the 10th of March 1682 William Penn conveyed to Dirck Sipman of Crefeld five thousand acres of land in Pennsylvania, and on the 11th of June, 1683, to Govert Remke, likewise of Crefeld, one thousand acres, upon the condition that a certain number of families were to be taken across the ocean to settle upon them. The arrangement was more than a sale of land, since it contained this provision for a settlement, and when Sipman sold two hundred of his acres Aug. 16th, 1685, to Peter Schumacher, then in Rotterdam on his way from Kriegsheim in the Palatinate to Germantown, the purchaser agreed for 'himself and his family to settle upon and dwell on the said two hundred acres of land", and to secure compliance he bound ‘his person and all his goods without reservation.'"
COMMENT
It is now known that Hans Peter Umstat purchased
land from Sipman at the same time and the same place by identical
deed. See Hans Peter's Rotterdam Deed.
"By a deed in the Dutch language Jan. 14th, 1686, Remke sold his unlocated land to Sipman. By another deed in the Dutch language, Sipman sold his entire interest, including the lands of Remke, to Matthias Van Bebber, a Dutch merchant, who came to Germantown in 1687 . . ."
COMMENT
The word is "unlocated" in the actual text.
SWP may have meant to say unallocated.
"Van Bebber . . . secured a patent Feb. 22, 1702."
"At the time of the issue of the patent, the tract was already called Bebber's Township, and it bore that name as late as the publication of Scull's map of the province in 1759."
"In all probability he had had a previous understanding
with Pannebecker, who, immediately after the grant, with his brother-in-law,
Johannes Umstat, removed from Germantown
to the Skippack."
"On the 8th of June, 1717, Van Bebber and his wife, in consideration of 'the true love and singular affection he the said Matthias Van Bebber bears to them and all theirs,’ conveyed one hundred acres of land to Henry Sellen, Claus Jansen, Henry Kolb, Martin Kolb, Jacob Kolb, Michael Ziegler and Hermannus Kuster . . . to build a school house, and fence in a sufficient Burying place upon the herein granted one hundred acres of land there to have their children and those of their respective families taught and instructed, and to bury their dead."
"All of the trustees were members of the Mennonite Church and their selection was due no doubt to the fact that the greater number of the settlers belonged to that sect, and that the affiliations of Van Bebber were with it."
COMMENT
Johannes Umstat is not one of the trustees. This may or
may not indicate that he was not a Mennonite. He may simply not
have been one of those chosen for whatever reason.
"By order of the Court of Quarter Sessions of Philadelphia
County, upon petition of the residents, the township was regularly
laid out and surveyed in 1725 and given the name of "Skippack
and Perkiomen," and thereafter the earlier name of Bebber
began to fade and disappear into the distance. The effort was
made, under the direction of Pannebecker, who secured the signatures
to the petition, and gave his assistance to those who were unable
to write. The names attached to the petition are Klas Jansen,
Johan Umstat, Peter Bon, Henry Pannebecker
. . ."
"There was living at that time on the east side of the easternmost of the three roads which ran northwestward from Philadelphia through Philadelphia, now Montgomery County, near where the road crossed the Skippack creek, and three or four miles further up the stream than Pannebecker, a man named John Roberts, who was evidently thrown into a state of mental excitement by the stirring events occurring around him. On the tenth of May he wrote a petition to the Governor. It is headed 'Van Bebbers Township and ye Adjacencies Belonging,' and proceeds: 'We think It fit to address your Excellency for Relief for your Excellency must Know That we have Sufered and Is Like to Sufer By the Ingians they have fell upon ye Back Inhabitors about Falkner's Swamp & New Coshahopin. Therefore We the humble Petitioners With our poor Wives and Children Do humbly beg of your Excellency To Take It into Consideration and Relieve us the Petitioners hereof whos Lives Lies at Stake with us and our Poor Wives & Children that Is more to us than Life.' The first signature to the paper is that of John Roberts, the second John Pawling, who lived on the east bank of the Perkiomen about a mile below Pennypacker's Mills, and was a warden of St. James Episcopal Church, the third Hendrick Pannebecker, the fourth William Lane, who gave forty acres of glebe land still retained, to that church, and then follow: — (list of names) . . . Forty-four of these seventy-seven names were written by Roberts himself, and it is probably a fairly complete list of the residents at that time. "
COMMENT
For some reason, Johannes Umstat is
not included in this list.
"November 17th, 1731, Catharina Sprogell, the widow,
and John Lodowick Sprogell and Susanna Catharina Sprogell, the
children, conveyed to Hendrick Pannebecker of Bebber's township,
reciting the deed from Van Bebber all the Remaining part of the
s'd Tract of land herein above described which now Remains unsold
& not Conveyed by the s'd Matthias Van Bebber or the s'd Lodwig
Christian Sprogel excepting the one hundred & twenty acres
of land in the s'd Release Reserved and all of the interest inherited
by them. Neither of these two deeds have any reference to the
number of acres transferred. They conveyed a Township subject
to such rights as had become vested in other prior purchasers.
The sales which up to that time had been made so far as they
have been ascertained by my own investigations and those of James
Y. Heckler, the local historian who wrote upon the subject, were
as follows: Hendrick Pannebecker 404 acres, Johannes
Umstat 204 acres . . .'"
The article concludes with this about Hendrick Pannebecker:
"He drank his wine, I am sorry to say occasionally his rum,
and, according to Muhlenberg, who had been frowned upon as a carpet
bagger (Neulander), he was fond of them. He was engaged in at
least five lawsuits. He read his Bible,
printed at Heidelberg in 1568, and his other books of mystical
theology and what not, and generously, though unwisely, loaned
of his store to his neighbors. Another quarter of a century rolled
away, and one morning the 4th of April 1754, he fell over dead
at the ripe old age of eighty years and two weeks, and thus fitly
ended the career of the last of the Dutch Patroons in Pennsylvania.
COMMENT
This was Hans Peter Umstat's Bible!!!
See Hans Peter's Bible
Back to Johannes Bibliography
Back to Johannes Extras
Last updated 15 May 2017