UMSTAT OF GERMANTOWN AND OF SKIPPACK, PHILADELPHIA CO, PA, complied by Lewis D. Cook, 1300 Locust St, Philadelphia, for Mr Heath T. Coburn* of Fontana, CA, 1948
"HANS PETER UMSTAT and BARBARA his wife, John his son, Margaret and Eve his daughters, arrived at Philadelphia 16 October 1685 in the ship Francis and Dorothy. (a) He was a son of Nicholas Umstat of Crefeld, on the lower Rhine River in Germany, near the border of Holland, who died there 4 October 1682. (b)"
COMMENT
The Bible does NOT say where Nicholas died. See Nicholas Original Records and Why SWP Thought Hans Peter was from Crefeld (Krefeld).
"Before emigration, Hans Peter Umstat acquired a tract of 200 acres in Pennsylvania from Dirck Sipman of said Crefeld, Mercht., by Deed of 16 August 1685, 25 acres of which were laid out in the inhabited part of German Township, that is, along the present Germantown Avenue, on which he settled, and another 25 acres in the Krisheim section of the said Township, and the remaining 150 acres he conveyed to Nathias (sic) van Bebber of Cecil County, Maryland, by Deed of 17 December 1706. (c)
"After his arrival in Germantown, he acquired another 25 acres there by Deed of 6 December 1685 from William Streepers, Thunes Kunder, and Lenert Arets, all of that town, 10 acres of which were in the said inhabited part and the other 15 in the outside section towards Plymouth Township. (d) Likewise, by Deed of 17 December 1689 he acquired from Herman Isaacs op den Graef, attorney and agent for Dirch (sic) Sipman, another 25 acres in Germantown, 9 3/4 acres of which adjoined the 10 acres town-lot abovesaid, and the remaining 10 1/4 acres adjoined the 15 in the outside land. He conveyed the combined 50 acres, with the house, barn, stable, etc., to George Adam Hogermoed of Germantown by Deed of 14 October 1710. (d)
"With other foreign-born settlers, Hans Peter Umstat became a British subject on 7 May 1691, (e) and in 1693 his estate was assessed at 100 Pounds. (f) The date of his death in Germantown has not been recovered here, as his estate does not appear in Philadelphia County probate records. His wife Barbara Umstat died 12 August 1702. (b)
"(a) Register of arrivals at Phikadelphia (sic), made in accordance with an Act of Assembly in 1684, published in the Penna Magazine of History and Biography, Bol. (sic) VIII, page 338.
"(b) Umstat family records in Bible bearing imprint 1658, quoted in S.W. Pennypacker, Hendrick Pannebecker 1674-1754, page 13.
"(c) Recited in Deed of 17 Dec 1706, recorded in Phila. Deed Book H-17, page 169.
"(d) Recorded in Philadelphia Deed Book H-17, page 173.
"(e) Abraham Clemmer, Umstat Family, in the Perkiomen Region, vol. X, 50.
"(f) Perkiomen Region, vol XII, page 73; Penna. Mag. Hist. & Biogr., Vol. VIII, page 100."
COMMENT
For more info, see Hans Peter's Germantown Deeds
Cook goes on to briefly list the three children of Hans Peter, then begins a section on son John (Johannes), stating that he came from Crefeld (Krefeld), quoting Pennypacker's THE SETTLEMENT OF GERMANTOWN. Johannes and the girls will be discussed elsewhere on this site at a later date.
A copy of this material was presented to the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania for permanent recording in 1954.
*An original letter from Heath T Coburn, written to Dr. David Faris of Philadelphia in 1966, came my way among the papers of Dr. Faris, kindly sent to me by his family after his death. Apparently Heath Coburn was not himself an UM descendant, but it looks like he's saying that his wife was. The letter was quite humorous. A few snippets:
"Goodness me, I was
surprised. The German folk were on my wife's side."
"If those old Pipe-smoking so-and-sos had held onto 10 acres
along Germantown Avenue, she would have been in the chips."
"My wife was SCOTCH-IRISH, WELSH and GERMAN, but the first
two dominated. She was thrifty, and humorous, and if she had been
a bitch she would have outlived me by ten years. As it was, she
moved on to another plane of existence."