WATSON'S ANNALS OF PHILADELPHIA VOL 2....Published 1857...p.16 The whole of Pennsylvania---such as it was for the first half century of the settlement, --- was comprised within the counties of PHILADELPHIA, BUCKS, and CHESTER. All beyond these --- westward and northward, until of latter years, consisted of unsettled lands or Indian hunting grounds. Contemporary with the first settlement of Philadelphia, the colonists proceeded into the country, and laid the foundation of sundry towns and neighbourhoods; as this was done while the country was in a wilderness state, and in the midst of the Indian nations, it may justly interest our readers to learn the earliest facts concerning several of such settlements. To this end, we shall relate sundry incidents concerning Pennsbury, Bucks County, Chester, and Chester county, Byberry, Frankford, Lancaster, &c. The Germantown settlement was first taken up by Francis Daniel Pastorius, the 12th of the 8th month, 1683, by a purchase from William Penn, and was surveyed and laid out by the surveyor general, 2d of 3d month 1684; under a grant to him for himself and others for 6000 aces. It proved, however, to contain but 5700 acres. It was a PART of SPRINGETBURY MANOR, and was distributed among the proprietaries, as follows, viz.: 200 acres to Dr. Francis D. Pastorius himself, on CHESTNUT HILL, 150 do. To Jurian Hartsfielder (the same who in 1676 owned ALL Campington), 5350 do. To Pastorius, as AGENT to German and Dutch owners, called the Francfort company. -------- 5700 do. Pastorius and Hartsfielder were to pay yearly 1s. per 100 acres, quitrent; and all the others at the rate of 1s. per 1000 acres, ("they having bought off the quitrents"), for ever to William Penn and HEIRS. The patent for all the preceding land from Penn is executed by William Markham, secretary for Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, the 3rd April, 1689, and it therein specifies "the purchasers," as follows, viz,. Jacobus Vandewalle.............535 acres Johan Jacob Sheetz.............428 do Daniel Spehagel...................356 2/3 do John W. Uberfeld..................107 do George Strauss....................178 1/3 do Jan Laurens.........................535 do Abraham Hasevoet...............535 do -------- *2675 do * All of the above 2675 acres were sold in 1708, for L3000, to one Sprogel, by Daniel Faulkner, as agent for the Frankford Company, but as it was contrary to the wish of his principals, it was always deemed a fraud, and did not convey a title. Jacob Tellner.....................989 acres Jan Strepers......................275 do. Dirk Sipman.......................588 do. Gobart Renckes.................161 do. Lenert Arets.......................501 do. Jacob Isaacs......................161 do. ------- 2675 do. The distribution of the lands was made as follows: GERMANTOWN (proper) contained...2750 acres CRESHEIM...................................... 884 do. SOMERHAUSEN.............................. 900 do. CREFELT.........................................1166 do. --------- 5700 do. Germantown was incorporated as a borough town by a patent from William Penn, executed in England in 1689. Francis Daniel Pastorius, CIVILIAN, was made first bailiff; and Jacob Tellner, Dirk Isaacs op den Graff and Herman op den Graff, three burghers, to act ex-officio as town magistrates, and eight yeomen; the whole to form a general court to sit once a month. They made laws and laid taxes. All the settlers in Cresheim built on the Cresheim road, before settling a house on the Germantown road through Cresheim. There is an old map, made in 1700, in which all their residences and barns at that time are marked. The ORIGINAL of the following curious paper is in the hands of John Johnson, Esq. "We whose names are to these presents subscribed, do hereby certify unto all whom it may concern, that soon after our arrival in this province of Pennsylvania, in October 183, to our certain knowledge Herman op den Graff, Dirk op den Graff, and Abraham op den Graff, as well as we ourselves, IN THE CAVE of Francis Daniel Pastorious, at PHILADELPHIA, did CAST LOTS for the respective lots which they and we THEN BEGAN to settle in Germantown; and the said Graffs (three brothers) have sold their several lots, each by himself, no less than if a division in writing had been made by them. Witness our hands this 29th Nov. 1709. Lenart Arets Thomas Hunder Abraham Tunes Jan Lensen William Streygert Jan Lucken Reiner Tysen. The Germans who originally arrived, came for conscience sake to this land, and were a very religious community. They were usually called PALATINES, because they came from a Palatinate, called Cresheim and Crefelt. Many of the German Friends had been convinced by William Penn in Germany. Soon after their settlement, in 1683, some of them who were yet in Philadelphia, suffered considerably by a fire, and were then publicly assisted by the Friends. Wishert Levering, a first settler, lived to the age of 109, and died at Roxborough in 1744. Jacob Snyder lived to be 97. Arents Klincken came from Holland with William Penn in his first voyage in 1682. He had seen and known Penn in Holland. He built the first TWO story house ever raised in Germantown; and Penn was present and partook of the raising dinner; the same old stone house on Justus Johnson's premises. He died at the age of 80. He left a son whose name was Anthony Klincken, a great hunter, who spent a long life in such exercises. He used to have the garret of the house filled in the winter with wild game, and had it marked with the date when he killed it, so as to eat it in due succession as an epicure. The same house next to Justus Johnson's premises. He even purchased a German YAGER, celebrated for shooting, to aid him in his field sports; he had iron prickers to the hands and feet to aid in climbing lofty trees for crows' scalps, which bore a premium. He never went to Philadelphia without taking his gun with him in the spring and fall, and never came home without several geese or ducks, which he had killed in a spatterdock pond, then at the corner of Fourth and High Streets ! He called it the best game pond anywhere to be found. This was probably about 1700 or 1710. He was born about the year 1677, and died about 1759, aged 82 years. As early as 1700 there were four HERMITS living near Germantown -- John Seelig, Kelpius, Bony, and Conrad Mathias. They lived near Wissahiccon and tge Ridge. Benjamin Lay lived in a cave near the York Road, at Branchtown. John Kelpius, THE HERMIT, was a German of Sieurgen in Transylvania, of an eminent family, (tradition says he was noble), and a student of Dr. John Fabritius, at Helmstadt. He was also a correspondent of Maecken, chaplain to the Prince of Denmark in London. He came to this country in 1694 with John Seelig, Barnard KUSTER, (Coster), Daniel Falkener, and about forty-two others, being generally men of education and learning, to devote themselves, for piety's sake, to a solitary or single life; and receiving the appellatioin of the "Society of the Woman in the wilderness". They first arrived among the Germans at Germantown, where they shone awhile "as a peculiar light", but they settled chiefly "on THE RIDGE", then a wilderness. In 1708, Kelpius, who was regarded as their leader died "in the midst of his days", (said to be 35), --- after his death, the members began to fall in with the world around them, and some of them to break their avowed religious intentions by marrying. Thus the society lost its distinctive character and died away; but previous to their dispersion they were joined about the year 1704 by some others, among whom were Conrad Mathias, (the last of the Ridge hermits), a Switzer, and by Christopher Witt, (sometimes called Dr. Witt of Germantown), a professor of medicine, and a "magus" or DIVINER. The MARKET HOUSE AND PRISON was built in 1741. The ground was granted for that purpose by James de la Plaine in 1701; the said De la Plaine live in and owned James Stokes' house. There was once a pound in the market square at the south-east end, and near it stood a small log prison, in which one Adam Hogermoed was imprisoned for a small offence of intemperence. His friends pried it up at one corner and let him out at night. Some time after he made the prison his free house, for when the charter was lost, it was sold to him and he moved it to where it now forms part of Joseph Green's group of houses. To be continued.... NOTE: All words in capital letters are italics in the book. NOTE: There are another two pages about John Kelpius. If anyone is interested in these two pages, e-mail me privately, and I will send.E.