|
a.
|
Note: N31 Daniel Ferree was a prosperous silk manufacturer. 1 The Ferrees had been French Huguenot silk manufacturers and members of lower Normandy's lesser nobility since 1255.1 In 1685, when Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, which granted religious freedom, he sent soldiers to all towns and villages to kill the Protestants and confiscate their properties. Daniel and Marie escaped to Germany where their daughter, Mary Catherine was born. It is believed that Daniel died while the family lived in Strasbourg. Details of his death are lacking; One report says he was slain during the insurrection in France following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.2 He may have died before 1708 in Lindau, Bavaria. After Daniel died, his wife assumed her maiden name for safety. 3` The family moved from Strasbourg to a safer area in Lindau Bavaria where they heard of a "new Moses", William Penn, who was selling his rich land in the New World cheaply, title to which would ensure owners political asylum and freedom of opportunity and religion. March 10, 1708, Mary Ferree and her seven children, along with a young couple they had befriended in Strasbourg, Mathias and Catherine Schleiermacher, were passported by the Bavarian Civil Service to immigrate "via Holland and England to the Island of Pennsylvania to reside there." Final clearance came on May l0 from the pastor and deacons of the Reformed Walloon Church, who described them as professors of "the Pure Reformed Religion ... without having given cause for scandal that has come to our knowledge." 3 The little band traversed the Palatinate's burned-out landscape toward the riot of spires and masts that marked the maritime metropolis of Rotterdam. After sailing on a bark to London, they settled in a Palatine colony in Spitalfields. 3 "Being people of substance, the Ferree-Schleiermachers formed the nucleus around which poorer transients gathered. Through Penn agents, Madame Ferree was their spokesman to, and in dickering with, William Penn. He asked that she be brought to his London residence for an interview. The cultured and indomitable widow so impressed the proprietor that he petitioned the sovereign herself for an audience. This occurred on August 27, 1708."4 "It was obvious that England's Queen Anne took pleasure in the company of women of accomplishment, for after one sitting, she granted Madame Ferree a patent of naturalization, covering all fifty-four of the persons in the Ferree-Schleiermacher entourage. Permission for the group to colonize in America was granted in the same instrument." 4 "Mathias Schleiermacher and Mary Ferree's holdings comprised roughly four thousand acres from agent Martin Kendig's large share of Penn's 1710 land grant in the Pequea Valley. Possession could not be effected until the surveyor general of the province finished subdividing. Payment was then to be made to agent Kendig. Martin Kendig, like other Penn agent-servants, was a middleman for the proprietor. Penn dispensed with the work of getting settlers by allowing agents to take a commission on any portions of their own grants sold. The only injunctions laid down were those that could be expected; customers had to be "Godly" and able to come across with the money." 4 "Since surveying would take two years, it was decided that the Ferree-Schleiermacher group would cross the Atlantic and proceed up the Hudson River to a Huguenot colony at Esopus. When surveying was completed in Pennsylvania, they could descend to their Promised Lands."4 "In early September, 1708, safely aboard the ship Lyon, the Pool of London, with its forest of masts, slipped back into the city's sooty mists, behind the Ferree-Schleiermachers and their band. The encircling horizon now became green-blue ocean for six weeks of hard biscuits, salted fish, pickled pork, scents of pitch and brine, squeaks and groans of straining rigging.4 "When the ship Lyon entered the Hudson River the immigrants experienced deeply felt emotions of thanksgiving. After the Reverend Josiah Kochesthal led the group in prayer, they embraced. With laughs and tears they probably commented on the familiar Rhine-like appearance of the Hudson's steep wooded hills. They must have been thankful that they made it to Esopus before the river froze and rejoiced to settle down in the log cabins of their hosts before the first snow fell."4 For two years these immigrants waited at Esopus. In 1710 word reached them that their Pequea Valley lands had been surveyed. When the ice was melted in early spring, they set sail downriver to the ocean, but this time only to coast along the shoreline to the mouth of the Delaware and up the river to Philadelphia. 4 When Mary Ferree and her friends put into Philadelphia, they found bustling markets with dairy cattle, sheep, oxen, and horses; descendants of the original Swedish stock. From full-to-the-rafters stores they bought hardware, smoked meat, and flour. Maps of their holdings were prepared in the office of Penn's secretary, James Logan. 4 The Pequea Valley comprised the western extremity of Chester County and was referred to as Conestoga Township. The valley was watered by two small, southwesterly-flowing rivers, the Pequea and, a few miles to its west, the Conestoga. Both emptied into the Susquehanna River. Penn's west road had been extended through Chester County to the Gap in the Hills. Here it crossed the trading road running south to New Castle. By 1710 the west road from Philadelphia was being pushed southwesterly to the Susquehanna. It was called the Great Conestoga Road. It was over this dirt path that the Ferree-Schleiermacher caravan of wagons bumped west on a summer's day in 1710. 4 Reports of the settlers' arrival have it that Madame Ferree stepped in front of the others to meet the first deerskin-clad native, who stated that he would take them to their lands. Mary Ferree's family was among the first 5,000 of 150,000 Huguenots to arrive in America. Madame Anna Marie De Warrembere Ferree was the founder of the Pequea Valley, PA Huguenot colony in 1712 in Lancaster Co. One of her first actions was to vest in trustees a piece of land for a cemetery and she is buried in the SE corner. 5 1.The Pennsylvania LeFevres by George Newton LeFevre 2.History of Lancaster Co., PA. pages 24-39, Louis Du Bois Family History, on file at the York County Historical & Genealogical Society in York, Pa.) 3.The Story of the Feree Family, Emory Schuyler Ferree, 829 So. Mulberry Avenue, Brea, CA, 1990 4.Captive's Mansion by S. R. Slaymaker II Harper & Row, NY 1973 5.Rupp's "History of Lancaster County" White Chimneys Houseful of Our History Published by Stel-Mar, 329 Rhoda Dr., Lancaster, PA 17601 From page 2 of the section on the "Colonial Period (1720-1790) The Pequea Valley's first settlers in 1712 were Mary Ferree ( a French Protestant), her family, and German Calvinist, Mathias Schliermacher, his wife and a daughter. While Mary Ferree's home is long gone, her grave marker can be seen in the small, stone-fenced Ferree Burying ground on the Blackhorse Road in Paradise Township near the tracks of the Strasburg Railroad. Mathias Schliermacher's original log cabin - now with additions - is still occupied by his descendants, the William Kinzer family. It is located on the north side of U. S. Route 30 at Vintage, two miles west of White Chimneys. Matthias SLAREMAKER was naturalized Oct. 14, 1729. There is a transcription (NOT a photocopy) of the document in its entirety (2 pages). The document reads, in part: WHEREAS, ... divers Protestants, who were subjects to the Eemperor of Germany, a Prince in amity with the Crown of Great Britain, transported themselves and estates into the province of Pennsylvania, between the years one thousand seven hundred, and one thousand seven hundred and eighteen; and since they came hither have contributed very much to the enlargement of the British Empire ... BE IT ENACTED That ... Matthias SLAREMAKER* ... be, and shall be to all intents and purposes deemed, taken, and esteemed, His Majesty's natural born subjects of this province of Pennsylvania ... *There is a footnote which says, "The name was originally in German SCHLEIERMACHER." (p. 417-8) BIOGRAPHY: "Mathias Slaymaker, (originally in German Schleiermacher,) the ancestor of the family in this County, was a naive of Strasburg, Germany, and emigrated to this country about the year 1710. He and his family settled on a tract of about 1,000 acres, known as the "London Lands," situated in Strasburg, now Paradise, township, which he purchased from a company called the "London Company," and built a log house or cabin close to a large spring on the farm, and near the residence of the late Wm. Eckert, in said Paradise township; a large portion of the said 1,000 acre tract being still in the name. He left two brothers in Germany, one of whom, a clergyman, was Secretary of Legation from his government to the Court of St. James; afterwards Charge d'Affaires to the same place. The other was a major in the King of Prussia's tall regiment. Matthias Slaymaker had an excellent German education, and in person was remarkable for his almost gigantic stature and great strength, as were also his sons, which qualities in those primitive times commended them to their neighbors, and won the respect of the Indians, who were then numerous in the neighborhood. He gave the name to Strasburg township, and contributed greatly towards the permanent settlement and improvement of the County, which was then "back-woods," and inhabited by Indian tribes. He died at an advanced age, and lies buried at the old Leacock Presbyterian church, in Leacock township, which has been the burying-ground of almost all his numerous descendants for six generations. He left five sons, Lawrence, Matthias, John, Henry and Daniel; and two daughters, Margaret and Barbara." - Biographical History of Lancaster County Pennsyvania Mathias SLAYMAKER, 1762 Lancaster County Will Book C; Vol 1 Page 43 Mathias Slaymaker deceased In the Name of God Amen the twenty fifth Day of November in the Year of our Lord one Thousand seven hundred Sixty two. I Mathias Slaymaker of [Stras]burg Township Lancaster County province of Pennsylvania yeoman being very sick and weAR in Body but of Perfect mind and memory, thanks be given unto God therefore. Calling to mind the [Mortality] of my Body and knowing that it is appointed for all men once to die do make and ordain this my [last] Will and Testament that is to say Principally and first of all I give and recommend my Soul [into] the Hands of God that give it and my Body I recommend it to the Earth to be buried in a Christ like and decent manner nothing doubting but at the General Resurrection to receive the Same again by the mighty power of God and as touching such worldly Estate wherewith God hath been pleased to bless me in this Life I give and dispose of the same in the manner & form following first of all it is my will and I do order it that all my Just debts and funeral Charges be paid and Satisfied Secondly I give and bequeath unto the Heir of my oldest Son Lawrence Slaymaker deceased ten shillings to be levied out of my Estate Thirdly I will and bequeath unto my Daughter Margaret one hundred pounds to be levied out of my Estate one year after my decease Fourthly I will and bequeath unto my Daughter Barbara the Sum of one Hundred pounds which she received from me at Sundry times and ten shillings more to be levied out of my Estate Fifthly I will and bequeath unto my Son Mathias Slaymaker all that Messuage or Tract of Land that now he respectively dwells upon and the Sum of ten shillings to be levied out of my Estate Sixthly I will and bequeath in like manner aforesaid unto my two sons John & Henry Slaymaker the Lands they respectively dwell on and ten shillings each of them to be levied out of my Estate Finally I will and bequeath unto my Youngest Son Dan[ ] Slaymaker all the remainder of my Estate real & personal and do constitute and appoint him to Execute this my last Will and Testament and I do hereby utterly disallow revoke and dis[ ] all and every other former Testaments Wills or Legacys & Executors by me in any wise before this time named willed and bequeathed ratifying & Confirming this and no other to be my last Will and Testament In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand & seal the day & year above written Mathias [ ] Slaymaker /seal/ Signed Sealed published pronounced by me the said Mathias Slaymaker to be my last Will and Testament William White John Liggit Proved: Lancaster County fs On the Eighteenth Day of December Anno Domine 1762 Leacock Presbyterian Church, situated on the Old Road, about fifteen miles east of Lancaster City, was incorporated March 10, 1787, by act of General Assembly of Pennsylvania. Trustees in said act of incorporation were Rev. N.W. Semple, James Mercer, John Craig, John Slaymaker, Geo. McIlvaine, Henry Slaymaker, Jr., Wm. Porter, Wm. Crayton and James Cooper. The following Slaymakers have served as elders in this church: Henry Slaymaker, Henry Slaymaker, Jr., Daniel Slaymaker, John Slaymaker, William Slaymaker, Samuel Slaymaker, Captain John Slaymaker, Nathaniel E. Slaymaker, and Amos Slaymaker. Adjoining the church is the graveyard, which has been and still is used as a burial place by many of the descendants of Mathias Slaymaker and is his own resting place. The church was started in the early part of 1700.
|