Christman Family Tree

Early Christman Ancestors in Pennsylvania


Jacob Christman was born in 1711 in Würtemburg, a former German state. The region is a part of the present-day state of Baden-Würtemburg, whose capital is Stuttgart. To the northwest, also along Germany's present-day border with France is the state Rhineland-Palatinate (Rhenish Palatinate), whose capital is Mainz. These lands often saw territorial and religious conflict.


Immigration
This Province has been for some years the asylum of the distressed Protestants of the Palatinate and other parts of Germany; and I believe it may with truth be said that the present flourishing condition of it is in great measure owing to the Industry of those people; and should any discouragement divert them from coming hither, it may well be apprehended that the value of your Lands will fall, and your Advances to wealth be much slower; for it is not altogether the goodness of the soil, but the Number and Industry of the People that make a flourishing Country.

Governor George Thomas 1738

In the late Seventeenth Century, during the War of the Grand Alliance (1689-97), Louis XIV's troops ravaged this region, beginning the flood of early German settlers to America (the Pennsylvania Dutch). Eventually, during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, some of the region would be incorporated into France. Portions would change hands again following every major conflict since. Part of the problem was Catholic-Protestant religious conflict - the Rhenish Palatine was a center of the German Reformation.

Although life in the Palatine was undoubtedly unsettled around 1736, it does not appear to have been a time of crisis. So, the reasons for Jacob Christman's decision to emigrate can only be speculated. But it is known that, in the period between 1728 and 1751, agents (known as Neulaenders) for passenger ships swarmed the Palatine looking to fill orders for ship-owners. Those who were convinced by the sales pitches to emigrate often did not have the money to pay for their passage or "grub stake." In many cases, they "sold themselves" to the ship's owner as Redemptioners before they embarked. Upon arrival at Philadelphia, a Redemptioner was sold at public auction (typically for £10) and entered servitude to the buyer for 5-10 years.

The fact is that Jacob Christman left from Rotterdam, via Cowes, to America in that year aboard the ship Princess Augustus, Samuel Merchant, Master3. The ship arrived in the port of Philadelphia on September 16, 1736. The Master's report states that the number of "Palatines with their families" is "in all 330." There listed is Jacob Christman, age 25. Jacob Christman appeared at the Court House in Philadelphia, where he took the oaths required of all immigrants, and, on all documents, he wrote his name Jacob Christman.

Jacob Christman settled with other German immigrants in Upper Milford Township, Northampton County.1 (Northampton County was later partitioned, and the place where Jacob settled would become Lehigh County, as it is known today.) He settled in a place close to the Berks County line known as Sigmund's Furnace. The Jacob Christman Homestead was a land grant executed by Thomas and Richard Penn.

Marriage
It is known that Jacob Christman married Eva Margaret (surname unknown), but no marriage date is recorded. However, their first child was born about 1738; hence it is likely that they were married soon after Jacob's arrival in 1736. However, it is altogether possible that they arrived together, having been married in Germany.

Their Family

Eva Elizabeth (b. c. 1738, d. ?) married Melchior Baer Jr. (b. 6 Jan 1726, d. 2 Feb 1773), a native of Zwiebrücken in the Palatinate. (His body reposes in a small cemetery near the Reformed Church, Zionsville, Lehigh County.) She was considerably younger (16 years) than her husband.4

John George (b. c. 1742, d. Oct 1801). Children were John, George, Philip, Elizabeth, Salome, Catherine, David, Gertrude, Daniel, and Joseph.
Jacob (b. 3 Sep, 1744, d. 13 Nov 1811).
Susanna (b. Jul 1748, d. 22 Jun 1813).
John (b. c. 1750, d. c. 1779)
Philip (b. 18 Aug 1755, d. 19 Jun 1809).
Henry (b. 9 Jul 1758, d. 21 Nov 1842).
Death

The circumstances passed down regarding Jacob's death are tragic. In July 1761, while he "was out in the field on a wagon loaded with hay, he met with an accident by which he lost his life. The horse coming to a gutter refused to cross, when, standing on the loaded wagon, he urged him with a hay-fork which he held in his hand. This caused the horse to take a sudden spring forward, and he was thrown from the wagon upon the fork, one of the prongs of which pierced his heart, resulting in his almost instant death."

There is some confusion regarding a possible remarriage by Eva Margaret after Jacob's death. History of the Counties of Lehigh and Carbon1 reports that Eva Margaret "was married to Francis Wesco, and moved to the house where the widow of the late John Backensto now resides, a short distance north of the borough of Macungie." However, a Christman family history states about the elder daughter of Jacob and Eva Margaret, "Her second husband was a widower, Francis Vescoe, the Huguenot." Were there one or two Francis W(V)escoes?