The hartsfield family

Jurian Hartsfelder and His Germantown Connection

Jurian’s associations with Germantown reflect a new, interesting and brief phase of his career. His original Hartsfeld tract was within four or five miles of the area later selected by Penn for Germantown and there was an old Indian path meandering through Jurian’s land which later became the Germantown Road leading from Philadelphia to Germantown. Even so, it is a curious fact that the warrants for the laying out of Germantown mention Jurian’s name almost as prominently as they mention the name of Francis Daniel Pastorius, the founder of the town.

Records of the initial land grants for Germantown show that there were three warrants:

The first granted by virtue of these warrants 12th day of eighth month 1683… for the laying out of six thousand acres of land unto Daniel Pastorius in behalf of the German and Dutch purchasers… The second dated the fourteenth day of the twelfth month 1683 to lay out unto the said Daniel Pastorius for himself one hundred and fifty acres of land and the third dated the twentieth and fifth day of the second month 1684 to lay out unto Jurian Hartsfielder for himself one hundred and fifty acres.²³

The actual survey of the tract included only 5,700 acres instead of the 6,000 originally intended:

Which five thousand seven hundred acres of land was laid out by the Surveyor Generalls order the second day of the third month 1684 five thousand three hundred and fifty acres laid out to the said Daniel Pastorius in trust and in behalf of the said German and Dutch Purchasers And two hundred acres whereof unto the said Daniel Pastorius for himself and the remaining One hundred and fifty acres unto Jurian Hartsfelder for himself.²⁴

It is interesting to speculate as to the reason why Jurian Hartsfelder, alone among the previous inhabitants of the Delaware River area, was singled out by Penn for a grant of land within Germantown. Was Penn honoring a claim to land within the area previously staked out by Jurian? Had Jurian rendered some special services to the first Crefelders who arrived in 1683? Did Jurian, a native of Germany, find in the Germantown settlement an opportunity to live again among his native folk? Was Penn’s Germantown grant to Jurian simply an attempt to compensate for encroachments upon lands in Jurian’s possession when the northern boundary of Philadelphia was laid out?

An affirmative answer to the last of these queries is probably correct. In laying out the boundaries of Philadelphia Penn’s commissioners seem to have been uncertain as to the lower boundary of Jurian’s land.²⁵ Possibly the recognition of Hartsfielder’s “Old Rights” to 100 acres, which was acknowledged on the 25th 2nd mo. 1684, and the issuance of a warrant for 150 acres in Germantown on the same date were intended to compensate Jurian for encroachment on his land in the laying out of Philadelphia. Be this as it may, shortly after Jurian’s death the commissioners ordered a re-survey of his Andros grant of 350 acres. The tract was re-surveyed and found to contain 245 acres of over plus land. No mention was made of Jurian’s additional survey and warrant for an additional 100 acres.²⁶

Jurian did not live to take advantage of his Germantown grant. Pastorius’ Grund-und-Laqer-Buch shows that on the 29th of December, 1687, an area of 2,750 acres was laid out and surveyed in Germantown. His list of those for whom lots were laid out “On the East Side” includes no Hartzfelder name, but the list of the twenty-six persons for whom lots were laid out “On the West Side” includes the following names listed in the order of their lots:

Cornelius Sicerdts

Hans Peter Umstat

Peter Schumacher

Jacob Tellner

Georg Hartzfelder – original purchaser – 75 acres

Clans Tamson

Hanns Milan

Henrick Frey now widow Zimmermans.²⁷

It is obvious from this that half of Jurian’s 150 acre Germantown grant was laid out for him. It may be surmised that he intended to take up the other half when the remainder of Germantown would be laid out in the projected villages of Krissheim, Sommerhausen and Crefeld.

The document containing the Germantown grant of 150 acres to Jurian along with that of 200 for Pastorius was recorded on the 26th 2nd mo. 1689, but at that time Jurian was either near death or had already died. Pastorius’ map of Germantown drawn in 1688 gives evidence of this. On this 1688 map Pastorius lists the owners of lots in the order in which they were shown in the survey of December 29, 1687, the list showing change of name in the few instances in which lots of original grantees had been subsequently assigned to others. On this 1688 map the name of Andres Griskum (Kriskum) appears where George Hartzfelder’s should occur. A note written in German script on the map by Pastorius states:

Jacob Tellner …

ditto nach vyn losh …

andriss grisskum dit°^:

so Habt vor georges Hartz

felder soo beim Sterben

nach Krefelder ist.²⁸

This indicates that Jurian’s lot was returned to the Krefelders because Jurian was near death and it was granted to Griskum.

Jurian Hartsfielder’s last deed may also be indicative of his approaching death for it not only records his sale of a 100 acre tract to Daniel Pegg but also confers on Patrick Robinson of Philadelphia power of attorney to effect delivery of the tract to Pegg. The deed was made “nineteenth day of the tweflth month February being the fifth of the Reign of Our Sovreign Lord James the Second of England King Anno Dominin 1688-89.” It refers to Jurian as “Georgius Hartsfielder of the County of Philadelphia in the Province of Pennsylvania in America Yeoman,” and it records the sale for one hundred pounds of “One hundred Acres of Land next to the Creek Called Oxen.”²⁹

From this description one might suppose that this was the same 100 acres that Jurian had originally reserved for Andreas Johnson, but Andreas and his son Paul had already sold six acres of that tract.³⁰ Moreover, the fact that in 1679 Upland Court had granted Jurian 100 acres in addition to his Andros grant, which was surveyed for him in 1680, and that his right to this 100 acres had been acknowledged in 1684 makes it evident that it was this latter tract rather than the Andreas Johnson tract that was sold to Pegg. The wording of the indenture confirms this interpretation:

He the said Georgius Hartsfielder Hath given granted aliened bargained sold enfeoffed and confirmed and by these Presents Doth Absolutely give grant alien bargain sell enfeoff and confirm to the said Daniel Pegg his Heirs and Assigns All that his the said Georgius Hartsfielder his one hundred Acres of Land next to the Creek Called Oxen with all the Rights Members Improvements and Appurtenances and the Reversions Remainder Rents and Profits thereof and all the Estate Right Title Interest Use Possession Property Claim and Demand whatsoever of the said Jurian Hartsfielder in and to the said Premises and All Deeds Grants Charters Letters Patents escryts and Other Evidences Writings Concerning the said Premises onlie or Onlie any Part thereof Concerning the said Premises in Conjunction with other Lands all which are situated and being in the said County and are now in Possession of the said Georgius Hartsfielder by virtue of a Patent of the same and several Other Lands therein Contained granted to the said Georgius Hartsfielder by Edmund Andros Esqr. Dated the twentieth and fifth Day of March 1676 and entered in the Office of Records at New York…³¹

Although this indenture specifically refers to the Andros grant, it also specifies “in Conjunction with other Lands.” It is this latter phrase which proves that Jurian was here selling a one hundred acre tract adjacent to his Andros grant.

Jurian’s grant of a power of attorney is shown in this part of the indenture:

And this Indenture further witnesseth that the said Georgius Hartsfielder hath constituted and freely doth constitute Patrick Robinson Resident in Philadelphia his Attorney to enter in and upon the said Land or into and upon the said Land or into and upon Any Part thereof in the name of the whole… and in my name and sted to deliver over unto the said Daniel Pegg or his certain attorney by delivery to them of Turff and Twigg of the said Land and by the Laths of the house thereon being To Hold to him the said Daniel Pegg and his Heirs To the only use of him and his Heirs forever…³²

The recorded version of this deed indicates that it was signed by George Heitzfielder, Seal, and witnessed by John Claypool and Thomas Smith. The Heitzfielder here is obviously a recorder’s error for throughout the deed the name is Hartsfielder.

Beneath the record of the deed there is record of a receipt for 100 pounds given the same day “by me Georgius Hartsfielder.” The receipt was witnessed by John Claypool and Thomas Smith.

It is a curious fact that although there was much litigation over this property a few years later involving Daniel Pegg, the heirs of Thomas Smith, and the city of Philadelphia, this deed was not mentioned. It must have been lost for it was not recorded until 1735.

3.