HISTORY OF BUCKS COUNTY 



297 



town, .where the original thirteen fami- 

 lies from Crefeld had already formed a 

 settlement, and receive from Herman 

 Op den Graef 200 acres of land upon 

 which he was to erect a dwelling and 

 pay therefore two rix dollars. This old 

 agreement and the deed for the land is 

 recorded in German at Philadelphia and 

 has been seen by the writer. He em- 

 barked in the "Frances & Dorothy," 

 with his son Peter, daughters, Mary, 

 Frances, and Gertrude, and the widow of 

 his cousin, Sarah Shoemaker and her 

 children, and arrived at Germantown, 

 October 12, 1685. He at once became 

 one of the active men of the youthful 

 colony, and is frequently mentioned in 

 the old annals of Germantown. He was 

 an active member of the Society of 

 Friends, and ^one of the signers of the 

 certificate to the Meeting at London in 

 1695 for Samuel Jennings, who carried 

 the protest of Pennsylvania Friends 

 against the schism of George Keith. He 

 died in Germantown in 1707, aged 

 eighty-five years. His daughter Frances 

 married John Jacob Van Bebber, and 

 another daughter married Rynier Her- 

 man von Barkelow and removed to Bo- 

 hemia Manor, Maryland. A grandson 

 Martin Kolb accompanied him from 

 Germany and has left numerous de- 

 scendants. 



Peter Shoemaker, Jr., born at Kreig- 

 sheim, accompanied his father and sis- 

 ters to Germantown in 1685 and became 

 one of the prominent men of the colony, 

 filling the office of burgess of German- 

 town in 1696, 1704 and 1707, and many 

 other positions of trust. He was one of 

 the committee appointed December 30, 

 1701, to organize a school at German- 

 town, erect a school house and arrange 

 for a teacher. Through his efforts 

 Francis Daniel Pastorius was induced to 

 take charge of the school and it became 

 one of the famous institutions of the 

 infant province. Peter, Jr., was like his 

 father a carpenter or "Turner," and had 

 a part in the erection of most of the 

 •early buildings in Germantown. He was 

 a prominent member of the Society of 

 Friends, and was frequently the repre- 

 sentative of his meeting in quarterly 

 and yearly meetings. He married, at 

 Germantown Meeting, 2 mo. 6, 1697, 

 Margaret Op den Graef, daughter of 

 Herman Op den Graef, one of three 

 brothers who were among the first thir- 

 teen families to settle Germantown in 

 October, 1683. He was a native of Cre- 

 feld on the Lower Rhine, and a son of 

 Isaac and grandson of Herman Op den 

 Graef, who was born at Alderkerk, No- 

 vember 26, 1585, and died at Crefeld, De- 

 cember 27, 1642. He was a delegate to 

 the Mennonite council at Dordrecht in 

 1632 that formulated the creed of that 

 sect. Herman Op den Graef and his 

 "brothers were the authors of the famous 

 protest against human slavery presented 



to Germantown Meeting in 1688 and by 

 them forwarded to the Quarterly and 

 Yearly Meetings of the Society. It was 

 the first protest of its kind ever formu- 

 lated in America. Peter Shoemaker died 

 at Germantown, 4 mo. i, 1741, and his 

 widow Margaret on 7 mo. 14, 1748. They 

 were the parents of ten children, as fol- 

 lows: r. Sarah, born 5 mo. 22, 1698, mar- 

 ried Daniel Potts; 2. Mary, born 7 mo. 

 15, 1701, married Thomas Phipps; 3. 

 Margaret, born 6 mo. 8, 1704, married 

 Benjamin Masin; 4. Peter, born 6 mo. 



8, 1706; 5. Daniel, born 11 mo. 14, 1709; 

 6. Isaac, born i mo. 15, 171 1, see for- 

 ward; 7. Elizabeth, born 11 mo. 6, 1713. 

 married Joseph Davis; 8. Agnes, born 3 

 mo. 9, 1716, married William Hallowell; 



9. John, born 6 mo. 30, 1718; 10. Samuel, 

 born 6 mo. 13, 1720, died young. 



Isaac Shoemaker, son of Peter and 

 Margaret, born at Germantown, March 

 15, 1711, on arriving at manhood settled 

 in Upper Dublin township, Philadelphia 

 (now Montgomery) county, where he 

 purchased a tract of land and followed 

 the life of a farmer. He was a member 

 of Abington Meeting and took a cer- 

 tificate from there to Philadelphia 

 Monthly Meeting, 5 mo. 27, 1741. to 

 marry Hannah Roberts, daughter of John 

 Roberts, of Philadelphia. They were 

 members of Horsham Meeting at its or- 

 ganization. Isaac and Hannah (Rob- 

 erts) Shoemaker were the parents of 

 thirteen children, as follows: Margaret, 

 born 10 mo. 3, 1742, died unmarried in 

 1788; Peter, born 4 mo. 12, 1744, married 

 Hannah Norman; Elizabeth, born 4 mo. 

 23, 1748, married John Letchworth; 

 Martha, born 7 mo. 14, 1750, married 

 Jonathan Shoemaker; Daniel, born 12 

 mo. 9, 1752, married Phebe Walton, 

 daughter of Thomas, of Byberry; Isaac, 

 born 10 mo. 29, 1754; James, born 10 

 mo. 13, 1757. see forward; Rachel, born 

 3 mo. 26, 1759; David, born 6 mo. 15, 

 1761; Hannah and Mary, born 3 mo. 9, 

 1764; Thomas, born 3 mo. 22, 1766, and 

 Rebecca, born 4 mo. 29, 1769. 



James Shoemaker, seventh child of 

 Isaac and Hannah, born in Upper Dub- 

 lin, 10 mo. 13. 1757, was a farmer and 

 lived all his life in Upper Dublin. He 

 married in Horsham Meeting house, 6 

 mo. I, 1781, Phebe Walton, daughter of 

 William and Phebe (Atkinson) Walton, 

 the original certificate of the marriage 

 engraved on parchment, as well as that 

 of the marriage of William Walton and 

 Phebe Atkinson, which was solemnized 

 at the same place, 9 mo. 26, 1741, are in 

 the possession of the subject of this 

 sketch. William Walton, father of 

 Phebe Shoemaker, was a resident of 

 Moreland, and a son of Jeremiah and 

 Elizabeth (Walmsley) Walton, of By- 

 berry. William Walton, father of Jere- 

 miah, was one of the four Walton broth- 

 ers who landed at New Castle in 1675 

 and subsequently located in Byberry. He 



