http://www.members.tripod.com/hmbright/links.htm

THE

PENNSYLVANIA

GENEALOGICAL

MAGAZINE

Before 1948 called

Publications of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania

Volume XXXI

1979

Number 2

Publications Committee

Aubrey H. Baldwin, III. Chairman

Mrs. Winfield S. Weer

Conrad Wilson

Helen Hutchison Woodroofe, Editor

Dr. Don Yoder

Published twice a year.

Contributors

Thomas and Catherine Gorton are a husband and wife combination as the authors of Two Early Hambrights of Lancaster County. They live in Lawrence, Kansas, where Dr. Gorton is Dean Emeritus of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Kansas. Both are musicians. Thomas Gorton holds the Ph. D. degree in music composition from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. His compositions have been performed by leading orchestras, and he has appeared as piano soloist with the St. Louis and Houston symphony orchestras. As a genealogist, he is the author of The Puffett Family. Catherine Urlass Gorton, was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and grew up there. She is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music where she majored in piano. Her mother, Eva Hambright Urlass, was a descendant of Johannes and Henry Hambright.

Mrs. Elsie W. Ernst is a Certified Genealogist and Record Searcher who lives in McLean, Virginia. She kindly contributed the list of Indian Trader Licenses which she uncovered in the Archives of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg.

Lewis D. Cook, a Fellow of this Society, who is now living in California, suggested that we publish The Catalogue of Eighty-Seven Public Friends, which was originally published in Quaker History: The Bulletin of the Friends Historical Association in 1913.

Mrs. Rita Schive Mowrer, who compiled the Genealogical Gleanings from the Lancaster Journal, is a member of the Society’s staff. However, this is just one example of the work she does over and above her regular duties. Her contributions to the collections of the Genealogical Society have been great and varied.

Two Early Hambrights of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Thomas and Catherine Gorton

The First Record Of The Hambrights in the New World is contained in the passenger list of the ship St. Andrew,[1] John Steadman, master, which docked at Philadelphia on 27 October 1738, carrying three hundred passengers from Rotterdam, after a cross-channel rest stop at Cowes on the isle of Wight where clearance for the colonies and a final stocking of fresh provisions had to be obtained.

These immigrants to Pennsylvania, who were all called Palatines regardless of their place of origin, left behind a Germany which had fallen upon hard times. A depression was still gripping the country a hundred years after the Thirty Years War had ended in 1638 with the treaty of Westphalia. The population had severely diminished from thirty million to twenty million and the area was still wracked with a ceaseless succession of wars which continually levied a toll on the able-bodied young men, who were pressed into military service. Many towns were sacked and burned in a succession of French army forays. Fruit trees were cut down, vineyards destroyed. It was not until the end of the Eighteenth Century that the agricultural resources of the area were completely restored.

Privation in the rural areas led to much migration to urban centers, leaving many small villages totally abandoned. The peasants who were left were heavily taxed by landlords arid were charged exorbitant interest for sums to improve their homes and farm equipment.

One report described the feudal conditions: “All the people are owned with their bodies to the lord there, and are obliged to work for him six days in every week, visa-vie three days with a horse, and three days with a hoe, shovel or spade; or he cannot come himself, he must send somebody in his place.[2] A Sixteenth Century rhyme went: “The peasant could take the ox’s place/ Had he but horns above his face.”[3]

The price of farm products fell. It was impossible for a family to get ahead. The small town merchants were hard-hit. Foreign imports from England and France flooded the marketplace, through Dutch traders. The lack of skilled native artisans, coupled with foreign control of the formerly great German ports, reduced business to internal trade.

Small wonder that the hard-pressed Palatines were attracted to William Penn’s invitation to settle in Pennsylvania where the rich virgin lands were cheap and plentiful; where the harvests were abundant; where cattle, sheep, hogs and poultry thrived and fattened; where nature provided a plentitude of game, fish, nuts and grapes. Queen Anne’s government issued in I709 a glowing prospectus in a shrewd political move to counter the French expansion in America by encouraging non-British subjects to colonize the Atlantic seaboard under the British flag, without shrinking the manpower of’ the home islands.

The year 1738 saw one of the great influxes of German pioneers. Sixteen immigrant ships arrived in the port of Philadelphia alone that year.[4] The St. Andrew made four such voyages. The cost of the passage was about the equivalent of six English pounds sterling. Children from five to ten years of age went for half fare, and those under five were carried free. Other costs from home to Rotterdam, both in traveling and for subsistence, added at least another six pounds.

The St. Andrew’s master, Captain Steadman, had a reputation for profiteering because of his practice of over-crowding his ship. Germantown newspaper publisher Christopher Saur complained to Governor Morris: “The love for great gain caused Steadman to lodge the poor passengers like herrings, and as too many had not room between decks, he kept an abundance of them upon deck; and sailing to the Southward, where the people were at once out of their climate, and for want of water and room, became sick and died very fast… This murderous trade made my heart ache, especially, when I heard that there was more profit by their death than by carrying them alive.”[5]

The voyage which ended in Philadelphia on the 27^th of October I738 must have been particularly rigorous, for on that date two physicians, Lloyd Zachary and Theodore Bond, certified to the colonial council: “We have carefully examined the state of health of the marines and passengers on board of the ship St. Andrew, Captain Steadman, from Rotterdam, and found a great number laboring under a malignant, eruptive fever, and are of the opinion they cannot, for some time, be landed in town without the danger of infecting the inhabitants.”[6]

There are triple lists for each ship in the Pennsylvania State Archives in Harrisburg. The masters’ ship lists were not complete. Most of them included only the name of the male passengers above the age of sixteen. A special note was made of any who had died during the passage or were sick upon arrival.

The second list contained the names of males above the age of sixteen who had repeated and subscribed to the Declaration of Allegiance to the colony of Philadelphia. They signed this second list if they could write. If not, their names were written by a clerk and the individuals made their marks.

The third list is an autographed duplicate of the second one, signed in the same way, and bound in book form. This was also an oath of allegiance as well as a forswearing of any tendency toward the Catholic faith. This third list is considered by most authorities to be the most reliable, since it was the result of either a personal signature, or a directly dictated one. There was apparently a charge of two pounds, two shillings for the naturalization proceedings. Immigrants were taken from the harbor to the Philadelphia courthouse to be sworn in as citizens. The three lists for this passage of the St. Andrew[7] show some variants:

Hans Hambreet	Johannes Ambreght	Johannes Hambrecht
Adam Ambright	Adam Hambrecht	Adam Hambrecht
Conrad Ambright	Conrat Hambrecht	Conrad Hambrecht
Viet Hambreght	Fyt Ambreght	Viet Hambrecht

A family genealogist, Floyd Haupt of Provo, Utah, basing his research upon a German family history,[8] surmises that this Conrad was probably the fifth son of Hans Wilhelm Hamprecht, born 20 March 1657, died 3 February 1727, and his wife Anna Barbara Streaner (1659-1753), and grandson of Hans and Margaretha Hamprecht of Neunstetten, Buchen-Baden. The dates would work out appropriately for Conrad to be the father of:

1. Johann Adam Hambright, born 28 April 1711, died 14 February 1793, “age 81 yr. 9 mo. 15d;” married 23 April 1739, Elizabeth Barbara Heil (Heyl), daughter of George Heyl, in Trinity Lutheran Church, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.[9] She was born 18 September 1721, and died 7 April 1788, “age 66 yr. 6 mo. 18d.” They were both buried in the graveyard of Trinity Church and later removed to Woodward Cemetery, Lancaster. Johann Adam was again naturalized 10 Apr 1766.[10] He served in the French & Indian Wars and is mentioned in 1757 in a letter by Joseph Shippen.[11] He removed early to Manheim, Pennsylvania and appears on the provincial tax roll there in 1756 and later. He died intestate in Manheim.

2. Viet Hambrecht, born ca. 1714. No further record after the St. Andrew ship list.

3. John (Johannes, Hans) Hambright, born 3 June 1717, of whom further.

4. Eva Catharine Hambright, born ca. 1720; married Johann Stephan Franckel, 27 March 1739.[12] It was not customary to list females and minors on the ship lists. She was probably aboard the St. Andrew on the same voyage, nevertheless.

5. Heinrich Hambright born 1725, died 29 October 1758. He was listed as a minor in 1738. His tombstone in Lancaster calls him “Sergeant”.

6. Frederick Hambright born 17 May 1727, a minor in 1738. He later was a colonel in the Revolutionary army and hero of the battle of King’s Mountain. He was the progenitor of the North Carolina branch of the Hambrights.

Johannes Hambright of the St. Andrew passenger list, who was born 3 June 1717,[13] soon anglicized his name to John Hambright. He married, before 1744, Elizabeth __________, who was born 30 April 1723 and died 6 June 1802.[14] He had probably received military training in his youth, for soon after war was declared by England against France, 29 March 1745, he was commissioned an Ensign in a regiment commanded by Colonel William Moore, organized in the Chester County townships of East and West Nantmeal, Onchlan, West Caln, and Charlestown, under the name of the “Associators”.[15]

In 1753 Hambright was a member of a posse, according to the minutes of the Pennsylvania Assembly:

A petition (together with several Certificates and a list of Expenses relating to the same) from Richard Richardson, Thomas Jervis, and John Hembright (sic) of this Province, was presented to the House and read, setting forth, that on the first day of August last, a very barbarous and horrid Murder was committed upon the bodies of John Thomas and Eleanor Davis, of Chester County by three Men who were Strangers, and at that time unknown to any person within this Province.[16]

The account continues, relating how “Hembright”, et al. traveled through several counties of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia and finally apprehended the culprits and their accessories. Their petition asked for the reward money. This, however, in the amount of forty pounds, was granted to one Patrick Kearnes, who was strongly suspected by the petitioners as “being, in all Probability, concerned as an Accessory in the Aforesaid Murder.” The petitioners were awarded a mere twenty-five pounds for their expenses.

On 22 August of the same year Hambright’s name again appears in the minutes of the provincial Assembly in connection with “Expenses on sundry Indians on their Journey to Philadelphia about August 1755.”[17] Among eleven line items were the following:

To John Hambright, at the White Horse	0	19	0
To an Account for Dinner, Rum, and Wine	1	6	10
To Joseph Bishop, for Dinners for 42 Indians and Cyder for Ditto	1	0	0

After the defeat of Braddock and Washington by the French in 1755, the whole wilderness area of frontier Pennsylvania from Juniata to Shamokin became a hunting ground for gangs of hostile Indians who pitilessly burned the settlers’ cabins and scalped their families. The provincial government established a series of forts on the frontier to cope with the marauders. Hambright was assigned to one of the most important, Fort Augusta, at the junction of the upper Susquehanna and the West Branch, adjacent to the Indian village of Shamokin, where a Moravian mission had been maintained from 1747 to 1755, the site of present day Sunbury. The fort was built on the plan of Fort Duquesne and was even larger. It was considered an important stronghold and the most active trading post of the Pennsylvania frontier, since the upper Susquehanna had its source in the heart of Six Nations country.

Ten years earlier the Reverend David Brainerd had visited Shamokin. An entry in his journal dated 13 September 1745 is as follows:[18]

After having lodged out three nights, I arrived at the Indian town I aimed at on the Susquehanna, called Shaumoking….. I was kindly received and entertained by the Indians; but had little satisfaction, by reason of the heathenish dance and revel they then held in the house where I was obliged to Iodge - which I could not suppress, though I often entreated them to desist, for the sake of one of their friends who was then sick in the house and whose disorder was much aggravated by the noise. Alas how destitute of natural affection are these poor uncultivated pagans! Although they seem somewhat kind in their own way…..About one-half of its inhabitants are Delawares, the others called Senekas and Tuletas. The Indians of this place are accounted the most drunken, mischievous, and ruffian-like fellows of any in these parts, and Satan seems to have his seat in this town in an eminent manner.

John Hambright, now a Captain, was assigned to the Third Battalion, later known as the Augusta Regiment, under Major James Burd, who had engineered the first road west from Chambersburg through the mountains. Senior to Captain Hambright was Burd’s brother-in-law, Captain Joseph Shippen, whose fifty folios of military letters forms an invaluable resource for historians of the French and Indian Wars. He frequently mentions Captain Hambright. Commanding the entire regiment of eight companies was the blustery Lieutenant Colonel William Clapham, whom Shippen described as “cold and indifferent” and was concerned by Clapham “want of friendship”.

The Shippens were a wealthy, powerful family, corresponding to the Lees of Virginia. The merchant Edward Shippen became mayor of Philadelphia. He had one daughter, Sarah, who married James Burd, and two sons, Edward, Jr. and Joseph. Edward Shippen Jr. was the lather of the glamorous Peggy Shippen who was wooed and won by Benedict Arnold in Lancaster. One can imagine the rather uncomfortable position of Captain John Hambright with the two brothers-in-law, Captain Joseph Shippen and Major James Burd both in positions of authority over him, and in command of the whole scene, the bumbling, fractious Clapham.

The activities of Captain Hambright were typical of the frontier Indian fighter. On 5 October 1756 he accompanied Colonel Clapham to Carlisle to meet Governor Robert Morris. A month later, on 4 November, he received the following, rather bloodthirsty orders from the colonel:[19]

Sir:

You are to march with a party of two sergeants, two corporals, and 38 private men under your command, to attack, burn and destroy Indian town or towns, with their inhabitants, on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, to which Monsieur Montour will conduct you whose advice you are directed to pursue. In every case you are to attack the town agreeable to the plan & disposition herewith given you, observing to intermix the men with bayonets equally among the three parties in the attack, and if any Indians are found there, you are to kill, scalp, and captivate as many as you can: & if no Indians are there, you are to endeavor to act in such a manner & with such caution as to prevent the discovery of your having been there, by any party that may shortly arrive after you, for which reason you are strictly forbidden to burn, take away, destroy, meddle with any things found at such places; and immediately dispatch M Montour, with one or two more to me with intelligence. When on come near a place of action, you are to detach M. Montour with as many men as he shall judge necessary to reconnoiter the parts, and to wait in concealment in the meantime with your whole party till his return; then to form your measures accordingly. Alter having burnt & destroyed the town, you are in your retreat to post an officer & 15 men in ambush, close by the wood side, at the most convenient place for such purpose which may offer, at about 12 miles distance from the place of action, who are to surprise & cut off any party who may attempt to pursue or happen to be engaged in hunting thereabouts, & at the same time, secure the retreat of your main body.

It is very probable on these moonlight nights you will find them engaged in dancing, in which case, embrace that opportunity by all means, of attacking them, which you are not to attempt at a greater distance than 20 or 25 yards; & be particularly careful to prevent the escape of women arid children, whose lives, humanity will direct to preserve as much as possible. If it does not happen that you find them dancing, the attack is to be made in the morning, just at such a season when you have light enough to execute it, in which attempt your party is to march to the several houses, and bursting open the doors, to rush in at once. Let the signal for the general attack, be the discharge of one firelock, in the centre division.

If there are no Indians at the Several Towns, you are in such case to proceed to Fort Duquesne, there to lye in Ambush, and to intercept any Party or Partys of the Enemy on the march to or from the English Settlements and there remain with that Design till the want of Provisions obliges you to return.

I wish you all imaginable Success, of which the Opinion I have of yourself, the Officers and Party under your Command, leave me no Room to doubt.

I am Sir,

Your Humble Servant

William Clapham

Given at Fort Augusta, Nov. 4^th, 1756 to Capt. Hambright, Commander of a detachment from Colonel Clapham’s Regiment.

There is no record available as to whether Captain Hambright and his company were able to pounce upon Indians dancing in the moonlight. On 9 December 1756 he received a furlough; Major Burd’s journal notes that Hambright’s quarters were fixed up and had been plastered by the time of his return on Christmas Day. The repairs must have been welcome if Major Burd’s description of the climate and of the officer’s quarters at Fort Augusta is not exaggerated:[20]

Capt. Shippen and I sleep in your room upstairs, which I think is the coldest climate I ever was in, there’s a gentle gale comes often down the West Branch over the wall of the fort that I sometimes expect will sever your upper story from your under, it’s really a charming place for any person that loves the free air there has been no possibility of plastering of it, otherwise I should have stopt 10,000 million of air holes of no trifling size.

Hambright’s colleague, Captain Joseph Shippen, shows more than a trace of peevishness in this letter to his brother:[21]

Lancaster, 31 May 1757

Capt. Hambright has had better success that day when all the Capts came to town to wait on the Governor he enlisted 12 or 13 of our discharged Dutch men, by assuring them that they were not to go to Shamokin, nor do any kind of work but to range and scour the woods continually, this pleased them so much that they have been endeavoring to persuade all their countrymen they meet with to enlist with Capt. Hambright by which means I believe he has now 30 recruits himself he left this town 10 days ago since which I have not heard from him.

But his brother together with 10 or 12 of his men recruits here and gives every man a dollar besides a Pistole, which I can’t afford to do unless the Commissioners would allow it, so no Body recruits upon the same footing with Capt. Hambright & so can’t expect equal success.

A week later, on 7 June, his irritation continues to show!

There are several of Capt. Hambright’s recruits in & about the Town whom I ordered to hold themselves in readiness to march with Mr. Morgan, but they are such a parcel of Mutinous Dutch Rascals that several of them refuse to go without their own Captain, who they say ordered them to stay here till he came to town, others say they have not got their Cloathes or anything ready for march being but newly enlisted others of them say they did not enlist to go to Shamokin nor to be commanded by anybody but Capt. Hambright. I have threatened them several times to confine them in Goal & have them every soul of them punished for Mutiny. But all will not do, they seem determined to act as they please. I have therefore concluded it most prudent to have nothing more to say to them as it might hurt the recruiting service but leave them till Capt. Hambright comes here from Philadelphia. I expect in 2 or 3 days, & then I suppose he will march up all recruits himself….. I hear he has enlisted 50 or 60 in all.

Capt. Shippen noted 16 June that “Capt. Hambright was ordered to Harris’s, site of Harrisburg, to march 60 men up Fort Augusta” and then on 24 June, in a letter to Captain Thomas Lloyd, mentioned that “Capt. Hambright set of from Hunters on Tuesday morning with the Battoes (Bateaux) for Augusta, where I suppose they will arrive to Night.’’ No sooner had the captain arrived with his “battoes” at Fort Augusta than he was in the thick of action again, as reported by Captain Shippen in a letter to Captain David Jameson.

29 June 1757

Mr. Clark writes me from Harris that on Thursday last the Cattle Guard at Augusta, consisting of a Serjt, Corporal, and 12 men, were fired at near the Spring by a number of Indians, when 4 of our men were killed and 5 wounded; two of them were scalped..... A party from the fort supposed the number of Indians were 40. The Major had intelligence that about 60 warriors were seen 60 miles up the North Branch, he has sent Capt. Hambright and Patterson with a pretty large party in quest of them.

In a letter to his father on 12 December Captain Shippen is dissatisfied with Capt. Hambright’s failure to provide Christmas cheer:

Last night Capt. Hambright arrived here with the Battoes and brought 50 barrels of flour, but no Rum for the Garrison, a Necessary Article for the Soldiers, especially at this Season.

In May 1758, Hambright was posted at a Troop of Light Horse to join Forbes’ expedition against Fort Duquesne (now Pittsburgh) and his ability came to the attention of General Henry Bouquet.[22]

Of all the British commanders who served Pennsylvania in colonial days, none made as deep an impression as Bouquet, a Swiss soldier-of-fortune, who eventually became a naturalized Pennsylvanian.

In a letter to General Forbes, from Carlisle dated 7 June 1758, General Bouquet wrote:

We got 98 horses yesterday which are better or, rather, not so bad as I was expecting. Today they are divided into two troops. I hope that Captain Hambright will have one of them. He is the most suitable man in America for that commission.

In another letter to Captain Joseph Shippen dated 9 June, general Bouquet states:

The men droughted for the Light Horse will be divided into two companies; one of these companies to be sent up towards Raystown as soon as completely fitted out, the other to stay at Carlisle.

On the 30^th of June, St. Clair wrote to Bouquet from Carlisle:

I am sending Captain Hambright with a troop of horse who have 38 wagons under his escort. You’ll find that troop poorly equipt, but I find the Commissioners are resolved to do nothing…

Although the peace treaty was not signed with the French until 1760, hostilities on the Pennsylvania frontier had subsided by late 1759. Captain Hambright, with most of the Augusta Regiment, was demobilized and free to return to his wife and three young children. No doubt he was saddened by the news that his youngest son, Joseph, had died in the spring. On 10July 1762 he received a grant of 250 acres in Cumberland County as a veteran’s benefit.

Hambright soon established himself as a leading citizen of Lancaster with his brewery on East Orange Street, a property which he had acquired from Bernard Hubley before the war. He was actively engaged in real estate transactions, more than a dozen deeds being listed in his name from 1759 to 1778.

In August 1762 two powerful Delaware chiefs, Shingas and Beaver, asked for a conference with Governor Hamilton of Pennsylvania to negotiate the return of prisoners. A number of other Indian sagamores appeared for what Lily Lee Nixon, author of James Burd, Frontier Defender,[23] calls “one of the most important Indian conferences ever held in Pennsylvania,’’ since a treaty was concluded which cancelled all Indian claims to lands on the Delaware in return for which the provincial government agreed to reserve land in the Wyoming Valley for the Shawnee tribe, an agreement which was soon broken by the white man, with tragic results.

According to colonial records[24] this conference was held in Lancaster at John Hambright’s on 22 August 1762 and it is noted that “goods intended as presents to the Six Nations (were) ordered to be taken to Lancaster to John Hambright’s malt house, and Sunday morning August 29, 1762, the time set to meet the Indians there.”

John Hambright and his fellow Lancastrians were not finished with the Indian problems. Bloody Indian raids on outlying areas flared again and the settlers, mostly Scotch Presbyterians, became angered not only by their aboriginal enemies, but also by the failure of the Quaker-dominated government to take action toward protecting them.

On 14 December 1763 a band of irate settlers rode into Conestoga Manor, near the town of Paxton, and murdered six Indians who were living under the protection of the government. Two days later the Paxton boys, as they were called, raided Lancaster and slaughtered the remaining fourteen Conestoga Indians who had sought safety in the Lancaster workhouse. Early in February two hundred of the Paxton Boys, heavily armed, began to march on Philadelphia to get at more Indians sheltered there. Philadelphia, alarmed, mobilized several militia companies to protect the city. In order to prevent bloodshed they sent Benjamin Franklin and several others to negotiate. They were successful, promising prompt action if the Paxtonians would return home and write out a list of their grievances. This they did, and the governor and assembly promptly let the matter drop. Thus ended the Paxton Rebellion.

The repercussions did not end there, however. The presses were humming with pamphlets, some denouncing the Paxton boys and some defending the massacre as an act of righteous retribution. One of the Indians killed at Lancaster was the notorious Billy Soc, and John Hambright was called upon on 28 February 1764 to testify concerning Soc’s suspicious actions.

In 1777 Hambright was elected Councillor of’ Northumberland Township [Sunbury], where he received a grant of 400 acres five years later, probably in recognition of his military service.

In 1778 he became a member of the Supreme Executive Council of the Pennsylvania Assembly, representing Lancaster County. This was a powerful group consisting of only six men: Joseph Reed, the President of the Assembly; Vice-President William Moore; a Mr. Gardner; a Mr. Arnd; a Mr. Thompson and Hambright. The Council conducted the province’s official business, with much of it related to the prosecution of the War of Independence. Hambright apparently served for several years in this key position.²⁴

In 1781 he returned to Lancaster as commandant of the army post and the prisoner-of-war barracks. His administration was praised in a letter from William Allen to President Joseph Reed on 25 May 1781.[25]

…..Captain Hambright our Barrack Master, by whose care & industry the Barracks here are placed in pretty good order, and I am confident he has gone the cheapest way to work in executing the business, having employed the Prisoners themselves in doing several parts of the work, his knowledge of the Farmers, and influence with them, has been a means of our having supplies of wood and other necessaries…..

On 25 July 1781, Captain Hambright wrote to President Reed about his problems and asked for increased financial support;[26]

Sir:- On Monday last the wagon with the ammunition and Clothing for Northumberland arrived here.

This Daye our Barracks are made thiner by sending off such of the Convintion Troops as are fit to Remove. The prisoners of Warr Still Remain there. A great number of them are sick, and as many of the sick of the Convintion Troops Remain behind. Mr. Atlee, the Comissary of Prisoners at this post, hath applied to me to fit up for an Hospital an Old Stable which is near the Stockade, and not far Distant from the Guard House. It is Really necessary that some place be set apart for an Hospital that we may get Rid of this fatal Disorder which Rages among the Prisoners, & this might be put in order for that purpose at a small expense…..

I am, sir with great Respect, Your most obetiend Servant, John Hambright

The veteran Indian fighter died 7 July 1782, five days after his 65^th birthday, and was buried in Trinity Lutheran Church graveyard. His wife Elizabeth outlived him by twenty years and was buried in the First Reformed Church cemetery. She is noted, however, as “Elizabeth Hambright, Lutheran” in the records of that church. Their children:

1. Margaretta Hambright, born 30 May 1745; married September 1763, John Musser.26

2. John Hambright, born 14 May 1749, died 31 July 1806;[27] married Susannah Grosch, daughter of Johannes and Elizabeth Grosch, on 4 April 1777 in St. James Episcopal Church, Lancaster. She was born 9 December 1755 and died 11 March 1814. They were both interred in Trinity Lutheran Church cemetery and later removed to Woodward Hill Cemetery. An obituary note describes John as a “good church member”. A cordwainer, and a veteran of the Revolutionary War, he was promoted from Private 4^th Class to Sergeant Major in the Lancaster County Militia in 1778 and later that year was appointed 2 June as Ensign of the 10^th Regiment of the Pennsylvania Line. On 12 April 1779 he was appointed Lieutenant of Marines on board the ship General Greene by action of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania while his father was a member of that body. John Hambright is listed in the federal census of 1790 and 1800 as a resident of Lancaster borough. In his will, dated 25 July 1806, his wife Susannah and brother Henry are named executors. Their six children are named: John, George, Elizabeth, Frederick, William, and Sarah. His son George Hambright received his one-story house at Queen and Orange Streets which originally belonged to the first John Hambright.

3. Henry Hambright, born ca. 11 April 1751, of whom further.

4. Joseph Hambright, born 15 July 1753, died 24 April 1759.[28]

Henry Hambright, the son of John and Elizabeth Hambright was probably born 11 April 1751 in Lancaster. The date on his gravestone indicates his birth as 1749; however, it would appear that the proper date is 1751. His brother John was born 14 May 1749, according to Trinity Lutheran church records, and Henry Hambright’s own deposition when he applied for a pension gives his age on 21 August 1832 as 81.

He was married on 29 July 1777 in St. James Church, Lancaster to Mary Good, daughter of William Good. She was born in 1753 and died 4 August 1825. Subsequently Henry married again Mary Ann ________ who outlived him only six weeks and died 12 April 1835.

Why Henry, a good Lutheran, and Mary Good chose St. James Episcopal Church for their marriage raises interesting speculations. Was Mary an Anglican communicant? Or was it because elder brother John Hambright had married Susannah Grosch there three months earlier? Or as a parole violator [see below] was Henry staying away from his usual haunts? And who officiated? The congregation of St. James was torn apart by division of patriot and Tory members. The rector, Thomas Barton, had been obliged to close the church “to avoid the fury of the populace who would not suffer the Liturgy to be used unless the Collects and Prayers for the King .... were omitted.[29] Dr. Barton would not accede to this demand and was confined to his house for two years by the “rebels”.

Henry Hambright’s military career began a month before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, when he enlisted as a Private, 1 June 1776 in the company of David Morgan from Earl Township, a part of the 8^th Battalion commanded by Colonel Peter Grubb, and destined for the defense of Philadelphia where the first Continental Congress was meeting.[30] When an enlistment of one thousand men from Lancaster County was authorized, he was commissioned a Captain. The commission, signed by Benjamin Franklin, is housed in the National Archives in Washington.

In Convention for the State of Pennsylvania

To Henry Hambright, Gentleman, Sept. the 14th, 1776 at Perth Amboy

We, reposing especial Trust and Confidence in your Patriotism, Valour, Conduct and Fidelity, do by these Presents, constitute and appoint you to be Captain of a Company of Foot of Lancaster County in the Flying Camp for the Middle States of America, for the Protection of the said States against all hostile Enterprises, and for the Defence and establishing of American Liberty. You are therefore carefully and diligently to discharge the Duty of Captain as aforesaid by doing and performing all Manner of Things thereunto belonging. And we do strictly charge and require all Officers and Soldiers under your Command, to be obedient to your Orders as Captain. And you are to observe and follow such orders and Directions, as you shall receive from the Convention during their Sessions, from the Government now establishing, or from the Council of Safety for this State, or any other superior Officers, according to the Rules and Discipline of War, in Pursuance of the Trust reposed in you. This Commission to continue in Force until revoked by the Government now establishing for this State, the Council of Safety, or by this or any succeeding Convention.

By Order of the Convention

B. Franklin, President

The “Flying Camp” was organized on a resolution of Congress, passed 3 June 1776 and consisted of 10,000 militia of which Pennsylvania furnished 6,000; Maryland 3,400 and Delaware 600. Its purpose was to provide speedy relief for General Washington, who was in a precarious military position. Lord Howe had evacuated Boston and sailed with his army for New York. Washington had fortified himself on Long Island, lacking the services of his most brilliant general, Nathaniel Greene, who was in the hospital. Howe attacked on 27 August and split the Continental army in two, capturing all of one force under General Sullivan.

Captain Hambright’s company was ordered to Trenton, Princeton, Brunswick, Perth Amboy and finally arrived at Fort Washington, located at the site of the present George Washington Bridge, just in time for a military debacle.

The capture of Fort Washington was observed by a Hessian Officer, Captain Andreas Wiederhold of the Regiment Knyphausen, who noted in his Journal:[31] “10 Nov. 1776. The enemy had erected a fort on a high rocky elevation, which seemed fortified by nature itself, which they called Fort Washington. Without possession of this fort we could not think of advancing any farther, much less get quiet winter quarters.

11 Nov. At 5 o’clock in the morning the entire division marched out to attack this place, but a violent rainstorm setting in, we had to abandon the attack for this day.

14 Nov. Gen. Howe arrived with tire entire army and camped about a mile in the rear of us. Now another plan was made, and 16 Nov. was fixed upon for the attack.

16 Nov. At 11 o’clock…..the real attack was begun near us, and we stood facing their crack troops and their riflemen all on this inaccessible rock, surrounded by swamps and three earthworks, one above the other. In spite of this every obstacle was swept aside and we gained this terrible height…..the fort as summoned to surrender and….. 2600 men came marching out of it, laid their rifles down at our feet and surrendered as prisoners of war. The loss of Hessians in dead and wounded amounted to more than 300.

And now the story as told by Henry Hambright in his own words a when, at age 81, he applied for a veteran’s pension:[32]

Having enlisted eighty-men, (the applicant) received orders to March, to Trenton, thence to Princeton, thence to New Brunswick & finally to Perth Amboy, where they remained subject to the orders of Colonel Moore of Philadelphia, until formed into a regiment under Colonel Jacob Glatz [Klotz] when they encamped for several weeks under the command of General Mercer of Virginia. About the latter end of September of the same year, General Mercer ordered Twelve hundred men with whom the applicant served over to Staten Island, where they took the British by surprise near Cockletown & having killed a number of them returned with nineteen prisoners to Amboy, thereby after which they were ordered by General Washington to Fort Lee. On the 12^th of November following, General McGaw [Magaw], who commanded Fort Washington applied to General Washington for aid - four hundred men were sent to his assistance, and being one of the oldest captains, this applicant rec. the command of one hundred of the men. Fort Washington having surrendered to the British on the 16^th of Nov. this applicant, with other prisoners were marched to New York and on May following was transferred Flatbush & remained a prisoner of war until exchanged on the 14^th of November 1780 when he returned to his residence as aforesaid & where he has continued ever since to reside.

According to the Pennsylvania Archives, Captain Hambright was listed as “one of the Officers who absented themselves from Long Island and Camp contrary to their paroles - Henry Hamburg Clutz’s Regiment” and then later having returned to his prisoner-of-war status.[33] It is possible that he took this “French leave” in order to marry a certain Lancaster miss named Mary Good at St. James Church on the 29^th of July 1777. His oldest son, William, was born in 1778 while the new father was apparently back in the custody of the British. Henry was finally exchanged in November 1780 and returned to Lancaster, where his father was in charge of a barracks of British prisoners - the shoe on the other foot. His service record contains variant spellings of his surname as Hambrite, Humbright, and Hamburg.[34]

His military career continued after the Revolution and he served in the Pennsylvania Militia as Major, 1785 - 1792; Lieutenant Colonel, 1792 - 1794; Colonel, 1794 - 1800, and then as Brigadier General in 1800 in command of the First Brigade. He was elected to four terms in the state legislature, serving in 1813, 1814, 1816, and 1817.

Some time in the 1780’s he had moved to East Earl Township with his family, since the 1790 federal census places him there; as do the census lists of 1800, 1810, 1820, and 1830. He was interested in local community affairs. In 1786 he is recorded as a “subscriber” for a common German and English language school.[35] On May 1800 he was appointed justice of the peace for Earl Township.[36] On 6 December he served on a commission to examine a road and noted “The Commissioners….this day reported having faithfully examined the said section, they have found that the same is made and executed in a masterly and Workmanlike manner of the breadth of twenty-one feet paved with stone and gravel well compacted together with a solid foundation.”[37]

On 23 November 1808 he was again appointed by the Governor to examine an eleven mile section near Blue Bell of the new Downingtown-Harrisburg pike.[38] Kauffman’s Country Wares, a New Holland general store still in the Kauffman family, had a ledger item on 24 March 1814: “Henry Hambright per boy - Dr. to 1 lb. chocolate $0.19.”

In 1814 he served as administrator for the estate of his son George who had died in Mount Joy. He applied for a pension on 21 August 1832, the pension law having been enacted earlier that year by Congress. His pension finally came through on 29 December. At the age of 81 he might reasonably have been impatient for benefits from military service more than half a century earlier. His pension amounted to $240 semi-annually, plus a lump payment of $720 for arrears.

Henry Hambright’s will, dated 1833, names his son William Hambright and Joseph Landis as executors. He left $100 to grandson Davis Hambright; $50 to grandson George F. Hambright; $50 to granddaughter Maria (Hambright) Richason; $500 and “goods” to his second wife Mary Ann; with the rest of his estate, which the executors determined to be $1,116.50, to be divided equally among daughter Elizabeth (Hambright) Smith of Cumberland County, and sons John and William Hambright. The document mentions that son George Hambright, father of George F. Hambright is deceased, and mentions another granddaughter Elizabeth Ream. A later codicil of the will bequeaths to his wife Mary Ann “all the house and lot with income and profits accruing thereon, lately purchased of Samuel McCurdy in the village of New Holland”. When Mary Ann died a month later, she left to her friend, Mary Ann Scott all the property bequeathed her by Henry.

Henry and his two wives are buried in the Old Welsh Graveyard, 600 feet north of the road connecting Terre Hill and Hinkletown in East Earl Township, about a mile west of Terre Hill. The cemetery is enclosed by a stone wall, and is kept neat and orderly by a local troop of Boy Scouts, with a small flag planted at General Hambright’s grave. This little “God’s Acre” was set aside on a farm owned by Rees Morgan in his will dated 4 January 1769 with the following clause: “I give and devise to my wife Margret, etc….Nevertheless, that the graveyard shall be for the use of all such as desire to bury their dead there at all times.” His obituary appeared in the Lancaster Journal on 6 March 1835, four days after his death.41

General Henry Hambright departed this life on the 2^nd instant, at his residence in Earl Township, Lancaster County. His remains were attended to the grave on the 4^th instant by a large concourse of friends and neighbors. The Rev. Mr. Wallace delivered an appropriate discourse, in English, from Philippians 1, 21, upon the occasion; which was followed by the Rev. Mr. Hertz, in German, from Psalms XC, 10.

General Hambright entered the service of his country in the early part of the Revolution, and rose to the command of a company in the “Flying Camp”. He was one of the many sufferers on board the British prison ship in the harbor of New York. After his release he again entered the Revolutionary army, and, on the close of the war returned to his native place. The regard which his Country entertained for his character and services was manifested in electing him to the legislature; and during many years he acted as a magistrate with a mildness and correctness which endeared him still more to all who knew him.

The children of Henry and Mary (Good) Hambright were:

1. William Hambright was born 1778 in Lancaster County and died 13 April 1860.⁴² He is buried at Falling Springs Presbyterian Church, in Chambersburg with his wife Matilda Shirk. He joined that church in 1828. As a child he received a legacy from his grandfather William Good, and in 1833 he and Joseph Landis were the executors of his father Henry’s will. At that time he was residing in Greene Township, Franklin County. He is listed in that township in the federal census of’ 1830, 1840, and 1850.

2. Henry Hambright, Jr. was born ca. 1781, and died 16 April 1815. On 3 March 1803 he married Sarah Davies, who was born 21 November, and died 4 September 1867. She was the daughter of Isaac and Lydia (Carter) Davies of Earl Township. At the age of 33, Henry enlisted in the U. S. Army in the War of 1812 and “was slain by the Enemy or did otherwise die in the Service of the U. S.” at Fort Buffalo, New York, leaving three minor children.⁴³

3. John Hambright as born 23 July 1782, and died 2 January 1841.⁴⁴ John was residing in Greene Township, Franklin County in 1833, according to his father Henry’s will, but he is not listed in the census there until 1840. He is buried in the Falling Springs Presbyterian Church cemetery.

4. George Hambright died intestate 23 January 1814 at Mount Joy where he was a merchant. He married Mary Klein [Kline], on 21 March 1813.⁴⁵

5. Elizabeth Hambright was born ca. 1793. On 22 October 1812, she married Jacob Smith,⁴⁶ Cumberland County; residing there in 1833 according to her father Henry’s will, from which she received a bequest. Jacob Smith, born ca. 1784, was a merchant in Dauphin County, he moved to Cumberland County and died there in 1850.

References