Jacob Heidschuh (c.1690-1775)

The birthdate of ~1690 for Jacob Hiteshew is included in a number of online family trees, but is probably a guess. I have found no records of Jacob's birth, though we can assume that he was at least age 16 in 1728 to be considered an adult male in the immigration records described below. A collection of biographical sketches written by the 19th century journalist John Franklin Meginness and published in 1903, states that Jacob Heidschuh was born in the Palatinate and arrived in Philadelphia in 1928 after a voyage from June 15th to August 19. It also states that “Jacob Heidschuh, together with others of his fellow immigrants, located in Loudoun county, Va., where he bought land and engaged in farming. He died at that place in 1775, leaving three sons, Jacob, Nicholas and Philip, and one daughter, Elizabeth.” ¹⁾

The information provided by Meginness probably was from oral histories told several generations later. In oral histories of this kind, details can be altered and ancestors of the same name can become confused with each other. However, the information Meginess provides is consistent with and in some cases corroborated by other records.

The first known records for Jacob are those that document his arrival in the British colony of Pennsylvania:

On (or shortly before) 23.Aug.1728 a ship arrived in Philadelphia with 205 people (80 men, 69 women, 56 children) described as “Palatine Passengers, Imported in the Ship Mortonhouse, John Coultas, Commander, from Rotterdam, but last from Deal.” Because the ship came last from Deal, departing from there on June 15, we cannot know whether some (or even all) of the passengers had previously migrated to England and were being transported from there. The ship's commander provided a list of the adult male passengers, which includes a “Jacob Heytshoe.” ²⁾ On 24.Aug.1728, according to Provincial Council records, the adult males signed their name (or mark), and this time the name is spelled “Jacob Heidshuh.” ³⁾ The declaration itself was an oath of allegiance. ⁴⁾ The ship's record does not name the 69 women and 56 children who accompanied the 80 adult male passengers, but these may have included Jacob's wife (Anna Marie?) and perhaps some children as well.

A book on the history of the Goshenhoppen Reformed church includes a letter sent by the Schibach congregation in 1730. The letter has Jacob Heidschuh as one of the signing deacons and elders. The modern spelling for Schibach (aka Shippach) is Skippack, an area to the north of metropolitan Philadelphia. ⁵⁾ As counties in Philadelphia were formed (i.e. by taking areas from existing large counties to create newer and smaller counties), the county location for Skippack went from being Philadelphia to Montgomery.

According to land records for Pennsylvania On 1.Apr.1734, a Jacob Heitshou acquired lot number 37, comprising 100 acres, in Philadelphia County on 1.Apr.1734. ⁶⁾ As noted above, Philadelphia County in 1734 was a large area that included Skippack Township, which is now part of Montgomery County, PA.

Although I have found no records of birth or parents for Johann Nicolaus, a number of family trees (e.g. on Ancestry.com) show the father of Johann Nicolaus as immigrant Jacob Hiteshew (b. ~1690), and show the birthplace of Johann Nicolaus as Montgomery County, PA. ⁷⁾ This consistent with the theory that Johann Nicolaus was was born in or near Skippack, and was the son of immigrant Jacob.

Drawing on the sources and records described above, the family tree information below is based on the following suppositions:

1. Palatine immigrant Jacob Hiteshew had three sons: Jacob Hiteshew, Johann Nicolaus Hiteshew, and Jurg Phillip Hiteshew. Like many German-speaking immigrants of the time, members of this family migrated west and south, initially from Philadelphia to Skippack to Berks County, where we find records from the 1750s for the three men – i.e. Jacob, Johann Nicolaus, Jürg Phillip – who seem about the right age to be immigrant Jacob's sons. Records from the Schumacher Register show a pattern of baptismal sponsorship consistent with the supposition that these three men were brothers.
   
   
2. As seems to have been common in Hiteshew families, these men sometimes went by what we today consider to be the middle name – though English practices resulted in the first name being used or included for certain kinds of documents. Church records tend more toward Germanic spelling, while civil records tend more towards Anglicized spelling. Thus a man called Johann Nicolaus by his German-speaking pastor may be known to others as John or Nicholas; Jürg Phillip may be known as George or Phillip; etc. As was also common for the time, the spelling of surnames varies.
   
   
3. While online family trees (e.g. on Ancestry.com) can be a useful resource, they also can contain errors that may be copied by others to the point of being accepted as “fact” due to sheer pervasiveness. The Internet makes it easy to find and view various records, but these are often presented without context. This may explain why many family trees show Eva Elisabeth Geredtin as the wife of the George (Jürg) Phillip Hiteshew who was born in 1756, when a better understanding of the original Schumacher Register suggests she was actually a sponsor at his baptism, along with a male sponsor Jürg Phillip Hiteshew, who is likely the uncle of the child sharing the same name – and also not the husband of Eva Elisabeth.
   
   
4. Over time, the migration west and south continued, taking some descendants of immigrant Jacob to Frederick County, Maryland, where we find families with the surname Hiteshew (or some variant) in records from the first census in 1790.

So the tree below is a theory and could be wrong, but it seems to provide a good fit for the information currently available.

— (Pesumed complete) —

• Jacob Heidschuh (b. after 1712) —m. Dorothea (Schmidt?)
• Johann Nicolaus Hiteshew (b. after 1712) —m. Anna Sybilla (surname unknown)
• Phillip Heidschuh (b. ~1764) —m. Catharina Ruppert
• Eva? Elizabeth Heidschuh (b. ?) —m. Geredtin?

— (Presumed complete) —

• Henrich Hiteshew (b. 1755) ⁸⁾
• Maria Margaret Hiteshew (b. 1756) ⁹⁾
• Johann Phillip Hiteshew (b. 1758) ¹⁰⁾ —m. Catharina Ruppert
• Jacob Hiteshew (b. 1760) ¹¹⁾ —m. Mararetha Seuberlingen
• Peter Hiteshew (b. 1764?)
• William Hiteshew
• Elizabeth Hiteshew
• Barbara Hiteshew

— (May be incomplete) —

• George Phillip Hiteshew (b. 1756) ¹²⁾
• Johann Jacob Hiteshew (b. 1757) ¹³⁾
• Johannes Hiteshew (b. 1773) ¹⁴⁾

— (Presumed complete) —

• Wilhelm (William) Heitshu
• Daniel Heitshu
• Elizabeth Heitshu
• Mary Heitshu m. Daniel Keller
• Catharine Heitshu m. James Russel
• Sarah Heitshu m. Jacob Kurtz
• Margaret Heitshu
• Sybilla Heitshu
• Henrietta m. Samuel Dorwart