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BUCKS INDEX

THE HENDRICKS FAMILY

The HENDRICKS FAMILY, of Bucks county, is one of the oldest in Pennsylvania, its progenitors forming part of that little colony that emigrated from the district of the Lower Rhine, in Rhenish Prussia and Westphalia, and founded Germantown in 1684-5.  There under the leadership of the gifted PASTORIUS they founded the first Mennonite congregation in America, established schools, and a little later a printing press, and gave a tremendous impetus to the growth of religious freedom.

            Gerhard HENDRICKS, of Kreigsheim, a little village on the Rhine, with wife Sytie, sons Wilhelm and Lendert, daughter Sarah and Servant Heinrich FREY, came to Pennsylvania in the ôFrances and Dorothyö October 12, 1685, with Peter SHOEMAKER and a number of others who became Prominent in the affairs of not only the German settlement on the Schuylkill, but of the province of Pennsylvania.  Prior to the organization of the Mennonite congregation many of those who were later Mennonites, affiliated with the Friends and took part in their religious meetings.  Among these were Gerhard HENDRICKS and the OPDEN GRAF brothers from Crefeld, who, with HENDRICKS, signed the famous protest against human slavery that was presented first to the Germantown Friends Meeting in 1688, and by them forwarded to the monthly quarterly and yearly meetings of the society.  Sarah, the daughter of Gerhard HENDRICKS married Isaac SHOEMAKER.

            September 28, 1709, the colonial assembly passed an ôAct for the better Enabling the Divers Inhabitants of the Province of Pennsylvania, to Hold and Enjoy Lands, Tenements and Plantations in the same Province,ö by which over eighty of the then German residents of Germantown and vicinity were naturalized.  The list is headed by Francis Daniel PASTORIUS, and contains the names of the CUNRADS, KEYSERS, LUCKENS, TYSONS, SHOEMAKERS, NEUSES and many others, whose descendants became later residents of Bucks county.  Among these persons then naturalized were William HENDRICKS and his sons Henry and Lawrence HENDRICKS.  Lawrence (or Lourentz) HENDRICKS was one of the first settlers on the Skippack, in what is now Towamencin township, Montgomery county, having purchased of Jomes SHATTUCK, February 30, 1713, 120 acres in that section on which he settled.  At the time of his purchase he was a resident of Upper Dublin township, and is denominated in the deed as a ôhusbandman.ö  He later became a tanner.  On November 22, 1724, Isaac PENNINGTON, of Bucks county, conveyed to Lawrence HENDRICKS, of Skippack, fifty acres of land ônear û Skippackö and adjoining his first purchase.  In 1748 he purchased 246 acres in Hatfield township, 111 acres of which he immediately conveyed to his son Henry HENDRICKS.  Towamencin was formed into a township in 1728, and on the tax lists of 1734 appear the names of the following landholders: Paul HENDRICKS, 100 acres; Lawrence HENDRICKS 150 acres; Leonard HENDRICKS, 100 acres; and Henry HENDRICKs, 123 acres.  Henry was the brother naturalized with Lawrence, and Paul and Leonard were doubtless also brothers, though born in America.  Leonard married Elizabeth TURNER, daughter of Herman TURNER, of Germantown, and purchased his land in Towamencin at about the same date as LawrenceÆs second purchase, December 20, 1720.  He died in 1776, leaving children: William, Mathias, Herman, Mary and Elizabeth.  Paul HENDRICKS died in 1775, leaving widow Margaret and sons Paul, William, John and Peter; and daughters Catherine; Mary, wife of Henry FRY; Sophia, wife of Nicholas GODSCHALK: Susanna; Elizabeth, wife of Herman HENDRICKS; and Rachel, wife of William NASH.

            Lawrence HENDRICKSÆ wife was Janneke of Jane TYSON, daughter of Cornelius TYSEN, of Germantown, who died in 1716, leaving a widow Margaret and two sons, Mathias and Peter; and daughters; Barbara, wife of Mathias CUNRAD; Alice, wife of John CUNRAD; Williemptie, (sic) wife of Paul ENGLE; and Jannicke, wife of Laurentz HENDRICKS.  Paul ENGLE settled near his brother-in-law, Lawrence HENDRICKS, on the Skippack, and his tombstone dated 1723 is the oldest in the Skippack Mennonite burying ground.  Lawrence HENDRICKS died in Towamencin township in September, 1753, his wife Janneke surviving him.  Their children were Peter, Benjamin, Cornelius, Margaret, wife of Peter TYSON; Henry; Sedgen (or Seytje), wife of Walter JANSEN; William, John and Mathias.  Benjamin married Katherine, daughter of William NASH.  William died in 1776 leaving an only child Jane, who married Daniel SAMPEY. 

            Cornelius HENDRICKS, the ancestor of the Bucks county branch of the family, was born in Towamencin township, now Montgomery county, about the year 1720.  He married prior to the death of his father, in 1753, Mary BEAN, who bore him two children, Benjamin and Christiana.  He was a farmer in Worcester and Towamencin townships.

            Benjamin HENDRICKS, son of Cornelius and Mary (BEAN) HENDRICKS, was born and reared in Montgomery county, and married there Esther CLEMENS, and followed the life of a farmer for some years in Lower Salford township, in connection with his trade of a weaver.  In April, 1800, he purchased of Samuel MOYER a farm of 107 acres in Hilltown township, Bucks county, and removed thither.  He was one of the substantial and prominent agriculturists and business men of the community, and acquired a competence.  He died on the Hilltown farm in 1831,  his widow Esther surviving him.  Their children were as follows; Catharine, who married Isaac BECHTEL; Abraham, married Barbara BEAN, and died in 1820, leaving children, Henry, Benjamin, Susan and Jacob; Jacob (the great-grandfather of J. Freeman HENDRICKS, of Doylestown) married Mary DRISSEL; John, married Mary ALDERFER, see forward; Mary, who married Samuel MOYER; George, died young; Elizabeth, who married Benjamin BERGY; Joseph, who married Elizabeth GEORGE; and Susanna, who married Joseph SWARTZ.  Benjamin, the father, having conveyed sixty-seven acres of his first purchase to his son Abraham in 1814, had purchased in 1812 of Benjamin SOUDER 106 acres adjoining.  This old homestead had remained in the family ever since, and is now occupied by Joseph G. HENDRICKS, son of Joseph and Elizabeth (GEORGE) HENDRICKS.

            John C. HENDRICKS, fourth child of Benjamin and Esther (CLEMENS) HENDRICKS, was born in Montgomery county, December 20, 1794, and was reared and educated in Hilltown township, Bucks county, where his parents settled when he was at the age of five years.  He married April 4, 1820, Mary ALDERFER, daughter of Frederick ALDERFER, born September 21, 1796.  John C. HENDRICKS was a successful farmer in Hilltown all his life.  He died at Blooming Glen, Hilltown township, October 7, 1881, and his wife Mary died February 4, 1861.  They, like their ancestors, were Mennonites, and belonged to the Blooming Glen congregation.  He was a prominent man in the community.  The children of John C. and Mary (ALDERFER) HENDRICKS, were seven in number, as follows; Benjamin, married Susanna LEATHERMAN and has six children: Frederick, never married; Jacob, married Anna MOYER and has three children; Joseph A., See forward: Abraham, married (first) Lydia HUNSICKER (second) her sister Mrs. FELLMAN, and (third) Eliza MOYER;  Elizabeth became the wife of Amos PENNYPACKER, and has three children: Hettie Ann Wedded Jacob LANDIS and has five children.

Test taken from page 494-496 of:

Davis, William W. H., A.M., History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania [New York-Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1905] Volume III

Transcribed August 2004, Joan Lollis, as part of the Bucks Co., Pa., Early Family Project, www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/bucksindex.html

Published October 2004 on the Bucks County, Pa., USGenWeb pages at www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/