Books and Manuscripts

Philadelphia, September 10, 1712. Manuscript land patent on vellum in a secretarial hand, signed by colonial deputies James Logan, as Receiver-General, Samuel Carpenter, as Provincial Treasurer, Richard Hill, as Mayor of Philadelphia, and Isaac Norris, granting Daniel Hierre and Isaac Lefevre 2,000 acres of land east of Conestoga near the head of the Pequea Creek, in present-day Lancaster County. Affixed with the large wax Great Seal of the Province; further inscribed on verso by Logan affirming the payment in full from Hierre and Lefevre for the patented land. Creased from original folds; some small restoration to wax seal; signatures somewhat faded; three small holes at top of vellum affecting a few words. Unexamined out of fine double-pane frame, 20 1/4 x 31 1/4 in. (514 x 794 mm).

A fine and large land patent for 2,000 acres, issued to French Huguenot settlers, Isaac Lefevre and Daniel Hierre, in current-day Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The 2,000 acres of land was parceled out of the original 10,000 acres warranted by the Province in August 1710 to some of the first European settlers in the area, the Kendig, Mylin, Herr, Bowman, Miller, Franciscus, and Funk families. The Hierre and Lefevre families were a part of the second wave of mostly French Huguenot settlers to move into the area around 1712, fleeing persecution in France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes that made Protestantism illegal. During the reign of Louis XIV thousands of Protestant families fled to neighboring countries like Germany and England, before emigrating to North America. Isaac Lefevre and his wife Catherine were granted passage from Steinweiler, Germany to North America in 1708, via Holland and England. They arrived in New York in 1709 and settled in a Hueguenot settlement at Esopus, New York, before moving south to the Delaware Valley.