Skippack Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in the 1710s

Work

Survey, clear, farm

Land was the central work: Hendrick Pannebecker surveyed and prepared deeds¹ while settlers turned patented acreage into farms. The In den Hoffen brothers’ 440 acres^1,6 shows the scale of some early holdings.

Faith

Mennonite land in trust

In 1717, 100 acres passed to Mennonite trustees^3,1 for common use. The purpose was practical and sacred at once: meeting house, school house, and cemetery¹.

Law & power

Philadelphia County ruled here

Civil authority ran through Philadelphia County² and the province, not a Montgomery County government. Political rights were limited: a male freeman needed age, residence, land or £50 estate⁷ to vote.

In the air

Conscience mattered legally

Pennsylvania law made religious liberty part of government: conscientious worship was protected in person and estate⁸. For Mennonites and Quakers, solemn affirmation could replace an oath⁷.

Home & table

Log school, stone house

The school world begins very plainly: a log cabin in the woods⁴ on Mennonite land. One farm may have had a more durable building, since a stone house is dated about 1710^1,6, though the local chronology marks uncertainty.

Money

Bread priced by wheat

For prices, the nearest firm evidence is Philadelphia: wheat at 5 shillings per bushel set penny loaf weights⁹. Local Skippack prices for the 1710s were not found in this search.

Who lived here

German Mennonite settlement

The early land system centered on Matthias Van Bebber’s 6,166-acre patent¹. Mennonite trustees named for the 1717 land included Sellen, Jansen, Ziegler, Custer, and Kolb families⁵.

Roads & news

A road to Wide Marsh

News, goods, and official business depended on routes outward, which is why thirty landowners petitioned for a road¹ in 1713. The requested line ran toward Wide Marsh¹, linking the settlement to older roads toward Philadelphia.

Year by year

1. 1710Gerhard and Herman In den Hoffen’s stone house may have been built about this year, though the local chronology marks the date as uncertain. here^1,6
2. 1713Thirty Skippack-region landowners petitioned for a road from Bebber Township to Wide Marsh. here¹
3. 1714Christopher Dock emigrated to Pennsylvania, before arriving at Skippack about 1717. nearby⁴
4. 1715The Jacobite rising in Britain challenged the new Hanoverian king, George I, and would have been imperial news in an English colony. the world
5. 1717Van Bebber conveyed 100 acres for Mennonite religious, educational, and burial purposes in Bebber Township. here^3,1
6. 1718Christopher Dock was teaching at the Skippack meetinghouse school by about this year, according to local history. here⁴
7. 1718The War of the Quadruple Alliance began in Europe, another reminder that Pennsylvania settlers lived under the British crown’s Atlantic politics. the world
8. 1719The Skippack Mennonite Meeting House is dated to this year in a local chronology, although another source places the building circa 1725. here^1,5

Pictures from the time

What the sources say

• In the 1710s the Skippack area was commonly associated with Bebber Township, while the township name “Skippack and Perkiomen” was not laid out until 1725. inferred^1,2
• Matthias Van Bebber secured a patent in 1702 for 6,166 acres in the Skippack area, after acquiring Dirk Sipman’s unlocated land. inferred¹
• The settlement lay in the country of Skippack and Perkiomen creeks, a fact reflected in the later 1725 township name “Skippack and Perkiomen.” inferred²
• In 1713, thirty landowners in the Skippack region petitioned the government to build a road from Bebber Township to “Wide Marsh,” now Whitemarsh. inferred¹
• Wide Marsh, later Whitemarsh, was the road destination named in the 1713 petition from the Skippack region. inferred¹
• On June 8, 1717, Van Bebber conveyed 100 acres to Mennonite trustees for communal religious, educational, and burial uses. from the sources^3,1
• The 1717 Skippack deed was described locally as land for a meeting house, school house, and cemetery for the inhabitants of Bebber Township. inferred¹
• Gerhard and Herman In den Hoffen bought 440 acres from Van Bebber in 1706, and a local chronology dates their stone house to about 1710, with uncertainty. inferred^1,6
• The first schoolhouse in Skippack was a log cabin on the 100 acres deeded to the Mennonites in 1717, and it stood in the woods across from the later Lower Skippack Mennonite cemetery. inferred⁴
• Before Montgomery County was created, the Skippack region was part of Philadelphia County. inferred²
• Hendrick Pannebecker settled in Skippack in 1706 and acted for Van Bebber by surveying and preparing deeds for early settlers. inferred¹
• Christopher Dock emigrated in 1714 and arrived at Skippack about 1717; local history says he taught there from about 1717 to 1771, with one later interruption. inferred⁴
• The Skippack Mennonite Meeting House is dated by one local chronology to 1719, although another Mennonite institutional history says a meetinghouse was built circa 1725. from the sources^1,5
• A Mennonite source says the 1717 conveyance placed the land in trust with named trustees from the Sellen, Jansen, Ziegler, Custer, and Kolb families. from the sources⁵
• Pennsylvania’s 1701 Charter of Privileges protected residents who acknowledged God from being molested in person or estate for their conscientious religious practice. from the sources⁸
• Under Pennsylvania’s 1696 frame, a voter needed to be a free denizen aged at least twenty-one with fifty acres, ten acres seated and cleared, or an estate worth fifty pounds, plus two years’ residence. from the sources⁷
• The same 1696 frame allowed people who could not swear oaths for conscience’ sake to make solemn affirmations instead. from the sources⁷
• Philadelphia’s council in 1700 regulated bread by assize: when wheat was 5 shillings per bushel, a penny white loaf was to weigh 6 ounces, wheaten 10 ounces, and household 13 ounces and a half. from the sources⁹
• No online source found in this quick search gives a house-by-house population count for Bebber Township in the 1710s. not known
• No online source found in this quick search describes ordinary meals, clothing, or room arrangements in Skippack specifically in the 1710s. not known

Sources

1. Skippack History. Skippack Historical Society
2. Township Origin. Skippack Historical Society
3. Mennonite Settlers in Skippack
4. Christopher Dock. Skippack Historical Society
5. Skippack Mennonite Church (Skippack Township, Pennsylvania, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, 1959
6. Indenhofen Farm. Skippack Historical Society
7. Frame of Government of Pennsylvania, 1696. The Avalon Project, Yale Law School, 1696
8. Charter of Privileges Granted by William Penn, October 28, 1701. The Avalon Project, Yale Law School, 1701
9. Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, Vol. I, Part 60. LDS Genealogy, 1838

Nearby, about the same time