# Skippack Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in the 1710s

> A new Pennsylvania-German farming settlement was taking shape along Skippack Creek, tied to Philadelphia by land deeds, petitions, and Mennonite faith.

- Place: Skippack Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania (40.223, -75.399)
- Years: 1710 to 1719
- Known then as: Bebber Township
- Page: https://yorehistory.com/place/skippack-township-montgomery-county-pennsylvania/1710s
- Step into it (interactive): https://yorehistory.com/?step=Skippack%20Township%2C%20Montgomery%20County%2C%20Pennsylvania%2C%20United%20States&at=40.2229,-75.3988&year=1715

## Looking around

You stand in what people here call Bebber Township[1][2], not yet Skippack Township. The settlement lies on land from Matthias Van Bebber’s 6,166-acre patent[1], with farms cut out by deed and survey. Around you are Skippack Creek and the Perkiomen country[2], and the road question matters because thirty landowners have asked for a public road[1] toward Wide Marsh[1]. A stone house[1][6] may already stand on one farm, but much of the visible world is still fields, woods, and cleared farmsteads. In 1717, 100 acres are set aside[3][1] for Mennonites, for a meeting house, school house, and cemetery[1]. By 1718 a teacher is here, and the school is a log cabin in the woods[4]. The civil world points southeast: this place is still in Philadelphia County[2], governed through the province and its assembly at Philadelphia.

## Work: Survey, clear, farm

Land was the central work: Hendrick Pannebecker surveyed and prepared deeds[1] 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 cemetery[1].

## Law & power: Philadelphia County ruled here

Civil authority ran through Philadelphia County[2] and the province, not a Montgomery County government. Political rights were limited: a male freeman needed age, residence, land or £50 estate[7] to vote.

## In the air: Conscience mattered legally

Pennsylvania law made religious liberty part of government: conscientious worship was protected in person and estate[8]. For Mennonites and Quakers, solemn affirmation could replace an oath[7].

## Home & table: Log school, stone house

The school world begins very plainly: a log cabin in the woods[4] 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 weights[9]. 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 patent[1]. Mennonite trustees named for the 1717 land included Sellen, Jansen, Ziegler, Custer, and Kolb families[5].

## Roads & news: A road to Wide Marsh

News, goods, and official business depended on routes outward, which is why thirty landowners petitioned for a road[1] in 1713. The requested line ran toward Wide Marsh[1], linking the settlement to older roads toward Philadelphia.

## Year by year

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

## 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. (inferred)[1]
- The settlement lay in the country of Skippack and Perkiomen creeks, a fact reflected in the later 1725 township name “Skippack and Perkiomen.” (inferred)[2]
- In 1713, thirty landowners in the Skippack region petitioned the government to build a road from Bebber Township to “Wide Marsh,” now Whitemarsh. (inferred)[1]
- Wide Marsh, later Whitemarsh, was the road destination named in the 1713 petition from the Skippack region. (inferred)[1]
- 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. (inferred)[1]
- 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. (inferred)[4]
- Before Montgomery County was created, the Skippack region was part of Philadelphia County. (inferred)[2]
- Hendrick Pannebecker settled in Skippack in 1706 and acted for Van Bebber by surveying and preparing deeds for early settlers. (inferred)[1]
- 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. (inferred)[4]
- 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 sources)[5]
- 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 sources)[8]
- 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 sources)[7]
- The same 1696 frame allowed people who could not swear oaths for conscience’ sake to make solemn affirmations instead. (from the sources)[7]
- 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 sources)[9]
- 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. https://www.skippack.org/skippack-history/
2. Township Origin. Skippack Historical Society. https://www.skippack.org/township-origin/
3. Mennonite Settlers in Skippack. https://www.seekingmyroots.com/members/files/G006449.pdf
4. Christopher Dock. Skippack Historical Society. https://www.skippack.org/christopher-dock/
5. Skippack Mennonite Church (Skippack Township, Pennsylvania, USA). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online, 1959. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Skippack_Mennonite_Church_%28Skippack_Township%2C_Pennsylvania%2C_USA%29
6. Indenhofen Farm. Skippack Historical Society. https://www.skippack.org/indenhofen-farm/
7. Frame of Government of Pennsylvania, 1696. The Avalon Project, Yale Law School, 1696. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/17th_century/pa06.asp
8. Charter of Privileges Granted by William Penn, October 28, 1701. The Avalon Project, Yale Law School, 1701. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/pa07.asp
9. Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, Vol. I, Part 60. LDS Genealogy, 1838. https://ldsgenealogy.com/PA/books/Colonial-records-of-Pennsylvania-Vol-I-part-60.htm

## Nearby, about the same time

- [Chesterfield, Burlington County, New Jersey in the 1720s](https://yorehistory.com/place/chesterfield-burlington-county-new-jersey/1720s/md) (65 km)
- [Somerset County, New Jersey in the 1740s](https://yorehistory.com/place/somerset-county-new-jersey/1740s/md) (76 km)
- [Greenwich Township, Warren County, New Jersey in the 1730s](https://yorehistory.com/place/greenwich-township-warren-county-new-jersey/1730s/md) (77 km)
- [Sussex County, New Jersey in the 1730s](https://yorehistory.com/place/sussex-county-new-jersey/1730s/md) (118 km)

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Researched by Yore's AI historian (gpt-5.5) on 2026-10-12 from the sources listed. It is about the place and the time, not about any person. Statements marked "inferred" are conclusions, not records. Cite as: Yore, "Skippack Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in the 1710s", https://yorehistory.com/place/skippack-township-montgomery-county-pennsylvania/1710s