IMMIGRANT. He arrived Philadelphia 2 Sep 1698, according to his own diary. He settled first in Germantown as a young single man, then married in 1699 and by 1702 removed to the Skippack area of (now) Montgomery County and lived there the rest of his life.

Samuel W Pennypacker, Governor of Pennsylvania, wrote a full biography of his ancestor Hendrick in 1894 titled “Hendrick Pannebecker, Surveyor of Lands”. He said the name is of Dutch origin and literally meant maker of tiles (think roofing tiles).

Samuel wrote that there is confusion among family researchers as to whether Hendrick was Dutch or German but the explanation is the family was of Dutch origin, but had moved to Germany before Hendrick was born. Hendrick generally used the German language in his writings, though he was apparently also fluent in Dutch and English.

Samuel Pennypacker further stated that Hendrick was born on or about 21 Mar 1674 (from a family bible?) but does not know the names of his parents nor his exact place of birth. But he argues, based on his early arrival in Germantown, before there was the mass migration of Germans to Pennsylvania, that about the only Germans who had come by then came from either Kriegsheim or Crefeld -- the two areas where William Penn is known to have appealed for emigrants.

Samuel concluded, erroneously it turns out, that Hendrick was probably from Kriegsheim or nearby Flomborn and he cited the names of some other Pannebeckers living there at the time of Hendrick’s birth, some of whom also came to Pennsylvania. However, Hendrick himself recorded in his own “bible” that he was from Crefelt.

In 1699, Hendrick married Eve, daughter of Hans Peter Umstat and his wife Barbara -- who, according to Samuel Pennypacker, had come to Germantown from Crefeld in 1685. Samuel was apparently wrong on their origins too as others now argue the Umstats in fact were from Kriegsheim. In 1702, Hendrick and Eve removed to Skippack. They acquired land from Matthias Van Bebber that Van Bebber had accumulated -- having first purchased 1000 acres from William Penn in 1683 and then later expanded to a land holding of almost 7000 acres by 1702 -- which he was then beginning to sell. Among the purchasers in 1702 were Hendrick Pannebecker, his brother-in-law Johannes Umstat, Klas Jensen and Jan Krey (this last the only one of the four we are not related to).

Hendrick’s eventual land holdings were impressive and included over 4000 acres in and around what is now Montgomery County, including all of the land where Harleysville is now located. (Harleysville was named for the family/ancestors of Jim Harley who married my niece Katie MacLennan.)

By 1725, sufficient numbers of people had moved further out from Philadelphia and Germantown that the growing community felt the need to have roads surveyed and their township laid out and Hendrick Pannebecker was chosen to do that job. In fact, Samuel Pennypacker asserts that Hendrick was the only surveyor in early Colonial America of Dutch-German origins and that most of the manors, roads and townships of Philadelphia County at that time were surveyed by Hendrick.

Samuel Pennypacker was a little ambiguous as to Hendrick’s religious beliefs. He alludes to the fact that many of the early immigrants of the Kriegsheim group (which Samuel thought included Hendrick) were Quakers. The Crefeld group though were Mennonites and I think it is clear Hendrick was Mennonite. The partitioning of Van Bebber’s lands and the establishment of a community there was specifically to be a Mennonite community for the growing number of Mennonites of Germantown. It is interesting, though, that Hendrick had his children baptized by a Dutch Reformed minister and several of his grandchildren were married at Trappe Lutheran Church. It is ambiguous, actually.

Samuel Pennypacker concludes his narrative on the life of his ancestor Hendrick thus: “Pannebecker fell over dead, almost without a struggle, on the 4th of April 1754, aged eighty years and two weeks.”

I will add this one very interesting footnote to this biography based on my visit to Pennypacker Mills. As “family”, I was invited “behind the ropes” by Carl Klase, curator of that museum, and he showed me different documents that Hendrick had signed and made the comment that: “on documents written in Dutch, he signed Hendrick, on German documents Heinrich and on English documents Henry.” He showed me examples of each of those signatures.

Samuel Pennypacker listed Hendrick and Eve’s eight children: Martha, Adolph, Peter (our ancestor), John, Jakob, Henry, Barbara and possibly Susanna. Peter, John and Susanna married Keyser siblings.

A further note on Jacob:

• Jacob’s is the line from whom Governor Samuel Pennypacker descends. Jacob’s line however is also of interest since another of his line was Louis Fackler, a contemporary of mine and a genealogy friend. I know Louis because he is also a descendant of Daniel Mertz and I helped him establish that he and I were not Mertz cousins since Daniel was of the Mertz Church, Rockland Township line of John Henry Mertz. Then we learned we are cousins after all, sharing the Pennypacker immigrant, Hendrick.

From Paul E Pennypacker’s website: “Heinrich married Eve Umstat, who came from Kriegsheim, Germany to Philadelphia arriving aboard the "Francis and Dorothy" on October 12, 1685 (with her parents and siblings). Eve was the daughter of Barbara and Hans Peter Umstat, son of Nicholas Umstat.”

The Umstat and Pennypacker researchers are in agreement on these facts.