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| Rožmbert Castle, South Bohemia, Czech Republic |
In “Family History, Family Mythology,” I wrote about how stories passed down through generations can lead the genealogist astray. While there is often a kernel of truth in these stories, sometimes the stories are complete fabrications. For example, there is absolutely no evidence that my grandfather Alfred George Jacques is the descendant of an aristocrat who fled to England during the French Revolution. Nor did my ggg-grandfather William Cooke have three sailing ships, two slaves and £80,000 when he came to Newfoundland in 1817. He was, however, part-owner of the brig Friends, and he did manage a fishing station on Placentia Bay where the men who actually did the fishing worked in harsh conditions.
While researching “The Cemetery on the Nith: The Secords of Blenheim,” I uncovered an impressive fabrication concerning Susanna Wartman, the wife of John Secord (1757-1830). There is general agreement among Secord researchers that Susanna was the daughter of Abraham Wartman. Abraham, like the Secords, had settled on the Susquehanna near Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania, several years before the Revolution. Most researchers also agree that Abraham married Catherine Bowman, but scattered among the many online genealogies can be found the name Christianna Wessenberg.
The story goes that Christianna Wessenberg was the only child of eminent scholar Bartholdt Wessenberg and Louisa of Rosenberg, daughter of the Prince of Rosenberg. When Christianna fell in love with the cooper Abraham Wartman, she and Abraham eloped and fled to America to escape the wrath of her father.
Romantic but not true.
In the Dr. H. C. Burleigh fonds at Queen’s University Archives in Kingston, Ontario is a manuscript written by Alice Mackay1 that contains detailed information about the Wartman family. Mackay refers to notes written by John Wesley Purdy (1829-1910), a great-grandson of Abraham Wartman, and quotes the following passage verbatim:
Bartholdt Wessenberg, of the House of Wessenberg, married Louise of Rosenberg, August 23rd or 28th, 1737, was a notable student, held the astronomy chair in a German university, also a classic scholar and conversed in five languages. Louise was the second daughter of the Prince of the House of Rosenberg, born in Rosenberg Castle, 1720, died 1746. Christianna Wessenberg, only child of Bartholdt Wessenberg, born September 17th, 1738; not having a son, her father educated her highly. In 1758 she married Abraham Wartman, born in Amsterdam, Holland, 1735, came of a respectable Dutch family, and was a cooper by trade. He met Christianna Wessenberg when he went to her father’s house, to make tubs and buckets; it was love on sight. They eloped and married. Tradition allows him much more than the usual share of manly beauty, and she was very fair. Her father disinherited her. They fled from his wrath to America, arriving in New York in 1758. They finally settle at Tunkhannock, in the Wyoming Valley on the Susquehanna River, Pa. Five sons and three daughters were born to them, and they prospered until the Revolutionary war broke out. Siding with England they suffered much persecution. Finally being obliged to leave their home, they came to Canada by the way of Cleveland, then to Niagara, where they stayed some time and two eldest daughters were married. They proceeded to Montreal afterwards to Kingston, where they took U.E.L. farms on the Front Road. A faithful soul, worthy of mention, was Christianna’s maid, Jerusha, who fled with her mistress and spent her life in her service.
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| Wartman Family Tree |
With the manuscript is a Wartman family tree that was reproduced in the Kingston Whig-Standard to illustrate an article about the growing hobby of genealogy. The family tree goes as far as providing birth dates for Bartholdt and Christianna; and giving additional details about Rosenberg Castle.
In her manuscript, Mackay disputes Purdy’s narrative. Years before online research was possible, Mackay showed proof that Abraham Wartman had sailed from Rotterdam to Philadelphia with his parents and sister in 1731. She records that Abraham settled on the Susquehanna about 1769, that he served with Butler’s Rangers from 1777 until 1779, that he and his family were at Coteau-du-Lac west of Montreal for the rest of the war, and that he was granted land at Cataraqui2 in 1784.
Mackay's sources include the claim for losses that John Wartman made in 1788 on behalf of his deceased father. In his evidence to the Loyalist Claims Commission, John stated his father was born in Germany, that Abraham had come to America at a young age, and that John’s mother’s name was Catherine.
Is there a kernel of truth to the Wessenberg myth? Regrettably, there is little evidence to suggest that Bartholdt Wessenberg, Louise of Rosenberg, or Christianna Wessenberg ever existed.
The Neues Allgemeines Deutsches Adels-Lexicon,3 the German equivalent of Burke’s Peerage, does have an entry for Wessenberg. The seat of the aristocratic Wessenberg family was in Freiburg im Breisgau in southwest Germany. Historically, Freiburg im Breisgau was part of the Vorlande, which was ruled by the Austrian Habsburgs until 1797.
The Wessenberg family, however, were minor nobility. The family did produce two notably individuals: the liberal Catholic churchman Ignaz Heinrich von Wessenberg (1774-1860), and his elder brother, the Austrian diplomat and statesman Johann Philipp Freiherr von Wessenberg-Ampringen4 (1773-1858). There was certainly never a Prince of the House of Wessenberg.
Louisa’s purported family has a far more illustrious history. The Rosenbergs
were a prominent Bohemian noble house that played an important role in
Czech medieval history from the 13th century until the early 17th
century. The family held two castles in South Bohemia: Rožmberk and
Český Krumlov. Rožmberk Castle was built in the first half of the 13th
century either by Vitek the Younger of Prčice, or by his son Vok of
Prčice, who later styled himself Vok of Rožmberk. The town and castle of
Český Krumlov was ceded to the Rosenberg family in 1302 by Wenceslaus
II.
Members of the Rožmberk family held posts at the Prague royal court, but there was never a Prince of the House of Rosenberg. In fact, when Louisa was allegedly born, Rožmberk Castle was held by Karl Cajetan de Longueval, Count of Buquoy.
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| The Palatinate during the War of the Spanish Succession |
Abraham came north to the Mohawk Valley in New York where he married Anna Catharina Baumann5, daughter of Jacob Baumann and Elizabeth about 1755. Catharina had been born about 23 years earlier on her father’s farm in the area known as German Flatts.
Catharina's father, Jacob, the son of Johann Adam Baumann (1665- ?) and Susanna Catharina Dresch, was born about 1707 in Baccarach am Rhein in the Electoral Palatinate, part of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1709, Jacob and his parents became one of thousands of refugee families known as the "Poor Palatines." The Palatinate had been ravaged during the Nine Years War (1689-1697) and was plundered again in 1707 during the War of the Spanish Succession. This devastation was followed by the terrible winter of 1709 — three months of deadly cold that destroyed orchards and vineyards, and caused the total loss of the winter wheat crop.
Suffering from poverty and hunger, and mistakingly drawn by what they thought was promise of free land in the American Colonies, thousands of refugees fled down the Rhine to Rotterdam, then waited for passage across the North Sea to Great Britain. More than 13,000 arrived in London during the spring and summer of 1709, overwhelming British resources.
The following year, ten ships carried about 2,800 refugees to New York. Upon their arrival most were assigned to two work camps on either side of the Hudson River about 60 km downriver from Albany. At East Camp, the refugees were expected to work off their passage producing naval stores:
When their houses shall be built, and the ground cleared for making their settlements they shall then be Employed in the making of Turpentine Rozin Tarr and Pitch, and that this we beneficial not only to the said Palatines but to this Kingdom.6When this venture failed in 1712, a group of refugee families left East Camp for the Schoharie Valley. The Simmendinger Register,7 a list of Palatine families in New York published in 1717, shows Jacob's family settled at Hartmansdorf, one of seven settlements established in the Schoharie Valley.
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| Burnetsfield Patent on the Mohawk River |
About 1723, Jacob's family moved to the Burnetsfield Patent on the Mohawk River west of Little Falls. Despite his age, Jacob was one of the original patentees, and was given title to Lot 27 containing 100 acres on the south side of the Mohawk on 30 Apr 1725. Sometime after 1736, Jacob purchased land in what is now Montgomery County, New York, on Bowman’s Creek, the main tributary of Canajoharie Creek. As a result, Jacob escaped the German Flatts Massacre in 1757 during the Seven Years War.
Catharina Baumann was the second of nine children of Jacob Baumann and his wife Elizabeth. Catharina is named in her father’s will, dated 6 Jan 1757, as Catharina Wartman, but exactly when she married Abraham is unclear. Also unclear is the exact number of their children.
There is no doubt that Susanna (1757-1842) and her brothers Peter (1765-1824), John (1767-1798) and Barnabas (1772-1858) were children of Abraham and Catharina. Mackay provides a birth date of 16 May 1757 for Susannah, but this has not be confirmed. Peter, John, and Barnabas all name their father in their respective Upper Canada Land Petitions. There is also some evidence for a son, Horace, born about 1770 who died in 1784. Mackay also includes a daughter, Jerusha, born about 1761, who married a John Comer.
Another daughter, Christina, was baptised at the Lutheran Trinity Church of Stone Arabia on 15 Mar 1756. Mackay does not include this child in her manuscript, but does record a Christianna, born about 1769, who married a John Courtland.
Subsistence lists spanning the period for 1779 to 1784 support the idea that there were two daughters who married while the family was at Coteau-du-Lac. It is highly unlikely that a daughter born in 1769 would have married during this time period.
In the claim for losses, John Wartman states, "The Eldest brother of all was killed in Service in 1778." This is most likely the Adam Wartman who appears on the "List of Persons employed as Rangers in the Indian Department June 15, 1777," and who is thought to have died in June 1778.
Adam does not appear in Mackay's manuscript, however, she does include a child named Bartholdt who was born in 1763 and died in 1778. Clearly Bartholdt is Adam. It is interesting to note that although Mackay refutes Purdy's claim that Catharina was the daughter of Bartholdt Wessenberg, she perpetrates the myth by accepting that there was a child named Bartholdt.
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| Reduced version, published in 1795, of the 1792 Reading Howell Map of Pennsylvania. The map shows Bowman's Creek and Tunkhanoc [sic] Creek north of Wilkes-Barre. |
In his claim for losses, John Wartman records that his family settled on the Susquehanna River “seven or eight years before the war.” The Revolutionary War began in 1775 so Abraham could have been on the Susquehanna as early as 1767, although 1771 is more likely. Catharina’s younger brothers George Adam Baumann and Jacob Baumann (1738-1815) settled at about the same time George and Jacob’s farms were located at the mouth of Bowman’s Creek near Tunkhannock. Another early settler was John Secord's father whose farm was two miles upriver from Tunkhannock.
Abraham appears on the “Up the River” Tax Assessment List in 1776, as does Catharina's brothers and her future father-in-law.
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| The Oneidas at the Battle of Oriskany by Don Troiani |
Abraham and Adam would likely have been present at the Siege of Fort Stanwix, and at the Battle of Okiskany on August 6, 1777. The following year Abraham would have fought at the Battle of Wyoming on July 3, 1778, and may have been present at the Cherry Valley Massacre on November 11, 1778.
The History of Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wyoming Counties, published in 1880, records that Adam Wartman "was shot during a raid by a patriot scouting party," and provides the following details:
Zebulon Marcy was with one of these scouting parties a short distance above Tunkhannock ... "a tory by the name of Adam Wortman (a Dutchman) came out of his house armed with a gun. His wife8 called to him, 'Shoot, Adam! Shoot!' Adam fired, and the ball struck an old fashioned iron tobacco box in the vest pocket of Marcy and lodged, making an indentation of the size of the bullet but doing no other damage. One of the party fired, giving Wortman a mortal wound.
Other sources such as the "Early History of Putnam Township, Luzerne County" record that this incident occurred a few days before the Battle of Wyoming. These sources focus on Zebulon Marcy (1744-1824) who had settled at Tunkhannock before the Revolution but unlike many of his neighbours was a Patriot. In the spring of 1778 he had moved his family to the relative safety of Forty Fort where his daughter was born nine days before the Battle of Wyoming. Zebulon presumably was still out scouting when the battle occurred.
In the summer of 1778, Catharina and her children, like many of their neighbours, became Loyalist refugees. In his 1788 claim for losses, John Wartman reported:
He [Abraham] had mare & colt & Horse, yoke of oxen do of yearling, 2 Heifters, Sheep, Hogs, furniture & utensils. These things were taken soon after his Father & eldest Brother joined the Brit.—Witness & his Mother were at home & were obliged to quit & the Rebel took all the Things above mentioned.It is likely Catharina and the younger children "were obliged to quit" when Butler's Rangers withdrew back to Tioga after the Battle of Wyoming. From Tioga they would have then made there way to Fort Niagara.
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| Canal and Fort at Coteau-du-Lac |
Once the war ended, Abraham was granted 100 acres at Cataraqui. Abraham and his son Peter and John appear on the Muster of Loyalists & Disbanded Soldiers in Township No. 1 (Cataraqui) dated 8 Oct 1784. The muster notes that the family is on their land and that Peter and John have "gone to Coteau-du-Lac for their crop." The muster shows that Abraham had two male children living with him at that time, presumably Horace and Barnabas.
Abraham died at Cataraqui in 1787. Catharina survived him since John mentions her in the claim for losses.
Susanna Wartman would have first met John Secord when the Secords settled on the Susquehanna. The two were separated when John left the Susquehanna in the spring of 1777 to join the British at Fort Niagara, but they became reacquainted when Susanna's family left the Susquehanna for Fort Niagara a year later. John and Susanna presumably married at Fort Niagara after John's discharge from Butler's Rangers in October 1778, but before her family were sent to Montreal in 1779.
The following year, John and Susanna were with the group of families that began farming on the west side of the Niagara River, a group that included John's father and two of his uncles. The first of John and Susanna's seven children was born in 1780. By the time John and Susanna appear on the 1787 List of Disbanded Troops and Loyalists at Niagara they had three children and 12 acres of cleared fields.
During the War of 1812, John and Susanna suffered the loss of their home when the Americans pillaged and burned the town of Niagara as well as some of the neighbouring farms. John claimed £2222 in damages after the war.
John died in Kingston in 1830. Susanna died on 18 Nov 1842 at the home of her daughter Mary in St. Catharines.
1 Probably Alice Ruth Higgins (1896- ?), wife of Douglas Mackay. Douglas Mackay (1900-1938) was the author of The Honorable Company: A History of the Hudson's Bay Company, published in 1936. A second edition, revised by Alice, was published in 1949. The Wartman manuscript was likely written when Alice was an employee of James Richardson and Sons, whose founder, James Richardson (1819-1892) married Susanna Wartman (1831-1915), a great-granddaughter of Abraham Wartman.
2 Cataraqui became Kingston in 1788.
3 New General German Aristocracy Lexicon
4 Frieherr, the German equivalent of Baron, was considered part of the lower nobility or Niederer Adel.
5 Anglicized as Catherine Bowman.
6 "Report of the Board of Trade on the Settlement of Additional Palatines in New York." reprinted in O'Callaghan, Edmund Bailey, The Documentary History of the State of New York, Vol. 3. Albany: Weed, Parsons & Co., 1850, p. 384
7 Reprinted in Knittle, Walter Allen. Early Eighteenth Century Palatine Emigration: A British Government Redemptioner Project to Manufacture Naval Stores. Philadelphia: Dorrance, 1937
8 Likely his mother or sister because if Adam was born in 1763 then he would have been about 15 at the time of his death.
Sources:
Barker, William V. H. Early Families of Herkimer County, New York: Descendants of the Burnetsfield Palatines. Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, 1986
Dr. H. C. Burleigh fonds. Queens University Archives, Kingston.
Jones, J. Kelsey. Loyalist Plantations on the Susquehanna
Jones, Wayne V. The Stull Family: Julia Ann Stull (1814-1872) and her Ancestors. Self-published.
Knittle, Walter Allen. Early Eighteenth Century Palatine Emigration: A British Government Redemptioner Project to Manufacture Naval Stores. Philadelphia: Dorrance, 1937
Crowder, Norman K. Early Ontario Settlers: A Source Book. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1993.
Murray, Louise Welles. A History of Old Tioga Point and Early Athens, Pennsylvania. Raeder Press, Wilkes-Barr, Pennsylvania, 1908
Otterness, Philip. Becoming German: The 1709 Palatine Migration to New York. Cornell University Press, Ithica, New York, 2004
Penrose, Maryly B. Baumann/Bowman Family of Mohawk, Susquehanna & Niagara. Liberty Bell Associates, Franklin Park, New Jersey, 1977
Watt, Gavin K. Loyalist Refugees: Non-Military Refugees in Quebec 1776-1784. Global Heritage Press, Milton, Ontario, 2014
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