Garret Enochson (1635)

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Michael Rowley [send private message]

Biography

Garret was born in 1635. He is the son of Unknown Enochson.

From: Swedish Colonial News, Volume 3, Number 3, Fall 2005, The Enochson Brothers and Their Swedish Descendents

During the week of 13 October 1738, Johan Dylander, the new pastor of Gloria Dei Church, recorded the receipt of 5 shillings for “the opening of a grave for a Dutch woman.” The woman was the old widow Gertrude Supplee, whose will, proved 20 November 1738, named two sons, Henry and David Enochson, and two daughters, Catharine Smith and Mary Griffith.

Gertrude was Swedish, not Dutch. But she knew Dutch well – she had married three Dutch-speaking husbands. Indeed, she was four times a widow. Born by estimation in 1650, she had first married Garret Enochson in 1669. Garret died before November 1677 and she next married Garret’s brother Harman Enochson. Harman was buried at Gloria Dei in 1699, and she next married the Finn Lasse Bärtilsson alias Parker, who died in 1705. Within a few years thereafter, she married Andreas Souplis, who was buried at Gloria Dei in early 1727. All of her children were by her first two husbands.

The Swedish churches on the Delaware accepted as members only those persons who were Swedish or who were married to Swedes. Gertrude and her three Dutch husbands were accepted as members only because of Gertrude’s Swedish credentials.

The brothers Garret and Harman Enochson first appear in surviving records in 1673 when they were renting land in Kingsessing. By that time, Gertrude had two sons, Enoch (named after Garret’s father) and Johan (named, we believe, after Gertrude’s father). It seems probable that her father was Hans Månsson who, around this time, deeded part of his large Aronameck estate in Kingsessing to Garret Enochson. (The names Johan and Hans are both derived from the name Johannes.)

Hans Månsson had arrived in New Sweden in 1641 with a wife and children, names unknown. His first wife died before 1654 when Hans married Ella Stille, widow of Peter Jochimsson. Gertrude Enochson’s first son, Enoch Enochson, was born in 1670. This places Gertrude’s birth year c. 1650. It is known that Hans had a son by his first marriage (Måns Hansson), but his daughters (if any) have not been identified before.

The Enochson Brothers

The Enochson brothers probably arrived on the Delaware in 1663-1664 among the many young farmers which the Dutch had recruited from the Netherlands, adjoining countries and even from Sweden, to develop agriculture on the river. It is probable that Garret Enochson married Gertrude around 1669. Their first son, Enoch Enochson, was born in 1670. Soon to follow was their second son, Johan Enochson.

Confirmation of the death of Garret Enochson is to be found in Nils Larsson Frände’s tax list of November 1677, naming all males sixteen and over within the jurisdiction of the Upland Court. The name of “ Harmon Ennis {Enochs}] ” is shown, but Garret’s name is missing.

Gertrude wasted little time in agreeing to marry Garret’s brother Harman. He remained on the land acquired from Hans Månsson until about 1683 when he moved with his wife, children and stepsons to join Matthias Keen at two plantations northeast of Philadelphia designated as “Enock & Keene” on Holmes’ 1685 map of Pennsylvania. That same map also showed “Enockson” owning land in Kingsessing – a reference to Garret Enochson’s son Enoch, then still a minor.

In 1684 Harmon Enoch was listed among those agreeing to contribute to the salary of the Swedish pastor at Wicaco, Jacob Fabritius. The 1693 tax list valued his land in Oxford Township at £60. With the arrival of a new minister from Sweden, Andreas Rudman, Herman Enoc (as Rudman spelled his name) pledged £3 for the construction of a new church at Wicaco. Rudman’s church accounts show that Herman Enoc was buried in late July 1699. Upon the completion of Gloria Dei Church in 1700, his family was assigned a pew. In 1704, as Herman Enoc’s widow, Gertrude gave 19 shillings and 7 pence towards the addition of brick porches to Gloria Dei Church.

Sources

• https://colonialswedes.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/SCNewsF05.pdf

• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:The_Enoch_Brothers_and_their_Swedish_Descendants