Jacob Neff (bef. 1724 - 1793)

Born before 29 Feb 1724 in Zell, Zürich, Switzerland

Ancestors

Died 27 Sep 1793 after age 69 in Oxford Township, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, United States

Biography

Jacob Neff migrated from Switzerland to Colonial America.

Jacob Neff performed Patriotic Service in Pennsylvania in the American Revolution.

Jacob Neff is a DAR Patriot Ancestor, A204722.

Jacob Neff was baptized in Zell, Canton Zürich, Switzerland, on 29 February 1724. He was the son of Hans Naef and Elisabeth Stadelmann. ^[1]

Jacob died 27 September 1793 in Oxford Township, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. He was buried two days later in Frankford Presbyterian Graveyard, Frankford, Philadelphia Co. PA ^[1]

Jacob Neff married Anna Buser on 3 February 1756 in Germantown Reformed Church, Philadelphia County. She was born 24 June 1739, and died 24 February 1805 in oxford Township, Philadelphia County. ^[1]

Note: Dates used are from "Three Näf Brothers from Zell: Jacob, Rudolf, and Ulrich", A three part series published in Neff News in Feb 1998, May 1998, and Feb 1999

Jacob and his younger brother Rudolph emigrated from Switzerland to America and arrived at Philadelphia aboard the ship Priscilla taking an Oath of Allegiance on September 11, 1749.

Excerpts from "Mittelberger's Journey to PA in 1750"

This journey lasts from the beginning of May to the end of October, fully half a year.

During the voyage there is on board these ships terrible misery, stench, fumes, horror, vomiting, many kinds of sea sickness, fever, dysentery, headache, heat, constipation, boils, scurvy, cancer, mouthrot, and the like, all of which comes from old and sharply salted food and meat

The water which is served out on the ships is often very black, thick and full of worms, so that one cannot drink it without loathing, even with the greatest thirst...

Many sigh and cry: 'Oh, that I were home again [even] if I had to lie in my pigsty!'

The lice abound so frightfully, especially on sick people, that they can be scraped off the body...

... children from 1 to 7 years rarely survive the voyage... no less than 32 children in our ship (died and were) thrown into the sea.

We Subscribers, Natives and late Inhabitants of the Palatinate upon the Rhine and Places Adjacent, having transported Ourselves and Families into this Province of Pennsylvania, a Colony subject to the Crown of Great Britain, in Hopes and Expectation of finding a Retreat and Peaceable Settlement therein, Do Solemnly Promise and Engage, that We will be faithful and bear true Allegiance to his present MAJESTY, KING GEORGE THE SECOND and his Successors, Kings of Great Britain, and will be faithful to the Proprietor of this Province; And that we will demean ourselves peaceably to all His said Majesty's Subjects, and strictly observe and conform to the Laws of England and of this Province, to the utmost of our Power and best of our understanding.

They brought with them 250 Gulden minus a 10 per-cent tax. This money was probably from their father's estate. (He had died the year before, 1748.) They settled in Frankford, a part of Philadelphia.

In December of 1762 Jacob Neff purchased 100 acres of land from Philip Syng, a silver smith of Philadelphia City in Oxford Twp., Philadelphia Co. PA. (Philadelphia Deed Book H-16, p. 335. The deed was dated 17 Dec 1762 and recorded 22 Dec 1762.)

On April 3, 1763, he became a naturalized citizen.

Jacob Neff of Oxford Twp., wheelwright, and other, is listed on the property deed for the Frankford Church on October 12, 1769. The dedication of the church was in 1770 and he was listed as a contributor. The burying grounds are located behind the church and include the illegible stones of Jacob and Rudolph.

Jacob and Hannah (Buser) Neff had seven children from 1756 to 1776. Elizabeth (Christopher Madera/Madeira); David; Jacob; Esther; Anna (David Newell); Jacob (Mary Wolfe); Rudolph (Margaret Rugan)

Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania, Volumes I-III, by Jonathan Cilley Neff:

Johan Rudolph Neff and his brother, Jacob Neff, or Naff, as their name was then spelled, arrived in Philadelphia in the ship "Priscilla" from Rotterdam, Holland, and took the required oath of allegiance to the British Crown and the Provincial government of Pennsylvania, September 11, 1749. They were respectively twenty-five and twenty-one years of age, and are said to have been natives of the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland, where their parents, of whom they were younger sons, had died a few years previously. They were both naturalized at a Supreme Court held at Philadelphia, April 11, 1763, as "Rudolph Neff, of Northern Liberties", and "Jacob Neff, of Oxford", both in Philadelphia county; their names appearing in the anglicized form thereafter used by them and their descendants. They had settled soon after their arrival at Frankford, Philadelphia county, and were members of the Market Square Dutch Reformed Church in Germantown, where they held membership until 1770, when with several other German settlers in and about Frankford, they organized a German Calvinist Church at Frankford, and erected the church now known as the Frankford Presbyterian Church. Jacob Neff, the younger of the brothers, died September 3, 1793, and is buried in the graveyard of the Frankford Church he helped to found a quarter of a century before.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Neff Family Historical Society H-Line

• Source: Herr, Theodore W., "Genealogical record of Reverend Hans Herr and his direct lineal descendants : from his birth A.D. 1639 to the present time containing the names, etc. of 13223 persons," Lancaster, PA: T.W. Herr, Examiner Printing House; ©1908
• Source: Book Author: William A. Neff Periodical: Neff-Näf Family Publication: Neff & Associates (Princeton NJ), 1991 Page: 421-428 Data Changed: Date: 10 MAY 2014
• Source: Swiss Research and translation by Dr. Hans Ulrich Pfister, Staatsarchiv des Kanton Zürich, Published in Neff News, a Newsletter for Neff and Related Families. "Three Näf Brothers from Zell: Jacob, Rudolf, and Ulrich". A three part series published in Feb 1998, May 1998, and Feb 1999
• Find A Grave: Memorial #99407018 for Jacob Neff, buried at Presbyterian Church of Frankford Cemetery, Frankford, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA (Retrieved June 28, 2017), maintained by the Neff Association.
• Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Genealogical Research Databases, database online, (http://www.dar.org/ : accessed Jun 23, 2017), "Record of Jacob Neff", Ancestor # A204722.