Michael Hess (1741 - 1808)

Ancestors Descendants

Biography

Michael Hess was born in 1741 in Williams Township, Pennsylvania, and baptised on July 26, 1741.^[1] All ten of his children with Gertraudt (possibly Van Cortlandt) were baptised in Upper Mt. Bethel Township, Northampton County.^[2] The taxation roll of 1780 for Mt. Bethel Township lists Michael as a shoemaker with property valued at £243. His cousin Christian, a farmer is also listed there.^[3]

Both men were members of the fifth company of the fifth battalion of militia of Northampton County in 1780 under the command of Captain Patrick Campbell.^[4]

Not long after, he and his wife decided to immigrate with their family to Upper Canada. They were one of the first settlers in the newly-surveyed township of Barton of 1788.^[5] He died there in 1804.^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ Lutheran Church Records of the Williams Township Congregation, Northhampton County, Pennsylvania, posted at http://www.frankenfield-beam.org/families/raub.htm
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Gallagher, John R., The Hess Family of Barton (Hamlton, Ontario: self-published, 1984)
3. ↑ Fritts, Peter. History of Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Illustrated, 1877, (Philadelphia and Reading: 1877), Chapter XXVII, Taxables in Northampton, 1780. Transcribed by Susan Walters: http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/northampton/davistoc.htm
4. ↑ Montgomery, Thomas Lynch. Muster Rolls relating to the Associators and Militia of the County of Northampton, Pennsylvania Archives, Fifth Series, Volume VIII, 1906 (Harrisburg, PA: Harrisburg Publishing Company), p. 381
5. ↑ Ontario Genealogical Society #4463 Hamilton Branch. Rymal, Barton Union, Old Barton, St. Peter’s Cemetery. (2nd edition, 1987), p. 4