Dr
Franz
Daniel
(Francis)
Pastorius
Born in Sommerhausen, Reichsgrafschaft Limpurg, Heiliges Römisches Reich
Ancestors 
Son of Melchior Adam Pastorius
and Magdalena Dietz
Brother of
Susanna Eva Pastorius [half], Johann Samuel Pastorius [half], Anna Catharina Pastorius [half], Margaretha Barbara Pastorius [half] and Augustin Adam Pastorius [half]
Husband of
Änneke (Klostermann) Pastorius
— married
26 Nov 1688 in Germantown, Philadelphia County, Province of Pennsylvania
Descendants 
Father of
Johann Samuel Pastorius and Heinrich Melchior Pastorius
Died about
at about age 68
in Germantown, Philadelphia Co, Province of Pennsylvania
Profile last modified
| Created 16 Jun 2014
This page has been accessed 2,338 times.
| Francis Pastorius was a part of William Penn's Pennsylvania Settlers community. Join: William Penn and Early Pennsylvania Settlers Project Discuss: penn |
Contents |
Biography
Francis Pastorius is Notable.
"Dr. Franz Daniel Pastorius, born in Sommerhausen in Franconia on September 26, 1651, is a name that marks the beginning of German immigration to North America. He was the leader of the 13 families from Krefeld who, at the urging of the Quaker leader, William Penn, landed in Philadelphia on October 16, 1683. Philadelphia at that time had only two streets.
The ship on which these first German settlers arrived, the "Concord," has been called the German "Mayflower." Pastorius founded Germantown, now a part of Philadelphia, which became the center for Germans who, like Pastorius, had been persecuted in their homeland because of their religion. The first German settlers were Pietists, who soon became Quakers in America.
Pastrorius was a lawyer, mayor and teacher, and founded the first evening school for adults. He was also a poet, the first in the New World. He became a friend of Penn's and an untiring helper of new immigrants. To him we owe our precise records of the first German settlement: "We called the place Germantown (in English). Some gave it the name Poor-town. It may niether be described or believed by posterity under what conditions of need and poverty but with what Christian serenity and untiring industry this German township was founded..."
He described the town seal to his father as "a grapevine, a sprig of flax and a weaver's spool with the inscription 'vinum, linum et textrinum' to show that here people earn their living honorably and under God through growing grapes and flax, and through workmanship." On November 16, 1684, Pastorius organized the first fair in Philadelphia which became the model for the American country fair. Earnings were small, "because the newcomers from Germany and England usually bring so much clothing with them that they need no more for several years..." This situation soon changed, and cloth from Germantown was sold to New York and Boston.
On February 18, 1688, Pastorius and three of his fellow citizens made the first protest against Negro slavery, even though they knew some of their Quaker friends owned slaves. From that time on, slave-holding was not allowed in any of the German religious colonies, even in the South, and was also forbidden in most other German settlements. In 1771, this protest was reflected in Pennsylvania law prohibiting the import of Negroes and Indians into the colony. The London Parliament, however, declared this law void.
Pastorius' work, "Beehive," is a kind of encyclopedia in Latin, German, English and Dutch, full of good advice and humor. His poem, "Salve Posteritas," addressed to posterity, reveals his ties to the home of his fathers. In the version by the Quaker poet Whittier, under the title "The Pennsylvania Pilgram," it became one of the classics of American writing.
Pastorius was held in high esteem by all the citizens of Germantown when he died in 1719."
Francis Daniel Pastorius drafted the 1688 Germantown Quaker Petition Against Slavery.
On June 10, 1683, Pastorius left England for Pennsylvania aboard the ship America and arrived in Philadelphia on 20 August 1683.[1]
Birth
- Birth:
- Date: 26 September 1651
- Place: Sommerhausen, Franconia, Germany[2]
Marriage
1688 - [3]
Death
- Death: Age: 68
- Date: 1 January 1720
- Place: Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA[4]
Burial
- Burial:
- Place: Germantown, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA[5]
- Place: Germantown, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA[5]
He died February 27, 1719. There is no stone to mark his grave and no man knows where his bones lie. [6]
Sources
- Gerard Wilk, Americans from Germany, German Information Center, Second printing 1987(copywrite 1976), pg.39
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Daniel_Pastorius
http://www.ushistory.org/germantown/people/pastorius.htm
https://archive.org/stream/cu31924028830649/cu31924028830649_djvu.txt
- Source: S-180595580 Repository: #R-797770501 Title: Web: Pennsylvania, Find A Grave Index, 1682-2012 Author: Ancestry.com Publication: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. APID: 1,70573::0
- [B02] Pennypacker, S. W. (1899). The settlement of Germantown, Pennsylvania, and the beginning of German immigration to North America. Lancaster, Pa: The Society. [1] [2]
Import of James Edmondson family tree(4).ged on Jun 1, 2014.
Other Resources
- [OR01] Dates:Two things to be aware of - Quakers didn't use the names of months, just the numbers (7 8m 1742 for example), and until 1752, "8m" would have been October, not August, since the year started in March (1m).[3]
- ↑ http://www2.hsp.org/collections/manuscripts/p/Pastorius0475.html
- ↑ Source: #S-180595580 APID: 1,70573::6324839
- ↑ Source: #B02 Pennypacker, p. 79.
- ↑ Source: #S-180595580 APID: 1,70573::6324839
- ↑ Source: #S-180595580 APID: 1,70573::6324839
- ↑ Source: #B02 Pennypacker, p. 79.
See also:
Acknowledgments
Thank you to James Edmondson for creating Pastorius-47 on 01 June 2014.
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P > Pastorius > Franz Daniel Pastorius
Categories: Germantown, Pennsylvania | Abolitionists | Quaker Abolitionists | America, sailed June 1683 | William Penn and Early Pennsylvania Settlers Project | United States of America, Notables | Notables
Pastorius was a devout man, he had an uncle who was a Roman Catholic bishop, the Frankfurt businessmen he initially represented were Pietists, and Penn and (most of) the Krefelders were Quakers. He was comfortable and made welcome amongst all these groups. Perhaps it was more important to him that individuals had the right to worship God in whatever manner they chose, rather than being ideologically bound to one particular doctrine. I do not doubt that he would have joined in Friends meetings in Germantown, without necessarily defining himself as a Friend in the religious sense.
His role as "leader of the Krefelders" should not be overstated, certainly once they arrived in Pennsylvania he was a familiar face who already had a couple of months experience settling in, who could tell them where they should go and what they had to do, and he was undoubtedly their most powerful advocate in ensuring a homogenous German-speaking settlement rather than a shared melting pot. But before the voyage they only had brief dealings. It was the Frankfurt Group of Pietists that brought him to Pennsylvania. He only briefly "touched base" with the Krefelders before setting off himself and it isn't clear how much he was involved in the deals between the original six investors and Penn, if at all. Most of it would have gone through "Quaker channels" (Penn, his representatives and Claypoole who chartered the ship) of which (it seems) Pastorius was not a component. He certainly knew the Krefelders were coming, and the timing of their arrival was convenient in forwarding his own agenda of a dedicated German-speaking settlement. Penn would have found his investors and settlers with or without Pastorius (the Frankfurt group ultimately fell through, after all) but the appealing concept of Germantown and the marketing advantages it offered all came from Pastorius, and the Krefelders' timely arrival gave both men something to build on.
The article rightly points out how crazy it seems from our perspective that a successful, obviously talented lawyer should abandon his home, his career, the very systems that made his career possible and throw his lot in with essentially a religious sect - to which he did not even subscribe - to build a new town, a new country from scratch. Pastorius had seen the cost of religious wars first hand - his grandfather was murdered - and he clearly found a fellow traveller in Penn, whose ideas of freedom, equality and tolerance clearly chimed.
I just found your profile for Francis Pastorius. I missed finding it because I used his German birth name. Anyway, I would like our profiles to be merged. I have a decent biography written up and you have all the proper family connections. Thanks for your time!
Christian