Peter Finger (1730 - bef. 1792)

Born 1730 in Pleystein Upper Palatinate Bavaria Germany

Descendants

Died before Jun 1792 before age 62 in Lincoln County, North Carolina, United States

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Peter Finger was part of a Southern Pioneer Family. Join: Southern Pioneers Project Discuss: southern_pioneers

Biography

Peter Finger migrated from Germany to USA.

The clue to Peter Finger's identity is found on the ship list of the "St. Andrew" in 1749. He arrived with a large number of Mennonites, signing his name next to Mennonites from the same area of Germany where a Mennonite Finger family lived. I have traced Peter's family back a couple of generations to the year 1660. I plan on searching Swiss records in the near future to find more generations back. Most Mennonites who emigrated to Pennsylvania between the years 1717 and 1776 were from Swiss families who were exiled from Switzerland to Germany in the late 1600s. Although Peter was probably born into a Mennonite family, he left that faith sometime after his arrival in Pennsylvania. - Richard W. Davis

Found him on a ship's list with the following description:

"[List 128 C] At the Statehouse at Philadelphia, Saturday, the 9th Septr 1749. Present: The Honourable, the Governor. The Foreigners whose Names are underwritten, imported in the Ship Saint Andrew, James Abercrombie, Master, from Rotterdam, but last from Plymouth in England, did this day take the usual Qualifications to the Government.^[1]

Fortunately, about a lot of things conjecture isn't necessary. We know a good deal about Peter Finger virtually for certain. First, Peter Finger arrived in America on Sept. 9, 1749 along with about 400 other immigrants from the region of Germany known as the Palatinate (i.e. the plain spanning both sides of the Rhine River, generally centered around the cities of Worms, Mannheim, Heidelberg, and Speyer) aboard the ship St. Andrew, which had originally sailed from Rotterdam, Holland. As James Avery Finger IV has pointed out, a comparison of the signature of the Peter Finger on the Oath of Allegiance signed at the State House in Philadelphia on September 9, 1749 and the signature on the July 25, 1789 will of the Peter Finger who died in Lincoln Co., North Carolina in the summer of 1792 shows they belong to the same man. James displays both signatures side-by-side in his book, The Southern Finger Family: Peter Finger's Pumpkin Patch.

Peter Finger sailed to Pennsylvania aboard the ship St. Andrew, Galley, which was captained on his voyage by James Abercrombie. The St. Andrew was built in Philadelphia in 1733 and had a career in the North Atlantic spanning about twenty years. It was about 75' long and 21' in breadth, was three-masted with square-rigged sails, carried 20 guns (though only 8 prior to 1743), was specially fitted with accommodations for passengers, including compartments, and had a crew of fifteen. According to The Ship St. Andrew, Galley by Alfred T. Meschter, the St. Andrew's galley design and sail plan made it faster than the heavily armed naval vessels and bathtub-style cargo frigates prevalent at the time.

The St. Andrew typically carried naval stores of turpentine, pine pitch, tar, rice and deer hides to ports in Southern England from Charleston, South Carolina returning to Boston or Philadelphia with a passenger load of immigrants. It was designed to carry 150 tons of cargo or 250 to 300 passengers. According to the captain's list there were 400 persons aboard the St. Andrew when it landed in Philadelphia on September 9, 1749 - the most by a wide margin of all of its trips to America. Only 230 to 280 passengers were aboard the other recorded trans-Atlantic voyages of the St. Andrew.

Upon arrival in America, sailing from Rotterdam, Holland by way of Plymouth, England, Peter Finger and the other healthy adult male immigrants signed an Oath of Allegiance at the State House in Philadelphia. The captain's list states 111 passengers signed the oath, though I count 116 signatures. Peter's signature can be viewed in the book Pennsylvania German Pioneers by Ralph Strassburger and William Hinke.

Peter Finger's town or village of origin is unknown, though there is evidence he may have been from a Mennonite family that resided in the Palatinate villages of Wachenheim, Walsheim, and Osthofen beginning in the late seventeenth century (source: Palatine Mennonite Census Lists, 1664 - 1793 by Herman & Gertrude Guth). Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptists, named for one of their early leaders, Menno Simons (d. 1561). As Anabaptists, they do not believe in the efficacy of infant baptism. Other beliefs include pacifism, refusing to take oaths (i.e. swearing as proof of truth), and shunning other "worldly" groups and practices. The Amish, so-called after their founder Jacob Amman (d. 1730), split off from the Mennonites in 1693.

Children of Peter and Catherine Finger:

1. Jacob FINGER
2. Catharine Finger ^[2]
3. Johannes "John" FINGER
4. Elizabeth FINGER
5. Susannah FINGER
6. Daniel FINGER
7. Barbara FINGER
8. Heinrich FINGER
9. Margaret Finger ^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ Pennsylvania German Pioneers Pennsylvania German Pioneers contains the original lists of Palatine German pioneers who arrived at the port of Philadelphia from the years 1727 to 1808. Page 396 List #128 C.
2. ↑ "Pennsylvania, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Births and Baptisms, 1520-1999", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6CTY-4WZZ : Wed Oct 04 14:34:06 UTC 2023), Entry for Catharine Finger and Peter Finger, 14 Aug 1757.
3. ↑ "Pennsylvania Births and Christenings, 1709-1950", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V2FH-V25 : 15 February 2020), Peter Finger in entry for Margaretha Finger, 1776.

See also:

• "United States Census, 1790", , FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHKB-G4T : Thu Oct 05 21:12:26 UTC 2023), Entry for Peter Fengar, 1790.
• Find A Grave
• Who Was Peter Finger?
• Pennsylvania German Pioneers: A Publication of the Original Lists of Arrivals in the Port of Philadelphia from 1727 to 1808, Volume 44
• The Ship St. Andrew, Galley by Alfred T. Meschter, Schwenkfelder Library 1992
• List 128-C Pennsylvania State House The St. Andrew Galley
• The Southern Finger Family: Peter Finger's Pumpkin Patch by JA Finger
• 1732 Reconstructed Census of Mennonites from Geschichte der Bernischen Täufer by Ernst Müller 1895