| Notes |
- http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~blogan/newsl.html
Van Bibber Pioneers Electronic Newsletter
Volume 1, Number 1 · November 1996
AN EARLY VAN BIBBER FAMILY
By Bruce E. Logan Jr. blogan@zoomnet.net
The Van Bibber family that was the first to settle in the New World was the family of Isaacs Jacob Van Bibber who came to Philadelphia in 1687. He came to America to prepare the way for his parents and the rest of the family that would soon follow. The Van Bibbers were residents of Krefeld (now Germany) and had been persecuted in Europe because they were followers of Menno Simons. Other Mennonites from Krefeld had come to Philadelphia in 1684 at the invitation of William Penn including Herman op den Graff, who was the husband of two of the sisters of Isaacs Jacob. Isaacs Jacob Van Bibber moved to Germantown (now a suburb of Philadelphia) and was engaged in commerce.
It was not long before the rest of the family immigrated to Germantown and resided there and in Philadelphia until moving to Cecil County Maryland. While in Germantown the family got involved in a religious dispute and perhaps that is what caused the migration to Maryland.
Jacob Isaac Van Bibber, b. ca. 1640, d. Sept. 1705, Cecil Co., MD
m. Christina Unknown, b. ca. 1640, d. 4 Sept. 1711, Cecil Co., MD
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Van Bibber Pioneers Electronic Newsletter
Volume 1, Number 2 · December 1996
The VAN BEBBERs were originally Mennonites, and came to this Province as such at an early date. The first to arrive was Isaac Jacob VAN BEBBER in 1684. He was a native of Crefeldt on the Rhine. In 1687 he was joined by his father, Jacob Isaac VAN BEBBER, and his brother Matthias, and later by other members of the family.
They first settled in Germantown, but did not all remain there. The elder removed to Philadelphia in 1698 and engaged in mercantile pursuits. Matthias settled on the Schippach in 1702, and in 1704, together with his elder brother Isaac Jacob, and a number of others from Germantown, removed to the Bohemia Manor.
From the fact that these men are frequently referred to as Isaac Jacobs, Jacob Isaacs and Matthias Jacobs, some writers have assumed that they were German Jews. Such, however, is not the case. They were Mennonites, but, like many others of the early settlers, after their sojourn in the Province, they became somewhat unsettled as to their faith. This is shown by the report sent by Johnan Gottfried SEELIG, one of the original Pietists, who arrived in 1694, to SPENER, wherein, writing of Jacob Isaac VAN BEBBER, he states: "He was formerly a Mennonite, but he desirtes to depart with his whole house, to acknowledge and abandon the follies, scandals, shortcomings and stains of his former religion."
It was this spiritual unrest which evidently induced the VAN BEBBERs to remove to the Bohemia Manor, where at that time the Labidist Community was at the height of its development.
Upon the arrival of the party at the Bohemia Manor they at once stated to erect several buildings, the chief one being known as the "Great House."
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Abt 1640 - 1705 (~ 65 years)
