Johannes Jacob Peter Batdorf was born ca. 1671 in Darmstadt, in the current state of Hessen, Germany, and died in London, England in 1709.
He married Anna Maria Catharina Anspach. After his death, she married Johannes Zellar in 1712 in New York. She died in 1747/8 at Millbach, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. She was buried in the old Rieth's Church cemetery next to her second husband.
Johannes and Anna lived for several years in Palatine, Germany, where their five children were born.
In the summer of 1708, Johannes and family fled religious persecution and wars, and left their home in the small village of Badorf, near Stuttgart, in the current state of Baden-Wurttenberg, Germany. They traveled by boat down the Rhine River to Rotterdam, Holland, then traveled by boat to England to await further transportation to America.
Like the Hans Adam Walborn family with whom they had become acquainted, and with whose children their children would marry, they joined thousands of others who took advantage of Queen Anne's offer of transportation to America, with the intention of establishing a colony in the present state of New York.
Johannes died in London before the journey to America by his family began, and three of the five children died enroute or shortly after arriving in New York on Jun 10, 1710.
When the boat landed, the passengers set up tents that they had brought with them from England, and lived in them. They remained until late autumn, when about fourteen hundred of them, including our Batdorf and Walborn families, were moved a hundred miles up the Hudson River to Livingston Manor. (Today, there is a town of Livingstonville in Schoharie County.)
The three surviving members of this family lived at Livingston Manor, New York for two years until Governor Hunter refused to pay the bill for their subsistence because the English Crown was slow in reimbursing him. Consequently, Anna and the two children joined a group of about 150 Germans, including the Walborns, and moved about 60 miles northwest to Schoharie Valley to New Annsburg (sometimes called Schmidsdorf), pulling their belongings on crude sleds through a forest and over three feet of snow without horses or roads. It took them three weeks to travel the 60 miles.
About this time (1712), Anna Maria Catharina married Johannes Georg Zellar. He was born in 1686 in France and died in 1737 about the age of 51. He was the younger son of Jacques de Sellaire and Clothelde de Valois.
After living in Schoharie about ten years, 33 families (150 people), including the Battdorfs and Walborns, had their land and improvements taken away from them because of some defect in their land titles. About this time, Governor Keith of Pennsylvania visited them and invited them to Pennsylvania.
In late winter, 1722, the group began the journey, travelling by a well-known and much used route down 300 miles of the Susquehanna River on crude flatboats and canoes. The cattle were driven along the riverbanks. They arrived at the mouth of the Swatara Creek, now Middletown, in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, about May 19, 1723. By Jun, 1723, they had traveled up the Swatara Creek and landed at their destination, about fifteen miles west of Reading to a point near Jonestown in the western part of what is now Lebanon county. From there they made their way on foot across the country to the Tulpehocken region, east of Stouchsburg. At that time there were no roads in the area. Indians guided their entire journey and became their neighbors.
The tract of land settled by this group was about ten thousand acres in the Tulpehocken and Lebanon Valleys. Deeds were procured from the three Penns: John, Thomas, and Richard.
Anna Maria Catherina and Johannes Zellar squatted on land which is now called Millbach in Lebanon County.
The two children of Johannes Jacob Peter Batdorf and Anna Maria Catharina Anspach who survived the voyage to America were:
* i Catharina Elisabetha, b. ca. 1697, confirmed Mar 23, 1712, m. Christian Wilhelm Walborn on Dec 11, 1717, d. 1764
ii Johannes Martin, b. Sep 1698, m. Maria Elisabeth Walborn, sister of Christian Wilhelm Walborn on Jul 18, 1720, d. Apr, 1787
Johannes Jacob Peter Batdorf was born ca. 1671 in Darmstadt, in the current state of Hessen, Germany, and died in London, England in 1709.
He married Anna Maria Catharina Anspach. After his death, she married Johannes Zellar in 1712 in New York. She died in 1747/8 at Millbach, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania. She was buried in the old Rieth's Church cemetery next to her second husband.
Johannes and Anna lived for several years in Palatine, Germany, where their five children were born.
In the summer of 1708, Johannes and family fled religious persecution and wars, and left their home in the small village of Badorf, near Stuttgart, in the current state of Baden-Wurttenberg, Germany. They traveled by boat down the Rhine River to Rotterdam, Holland, then traveled by boat to England to await further transportation to America.
Like the Hans Adam Walborn family with whom they had become acquainted, and with whose children their children would marry, they joined thousands of others who took advantage of Queen Anne's offer of transportation to America, with the intention of establishing a colony in the present state of New York.
Johannes died in London before the journey to America by his family began, and three of the five children died enroute or shortly after arriving in New York on Jun 10, 1710.
When the boat landed, the passengers set up tents that they had brought with them from England, and lived in them. They remained until late autumn, when about fourteen hundred of them, including our Batdorf and Walborn families, were moved a hundred miles up the Hudson River to Livingston Manor. (Today, there is a town of Livingstonville in Schoharie County.)
The three surviving members of this family lived at Livingston Manor, New York for two years until Governor Hunter refused to pay the bill for their subsistence because the English Crown was slow in reimbursing him. Consequently, Anna and the two children joined a group of about 150 Germans, including the Walborns, and moved about 60 miles northwest to Schoharie Valley to New Annsburg (sometimes called Schmidsdorf), pulling their belongings on crude sleds through a forest and over three feet of snow without horses or roads. It took them three weeks to travel the 60 miles.
About this time (1712), Anna Maria Catharina married Johannes Georg Zellar. He was born in 1686 in France and died in 1737 about the age of 51. He was the younger son of Jacques de Sellaire and Clothelde de Valois.
After living in Schoharie about ten years, 33 families (150 people), including the Battdorfs and Walborns, had their land and improvements taken away from them because of some defect in their land titles. About this time, Governor Keith of Pennsylvania visited them and invited them to Pennsylvania.
In late winter, 1722, the group began the journey, travelling by a well-known and much used route down 300 miles of the Susquehanna River on crude flatboats and canoes. The cattle were driven along the riverbanks. They arrived at the mouth of the Swatara Creek, now Middletown, in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, about May 19, 1723. By Jun, 1723, they had traveled up the Swatara Creek and landed at their destination, about fifteen miles west of Reading to a point near Jonestown in the western part of what is now Lebanon county. From there they made their way on foot across the country to the Tulpehocken region, east of Stouchsburg. At that time there were no roads in the area. Indians guided their entire journey and became their neighbors.
The tract of land settled by this group was about ten thousand acres in the Tulpehocken and Lebanon Valleys. Deeds were procured from the three Penns: John, Thomas, and Richard.
Anna Maria Catherina and Johannes Zellar squatted on land which is now called Millbach in Lebanon County.
The two children of Johannes Jacob Peter Batdorf and Anna Maria Catharina Anspach who survived the voyage to America were:
* i Catharina Elisabetha, b. ca. 1697, confirmed Mar 23, 1712, m. Christian Wilhelm Walborn on Dec 11, 1717, d. 1764
ii Johannes Martin, b. Sep 1698, m. Maria Elisabeth Walborn, sister of Christian Wilhelm Walborn on Jul 18, 1720, d. Apr, 1787
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