Caspair or Casper or Caspari Learner

Notes for CASPAIR LERNER:

the learn name was spelt variously. research has encountered such variations as lam, larne, lamer, larnards, lamed,leme, lemer, lernes and learner. considering the language barrier faced by german speaking immigrants in english - speaking philadelphia, it is understandable that there was confusion. english speaking clerks, listening to the

german immigrants wrote down what they thought they herd, however learn is the most common and presumably "correct" spelling and that form has been used consistently in this account.

 there is also a hint that learn might have been related to the english lardner family. lynford lardner whose father was a dr. john lardner of london, accompanied thomas penn to the 1751 peace conference with indian tribal leaders some of whom were not pleased with the outcome. there was a story associated with that conference that

all of the settlers who took part were killed or visited by indians into the next generation. because of john learn's death in 1781 one speculation was that john learn ( lardner) was the son of lynford lardner and that the indians had set out to " get" his family geography reinforces this connection.

 Lynford lardner received a 3000 acre grant of land in jackson twp. Pennsylvania in the middle of indian hunting grounds, and other lands in whitehall twp. lehigh county, 

tanners wie, where john learn settled is very close to lynford larndner's jackson twp. holding .

john lean the original settler has not been found in any of the normal documets regarding immigration - passegers lists, oaths of allegiance records or ports of entry lists. we don't know when or why he came to america . according to a number of accounts he lived in philadelphia for a time before venturing north to the forests of the Pocono Mountains which were still inhabited by the Delaware indians in the 1700's . The history of Monroe County

about the year 1750, john lamer (lean) fomerly of philadelphia , purchased the land now embraced in the village of tannerville. he found it avast wilderness but with the aid of his sons soon effected a clearing and erected for his family a comfortable abode . he proceeded to the cultivation of the land and obtained abundant crops as the reward for his labour. his children settled around him and devoted their energies to farming pursuits.

  the Jordon genealogy states " john learn settled at a place now called tannersville in monroe county pennsylvania. he purchased a large tract of land and his house was located on the present site of (brown's hotel)."no longer in exsistance"

 The will of the first learn. john , is also a clue to nationality. in may 1777 some four years before his death john learn made a will. he was ill but he subsequently recovered . in that document he named  all eleven children and spells the name of two of them in the dutch or german fashion. his daughter is recorded as caderina, ( named after his wife) this subsequently became catharine and andreas, the german spelling subsequently became

andrew.

 Other obvious connections with the german- speaking and mennonite community in pennylvania are the marriages of his children with families with surnames like brinker, rumage , everhard, miller, romig, maier, zavitz, youckey

and schooley.

The extent and precise location of the lands owned by the first learn settlers has not been discovered. a patent dated june 1785 for land in pocono twp. is to john learn but this must have been the son of the original. simialarly a john learn is listed among the name of earlier settlers in smithfield twp as a "taxable inhabitant" in 1786 and had

55 acres. both of these are probably the john learn who was born in 1756 son of john the of tannersvile.

  John and Cadarina Lean settled at Tannerville Monroe County around 1750 having "come form philadelphia". they had probably just married. There is no information about Cadarina's surname or parnets. their eleven children were born between january 1751 and september 1769, presumably all at tannerville . the oldest , George was 30

years old when he and his father were killed by indians. the next oldest sons. John and Jacob, stayed in pennsylvania. two younger sons, Andrew and Peter both left Pennsylvania, Andrew to indiana and Peter coming to Welland County upper Canada. At this time his sister's migrated to Canada with the Zavitz clan . the youngest in the

family were twins. a girl Sarah and boy Adam. There has been no information found on them or their older sisters Mary , Rachel, and Rebecca.

reference to the offsping of the original john learn : from the archives of pennsylvania under Northampton county warranties 3rd series ( 1752- 1886)

john learn , senior, 15 acres, ( survey june 22 1818)

john learn jr. 120 acres

john learn 100 acres ( dated of survey april 12 1822)

all of these appear under the heading warranties of land

another record shows a warrant dated xx , 13 1786 granted to jocob learn covering 105 acres. deed dated may 9 1823 conveyed the same to andre learn .

the first 1790 census of the united states comprises the enumeration of those in seventeen states. for Northampton co. Lower Smithfield township Pa.

there is the Jacob Learn, 2 free white males of 16 years and upward, 1 free white

male under 16 years, free white females.

"the parents of Johann Martin Lerner , born 16 december 1719 in Heiligenstein (not heligenstein )to Casper lerner and Maria Catharina Meyer, married on 23 may 1719.

Maria Catharina Lerner died on may 7 1743 at age of 40 years .

the first wife of Casper Lerner, Catharina Happenschuss was born on 20 march 1716 in

Heiligenstein and died there on january 29 1760 . Casper Lerner died on 28 may 1773.