Christophel Jacobi

The Jacobi family information is from a manuscript by Oda Katherine Jacoby Birkett entitled The Jacoby's, Schneiders, and other Related Families of the Germantown and Philadelphia Area printed in 1991. Christophel may be the son of a Martin Jacoby of Obermiessau. He left there in 1735 with sisters Eva Posina and Catharina, traveling down the Rhine like so many other Palatinates to Rotterdam, seeking passage first to Cowes, England, for clearance papers, and then on to Philadelphia. They arrived on the ship Nancy on September 20, 1739. He settled in Germantown, where he met his wife Johanna Elizabeth. They soon became associated with St. Michael's Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germantown, where they were active throughout their lives. They were confirmed on Dec. 25, 1751, and he was a trustee in 1765. Christopher Jacoby, as his name was anglicized, was naturalized in 1740. He is listed as a Lutheran from Germantown, and a stocking weaver. In addition, from notices in the Pennsylvania Gazette and Sower's Germantown newspaper we find he sells peas by the bushel or barrel, also bacon and French indigo. He was elected an officer of the Upper Ward of the Germantown fire department in 1768. From the 1769 tax list we find he has 1 1/2 acres and one head of cattle. He also is a subscriber for the Upper Germantown Burying Ground known as Ax's Cemetery in 1760. Church records show he was buried there in 1786, aged 77 years, 7 months, 18 days. They were sponsors at the baptisms of their Bergenthaler grandchildren at both St. Michael's and the church at Trappe.

The will of Christopher Jacoby names his daughter Susanna, wife Elizabeth, and grandson John Jacoby, son of Michael, deceased. They also had a son Christopher who died before he did. In fact, the brothers both died in 1777 during a time when the British were raiding the countryside for provisions, and for a time, American liberty sympathizers were seeking refuge at St. Michael's Church. Both Michael and Christopher, sons of Christophel, were involved in manufacturing gunpowder and gunstocks in Philadelphia for our colonial armies.

credit: another researcher Gene Rooks on ancestry.com