Hermanus Custer, Sr.

Hermanus Custer (Kester) Sr.

• Son of Johannes Kuster and Elizabeth Cassell
• Birth: November 02, 1703 in Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
• Death: May 11, 1763 (59) in Bradford City, Bradford, Pennsylvania, United States
• Place of Burial: Bradford Cemetery, Bradford City, Bradford, Pennsylvania, United States
• He was apparently named for his uncle Hermanus Küster.
• Hermanus was the brother of Paul Kester3. After Paul died at an early age in the late 1740s, Hermanus took in three of Paul's four children. The fourth, William was raised by another Quaker family in Chester County. Hermanus and his family may have lived in Chester County around that time as well.
• The Kester family later moved further up and across the Delaware River from Philadelphia to the Kingwood Monthly Meeting in Hunterdon County, New Jersey,[Hunt 306], perhaps as early as 1733.
• Hermanus' daughter Elizabeth, married his nephew William in 1756 at the Kingwood Monthly Meeting.
• At least four of Hermanus' children (Susannah, Samuel, John, and Hermanus (Jr.) and two of his brother Paul's children (Rebecca, and John) married spouses from among two sets of Webster siblings, those of brothers Benjamin and Joseph Webster, sons of William H. and Mary (Williams) Webster.

Spouse

• Married: Anne Large in 1733, at the Chesterfield Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends ("Quakers") in Burlington County, New Jersey.[White 139, Hunt 305] They had ten children and raised two nephews and a niece after his younger brother Paul3 died.[White 140]

Children

• Susanna Kester; b 10 Nov 1733
• Elizabeth Kester; b 25 Jun 1735, married her cousin William Kester in 1756 at the Kingwood Monthly Meeting.
• Samuel Kester; b 26 Nov 1737
• John Kester; b 21 Jan 1739/40
• Rebecca Kester; b 16 Apr 1742
• Hermanus Kester (Jr.), b 17 Jul 1744
• Peter Kester; b 4 Jan 1746/47
• Paul Kester; b 26 May 1749
• Thomas Kester; 24 Nov 1752
• Margaret Kester; b 10 Jun 1755

History of Hermanus and his daughter Elizabeth,

William Kester, a son of Paul and Ruth (Kitchen) Kester, was born in the vicinity of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, about the year 1733. His first name was probably given him from his mother's family, as William was a common name among the Kitchens of that period. It is said that Williams's father died when he was quite young; and that "some kind-hearted Quakers took him away; presumably to live with them and it is probable that he was living during his minority with these Quaker people in Chester County, Pennsyvania, for it is know that his brothers, Samuel and John and sister, Rebecca, were all residing in that county at a later date, and that he himself was identified , or at least acquainted with the members of the Sadsbury Monthly meeting as a member, but the minutes of the Kingwood, New Jersey, Monthly Meeting show that he came there on the 11th day, the 3rd month 1756, by a letter of recommendation from the Sadsbury Meeting. His reasons for thus moving from the vicinity of Sadsbury, Pennsylvania, to Kingwood, New Jersey, are indicated by the fact that he had shortly before that time become of age and that his uncle Hermanus Kester, and family and his brother John and sister Rebecca (both minors who had evidently taken up their abode with their uncle Hermanus after the death of their father) were all members of the Kingwood Monthly Meeting. William's uncle, Hermanus Kester, had a daughter, Elizabeth born on the 25th day, the 6th month, 1735, and to her was doubtless married, as the Kingwood records show that on the 14th day of the 10th month, 1756 "William Kester and Elizabeth Kester, first cousins," were brought before the meeting for marrying, and as no further mention is made of them in the minutes of that meeting, it is supposed they were "cut off" and dropped from the membership as it was against the rules of the Friends for first cousins to marry. Some years later William Kester moved to Virginia or Maryland. It is not known for certain in which state he located, but probably,he first settled in Virginia and afterwards moved to Maryland. The boundary line between these two States in those times was in dispute, and this may account for the fact that some of his descendants say he resided in Virginia, and others say he lived in Maryland. However, this may be it is known that between 1781 and 1786, he was living near Cumberland, Maryland, as the family of his daughter Elizabeth have preserved the history that she married Edmund Liston there in 1781 and located under the Laurel Hills on George's Creek, southwest of Cumberland and that William and his whole family immigrated from that vicinity to Kentucky in the year 1786. The account of that trip given on another page ( see appendix III) of this volume shows that they went from Maryland overland to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania and thence by the Ohio river on a flat boat, landing where Louisville, Kentucky now stands, in the month of April 1786. From that date he and his children lived in Nelson County until 1795, when they moved to near Elk Creek in Shelby, now Spencer County Kentucky, where he remained until his death. William was married a second time, probably in New Jersey, about 1762, to a widow, Ferguson, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Lacock (see Appendix I and L), who died in Spencer County Kentucky, about 1805-10, and he was married again about 1813, (see Appendix IV), to a widow, Stiglar, whose maiden name was Sarah Martin, and who had been married twice before, her first husband being John Pound, the common ancestor of the Pound Family found in this volume. At the time of this last marriage, William was Eighty and his wife Seventy-five year of age, and they were then living with their children, John and Sarah (Pound) Kester, and remained there until they died. He and his third wife both died at the age of eighty-seven years and are buried at the Elk Creek, Spencer County, Kentucky USA. His five children on by his first wife and four by the second wife.

This source came from: The Pound and Kester Families: Containing an account of the ancestry of John Pound, Page 306-308- https://archive.org/stream/poundkesterfamil1904hunt#page/306/mode/1up

Sources

• The settlement of Germantown, Pennsylvania, and the beginning of German emigration to Germantown-https://archive.org/stream/settlementofgerm01penn#page/142/mode/1up
• Hunt, John Eddy. The Pound and Kester Families. Chicago: Regan Printing House, 1904.
• White, Jean M. The Descendants of Paulus and Gertrude Kusters of Kaldenkirchen, Germany and Germantown, *
• Pennsylvania, the first four generations. Castor Association of America, 1991.
• Chambers, Theodore F. The Early Germans of New Jersey, Their History, Churches and Genealogies. Dover: Dover Printing Company, 1895.
• KESTER (KÜSTER) Family History, Part I - http://genealogue.net/kestbk2.html