Johann "Jan" Lenssen, Original 13 families of Germantown, PA

Until William I. Hull proved that most of the original (1683) families were an interrelated group of Quakers, it had been assumed that the group was Mennonite. But since only one family (Jan Lensen) of the original 13 remained Mennonite, while the other 12 appear in the Quaker meeting records, and since most of them had signed a Quaker marriage certificate at Krefeld in 1681, it is safe to assume that this first group of Germantown settlers was essentially a Quaker movement. There was a Quaker congregation in Krefeld 1667-1686, all former Mennonites. A total of 15 Quaker families came from Krefeld to Germantown, all by 1686. Later two of the first 12 Quaker families, Abraham and Hermann op den Graeff, reverted to the Mennonites.

A total of 16 Mennonite families ultimately came from Krefeld to Germantown as follows: 1683— Lensen, 1684—van Bebber, 1685—Telner (returned soon to Krefeld), Umstat (Umstead), and Jansen, 1687—van Bebber and Streypers, 1688—Seilen, 1690 —Neuss (Nice), 1693—Küster (Custer), 1702—Hosters, 1703—Neuss (Nice), (?)—Tyson. Two additional families came from the Lower Rhine, 1691— Kasselberg, 1702—Godschalk from Goch. Five additional families probably came from the same general region although their exact residence is unknown, 1685—Papen, 1698—Engel, before 1702— Krey, before 1707—Jansen. Of this total of 23 Krefeld-Lower Rhine families, few have had permanent representatives in later American Mennonitism (Updegrave, Umstead, Johnson, Nice, Tyson, Godshalk, Engel, Seilen). Three other Dutch Mennonite families, directly from Amsterdam, William Rittenhouse and Dirk Keyser and his son Peter, arrived in 1688. Peter Keyser joined Alexander Mack's Dunkards in 1719. Rittenhouse was the first Mennonite preacher (1690 or 1698) at Germantown.

The First Mennonites Come to Pennsylvania. Among the Germans looking for religious freedom were the Mennonites.

Mennonite Jan Lensen, arrived in October 1683. He came with 12 other German families who were Quaker weavers from Krefeld. They laid out the village of Germantown, north of Philadelphia.

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Following Jan Lensen's arrival in 1683, at least 20 other Mennonite families settled in Germantown. They were from northern Germany and the Netherlands. In 1698 they chose papermaker William Rittenhouse as their first minister.