Johann Adam Leitner

Leutner, Leitner, & Lightner

The spelling changed but the name remained phonetically the same. “Leutner” was the original/old normal spelling, but just as the “Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch” said “Pennsylvania Deutsch”, in dialect, “Leutner” was pronounced as “Lightner”; “Leitner” is the more-modern German spelling to match that pronunciation; and “Lightner” is the anglicized spelling to do the same.

History

From "A History of Lancaster County" [https://archive.org/details/historyoflancast02elli/page/n8]:

Adam Lightner and his wife, Maud son, in the year 1709, fled from the religious Persecutions along the Rhine, Which drove thousands of Protestants to Holland, thence to England. They were Lutherans. The ir.. William was born in Germany. Nathaniel was born in 1709, while his parents were encamped near London. They came to America in the same year, and settled in Ulster County, NY among the LaRues, Ferrees, and see LeFevre

Copied from old website of Paul Lightner Whitehouse. Mostly still good info, but verify with tree info:

JOHANN ADAM LEUTNER, with his wife MAGDALENA (Maudlin) and two children sailed from Rotterdam on 15 July, 1709 leaving behind their squalid encampment of reed covered shacks. Shiploads of more than 13,000 German peoples arrived in London between May and November of 1709. Since the greater part of the group came from the Palatinate, the name Palatine has been used indiscriminately to identify all the immigrants, although they came from the neighboring territories as well. Their intended destination would not be certain, as the support given to them by the Crown of England bound them into a form of servitude.

Many reasons are given for the unprecedented size of the emigration. The end of the Thirty Years' War left the people of the Palatinate prostrate. Louis XIV's armies repeatedly abused the area in the latter part of the seventeenth century. A century of lingering religious disputes among neighboring princes spawned nearly continuous warfare. And once again the French crossed the Rhine in May, 1707, terrorizing southwestern Germany, plundering the Palatinate, Würtemberg, Baden and Swabia.

The intense cold of a cruel winter arrived early in October of 1708 and, it was said, that by November 1st, firewood would not burn in the open air! In January of 1709 wine and spirits froze into solid blocks and birds on the wing fell dead. Most of Western Europe was frozen tight.

And then there was the splendor of Versailles. Many of the lesser German rulers fell under its spell and sought to emulate the opulent court life surrounding Louis XIV. A letter from the Palatinate in 1681 mentioned that because of the French devastation "Thousands would gladly leave the Fatherland if they had the means to do so" and "besides this, we are now suffering the plague of high taxes." Palatines waiting in Holland for passage to England stated they came fleeing "to shake off the burdens they lay under by the hardships of their Princes governments and the contributions they must pay to the Enemy." Another cause often suggested and generally accepted was religious persecution of protestants. In the final analysis this proves in general to be of minor significance though friends of immigration in England justified their help on religious grounds since, at the time, the Queen was especially susceptible to Protestant appeals. A number of faiths were represented among the immigrants: Lutherans, Reformed (Calvinists), Catholics, Baptists and Mennonites. A full third of the Palatines in London during the summer of 1709 were Catholic. These causes served to exacerbate another, common to all groups: land hunger. A number of Palatines in New York were overheard to remark, "We came to America to establish our families - to secure lands for our children ..."

The Palatine encampment at Blackheath was a source of wonder to the Londoners for a time but the novelty of their presence soon wore off as conditions in the camp worsened and the populace began to fear the spread of disease. Many schemes to deal with the Palatines were floated: resettle them in South America, the Canary Islands, the Scilly Islands, Jamaica and Barbados; employ the strongest in the silver and copper mines of Wales; employ groups of them in other industries around the country. An honest attempt was even made to scatter them among all the parishes in England - most that went returned. These proposals were for the most part discarded in favor of sending the Palatines to Ireland, Carolina and New York. Resettlement to the former began first, then over 2,500 of the remaining Palatines boarded transports between December 25th and 29th, 1709 to embark on a miserable 6 month journey to New York. Not until 10 April 1710 did they actually leave English waters, all the intervening time moving along the southern coast, occasionally touching at Portsmouth and Plymouth until the convoy had assembled. Disease and death had visited the ships before they began the Atlantic crossing and remained for the duration.

To a city of about 5,500 souls in 1710, the arrival of nearly 2,500 disease-laden immigrants was no small matter. The New York City Council refused to receive the Palatines in the city, so they were landed and encamped on Nutten Island, now known as Governor's Island. Typhus still ravaged them while they vied for some semblance of life among the tents of the encampment. Governor Hunter reported to London on July 24th that about 470 Palatines had died on the voyage and during the first month in New York. A coffin-maker received payment for 250 coffins to bury the Palatines who died the summer of 1710.

The Governor payed for the subsistence of 847 families between 1710 and 1712, a record of which survives as the Hunter Subsistence List - Adam Leutner was not among the resipients. As their benefactor, Governor Hunter took it as his right to arrange apprenticeships for orphaned and even non-orphaned youngsters. By October 1710 many families began to move north to newly purchased land on the east and west sides of the Hudson River while others remained in New York City. In 1712 a change of government in London meant the end of support for the Palatine project and the 1709 families were abandoned to their own devises. Trying to maintain some control of the Palatines, the Governor required permits for anyone wishing to relocated within his jurisdiction of New York and New Jersey. A large group took advantage of this change in events and in late 1712 stole away to the Schoharie Valley, west of Albany.

Tradition has it that in 1723 fifteen families of these Schoharie Palatines removed themselves to Pennsylvania. Conrad Weiser wrote in his Journal, "the people received news from the land of Swatara and Tulpehocken in Pennsylvania. Many of them came together, cut a way from Schoharie to the Susquehanna and brought their goods there and made canoes and journeyed down to the mouth of the Swatara Creek and drove their cattle overland in the spring of 1723. Thence they came to the Tulpehocken settlement; ..." near present-day Womelsdorf. Several other groups are said to have followed: thirty-three families in 1725 and fifty more in 1729, Conrad Weiser among these.

It had long been assumed that Adam and family were among one of these groups. However, it is now evident that they had not gone to Schoharie, but instead found their way to Bohemia Manor in Cecil County, Maryland by early 1716 along with one, the Elrods, and possibly more 1709 families. They were possibly among those who had first traveled south out of New York in 1712 to settle at Hackensack, New Jersey but had then removed elsewhere before Ulrich Simmendinger created his 1717 register of families in all these settled areas - Adam Leutner was not on this list either. Neither can it be ruled out that he and others found a different, untold, route to the new world from London since he has not been found in any of the early records of New York.

At the North Sassafras Anglican Parish Church of St. Stephen, Cecil County, is found this record:

• Macklen LYTNER daughter of Adam LYTNER and Macklen his wife, was born the 19th day of March Anno Dom. 1716

"Macklen" is most assuredly a phonetic spelling through an English ear of a dialectic pronunciation of Magdalen incorporating an unvoiced g and a slurred or missing da.

And in the records of Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Church, Wilmington, Delaware can be found these 1722 entries:

• Marten and Elisabeth Scotsmans's child Mary, six months old, bpt 8 Jul; Sponsors: Adam Leicsher; Catharina Steuts; Catharina Noaker
• Adam Leicstner, at Bohemia, and his wife Magdalena's child Johannes, b 29 Nov, bpt 31 Dec; Sponsors: Johannes Krawman; Catharina Steits
• Donald Kirk Patrick, at Bohemia, and the harlot Mary Tibs' illegitimate child Adam, two weeks old, bpt 31 Dec; Sponsors: Adam Leicstner

Still another three very interesting records can be found in "Abstracts of Cecil County, Maryland Land Records 1673-1751" by June D. Brown:

Lease: Ephr. Aug't. Herman of Cecil Co., gent., for yearly rents and sevices, to John Noachre of the same place, farmer, 105 acres of land in Bohemia Manor by ADAM LITTNER'S land, by the road to Mr. Woods plantation where Hugh Jones now lives, by the lands of Thomas Conyers and Martin Scotchmans. Lease is for the natural lives of said John Noachre, Martin Noachre and Christopher Noachre. Rent £2 and 2 dunghill fowls due 23 Nov yearly. Made 10 Nov 1722. Wit: Cath. French, George Steils. Memo: Ephr. Aug't Herman promises to charge only 40 shillings rent of Noachre will not sell any part to John Archer or anyone else. Ackn. & Rec: 14 Mar 1722/3 by Col. Ephraim Aug't. Herman. JPs: Sam'l Alexander, Stephen Hollingsworth. S. Knight, Clerk.

Deposition: Johannes Bubenheim, John Skuyl and Henry Styls, all of Cecil Co., appeared this day at 10am before Justice of the Peace M. V. Babber and deposed that John Crowman of this county, tailor, died last Saturday about 2 o'clock in the afternoon at the home of the widow Bayard in this county and on the 7th was interred by her and her friends at their plantation. On the 5th the deponents heard the said John Crowman declare he was very weak of body but of good sound mind and memory and that as his last will the few clothes he had should be given to ADAM LYTNER of this county and that the debt owed him by Arnold Bassett, John Chick, Robat Willson and some others should be received by Conreat Redder and that he [Redder] gave the same to him. He said his body should be decently buried. Made 8 Jul 1723. Rec: 10 Jul 1723. S. Knight, Clerk.

Lease: Ephraim Aug't Herman of Cecil Co. gent., for yearly rents and services, to Thomas Bettell of the same place, planter, 100 acres of land in Bohemia Manor taken up by ADAM LIGHTNER and sold to the said Thomas Bettell, by the lands of Richard Harber and Elizabeth Scotchman. Lease is for the term of the natural lives of the said Thomas Bettell, his now wife Elizabeth and his now son William. Rent of 1 pound 10s and 2 dunghill fowls due 10 Dec yearly. [Name also spelled Bettel, Bettle] Made 25 Jan 1723. Wit: Susannah Creagear, David French. Ackn: 10 Jun 1724. JPs: R'd Thompson, Francis Mauldin. Rec 10 Jun 1724. S. Knight, Clerk.

The date of 25 Jan 1723 that appears in the above record would be an "old style" date - the "new style" being 25 Jan 1724. Notice the juxtaposition of the Lightner (Littner, Lytner, Leicstner), Krawman (Crowman), Noecker (Noacer, Noaker, Noachre) and Scotchman (Scotsman) families at Bohemia Manor, in Old Swedes Church and Cecil County, Maryland land and parish records. The land records appear to bracket Adam and Maud's departure from Cecil County, perhaps after the harvest of 1723, and their removal across the Chesapeake thence up the Susquehanna River to the Pequea Valley (pronounced Peakway) of then Chester County, Pennsylvania. There are records from the 1710s of several people on the Cecil County side of the Chesapeake petitioning for a license to keep an ordinary (inn) because they were continually beset by travelers to and from Pennsylvania seeking lodging and vituals - which they could not do without compensation.

Sources say "They came to Pequea Valley in the year 1723, and settled upon land near the old Peter's road, upon the northern boundary of Leacock township, and about a mile northeast from the village of Intercourse." Early land records show the latter is true, but that placement of the property along the northern boundary, old "Peter Brezaillion's Road" currently Peter's Road, is no more than a relative indication of its location. Tax records of Chester County ordered in the years 1724 through 1726 and taken in January 1725 through 1727 (new style), list Adam Litner (sic), assessed at the Conistogoe (Conestoga) rate. It is known that a tax list for 1723 had been ordered but one for that year is not extant. According to Leah Lightner Dale (1789 - ?), "We have in our possession a deed made by Anthony Pretter in the year 1736 to Maud Lightner (after the death of Adam) for a tract of land adjoining other lands of said Lightner and also a conveyance of it by her to her son Nathe in the year A. D. 1744." This matches information given on the patent secured by Nathaniel in 1749.

The above statement of Adam's death in or before 1736, written by Leah, is likely the source for the 1736 death date so often quoted by some Lightner researchers. It's not clear that that is necessarily true. The records of Trinity Lutheran, New Holland, show an (Johann) Adam Leitner as a baptismal sponsor seven times between December 1730 and December 1743. People were not in general sponsors until they reached the age of majority. Adam Jr. was born 25 October 1725 and would have been in his minority until that date in 1746. To be sure there were instances at Trinity where minors were sponsors, but in the obvious instances it is recorded that a parent stood in for or represented the said minor. The absence of any clear indication doesn't prove the contrary, however, the several of Adam Jr's siblings appearing as sponsors did so only in their majority.

There is a small cemetery located on the original property that may be the Lightner/Sharp Cemetery seen on lists of private burialgrounds in Leacock Township. One row of headstones is visible - all Sharps. There were two Lightner sisters who both married Sharps sometime in the 19th century. Nathaniel and his wife are said to have been "entered sic in a burial mound on their mansion place in Leacock Township." It is supposed that they were buried there with Adam and Maud. It's not known if they or some of Nathaniel's children are buried in the unmarked half of this small plot. A record of monument inscriptions from Christ Episcopal Churchyard (about a mile east of Intercourse on the north side of the Old Philadelphia Pike, formerly the King's highway, now Route 340) made in 1941, includes Nathaniel and his wife, Margaret, along with their birth and death years. Christ church was organized in May 1818 and its first church was consecrated that June upon a lot of ground purchased from Isaac Eby. It's not known whether Nathaniel and Margaret were instead buried there, before the establishment and consecration of the churchyard, or reinterred, or whether the monument was just a memorial placed sometime later. A number of their descendants were interred there well into the 19th century.

Children of Johann Adam Leutner and Magdalena:

1. JOHANN GEORG LEUTNER, presumed to have been born in Germany before 1709. [Note: my latest thinking is that George and another "son", William A., if real, were younger brothers of J Adam. They would have been listed as children on the Rotterdam passenger list if aged 16 or younger. The story in my J Wilhelm line is that "three brothers came over" and that one or both went back. If the two children were sons, they would have been but a few years older than Nathaniel. There would have been no reason for them to "go back" and one of them would have inherited the Leacock Twp. homestead and not Nathaniel - assuming they had survived as in the Lancaster Co. versions of the story. (PLW, 2020)] It is said by some that Georg and Wilhelm returned to Germany and that one of them later "owned large sugar and spice plantations upon one of the islands in the Eastern Ocean, and he became possessed of a very large estate." Another account said that one "remained in Holland, and subsequently resided in India." Accounts among Wilhelm's descendants have Georg's wealth coming from the indigo trade. None of this seems possible without him working for the Dutch East India Company. There are a number of conflicts among the various accounts. It's not likely that any of the children were old enough to remain in Holland and one can only imagine how Georg could have followed such a path. There was a possibility that he was one of the youngsters, not all orphans, apprenticed by Governor Hunter, apprenticed to someone with the Dutch West India Company and thence onto the East India Company; however, no Lightner appears on the list.
2. NATHANIEL LEUTNER, said to have been born at the London encampment in 1709. About 1731 he married Margaretha LeRue, who was born in France in 1713. They settled upon the homestead in Leacock Township. All of their children, except Maria Magdalena and Rachel, were baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church, New Holland, Lancaster County - the two girls at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Lancaster City. He often appears in those records by the latin Ignatius. Nathaniel died at Leacock Township 21 October 1782 and is said to be "intered in a burial mound on the old mansion place in Leacock Township ...". Children: JOHN, born 1732; JONAS, born 15 Aug 1733; JOHANN WILHELM, born 8 Aug 1734; ANNA MAGDALENA, born 26 Aug 1735; NATHANIEL, born 7 Aug 1736; HEINRICH, born 21 Aug 1737; JOHANN MICHAEL, born 26 Sep 1738; JOHANN GEORG, born 10 Nov 1739; ANNA MARGARETHA, born 29 Nov 1740; MARIA ELISABETHA, born 30 Nov 1741; CHILD, born 1742; JOHANN ADAM, born 9 Oct 1743; twins BENJAMIN and JOSEPH, born 14 Aug 1744; CATHARINA, born 22 Jan 1746; ISAAC, born 9 Nov 1747; MARIA MAGDALENA, born 19 Dec 1748; RACHEL, born 10 Mar 1750; SUSANNA, born 16 Jul 1751.
3. REGINA LEUTNER, of Leacock Township was married, by the Rev. John Casper Stoever, to Wilheim Tscheill (Scheil, Skiles) 30 May 1730. The marriage record appears both in Stoever's personal pastoral record and in the records of Trinity Lutheran Church, New Holland, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The Trinity record is further annotated with the letters "m c", an abbreviation for the Latin phrase "more consueto" that appears to mean cohabited foolishly. Her marriage date suggests that Regina was the first child born in the colonies - probably about 1711. The Skiles family was from old Somerset County on the eastern shore of Maryland where William was born in 1701. He moved with his brother Henry to Leacock Township after their father's death in 1719. It's not known whether they spent any time near brother John Skiles who lived in Bohemia Manor at the same time as Adam Leitner. The records of Trinity, New Holland, identify Wilhem Sheil, married to Regina Leitner, as the father of a child by Magdalena Boshell, born 1 December 1737 and baptized 21 October, 1745. William died at Lancaster County in 1762. Children: HEINRICH, born 1 January or 1 February 1731/32 and baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church, New Holland, Lancaster County in February of that same year. Sponsors were Heinrich Scheill Jr. & Elisabeth Leitnerin, both single.
4. ELISABETHA LEUTNER, received her first communion, along with sister Magdalena and neighbor Joseph Ritter, at Trinity Lutheran, New Holland, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania 30 December 1733. A single "Elisabeth Leitnerin" was a sponsor at the baptism of nephew Heinrich Scheill at Trinity, New Holland, in February 1731. There is explicit evidence in the Trinity records that one needed to be in his or her majority in order to be a sponsor. This would place her birth about 1712
5. JOHANN WILHELM LEUTNER, was probably born about 1714. It is unknown whether the family had arrived in Cecil County, Maryland by that time. William was most likely married and in the Tulpehochen by early 1738. Letters of Administration were granted to his eldest son Peter on 26 March 1770, his widow Maria Elisabetha having renounced her right to administer the estate.
6. MAGDALENA LEUTNER, was born 19 March 1716/17 at Bohemia Manor, Cecil County, Maryland. She received her first communion, along with sister Elisabetha and neighbor Joseph Ritter, at Trinity Lutheran, New Holland, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania 30 December 1733. A printed transcription of the records belonging to the Rev. John Casper Stoever lists Magdalena's marriage to Martin Koeller 19 April 1737. The records at Trinity Church, New Holland, list Magdalena marrying a Martin Noecker that same day.
7. SUSANNA LEUTNER, of Leacock Township is only known from her marriage, by the Rev. John Casper Stoever, to Johannes Ernst 25 April 1738. The marriage record appears both in Stoever's personal pastoral record and in the records of Trinity Lutheran Church, New Holland, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Her marriage date suggests that Susanna was born after about 1719, probably at Bohemia Manor, Cecil County, Maryland.
8. MARIA LEUTNER, is listed by some researchers as a child of Adam and Maude and is given by some to have married a John Dellinger, but no evidence has been presented.
9. JOHANNES LEUTNER, born Bohemia Manor, Cecil County, Maryland 29 November 1722 and baptized 31 December of the same year at Bohemia according to the records of Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Church, Wilmington, Delaware. Sponsors were Johannes Krawman and Catharina Steits. Married Esther Franciscus about 1746. All their children were baptized at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Lancaster City. Children: MARIA JULIANA, born 22 February 1748 and baptized 24 April 1748 - sponsors were Isaac Trarbacher and Anna Maria Diffedörfferin; JOHANN GEORG, born 9 December 1749 and baptized 20 Mar 1750 - sponsors were Georg Reitenbach & wife Dorathea; MARIA MARGARETHA, born 15 July 1753 (?) and baptized 18 February 1753 - sponsors were Matthias Buch & wife Maria Catharina; JOHANNES, born 16 February 1755 and baptized 30 March 1755 - sponsors were Johannes Leitner & Catharina Freyin, single - died 26 March 1757 and was buried the next day; CATHARINA, born 13 August 1758 and baptized 20 August 1758 - sponsors were Johannes Danner & wife Catharina - died 14 November 1760 age 2 and was buried the next day; JOHANNES, born 14 September 1761 and baptized 27 September 1761 - sponsors were Michael Franciscus & wife Johanna; ANNA CATHARINA, born 5 January 1764 and baptized 22 January 1764 - sponsors were Matthias Buch and wife Catharina; SUSANNA, born 15 October 1766.
10. JOHANN ADAM LEUTNER, is given by some to have been born 26 October 1725, married 26 July 1748 to Anna Barbara Beard (Bärt) and died 19 July 1783. If correct, would most probably have been born in then Chester County, Pennsylvania. Children: MARIA BARBARA, born 16 November 1749 and baptized at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Lancaster City; SUSANNA, was born 11 September 1751 and baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church, New Holland, Lancaster County - her mother being listed as An. Barb. Bärtin.

• Dead link of old site of Paul Lightner Whitehouse: http://home.comcast.net/~whitehouse-family/families/lightner/lightn...

FindAGrave

FROM: Find A Grave.com: The emigrant, Johanne Adam Leitner, his wife and two children sailed with the 5th party, Palatine Emigration, 15 Jul 1709. They first went to Ulster, New York but by 1717 they moved to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania where many of these Germans had already gone. They purchased land from John Penn, son of William Penn. Nataniel married Margaret LaRue who had also come from Germany or France at the same time he did. They had 19 children, all of them. evidently growing to manhood except one, who died young. John Adam and Maud had the following children:

1. William
2. George (who came to America but later returned to Germany where he married and had a daughter)
3. Nathaniel (b. 1708 near London d. 1783 and buried near New Holland, Pennsylvania, married Margaret LaRue)
4. Johannes (who married Esther Franciscus)
5. John William (b. 1720 d. 1783)
6. Adam (married Mary Trout)
7. Magdelena (married Martin Koehler)
8. Regina (married William Scheil)
9. Susanna (married Johannes Ernst)
10. Maria (married John Dollinger).

Abia Lightner, born October 27, 1801, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was the son of Adam and Mary Trout Lightner. Adam was a merchant in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, of Dutch Ancestry, who died when Abia was 23 years old. Abia operated a cabinet shop in Cincinnati, then a grist mill and saw mill in Lexington. In June of 1849 he captained a wagon train of 20 ox-drawn wagons from Independence, Missouri, and brought his family to California, arriving near Pomona 1 Jan 1850, where his last son, Abia Lightner, Jr., was born on that day. They traveled north to Santa Clara then to Keyesville where he acquired the "Old Mammoth Mine".

In 1858 he settled in Walker Basin where he engaged in agriculture. "There was not a pioneer of Kern County who lived a more active life and left to posterity a more honorable name - a man of great ambition, strength of character and sense of humor. His influence was most satisfactory in shaping and regulating the social and civic affairs of the community in which he lived."

Abia married Jemima Snelling and they had 9 children:

1. Sarah Ann b. 25 Nov 1835 in Lexington, Missouri, d. 18 Sep 1836 in Lexington, Missouri.
2. Diana b. 3 Apr 1831 in Lexington d. 4 Jun 1917 in Brandon, Oregon, m. 12 Sep 1850 in Santa Clara, California to Joseph Franklin Barrows.
3. Isaac b. 6 Jul 1835 in Lexington d. 19 Sep 1903 on the Walker Ranch in Walker Basin m. in 1860 to Lizzie Easly;
4. William b. 11 Sep 1837 in Lexington d. 3 Jan 1905 on the Lightner ranch and buried in the Rankin cemetery;
5. Daniel b. 17 Jul 1839 in Lexington d. 1904 in San Jose, Costa Rice, Central America;
6. Mary Florida b. 26 Jan 1845 in Lexington d. 22 Feb 1924 in Palo Alto, California, buried in Rankin Cemetery:
7. Lavenia Estelle b. 17 Oct 1847 in Lexington d. 14 Feb 1948 on the Lightner Ranch and is buried in the Rankin Cemetery, m. Walker Rankin Sr. at the Rankin Ranch;
8. Abia Jr. b. 1 Jan 1850 in Pomona, California, d. 12 Feb 1934 in Bakersfield, California, married first, Ida Packard, and they had one daughter, Lola Lightner, and married second, Tena Morrell in 1860.

Alternate Summary

Adam Leitner, his wife and two daughters signed up with a British company to come to New York to work on a project to manufacture naval stores. They sailed from Rotterdam and can be identified with the Palatine group since they came from the Palatinate. They, as others, came for a variety of reasons. The Thirty Years war left the people destitute. There were continuing religious disputes and the winter of 1708 was particularly cold. In addition, they faced higher and higher taxes to help pay for the opulence of the royal families.

They arrived in 1709 and from there to 1710, over 2,500 arrived in a city of 5,500 (New York). The New York Council refused the Palatinates to come to the city and they were sent to Nutten Island. Eventually many of the Palatinates relocated to the Schoharie Valley, west of Albany New York. By 1723, 15 families came to Pennsylvania under the auspices of Conrad Weisner and settled in the Tulpehocken area of Berks County. The Leitner's were a different story. They made their way to Bohemia Manor in Cecil County Maryland.

A baptismal record of Macklen Lytner, the daughter of Adam has been found at North Sassafras Anglican Parish Church of St. Stephen, Cecil County has been found. In addition, land records of Adam Leitner can be found in "Abstracts of Cecil County, Maryland Land Records 1673-1751. Baptismal of another child can be found in Old Swedes Church in Wilmington, Delaware. It appears that after the harvest of 1723, the Litners moved to the Pequea Valley of then Chester County, Pennsylvania. It is thought that they settled on land near the old Peter's road upon the northern boundary of Leacock township, and about a mile northeast of the village of Intercourse, Pennsylvania.

• http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/4480060/person/-1596647836/media/2?p...|pgNum

Another Summary

SOURCE: A book entitled, History of Lancaster County…

The Lightner Family:

Adam Lightner and Maud, his wife, in the year 1709, fled from the religious persecutions along the Rhine, which drove thousands of Protestants to Holland, thence to England. They were Lutherans. Their son William was born in Germany. Nathaniel was born in 1709, while his parents were encamped near London. They came to America in the same year, and settled in Uster County, New York, among the LaRue's, Ferree's, and Le Fevre's.

They came to Pequea Valley in the year 1723, and settled upon land near the old Peter’s road, upon the northern boundary of Leacock township, and about a mile northeast from the village of Intercourse, Pennsylvania.

Nathaniel married Margaret La Rue, who was born in France in 1718. He settled upon the homestead farm in Leacock. From him came the Lightners of this county. They had nineteen children, and with one exception, a child was born to them every year, and to make up for what they may have considered “lost time” twins were born in the year 1744.

William Lightner, son of Adam, returned to Germany. He owned large sugar and spice plantations upon one of the islands in the Eastern Ocean, and he became possessed of a very large estate, to which a multitude of his descendants are now turning their eyes, anxiously waiting to divide and enjoy this accumulated wealth. His brother George also returned to Germany.