305

THE

PENN MONTHLY.

WHEN

JANUARY, 1872.

FRANCIS DANIEL PASTORIUS.

HEN William Penn, in the course of his missionary tour through Germany, during the summer of 1677, came to Frankfort-on-the-Main, he formed the acquaintance of several persons, whose religious tenets and fervent piety seemed to chime in with his own ideas of Christianity. Of these, two only are mentioned by name in his diary, viz. : Miss Eleonora Johanna von Merlau, subsequently married to the famous Chiliast, Dr. J. W. Peterson, and Van de Walle, a merchant. From other sources we know that these German friends of Wm. Penn belonged to the circle of Dr. Spener, the famous founder of Pietism, holding their meetings in the Saalhof of Frankfort. Again, we learn by a casual remark which occurs in Pastorius' manuscripts, that the project of forming a German settlement in Pennsylvania was first entertained by the pious men and women who gathered around Dr. Spener at the Saalhof, and that thus originated what is called the Frankfort Land Company. This association bought of Benjamin Furly, Penn's agent, in Amsterdam, five full shares, amounting to 25,000 acres of land.

The beginning of German emigration to America may thus be traced to Wm. Penn's direct and personal influence with a class of pious enthusiasts, who became interested in his reformatory schemes. Now, whatever may have been the first design of the members of the Frankfort Company they themselves did not emigrate. The real settlers on the company's property came from

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The Penn Monthly.

[Jan., Griesheim (Krisheim, as it is spelled in older documents), Mühlheim, Crefeld, and various cities or villages of the Palatinate, where Wm. Ames, George Rolfe and Wm. Penn had gained adherents to the doctrine of the Quakers. The first settlers were then originally tenants, paying a certain ground rent to the owners of the land, the members of the Frankfort Company. Under these circumstances it was indispensable for the latter to accredit a capable and trustworthy agent in Pennsylvania to transact their business and to represent their interests.

Now, it happened quite opportunely that at the very time when their plans were maturing (1682) a young lawyer of their acquaintance, who had been traveling for the last two years, returned to Frankfort, a man eminently fitted for the responsible position, if he could only be induced to accept it.

The scheme had hardly

This was Francis Daniel Pastorius. been mentioned to him when he was all aglow with it. "To lead a quiet, godly life in a howling wilderness," as he expresses himself, was much more attractive to a man of his earnest convictions than to remain in contact with the "European vanities that he had seen and tasted to surfeit."

Of Pastorius' previous life we are enabled to give a succinct account drawn from an autobiographical memoir. He was born at Sommerhausen, in Frankenland, on the 26th of September, 1651. His father, Melchior Adam Pastorius, must have stood very high in the esteem of the people of Windsheim, which he had chosen for his residence, as he was elected to numerous offices of trust and responsibility. After having been superintendent of schools, mayor and judge of the highest court, he retired at the advanced age of 78 years from public life, and enjoyed in a villa, near Nuremberg, otium cum dignitate during the rest of his life.

His son, Francis Daniel, the subject of this sketch, received an excellent classical education at the Gymnasium of Windsheim. The head master, Tobias Schumberg, a Hungarian, could not speak German fluently, and insisted on the boys conversing with him in Latin. At the age of 17, young Pastorius entered the University of Altorf (discontinued since 1809), where, in the year 1600, the famous Wallenstein had attended law lectures and sown his wild oats. From Altorf, Pastorius went (1670) to Strasburg, there to continue the study of law; and with a like

purpose he visited, during the following years, Basle and Jena. At Ratisbon, the seat of the Imperial Diet, he obtained a practical knowledge of public law. Thus imbued with all the lore of a learned jurist, he successfully passed his examinations, and after a public disputation "pro gradu doctorali," he received the degree of doctor utriusque juris at Nuremberg, November 23, 1676.*

Between the time of his graduation and the spring of 1679, Pastorius stayed at Windsheim, where his father lived. As William Penn, during his journey through Germany, in 1677, did not stop at Windsheim, the acquaintance of these two men does not seem to date so far back.

In 1679, Pastorius removed to Frankfort-on-the-Main, there to practice law. In addition to his ordinary duties, he also delivered lectures to some young Patricians on topics connected with his profession.

It was at this time that Pietism began to attract considerable attention. Dr. Spener, the originator of the movement, was minister at the main church of Frankfort. To awaken a deeper interest in religion he began to hold meetings of laymen for prayer and edification-the famous Collegia pietatis. Pastorius, sincerely yearning after a religion that would reach his heart, and disappointed at the cold lip-service of most churchmen, readily gravitated toward Spener's earnest and impressive reform.

But their pleasant intercourse was not to continue long. "In 1680," he relates in his English version of the incidents of his life, "upon the recommendation of Dr. Spener (that brave patriarch of the Pietists) I undertook to be a guide to a noble young spark, called Johannes Bonaventura von Rodeck, in his travels through Ireland, England, France, Switzerland, &c. This occupied two years, and on my return to Frankfort, in 1682, I was glad to enjoy the company of my former acquaintances and Christian friends, rather than to be with von Rodeck, feasting, dancing, &c. There

*Though Pastorius was, on the whole, of quite a sober and almost sombreast of mind, he did not altogether lack a vein of humor and pleasantry. There is some waggishness lurking through several of the theses, which he proposed to sustain in his disputation. The second of them reads: "Adolescens qui invita virgini osculum infigit, actione injuriarum non tenetur;" and the third: “Pactum ut uxor imperio et dominatione gandeat nuptiarum contractui adjectum Natura refragatur et contra bonos mores est."

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The Penn Monthly.

[Jan., assembled together in a house called the Saalhof, Dr. Spener, Dr. Schütz, Notarius Fenda, Jacobus Vandewalle, Maximilian (bynamed the Pious) Lerfner, Eleonora von Merlau, Maria Juliana Baurin, &c., who sometimes made mention of Wm. Penn, of Pennsylvania, and showed me letters from Benj. Furly, also a printed relation concerning said Province.*

Finally, the secret could not be withheld from me that they had purchased 15,000 [this should be 25,000] acres of land in this remote part of the world.

Pastorius then continues to relate that after having obtained the consent of his father (and with it a present of 250 rixthalers), he paid a parting visit to his friends in Griesheim, Cologne, Crefeld, &c. In Cologne a certain Docenius, mentioned also in Wm. Penn's travels, expressed a desire to accompany Pastorius to America. But his wife would not consent, saying that there (at home) they were carried in a coach from one door to another, but she was afraid if she should come hither (to Pennsylvania) she must look after the cattle and milk her cows. The friends whom he saw in Griesheim, Peter Shoemaker, Gerhard Hendricks and Arnold Cassel, and those of Crefeld, D. Kunders and the three Op de Graeffs, followed him to America in the same year. He embarked in London about the beginning of June, 1683, on the America, Capt. Wasey, and arrived in Philadelphia, after a somewhat venturesome journey, on the 20th of August.

There came by the same trip of the America, another man of note, the Welshman, Thomas Lloyd, subsequently President of the Provincial Council. The two congenial spirits were soon in close communion with each other, carrying on their conversation in Latin, which as Pastorius remarks, Lloyd pronounced in the German way. The friendship thus formed during their protracted passage, continued through life, and so deep and abiding was Pastorius' veneration for his friend, that twenty years after Lloyd's death, he wrote to his three daughters, Rachel Preston, Hannah Hilf, and Mary Norris, a memorial letter in glowing words of eloquent affection and gratitude.†

*Perhaps the German pamphlet concerning Pennsylvania, published at Amsterdam, 1681, of which there is a copy in the Loganian Library.

+It contains the following passage: "Thanks to the Almighty for his in

numerable blessings, above all for that instant wherein I resolved to exile