John Hoover of “Timber Hill”

In reviewing some information on John Hoover (Ulrich¹), I came across the following: “May also be the John [Hoover] who had 50 acres surveyed on May 10, 1768, in York Co. called “Timber Hill.”^[1] It sounded familiar, so I looked it up. The tract was warranted to Andrew Hershey on 24 October 1738 and patented to John Hoover on 17 August 1772 for 146 acres and 80 perches, Patent AA13:193.^[2]

I recalled seeing land transactions between Andrew Hershey and John Hoover—although in connection to another Hoover family—and decided to dig a little deeper. John is a very common name. Which John Hoover patented Timber Hill?

John Hoover’s Timber Hill tract in Manheim Township

John Hoover had 140 acres known as “Timber Hill” in Manheim township surveyed on 10 May 1768.^[3] This land was adjacent other lands of Andrew Hershey, Jacob Bollinger, Thomas Wilson and Mark Furney. Ownership of this land must have been contested at one point, because there were multiple surveys, including several in the name of Jacob Gotshalk.

Jacob Gotshalk had applied for a patent on this land in 1767, but apparently never lived on it according to several later surveys.^[4] In any case, John Hoover purchased the rights to the land from Gotshalk in 1771 for £35.^[5] In this deed John Hoover was of Hempfield Township, Lancaster County. John Hoover, Miller, of Hempfield and his wife Ann sold this tract and another that they’d inherited from her father Andrew Hershey to Jacob Burkhard in 1775.^[6]

Andrew Hershey made his will on 9 December 1754, it was probated on 19 February 1755 and left his property—except for one tract left by name to his grandson Christian Hershey—to be divided equally amongst his heirs.^[7] In 1766, Andrew’s heirs—including John and Anna Hoober—quitclaimed a tract in Hempfield Township to Benjamin Hershey. ^[8]

While I don’t know for certain where John Hoover (Ulrich¹) was after he sold his father’s tract in Conestoga Township on 10 Oct 1767, I do know that at that time his wife’s name as Mary.^[9] Furthermore, John Hoover of Hempfield and wife Anna bought and sold property in Hempfield and Manheim Townships, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania from the 1760s through the 1780s—a period that overlaps John Hoover’s (Ulrich¹) life in and eventual disappearance from Conestoga Township.

From these records, I would conclude that John Hoover (Ulrich¹) was not the man who patented Timber Hill. Instead, it appears to me that John Huber of Hempfield Township was. This John Hoover was most likely the son of Christian Hoover of Hempfield Township who died prior to 27 November 1757. John lived his entire life in Hempfield Township. He wrote his will on 30 August 1798 and it was probated in Lancaster County on 17 September 1803.^[10]