Tag: Land Surveys

Henry Line’s Conestoga Tract

Henry Line Conestoga twp land

Henry Line tract

On 20 May 1734, John Taylor surveyed 218 acres on Pequea Creek in Conestoga Township for Thomas Lindley, based on a warrant dated 21 January 1733.1 Lindley must have abandoned or sold the rights to this tract, because Henry Line warranted it on 27 April 1751 and patented it 4 November 1751.2

Henry and Barbara (Boyer)3 Line sold 20 acres from this tract to Christian Shenk on 25 November 1759, along with the saw mill, boring mill, and a grist mill erected on the land.4 Several years later, Henry and Barbara sold 150 acres from this tract to Solomon Kaufman on 9 February 1762.5

Henry  died sometime prior to 5 June 1764.6 On 30 October 1765, John Line and his wife Elizabeth released their share of the estate to his brothers Christian and Samuel.7 Christian released his third share of the estate to his brother Samuel four years later on 4 February 1769.8 Samuel Line and Barbara Line, Henry’s widow, sold the residue of this tract along with other land in Martic Township to Ulrich Huber.9

Solomon Kaufman and his wife Mary sold the 150 acres they’d purchased from Henry Line in 1762 to Christian Shenk on 8 April 1774.10 Christian Shenk, in turn, sold his two tracts—one of 20 acres and another of 150 acres—to Christian Shenk Jr. on 5 November 1795.11


This is the twelfth entry for my Along the Pequea series. These posts trace land transactions for early Lancaster County settlers from the first land owner—the warrantee—through subsequent transfers up to 1800, using deeds, other land records, and estate records, as available.

Samuel Boyer’s Conestoga Tract

Samuel Boyer Conestoga tract

Samuel Boyer’s Conestoga Township Tract

This 115 acre tract in Conestoga Township on Pequea Creek was warranted to Martin Kendig and John Herr as part of a larger 5,000 acre warrant.1 On the 20th day of the 8th month [October] 1729, John Taylor surveyed the tract, adjoining John Goughnower, Christian Stone, and Jacob Hoober, for Samuel Boyer in right of Martin Kendig and John Herr.2 On 27 November 1739, Samuel Boyer patented 115 acres on Pequea Creek. (See Patent Book A9:127)3

Nearly 50 years later, Jacob Boyer and John Barr, executors of Samuel Boyer’s estate, sold 16 acres to Henry Gochenour on 2 March 1786.4 On the same day, they also sold 82 acres from Samuel Boyer’s two tracts in Conestoga and Martic townships to Henry Resh.5 They also sold 97 acres from these tracts to Christopher Ord.6

Samuel Boyers tracts 1786

Samuel Boyer’s tracts as divided in 1786

  • Tract A: Henry Gochenour’s piece of Samuel Boyer’s Conestoga tract
  • Tract B: Henry Resh’s piece of Samuel Boyer’s Conestoga tract and his Martic tract
  • Tract C: Christopher Ord’s piece of Samuel Boyer’s Conestoga tract and his Martic tract

Land below the purple line was part of Samuel Boyer’s Martic township lands.

Jacob Huber’s Martic Township Tract

On 22 November 1717, Martin Kendig (Kendick, Kendrick, Cundigg) and John Herr (Heer) were warranted 5,000 acres in Lancaster County by the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania.1 They, in turn, transferred this land to their fellow immigrants.

Jacob Hoober 1733 land survey

Jacob Hoober 1733 survey

John Taylor surveyed 210 acres from this warrant for Jacob Huber on either 24 or 28th January 1733.2 The survey states: “Under a mistake John Taylor applied for a [Warrant] to the Secretary on the new terms wch was granted as aforesd But Jacob Hoober purchased the right of 210 as of Martin Kendrick  & John Heer part of 5,000 as granted to them & it is accordingly Returned into the Secretary’s office the — day of December 1735.” You can see the warrant here on my site.

Jacob Huber patented this tract of 210 acres on 22 October 1736.3 He had, quite likely, been living on his father, Hans Huber’s property in Earl Township prior to this purchase. He patented several adjoining tracts as well: one directly to the south in 1745 [A3], containing 48 ½ acres,4 and one to the north in 1759 [A1], containing 167 ½ acres.5

Huber/Hoover/Hoober land patents

Huber/Hoover/Hoober land patents

Jacob Hoover left 250 acres [A2 & A3] to his sons Jacob and Mathias. He also left about 150 acres in Contestoga (A1: the tract just north of this one) to his son Christian.6 A distribution from his estate was paid out to his heirs by 14 June 1765.7

Mathias Hoover quitclaimed ½ of the property left to him and his brother to Jacob on 20 November 1772.8  On 21 November 1772, Jacob and his wife Barbara sold 66 acres 40 perches from their piece of the tract to Mathias. By metes and bounds, this piece appears to be the top portion of the tract Jacob Huber patented in 1736, adjoining lands of Henry Huber, the tract willed to Christian Hoover, and Pequea Creek. Mathias took out a mortgage from Marcus Young of Martick on this 66 acres on 4 January 1773.9 Payment was acknowledged on 8 June 1776.

On 12 June 1776, Mathias and his wife Mary sold 10 acres of their land to Henry Resh/Rush.10 On 10 August 1776, Mathias and his wife Mary sold 19 acres from the 66 they’d purchased from Jacob Hoover to John Hart of Conestoga Township.11

I’m not sure about the division of the rest of the property. Jacob Huber Jr. purchased additional land, as did his son, Martin Hoover Sr. However, at least a portion of the land Jacob and Barbara Huber sold to Mathias Huber, eventually found its way back to Jacob’s descendants. In the settling of Jacob Huber’s granddaughter Elizabeth Hoover’s estate, a deed was issued for the sale of her property. This deed stated that the 113 acres being sold was part of the “same premises of which Martin Huber Sen. [her father], died seized testate” which he will to his children equally and that it was “also a part of the same premises which Jacob Hoover & wife by their Deed of Indenture bearing the date the 21st day of Nov A.D. 1772…[granted] unto Mathias Hoover.”12

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 Huber's Timber Hill tract

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

Jacob Hoober’s 1733 Survey

New! Updated warrantee map indexes for Lancaster County townships are available for purchase through my store. Each document includes the warrantee, warrant number, patentee, patent reference, and surveyee with a direct link to the online survey record and warrantee map. More to come.

After a warrant is issued, the Surveyor General directed one of their surveyors to make and return a survey of the requested tract. Jacob Hoober’s warrant was issued 24 Jan 1733. On 28 Jan 1733 a survey was made of 210 acres in present-day Providence Township, then part of Martic Township, adjoining the property of Samuel Boyer and Jacob Good.

Here is an image of the survey1:

Jacob Hoober 1733 land survey

Jacob Hoober 1733 survey

You can see this survey and many more at the Pennsylvania State Archives website.

How to Use the Online Land Records at the PA State Archives

If you’ve read my blog, you’ll know that I use land records—a lot! I’ve mentioned warrants, patents and deeds in a number of posts. They’re some of my favorite record groups. And best of all, depending on where your ancestor lived, the records may be available online for free.

This blog post is going to explain how to use the land records available online at the PA State Archives. These records are organized by record and then either by county or volume and surname. They have been scanned and placed online as PDFs by page. The records include:

  • Warrant Registers
  • Copied Survey Books
  • Patent Indexes
  • Patent Tract Name Index
  • Indexes of Selected Original (Loose) Surveys
  • East Side Applications (Register)
  • West Side Applications (Register)
  • Philadelphia Old Rights (Index)
  • Old Rights Index: Bucks and Chester Counties
  • New Purchase Register
  • Original Purchases Register
  • Last Purchase Register
  • Luzerne County Certified Townships
  • Donation Lands
  • Depreciation Land Register
  • Warrantee Township Maps
  • Melish-Whiteside Maps

I’m going to focus on the records in bold.

To understand how to use these records, it’s important to understand how the process worked in Colonial Pennsylvania.1 Technically, William Penn owned all of the land in Pennsylvania. A settler would apply to the land office for land. Before 1687, these applications were typically oral and not recorded. After 1687, they were recorded in the minute books of the Commissioners of Property. The minutes can be found in Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, Volume 19 and Third Series, Volume 1.

After the application, a warrant was issued to authorize a survey of the land. The warrants I’ve seen specify the name of the warrantee, the location of the desired property (sometimes rather generally), the amount of land, the quit-rent—and sometimes the date from which the rent commences—and the price per acre. The issuance of a warrant, however, does not mean that the applicant actually owned the property.

When a warrant was issued, orders were sent to the surveyor to survey the property and draw a map of the courses and bounds, the acreage, and the neighbors. After a survey was done, the applicant would have to pay for the land and provide evidence of their improvements to the property. In viewing the survey books, there are sometimes multiple surveys of a tract of land. Sometimes the original applicant failed to follow through, sometimes they sold their “rights” to someone else prior to the patent, or sometimes subsequent owners required a re-survey.

Once the survey was complete and the land paid for, a warrant of return was sent to the surveyor general, who in turn sent the survey to the secretary’s office so that a patent could be issued. The patent is the document that transferred ownership of the property to the settler.

So, warrants, patents and surveys deal with transfers of land between the Pennsylvania land office and the settler. Records of land transferred between individuals will be found—if recorded—at the Recorder of Deeds for the appropriate county. This may not be the same as the modern county. For more information on the historical transformation of the counties, take a look at the Genealogical Map of the Counties.

Patents

Ulrich Huber patent reference

Ulrich Hoober, Patent Book A11:408

If you know that your ancestor received a patent for their property, you can begin with the Patent Indexes. How would I know that, you ask. Often, deeds—sometimes several transactions removed from the patent—will reference the original patent for the property. You may have seen something like:

It being the same tract of land which the late Proprietaries of Pennsylvania by their Patent dated the twenty eighth day of September A. Dom. 1744 and recorded at the Rolls Office at Philadelphia in Patent Book A vol 11 page 408 &c did grant & confirm to Ulrich Hoover his heirs and assigns forever…2

If you haven’t seen a reference like this, but want to know if your ancestor was an early landholder, the Patent Indexes are still a good place to start. The Patent Indexes will not only provide the patent book, volume and page number for a patent, but will also identify the name of the original warrantee and the date of the warrant. This will make it possible to locate the warrant and survey if your ancestor was not the original warrantee.

  1. First, go to the Patent Indexes page on the State Archives site. The records are arranged by series, which are arranged by date. Choose the series you want to review.
  2. Next find the list of pages for the first letter of your ancestor’s surname. Be prepared to check multiple spellings if they apply. I’ve found “Brenneman” listed under both “B” and “P.”
  3. Check the available pages to see if your ancestor is listed. Each page is a separate PDF file, so you may need to download and open each file in Adobe Reader if your browser doesn’t have a plugin to view PDF files.
  4. Each listing includes: series and volume, date of patent, page number, patentee name, area in acres and perches, name of warrantee, name of tract (if available), date of warrant, and county.

If you find your ancestor, make note of the series, volume, page and date of the patent. You’ll need this information if you want to order the patent from the Archives. You should also note the name of the original warrantee, the date of warrrant and the county. This will be necessary for the next step.

In the image above, we have a patent for Woolrick Hoober, dated 20 Sep 1744, with 226 acres in Patent Book A11, page 408. We can also see that he is listed as the original warrantee for a warrant dated 19 Sep 1744 in Lancaster County.

Warrants

Woolerick Hoober, Warrant H338

Woolerick Hoober, Warrant H338, Lancaster County

Now that you have the name of the warrantee, warrant date and county, you can look-up the warrant and survey information in the Warrant Registers. These registers cover approximately 70% of all land in Pennsylvania for 1733—1957. If the warrant date is 1733 or later, follow these instructions.

  1. Go to the Warrant Registers page on the State Archives site. The registers are first arranged by county. Click on the link to the appropriate county.
  2. The pages for each register are listed first alphabetically by the first initial of the warrantee’s surname, then chronologically.
  3. Check the pages to see if the warrantee is listed.
  4. Each listing should include: warrant number, warrantee, type of warrant, quantity of land, warrant location, date of warrant, date of return, acreage returned, name(s) of patentee(s), where the patent is recorded (book, volume, page), and where the survey was copied (book, volume, page). Sometimes there are multiple patentees or surveys for each warrant. Sometimes the warrant was vacated and no information is available.

Woolrick Hoober’s listing tells us that he was issued a warrant (#338) to accept a survey of 226 acres in Conestoga Township, dated 19 Sep 1744. The patent was issued 19 Sep 1744 on 226 acres. The patent is listed in Book A11, page 408 and the survey is in book D88, page 127.

If the warrant date was before 1733, you’ll need to check the Old Rights Index for Bucks and Chester counties or the Philadelphia Old Rights Register.

Surveys

Woolrick Hoober, Survey Book D88:127

Woolrick Hoober, Survey Book D88:127

With the location of the survey from the Warrantee register, the next step is a piece of cake.

  1. Go to the Copied Survey Books page.
  2. Select the appropriate page for the book and volume.
  3. Click on the page link.
  4. Each survey should provide either a description of the metes and bounds or a drawing of the tract’s boundaries with the calls and the names of the tract’s neighbors. The survey also usually shows the date of the survey, name of surveyor, who the land was surveyed for, the date of the warrant, and the warrantee.

Ulrich’s survey shows that John Line, Jacob Hoober, and John DeHoof were his neighbors at the time of the survey—20 Oct 1728.

Warrantee Township Maps

Maps for some of the townships were drawn up showing all of the original landholders—those who received the property directly from the Proprietors or the Commonwealth—within the context of the present-day townships. Unfortunately, not every township was mapped.

Pequea Warrantee Township Map

Pequea Warrantee Township Map

To find a map of the township were your ancestor held property, you need to know the relationship between the historical township and the modern township. For instance, Ulrich Hoober’s tract was in Conestoga township when he received the patent in 1744. Two modern townships—Conestoga and Pequea—make up the historical 1729 township.3 You can see Ulrich Hoober’s property in the context of the township’s other properties in the Pequea Warrantee Township map.

Don’t forget, using this information you can order a copy of the land warrant or patent from the Pennsylvania State Archives. If you know the reference—warrant number, warrantee and county of warrant for warrants or patentee, patent date, book, volume and page number for patents—you can order an uncertified copy fairly inexpensively. If you don’t have that information, you can also order a search by the staff archivist. That, of course, will cost you more. Warrantee township maps are also available for sale.

If you can visit the state archives in Harrisburg, you can use the information you found through the online records to locate the documents on microfilm, saving time looking up the references so you can research other records.

That’s a fairly quick explanation of warrants, patents and surveys at the Pennsylvania State Archives website. These instructions should work for most properties. However, there will be exceptions (aren’t there always?). If you have questions, leave a comment or drop me a line. I’d be glad to help however I can.

Note: modified to include new PHMC screenshot.