John Weidman (1756-1830) Continued Was He Christopher Weidman's Son?

In my last post, I posited that John Weidman (1756-1830) could have been the son of Christopher³ Weidman (Martin², Mathias¹), but wasn’t the son of a member of President Buchanan’s direct family. Can we prove that he was (or wasn’t) the son of Christopher?

Christopher Weidman wrote his last will and testament on 20 March 1777. He names his “beloved wife Anna Maria,” his daughters Anna Maria and Catharine, and his sons “Christophel Weidman & John Weidman.”¹ He bequeathed his sons all the personal and real estate that he owned that he hadn’t specifically left to his wife and daughters. He also named his sons as his executors. On 10 December 1794, Christopher and John Weidman received Letters Testamentary on Christopher Sr.’s estate.

Christopher Jr. and his wife Eva sold 95 acres 30 perches of land from her father Wendel Horning’s estate to John Weidman on 20 May 1792.² At the time, Christopher was of Cocalico Township and John was of Warwick Township. Apparently, John sold the land sometime before 1 April 1797, because John Bricker used it as collateral for a mortgage from John Weidman “of the Town of Lebanon” on that date.³ John Bricker was the son of Christian and Barbara (Kissinger?) Brücher. Barbara was Christopher Sr.’s second wife.

On 21 December 1798, Christopher Striegel and his wife Catharine, Christopher’s daughter, sold to “John Weidman of the Town and Township of Lebanon” all their right and title to three tracts of land that Christopher Sr. had owned at the time of his death.⁴

On 20 February 1826, John Weidman “of East Hanover Township in the County of Lebanon” quitclaimed his half share of his father’s land to Michael Schebler of Cocalico Township.⁵ This deed specifically names John as one of the sons of Christopher Sr. It also mentions both of Christopher’s daughters: Catharine, wife of Christopher Striegel, and Anna Maria, wife of Abraham Forney, and states that Christopher Sr.’s widow was now deceased.

According to this deed, Christopher Jr. petitioned the Orphans Court to hold his father’s land and they granted it to him for £1,854. He was to pay the other heirs their shares of this amount. It appears however, that he didn’t. So the other heirs sold their shares of the estate. As reported above, Catharine and her husband Christopher sold their share to her brother John in 1798 when they were living in Virginia. Anna Maria and her husband Abraham sold their share to Michael Schebler on 3 April 1820.⁶ Six years later, John also sold his shares to Michael Schebler. Christopher Jr. died 4 December 1824.⁷ His administrators, sons Henry and William Weidman, sold his share of his father’s lands to Michael Schebler, through his assignee Samuel Eberle.⁸

John Weidman of Union Forge, Lebanon County wrote his last will and testament on 6 June 1830.⁹ He names his wife Elizabeth, son Jacob B. Weidman, daughter Elizabeth wife of Rev. Daniel Ulrich, daughter Maria wife of Dr. John Mish. These children are consistent with the John Weidman Esq. who served in the Revolutionary War.¹⁰

Since John’s wife Catharine died in 1794, Elizabeth was presumably a later wife.¹¹ John makes specific mention of his “wife’s house, stable and fences, situate in the Borough of Lebanon, and which she still owns as her own property.”¹² This indicates to me that she may have been living there at one time, that perhaps that was where they met and married. After Catharine’s death in 1794, John would have had three, possibly four young children. During this time period, most widowers in that situation would have remarried within a couple of years—when John was known to be of Lebanon Borough (see below).

Looking at a timeline for John Weidman, son of Christopher, from these documents, we get:

• 20 May 1792: of Warwick Township (Lancaster County)
• 1 Apr 1797: of Lebanon Borough (Dauphin County)
• 21 Dec 1798: of Lebanon Borough (Dauphin County)
• 20 Feb 1826: of East Hanover Township (Lebanon County)
• 6 Jun 1830: of Union Forge (East Hanover Township, Lebanon County)

We can add more by looking at census records.

• 1793: Warwick Township (Lancaster County)¹³
• 4 Aug 1800: East Hanover Township (Lebanon County)¹⁴
• 6 Aug 1810: East Hanover Township (Lebanon County)¹⁵
• 7 August 1820: [East] Hanover Township (Lebanon County)¹⁶
• 1 Jun 1830: [East] Hanover Township (Lebanon County)¹⁷

While the deeds pretty much identify John Weidman of East Hanover Township as the son of Christopher Weidman, the additional documents fill in the time between the deeds. Biographies of John’s descendants indicate that he served in the Revolutionary War.

So, I’m reasonably certain that the John Weidman who wrote his will in 1830 was the son of Christopher Weidman Sr. of Cocalico Township and a Revolutionary War veteran.

• Category: Research
• Tag: Family Research