Powell Herboldt

Notes:

Said to be the son of Hans Adam and Eva Catherina Herboldt.

Baden was a small principality on the river Rhine beside the Palatine; this area was later to become part of the heart of modern Germany. Hans Adam Herboldt is not recorded arriving in Philadelphia with his young family, which means that he may have died prior to the date of their emigration. No records have been found of him in the New World. The family was almost certainly Protestant.

Hans married Anna Barbara Barball about 1724 in Germany. Anna was born about 1709 in Germany; died about 1769 in Pennsylvania. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Mrs Anna Barbara Harpole and her family arrived in Philadelphia on Oct. 28th, 1738. She was a twenty-nine year old Protestant widow with five young sons. They arrived aboard the bilander Thistle of Philadelphia. George Houston was the captain. The ship had sailed from Rotterdam, Netherlands, via Cowes, England. This was because only British ships were permitted to land at American ports of the period. The passengers imported on this voyage consisted of forty-two men, thirty-six boys, forty-one women and twenty-three girls. A total of 142 passengers.2 3

A bilander was a two masted vessel and its distinguishing feature was the large trapezoidal mainsail, the forward end of which came as far forward as the middle of the ship. Steerage passengers were densely packed, often with poor food and bad water. Disease was commonplace. Christopher Sauer, a German printer in Philadelphia, mentioned in a letter, in that same year of 1738, that 2,000 Germans had just died of a "pest" on immigrant ships. No doubt this was an exaggeration, Sauer was crusading on behalf of the German immigrants; but we can be sure there was some truth in his assertion.

Upon arrival in Philadelphia, Anna, as head of the family, was probably immediately marched under guard to the Court House where she was required to swear the Oath of Allegiance to the Protestant King George the Second and explicitly state her refusal to give any allegiance to the former Catholic King James, or any of his heirs. She was then taken back to the Thistle.

Afterwards Anna would have been free to leave the vessel if she had enough passage money. If she did not, she was consigned, along with others in that sorry state, to a merchant. An advertisment would have been printed in a Philadelphia newspaper. Buyers would have bargained with her for a stated period of her domestic or other service. After the Indenture, her sworn and witnessed agreement, was signed by her. The buyer would have paid the merchant her passage money and any other debts that she owed to the Captain. The buyer then received the servant in exchange. Families were often divided at this point, the able-bodied children being "sold" into temporary servitude to pay the family's passage.

What precisely happened in the Herboldt family's case is currently unknown. Nicholas, we can be reasonably certain, was too young to be separated. Anna must have found some immediate employment. It is at least possible that she had a contact in the New World and some money before she made the fateful decision to take her young family across the Atlantic. The probability is that Anna made the transition successfully as we know that her son Hans was later apprenticed to a brickmaker.

1782 - A "Widow Harple" of New Hanover Township, County of Philadelphia, was assessed for ?0.18.9 being her annual effective supply tax. Her total valuation was listed as ?150.4

1783 - A "Widow Harple" of New Hanover Township, County of Philadelphia, was listed as possessing 85 acres but no horses, cattle, sheep or negroes for her annual Federal tax assessment.5

1790 - A "Widow Harple" was living in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania with, presumably, her five children all under sixteen; three girls and two boys. Census 1790

A John Harple of Montgomery county, PA, [born 1752] is listed as a Pennsylvanian [Military] Pensioner, [former rank of] pr[ivate in the] P[ennsylvanian] L[ine, pension payments were activated on] March 1 1821[when he reached the age of 69]; [he then] d[ied on] June 22, 1832, [at the age of] 80.6 Square here brackets denote assumptions.

Harple, John, Pa., Mary/Maria/Maricha, W3138 7 These papers would be available.



Sources
1. Harpole, Belma Carroll & Agnes S. (1986) Harpole Cousins - The Harpole-Harpold-Harpool Families in America West Point Miss.(privately published)
2. Strassburger, R. B. & Hinke, W.J. (1934) Pennsylvania German Pioneers Vol 1
(List 63 A) A List of Palatinate Passenger's Names
3. Rupp, I. Daniel 1876 (rp.1965) A Collection of Upwards of Thirty Thousand Names of German, Swiss, Dutch, French and other Immigrants in Pennsylvania from 1727 to 1776 etc.
4. Montgomery, Thomas Lynch edit. (1906) Pennsylvanian Archives Harrisburg Publishing Company:Harrisburg PA Third Series Vol. 16 page 259.
5. Montgomery, Thomas Lynch edit. (1906) Pennsylvanian Archives Harrisburg Publishing Company:Harrisburg PA Third Series Vol. 16 page 624.
6. Montgomery, Thomas Lynch edit. (1906) Pennsylvanian Archives Harrisburg Publishing Company:Harrisburg PA Third Series Vol. 23 page 512.
7. Index of Revolutionary War Pension Applications in the National Archives (1976)
8. Harpold, William Cody Rev. (1986) Correspondence with B. C. & Agnes S. Harpole
quoting genealogist
Cornelia Schrader-Muggenthaler, Heimeranstrabe 2, 8000 Munchen 2, Germany

Courtesy of
Kenneth C. Harvey
iconoclast@truvista.net