Johann Adam LEITNER (bef1689- )

1.	Johann Adam LEITNER was born bef 1689. He died in Lancaster Co., PA. He married Maudlin.

Biography

Johan Adam "Adam" Leitner was likely born before 1689. (This is a very rough estimate based on his being married when he emigrated from Holland in 1709.)

Emigration

On 3 July 1709, Adam Leitner, his wife Magdalena, and two children, boarded a ship in Rotterdam bound for London. They were part of a large contingent of emigrants from the Palatinate who travelled to London that summer. It has generally been assumed that the two children belonged to Adam and Magdalena, but it's possible that they were either Adam or Magdalena's younger siblings instead. [1]

Cecil County, Maryland

"Adam Lytner and Macklen his wife" next appeared in Cecil County, Maryland, where their daughter, Macklen, was born on 19 March 1716. [2]

There are several theories for how the Leitners traveled from London to Cecil County, Maryland:

•They may have arrived in New York with many other 1710 immigrants, and then made their way south to Cecil County.

•They may have come directly to Cecil County in 1710. A ship full of immigrants from the Palatinate arrived unexpectedly in Chesapeake Bay that spring, and it's possible that the Leitners were aboard.

Adam owned 100 acres in Bohemia Manor, which was a large tract of land in Cecil County located between Bohemia River and Back Creek on the Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay. His land was on the south side of Back Creek, and is now the site of the Back Creek Golf Club. When the Mason-Dixon line was set in the 1760s, this area became part of New Castle County, Delaware. No deeds have been found for Adam purchasing or selling the land, but he is mentioned in several records:

•A 1723 Cecil County lease was for land "taken up by Adam Lightner and by him sold unto [Thomas] Bettel being part of Bohemia Manor. [3]

•A 1722 Cecil County lease to John Noackre was for land adjacent to Adam's land. [4]

A number of Cecil County residents, some of them close neighbors to Adam, moved to Leacock Township in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where they were again close neighbors. Several of those families intermarried with the Leitners:

•Conrad Rutter was a witness when Samuel Bayard signed his will in Cecil County in 1717. He later owned land in Lancaster County adjoining Adam's land. Four of Conrad's grandchildren married four of Adam's grandchildren.

•John Noacker leased land in Cecil County adjacent to Adam Lightner, and later owned a farm in Lancaster County several miles west of Adam.

•Henry Skiles owned land in Lancaster County a mile east of Adam.

•Jeremiah Everts owned land in Lancaster County a mile west of Adam.

•Dietrich Elrod owned land in Lancaster County 4 miles northwest of Adam.

Chester / Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

By 1725, Adam and his family had moved to Chester County, Pennsylvania, where Adam appeared in the January 1724/5 tax list. [5] He also appeared in the 1725/6 and 1726/7 tax lists.

In 1736, Magdalene acquired a warrant for 200 acres of land in Leacock Township, Lancaster County, from Anthony Prettor. (Lancaster County had been created from western Chester County in 1729.) She sold the land to her son Nathaniel in 1744. In order to create a clear title, Nathaniel had the patent confirmed on 13 March 1749. According to the document, the land was on

a Branch of Mill Creek, formerly in Chester County, now in the County of Lancaster, And Whereas the said Anthony Pretter, by Deed Poll dated the fourth Day of March 1736, granted two hundred acres … unto Maudlin Lightner, And the said Maudlin Lightner by an Indorsement on the aforesaid Deed Poll dated the Eighteenth day of January 1744 for the Consideration of the Sum of twenty Pounds granted the said Two hundred acres unto her Son Nathaniel Lightner … [6]

The land was located just north of what is now the village of Intercourse, between N. Hollander Road and N. Westview Drive, extending north from the intersection of N. Hollander Road and Diller St. The stream that runs through the property is Muddy Run, a tributary of Mill Creek, which eventually joins the Conestoga River. [7] The land survey identifies the creek as a branch of Pequea Creek, which appears to be incorrect. [8]

Adam and his wife Magdalena were sponsors at the baptism of their grandson, Ignatius Leitner, who was born 7 August 1736. The baptism took place at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in New Holland, Lancaster County, not long after his birth. [9] New Holland was about 5 miles north of the Leitner farm. Adam (or sometimes Joh. Adam) continued to serve as a sponsor at baptisms in New Holland through 1743, but it is not clear whether it was this Adam or his son.

Children

Provisional list of Adam and Magdalene's children:

•Nathaniel Ignatius Leitner

•Regina Leitner, m. Wilhelm Scheil, 1730, Lancaster County

•Johann Wilhelm Leitner

•Magdalen Leitner, b. 19 March 1716, St. Stephens, Cecil County, m. Martin Noecker, 1737, Lancaster County

•Susanna Leitner, m. Johann Peter Ernst, 1738, Lancaster County

•Johannes Leitner, b. 31 December 1722, St. Augustine's, Cecil County

•Johann Adam Leitner

Sources

1↑ Rotterdam Embarkation List (5th Party - partial, 1709 United Kingdom Public Record Office, National Archives, T1/119. Source: FamilySearch Person: LZP4-GF1 (Johan Adam Leitner, 1678-1736). (Accessed Feb. 2024)

2↑ St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, Earleville, Cecil County, Maryland, Parish Register, Volume 1 (1687-1837), page 46. Compiled by Annie Walker Burns, 1939.

3↑ Maryland State Archives. MDLandRec (Access requires free registration.) Cecil County, Maryland, Deed Book 4 (1723-1751), page 78. (MSA CE 133-6)

4↑ Maryland State Archives. MDLandRec (Access requires free registration.) Cecil County, Maryland, Deed Book 3 (1716-1723), page 533. (MSA CE 133-5)

5↑ Chester County, Pennsylvania, Tax Rolls: 1724/5, page 35.

6↑ Pennsylvania, Patent Books, 1676-1960, Book A15, page 360. FamilySearch film #008248623, image 322 of 929.

7↑ Pennsylvania Warrantee Township Maps, Leacock Townshp, Lancaster County Records of the Land Office, RG-17, Pennsylvania State Archives.

8↑ Pennsylvania Copied Surveys (1681-1912), Book D-78, page 202. Pennsylvania, Records of the Land Office, RG-17.

9↑ Records of Pastoral Acts of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, New Holland, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 1730-1799, page 4. Translated and edited by Glenn P. Schwalm and Frederick S. Weiser, published by the Pennsylvania German Societ, 1977. FamilySearch film #1305845.