• General Notes

  Heinrich came to America aboard the ship Markus, with Captain Souder, Master. The ship arrived about 1680 at the south river of the Delaware. Their first home was in Germantown on Lot #18. In 1974, the address was 6026 Germantown Ave.
  
  Soon after, Heinrich and Anna Catherine moved to a three hundred acre tract of land that is now know as Roxbourough Township. Most of the children were born there. Heinrich sold this land and purchased land in Towanmensing Township (later known as Faulkner Swamp). Heinrich became a naturalized citizen on March 7, 1690.
  -----
  The German families of Frey, Levering, Spears and Froman were part of the great German migration to William Penn's Colony in the Province of Pennsylvania. This migration was encouraged by Penn's own promotion of his colony by spreading a series of favorable reports of the land, and a promise of a "peaceful regime and religious freedom", which attracted settlers from the area of the Rhineland Wars, primarily religious, which had been raging through the Germanies since the beginning of the 17th century, and had reduced parts of the Rhineland to a state of misery. The good things Penn offered overcame the pain of leaving their homeland, the terror of a long ocean voyage, and the difficulty of establishing a new home in a wild land. Among the first to accept the challenge was Francis Daniel Pastorius, a lawyer and scholar, who arrived in Philadelphia on the good ship "America" on August 20, 1683 to act as an agent for the Frankfort Company of Germany.
  
  (The following narration is from a publication by the "Heinrich Frey Family Association" compiled by Charles J. Burgess)
  
  Heinrich FREY is believed to have been born in Germany. Research at the archives in Strasbourg, France produced a record from the Evangelical Church in Altenheim, which was taken from a family history book called the "Sippenbuch of Altenheim". It shows a Hans Heinrich Frey baptised on 17 Jun 1663. If this is indeed our ancestor, his parents were Jacob Frey married 26 Jan 1657 in Altenheim to Anna Hirtzeller. The father of Jacob was Friedrich Frey of Gulndetswill in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland. The father of Anna was Jacob Hirtzeller of Hinterwil in the Canton of Aargau, Switzerland.
  
  Heinrich Frey crossed the sea in the "Francis and Dorothy" as a servant of Gerhard Hendricks and his family. They arrived in Pennsylvania on October 12, 1685. It is probable that Heinrich served an indenture or apprenticeship for six years.
  
  The 18th day of April 1688 Gerhard Hendricks, Dirk Op den Graff, Francis Daniel Pastorius, and Abraham Op den Graff sent to the Friends Meeting House the first public protest ever made on this continent against the holding of slaves; a little rill there started, which further on became a raging torrent; it began with the tender conscience of the linen weavers and husbandmen of Germantown.
  
  On May 7, 1691 Heinrich Frey, in the company of sixty others of Germantown, was granted the right of citizenship via naturalization along with all of the German settlers of Germantown by William Penn. Among those taking this oath of allegiance were Daniel Pastorius, and his future father-in-law, Wigard Levering.
  
  Following this event Heinrich received, in a drawing, Lot #18 in Germantown. This lot of 25 acres was part of 200 acres that had been granted to Johannis Blychers on 8 Jan 1683. Blychers then granted the 25 acres to Heinrich, subject to a ground rent to the Frankfort Compnay and to Johannes Bleichers. By 1714 Lot #18 was owned by Philip Christian Zimmerman. In a deed dated 9 Mar 1729 when Heinrich sold land to John George Wood, Heinrich is listed as a "turner".
  
  In a book about the Levering Family by Col John Levering he quotes a Mr. Cassel, "Heinrich was a turner. I have a beautiful quart jar that he turned for my great great grandfather, Christopher Saur, who having studied medicine in Germany before he came here to America, established a drug store and apothecary in Germantown, before he commenced printing. No glass jars could be had, and at that time, no facilities for importing them. Frey turned a great number of quart, half-gallon and gallon jars for him out of a peculiar kind of wood, which shows no grain, with tight fitting lids, and cornices on them. They were than painted or varnished."
  
  There were few unmarried women available for the single men to court in this new country. Heinrich, who was at least 39 years old, was attracted to 16 year old Anna Catharine Levering, the eldest daughter of Wigard Levering. Because of the extreme difference in their age the couple feared that objections might be filed against their marriage through the church, so the intentions of their marriage was made public by posting them on the door of the Mennonite Meeting House in March of 1692.
  
  On April 26, 1692 Heinrich Frey and Anna Catharinge Levering were married by Francis Daniel Pastorius, who officated as Justice of the Peace. Their marriage was one of the first to be conducted in Germantown, and the original documents related to their marriage are in the manuscript collection of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia.
  
  The couple lived in Germantown for only a short time, as Heinrich purchased 100 acres of land by deed from John Jennett near Roxborough in October 1692. This tract of land lay along the Wessahicken Creek at its juncture with the Schuylkill River. The property was near, or adjoining, Wigard Levering's property. At least seven of their ten children were born here.
  
  Sometime around 1709 Heinrich sold his land in Roxborough and bought 200 acres in Towamencin Township, along Towamencin Creek, in what was then Philadelphia County, from Benjamin Fairman. For this land he paid 33 pounds, and the final payment was made on 10 Dec 1724.
  
  This property was part of a large tract containing 1,250 acres, and was still a wilderness with some Indian villages. Heinrich, along with his two older sons, Jacob 19, and William 17, filled knapsacks with food and walked from their home at Roxborough to the newly purchased land about eighteen miles north of Roxborough.
  
  They cleared and and built a log house, which was ready to live in the following spring. While they were building the house, they were visited by some friendly Indians. The Freys gave the Indians some bread, and the Indians gave them a saddle of vension. The first settlers in this area, the Freys lived here for about 20 years, and maintained a friendly relationship with the Indians.
  
  In 1716 Heinrich bought 650 acres of Falckner Swamp, which was a 22,000 acre tract opened for settlement by letters from William Penn to the Frankfort Company. Heinrich gave 200 acres to his eldest son Jacob in 1717, sold 250 acres to an Andrew Frey, and gave the remaining 200 acres to his second son William. This valley took its name from Daniel Falckner, who also settled in Germantown and was an attorney for the Frankfort Company. All the Frey family built their cabins on William Frey's tract near a mineral spring. William built a large barn that was used, not only for housing livestock and hay, but for the friendly get togethers of his neighbors. This barn was still standing in 1910.
  
  In 1732, when Heinrich was well into his sixties, and Anna was about fifty-six, they entered into an article of agreement with several of their children to provide for this physical needs in his old age, as well as those of his wife and three youngest daughters. In return for the care,etc., they were to receive from their son, Jacob, Heinrich transferred all his real and personal property to this son. This agreement probably constitutes his will, as no will or Letters of Administration for his estate has been located.
  
  Heinrich died about 1734, and Anna Catharine lived for some years with her son Jacob. She died in 1754, and was buried beside her husband in the Frey Burial Grounds, which was located on the 200 acre tract bought by Heinrich for his son William. Now known as the Frey/Bertolet Cemetery, located in Frederick Township, Mongomery County, it is where several generations of Freys were buried before it was closed.
  
  No information was found as to what Heinrich Frey may have bequeathed to his sons Henry, Abraham, Benjamin, John and George. Abraham and Benjamin moved to Virginia. John lived and died in Franconia Township. Nothing is known about Henry and George. Moravian records note that a William and Andrew Frey, both of Fredericktown, were among the initial contacts made by the Moravians in Pennsylvania. Andrew was baptised by Conrad Beissel on 8 Mar 1728, and William joined a short time after. Amelia Frey and her husband Frederick Leinbach, joined the Moravian Church in 1742. Best known for their missionary efforts, the Moravian Church first came to Pennsylvania in the early 1700's and settled at Bethlehem, PA.
  

Details of Heinrich's family with Anna Catherine Levering