Bio-bit on immigrant Rudolf Drach, who immigrated in 1730.

SOURCE: Ancestry page of family researcher, Tom Lengle. He is a member of the Nat'l Genealogical Soc.

Birth: Dec. 16, 1699, Germany Death: Oct. 1, 1771 Bucks County, Pennsylvania, USA

Arrived in Philadelphia aboard the "Thistle of Glasgow" on August 29, 1730 with his wife and older children. They had left from Rotterdam with a stop in Dover, England from where they left June 19, 1730.

He took the Oath of Allegiance on 24 March 1744. He had 300 acres granted him from William Penn in Rockhill Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1763 but he appears in Bucks County, Pennsylvania as early as 1750 when his daughter Anna Maria was born and baptized. He and his family settled in Bucks County, Pennsylvania and on 4 June 1763, he received by patent from the Proprietors full title to approximately 300 acres of land in the northeastern corner of Bedminster township on Tohickon Creek extending across into Nockamixon township. They were members of the Tohickon Lutheran Church and appear frequently in the published History of Tohickon Union Church (1745-1854), by Rev. William J. Hinke, Ph.D.,D.D. This book was issued in 1924 by the Pennsylvania German Society, but, as stated in the preface, it was published with the financial aid of the descendants. In 1753 he named as one of the trustees in the deed for the purchase of a church site for the Tohicken Church.

His will was probated 1 October 1771. It is recorded in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Will Book 3, page 242, and is abstracted as follows:

Will of Rudolph Drach of Township of Rockhill Dated Jan. 5, 1770 Probated Oct. 1, 1771. Registered Will Book 3, page 242. Wife Merilas all personal estate except 5 pounds which I will to my son Henry Drak as his full share and legacy of all my estate. After decease of my wife Merilas all personal estate in her custody to be divided between the surviving children of me and my wife Merilas. Appoints Peter Drak and Philip Shryer Exrs. who shall make my two sons Henry Drak and Adam Drak deeds for the land I gave them by articles of agreement, they paying legacies to my six daughters 40 each as per agreement.

Witnessed: Abraham Landed
John Philip Schryer
John Jemison.

His family is named fully in the various legal papers concerned with the division of his estate. In 1770 Rudolph divided his property among his children. He did this by means of an agreement whereby each daughter was to receive 40 pounds (except Susanna who only received 5 pounds). This money was to be paid by the two sons who in their turn were to divide the farm between them and furnish maintenance for their parents as long as they should live. This support included "a hogshead of good cider yearly." The agreement between Rudolph and his two sons, Adam and Henry was as follows:

Deed Book No. 18 page 274 Office of Recorder of Deeds Doylestown, Pennsylvania AGREEMENT made January 5, 1770 between Rudolph Drach of Rokhill Township, County of Bucks, and Province of Pennsylvania, yeoman, of the one part, and his sons Henry Drach and Adam Drach of the same place, of the other part. WITNESSETH: That the said Rudolph Drach grants unto his said sons the trace of 300 acres of land in Bedminster Township, the said County, which he, the said Rudolph, had purchased of the Right Honorable the Proprietaries of the Province of Pennsylvania by their patent bearing date the 4th day of June 1763. To the said Henry 100 acres, and to Adam 200 acres thereof. Henry shall give yearly and every year from the date hereof on the 27th of November to his said father at his house where he now lives 8 bushels, the halfe of wheate and the halfe of rey, in the hole, 8 bushels; and shal plow and harrow in one half acre with Buckwheat each year and find the seed, thresh and kline the same and deliver same at the same time when he delivers the wheat and rey in Rockhill Township, Bucks County. And Adam Drach shall likewise give each and every year to his father Rudolph Drach and mother Merilas Drach as long as they or either of them live, 20 bushels the NE half wheate and one half rey, and shall sew one half acre of Buckwheat in like manner as Henry, and deliver the same together with one hogset of good cider. And said Henry and Adam shall pay 40 pounds each to my five daughters Elizabeth, Madalenck, Margaret, Ann Margaret, and Ann Mary, and the said Henry to pay unto my daughter Susannah Drack 5 pounds. Ten acres are excepted from Rudolph's 200 acres during the lifetime of the said Rudolph. Signed by the three contracting parties in German Witnessed by Johann Philip Schryer and Peter Drach

Note:
Familien in Dannstadt und Schauernheim by Winifred Seelinger, page 158 shows that Rudolf Drach born 1699, son of Peter Drach (1666-15 September 1738 and Christina Metzger as the 1730 immigrant and his nephew Rudolf Drach, born 29 December 1721, son of Peter Drach, 27 November 1694-5 December 1773 and Anna Barbara Vesper, 1697 - 18 February 1735, as the 1754 immigrant.