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My patrilineal immigrant ancestor was Peter Bricker, the last name originally having been "Brügger" in Europe. Peter and Ulrich Stähli lived in the same cowherding settlement of Rambermoulin, aka Hangholz, in the Principality of Salm in Lorraine in the 1720s, traveled with their respective families aboard the ship "Plaisance" to Philadelphia in 1732 (Ulrich and Peter made their respective marks in lieu of signature one after the other on the ship's passenger list), and settled not far from one another in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Ulrich in Clay Township and Peter in West Cocalico Township. Peter stood as a godparent at the baptism of one of Ulrich's children in 1725 prior to their immigration to America.
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"Johann Stähly, Ulrichs Stähly Wagners auf Salm wohnhafft und Anna Germännin, junges Söhnlein, so ihn Freytags, den 23. Marti 1725 gebohren; Wurde Samstags Morgens, den 14. April darauf allhier zu Rothau in der Kirchen getauft. Gevattern waren Peter Brügger im Hangholz wohnhafft, und Johannes Zwallny, auf Salm wohnhaft. Und dann Barbara
Schlechtin, ebendaselbst.
[Johann Peter Stähly, little son of Ulrich Stähly, cartwright and resident at Salm, and of Anna Germann, who was born on Friday, the twenty-third of March, 1725, was christened here at Rothau in the church on Saturday morning on the following fourteenth of April. Sponsors were Peter Brügger, resident in the Hangholz, and Johannes Zwalley, resident at Salm. And also Barbara Schlecht, of the same place.]
NB Weilen die Kinder dasigen Ortes nicht ohne sonderbare von dem Herrn Curé daselbst gegebener Erlaubnis anderwaerts mögen getaufft werden, als ist derselbige Hiermit wie sie gegeben, worden von Wort zu Wort beygefüget, also lautend:
[NB: as the children of that place may not be christened elsewhere without special permission given by the local curé, this one is added word by word as given, saying:]
Je subsigné Sebastien Pelletier prêtre et curé du Ban de Plaine certifie avoir donné permission au nommé Voily Staily de faire batiser son enfant oú il jugera à propos. a Plaine ce 10 avril 1725.
Seb. Pelletier
Curé de Plaine
[I the undersigned Sebastien Pelletier, Catholic priest and curé of the parish of Ban de Plaine certify to having given permission to the named Voily (sic) Staily to have his infant son baptized where he judges proper. At Plaine this April 10, 1725.
Sebastien Pelletier
Curé of Plaine]
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The 1723 marriage record of Peter to his first wife Christina Gilgen, which happened in the Alsatian town of Eckirch, indicated that Peter's father was a citizen of the administrative district of Schwarzenburg. Within Schwarzenburg is the church at Wahlern where Ulrich was born. There is a Swiss genealogist named Paul Hostettler who has transcribed and placed on CD many of the 17th and 18th century records found in the cantonal archives of Bern and of Freiburg which relate to Schwarzenburg. In it, among other records of interest, were the following which I had translated for me from German into English:
1720 Okt 10
Schreiben an Fryburg. Vergangnen Schwarzenburg-Markt ist Ulli Stöckli zusammengeschlagen worden und bald darauf gestorben. Die Autopsie durch den Chirurgen hat ergeben, dass sein Tod einzig durch diese Gewalttat ausgelöst worden ist. Der Tat verdächtigt werden Peter Brügger und Ulli Stähli, die sich in Fryburg befinden sollen. Es ergeht Haftbefehl.
1720 Oct 10
At the last Schwarzenburg Market Ulli Stöckli was beaten so badly that he died; The result of the autopsy by the surgeon was that his death was brought on by this violent act. The suspects are Peter Brügger and Ulli Stähli, who are to be found in Fribourg. There is an arrest warrant out.
1721 Jan 3
Schreiben an Fryburg. Totschlag an Ulli Stöckli in Schwarzenburg. Information: Haftbefehl betr. Peter Brügger und Ulli Stähli erging auch an Murten und Tscherlitz.
1721 Jan 3
Murder of Ulli Stöckli in Schwarzenburg. Warrant for the arrest of Peter Brügger and Ulli Stähli went to Murten and Tscherlitz.
Murten and Tscherlitz ("Echallens" in French) are towns found along the two routes out of Switzerland to France, in which Lorraine and Alsace are now located.
There's been an enduring legend passed down by our Bricker family for a couple of hundred years, to the effect that our immigrant ancestor, Peter, fled Switzerland in the early 1700s to "escape religious persecution." There was never any reason to doubt that this was so, as a number of his children (and their descendents today, in the U.S. and Canada) are known to have held to the Mennonite faith. During this period in history, the Mennonites, like their more conservative Amish brethren, often faced harsh treatment by local authorities in Switzerland as a direct consequence of their beliefs, which included refusal to take up arms on behalf of those authorities or in fact to use violence in their own self-defense.
I have read on Genforum that Ulrich Staley was a Mennonite. Can anyone tell me what the basis for this is?
In 1722, a record was entered in the communion book of the German-speaking Reformed Church of Ste Marie-aux-Mines in Alsace-Lorraine, noting that Ulli Staehli, who had married Anna Maria Germann there in September of that year, had earlier spent 6-8 weeks in prison in Bern Canton. If the pastor was aware of this episode from Ulli's past and made a record of it, it's unlikely that it was something that the rest of the community was unaware of.
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From:
Kommunionbuch der deutsch-reformierten Gemeinde in Markirch,
1701 - 1760 [ADHR Colmar: 202 J 102, gebundenes Buch.]
Auszug, Arbeitsprotokoll und Tabellen.
1722 p. 104
Anna Maria German, from Frutigen, whose parents came from Switzerland, came to settle at Hangholtz in the Salm district on the Alsatian-Lothringer border, has joined the Anabaptist sect...her father died here and then Anna Maria came to Ulrich Stähli, who had been in prison for 6-8 weeks in Bern, and she was later baptized. Therefore, she is able to produce an authentic baptismal certificate, and was married to Ulrich Stähli in Markirch on September 30, 1722. A barely readable note appears to report about a conversion to the Roman Catholic religion.
From:
Kirchenbuch der ref.-deutschen Gemeinde Markirch 1687 - 1740
Gemeindearchiv SteMarie-aux-Mines GG 53, rsp. neue Zählung: GG 65 Bd. 1
1722 p.167
Ulrich Stähli, son of Jacob Stähli of Schwarzenburg married Anna Maria German, daughter of Christian German of Frutigen Because her parents were of the Reformed faith when they came here from Switzerland to settle at Hangholtz Lorraine and then joined the Anabaptists, she is an Anabaptist..., but was later baptized.
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If Ulli had been apprehended by the Swiss authorities but only spent a maximum of 8 weeks in jail, the assumption is that, of the two men, after an investigation he at least was ultimately found not to have been culpable in Stoeckli's death. Peter may have been caught as well, also jailed pending the results of such an investigation and then released, but no record to that effect has yet been found. Or, of course, he could have been the sole culprit and managed to elude capture, slipping away to Alsace-Lorraine, where he was married in 1723 to a young woman named Christina Gilgen whose family was from Schwarzenburg. But how would Peter have been able to openly marry Christina, a Mennonite and so presumably a believer in non-violence, if it was known that he was wanted for murder? And, for that matter, if Ulli had been innocent but Peter not, why would the two have afterward become neighbors in Alsace-Lorraine, would Peter have stood as godparent at the baptism of one of Ulrich's infants, would they have travelled in company across the Atlantic together with their families, and then have settled near one another in Pennsylvania?
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