Person Page - 1191

     Charter member and deacon of Christ Lutheran Church, Strochburg, Berks Co., PA. 1748, high delegate representative to the first organization convention. Well educated, very proficient in reading & writing. He came to American with his widowed mother and his sister. Martinus was a delagate to the high Lutheran Ministerium in Philadelphia in 1748-1752. He was a charter member and deacon of Christ Lutheran Church,Strouchburg, Berks Co., PA..He was a farmer. He and Maria left Schoharif, NY, in 1723 with a body of 150 men, women and children and settled in Meyerstown, Lebanon Co., PA (Woschester Co.). The company cut a road from Schoharie, NY, to the head waters of the Susquehanna River,down which they floated their flatboats and canoes holding their women, children, and household goods. They drove their cattle along the banks of the stream. When they reached what is now Middletown, PA, they turned up the Swatara Creek and finally landed at their intended destination in the western part of Berks County and the eastern part of Lebanon County(then a part of Lancaster Co.), with none but Indians for their neighbors. Here they squatted, each family picking their own particular spot to build a home. Martin and Maria Elizabeth built their home on a small branch of the Tulpehocken Creek, about 1 1/2 miles north and east of what is now Myerstown, Lebanon Co., PA. Martin bought his land, 329 acres, on 2 Nov 1739, after having "squatted" on it as early as 1727.

     Suffice it to say that the Batdorf family for several generations had been, for that period, well-educated people, and as expected, Johannes, Jr.'s son, JOHN JACOB PETER BATDORF, followed the family tradition, and in 1680 was listed as a Professor. JOHANNES JACOB PETER BATDORF, with his wife Anna Maria
Catharina, left their native Switzerland in search of a better life where they would no longer have to endure the terrors and horrors of the Religious persecutions. They lived for several years in Palatine,
Germany, where their five children were born. In 1707-08 it was so cold in the Rhine Basin that their crops, fruit trees, grape vines and meadows were all killed by the frost. Rivers were ice bound and even the sea froze along the coasts. Louis XIV of France taxed unbearably, and southwest Germany was plundered time and again by the French and German robber Barons. This land knew no rest, having suffered wars and religious persecution of its people. The ravages of wars and the persecutions of the Protestants made them fearful, so during the summer of 1708, Professor Johannes Jacob Peter Bardorf, with his wife and five children, left their home in the small village of Badorf, near Stuttgart, Germany, and traveled the tedious trip by boat down the Rhine River to Rotterdam, Holland. From Rotterdam, they were transported by ship to England to await further transportation to America. Like the Hans Adam Walborn family with whom they had become acquainted, they joined the thousands who took advantage of Queen Anne's offer to transport families to America, with the intention of establishing a colony in present New York State. Their trip was a long and extremely hard one, and it was not without tragedy for the Batdorf family. Johannes Jacob Peter Batdorf, the father, died in London in 1709, and three of their children perished on the journey to America -- either on the ship, or shortly after they arrived at New York, NY., 10 June 1710, as we find only the widow Anna Catharina Batdorf, and a son and daughter survived the journey to the new land.

     Johannes Batdorf, Jr. followed in his father's footsteps and in 1647 was a Professor who was expounding the religious controversies and was teaching others the methods of expounding the gospel Gottesgel Aineheit. In 1654, Johannes Jr. was listed as a Professor of the Old Testament.

     Minister of the Gospel.

     Johann “Hans” Adam Walborn was born in Weisbaden, Germany. He married Anna Elizabetha Feg in Mosbach-Biebrich, Weisbaden, Germany, on February 15, 1691. Anna was born about 1668 in Vollmersbach, Idar-Overstein, Germany, the daughter of Johann Peter Feg and Anna Maria Risch. Both the Feg and the Risch families emigrated at the same time as Hans and Anna. Her paternal grandparents were Nicolaus Feg and Anna Margaretha Koch. Anna's last name is sometimes given as Gietz (Zietz), There is confusion among sources for their marriage information that has not been resolved.

Following their marriage, Hans was a tenant farmer, living in a section of the Rhine Valley known as the Palatinate, on land owned by Egydius Sartorius. Church records of the family were found in Wiesbach-Nassau, Germany. No doubt Hans was discouraged with the meager living he could provide for his family as a tenant farmer. The Palatine people were tired and wary of the ravages and destruction of the European Wars, the bloody persecutions, and the dreadful sufferings of the Protestants. One can easily understand why they joined the many thousands who took advantage of Queen Anne's offer to transport families to America, with the intention of establishing a colony in the present state of New York.

In the summer of 1708, the Walborns traveled by boat down the Rhine to Rotterdam, Holland. The trip was a long and tedious one, requiring many stops made enroute, and required considerable time. In some places they had to pay tolls to pass and before they reached Rotterdam, most of their meager resources had been exhausted. They then had to obtain passage to England. By the time they reached London most of them were destitute and entirely dependent upon the English government for subsistence.

Ten vessels were loaded with over three thousand Germans and among them were several families of our ancestors -- the Hans Adam Walborn family, the Peter Batdorf family, the Johann Peter Feg family and the Johannes Risch family. They left England the 25th of December, 1709, and after a six months' arduous voyage reached New York in June, 1710. The voyage was longer than usual because of heavy storms. The crowded quarters, the foul air and insufficient food, made them easy prey of disease, and many died. Upon landing, the survivors were encamped in tents they had brought with them from England. Here they remained till late in autumn, when about fourteen hundred were moved one hundred miles up the Hudson River to Livingston Manor.

The Walborn, Batdorf, Feg and Risch families were among those settled at Livingston Manor. Governor Robert Hunter of New York had arranged passage for 2500 Germans to America in exchange for their being indentured to work at the tar and pitch processing plants along Schoharie Creek and the Hudson River in New York. After two years of work the tar/pitch program was closed because it was never financially viable (largely due to the German's resistance to serfdom). The experiment was a complete failure, and the Germans apparently were abandoned. Being unjustly oppressed, they became dissatisfied with their treatment and their situation.

Our ancestors were among the one hundred and fifty families who, in order to escape the certainty of starvation, left late in the autumn of 1712, for Schoharie Valley, about sixty miles north-west of Livingston Manor. The country was uncleared forest. They had no open roads and no horses to carry or haul their meager possessions. They loaded their belongings on crude, roughly-built sleds and pulled them by hand through a three-feet-deep snow, which greatly impeded their progress. Because of the snow and the unbroken forest, it took them three full weeks to reach their destination.

     Introduction From The Walborn Family by Maxine Bennett, published by Clifford Bennett 1984, we learn that family legend says that the name Walborn had its origin with the birth of a child found in the woods in Germany many years ago. They called him a name which meant woods born: Waldoem Borne, Wald Borne, Waldborn.

To speak of the Walborns is to speak of the Batdorfs, for these two families have been closely related for more than two hundred and seventy five years. The original home of the Walborns was in Wiesbaden, Germany, the same general area in Germany as the Batdorfs. Some have suggested that the families knew each other there and may have emigrated to America at the same time and perhaps together.


Joachim Waldborn
abt1629- Sep. 10, 1689 The first Waldborn of which we have a record is Joachim Waldborn who was born in Germany. He married Anna Marie (surname unknown) who was born in 1636 and died in 1693. They had the following children: Johann Philipp, 1659; Maria Clara, 1666; Johann (Hans) Adam (our ancestor), abt 1668. Elisabetha, 1672; and Martin Jacob, 1676.

Joachim died in Weisbaden (north of Mainz), Germany.