He has/had a relationship with Anna Maria Merckel.
Child(ren):
CURATOR'S NOTE (Pam Wilson, October 2019): Much has been written about Jost or Joist Hite (born Hans Joist Heydt in 1685 in the part of the Holy Roman Empire that is now Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany), who migrated as part of the German Palatine migration to England and from there to colonial America (New York) c. 1709-10 [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Palatines for clarity about the impoverished conditions of most of these immigrants, a far cry from the far-fetched claim of many fabricated Hite genealogies that Jost Hite was a "Baron" from Alsace who sailed his own ships to America in order to settle western Virginia.]. ylvania (near Germantown on Skippack Creek) and then by 1718 had purchased 600 acres on the Perkiomen River. g offered by the Governor of Virginia, probably through family connections with the Van Meter family (a Hite son was married to a Van Meter granddaughter). Governor Gooch was seeking resourceful speculators to bring in settlers to the backcountry of Virginia, beyond the Blue Ridge mountains and farther west than any English settlements had been made. This would become Hite's claim to fame. He rallied various business partners and family members to join in this endeavor. He sold his land in Pennsylvania in 1730, and with partner Robert McKay set up a land company and secured patents for 40,000 acres between Opequon Creek and the Shenandoah River from the Van Meter brothers and then another 100,000 from the Virginia Colony, under the conditions of settling one family per thousand acres. He and his family migrated to the northern Shenandoah Valley in 1731.an Meter brothers, and others as agents to settle the back-country of Virginia beyond the Blue Ridge in order to create a safety buffer against the French and the Indians. Gooch's goal was "to recruit non-English immigrants, and targeted religious and economic refugees who had migrated from Germany, Scotland, and Ireland into Pennsylvania." separate grant [from the Van Meters] for 100,000 acres on October 31, 1731. Hite had been born at Bonfeld in Kraichgau region, north of Stuttgart, Germany. He was one of 13,000 Protestants who migrated to England in 1709, with the encouragement of Queen Anne. He was part of a second migration of 2,500 to New York in 1710....Jost Hite moved to Perkiomen Creek, Pennsylvania. From there, he and his partner Robert McKay acquired their own land order for a large chunk of Virginia's backcountry from the colonial officials in Williamsburg. ...Following the colonial government's formula, Hite and McKay were entitled to 1,000 acres for each settler. " ive American land rights in the Treaty of Lancaster in 1744, and ultimately through force by displacing the Monacan, Manahoacs, Tutelo, Shawnee, Delaware, Iroquois, Cherokee, and other groups who might have asserted land rights."patented parcels within the 40,000 acres [between Opequon Creek and Shenandoah River] on August 5, 1731. In 1734, they sold him the parcels they had previously patented, except for some parcels near Shepherdstown where John Van Meter had lived. Hite may have been John Van Meter's cousin or nephew, a relationship that could have facilitated their dealings.10"nandoah Valley in 1731. Local tradition holds that he brought 16 German and Scotch-Irish families in the initial settlement caravan. They lived near the Pack Horse Ford crossing over the Potomac River, until completing their houses further south on Opequon Creek."ts went into Stube. Hite was part of the Opequon Settlement. Peter Stephens settled further south, where he initiated what would develop into Stephens City."etween the Virginia Colony and Lord Fairfax about ownership of the lands of the lower (northern) Shenandoah Valley, which had been settled under the agency of Hite & Robert McKay but claimed by Lord Fairfax: hip for over 35 years. James Wood, surveyor for Orange County and then clerk of the court for Frederick County, marked boundaries of properties that became the town of Winchester but could not obtain clear title.19 The General Court in Williamsburg ruled in favor of Hite and his buyers in 1771, but Lord Fairfax still continued legal proceedings. He had won in the Privy Council 25 years earlier, and was not willing to accept the judgment of a colonial court. The Supreme Court of Virginia ruled on May 8, 1786 that the Privy Council ruling was not valid and that Hite was entitled to his 140,000 acres.... the final court decision, his purchasers and their descendants received clear title to their land, and all of the Fairfax Grant lands that had not been sold already was transferred to the Commonwealth of Virginia."ecase.tripod.com/hite.htm), it seems to be excerpted or adapted from the compilations of Hite family trees included on this site --J.B. Hitt's Worldconnect profile for Jost Hite at https://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jbh&id=I15714 -- and *may* be attributable to "Jost Hite by Ralph Conner, 1980 orJoist Hite and Some of His Descendants by M. Frances Cooper 1983."]ame to live with them.arriage, Anna Maria and Maria Barbara, died shortly after birth. The third child, Mary, not listed in the Bonfeld church records, with a birthday of 1708 or 1709, may have been born after the family left for America.a Maria, their baby daughter Mary and Jost's stepmother, Maria. Probably typhoid, severe at the time, accounted for the rest. Entire families were known to be wiped out.n New York State three or four years, as indicated by the baptism of their next two children at Kingston; Elizabeth and Magdalena. The family then moved to Pennsylvania, near Germantown, now part of the city of Philadelphia, where they bought 150 acres on the Skippack River in 1714. Four years later, on 15 Nov 1718, they purchased 600 acres a few miles up the Perkiomen, for the price of 125 pounds. Here Jost built a grist mill just outside of present day Swenksville. Family tradition says he also bought slaves, which seems likely in view of the size of his property. It must also have been here, while near the Pastorious Colony at Germantown, a Quaker settlement, that Elizabeth met and married Paul Froman, a member of The Society of Friends.ren were: John, Jacob, Isaac, an infant, Abraham and Joseph. stone walls two feet thick, would be content with their success in the new world. And perhaps they were, even though an Indian attack, repulsed by the local German farmers, occurred close by. But unknown to them, the actions of a traveling Indian trader from the New York area were shaping their future, and drawing the name of Jost Hite into the history of the development of a rich wilderness area 140 miles to the southwest, in the "Northern Neck" of Virginia. furs. He was widely known and readily accepted by a number of tribes, living with them and moving among them with apparent ease. During the late 1720's, it is said that he attached himself to a war party of Delawares and accompanied them on an expedition to the south, up the valley of the Shenandoah River, to attack the Catawbas. He was so well impressed with the lower valley area that upon returning he and his brother Isaac obtained a grant from the Colonial Government at Williamsburg for 40,000 acres, 17 June 1730, with the condition that they settle one family per thousand acres on the land within two years.Robert McKay pursued what appeared to be golden opportunity and on October 31 signed papers at Williamsburg for an additional grant of 100,000 acres, subject to the same conditions of settlement within a two-year period. Then, together with Robert Green and William Duff, they set up land company operations. Just what part McKay played in this enterprise is not entirely clear. Accounts of the settlement of the lower Shenandoah Valley invariably list Hite as the leader of this first permanent settlement west of the Blue Ridge.operty. Jacob Merkle (the name later became Markley), Anna Maria's brother, had arrived from Germany, and the Hites saw fit to release 100 acres of land to him for the legalizing token of five shillings, July 16, 1728. Although it is not indicated here, it seems to have been the custom to lease saleable land to prospective buyers for one year at a very nominal fee such as five shillings, after which actual sale was made. Hite's remaining 500 acres, with the grist mill, were sold to John Pauling for 540 pounds on January 9, 1730. Deeds exist for the various Hite transactions. What prompted these final transactions is not known, but Jost was left in possession of ready money at the opportune time to make the VanMeter purchase.er Hite property to Peter Pennypacker in 1747, and that it has remained in that family. The mill was operated as Pennypacker Mill for many years, finally being extensively damaged by fire in 1898. It was rebuilt the next year as the Red Fox Inn. In 1980 it burned. The original Hite house served as General Washington's headquarters during September and October, 1777, after the Battle of Germantown. It was remodeled, with additions, and is known as the Pennypacker Mansion. wagon train as they went. The Potomac River was crossed a few miles above the mouth of the Shenandoah at Packhorse Ford (later called Mecklenberg, and finally Shepherdstown). They arrived at their destination on Opequon Creek in the fall of 1731.reported their respective journeys there as 1632, 1669 and 1673. Then came an interesting and only partially believed report from Louis Michel, a Swiss in 1705. He wrote of finding evidence of an ancient Indian tribe at today's site of Winchester, who used huge sacrificial stone altars 60 feet across, and whose warriors stood seen feet tall by actual measurement of their remains. This latter point was to be confirmed by George Washington in excavating for Fort Loudoun in 1755. The valley was penetrated again in 1716, in pinpoint fashion, by Gov. Spottswood with his "Golden Horseshoe" group. He named the river "Euphrates," and claimed all of the land westward "to the River of the Spaniards," the Mississippi, as British territory, an as "Virginia" in particular.ndoah Valley, the "Valley of Virginia" as it came to be known, stretched nearly 200 miles south, forming about half of the length of a natural passageway to the great Smokey Mountains in the southwest. It served as more of a thoroughfare than as a place of residence for the Indians. The Shawnees had a small cluster of villages around the springs at present day Winchester, from which a well-beaten path led up the length of the valley. It was close beside this trail, five miles south of the Shawnee Springs, that Hite chose to settle. The Valley Turnpike follows much of the old Indian Trail, called by many the "Great Indian Highway." Sections of stone walls thought to be of the house and tavern built by Jost Hite still stand some 30 yards east of the Turnpike, beside the house built by his son, Colonel John Hite.al amenity, even by many of the clergy. Tavern keepers of the time were accorded civic courtesy and their children were sought out by educational institutions. They were widely acquainted, an essential link in the news media chain, and usually were more affluent than most. As such they merited respect and were held in high regard. The tavern served as a warm up place for everyone between long morning and afternoon church services in unheated churches. A carefully kept ledger recorded the pints and quarts consumed by saint and sinner alike; hence the origin of "Mind your P's and Q's."ocations for the several families, surveying, corner staking and cabin building all had to be done at once. The Hite sons-in-law were permitted to make their own selection of 750 acres each. From the Hite location the Chrismans settled two miles south, the Bowmans about seven, and the Fromans some five miles southwest. Robert McKay, Jr. chose a site at the forks of the river where he set up a saw mill. His father settled about five miles up the south fork of the river. By agreement, a line running from the Shawnee springs to the forks of the river divided the land. McKay was to settle the land east of the line, while Hites' land lay to the west. Hite, as might be expected, set up a grist mill on Opequon Creek a short distance from his house.le began almost at once with officials at Williamsburg. The Colonial Government, knowing nothing of the territory started making grants to others involving the Hite-McKay land. Jost made at least one trip to Williamsburg in the summer of 1732 to take care of the matter.rded a prominent Scottish family with a grant of the "Northern Neck" of Virginia. Thomas, sixth Lord Fairfax, Baron of Cameron in Scotland, arrived at Williamsburg in May 1735 to investigate his inheritance, only to find that the Colonial Government had issued settlement grants on his property to Hite and McKay. Finding that settlers had moved onto the land in sufficient numbers to satisfy the conditional grants, and an extension of one year to December of 1735 had been allowed on the larger one, he paid two visits to the home of Jost Hite on the Opequon in 1736 and 1737. These produced no favorable results for him, so he settled himself on a 10,000 acre tract about five miles east of Hite, and proceeded to have his land surveyed. George Washington, aged 16, was one of the surveyors, and a favorite of Lord Fairfax. As such, it was inevitable that he come into contact with the Hite families. His diary records one occasion when he spent the night at the home of Captain John Hite.e had been no western boundary established for the Fairfax land, and Virginia was considered to extend as far as the Mississippi River. King George II rectified this by a decision on April 16, 1738, establishing a straight line 76 miles long from the head of the Rapidan River to the head of the north fork of the Potomac as the western boundary. This was surveyed in 1746 and became known as the "Fairfax Line". Hite and his associates filed suit in 1749, starting litigation which extended until 1786, and became a classic textbook study in law schools. It was settled in favor of Hite some years after both he and Lord Fairfax were dead.tioned for formation of a new county, to be called Orange. The county was formed, with Jost as one of the magistrates. In the same meeting, James Wood (from Winchester, England) was made surveyor, and he soon set about laying out a town site at the Shawnee Springs. So Frederick Town, later to be called Winchester, was founded. It became the county seat when Frederick County was formed in 1738.When son John Hite and Sara Eltinge were married in 1737, Jost and Anna Maria turned the house and tavern over to them and moved to a site about a mile east of the Bowmans on land that had been set aside for Isaac, a location later known as "Long Meadows." This is the title chosen by Minnie Hite Moody for her historical novel concerning the family, published in 1941. in the fall of 1741, Jost married Maria Magdalena, widow of Christian Nuschwanger. As was often the case, a remarriage of by both parties involved use of a specific agreement drawn up to list not only the material possessions brought into the marriage by each, but their distribution back to the heirs of the two original families after death. When she died is not known. Jost died in 1761 at the age of 75. Family tradition holds that he and Anna Maria (Merkle) were buried at the Opequon church. Grave stones were convenient building blocks during the Revolution as well as the Civil War, both of which raged up and down the valley, so no marker remains. e=gr&GSsr=41&GScid=1970760&GRid=20847409</nowiki>=' e and should not be believed (for instance, saying that he was from Alsace and sailed his own ship, that he was a Baron and that his wife's name was Du Bois):/colonial-america-jost-hite-shenandoah-pioneer.phptasy''} In 1710, Hans Josh Heydt, or Yost Hite, as his name is spelled in English documents dated at the time of his emigration, a native of Alsace, Germany, came from Strasbourg to New York, with his wife, Anna Marie, nee du Bois, and their little girl, Mary. He came in his own ships, Brigantine Swift and Schooner Friendship, bringing with him sixteen (some say more) Dutch and German families, as tenants for lands he expected to settle. ds, and in 1720 built a mill at the mouth of Perkiomen Creek, and a dwelling house, which is at present the country home of Gov. Samuel Pennypacker of Pennsylvania, and became a thrifty, enterprising farmer and manufacturer. The mills are now called Pennypacker's Mills. th Pennsylvania and Maryland, ruthlessly murdering settlers and destroying property. In 1728, a petition signed by Yost Hite and many others, for protection against the Indians was presented to Gov. Gordon of Pennsylvania, who ignored the petition and the atrocities became more frequent and more cruel. Hite became to re-emigrate to the wilds of the then unknown Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, and in January, 1730, sold his holdings on the Schuylkill and with his family and followers once more turned his footsteps southward. ct to Yost Hite, which sale was afterwards confirmed by Gov. Gooch, and the tract was known as "Hite's Grant." ed an order of council for one hundred thousand acres of land on the west side of the mountain on condition he would settle one hundred families on it in two years. Afterwards the time for making these settlements was extended to Mecklenburg, now Shepherdstown, and entered the fertile and beautiful, but unexplored Valley of the Shenandoah River. He made his first settlement at ISTew ^lechlenburg, just five years after the first settlement on James River, in 1607. "To Hans Yost Hite, therefore, belongs the honor of having planted the first standard of civilization in the mountainous region of Virginia." tone house in the Valley, just where the turnpike now crosses the creek, and called it "Springdale." These settlements were on the west side of the Shenandoah River, hence were in no county, as Spottsylvania extended only to the river. The counity of Orange was made August, 1734, and "extended to the utmost limits of Virginia," to-wit: "from sea to sea." Hite surveyed the land, marked out farms, and the old records of Orange County show many deeds from him. In June, 1734, an order of council stated, "Yost Hite" had complied with the terms of the grant, and had settled his land with more than the requisite number of families," and directed patents to be issued to him and his assignees, upon the surveys then returned to the secretary's office. This same year, Lord Fairfax, without making any investigation of Hite's claim, entered a general caveat against all orders of councils, deeds, e preemptory notice to purchase or vacate. ed to the secretary's office, in due time, but the caveat was served before the patents on the surveys were issued. Lord Fairfax arrived in 1736, and a survey of it appeared part of the contested lands did lie within the boundary of his proprietary. This condition of affairs gave rise to certain petitions made to the governor and council, who confirmed the Fairfax surveys on express condition he establish all the grants made by the crown, and, he grantees under the crown, particular mention being made of Hite and his associates, who had threatened to remove to some other part of the country. This promise was to be redeemed, as soon as Lord Fairfax ands. Lord Fairfax opened his land office, and then refused to give the promised patents to Hite and his associates, and even conveyed gainst Fairfax and those claiming under him, setting forth all the facts and prayed his Lordship be decreed to make the deeds to the plaintiff's for the surveyed lands, etc., etc. On October 13, 1769, the court decreed that Hite and McKoy were entitled to the lands surveyed before Christmas, 1735, for which patents had been issued before August 11, 1745, and that Fairfax must issue deeds for said lands, and appoint a committee to examine and state a memorial for all such surveys claimed by the plaintiffs, and that his lordship deliver the said commissioners all the original surveys lodged in his office, by Robert Cxreen, Gent., deceased. e Van Meter claim more than satisfied. In 1771 there was a final decree, which gave Hite forty thousand of the Van Meter claim and to Hite and McKoy fifty-four thousand acres of the one hundred thousand acres in the order of October 21, 1731. Lord Fairfax appealed to the King in council, but never prosecuted the case. Hite and others appealed from parts of the decree, which confirmed grants made by Fairfax since the commencement of the case. This went to the Court of Appeals of Virginia. Fairfax died in 1781. Gabriel Jones was one of his executors. Randolph argued the case in Appellate Court for Hite et al., Baker for Appellees, John Taylor for Hite et al., Marshall for tenants. was a '"Royal pet,'^ and it was almost as daring in Hite to enter suit against him, as it was to go into the wilderness of the Shenandoah Valley to settle, for the influence of Lord Fairfax, with the King and the Colonial government, was quite equal to that of any other man in this country at that time. The suit was delayed fifty years, both contestants were dead, foreign influence was lessened and courts were learning to act independently and according to the merits of the case. (Reference 4 Col. Va. Reports, 42, 83.) nd taciturn, and his public career marks him as a leader among men, possessing good judgment, fine executive ability, and indomitable will. Obstacles only aroused his ardor, and he feared no man; he also must have had large means at his command. His , neither she nor her bridegroom understood more than a few words of their respective languages. 'Tis said, "Cupid laughs at bars/' but in this instance he laughed at words, for there was no difficulty about the courtship; all went smoothly until the question of a marriage settlement by Yost on his bride arose, then papa du Bois was determined there should he no mistake. They were married in Germany and emigrated in 1710, bringing one little daughter with them. While living at Kingston, New York, the baptism of two others were recorded. Yost Hite made his will in 1757 and died in Frederick Co., Va., in 1760. izabeth Hite, baptized in Kingston, N. Y., Nov. 4, 1711. Married Paul Froman, of New Jersey. n Hite, d. 1792. Married Zara Eltinge, daughter of Cornelius Eltinge and Rebecca, nee Van Meter. dison) ge, daughter of Cornelius Eltinge and Rebecca Annetjie, nee Wyncoop, of Hampshire Co., Va. amp;lt;nowiki>-------------------</nowiki>=ts/SmartCopy/18783 SmartCopy]: ''Jan 21 2020, 2:32:35 UTC''
Hans Jost Hite | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Anna Maria Merckel | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Added via a Record Match
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