Johan Sebastian Michael FISHER

                   ID: I623929303 Name: Johann Sabastian Michael FISHER Given Name: Johann Sabastian Michael Surname: Fisher Sex: M Birth: 21 Jan 1683/84 in Alsenborn, Palatine, Rhine River Valley, Hanover, Germany Death: Bet 1745 and 1754 in Tulpehocken Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania Immigration: 13 Jun 1709 Set sail for New York from England Immigration: 28 Jul 1708 Left Germany to Rotterdam, Holland to England Immigration: 14 Jun 1709 Arrived in Port of New York from Germany Event: Fact Unknown Settled in Schoharrie Valley at Gerlachsdorf (New Cassell), New York Event: Fact Unknown Heir to a vast estate where modern Hanover, Germany is located Event: Fact Unknown 1711 Lived at Annsburg, New York, later Berne, New York Event: Fact Unknown Bef 1717 Schoharie Valley then Gerlachsdorf (New Cassell) Event: Fact Unknown 1723 From the Scholarie Valley in New York to Pennsylvania Event: Fact Unknown 1723 To Tulpehocken Valley in Pennsylvania Event: Politics Unknown Abt 1708 Important in political affairs was forced out of his title & estates Burial: Tulpehocken Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania Note:
Alias: Johannes Sebastian /Fischer/Some sources list his birth in about 1659,1688 or about 1675 or 1690. His death as been listed as about 1760 in Alsenborn, Palatine, Germany but most sources list his death in Pennsylvania.His father has also been listed as a Conrad Fischer but most family historians have his ancestry listed as seen in this family tree.

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http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:2862833&id=I0439

The following information concerning Sabastian Fisher was assembled in 1965 by Eber Cockley of Meyersdale, Pennsylvania. These words are entered and written exactly as they appear in his written report.Sebastian, a native of Hanover, Germany and his wife, Susanna, and their two small children embarked for England at Rotterdam, Holland on July 28, 1708. Just how long they had been in Holland is uncertain, but they embarked with a group of emigrants from devastated regions of Germany, mostly from the Palatinate which suffered even more than other regions from the terrible scourges of wars that Germany had been engaged in for a long time. Queen Anne of England invited these people to go to England and promised that they should be sent to America to settle in new homes. It was in one of the boat loads of these Germans that Sabastian Fisher left for England.The case of Sebastian Fisher was different from the majority of these emigrants although some were similar. He was a refugee, according to the tradition that seems to have some foundation in fact, who was obliged to leave Germany, losing his titles and estate, because he had become involved in poaching laws. However, there was more to it all than a mere infringement of poaching laws. He was heir to a vast estate on which the more modern part of Hanover has since been built. His family was important enough in political affairs for him to incur the displeasure of those in power with whom he had disagreed politically. Hence, the necessity for leaving his homeland with only what he could carry with him.Sebastian was a man of good intellect, and he had received a good education from the standpoint of those days, probably at a German university. Hardships and misery visited the emigrants alike, for there was inadequate provision made for them in England and it was almost as bad after their arrival in America a year later.On the 13th or 14th of June, 1709, Sebastian and his wife, Susanna reached New York with only one of their children (Ludwig Fisher) surviving. It was necessary for these immigrants to have shelter provided and rations of food and clothing until they could get established and provide these things for themselves. There were others among them besides Sebastian who had money with them but supplies could not be bought in those days. Many were given work on a project established for them, but trouble came almost at once between the Germans and English colonist. Small villages were built along the Hudson River on the Livingston Manor in which to house German immigrants, and in 1711 Sebastian lived in Annsburg, one of these villages. Later, he was at Berne, New York. He was one of the men engaged in trying to get justice for his countrymen. Several excellent accounts of the German immigrants have been consulted, among these are: "Early 18th Century Palatine Emigration", by W. A. Knittle and Oscar Kuhns; and "The German and Swiss Settlements of Colonial Pennsylvania", a so-called study of the Pennsylvania Dutch.Before 1717, Sebastian and others purchased and paid for land in the Schoharrie Valley and removed to Gerlachsdorf, which was at first called New Cassell. Cassell in Germany was at that time the seat of one branch of the Fisher family to which Sebastian Fisher belonged. They have the same Christian names as did the early American branch Sebastian and Adam, for instance, and were men of higher learning, holding responsible positions. It may be of interest to note here that at the beginning of the 20th century (around 1912), a well to-do descendant of Sebastian Fisher sent a lawyer to Hanover, Germany to look into a supposed fortune due to the American branch. Needless to say, the trip bore no results except to verify some family traditions.In the spring of 1723 fifteen families, including Sebastian Fisher, decided to go to Pennsylvania hoping for better treatment than they had received in New York. They traveled across the Schoharrie Valley to the Susquehanna River. There they built rafts and boats, and with their families proceeded down the Susquehanna to the mou
th of Swataya Creek, a distance of 150 miles. They crossed over the Tulpehocken Valley, which is about 17 miles northwest of the present city of Reading, PA. At first, there was trouble procuring title to their land, and a petition is recorded in the PA Archives regarding this matter. To this petition, Sebastian signed his name in Latin. Although he was taxed in 1725, it is doubtful if he received title to any land in PA. Dr. Charles Fisher, Selinsgrove, PA genealogist for the Fisher family and many other PA families, states that he has searched thoroughly and has found no record of title.Sebastian helped to found two of the oldest Lutheran Churches in PA. Reeds, or Reids Lutheran Church, situated about two miles east of the present town of Stouchsburg, and the Tulpehocken Lutheran Church, now Christ Church, about a mile southwest of Stouchsburg. Reeds Church was founded in 1727, and in 1730 they built a log schoolhouse near the church and hired a schoolmaster. When the Reeds, who were of the fifteen families who came from NY, began to lean toward the Moravian doctrine, Sebastian headed a list of 150 families who withdrew from the Reeds Church in 1743 and founded the Tulpehocken Church.Sebastian's name was signed to many petitions for roads and for other improvements. Sometimes he signed as Sebastian Piscator. His name has not been found in PA records since 1743. The opportunity has not come to the compiler to search old Fisher graveyards in VA, but there is some likelihood that his grave may be found there. No record of Susanna Fisher seems to have been found