which met at Dordrecht in 1632, and adopted a Confession of Faith.[1] Many of the others, as we have seen, were connected with the Op den Graeffs by family ties. Jan Lensen was a member of the Mennonite church here. Jan Lucken bears the same name as the engraver who illustrated the edition of Van Braght published in 1685, and others of the books of that church, and the Dutch Bible which he brought with him is a copy of the third edition of Nicolaes Biestkens, the first Bible published by the Mennonites.[2] Lenart Arets, a follower of David Joris, was beheaded at Poeldyk in 1535. The name Tunes occurs frequently on the name lists of the Mennonite preachers about the time of this emigration, and Hermann Tunes was a member of the first church in Pennsylvania. This evidence, good as far as it goes, but not complete, is strengthened by the statements of Mennonite writers and others upon both sides of the Atlantic. Roosen tells us “William Penn had in the year 1683 invited the Mennonites to settle in Pennsylvania. Soon many from the Netherlands went over and settled in and about Germantown.”[3] Funk, in his account of the first church, says: “Upon an invitation from William Penn to our distressed forefathers in the faith it is said a number of them emigrated either from Holland or the Palatinate, and settled in Germantown in 1683, and there established the first church in America.”[4] Rupp asserts that, “In Europe they had been sorely persecuted, and
- ↑ Scheuten genealogy in the possession of Miss Elizabeth Muller, of Crefeld. I am indebted for extracts from this valuable MS., which begins with the year 1562, to Frederick Muller, the celebrated antiquary and bibliophile of Amsterdam.
- ↑ The Bible now belongs to Adam Lukens, of North Wales, Bucks Co., Pennsylvania.
- ↑ P. 60.
- ↑ Mennonite Family Almanac for 1875.
