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Johann Conrad born 1714 named honoring his deceased brother, in the 18th century German naming tradition
Emigrated to the United States aboard the Thistle of Glasgow. They arrived in Philadelphia on August 29, 1730. Johan was a member of the the Old Williams Township Lutheran Church in 1750. He was appointted one of the Justices of Northampton County, under the Crown and was prothonotary and Clerk of the Quarter Sessions and Oyer and Terminer from 1760 to 1771. His father owned a hotel called "Lofty Oaks" situated on the old Philadelphia Road on what is now South Easton. Hess family origins are from Mutterstadt, Palatinate, Germanyate, Germany.
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JOHANN CONRAD HESS was born about 1712 in Mutterstadt, in the Rheinland-Pfalz / Palatinate region of what is now Germany, to Jeremias and Anna Maria (Heim) Hess. He was baptized on 18 Jul 1714. Jeremias and his family immigrated to Philadelphia on July 29, 1730, aboard the ship "Thistle of Glasgow," which had departed from Rotterdam.
In about 1742, Conrad married Anna Maria Best (born about 1722). They resided in Bucks county in 1743. Johann Conrad Hess and Anna Maria Best had the following children: Anna Maria Hess (1742-1793); Johann Wilhelm Hess (1744-1827); Maria Hess (1746-1829); Christian Hess (1748-1843); Johannes Hess (1750-1827); Jeremiah Hess (1751-1819); Elisabeth Hess (1752-1847); and Frederick Hess (1754-1820).
Conrad seems to have been a prominent man in the early history of Northampton County. Northampton County was Created on March 11, 1752 from parts of Bucks County, and named for Northamptonshire, England, where Thomas Penn's father-in-law, the Earl of Pomfret, lived. Easton, the county seat, was named for the Earl's estate; was incorporated as a borough on September 23, 1789; but did not officially become a city until November 2, 1886. Conrad and his family lived in Williams Township, which was first settled in 1725 (5 years prior to his immigration in 1730), and incorporated as part of Bucks county in 1750. Upon the formation of Northampton County in 1752, Conrad was appointed a supervisor for Williams Township (on June 16, 1752). According to a manuscript in the Hess file at the Wyoming Valley Historical Society in Wilkes-Barre, he was appointed to the election board of Northampton County in 1756. On November 27, 1757, a council of colonial officials approved Conrad and others as justices for "The Commission of the Peace for Northhampton." He was among the justices presiding over the Northampton County Orphan's Court, beginning March 22, 1758 and continuing until at least 1761. In the 1761 tax lists for Williams Township, he is listed as "Conrad Hess, Esq.," another indication of his standing as a member of the county's legal community. History of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania indicates he was "Prothonotary and Clerk of the Quarter Sessions and Oyer and Terminer from 1760 to 1771."
Conrad also operated an Inn known as The Lofty Oaks, situated on 157 acres in Williams Township, which was just south of the area that became known as Easton. Conrad received a warrant for the property on March 8, 1743, according to the Hess file at the Northampton Historical Society. Land records indicate Conrad didn't receive a patent on the land until Sept. 12, 1796. A brief note on Conrad's Lofty Oaks Inn is included in Historic Structures of Williams Township: "A small one and one-half story stone structure, now owned by the Joseph Link family, was once an inn and tavern operated by Conrad Hess. It is located at the intersection of Industrial Drive and Old Philadelphia Road at the northernmost limit of Williams Township. A search of the deeds does not permit an accurate dating of the structure nor a precise time period when it operated under Hess's management, but a date prior to 1780 would appear plausible."
Much of the work of the county court may have been done at Conrad's Lofty Oaks Inn, according to a manuscript in the Hess family file at the Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society. The name Conrad Hess, Esq. appears on file in the records of the Orphan's Court of the County of Northampton in Easton, Pa., for the period 1758-1771. Since the court sessions of the county were held in taverns before the courthouse was built in 1766, it is very likely the Loft Oaks tavern served in this capacity during this period.
Conrad died before Feb. 6, 1797, (Rev Thomas Pomp recorded the Death OR Burial as 12 Dec 1796. United Church of Christ, Easton, PA - 82 Years 3 months 21 days) when his will was probated (Philadelphia County Will Book G, No. 73, as cited in Collections of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, Vol., IV, Abstracts of Philadelphia Wills, Part II, 1726-1747, page 823). Maria probably died sometime before 1790, because Conrad is listed as living alone in the 1790 Census of Williams Township. Upon his death, the Lofty Oaks land was divided among his children, who then sold it in pieces.
Source Information:
Wedding and birth dates and maiden name come from A History of the Wapwallopen Region, by the Wapwallopen Historical Society, page 54. Other secondary sources cited here mention the connection to the Best family. The children are listed in Northampton County Will Book 3, page 119, and in Northampton County Deed Book, E-2, page 143, the second of which lists the married names of the females, except Ann. The females' husbands are named in History of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, by Charles Rhoads Roberts, page 566. Elisabeth's baptism is listed in The Record Book of Daniel Schumacher 1754-1773, translated by Frederick S. Weiser, Page 77. Other source for posts are, respectively: History of Northampton, Lehigh, Monroe, Carbon and Schuylkill Counties, by I. Daniel Rupp, page 22; Pennsylvania Archives, Series 2, Vol. 9, page 812; Northampton County Orphan's Court Records B 1758 to 1762; and Colonial Records of Pennyslvania, Vol. 7, page 769; Northampton County Tax List for the Year 1761, by the Works Progress Administration, page 25A; Genealogical Abstracts of Orphan's Court Records, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Vols. A-E 1752-1795, by Candace E. Anderson, pages 7-24; Northampton County Deed Book E-2, page 143. Patent in Pennsylvania Patent Book 28, page 398. Historic Structures of Williams Township, by the Williams Township Bicentennial Committee, page 8. The Record Book of Daniel Schumacher 1754-1773.
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1714 - 1796 (82 years)