---

Paul R. Swan      February 2005

Return to Mock Chapter

Swan ~ Hartzell Family History

---

 

 

 

 

 

Peter Mock (1727-1812) of Maryland

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction

 

 

The variations in spelling of Mock and similar surnames (from Maag to Mug) are so numerous that little can be safely concluded even as to how many separate lines actually existed in the eighteenth century in this country. The descendants of Alexander Mack of Germantown, Pennsylvania, who was the founder in 1708 of the Brethren Church (then called the New Baptists) in Schwarzenau, Wittgenstein, had some associations with our Christian Mock, son of Peter.  However, no kinship appears to have existed. Alexander’s second son Johannes "John" Mack and his son William moved to Bedford County, where Christian lived most of his adult life, by 1804. There John and William, and the latter’s sons, changed the spelling of their family name to Mock.

 

William’s daughter Elizabeth married John Holsinger, and their son George Mack Holsinger was the leader of the congregation of the Mock Dunkard Church built on land donated by Christian Mock and to which his wife (at least) belonged.  The ancestry of Alexander is known back four generations in Schriesheim, The Palatinate, and no records of other branches coming to this country have been discovered [Ankrum, 1943]. Thus it’s unlikely that Christian, and hence Peter, was a relative of Alexander, but as we don’t know the origin of Peter’s family in Europe we cannot be sure.

 

We have one source, an excerpt from an Indiana county history [Tyndall and Lesh, 1918] supplied to me 18 Nov 1996 by Dick D. Heller, which states that Peter Mock “was a native of Germany and died in Maryland”. This comment was in a paragraph describing his son Samuel and granddaughter Sarah in Ohio, so we know that it refers to our Peter. (See their histories for the rest of that excerpt.)

 

When I first researched my Mock ancestry years ago, I compressed three generations of Peter Mock into two -- a classic genealogical error!  This goof was based on my reading of a record of Peter Mock, Jr., purchasing land called "Durbin's Mistake" in 1810.  Since Peter born in 1727 was still alive at that time, I assumed that Peter, Jr. was his son christened in 1767.  However, a careful analysis of the land, census and cemetery records in Frederick county and in Ohio shows quite clearly that all three Peters were alive in Frederick County at that time, and Peter, Jr. was in fact the son of Peter II.  See his history for the details.

 

 In order to keep these men straight in this narrative, I’m now calling them Peter Mock I, Peter Mock II, and Peter Mock/Mack III, although such appellations were never used in their time.  The double surname reflects the reality that Peter III and his sons changed the spelling of their surname when they moved from Maryland to Ohio in the 1830s.

 

In August of 1998 there came to my attention the existence of a German Bible which contained on the flyleaves names of the grandchildren of Peter, by his son Christian, and of one family of great-grandchildren, that of Christian’s eldest son Reuben.  While the details of the Bible inscriptions will be discussed under Christian’s generation, below, it should be mentioned at this point that the Bible was printed 1765 in Nürnberg (at that time a free city of Europe).  It therefore seems reasonable to postulate that Peter brought it with him from Germany quite soon after that date.  However, we have not found an immigration record for Peter, a not unusual circumstance for that time period.

 

Another invaluable record was found and published by Steve Lapp [Lapp, 1998] which greatly expanded my original view of Peter Mock’s life. I believe, following Steve’s suggestion, that the Peter Mack who with his wife Maria Magdalena Erb had a son Peter baptised 1767 is our Peter Mock. Now, as I extend my research to include the descents from other children of Peter, I find that his daughter Mary was almost certainly the centenarian who was born in 1769, not around 1779 as she claimed during her married life.  Thus Peter I had two children close together, then a ten year period before the rest of his family started with daughter Elizabeth in 1779.

 

When Peter I sold land in 1783, his wife Elizabeth released her dowry.  She was probably the mother of all of the rest of his children after Peter II and Mary.  However, as discussed in more detail below, Peter I was buried in Baust Cemetery next to his wife Margaret, mentioned but not named in Chancery proceedings regarding his estate.  This then results in the conclusion that Peter had three wives:  Maria Magdalena Erb, mother of Peter II and Mary, Elizabeth ____, who released her dowry in Washington County and who had six children, and Margaret ____, who was buried next to Peter in the Baust Cemetery, Frederick County.  That these three were all the wives of the same Peter will be demonstrated below as I report the details of our research into this lineage.

 

 

 

 

Peter Mock of Maryland

 

---

 

Peter was born 1726/1727 in Germany.  He died 3 Apr 1812 in Frederick (now Carroll), Maryland, and was buried in Baust Cemetery, Tyrone. 

 

Peter married (1) Maria Magdalena Erb, (2) Elizabeth ____, and (3) Margaret ____ .  There are no records of these marriages.

 

Maria Magdalena was born about 1734. 

 

Elizabeth’s birth anddeath dates and places are unknown.

 

Margaret was born 1748/1749, died 2 Jan 1813  near Tyrone, and was buried in Baust Cemetery next to Peter.

 

---

 

 

 

In 1778, “The Worshipfull John Stull’s Returns” for Washington County, Maryland, listed Peter Mock, together with George, Isaac, Jacob and Peter Sharer, as having sworn the Oaths of Fidelity [Brumbaugh, 1924].  Since Peter’s son Christian married Mary Shearer, it is not unlikely that one of these four was her father.  The names of all five of these men can be recognized in an undated Washington County list of Capt. Jacob Sarer’s Company which included (spellings copied exactly) Lietn. George Sarer, Sergt. Isaac Sharer, Peter Mock in the 5th class, and Peter Sarer in the 7th [Clements and Wright, 1987; citing MD Hist. Soc. MS 1146].  We also have a copy of Card Number 37440455 for Peter Mock in “Capt. Jacob Sarer’s Compy as now classe’d: – Washington County Militia 1777, Revolutionary War” (Original described as “Certified copy of an original record in the Western Shore Land Office of Maryland”).

 

On 1 Mar 1783 Peter Mock sold Lot 168 in Jerusalem Town, Washington County, Maryland, for £30 to William Walter [Western Maryland Genealogy, vol. 3, no. 4, 1987; citing Liber C, Folio 253].  Elizabeth Mock is recorded as having relinquished her dowry in that land, this being the only record we have of her name.  Jerusalem Town, later Funk’s Town, was 2.5 miles southeast of Elizabeth Town, now Hagerstown, on Antietam Creek.  It had 50 dwellings and a German Church in 1797 [Morse, Jedidiah, The American Gazetteer, 1797].

 

That same year, 1783, “Peter Mock of Ringold’s Manor” was taxed in Washington Co., MD on 30 acres of woods, 40 acres arable, 2 horses, and 4 black cattle [Western Maryland Genealogy, vol. 8, no. 2, Apr 1992]. Ringgold’s Manor was a seventeen thousand acre land-holding south and east of Hagerstown.  Samuel Ringgold, son of Thomas “Tench” and Mary (Galloway) Ringgold, and his wife Mary, daughter of Gen. John Cadwalader, had earlier purchased this land, and moved around 1792 from Kent County, MD to Fountain Rock, near Hagerstown. The mansion Gen. Ringgold erected there, on the road from Boonsboro to Williamstown, was later converted into St. James’ College [Scharf, 1882].

 

That Peter Mock was not censused 1790 in Maryland (nor in Franklin, York or Lancaster Counties across the Pennsyvnaia border) is curious, but not of serious concern.

 

On 10 Jun 1793, Peter Mock of Frederick County bought two parcels of a tract of land called  “The Resurvey on Brother’s Agreement” totalling 350 acres from John and Eleanor Thomas for £900 [Frederick Co., MD Land Records, Liber WR 11, Folio 615; the filmed index to those records reads “Meck”].  He continued to own this land until his death in 1812 (see below). We believe the Peter earlier in Washington County to be this same Peter, because the Frederick County Peter Mock’s son Samuel is reported in later years to have been born in Hagerstown, by the Washington County military connection to the Sarer/Shearers, the family into which Peter’s son Christian later married, and because Peter Mock records don’t appear in Frederick and Washington counties simultaneously.  However, since he was described on this deed as being of Frederick County, he must have moved back that county prior to June 1793.

 

Peter was assesed on the Frederick County land in 1798: Particular Assessment Lists, Balto. & Carroll Cos., 1798, shows in Taneytown & Piney Creek Hundred, Dist. 6, Peter Mock, pr/o “Resurvey on Brothers Agreement”, formerly assessed to John Thomas [Family Line Publications, Westminster, MD, courtesty of Marilyn Roth].

 

A map of this land was first plotted from the metes and bounds of the land record. I then overlaid it on a modern tax map of the area east of Taneytown and was able to find a match of those bounds with modern tax boundarys. Finally, I've shown Peter's land overlaid on a larger scale map of the Taneytown area to illustrate the location and size of his holdings.

 

In 1800 in the Taney Town District #5 of Frederick County, Peter and his wife were censused with two sons born before 1784, one son and three daughters born 1784-90, and a son born after 1790.   These data will be used below in determining the order of birth of some of Peter’s children.

 

The 1810 census in Frederick County, Maryland is sadly defective in that the census taker used only initial letters for given names, and failed to record the township names.  P. Mock (over 45 years) was listed several pages after another P. Mock (25-45).  The first of these records is presumably Peter I, then of age 84, while the second might be Peter II, who was then about 39 years of age.

 

The record here of Peter I’s death in 1812 is from a photograph of his tombstone in the Baust Church Cemetery in Tyrone, Uniontown Township, Frederick (now Carroll) County, Maryland.  This town is five miles east of Taneytown and six miles west of Westminster, along what was at one time called the “Plank Road”.  The inscription reads “In memory of Peter Mock who departed this life April 3 1812 in 85 years of his age”.  This enables us to determine his birth year as 1726/27.  The Baust Church was organized sometime before 1794, and the building was used jointly by the Lutheran and Reformed congregations.  It was renamed Emanuel Church in 1868 when the building was thoroughly repaired and remodeled [Scharf, 1882]. A panoramic photograph provided to me by the Carroll County Genealogical Society shows a beautifully maintained, unfenced cemetery on a grassy hillside next to the church.

 

 

 

 

In that same cemetery is buried Margaret Mock, whose headstone stands next to that of Peter and is of the same design (although the lower third of the stone is missing).  A difficulty with her reported death date has been resolved.  Sharf, in Western Maryland Genealogy, 1882, reported it as 2 Jan 1815, presumably from a reading of this headstone. The Carroll County Genealogical Society in July of 1996 at my request cleaned and photographed the stones of Margaret and Peter Mock. Hers very clearly reads “Margret Mock who departed this life Januarey 2 1813 in 64 year of her Age”.  That’s 1813, not 1815.  The Society also supplied me with a cemetery listing made in 1982 by Susan Ruddick Bloom who recorded the date as “Februey 2 1813”

 

We know Peter Mock’s wife was alive at the time of his death in 1812, and was herself deceased by 7 Apr 1814, all from court papers discussed below which, however, do not give her name.  This revised stone date now allows us to accept Margaret as Peter I’s wife.  Since we know from a Washington County land record that the name of Peter’s second wife in 1783 was Elizabeth, Margaret must have been his (much younger) third wife. When Elizabeth died and where she is buried we don’t know. Since our Christian wasnine months before the land record naming Elizabeth, we do know that he was her son.

 

Almost two years after Peter I’s death, his family petitioned the Frederick County court to partition the estate, consisting of parts of a tract of Land called “The Resurvey on Brothers Agreement”, among the heirs, if possible, or else to make a valuation of the estate as a whole[1].  (This source material first came to my attention from the work of Marianne Johnson, who published some of this information [Johnson, 1993].)  They could not do this privately, because two of the heirs were the minor children of Peter’s daughter Elizabeth, who had predeceased her father. In such a circumstance, it was legally necessary to have the court act so as to protect the rights of the minors, even though their father, Henry Beamer, was  living.  This 7 Feb 1814 petition states that Peter’s (unnamed) widow, shortly after his demise, herself died.  The genealogically relevant paragraphs read:

 

“To the Honourable the Judges of Frederick County Court now sitting

 

“The Petition of Peter Mock (the Younger), Christian Mock, Samuel Mock, Abraham Mock, Mary Gouger, Teater Bishop and Catherine his Wife, Magdalena Mock, and John Beamer and Catherine Beamer Infants under the age of Twenty one years by Henry Beamer their Guardian, humbly shuoth[?] unto your honours –

 

“That a certain Peter Mock Senior now deceased, was in his life time Scised and Possessed in fee simple of a real Estate lying in Frederick County aforesaid consisting of parts of a tract of Land called “The Resurvey on Brothers Agreement” containing for said part Three hundred and fifty acres more or less with the appurtenances, That being so scised and possessed of the said Lands the said Peter Mock Senior died scised and possessed thereof intestate in or about the month of april in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and twelve, leaving a widow who is now dead and your Petitioners Peter Mock, Christian Mock, Samuel Mock, Abraham Mock, Mary Gouger, Catherine Bishop, Magdalena Mock, his children – That the said intestate had in his life time one other child named Elizabeth who was married to your petitioner Henry Beamer, which said Elizabeth died intestate in the lifetime of the intestate leaving your petitioners John Beamer, and Catherine Beamer her children and heirs at Law.  That the children and Grand children above named are the heirs at Law of the said intestate Peter Mock Senior deceased.”

 

The court duly commissioned five “discrete” freeholders of the County, David Kephart, Joseph Taney, Sr., Jacob Yon or Yaun, Frederick Black, and John Crapster in response to this petition.  These men took their oaths “Well and truly and without favour partiality or prejudice to adjudge and determine whether the Estate” could be divided without loss to the heirs, or else to value it.  They met on the “Resurvey on Brothers Agreement” property, itself, 21 June of that year, decided it could not be so divided without loss to the heirs, and established the value of the 347 3/4 acres and appurtances as $12,175.25, or exactly $35 per acre. Their report was dated 30 Jul 1814  and filed 9 Aug  1814.

 

Given this conclusion by the commission, Peter II, as the eldest son, was entitled to take the land for himself, which he did.  But this also entailed the requirement that he sign bonds to pay the other heirs each their share of the estate (in the case of Elizabeth’s children, to be divided between them).  From later court papers we know that Peter signed these bonds 15 Feb 1815, but copies of the bonds themselves have not been seen, so we don’t know the terms of payment they required. Whatever those terms, however, they were never met.  For we find a 10 Mar 1825 agreement, signed by all of the heirs except Samuel and the grandchildren,  in which Peter II paid five dollars to each of his siblings for which they agreed to relinquish their claims to the original agreement.  Peter, on his part, gave up his claim to the estate, on which he was living, and agreed to come in equally with the others for his part.

 

A later complaint by the heirs spelled out that he had never made good on his bonds, and the others agreed that in fact “it was totally out of his power” to do so. This would seem to be a not unusual circumstance, for a Western Maryland farm in those days was not necessarily a cash producing enterprise.  It might well have sufficed to keep Peter and his family well off, but not so as to enable him to pay off over $10,000 in bonds.  In any event, the court 13 Nov 1833 ordered that the real estate be sold and that Benjamin Price be appointed trustee on bond of $8000 to carry out the sale.  The record of this sale has not been seen, so we don’t know how much the heirs ever collected on their inheritance from their father.  But, for twenty years, Peter II had the living of the family estate.

 

The other result of these court documents is that we have a primary source naming the children in the family, as well as evidences of the daughters’ marriages and where they lived.  Samuel and Abraham, for example, are described in the complaint that led to the sale order, sometime between 1825 and 1833, as living in Ohio.  And at the same time Christian is described as living in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. This provides part of the documentary evidence that Peter of Maryland was the father of our Christian.

 

The birth years of the children of Peter I are reasonably well known from their own censuses as adults and from tombstone ages at death.  This leaves Peter's two available censuses, 1800 and (probably) 1810, somewhat difficult to decipher.  First, I'll list here his children and the years of their births, where some are plus or minus a year or so:

 

By Maria Magdalena:

    Peter II        1767

    Mary Magdaline  1769

   

By Elizabeth:   

    Elizabeth       1779

    Christian       1782

    Catherine       1783

    Magdalena       1785

    Samuel          1787

    Abraham         1790

   

Peter Mock was censused 1800 in Taneytown, Frederick County, and P. Mock in the same county (no township listed) in 1810.  In both cases, Peter and his wife were born before 1755, which in the case of Peter we know to be true, and which is reasonable for Elizabeth whose first child was born in 1779. 

 

In 1800 they had in their home 2 males born 1774-1784, 1 male and three females 1784-1790, and one male 1790-1800.  One of the first two males corresponds to Christian, but the second male born after 1774 is unknown.  It's possible that Peter I was listed in the wrong bracket, and indeed we don't find a census for him away from home, but that's just a guess.  The male in the second bracket is Samuel, and two of the females correspond to Catherine and Magdalena, and for these three the ages are more or less correct.  Finally, the last male is clearly Abraham.  Elizabeth didn’t marry until 1801, so where was she? 

 

In 1810 P. Mock and his wife were born before 1765, and had in their home a female born 1764-1784, one born 1784-1794, and a male and female born 1800-1810.  The eldest female could have been Magdalena (Peter II also had a female of this age in his home that year), but all of Peter's other daughters were married by that time, so who these other people were is unknown.   The other P. Mock also censused in Frederick County that year was born after 1765 and fits well as Peter II.  However, the three sons born in the 1780s weren't married by 1810, but were not at home nor censused themselves as far as I have been able to find.  It’s possible that the elder P. Mock was not Peter I, but the age and county would tend to make this seem likely.

 

Starting in the early eighteeth century, the surname Erb was prominent in southern Pennsylvania, and in the town of Silver Run, Maryland, located in what is now Carroll County.  An excellent and exhaustive collection of Erb information for this area has been compiled by John Larkins www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/4085/. His information on the Maryland Hans Peter Erb, born 1710 in Germany, is at worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jhlarkins&id=I412 8. The children in the family were Mary Magdalena, Peter, born 17 Apr 1738, and Christopher, born 11 Jun 1748.  These births were also in Germany since Peter immigrated in 1749.

 

The family apparently settled in York County were many other Erbs lived, but the sons eventually moved to near Silver Run, Frederick (now Carroll) County, Maryland just across the state line. According to a GenForum post [Catherine, 18 Oct 1998], Peter Erb “late of Manheim Township, York County, Pennsylvania, now of Frederick County in the Province of Maryland” executed a deed of sale 27 Apr 1763 to Adam Shnaider of York County. This apparently marks the time of their move across the state line. (Manheim Township abuts the state line about 10 miles northeast of Silver Run.)

 

In Silver Run, this Peter Erb, later called Peter Sr. and Peter, Esqr., and his son Peter, Jr.,1763, were prominent members of St. Mary’s, a Union Church of the Lutheran and Reformed congregations which had been established in 1762.  When the constitution of the church was renewed at the time of the erection of a new church building in 1812, Peter (or Beder), Jr. was named as President, and his father as witness.  Peter, Esqr. made one of the largest contributions, $100, to the 1st subscription for funds in 1821, and $25 in the 2nd subscription that year.

 

The date stone in the end of the Christopher Erb house near Silver Run indicates that it was built in 1799 for Christopher and Peter Erb.  This home is located at 3333 Flickinger Rd., and is on the National Register of Historic Places.  It’s interesting that Christopher and his wife Anna Margaret do not appear in the records of St. Mary’s church.

 

The two children of Peter and Maria Magdalena (Erb) Mock were Peter II and Mary. 

 

        i     Peter II, son,  christened 22 Feb 1767 in St. Mary's Ch., Silver Run, Franklin, Maryland, and died after Sep 1835.  Peter II married an unknown person. 

 

 

      ii     Mary Magdaline, dtr., born Dec 1769 in Frederick, Maryland, and died 12 Jun 1872 in Hagerstown, Washington, Maryland.  Mary was married before Feb 1814 to ____ Gouger (1).  She was married 20 Oct 1815 to George Fox (2). 

 

 

The six children of Peter and Elizabeth (____) Mock were Elizabeth, Christian, Catherine, Magdalena, Samuel and Abraham. 

 

        i     Elizabeth, dtr., born 2 Sep 1779, died 1 Nov 1805 in Taneytown Distr., Frederick, Maryland, and was buried in Reformed Church, Cemetery, Taneytown.  Elizabeth was married 2 Jun 1801 in Trinity Lutheran, Taneytown, Frederick, Maryland to Henry Beamer {b 1772/1779 in Frederick, Maryland, and died before 12 Feb 1824 in Frederick, Pennsylvania}. 

 

      ii     Christian, son, born 19 Jun 1782 in Pennsylvania, died 23 May 1855 and was buried in Old Log Church, West St. Clair, Bedford, Pennsylvania.  Christian was married in Pennsylvania to Mary Shearer {b about 1787 in Maryland, died 8 Sep 1877 in Wamego, Pottawatomie, Kansas, and was buried in Polly Creek Cem., Laclede, Pottawatomie, Kansas}. 

 

    iii     Catherine, dtr., born 14 Oct 1783, died 3 Jun 1845 and was buried in Baust's Cemetery, Tyrone, Carroll, Maryland.  Catherine was married before 1804 to Dieterich Bishop. 

 

 

     iv     Magdalena, dtr., born in 1785 and died 24 Feb 1852 in Taneytown, Carroll, Maryland.  Magdalena never married.  Her name was often the first on the various petitions and complaints to the court regarding her father’s estate. Magdalena Mock is buried in the Trinity Lutheran Cemetery located off of Pump House Road in Taneytown, about five miles from where Peter Sr. is buried in Tyrone.

 

      v     Samuel, son, born 7 Jun 1787 in Hagerstown and died 10 Feb 1871 in Stark County, Ohio.  Samuel was married in Ohio to Rachel S. Geiselman {b 1792/1793 in Cumberland, Pennsylvania, and died about 1866}. 

 

 

     vi     Abraham, son, born 1789/1792 and died before 1880.  Abraham was married 20 Apr 1826 in Stark, Ohio to Catherine Row {b 1804/1806 in Pennsylvania}. 

 

To follow the history of these children of Peter, and their descendants, please return to the Mock Chapter.