hundred and fifteen acres of land and marshes begenen att ye creek side att ye mouth of a gutt yt runs into a side pond where now ye pastor fence gines unto so running up ye north side of ye fence yt now partes Jno and Nathll and so running along a line of mark trees unto ye road and so along ye west side of ye road unto ye head line and so along ye line to ye creek and so down ye creek to ye aforesd. gutt to him and his heirs forever. Item, I give & bequeath unto my sun Nathll Wale all ye rest of ye land and marshes yt lyeth between my brother Ratcliffe's line and ye bound aforesd and so up to ye head line for two hundred and five acres more or less to him and his heirs forever. Item, I give and bequeath unto my son Elias Wale ye plantation whereon I now live with three hundred and seventy acres of land & marshes there belonging to him and his heirs. forever. Item, I give and bequeath unto my three sons, Jno Nathll and Elias two hundred and twenty-five acres of land called Cay's folly to be equally divided among ye three to them and their heirs forever. I give and bequeath unto my well beloved wife Elizabeth ye third of ye plantasion and land yt I now live upon during her life and ye third of my personall estate to her and her disposing.

Item, I give and bequeath unto my son Elias my grate . . . . and form and a chist of drawers and one small leather trunk. I give and bequeath unto my son Jno. two steers of five years old and two heifers of two years old. Item, I give and bequeath unto my son Nathll Wale two stears of four years old and two heifers of two years old. Item, I give and bequeath unto my son Elias Wale four cows and calves & one heifer of three years old, and five stearrs ye choys of all my stears yt I have. Item, I give and bequeath unto my darter Elizabeth Turvile two heffers of two years old and three stears one of seven years old and two of three years old. Item, I give and bequeath unto my son Elias Wale one feather bead and furniture of bead yt is in ye end chamber and my grate pott and one small one and

'Illegible.

pott-raike. Item, I give and bequeath to my darter Bridget Frankline one six yeare old steare. Item, I give and bequeath unto my darter Rachell Ratcliff one cow and calf and one steear of three years old and all ye other part of my estate not before menchanted to be equally divided when my debts being paid unto my three sons and three darters as John Nathll Elias Elizabeth Bridget and Rachell. I also leave my two sons Nath Walell and Elias Wale my hole and sole Exectors of this my last will and testament being contained in one sheatt of paper, where I set my hand and seall this day and year above rettone.

Signed & sealed in ye presence of us,

EDWD. CRAPPER

WILLIAM BOWEN, Junr.

RICHD. HOLLAND.

his EDWARD x WALE. mark

June ye 18th 1718 Came before me Edward Crapper & Richd. Holland in their proper persons and made oath before me upon ye Holy Evangelist that they saw ye testator sign & declare ye above instrument as his last will & testament & that he published pronounced & declared ye same so to be & that at ye time of his so doing he was of sound and perfect mind & memory to ye best of their knowledge.

Teste

SAM. HOPKINS, Dept. Comssr.

[From the will records of Worcester Co., Md.

G. T. BRATTON, Recorder of Deeds.]

BARON STIEGEL.

BY THE REV. JOS. HENRY DUBBS, OF LANCASTER, PA.

The early German settlers of Pennsylvania were generally poor, and laid no claim to aristocratic descent. A few of their earliest clergymen, we know, were in the habit of sealing their letters with armorial bearings; but among the people generally there was so strong a prejudice against everything that savored of the tyranny of the fatherland, that those who were entitled to this distinction soon laid it aside. A special interest, therefore, attaches to the brief career of the solitary German nobleman who attempted to maintain the dignity of his rank in the wilds of Pennsylvania.

Henry William Stiegel is said to have been a native of the city of Manheim, in Germany. Of his early history we know nothing, beyond the fact that he spent some time in England, and there moved in excellent society. When he came to America, about 1757, he is said, on excellent authority, to have brought with him "good recommendations, and a great deal of money."

About 1758 Stiegel came to Lancaster County, and purchasing one-third of a tract of 714 acres from the Messrs. Stedman, of Philadelphia, laid out the town of Manheim, according to a plan of his native city which he had brought with him from the fatherland. He also built the Elizabeth furnace, which he named in honor of his wife; though it is said by one authority that the actual proprietors were Messrs. Benezet & Co., of Philadelphia.

In order to furnish labor for the inhabitants of his new town, the Baron also erected extensive glass-works at Manheim. One of the aged inhabitants of the place has informed the writer that "the main building was so large that it would have been easy to turn around in it with a six-horse team." The glass-works have long since disappeared, and

all that is left of them is the Baron's office, a neat building, which is now occupied as a dwelling.

The magnificent mansion which Baron Stiegel built at Manheim, of bricks imported from England, we regret to say, has recently been entirely modernized, so that not a vestige of its original grandeur remains. A writer in the Reformed Church Messenger in 1868 thus speaks of its appearance at that date:

"There is a chapel in the house, where he was accustomed to conduct divine worship for those in his employment. The internal arrangements, the wainscoting, the cornices, the landscape painting covering the walls of the parlor,' representing scenes in the falconry, and the beautiful porcelain tiles adorning the fireplaces, are all in good taste, and would be admired by good judges in our day. Everything would tend to show that the Baron was a gentleman of cultivation and refinement.”

At some period of his career Baron Stiegel also built a furnace and a summer residence at Schaefferstown,2 Lebanon County. These are said to have been strongly fortified for fear of the Indians. At this place he made iron stoves which bore the inscription:

Baron Stiegel ist der Mann

Der die Ofen machen kann.3

It was a silly rhyme, but it was easily remembered by the people, and probably served its purpose as an advertisement. Many stories are related concerning the baron's extravagance and love of display; and there is no doubt that he lived in a style which to his simple-minded Mennonite neighbors appeared exceedingly imposing. It is said, for instance, that he rode in a carriage drawn by eight fine horses; but it is much more likely that he drove his "coach

A fine piece of tapestry, a part of which has been presented to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, by Mr. Henry Arndt, the present proprietor of the mansion.

2 Elizabeth Furnace, six miles from Schaefferstown.

That is, "Baron Stiegel is the man who knows how to make stoves."

and four," as was done by Judge Allen and other wealthy men, and that tradition has simply doubled the number of the horses. According to one account, he maintained a band of music, which always accompanied him on his journeys; but another and more probable version of the story is that there were among his workmen several excellent musicians, who frequently sat on the balcony of his mansion and regaled him with their music. All accounts agree that his visits to his furnaces and his return to his residence were always heralded by the firing of cannon.

It has generally been supposed that Baron Stiegel was a mere adventurer, who wasted his money in unprofitable speculations; but this is certainly a mistake. On the contrary, his enterprises were generally successful, and for a time he made money rapidly. His glass-works at Manheim, he says in one of his letters, brought him an annual income of £5000.

Stiegel's error was one which has been committed by thousands of others—he sought to get rich too rapidly. Not satisfied with the extent of his estate, he purchased the entire interest of the Messrs. Stedman in the Manheim tract, never doubting that he could speedily meet all his obligations. He would probably have accomplished his purpose if the colony had continued prosperous, but just then troubles with England began. In consequence of the tyrannical measures of the British ministry, the commerce and manufactures of the colonies were utterly prostrated, and such enterprises as those of Baron Stiegel were necessarily among the first to feel the blow. His creditors became clamorous, and though he struggled manfully for several years, the final result was utter and irretrievable ruin.

We have recently read a number of autograph letters addressed by Stiegel, at this period, to his legal counsellor, the Hon. Jasper Yeates, of Lancaster. In these letters he pleads, in broken English, for counsel and aid in weathering the storm. "Let them give me time," he says, " and I will pay every dollar." He speaks of the successful efforts of his wife to induce his creditors in Philadelphia to grant him an