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Rachel descended from a prominent Mennonite family --
Jacob Godshalk, the first Mennonite bishop in America was her great-grandfather, and
Gerhard Hendricks, one of four who signed
the first public protest in American against slavery was her great-great grandfather -- but she apparently married out of the fold. Although the Mennonites were pacifist, Rachael's husband, George
Buzzard, was on the class roll of the Third Battalion of the Bucks County Militia (2nd Class) during the Revolutionary War. He was a blacksmith, and according to one record, "a noted gunsmith".
Most of the information that survives about George is in tax records for Plumstead Twp, Bucks Co, PA between 1788 (when he paid tax on 1 horse and 2 cows) and 1803, when George and Rachael sold their
17 acres for 300 pounds. They had bought the land on May 27, 1796.) They were taxed for 42 acres in 1789 and 1793 (I don't know what the records were for the
intervening years, nor do I know what
happened to the 42 acres. After 1794, they owned 17 acres. Their fortunes apparently fluctuated according to the health of their livestock. 1793 seems to have been his best year - George was taxed on
42 acres, 2 horses and 3 cows - and 1797 and 1798 their worst. The horse apparently either died or was sold or stolen, because they were taxes for just 2 cows. The horse was replaced in 1799. Because
they died in Northampton County, I would assume they moved there in 1803.
In 1790 George and Rachael lived in Bucks Co. The census lists a household that includes 2 males to 16
years of age, 2 males between 16
and 26 years of age, and 5 females.
REFERENCES:
PENNSYLVANIA ARCHIVES, 5:5, pp 360-81
Harvey Rutt,
GENEALOGY OF THE SHAUM & HOLDEMAN FAMILIES, 1930, pp 136-37, 151-54
Abraham Godshalk, THE GODSHALK FAMILY (date unknown), p 9 DAR membership papers, Beulah Reitz Johnson, Nat'l # 398720
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