Yocum Family History
Page Four
PAGE 249
On part of this land the Gloria Dei (Old Swedes) Church was later built. The last known reference to Sven Gunnarsson occurs in the Upland Court minutes of 13 November 1677 where he withdrew a lawsuit after the defendant settled out of court and where he appeared on the list of tydables in the court's jurisdiction as living with his son Anders. Presumably he died shortly thereafter.
Sven Gunnarsson had three sons: Sven Svensson, born in Sweden; Olle (Woola) Svensson, born at sea on the Kalmar Nyckel; and Anders Svensson, one of the first children to be born in New Sweden. Two of these brothers selected Jonas and Gertrude Nilsson's eldest son Nils Jonasson (Joneson/Johnson/Jones) as an executor or overseer of their wills. Olle's will, dated 7 May 1692, named as executors his brother Sven, John Stille and "my kinsman, Nils Johnson," suggesting that Nils Jonasson was his nephew. The will of Sven Svensson, dated 21 July 1696, named Nils Jones as one of the overseers of his will. Nils Jonasson died in January 1735 at the age of 79 years and eight months. This would place his birth around May 1655, indicating that his mother, the apparent Gertrude Svensdotter Nilsson, was born by 1638 and must have arrived in New Sweden as a young girl.
EVOLUTION OF THE SURNAME YOCUM
At the time of his marriage to Judith, eldest daughter of Jonas and Gertrude Nilsson, about 1675, Peter Yocum was known simply as Peter Peterson, meaning that he was Peter, the son of Peter. Under this name he obtained a warrant with Casper Fish to settle on a 500-acre tract of land known by the Indian name "Pimmeepahka," etymologized to "Pennypack," a tract which was surveyed for Peter Peterson and Casper Fish 22 October 1675 and for which a patent was issued on 13 May 1679. Peter's 250-acre share of this tract, later described as "Pennipeck," was surrendered by Peter Yocum to William Penn by 1684 in exchange for a warrant for 500 acres in "Laetitia Penn's manor" (Upper Merion township, Montgomery County, Pa.), acreage which Peter Peterson Yocum described as "Mattsunk" in his will.
Peter Peterson had adopted his surname by 13 November 1677 when he appears as "Peter Jockum" in a petition to the court and on the list of tydables in the Upland Court jurisdiction.
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The surname was subject to numerous spelling variations, finally becoming standardized as either Yocum or Yocom. The descendants of three of his elder sons, Peter, Charles and Swan, generally adopted the "Yocum" spelling; descendants of his fifth son, Jonas, generally adopted the "Yocom" spelling.
ELLA STEELMAN AND HANS MANSSON
From the above it is obvious that Peter Peterson Yocum's mother could not have been Judith, the daughter of Jonas Nilsson, as reported in Yocum genealogies. Judith was Peter's wife. Who, then, was Peter's mother, the widow of Peter Jochimson? It is now clear that she was the woman who is known to history as Ella Steelman. Born in Sweden, Ella Steelman died 22 January 1718 in her eighties and was buried in Old Swedes churchyard at Racoon (later Swedesboro), New Jersey. Carefully documented research by Steelman descendants later established that she was the widow of Captain Hans Mansson (pronounced Moan-son) and that she and her sons by Hans Mansson, who first used the patronym Hanson (Hance or Hans for short), adopted the surname Steelman after the death of Hans Mansson circa 1691.
This discovery that Hans Mansson was the father of the Steelmans overlooked the fact that Ella Steelman, Hans wife, earlier had been married to Peter Jochimson and had been the mother of Peter Peterson Yocum and his sister, Elizabeth (Petersdotter) Ogle. The Steelman genealogists were aware of Peter Peterson Yocum's will and correctly identified John Hance as John Hanson Steelman but, like Yocum genealogists, incorrectly assumed that when Peter Yocum said "my brother John Hance" in his will he meant to say brother-in-law.
But there is no reason to disagree with Peter Yocum's version that John Hance was his own brother. Peter's father, Peter Jochimson, died on a diplomatic errand to New Amsterdam for Governor Rising in July 1654 leaving a widow with an infant son and daughter. Remarriage was a necessity for their survival. The unpublished research by Johnson and Paxson concluded that Peter Yocum and John Hanson Steelman were, indeed, brothers, albeit literally half-brothers. History verifies this conclusion.
Peter Peterson Yocum's life was closely intertwined with those of his stepfather Hans Mansson and his half-brother John Hanson Steelman. The historian Albert Cook Myers is quoted as concluding that John Hanson Steelman was born in the Gray's Ferry area of Philadelphia around 1655. This would make him about two years younger than Peter. John's birthplace matches the location of Aronameck, Hans Mansson's original plantation, which was later conveyed to Peter. That Peter and John grew up together on this plantation as brothers seems reasonable.
The Aronameck plantation, called "Arrunamink" in Peter Peterson Yocum's will, dates back at least to the year 1648. His father Peter Jochimson had established residence there by that time.
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