Yocum Family History
Page Six
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Thereafter Hans Mansson was one of the five freeman from the
Kingsessing area volunteering 31 August 1655 to go to the defense of Fort Christina. Ella must have been concerned that she might become twice a widow within a year's time.
Under Dutch rule Hans Mansson became one of the acknowledged
leaders and spokesmen for the "up-river" Swedes in present Pennsylvania who virtually governed themselves before the coming of William Penn. In 1660, concerned about the up-river Swedes' vulnerability to Indian attacks, Stuyvesant's South River deputy, William Beeckman, attempted to persuade the Swedes living at Kingsessing, Aronameck, and other scattered locations to live together at a single, more easily defended site. Hans Mansson represented the residents of Aronameck in these
negotiations. But no one wanted to move and ultimately no one did. The Swedes' relations with the Indians continued to be cordial and friendly.
Hans Mansson apparently did not receive any deed for Aronameck until after the English supplanted the Dutch as rulers of the South River, renamed the Delaware River. On 14 May 1669 he was issued a patent for three tracts of land then in the "tenure or occupation of Hans Mansson," the largest of which was Aronameck, then described as 100 acres. The patent for Aronameck was reissued 10 March 1670 to "Hans Monsen" for 1,000 acres. As "Hance Mansa" at this location, he is shown as one of the heads of households residing next to the Schuylkill River
in the 1671 census. On 20 September 1675 Walter Wharton resurveyed "Oronemink" for "Captain Hans Monson" and found the plantation included 1,100 acres. Shortly after Peter Peterson had obtained his warrant for land at "Pimmeepahka," "Captain Hans Moens" was also granted an adjoining 300 acres on 11 September 1677. Both of them, however, continued to use Aronameck as their principal residence.
The title of Captain was given to Hans Mansson as the commanding officer of the militia, organized in 1672, the first in present Philadelphia. It saw action that year when two white servants of the Dutchman Peter Alrichs were murdered by Indians at Matinicum (Burlington) Island; by the time the militia arrived, however, the Indians had dispersed. All the militia could do was bury the dead, a task handled by Jonas Nilsson. (Barb (Hays) Clayton's 10th great grandfather). Throughout the remainder of his life, Hans Mansson retained the title of Captain and was commonly referred to as "Captain Hance."
On 12 November 1678 the Upland Court granted John Schute permission to take up a marsh at "Hans Moensen's great mill fall," the name then attributed to the millfall (Kvarn-fall in Swedish) at the north end of Aronameck. The land on the north side of this stream, formerly granted to John Boelsen, was ordered reserved for a future watermill. The court further ordered "Captain Hans Moens" to either build the mill or allow
someone else to do so. Either Captain Hans Mansson or his stepson, Peter Peterson Yocum, must have built the mill because Boelsen's former land north of the stream (later known as Mill Creek) was thereafter deemed a part of the Aronameck plantation. Aronameck was again the subject of court notice on 13 May 1680 when Hans Mansson and Peter Peterson Yocum were joint plaintiffs against Peter Rambo Sr., in a boundary dispute at the Upland Court.
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The plaintiffs contended that Rambo improperly claimed ownership of a piece of marshland which had been farmed by Hans Mansson for many years on the west side of the Schuylkill at Aronameck. However, Rambo produced an older patent for his plantation at Passyunk which also described this marsh across the river and won the case.
Earlier, in February 1674, Hans Mansson had obtained a permit to settle land across the Delaware River in West Jersey. Initially this land was used to raise hogs. On 02 August 1680 "Captain Hance" and his son "John Hance" both registered their hogs' earmarks with the Burlington County Court. At the same court on 6 September 1680 an action was brought against Jonas Keen, son of Joran Kyn, for alleged trespass. Keen was exonerated. First showing Captain Hance's permit dated February
1674, Keen demonstrated that he held the land under "under Peter
Peterson (Yocum) who had it of Capt. Hance" (Mansson) and who had
thereafter sold it to Jonas. By 1681 Hans Mansson, his wife Ella and their children had moved across the Delaware to this West Jersey land. It was surveyed as 500 acres on 4 August 1682 for its then occupants, Hans Mansson, Jonas Keen, and Frederick Frederickson (Konig or King), and a patent for it was issued to them on 23 February 1684. Later, on 10 April 1688, Hans Mansson, now of Cinnaminson, N.J., purchased another 100 acres nearby on Pennsauken Creek. He apparently lived out his life on this 100-acre tract, dying around 1691 at the age of about 79. On 10
May 1692 Ella Steelman, described as "Widow Hance," is shown as the taxpayer for this property. She apparently continued to live on this land with the family of her son Charles Hanson Steelman until her death in January 1718 at the age of about 83.
JOHN HANSON STEELMAN, PETER'S HALF-BROTHER
Little is known about the young adulthood of John Hanson Steelman, eldest son of Hans Mansson. The November 1677 list of tydables at the Upland and New Castle courts (when he was 22) does not include his name. It is probable that by the time he had left his home at Aronameck and was one of the unnamed "servants" on these lists, having been "bound out" or indentured to learn a trade. He was, however, a freeman by 1680
when at the age of 25 he appears in the court records of West Jersey. By 1682, in partnership with Frederick Frederickson Konig (King), he purchased 200 acres from Anna (Hannah) Salter, adjoining the land of his father. His name, under his patronym John Hance or John Hanson, frequently appears in Burlington County records during the period 1680-84. Soon thereafter the partnership broke up. Frederick Frederickson Konig, who in 1686 married Christiana, daughter of Jonas and Gertrude Nilsson (the maternal 10th great grandparents of Barb (Hays) Clayton), continued to live at Cinnaminson until he was drowned while crossing the Delaware on 24 September 1698. Meanwhile, John Hance
had pulled up stakes and moved to Maryland to launch his career as an Indian trader and interpreter.
John Hance established his first trading post at the fork of the Big and Little Elks creeks (present Elk Landing in Elkton, Cecil County, Maryland), a place then known as "Sahakitko."
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